Last week-end was my first trip abroad, or out of the city, the two are equivalent in Singapore. After hesitating between Melaka and Kuala Lumpur (KL), we finally managed to agree on a week end in the capital city. So Saturday morning, our little group of 5 people (Lea, Kaitlyn, Kelly, Olivier, and I) left the NTU campus. The first step was of course to get to the Singaporean checkpoint, cross the strait between the two countries, and get a second stamp on my French passport, allowing me to stay 30 days in Malaysia. The first Malaysian town after Singapore is called Johor Bahru. As soon as you get in Malaysia, coming from Singapore, you feel the difference. The first locals you meet are a horde of taxi drivers ready to offer you a special price for all the tourist destinations, mainly the famous islands. If you listen to them, you will always get the best price, just for you they say. Our plan was to take a bus to KL so we moved towards the counter of bus company and bought our 5 tickets, 28 ringgits each (1€=4.5RM). Around 10.15, our bus left Johor Bahru. The bus was undoubtedly the most comfortable bus I have ever taken. In France, or elsewhere in Europe, you always buses with two rows of two seats. This one had one row of two and one row of one seat, which means very wide seats, and a very big space for your legs, my biggest fear in buses. The only problem was the air conditioning (air con), which sometimes makes places freezing cold.
Six hours later (although the guy who sold us the ticket had said only 4), we finally got to the heart of KL, right next to the very busy Chinatown. Being a really organised person, I had written several addresses for hostels, and we luckily managed to find one just next to the bus station, the Red Dragon, where we paid 20 ringgits per night. After a quick shower, we started our tourist visit.
To be short, the main places we visited were Chinatown, the Petronas Towers (night & day), the KL Tower (some sort of TV tower like the one in Berlin but a bit higher), Little India, a Mosque, a Hindu Temple during a ceremony, the Malaysian National Museum, flea markets full of local watches, sunglasses, “Louis Vuitton” handbags, and sport shoes, local food courts, and a karaoke bar on Saturday night.
KL is very as I expected it to be: a very busy capital city, with an enormous contrast between the very highly developed center and business district near the Petronas Towers and the surrounding areas, a mix of Chinese, Indian, Muslim architectural styles. You just need to take a few steps away from the towers to see I am talking about. The number of taxis you can find in the streets of KL is also impressive. The drivers are always really insisting on taking you wherever you need, always at the best price. Being 5 travelers could have been a problem to use taxis, but KL taxi drivers are so nice they always accepted to take us together.
Concerning the Petronas Towers, the main attraction of KL, I really must say they are amazing. Two towers at 452m above the ground, falling directly strait on the pavement, made of glass and steel. When you stand just at their feet, you really don’t feel like they are standing right above you. But when you look up, the view is breathtaking. I was not really expecting to be that colour during the day, the pictures you usually see show brownish-coloured towers. But the best view in my opinion is the one you get at night. I don’t know how they manage to get such a lighting of the towers, but they simply seem unreal at night. They look like a giant 3D-projection in front of you. I really recommend people coming to this part of the world to go visit KL.
Nevertheless, some people may not appreciate it so much. KL is a very polluted, very crowded, and in some places quite dirty place. The smells in the street are not at all similar to those in Europe. All over the traditional areas, you can smell incense, the local food made on the street, and from time to time the very special durian smell.
Special thanks to Olivier for the photos
