KL - glamour next to filth, Oct 5-8

KL - I clearly remember those days when the Petronas Tower have been finished and celebrated as the World's tallest (office) buildings (now the take pride in repeting "the worlds tallest Twin Towers", in case you're around for a visit...:-). It must have been 1996 or so.

Now, the Twin Towers look still pretty impressive (and are well preserved), but the image I have of KL is a different one. Gone are the days where Mahathir could brag how cool Malaysia is. The facade does not hold (and I am doubtful if it ever has...).
I arrived at the Sentral KL train station (built in 2001), which has somehow not really a functional design - a huge hall, but the space is not used efficiently; there are too few seating possibilities, which makes it hard for you to get on Intercity trains, because all ppl are sitting on the floor with their many bags... and the stairs down to the train tracks are locked - like a bottle neck - for ticket controls.

I walked to the city center (actually, there is none, but at least some spread attractions) and you see it all: Nice buildings (cf. the twin tower Hotels Hilton and Meridien right at the Train station), stupid design (cf. there is no clear sidewalk from the train station, you have to cross multi-lane-highways several times; bad to non-existent directions/arrows), peculiarities (cf. the Tourist Information Center, which is a ruin now, the new one (as I experienced only later) is much more in the Northeast), gigantism (National Mosque), the uglyness of concrete (cf. the Post office building, unfortunately closed Saturday and Sunday, so I couldn't send out any postcards).
But there is also diversity (various ethnicities, diverse architecture)in this bustling, chaotic, but colorful street life (much more than in overly orderly Singapore).

It is pretty hard to assess KL. It has it all and none at the same time. You can see homeless ppl sleeping on thresholds early in the morning (and still it is not so bad that you would need to fear robbery or so). You can see the Jalang Bintang with its touristic design, many boutiques, Western shops (and you ask yourself: is this authentically Asian? It seems to be a superficial facade to attract foreigners, but has no spirit and charme).
You can buy an adidas or Nike bag for 2-7 Swis Francs (they all look the same, only the logo differ - so poor are this imitations... but I guess there are also better ones) at street stalls.
Or you can go to Mydin, a mix between department store and supermarket (and buy maybe leather shoes for 30 Ringgit, 10 Swiss Francs...). Funny is in the Mydin that, as soon as you enter it with a backpack, the zippers get locked, so you won't steal things and put it into it. They do not seem to have an electronic burglary protection (like those gates you usually see at the entrances), so they employ security staff (cheaper solution?). In the Mydin, you do not have cashiers in a row (with desks for your purchases). Rather, they are spread all over the space and this causes not only a huge chaos, but also that you have to carry all your purchases, since you cannot put them on any desk or so.

Somehow, KL is similar to Singapore: You have modern skyscrapers, a Chinatown, some Museums (albeit here centrally located on a hill, which seemed to be a ghost town - nobody here...), a shopping area (artificial Bintang walk), public transports such as buses (ouhh, some are very oldtimers, some are the newest mercedes...) and Monorail/LRT etc., but it looks still a bit strange here.

I spent my time with walking around, visiting the National History Museum (and the Merdeka/Independence Square, which is actually a football field with a 100m high flagpole), the Rahman Independence Memorial on the museum hill and a tour through Chinatown.
I met two Malays and had some talks with 'em. The latter one at dinner in an Indian food stall East of Bintang area (mmhh, Roti Prata with Banana and curry sauce). He was talkative, but somewhat angry on Singapore (due to land reclamation in the channel next to Malaysia/Johore Bahru) and on his own government (due to corruption, bad economic management and unemployment). He did not mention that the gov here is playing with the populist hand. They push (apparently) Islamic values and this threatens to distabilize the "silent" agreements made after the 1969 riots.
It seems not enough that the Malays (majority, 50-60% or the ppl) are positively discriminated and get preferential access to civil service, education etc. The gov wants to go further (according to a newspaper report). tststs, hopefully, they don't err....

On Sunday, I walked to the Twin Towers, but you only can get to the Skybridge (41st floor), for free. U need to queue for tickets EARLY (I was there at 9.44am and got a ticket for 1.30pm, such a nuisance). In the meantime I talked to a Swiss (Sandro), who does his sabbatical, came from HK and Vietnam. We went together to the Menara KL Tower (TV tower, 450m high, much better view than from the Petronas towers).
After this I got to the Sikh temple in Chinatown and then the Islamic Art Museum (but only from 4 to 5pm, sadly). The Islamic Art temple is a very good place to visit - recommended for everybody. I just had to few time for this.

Then I walked back to the Train Station, drinking "100Plus" (a Singaporean electrolytic energy drink; cheaper here than in S'pore:-) and had some Malayan cookies, while reading NZZ (yes, a Swiss newspaper, my parents brought in some copies last week:-).

The train back at 10.15pm had a delay, and again was stubbornly undercooled! Half sick I got off at the Woodlands Immigration Centre on Monday Morning, Oct 8 to rush back to my flat, change clothes, take a shower and head for the Nanyang (Technological University's) Asian Business Case Competition ABCC 2007 (cf. www.abcc2007.org).

More on this later; cf. pic's at flickr