Lynne and I have been back in Kuala Lumpur for almost a week now and I’m experiencing something like my first writers block! This is because for the first week, we’ve done very little that you could call interesting. The journey from Birmingham to KL was uneventful, going quite smoothly thanks to Emirates. For the Birmingham to Dubai flight I sat next to a young guy who must have been 6’6″ and his knees inevitably strayed into my space simply because he had no choice. The strange thing was he watched films on his phone for the entire duration of the flight. The reason I found that so strange was that the Emirates entertainment system is so brilliant. The choice of films, tv series, drama and sitcom, music etc is absolutely limitless! Still, I suppose the choice is all his!
The layover in Dubai was unusual too, in as much as there seemed to have been a deterioration in facilities, ie: there were a number of escalators not working and when it came time to transfer to another terminal, as we’ve always had to previously, instead of a rapid train, we were bundled onto a bus for an uncomfortable and seemingly endless ride through the darkness to the next terminal. The flight from Dubai to Kuala Lumpur was more comfortable as we had pre booked our seats and managed to get them upstairs where we had two seats to the side on our own. This flight was delayed by about 40 minutes due to congestion on the runway so we were on the plane for more than an hour before it taxi’d onto the runway and took off. I didn’t manage to sleep for more than half an hour or so through both flights combined but strangely I felt fine by the time we arrived in Kuala Lumpur in spite of the fact we’d been up for 25 hours or more by then. When we got to immigration I thought it was going to take forever to get through as the waiting lines of people looked more like a football crowd but thanks to an extremely efficient system and the large number of officials checking passports we were through in a little more than 15 minutes. At the baggage reclaim we had to wait longer than usual as Lynne’s bag came out within 10 minutes, but mine didn’t appear until getting on for 15 minutes later. I never quite understand how two bags that go on together can come out at the other end so far apart!
After a very comfortable ride in the pre booked car (Toyota Vellfire, ugly but amazingly comfortable) we arrived at Dan’s apartment at around 5.15 pm. Having started to unpack we went out to an Italian restaurant to ensure Lynne and I would have to stay awake, thereby resetting our body clocks to local time. That was the theory anyway, I don’t know if it works but I can honestly say that by the time I was eating desert I could have slept standing up!
On Wednesday we both woke at about 10.00 am having slept a straight 12 hours. We did nothing much for most of the day until later in the afternoon we decided to walk down to the local mall to get some food in. On arriving at the mall we found that the supermarket we had always gone to previously was boarded up with a small note informing us that it was closed until further notice for refurbishment. Well, that could mean anything couldn’t it! How very inconsiderate! Having wandered around somewhat aimlessly for another half hour we decided to return to the apartment and continue our slow and boring recovery from jet lag.
Thursday was much the same, we did pretty much nothing all morning and just as we were contemplating going out the heavens opened and it hammered it down with rain non stop for more than three hours! Consequently we didn’t leave the apartment all day so by the evening I was starting to feel properly stir crazy! I did manage some photography though if only from the balcony of the apartment. Using my new camera, a Nikon D850 I took this scene. It was just a quick knock off really, no filters or anything but the dynamic range of the camera means that with a correct exposure there is no loss of detail. It’s not the greatest composition ever, just a shot of all the high-rises looking in the direction away from the city which given the fact that we’re located something like 6 miles out of the city shows how huge Kuala Lumpur really is!
By Friday we just had to get out of the apartment, so not long after lunch we walked down and got the train into KLCC. The only problem was we absentmindedly got the train on the wrong side of the station. The first we knew of it was a young Muslim woman popping back into the carriage after she’d left to tell us this was the last station. In a moment of confusion we got off the train only to be told by a guard on the platform that we could still get to KLCC on this train so we got back on and tried to work out where we had gone wrong. Well obviously we had gone in the wrong direction and reached the last station (Gombak). Fortunately the train obviously just goes back in the opposite direction but we didn’t realise that at the time and still spent the entire journey trying to work out what the hell we had done. I have to say that these senior moments are coming thick and fast now, I don’t think it’ll be long before we both need full time care!😜
Anyway we eventually got to KLCC and set about taking a walk in the park at the back of the Petronas Towers. As we were walking I noticed a large steel sculpture of a whale in the middle of a small lake. As I made my way to try and photograph it one of the female park attendants wagged a finger at me to let me know I was about to enter a lady’s only area. I sheepishly retreated having been well and truly told off! How frustrating to see a potential photograph of an interesting subject with the Petronas Towers as a background and not being able to get to it. I promised myself I would take that image somehow, but more of that later! Everywhere we went there were Indian men (I think) offering to sell us lenses for our iPhones even though neither of us has one. I felt like asking them what they thought this big black thing hanging around my neck was! After a short walk around KLCC park we decided to walk over to Bukit Bintang. As far as I understand, Bukit means hill. I don’t quite know how this relates to Bukit Bintang because it’s a densely populated city area with not a hill in sight anywhere. To get there on foot means a mile walk through mostly covered, air conditioned walkways. When we arrived we sat down in a Cafe in Pavilion Kuala Lumpur (another big mall) for afternoon tea (ooh how very colonial). Very delicate little sandwiches and cakes which Lynne and I devoured like a pair of navvies on an unauthorised lunch break! Afterwards we walked across to Low Yat Plaza. This is yet another large mall but devoted entirely to techy stuff like computers and camera shops. Brilliant! Except that having just bought my new Nikon D850 I wasn’t looking to buy anything so a bit of a waste of time really. On leaving Low Yat Plaza we exited from a different exit than the one we entered through and promptly got lost! Funny how if we ever get lost it’s always my fault.🤔
It just occurred to me that I started this blog by saying I was suffering a writers block, well that was yesterday and I think it’s safe to say if you’ve gotten this far I’m sure you’ll agree I’ve gotten over it!
Back at KLCC we decided to find somewhere to eat and settled on a place called Dotty’s. It was only as we sat waiting for our food that I realised this used to be Harrods Cafe and that we had been there before. Afterwards we were about to head for the train when Dan messaged Lynne that he was in KLCC himself so we went to meet him. He didn’t want the bother of the train and called a Grab so we went home in comfort.
Dan was home for the weekend so on Saturday morning we went out for breakfast. Dan booked a Grab and off we went with no idea of where we were headed. The plan was to meet Shanthya. Shanthya was, is, used to be, might never be again, one of Dans girlfriends, who knows? Anyway after a long journey that took us through one area I would loved to have stopped where there were derelict cars parked alongside the road which had been there so long there were trees and grass growing out of them. Literally nature reclaiming them. We counted three old Mini’s slowly sinking back into the earth along with an old Morris Minor with a rusty patina which looked like it hadn’t moved in 30 years! Not exactly what you expect to see eight thousand miles away from home in Malaysia. Frustratingly we had to pass all this by for breakfast with the aforementioned Shanthya. When we got to the agreed meeting place we headed for a restaurant which I’m happy to say was full. Happy because it didn’t look very clean (understatement). Like so many Malaysian restaurants of the type it looked like a downstairs room which had two walls removed and filled with not terribly clean tables. They must be doing something right as the place was absolutely rammed! Thankfully we moved on to a place further along in the same block which only had one wall missing! Shanthya recommended various dishes including Salted Egg Squid (lovely) Fish Balls (revolting) and Chicken drumsticks. I don’t eat a lot of meat nowadays anyway but the Malaysian habit of chopping chicken, bones and all might just have me going fully vegetarian. Apparently it creates more flavour to chop the bones too but I can’t quite see how and for me at least there’s nothing appealing about picking meat off of splintery chopped bones, yuk!! Whilst eating breakfast we listened (mostly) to Shanthya talking about a job interview she was due for next Tuesday. Also she had just returned from holiday in Istanbul. I wouldn’t have thought it possible for someone to talk for so long about two subjects but she managed it. Thankfully I zoned out after about 5 minutes so it’s just as well we weren’t tested on the subject afterwards.
After breakfast we went our separate ways as Shanthya left to study for her interview and we got a Grab to take us back to the apartment. Later in the afternoon we went out again to the KL Tower where we came across a tourist attraction called the Upside Down House. I’m not gonna say too much about it except it was shit! It’s basically a house that’s upside down so you get to walk around on the ceilings and it takes all of three minutes to see and it very definitely is crap!! After being ripped off (well Dan was) by the upside down shit house we went on a hike around Bukit Nana. This was supposed to be an opportunity to see wildlife and birds but all we saw were the biggest freaking ants ever! I only noticed them because one was crawling up my leg and I’m glad he only got half way because you definitely wouldn’t want something that size nibbling on your man plums! I thought for a minute we were in a remake of Honey I Shrunk the Kids but this time it would’ve been Honey I Shrunk the Pensioners! Of course I’m exaggerating massively but never the less, I moved pretty damned quick once I noticed the swarm of monster ants.
Another Grab took us to KLCC where we stopped for a beer and cake although I was the only one to have a beer after the others pointed out how expensive it was. Depending where you go, not everything in KL is cheap.
On Sunday Dan left at 2.00pm to fly to Singapore for business so later on Lynne and I went for a walk to Melawati Mall to get some food shopping. Sunday doesn’t seem to be any different to any other day here in Malaysia. The shops are open just as long as other days so we didn’t have to worry about early closing at all. We ate in a place we’d been to before called the Manhattan Fish Market but soon regretted it as both the food and service was mediocre at best.
That brings me to Monday and as I’m writing this (Tuesday) we have actually been here exactly one week. This was the first time since being back that we went to the gym in the morning. I only went on two of the machines this time, the running and the cross trainer. After half an hour I was knackered. Whilst running you can check your heart rate and at one point mine crept into the 130’s. I don’t know if that’s good or bad but it seemed a lot to me so I decided at that point to call it a day. After that we went in the pool for half an hour and cooled off. I’m sure this will turn out to be a regular routine as long as we’re here in KL. Finally we waited until near sunset to go into KLCC with the main objective of getting the shot which wasn’t possible the other day as the area was restricted to lady’s only. We managed to get there just as the fountains light show was beginning. We stood and watched for ten minutes or so but I’d have to say it doesn’t come near the Vegas version at the Belaggio although Lynne didn’t agree, she thought it was “luvleee”. Having made our way to the location where I could have the steel whale as foreground for the twin towers we found an old Chinese guy doing his exercises. Nothing wrong with that you might think, but this guy was surely a bit nuts. Every two or three minutes he’d run off a couple of hundred yards down the path and then back again. Every breath seemed to be accompanied by a huge grunt but the worst of it was that every time he got back he stood for a couple of minutes clearing his nose with loud snorts which almost made me feel physically sick. Utterly disgusting!
I hurried to try and take the photograph I had in mind and get the hell out of there. Unfortunately it was much darker than I had planned for so that the whale was in almost total darkness and I was finding it difficult to achieve a focus exactly where I wanted it. Long story short this is the resulting image and considering the darkness I think it speaks well of the Nikon D850’s dynamic range that I was able to pull so much detail out of the shadows. As soon as this shot was done we got out of there as quickly as we could and the nut job Chinese bloke almost knocked us down on his way back to his snorting spot. Dirty bugger!
After escaping the mad Fu Man Chu we went back to KLCC and had dinner at Chinoz On The Park before getting the train home.
Hopefully my next blog won’t be quite as long a ramble as this one but I’m glad to have covered a whole week in one go. Watch this space!🧐
Wandering Wildman 