Well, we’ve been in Kuala Lumpur just over a week now and so far it’s been a whirlwind tour of various shopping malls. There’s never a day goes by where we don’t visit a shopping mall for some reason or other. On Monday, Lynne and I went into the city to meet Dan for lunch. Unexpectedly for us we also met a couple of his former colleagues. One whose name was Kiat, was obviously the comedian of the group and had us laughing all through lunch. His tip for a happy life was, every morning when you first get up you must laugh at your face in the mirror! He also demonstrated exactly how to laugh which had us all in bits.
Since we had such a great time for Lynne’s birthday we’ve had a couple of days where Lynne and I have spent an hour or so in the gym in the mornings and then gone straight to the pool afterwards. Never really having used a gym before its been quite interesting to use some of the machines. I’ve enjoyed using a running machine. Previously I’d not done a lot of running for some considerable time (years) due to having badly arthritic toes but on the running machine you’re running on a slightly cushioned surface and I’ve found it not to be so painful. As well as that I’ve been using the rowing machine and a cross trainer and even doing a few weights. It certainly gets the heart pumping! The first day we spent an hour in the pool, it was something like 35 degrees and the floor was too hot to walk on in bare feet. To anyone with more than two brain cells this should have set the alarm bells ringing but Lynne and I never gave it a thought as we were in the water most of the time and only later when we returned to the apartment did we realise that we were both burnt to a crisp! Duh!
As I’m writing this it’s now Saturday and the preceding few days have gone by in a bit of a blur! We’ve spent time in the gym and pool and on Thursday Lynne and I got a Grab (taxi) out to a place called Desa Park which seemed to be a whole complex given over to restaurants and bars. After eating a fairly mediocre lunch we wandered round and made our way to the local park and lake. Sounds pretty boring I know but it was quite entertaining trying to spot the birds which we could hear but not see. Eventually as we walked round I caught sight of a large Kingfisher, nothing like the ones at home, this one had a huge long beak and we watched as he flew out and splashed into the lake in search of fish. Walking round the lake we headed back to the restaurants which are actually in a complex called Plaza Arkadia. When we got there we decided it was time to make our way back home. Lynne booked a Grab but we were unsure about whether we were in the right place for him to pick us up. How difficult can it be to find the address you’ve just given the taxi company you might ask. Unfortunately the booking was based on where the phone seemed to think we were located which as far as I can make out turned out to be about a mile and a half away. Lynne ended up speaking to the driver whilst we were running around looking for the address the car was booked to. We couldn’t find it and after a few minutes I think he gave up the ghost and hung up. Cant really blame him! So now we were stranded with no way of getting back. As we were trying to book the next Grab car it had turned 5.00 pm and obviously in rush hour they were all busy. Eventually we gave up and headed for a local bar called S’mores intending just to have a drink. On top of all this irritation I then decided to redo the biometrics on my phone. The reason for this is that the phone has facial and iris recognition to open it instead of putting a PIN number in all the time (because that’s a real hardship right) and it had stopped recognising me since I’d shaved off my beard! You might think that should have been simple, but it didn’t seem to want to work so after 10 minutes of staring wide-eyed into the little circles on the phone trying to get it to register my irises I gave up, telling Lynne the phone (which she bought me for Christmas) was a load of rubbish and having a proper kiddie tantrum!! Twenty minutes later as we decided to eat as well as drink, the afternoon took on a different mood once the drink took effect. We ended up getting slightly merry and having a really nice time so the taxi cock-up was a blessing in the end. Later when we left we gave Grab a proper location to pick us up and the whole system worked like a dream!
I don’t know if it was the drink or what but that night I found it impossible to sleep. The heat doesn’t help but itchy sunburn played its part too. By 4.00 am I hadn’t slept a wink and I gave up and went into the living room to watch you tube videos for a couple of hours. At 6.00 I went back to bed and actually managed to sleep for about 3 hours before getting up.
Friday was a national holiday in Malaysia and the plan was to go up to the Genting Highlands which we can see from Dans apartment when it isn’t shrouded in cloud. That should give some idea of how high up it is. Dan hired a car for the day and he did the driving thankfully! It took something like 40 minutes to get almost all the way there except that on the way we stopped off at a Chinese temple for a look around. The temple is called Chin Swee Caves Temple and was well worth the visit. There are displays depicting 10 chambers of hell showing what can happen when you’re naughty in all manner of ways and to say they’re graphic would be an understatement! Below are a couple of photos to illustrate just how gory some of the exhibits are.
The second photo isn’t all that gory really but I’ve included it anyway as there seemed to be a feeling that he looked slightly like me! I can’t quite work out who should feel more insulted, him or me? We wandered around a pool full of Terrapins while a group of Chinese visitors were letting off firecrackers. I’m not sure whether or not this happens all the time or just this time of year with Chinese new year fast approaching but they were horrendously loud. The Terrapins however, seemed completely unaffected by them, probably stone deaf! Another highlight of our visit to the temple was a walk up the inside of the Pagoda. This entailed 9 flights of stairs with 30 steps each. Needless to say there was some heavy breathing by the time we got to the top but what breathtaking views! Sensationally gory exhibits aside the whole temple complex was fascinating to see. Equally interesting to see were the Chinese people praying and lighting sticks of incense. As usual where there are people praying I felt slightly like an intruder but we kept a respectful silence whilst inside.
After visiting the temple I took the opportunity to take a photograph of the fantastic view from the car park. This is the result. You can just about see the far off city through the haze in the right of the frame.
We left the temple car park and continued up the mountain road toward the Casino complex at the top. When we got out of the car it was noticeable how different the temperature was at the top. Down nearer the city the temperature was its usual 33 degrees and at the top near the casino it was 20/21 degrees. For those of us unused to the heat it came as quite a welcome relief. The complex at the top is huge and includes a large indoor fun fair that has to be seen to be believed. There are all the usual puke inducing rides all set close to each other with the screams of the people riding them ringing out in the chaos! We sat down to eat in a pizza place. Very Malaysian I know, Neapolitan Pizza. My choice I’m afraid. Lynne and Dan were polite enough to let me have my own way this time. Consequently we sat in a place otherwise devoid of customers and atmosphere!
Leaving the Casino we headed for home or so I thought but Dan had other ideas. Driving down the mountain back towards the city we were on a 3 lane highway which would have been fine except for the speed bumps all the way down. The Malaysian drivers don’t seem to have much in the way of lane discipline and just drift all over the place. This all made for quite slow progress. I can only imagine the local drivers aren’t to be trusted to drive safely so the speed bumps probably pay dividends in terms of lives saved. Once back nearer the city we proceed via a tortuous route through all sorts of back streets and dodgy looking areas with motorbikes and mopeds everywhere to get to a viewpoint over the city. Dan had obviously asked at work where we could go to photograph the city at night and this led us to arrive at Bukit Ampang with wonderful views of the city in the distance. The entire road was lined with people who all had the same idea. Unfortunately the far off city looked as though it was swathed in a murky haze which was grey and not pretty. Instead of twinkling lights the whole city looked as if it was engulfed in its own all-pervading grey cloud and pouring with rain. I took photos but none which I would deem good enough to share. It was a great location though and I’m sure we’ll try to get back there sometime and hope for better conditions! On the way home we couldn’t resist a last visit to one of the local malls! This time out of necessity though as we were in need of groceries! Having said that I think in the week we’ve been here we’ve eaten in once. When eating out is as cheap as it is in KL it hardly makes any sense to cook yourself!
Wandering Wildman 