Putrajaya

Putrajaya might not sound like an interesting place, it is the Malaysian Federal Governments administration centre and it was only designed in the 1990's.

But… it is a whole city designed and built since the 1990's. It is so different to the rest of Malaysia that it was well worth a look. It has wide roads and footpaths, there is a man-made lake at the centre and there are gardens everywhere. Putrajaya is about 20 minutes away from KL, once there we hired a taxi for a couple of hours to take us around the city as the local public transport is still being put into place (this was a great idea as it was a super hot day and after 5 minutes of photo taking we were thankful of the air-con blast). I will cut the waffle today and let the photos do the talking.

Aimee enjoying the breeze on the bridge

It was designed as a garden city and there really are lots of gardens

One of the seven bridges that cross the lake

Even the skyscrapers have been designed to be different from each other

The national convention centre that looks like a landed flying saucer

The lake and more parkland

The water sports grandstand

Two of the (very fancy looking) hotels 

Mosque on the water front, it was huge!

Lots of the building had beautiful minarets

Eat your heart out Queen of England this is the Prime Ministers residence 

Kuala Lumpur

Colourful sky our first evening in KL

Our hotel in Kuala Lumpur was right in the middle of bustling Chinatown with all of the markets and shophouses. In the evenings the road below the hotel, Jalan Petaling,  was so full with market stalls it was hard to get out. The whole street is covered by a canopy so even (that should be especially) during a storm with rain pouring down, the market is still full of people after a bargain or something to eat. The rest of Chinatown is equally full of life; the roads are impossible to cross with cars squeezing into impossible spaces, bikes cutting up the cars and buses charging through anything in their way; if you can find the sidewalk you have to dodge the odd broken drain cover, food cart or motor bike taking a short cut; and the smells on the street careen unevenly from sweet and intoxicating to rotten-rodent-left-behind-the-freezer via exotic and mysterious in the space of 20 yards.

Somewhere in there is our hotel

Some of the markets were open late into the night

One of the many food stalls that create an obstacle course on the side walk

This tea room in China town had a great historic atmosphere 

and also amazing food

Next on KL's mixed up menu; Little India is about 10 minutes walk from Chinatown and has some really colourful architecture and tasty eating options. We tried breakfast, lunch and tea curry options on different occasions and I have to admit  I may have had curry twice on one day. I miss KL already.

Colourful Hindu temple in front of bland new office block

After getting all cultural (and sweaty) exploring the beautiful and atmospheric temples  in Chinatown and Little India we decided to have a day cooling off at one of KL's super shiny malls. Coming into the modern, manicured surroundings of the mall and surrounding gardens showed yet another side to KL. There were families enjoying every kind of food you could hope for (Aimee had Pizza I went for the curry again), kids hanging out spending their disposable income on the latest fashions, security guards vetting potential shoppers into exclusive stores and outside an even wider mix of people relaxing in the tranquil gardens under the shade of the Petronas Towers. The Petronas Towers may not be as new as the first time I saw them but the stainless steel is no less gleaming, they look like they dropped from space. If the malls and building projects are anything to go by, then the Malaysian economy is moving in the right direction. 

So very shiny; KL's Petronas Towers

Park behind the towers and the central business district

Inside the mall of the future

The towers look even more space age when illuminated at night

Us goofing around with shiny park decorations

After our day of modern luxuries (we even got to the cinema) we decided to get all cultural again and visit the Hindu religious sights at the Batu Caves. The caves are now very easy to visit as a modern light rail line runs right up to the bottom of the steps making it an easy 30 minute journey from KL (and cheap, it cost RM3 return). It was a steep sweaty climb to the caves but the view and temples (and monkeys) were worth it. All of the Hindu temples we have visited have been very vibrant and the Batu caves were no different, there were crowds of devotees making offerings at the various shrines and temples in the complex that gave context to the colourful sculptures and paintings. At the foot of stairs up to the caves were several more colourful temples, flower sellers, restaurants and even a sacred cow who appeared to be enjoying all of the food and attention that was being laid on for her.

One of the huge statues at the entrance to the caves

The main cave space

Detail on top of one of the temples

Very cheeky monkey

I am still trying to get the perfect image of a flower seller stand, they smell amazing

After this already epic post I will save the interesting city of Putrajaya for the next post. I will sign off with a few more images of the interesting sites we saw around KL.

Stained glass, in a rain shelter

Detail of the very beautiful old Kuala Lumpur train station

Pavement outside a Mosque

Aimee ponders her fate with food stall fish balls

The moment of no return 

Result

We do have to do laundry its not all having a great time

Dissolving trousers: Arriving in Kuala Lumpur

The days highlight - Indian sweets

We are currently enjoying the sites and sounds of Kuala Lumpur (KL to its friends) after arriving here a couple of days ago. As one or two people may know I came here a few years ago and there are plenty of things that I remember but most of it is just as new to me as it is to Aimee (I do have a very poor memory).

We arrived in KL on the bus from Melacca costing us the princely sum of RM12 each (or just 5 of your British pounds sterling) for two people to do a two hour bus trip. This was not a pickup truck with wooden benches and live stock; although the outside of the coach could have used a wash inside was very clean and included the delights of Under Siege 2 to entertain us, we even had armchair reclining seats with lazyboy style footrests.

We were dropped off at KL's new integrated bus terminal which makes The Jetsons look a little bit stone age; each bus bay has its own escalator to move arriving passengers to the air-conditioned main concourse which is well signposted in four languages and has information desks with real live staff and regular train connections to the rest of KL. If you are a public transport geek like me this place is a very shiny toy. It shows the best of what a growing economy can do when the need/money/red-tape triangle does not get in the way.

We rapidly left the space age as we got off the MRT in China Town, a metal walkway ushered us over a river of questionable aroma and out onto a chaotic intersection. With the road in near gridlock, buses and cars weaved slowly to get to their destination whilst mopeds squeezed through any available space. In typical Malay style the taxi drivers and guest house touts asked us politely if we required a lift anywhere and if we had a place to stay but did not push when we said that we were OK, one of the touts even pointed us in the right direction as we were puzzling over our map at a confusing intersection.

I think that we can be forgiven a slight amount of puzzlement as it is not often that your hotel is literally in the middle of a busy market. After being pointed in the right direction by the tout we made our way to the cross roads in the middle of the street market, stalls covered every inch of pavement and most of the street - pilled high with designer(?) watches and bags, gadgets and fruit. Behind the stalls were more shops and restaurants selling everything you can't get on the market - no sign of a hotel. Then I looked up, way up, and spotted a small sign in-between several large shop signs. Anyone who has had the misfortune to do anything strenuous with me will testify to the fact that by now I was actually dripping sweat to the point where my trousers were becoming transparent and sliding off. Navigating towards the sign whilst wearing a 22kg backpack, loosing ones trousers, through a crowded market place whilst being offered DVD's of questionable authenticity felt like a fiendish challenge from the Crystal Maze - at any second I expected Richard O'Brien's glimmering head to appear and offer some witty repartee to try and distract me from the task at hand. But we did make it to the sign, and then it pointed into a shop.

Market stalls with shops behind

So next we squeeze past a couple of racks of clothes to a glass door with the hotels name above it in beautifully polished letters. We open the door and our prize is a blast of chilly refrigerated air with the subtle sent of lemon cleaning products. The lobby and then our room are immaculate, the staff friendly and it is even possible to sit on the loo and have a shower at the same time (not that we have tried it but it is nice to have the option I guess). Cleaned and refreshed we headed out to find some food. Little India is not far so we got ourselves a curry fix before calling it a night after an eventful day. 

Me after shower and curry - notice the satisfied grin of a man with sweets in his bag

Malacca: Selamat Datang!

From Johor Bahru our next destination was Malacca City. Our journey started with an interesting ride on the local bus to the main bus terminal. The bus journey was surreal for two reasons;

1. Everybody on the bus appeared to enjoy staring at me ‘the tall white girl’ as if I was from out of space and 2. The bus was playing Marilyn Manson very, very loud, transporting me back to some shady clubs I used to frequent in my youth, Eddies being the first to spring to mind. But if that was not bizarre enough it was nothing to the sensory overload that is JB bus terminal.

Destination: Malacca

There appeared to be hundreds of people either hawking their goods, haggling loudly, eating at the many food stands, running to their buses or just sitting around enjoying the exhaust smoke atmosphere and of course the touts who just want to get you on their bus. Saying this the whole process was very smooth and much more organised than certain bus stations at home *cough* Digbeth coach station *cough*.  Within 30 minutes we had brought our tickets, enjoyed a refreshing ice tea and got on our very comfy Malacca bound coach. Two hours later we arrived, greeted by a giant Tesco superstore.

The controversial sky tower overlooks the city. 

As it was so hot we took a taxi and 10 minutes later we arrived at our hotel. After a quick shower we headed back out to see what Malacca had to offer. On first look it would appear that the answer was busy roads, no pavement and everybody’s favourite- open sewers! Hurrah. Quickly becoming tired of avoiding cars and motorbikes, which could drive any direction they chose, we headed to Chinatown.

Trishaw in Chinatown.

Ahhh, pavement! Well sort of, there were still those damn bikes. But we both thoroughly enjoyed the market- all the smells and the noises and just a really good atmosphere. We decided that tonight was a sit in a bar kind of night, it was fun to just relax and watch the locals and tourists at the market.

Cute doggy in Chinatown

We awoke the next day refreshed and ready to face the day. We grabbed breakfast from a Chinese bakery and it was delicious, but I couldn’t really tell you what was in it!

That day I saw Malacca in a different light, from the ornately decorated trishaws to the quirky Mediterranean feel to the place, Malacca had a lot to offer. I am even starting to get used to people asking to have their photo taken with me, I might even start charging!

Funky trishaw

That evening we noticed that the city was even more beautiful at night... and not just because it was easier to see the cars coming at you!

Electrical storm

Beautiful sunset to end our day.