Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2007 10:25 PM
Subject: Asia 2007 - Day 3
I woke up at 3:00 AM local time, still adjusting to the time change but feeling less tired overall. If I can stay up later this evening I should be back on track. I noticed something I had missed yesterday, a green arrow sign on the ceiling with the word “kiblat” printed on it, pointing to one corner of the room. A quick Google search confirmed my guess that this points the direction to Mecca for daily prayers by the Muslims. I read my e-mails from the day before – trying to stay on top of the 30-40 e-mails I get daily (ridiculous). As nothing was open yet and it was still dark outside, I watched some TV. There are 8 channels available, no commercials, and an odd variety of programs – some educational, mainly science oriented programs, lots of TV dramas from India, Europe, and Asia, American movies, soccer, baseball (Yankees vs. Red Sox).
I tried getting a hold of the airline to check on my baggage but no one is answering, still too early I guess. By about 7:30, I couldn’t take the hotel room and longer, so I grabbed some breakfast at the hotel. It was buffet style with food from all over the world. I took a rather odd variety, some semi-American choices as well. I was puzzled by the chicken breakfast sausage and beef bacon – then I remembered I am in a Muslim country – no pork! I never had curry for breakfast before, not too bad. After that I grabbed my camera and headed out. I took some pictures of the local neighborhood and the hotel and hailed a taxi to the Petronas towers. I have yet to see a taxi driver use the meter (which they are all supposed to). I have negotiated pricing with them so far and the fares seem reasonable – just a lump sum price. I read this morning in the Straights Times, the local newspaper which covers Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, that taxi drivers collect on average 200 RM (around $55 US) in fares per 12-16 hour day. Out of that they pay 40-50 RM lease on the taxi, gas and tolls. Whatever is left over is theirs. Tipping is not done here either. There are 20,000 taxis in KL
The hotel is in an area called Subang Jaya. There are parts that look affluent, but mostly it appears very poor. There are many low apartment rows, all concrete with terra cotta or corrugated metal roofs, laundry hanging from open windows, and a general appearance of poverty. KL is a manufacturing center and attracts many foreign workers who live in these areas.
It was early with the sun just coming up. The city is rather hilly with large hills and mountains rising to the east. It is relatively cool out, maybe 75 or so, but I’m sure that will not last. The drive into KLCC (this is what the Downtown area is called) revealed that most of KL looks like Subang Jaya. I saw actual shanty towns as well, houses thrown together with found materials. The city center is very modern overall. The ride took around 25 minutes. The highways are all modern toll roads, one of which took us underground for what must have been 5 miles. We emerged downtown.
The Petronas towers are much more striking in person then I expected. They are 88 stories (a lucky number in this part of the world) with a bridge between them around the 40th floor. Tourists are allowed to go to the bridge, but you need a ticket. I waited in a long line for about 30 minutes. The ticket is free; they issue them for specific times so they can manage the flow of people. My ticket was for 11:30, still 2-1/2 hours off, so I took a walk through the shopping mall attached to the towers. It looked like any urban shopping mall anywhere with the same stores; Gap, Polo, Levi’s, Gucci, etc… I found a Dunkin Donuts where I bought a coffee (made fresh from espresso, Americano style for my fellow Starbucks addicts). It was quite good and very hot. I started walking outside towards the Menara Kuala Lumpur, the tall tower (see attached picture) which all Asian cities seem to possess. The streets are lined with tall palms and other tropical trees which give welcomed shade. It was by now very hot, probably 90 and really humid. On the way I ran into an American who was headed for the same place, so we walked together and exchanged stories. He is from Pittsburgh, working in Malaysia for a few weeks in a steel mill setting up some industrial fans. He travels extensively, but it his first time in KL. The tower is on top of a steep hill which we climbed (thanks to all the time in the treadmill lately, this was surprisingly easy) and bought our tickets to the top, 20RM ($5). The view was impressive, but a bit hazy due to the high humidity.
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| The Petronas Towers |
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| KL with the Minar in the background |
In researching the city before my trip here, I read about a place called the Central Market, which showcases mostly local arts and crafts, without the typical touristy “my dad went to KL and all he brought me was this lousy t-shirt” crap. My companion (yes, I have forgotten his name already) and I agreed to split the cab fare. We hailed a taxi and gave him our destination. He asked if we were looking for Malaysian crafts, and offered to take us to another place nearby that is much better. Now I am familiar with this scam, where the taxi driver steers people to a location where he has an “arrangement” with the manager for a cut of whatever overpriced stuff the sucker buys. I decided to play along anyway, as the driver was willing to wait for us and take us to the Central Market for 5RM over the 15RM fare. The place he took us was definitely off the beaten path, but quite safe. It is a place where they make and sell Batik, a local traditional way of decorating silk. We watched them make a design on a 4’ square silk cloth using liquid wax. Once the wax hardens, they paint dye onto the cloth, and wash it once dry to remove the wax. The finished result is beautiful. The items for sale here were very overpriced, so I didn’t buy anything. Our driver was true to his word and waited for us, and took us to the Central Market at the agreed price.
The Central Market is in an older part of the city away from most of the high-rises and next to KL’s Chinatown. The streets are filled with young Asian men, more than I would have expected. The driver explained to us that today is the King’s birthday and all factories are closed. The men on the streets are mostly foreign workers who have the day off as a result, mostly they are Cambodian, Philippine, and Indonesian. The Central Market was better than I expected, two floors in a large old building filled with small stalls. There are textiles, Batik (priced much lower than the other place), carvings, metal work, and most of it appears hand made. Like in China, everything is haggled over, and the final price is often half or less what is marked. I am getting better at this. Back outside, it feels like about 95, it’s very sunny and uncomfortably humid. I am now in my third day wearing the same clothes and my skin is starting to crawl. I also realized I forgot all about my ticket for the Petronas Towers bridge, but I didn’t mind this.
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| KL |
I walked around the neighborhood for a while, but felt a bit threatened by all of the idle young men just hanging around (big fat white guy with expensive camera, no target here!!) After taking some more pictures, I found a taxi and got a ride back to the hotel. Only 30RM for this trip.
There was a message on my phone in the hotel room when I arrived. It was from Andy, my customers man in Singapore. He and the others have arrived and were looking for me. I left him a message for him and called the airline. My luggage, I was told, has arrived and will be delivered to my hotel around 6 PM. I felt greatly relieved. In the meantime, I spoke with Andy, told him my predicament, and agreed to meet them in the lobby around 6:30 for dinner. By 6:45, the luggage had not arrived. I hated to do this, but I had to decline the dinner invitation. I simply was not in any presentable condition. Andy understood, thankfully. Around 7:00 I got a call from the concierge that my luggage was here and I had to come down and sign for it. Upon arrival, I learned that only one of my items, the garment bag with my dress clothes had arrived, the suitcase with all of the casual clothes, socks, underwear and this like was still missing. After the elation of thinking my problems were solved, I just felt depressed. I nearly lost my temper as well, but managed to control that. I signed for my bag, went back to my room, and called the airline and raised hell. I also called my wife waking her up early on a Saturday morning, and enlisted here help in getting Northwest to assist in the search.
Seeing as I now at least had a clean shirt to change into, I did so and got to work washing my dirty clothes in the bathroom sink with the liquid bath soap provided by the hotel, and hung them in the bathroom, drying them with the blow dryer. This worked very well and my clothes were dry when Andy called again around 10:00 PM. They were in a bar across from the hotel called “The Joint” and wanted me to join them, which I was happy to do.
There were 8 people in the group at the bar, joined around 3 Formica tables pushed together. 6 were Asian employees of my customer from China, Malaysia, and Singapore, 2 were American. We drank “towers” of beer, which are like large pitchers holding about 4 liters with a tap on the bottom, talked about business, politics (our president is a popular subject in Asia), had some fun exchanging stories. We were served by two girls, one Chinese, tall and dressed in a very short skirt, the other Malay and short, same short skirt. The Chinese girl was a college student about to graduate with a degree in Accounting – her English was quite good. Unlike the bars in China, there was no hustling going on here, they were just serving drinks. I imagine that being a Muslim country, prostitution carries rather stiff penalties (by the way, you are warned when entering Malaysia that drug trafficking will get you the death penalty). I realized that I have been in Asia for 2 days and nobody has offered to massage anything, not even my feet!
Tomorrow is Sunday here. We have some meetings planned in the afternoon. More later.
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