KL – The centre of the world?
Saturday 9th September
Leaving Penang saw the first occasion when we travelled with land on either side of us. The Malacca straits have part of Indonesia on one side and Malaysia on the other. It meant when waking in the night you could see lights on both sides of the ship, up to now it had always been on the Port side or not at all.
Another dawn, another Port, this part of the cruise is quite busy, whole day tours followed by drinks, dinner and bed. But for me this is the essence of the cruise, while some of the people we have met at dinner keep talking about the things that they have done on the ship, for me this is a comfortable hotel taking me to new places, not a resort of its own. While it is a nice hotel and a good place to come back to in the evening, i.e. I’m enjoying the cruise experience as a traveller, the idea that the cruise itself is the holiday is lost on me. Some people come on and stay on for most of the journey, popping off for an hour or not at all in the various ports, this does not appeal to me. But nor do the volleyball, quoits, quizzes, roulette, blackjack, stage shows, that seem an essential part of the some of the passengers experience. Still the good food, the cocktails and the good wine is all positive.
We docked at Port Kelang (or Klang as it is in the original language) at 8.00. We had breakfast at 7.00 (Midnight BST) so that we could be on the Balcony to watch the docking procedures, after tendering yesterday, we thought we’d like to see the whole process again. Soon after docking we were going on our trip. The temperature was in the early 90’s Fahrenheit, and the humidity (a much more important comfort indicator in these climes was 86% - sticky!! One of my colleagues, Esyin, is a native of KL she told me how nice it would be, but hadn’t prepared me for the amount of humidity. It was definitely a three shirts, three pairs of pants day, and a three pairs of socks for Drew, wearing sandals meant I only had one pair to wear to dinner. Thank heavens for the free laundry service that comes with the state room on the ship. We brought less clothes than we usually pack, but had enough to use 3 sets a day and have time for them to be washed and dried before we needed them again!!
We had booked today as a Walking Tour of Kuala Lumpur, but a few days a go we got a note in the Cabin saying that this tour was under subscribed, no wonder as even in my late 40’s I’m in the bottom quarter of the passengers age group, so we were invited to make another selection. Given how muggy it was in KL I was more than happy that we didn’t have to walk, I might have downed in my own sweat, at least on the tour we had time to dry off in the air-conditioned tour bus. I asked Drew to pick from the other options and he selected the “KL” experience, and it turned out to be a great trip.
We left the ship in the West Port area of Klang and passed a lot of empty houses. Many of these were built in the boom years in Malaysia, before the collapse of the Asian currencies in 1999. So many of them have never been occupied though they appear to be completed.
Having left the port we went to the Blue Mosque, the largest Mosque in Asia, this was only for a photo stop, but it was very beautiful, though the mistiness of the air made it hard to take distant photos. The air is apparently often misty at this time of the year. The guide suggested it had to do with the burning of rubber trees in Indonesia which throws the smog into the air. He said it would clear after it rained later in the day, we had to take that on trust as it was still raining when we left Port Kelang. We then went to the Royal Palace for a photo op, the guards where changing their duty as we were there so we saw the new ones arrive and the old ones move off. The next stop was the National Museum, this was designed to show the culture of Malaysia over the years, with some effective use of manikins to show family life and dress in Malaysia over the years. The more modern section read a little like a former communist diatribe about the wonders of what the Government has done to bring prosperity to Malaysia, so we went a bit faster through that section.
We then went to the war monument which was an impressive site. Not only did it have the same style monument as our cenotaph but also a statue of the government forces beating the communist insurgency based on the Washington monument to the Japanese part of WWII. From there it was on to independence square for a photo opportunity, as you will see from the photos I stayed on the bus and Drew did the photography.
The next stop was the Menara Kuala Lumpur Tower, this is one of the largest in the world, it ranks fourth amongst the tallest towers in the world at 421m. The three taller ones are the CN Tower in Toronto at 553m, Ostankino Tower in Moscow at 537m and the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai at 468m. The one in KL was built in 1996 and was the tallest for a brief period.
The tower provided magnificent views, though on such a misty day these were not good photos, though the fact it is bigger than the neighbouring Petronas Twin Towers (the largest twin tower in the world) makes for excellent photos. The 112 story lift ride takes just under 60 seconds, which is astounding. Drew, even though he is nervous of heights managed to get up there, but stood quite far back from the windows when we were doing the viewing around the tower. The view shows KL to be a modern high rise city which, though some was obliterated by fog/smog, is really pleasant.
We then were taken to a five star hotel for lunch. It was a Chinese Style buffet lunch, details below. Incongruously a group of singers entertained us for lunch singing Mexican(!) songs!! As the bus we were on had 15 Latin Americans from our Cruise they really got into the event. Amazingly the singers who were word perfect in the songs couldn’t speak a word of Spanish, as soon became apparent when the cruise passengers tried to speak to them.
After lunch we drove to the bottom of the twin towers to take photos from there and then it was on to the shopping - apparently every trip you take with Americans must have shopping built in. We had managed to persuade our Trishaw to miss it in Penang and had stopped on the bus and read our novels in Phuket, hence no previous mention of it. They really do buy lots of junk that they are likely to throw out before getting to the plane, unless they want to pay large excess baggage fees. But it is astounding to watch. As it happens we were happy to be at the shopping centre (Batik and Pewter and big items in KL) when the rain started. We had managed to miss the Monsoon, which comes to these parts up until the end of October, in India and the two earlier stops on this peninsular, but not today. Wow, I thought it rained a lot in Wales, but never with this force and intensity. The whole building shock with the thunder and the rain overflowed from the drain pipes in about three minutes. The bus was undercover, so we got in and waited for the others to finish shopping. We then drive the hour and a half back to Klang down a road which was now closer to a medium size river than it was to a road, astounding. Luckily the rain hadn’t reached the port by the time we got there, so we got up the gangway (I think I’ve been calling this a gangplank earlier!!) before the rain hit.
We were exhausted, the amount of sweat created in the day prior to the monsoon must have been enormous, even being able to dry off in the bus only meant you had just got dry before you were out in the rain again. Still I would not have missed seeing KL for the world.
We got into the cabin and rang down for tea for two, we’d not used this facility before (room service is free) and it was lovely to refresh ourselves with a cuppa before watching the ship leave the port at 5.40 p.m. and going down for cocktails and dinner at 7.00 p.m. we were still quite exhausted, so it was early to bed for us at the end of this day.
What was my general impression of KL? It was much more commercial than anywhere we have been to so far. It looked more like one of the smaller European cities rather than the Asian cities we have seen. By that I mean it really looked like a first world city, and indeed compared to other parts of Asia it is, but a slightly seedy one, the occasional dirt and run down areas would be much more of a shock to a European eye if we hadn’t seen much worse in our visits to India. Still well worth a visit to feel the vibrant nature of the city. A real mix of cultures from various part of Asia living happily together.
Food and Drink
Breakfast is settling in to a bit of a routine. As usual I had two glasses of Cranberry Juice, a pot of tea and Orange Segments while Drew had his usual two glasses of Orange Juice, cup of coffee and half a grapefruit. The variety emerged here when Drew had a plain omelette and I had an Italian Breakfast with two very tasty Italian Sausages and scrambled eggs with onion and garlic, really nice.
Lunch – We started with a rich chicken and corn soup, better than any I’ve tasted before. We had a lovely mix of Chinese salad next, good use of chillies, lime and lemon to make it very tangy. The main course was fried rice, Tofu (Bean curd to the Americans), mange touts in a Oyster Mushroom sauce, Beef with Shitake Mushrooms and fried chicken. Drew and I had similar dishes, Drew washing his down with a local Tiger beer, and I with a bottle of Perrier water.
Martini hour – Drew had a Tropical Tini (Absolut, Dry Vermouth and Malibu) and I had a Sun Tini (Absolut, Gran Marnier and Contrieu), then I had a Flirtini – Smirnoff with Champagne) and Drew had a Scarlet Tini (Smirnoff, Blue Curacao and Blueberry Juice).
Dinner – I started with Escargot, something that had been on the lunch-time menu, but which some of our table mates had arranged to be available tonight as well (real flexibility), Drew had a Ginger and Lime drizzled Fruit Salad. I then had a lovely Roasted Duckling Broth and Drew went for a Mimosa salad with Sun-dried Tomato Vinaigrette. Main course for both of was Risotto con Pollo e Asparagi (Chicken and Asparagus). I then went for a lovely mix of cheeses (sage derby, parmesan and gouda) and Drew had his cheese cake. We had a bottle of Pinot Grigio with that, but for the first time ever didn’t stay up to have another drink afterwards.
Leaving Penang saw the first occasion when we travelled with land on either side of us. The Malacca straits have part of Indonesia on one side and Malaysia on the other. It meant when waking in the night you could see lights on both sides of the ship, up to now it had always been on the Port side or not at all.
Another dawn, another Port, this part of the cruise is quite busy, whole day tours followed by drinks, dinner and bed. But for me this is the essence of the cruise, while some of the people we have met at dinner keep talking about the things that they have done on the ship, for me this is a comfortable hotel taking me to new places, not a resort of its own. While it is a nice hotel and a good place to come back to in the evening, i.e. I’m enjoying the cruise experience as a traveller, the idea that the cruise itself is the holiday is lost on me. Some people come on and stay on for most of the journey, popping off for an hour or not at all in the various ports, this does not appeal to me. But nor do the volleyball, quoits, quizzes, roulette, blackjack, stage shows, that seem an essential part of the some of the passengers experience. Still the good food, the cocktails and the good wine is all positive.
We docked at Port Kelang (or Klang as it is in the original language) at 8.00. We had breakfast at 7.00 (Midnight BST) so that we could be on the Balcony to watch the docking procedures, after tendering yesterday, we thought we’d like to see the whole process again. Soon after docking we were going on our trip. The temperature was in the early 90’s Fahrenheit, and the humidity (a much more important comfort indicator in these climes was 86% - sticky!! One of my colleagues, Esyin, is a native of KL she told me how nice it would be, but hadn’t prepared me for the amount of humidity. It was definitely a three shirts, three pairs of pants day, and a three pairs of socks for Drew, wearing sandals meant I only had one pair to wear to dinner. Thank heavens for the free laundry service that comes with the state room on the ship. We brought less clothes than we usually pack, but had enough to use 3 sets a day and have time for them to be washed and dried before we needed them again!!
We had booked today as a Walking Tour of Kuala Lumpur, but a few days a go we got a note in the Cabin saying that this tour was under subscribed, no wonder as even in my late 40’s I’m in the bottom quarter of the passengers age group, so we were invited to make another selection. Given how muggy it was in KL I was more than happy that we didn’t have to walk, I might have downed in my own sweat, at least on the tour we had time to dry off in the air-conditioned tour bus. I asked Drew to pick from the other options and he selected the “KL” experience, and it turned out to be a great trip.
We left the ship in the West Port area of Klang and passed a lot of empty houses. Many of these were built in the boom years in Malaysia, before the collapse of the Asian currencies in 1999. So many of them have never been occupied though they appear to be completed.
Having left the port we went to the Blue Mosque, the largest Mosque in Asia, this was only for a photo stop, but it was very beautiful, though the mistiness of the air made it hard to take distant photos. The air is apparently often misty at this time of the year. The guide suggested it had to do with the burning of rubber trees in Indonesia which throws the smog into the air. He said it would clear after it rained later in the day, we had to take that on trust as it was still raining when we left Port Kelang. We then went to the Royal Palace for a photo op, the guards where changing their duty as we were there so we saw the new ones arrive and the old ones move off. The next stop was the National Museum, this was designed to show the culture of Malaysia over the years, with some effective use of manikins to show family life and dress in Malaysia over the years. The more modern section read a little like a former communist diatribe about the wonders of what the Government has done to bring prosperity to Malaysia, so we went a bit faster through that section.
We then went to the war monument which was an impressive site. Not only did it have the same style monument as our cenotaph but also a statue of the government forces beating the communist insurgency based on the Washington monument to the Japanese part of WWII. From there it was on to independence square for a photo opportunity, as you will see from the photos I stayed on the bus and Drew did the photography.
The next stop was the Menara Kuala Lumpur Tower, this is one of the largest in the world, it ranks fourth amongst the tallest towers in the world at 421m. The three taller ones are the CN Tower in Toronto at 553m, Ostankino Tower in Moscow at 537m and the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai at 468m. The one in KL was built in 1996 and was the tallest for a brief period.
The tower provided magnificent views, though on such a misty day these were not good photos, though the fact it is bigger than the neighbouring Petronas Twin Towers (the largest twin tower in the world) makes for excellent photos. The 112 story lift ride takes just under 60 seconds, which is astounding. Drew, even though he is nervous of heights managed to get up there, but stood quite far back from the windows when we were doing the viewing around the tower. The view shows KL to be a modern high rise city which, though some was obliterated by fog/smog, is really pleasant.
We then were taken to a five star hotel for lunch. It was a Chinese Style buffet lunch, details below. Incongruously a group of singers entertained us for lunch singing Mexican(!) songs!! As the bus we were on had 15 Latin Americans from our Cruise they really got into the event. Amazingly the singers who were word perfect in the songs couldn’t speak a word of Spanish, as soon became apparent when the cruise passengers tried to speak to them.
After lunch we drove to the bottom of the twin towers to take photos from there and then it was on to the shopping - apparently every trip you take with Americans must have shopping built in. We had managed to persuade our Trishaw to miss it in Penang and had stopped on the bus and read our novels in Phuket, hence no previous mention of it. They really do buy lots of junk that they are likely to throw out before getting to the plane, unless they want to pay large excess baggage fees. But it is astounding to watch. As it happens we were happy to be at the shopping centre (Batik and Pewter and big items in KL) when the rain started. We had managed to miss the Monsoon, which comes to these parts up until the end of October, in India and the two earlier stops on this peninsular, but not today. Wow, I thought it rained a lot in Wales, but never with this force and intensity. The whole building shock with the thunder and the rain overflowed from the drain pipes in about three minutes. The bus was undercover, so we got in and waited for the others to finish shopping. We then drive the hour and a half back to Klang down a road which was now closer to a medium size river than it was to a road, astounding. Luckily the rain hadn’t reached the port by the time we got there, so we got up the gangway (I think I’ve been calling this a gangplank earlier!!) before the rain hit.
We were exhausted, the amount of sweat created in the day prior to the monsoon must have been enormous, even being able to dry off in the bus only meant you had just got dry before you were out in the rain again. Still I would not have missed seeing KL for the world.
We got into the cabin and rang down for tea for two, we’d not used this facility before (room service is free) and it was lovely to refresh ourselves with a cuppa before watching the ship leave the port at 5.40 p.m. and going down for cocktails and dinner at 7.00 p.m. we were still quite exhausted, so it was early to bed for us at the end of this day.
What was my general impression of KL? It was much more commercial than anywhere we have been to so far. It looked more like one of the smaller European cities rather than the Asian cities we have seen. By that I mean it really looked like a first world city, and indeed compared to other parts of Asia it is, but a slightly seedy one, the occasional dirt and run down areas would be much more of a shock to a European eye if we hadn’t seen much worse in our visits to India. Still well worth a visit to feel the vibrant nature of the city. A real mix of cultures from various part of Asia living happily together.
Food and Drink
Breakfast is settling in to a bit of a routine. As usual I had two glasses of Cranberry Juice, a pot of tea and Orange Segments while Drew had his usual two glasses of Orange Juice, cup of coffee and half a grapefruit. The variety emerged here when Drew had a plain omelette and I had an Italian Breakfast with two very tasty Italian Sausages and scrambled eggs with onion and garlic, really nice.
Lunch – We started with a rich chicken and corn soup, better than any I’ve tasted before. We had a lovely mix of Chinese salad next, good use of chillies, lime and lemon to make it very tangy. The main course was fried rice, Tofu (Bean curd to the Americans), mange touts in a Oyster Mushroom sauce, Beef with Shitake Mushrooms and fried chicken. Drew and I had similar dishes, Drew washing his down with a local Tiger beer, and I with a bottle of Perrier water.
Martini hour – Drew had a Tropical Tini (Absolut, Dry Vermouth and Malibu) and I had a Sun Tini (Absolut, Gran Marnier and Contrieu), then I had a Flirtini – Smirnoff with Champagne) and Drew had a Scarlet Tini (Smirnoff, Blue Curacao and Blueberry Juice).
Dinner – I started with Escargot, something that had been on the lunch-time menu, but which some of our table mates had arranged to be available tonight as well (real flexibility), Drew had a Ginger and Lime drizzled Fruit Salad. I then had a lovely Roasted Duckling Broth and Drew went for a Mimosa salad with Sun-dried Tomato Vinaigrette. Main course for both of was Risotto con Pollo e Asparagi (Chicken and Asparagus). I then went for a lovely mix of cheeses (sage derby, parmesan and gouda) and Drew had his cheese cake. We had a bottle of Pinot Grigio with that, but for the first time ever didn’t stay up to have another drink afterwards.
posted by Anonymous @ 1:48 pm
1 Comments:
At Monday, September 18, 2006 6:08:00 am,
Anonymous said…
Hi Janet,
The changing of the guard was much less formal than in Buckingham Palace. Three guards on Horses walk up, the other three come out of their boxes and the new ones take their place. Then they old ones walk off on their horses. Rather simple, though dignified.
As regards drinking, see the latest blog on the Singapore day. Still yes after that we had started to try to dry out :-)
I agree the photos would be hard to access without Broadband, good timeing.
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