Thursday,2 May, 2019, Kuala Lumpur
Return to Kuala Lumpur via Oman
Another train,
another plane, another take off, another landing.
And so it goes
Now safely ensconced in a hotel room in
Kuala Lumpur, the city otherwise known as our home-away-from-home..... But unlike home, KL consistently
changes. With less than a year
from our last visit, I notice even more metal, concrete and glass towers clambering laboriously
skywards; on the other hand, there are still derelict signs of the '97
Asian financial crisis, which left many half completed buildings as a tough
reminder that not everything always goes to plan.
***
Out and about in KL today, there was a background hum as I sipped my mid morning coffee. Latte, not flat white. The Australian invented white coffee of
preference is hard to come by here.
But this constant, low level drone was always there as I wandered around the yuppie destination of Bukit Bintang. The
penny finally dropped, massive air conditioners, even for the semi-outdoor areas
of footpath coffee shops.
Environmentally, I should disapprove, but...... I fear I would not cope here these days without the
benefit of aircon.
KL is a continuing source of wonder as
I arrive here on a fairly regular basis.
Nothing is how I remember it from last year. Not quite true - There are of course all
the familiar land marks, notably the so-elegant Petronas
Towers, but it's as if a builder has been let loose with a huge Meccano
set, intent on erecting more and more and more edifices reaching for the
heavens. I do
wish they would try to save
some of the character of the old KL, of shophouses
and kampung houses, but why should I expect anyone else to value
history when we do very little of that ourselves.
The big project if the moment is a huge
complex, named after one of
Malaysia's early Prime Ministers, Tun Abdul .Razak
(the father of the recently deposed one now facing corruption charges). This multi billion project has meant
that 70 acres (nearly 30 hectares) of land on the edge of the Golden Triangle, the historic CBD,
has been demolished to make way for an office,
residential, hotel, retail, and cultural complex. It's said it will take 15 years to
complete! And
if so, traffic is going to suffer for quite a while yet. The main building, the Exchange 106 (right), is planned to top out at
nearly 500 metres, taller than KL's existing tallest,
the glorious Petronas Towers. The ursurper
for the title isn't half as stunning in my view, coming
nowhere near the twin towers.
It was chaotic getting into town from the airport last night. The main
cause o
f the roadblocks and traffic jams is said to be the work going on for the Tun Razak Exchange project. So, my taxi was edging in and our
of back alleys, trying to avoid the one way streets.
On one of these detours I caught sight of what looked like an interesting
traditional Chinese restaurant. I went back there today to
check it out to see if it was somewhere Dave and I could go to on our way back
to Australia. And yes, even in
daylight, it looked promising, so it's on the list for a future visit
Looking around me in daylight today, I was astonished at the frenetic building activity going on. Whoever is supplying the constrution cranes around the city is making a fortune. So much demolition and rebuilding going on. More than I've ever seen in any other city. The place will be unrecognisable in a couple of years.
One place that hasn't changed at all in
the nearly 20 years I have been vising KL is the techno toyshop of Low Yat plaza, which holds half a
dozens floors of
tech gadgets, from phones and cameras to all sorts of accessories.. I had to go there today because
I'd forgotten to bring a card reader, to download photos from my camera chip to
my computer. There was some initial confusion, as my terminology wasn't how the
locals described the gadget, but eventually, I made myself and my needs
clear. Success, at a price of about
$A8