Monday 18 February 2008

Malaysia 2007. Year of Tourism. Kuala Lumpur



Malaysia 2007. Year of Tourism. Kuala Lumpur

In November 2007 we once again went to Malaysia.Malaysia has had a complete revamp. New roads and highways, tall and elegant tower blocks and beautiful houses. Kuala Lumpur is the face of new prosperity and business and people are content. Govt. workers retire at age 45, get a lump sum amount at retirement, they can buy a house cheap, a motor car (malaysians can buy a car with a down payment of MR ONE) and live well as things are cheap. A visit to a doctor costs MR12.00.
Malaysians don't seem to cook at home. KL, Penang, Butterworth and many small towns we visited, were all the time full with customers, eating. In KL we stayed at China Town Inn, pat in china town itself, a good and clean hotel with a very friendly staff. A double room cost MR100 per night, although we later found out that similar hotels cost around MR60 per night. We booked on the internet so had to accept the tariff. But we liked it there and stayed four nights.
KL is a fantastic city, clean and visitor friendly, transport is cheap, there are so many places to visit and things to see and do. The food is cheap, whether you opt for chinese or indian food, it is cooked fresh and is very tasty. And you can buy fresh fruit cut in slices for MR1. What else you want? Who would bother to cook at home?
You can visit KL just for it being there, Suria KL city centre, the Petronas twin towers, Masjid Jamek, the aqua marine world, Batu Caves, the Golden Triangle, all deserve a visit. The city centre is full of pubs, bistros and restaurants. The only thing I did not like was the large number of McDonalds, KFC, Subways and starbucks cafe chain. Their signs and billboards seemed out of place. We had delicious coffee, at a restaurant in the international market just a few hundred metres from china town, for MR2.50. In KL you can have good coffee anywhere. Who cares for Starbucks? And coffee at BigMac, anywhere in the world, tastes lousy. As does the food. And instead of three days as originally planned, we stayed for five days.
It was our plan to visit Perhentian islands but we were informed that due to rainy season these islands had been closed as it was dangerous for boats to cross the islands. So instead we decided to go to Langkawi Island and after our soujorn in KL, took a bus to Kuala Perlis which is a departure point for ferries to Pulau Langkawi




Posted by Island Hopper at 06:30

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