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Wednesday June 2 A (sort of surprise) yesterday. Ex-NBN colleague, Brooke Webster, more recently ex BBC London, arrived in KL. I knew Brooke was planning a south-east Asian back-packing tour when her two-year stint in the UK came to an end, but I hadn’t expected her quite so quickly! She had spent four days in Singapore, and decided that attractive as Singapore is, four days is more than enough to see that island. It is, after all, a fairly small island.
So, she caught a train north to KL. I gave her the quick
once-over of the city from the vantage point of KL tower just across
the road, then we joined the other exiles at a new restaurant strip
I had only just discovered.
The street, Tengkat Tong Shin, is slowly being gentrified after its years of notoriety as a red light area – and a group of half a dozen “shophouses” has been renovated and turned into a very attractive collection of restaurants (right). “Shophouses” are common throughout Malaysian towns, and indeed other areas with large settlements of mainly Chinese people. Basically, the family business is conducted downstairs on the street, while the family lives upstairs, hence the name. This integration of work and family keeps many areas vibrant and full of life at all times of night and day. Our zoning system in Western countries, with set areas for business and separate and often distant suburbs for residential living, long ago moved away from this style of town structure and the two- and three-story buildings demolished to make way for “progress”. Here, although the families have often, but not always, moved out to the suburbs, the shophouses have remained, a colourful building fabric for all sorts of retail activities. (later)
Brooke
this morning started on the usual tourist round, doing the colonial
district and Masjid Jamek, which is close to her backpacker hostel
in Chinatown. She tells me her hostel doesn’t have hot water, a
deprivation I couldn’t cope with… so I have offered her a bed and
shower here if she wants, but
We met up for lunch at KLCC, another compulsory stop on the tourist route, and took the popular tourist photo of her strategically positioned on a bridge in the foreground (left).
Thursday, June 3 Last night, it was dinner at the hotel – but this time, one of the fellows cooked. Like most men, Michael can do a more than acceptable spag bol. It’s possibly the only thing he can cook. But it was a nice change to have dinner in an apartment here, without having to be the chef. I simply sat and watched Lleyton Hewitt get trounced in the French Open. Friday, June 4 While reading a paper over breakfast this morning, I was amused to see, on the front page above the masthead: “Save a tree. Share this paper with a friend”. I doubt if Rupert would approve - not good from a circulation point of view. Saturday, June 5 Even more company people have arrived, including two more for David’s section. They look so young – younger even than Geoff and Jenny (they aren’t really), so it is appropriate that the others have started calling them “the children”. In fact, one visiting executive assumed they really were some ex-pat’s children, not people on his payroll!!! They make DB feel really old. We all went out for dinner, including some of these just-visiting company execs, to Chili’s at KLCC. Not one of my favourite places, but the guys like it because they can get Margueritas for half price. But the food is pretty ordinary Australian/American style. Today, I think the visitors want the tourist round and DB is feeling obligated to at least point them in the right direction, which probably means accompanying them. I’m hoping I can opt out of that one. *** My friend Brook is going today to the Cameron Highlands for the weekend, and next week, she’ll set off for a stay on an island on the north-east coast of Malaysia. She is using KL as a base, and will return from there before heading to Thailand. If she wears the bikini she wore in the hotel pool here this week, Brooke will raise a few eyebrows in the very conservative Muslim heartland of north eastern Malaysia. She’ll be OK if she stays in the privacy of a resort pool, but if she ventures onto a public beach, a lot more is going to need to be covered.
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she’s an independent soul.