Kuala Lumpur

Thursday 26 October

We spoiled ourselves this morning with a long lie in, before going to the “coffee shop” for breakfast – during the day coffee and pastries are sold in this area, but until 10.00 it’s breaky. Colin managed to find his usual three courses, even though the sausages were chicken.

After a few secretarial duties, we decided to take a stroll around the locality – looking for a pharmacy to stock up on medical supplies. There were not many people around at 10.30 in the morning and even the sun was struggling to shine through – give it another hour and it was melting, even in the shade. We found a bank, and then back-tracked and found a pharmacy which had the bandages I needed for my toes – they are much improved, but as the nail is hanging off one, and loose on the other, I feel it is better to keep them covered for the moment. We ambled back and bought postcards and stamps in a Malaysian shop selling posh souvenirs and I tried to pay with some Thai bahts, instead of Malaysian ringats. Needless to say, the shop girl soon put me right! On the way back to the hotel, we found most of the stalls in the market were now set up, with lots of people bustling around – shopping, selling and cooking Chinese snacks on sticks (it was really smoky round these hot stalls), as well as those just wandering, like us. I looked at some of the watches on sale – it seemed every other stall was selling watches – all good fakes – Rolex, Gucci, Radar, Guess, etc, but a pink Mickey Mouse one took my eye – and I bought it for 10 ringats – about 1.50 GBP – I was disappointed that the salesman wouldn’t barter! Colin says it will probably only go for a day, but it’s a fashion accessory rather than a watch – I haven’t worn an actual watch for almost ten years.

Back at the hotel, we finished our packing and took our cases to Tim and Simone’s room - arrangements had been made for us to use this room until we left about 21.00 tonight – and then booked out. It was almost time to meet Paul in the Lobby. He was going to drive us around the city in his car, so that we could see the sights and stop as and when we wanted to. He drove us round the busy streets – more problems with pedestrians strolling in the road than actual vehicles.

Our first stop was the King’s Palace – I didn’t realize that Malaysia had a monarchy, but Sultans from nine of the thirteen states that make up Malaysia, take it in turns to hold this post for five years. The four states that do not have a Sultan are Malacca, Sawarak, Sabah and Penang – all ormer British Protectorates. This arrangement started in 1957 when the country became independent (they have posters everywhere advertising the celebrations to be held here next year for the Golden Jubilee) and they are now in the second rotation. The post is purely ceremonial (a bit like our monarchy). Malaysia is still part of the Commonwealth and they support our Queen as monarch of that union. The Malaysian flag has fourteen red and white stripes to represent the states of Malaysia (the fourteenth represents Singapore, which has since left to become an independent colony – but they kept the stripe anyway), a white crescent moon to represent the Islamic community, and a white star representing the monarchy both on a blue square background in the top left hand corner. We could only look through the gates to a very large building hidden behind trees and shrubs, initially built as a house for a wealthy Chinese business man, before being given to the Government, who later looking like those we see on Horseguards Parade. Beside each of them stood a guard in traditional Malaysian costume, holding a long musket.

Back in Paul’s car, (it was a small Toyota people carrier with three rows of seats, so we could all fit in and ideal for touring the city and parking) and drove to the cenotaph that commemorates those Malays who died in both World Wars and in the fight against the Communist insurgency between 1948 to 1960. Behind the cenotaph amid fountains, was a round golden domed area, which had plaques in the ceiling representing all the different sections of the armed forces from all over the world that came to the aid of the British and Malays, when they tried to evict the Communists from the country. Further along the walkway, was a statue representing victorious soldiers raising the flag, standing on their fallen adversaries. It was designed by the same person who designed a similar memorial in Washington DC.

From here we visited the National Orchid Park, which contained orchids in many varieties and colours. It was neatly laid out, with streams and other shrubs complimenting the flowers. Opposite the park was the Bird Park, with huge netted areas containing many species of birds. We did not have time to visit this park, as it is huge, but we did manage to spy some large white storks, sitting in a tree, and two pure white peacocks strutting amongst the shrubs. It is definitely a place to visit should we return to Kuala Lumpur.

We then pulled up outside the British Cricket Club, with its bowling green grass and mock-tudor-style clubhouse. Surrounding this area are many of the old colonial buildings, built when the British ruled this area – the court building must be 300 to 400 metres long, all arches and columns with three domes, donated by the Australian government at the start of the 20th century, the old railway terminal that only ceased being used about five years ago, a white building with turrets and domes, looking like a middle eastern palace, and the old railway offices building – another huge building situated on a major crossroads, three floors high, with verandahs and large windows, suggesting tiffin and cocktails. These buildings look majestic, and have been restored faithfully to their original designs.

Our next stop was at the Telecom tower – being maintained for fifteen years by British Telecom! – shame they can’t get it right at home. The tower is 330 metres tall, putting it somewhere in the middle in terms of the height of all towers in the world. We took the lift to the Observation Platform at 276 metres, (it takes 58 seconds) which goes all round the tower. (There is also a revolving restaurant above, but it was of course, very expensive for this area – main courses costing 115 ringats (nearly 20GBP) without starters, desserts and drinks. We spent half an hour wandering around, peering at all the different sights Kuala Lumpur has to offer. The twin Petronas Towers (featured in the film Entrapment with Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones) were very close by, huge black and silver columns (the windows appear silver) culminating in spires and satellite equipment. We could clearly see the prison, which was built by the British nearly a century ago – it had been intended to build a new one, but the money ran out, so they use this mainly now as a holding centre – it looks just like the old style workhouses. Whilst we were watching the monorail and metro trains, making their ways across the city, large black clouds could be seen approaching over the distant mountains. The difference today was that the clouds had a large “postcard” of sunshine separating the clouds into two sides, where the skyline behind was illuminated in gold. Very strange – I have never seen a sky like that before. We stood and watched for quite a while and could see the clouds moving towards us, and rain falling heavily in the distance – not another wet evening, I hope.

From there we moved on to tour the provincial areas, seeing many embassies and formal buildings before arriving at a large shopping mall. The Aussies were impressed by the size and range of shops, but it was little more than a Bluewater on five floors. We purchased some nibbles for the train journey tonight – and a chocolate bar for Colin, who suddenly realized that he hadn’t had any lunch – and it was now 16.30! We all decided to return to the hotel with Paul around 17.00 (we had the option to stay and shop – but we really haven’t got an inch of space for more souvenirs – and anyway, most of the shops were selling designer clothes and jewellery.

Back at the hotel, we all crammed into the one small room till Tim, Simone and Warren went out for last minute fakes! They seem to have become obsessed with cheap fake products in the market. I spent some time blogging and Colin watched some climbing competitions on the television – that’s a sport we don’t see anything of at home – races to reach the top of a climbing wall – a fairly good spectator sport.

Around 19.00 everyone returned to the room with their goodies. We decided it was time to look for something to eat, but on going downstairs we found it was once more falling down with rain. We ran a few yards up the road, but were getting drenched in seconds, so cut our losses and returned to the hotel for our kagools. Dressed ready for the downpour, we made our way through the market to a nearby street and looked at all the Chinese restaurants (we had decided on Chinese tonight, as it is one of our last evenings in Asia and we probably won’t have too much Chinese before returning home). Last night Tim and Simone had eaten at a restaurant with pink cloths on the tables under the awnings protruding into the road, called “Rolands”. As they didn’t appear to have suffered any after effects we hit on this one – only to find Tim and Simone already there. They joined us at a larger table. We ate basic but very tasty Chinese food – sweet and sour chicken (we would call it Hong Kong style – served in the sauce with tomatoes and pineapple), sizzling beef on a hot plate – when it came, only the meat was on the hot dish in the wooden holder. Another person brought a bowl of “gravy” and poured it over the meat, making it hiss and steam. A lid was quickly placed over the top of the dish until it stopped spitting - and Singapore noodles – which aren’t spicy as at home, just the thin ‘angel hair’ noodles with a few bits in. With drinks our bill came to 66 ringats (about 10 GBP) – really expensive compared to last night.

It was then time to make our way back to the hotel, to collect our luggage and passports from the safety boxes in Reception – we were sure someone was going to forget to collect theirs, but they didn’t. It was still raining really hard, as we made our way to the minibus to take us to the station. Once there, we passed some time filling in arrival and departure cards, necessary for the border checks (we understand that this will happen about 06.00 tomorrow morning - so another early start – and that we will have to unload all our luggage and go through passport control and “nothing to declare” channels before continuing our journey to Singapore. We should arrive around 08.00, Warren and Tim are busily trying finish their spirits, while we are all carrying one packet of ciggys each for Warren.

The train is just the same as the Thailand trains, except this time we all have lower level bunks. I am writing this sitting up in my ‘bed’ while all around me others are snoring – loudly – only the children seem to be awake! I am obviously not going to have a lot of sleep tonight, so might get the MP4 player out to pass the hours.