My first impression of Kuala Lumpur was “Under Construction”. As our bus sped into the city, we passed dozens of condo skyrises going up. The trend continued as we got closer to downtown. The city seems to be growing just as quickly as Dubai.
KL is relentlessly modern. I hardly saw anything in the city older than I am, and most of the glittering, towering skyline is less than 10 years old since it postdates the Petronas Twin Towers, which were completed in 1998.
After checking in to our hotel on Petaling Street in Chinatown, seemingly the epicenter of the world’s knock-off market from Louis Vuitton sneakers to Tiffany cufflinks to DVD collections, I grabbed my camera bag and hopped on the clean and efficient metro line to check out the Petronas Towers, formerly the tallest buildings in the world.
They are stunning. The design subtly incorporates traditional Islamic symbolism with the towers’ eight-sided star floorplan, while being completely unique and futuristic with shining glass and steel. They are 1,483 feet and 88 stories tall. It is difficult to grasp their immensity, and the statistics are stunning: more than 34 square miles of glass and tons of steel went into their construction.
The next day was my only full day in KL, and I set off early with some of my travel companions to line up for tickets to the Petronas Towers Skybridge, which links the towers on the 41st floor. Tickets are free, but they are timed and limited in quantity, and it is necessary to get in line before the towers open in order to get one. We were lucky enough to get early tickets, so it didn’t take long before we had seen Petronas’s incredibly cheesy 3D propaganda video (Petronas is Malaysia’s state oil company) and were on our way up to the Skybridge. The view was interesting, but the sky was so hazy that visibility was really limited. Later I asked a local why this was, because I’d seen so many clear photos of the KL skyline. I was told that for a couple of months a year, farmers slash and burn the Sumatran rainforest, and the resulting smoky haze drifts across the Straits of Malacca and settles over KL. Occasionally people even die from smoke inhalation. Indonesia’s government says that it’s Malaysia’s problem. Wonderful.
After the Skybridge, I headed over to the colonial center of town, Merdeka Square. The square is surrounded by buildings with a charming mix of English colonial and Islamic architecture, which reminded me of Malaysia’s approach to language. The country’s official language is Bahasa Melayu, or Malay, but many English words have been absorbed into it. The funny thing is that Malay makes the words its own by respelling them phonetically in Malay, making written Malay look like a funny pseudo Esperanto. Here are some of my favorites. See if you can guess what the word is before you look at the answer!
Della’s Malay-Engrish Phrasebook
Restoran ………………………. restaurant
Kompleks ………………………. complex
Motosikal ………………………. motorcycle
Farmasi ………………………. pharmacy
Tekstil ………………………. textile
Fakulti ………………………. faculty
Stesen bas ………………………. bus station
Ekpres bas ………………………. express bus
Polis ………………………. police
Poskod ………………………. postcode
Sains ………………………. science (my personal favorite)
Teknologi Akademi ………………………. Academy of Technology
Muzium ………………………. museum
Inggeris ………………………. English
If the language seems diverse, it doesn’t compare to the diversity of the Malaysian people. While Islam is the official religion, in KL I also saw Buddhist and Hindu temples as well as churches of many denominations, and the people of Malaysia are a melting pot of Malay, Indian, Chinese, and African heritage. One of my most cross-cultural experiences in Kuala Lumpur happened at a McDonald’s (I know, I know… but sometimes you just really need a big Diet Coke and fries), when I was surrounded by teenage Malay girls in glittery headscarves, an elderly Indian couple with their grandkids, and two Buddhist monks in their orange robes, going to town on their Big Macs.
Sorry, back to sightseeing. In the afternoon I visited the Central Market and went up in the Menara KL, an observation deck with incredible views over the city. At least, it would have been incredible if I could have seen anything. The hazy sky was really disappointing for photography. It was gray and gross all day and I didn't think there was any possibility of a sunset, but I decided to have a drink at the swank, Petronas Towers-facing Traders Hotel Sky Bar anyway, just to enjoy the view. I was so surprised when the sky lit up in vibrant pink! I scrambled to get a shot before it faded. This one is my favorite.
A couple more scenes from the evening as the color changed.
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