A very historic town and two tremendous towers

Morning.

I realized the other day that I had yet to write about the last few days in Malaysia before heading home and decided to finish that entry and wrap up my trip so here it goes.

I last left you as I was leaving Borneo and heading back to peninsular Malaysia. The plan was the stay in Kuala Lumpur (KL) for a few days with a day or two day trip down to Melaka for a visit before heading on home. I arrived in KL in the morning and began the arduous process of getting into the city. The airport is about 75 km outside the downtown area but there are lots of forms of transportation and so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I arrived and was welcomed by swarms of people who had come to see the Malaysia Grand Prix. The place was packed. I arrived on the first day of the Grand Prix and sure enough accommodations were booked all across the city. I was tired from climbing a mountain and traveling and after a few unsuccessful attempts to find a place to stay I left. I was near the bus station and the stress of the city was getting to me and so I just left. It was good I was near the bus station and it was good I had a destination - the quiet port city of Melaka. I arrived in the afternoon to the setting sun and quickly found a place to stay. The downtown area is full of incredible buildings built during either the Dutch, British or Portuguese periods and had that "colonial" feel to them. They were all painted red and the colors were really brought out by the setting sun. The weather was cool - it briefly rained cooling the city down and freshening everything up perfectly. I wandered around for a while just simply soaking up the atmosphere which Melaka had plenty of. the next morning I hit the historic sites. Melaka was the center of the world for a while as the point of contact between the East and the West. Much like Singapore, Melaka was a place where the monsoons met and so it was used as a place to exchange goods and wait for the monsoons to change enabling the different parties to return home. It has a long and fascinating history starting with its establishment as a city by an Indonesian prince and the ensuing colonization by the Dutch, the British and the Portuguese and then independence. There were old remnants of Dutch forts, British administration buildings and churches which had all been restored and turned into museums and they all provided a good overview of the history of the area. But after several museums, I was ready for something else and went to China Town. I was staying in China Town and so I took the opportunity to explore the city. One theme of the trip has been the presence of Little India's and China Town's in every city I go. The Chinese immigrants that have come to SE Asia (specifically Peninsular Malaysia) over the past centuries have developed a new culture and have called themselves Straights Chinese (for the Straight of Melaka) or Baba or Nonya cultures. After getting my fill of China Town, I headed off for dinner and then a trip to the mall before heading off to bed. The next morning I went to the sights that I wasn't able to get to yesterday and then headed out to the bus station ready to take on KL.

I got to KL and quickly found a place - the race was over and the fans had left. At this point, I was ready for the big city and soaked it up. The hustle and bustle that had only a few days ago rubbed me the wrong way was now exciting and new and I was glad to be back in this environment (at least for a few days). I decided to just start walking and see where I ended up and actually created quite the perfect afternoon. I passed by one of the most beautiful mosques - not as elegant as the mosques in Brunei, but it was nestled in a grove of palm trees along a river and was very beautiful. I passed by the National History Museum and of course stopped in to catch up on my history and then walked out only to find an incredible view of the Petronas Towers. These towers, the international landmark for KL, dominate the skyline. I saw them as the bus came into the city - it's impossible to miss them. Despite their dominance, I find myself searching for them trying to catch a glimpse of them whenever I can. And they do reveal themselves at different points as the skyline gives way. I never got tired of looking at them. As I was starring at the skyline a man approached me and wanted to take a picture of me with him and his two sons. So we stood there and his wife took the picture. He had come to KL on vacation. He was from Sabah (the state that I had just come from in Borneo) and was excited to see a foreigner. We talked for a bit and then they moved on. I was soon approached by another man who was undoubtedly watching this other man get his picture taken with me and worked up the courage to come over and talk to me. It turns out that this man (we were eventually joined by his friends) were from Burma. They are working in KL for 5 years. Their government allows them the chance to work abroad for 5 years and then they must come back. One of the men in the group was heading back the following day and so they were out to celebrate and see the city for one last time and they thought a picture with an American would be just wonderful. I obliged them and chatted for a bit about Burma and their histories and was fascinated. Burma is so close and I have been on the border of Thailand and Burma several times and am resisting the urge to go. I'm torn as to whether or not to go. But this conversation was wonderful. We parted ways and I wandered until I found a good place to eat and then hit the night market in China Town near my hotel. It was a bustling market and didn't have much charm to it at all. It was dirty and people were pushy - it's a far cry from some of the markets I've been to and had gotten used to. I left quickly. My hotel was just off the market and my window actually looked down on it. It was noisy for most of the night, but I got a good picture of the market from above. The next morning I got up and it was Monday. Monday's for most people in Malaysia are holidays and many mosques and things are closed (including the Petronas Towers). So I walked. There was a park and some interesting points of interest outside the city a bit and so I made my way there just enjoying being in the city outside of the downtown area. I loved my little walk in the part and ended up at the National Museum. I went in hoping for a reprieve from the heat, but the air con wasn't up to standard and neither was the museum and I soon found myself walking again. I needed another escape from the heat and so Internet cafe it was and one of the blog entries that you've probably not yet read was written then. As I write this I realize that my evenings have become very uninteresting. I've been getting up so early to avoid the heat that by the time the evening rolls around after a day of walking, I'm beat and end up getting dinner and then calling it a night. So, I'll skip that uninteresting part of the day and move on to the next morning. I guess this entry isn't very interesting either as I'm not really in the mood to write and it lacks any sort of pizazz.

The next morning was an exciting morning. It was the day of my visit to the Petronas Towers. I got up early and went to the towers to stand in line to get a ticket and ended up getting one of the first tickets. I hung out in the little informative display in the lobby waiting until my assigned time. I don't know if I've mentioned this or not, but I had a revelation about the towers that made me feel real stupid. I've known the towers were the Petronas Towers forever. I've also know that there is a gas station in Thailand named Petronas. I've also seen that same company in many different places in Malaysia. But it wasn't until I arrived in KL that I put 2 and 2 together and realized that the towers were built and owned by Petronas, the Malaysian National Oil Company. It all made sense now. In my tour of the towers, I found out that the three floors on either side of the Sky Bridge (the bridge connecting the two towers) are home to the Oil and Gas Lounge. The tour was really neat and it was cool to be in the towers as they are such iconic symbols of Malaysia. As I walked out of the towers, I looked skyward and started snapping the obligatory photos of the towers and as I was taking those few photos I saw a familiar face. We recognized each other at about the same time - it was the Thai couple that I had met in Brunei about a week earlier! We had managed to cross paths again. It was very bizarre. But we said hello and chatted for a bit before parting ways again. We also realized that we were on the same flight from KL to Chiang Mai and would be traveling together as we made our way home. The towers rise up from a rather large structure (which doesn't look very large situated below the towers, but actually is) which contains a huge mall. Inside the mall, in addition to shops and restaurants and such, there were two galleries sponsored by Petronas. There was the Art Gallery (which they sponsored and provide free entry) and the Science Center (a hands-on, thrilling, science center for kids...this was not free). I wandered through the Art Gallery and saw a wonderful photo exhibit and a really neat statue collection. 2007 marked the 50th year of independence for Malaysia and so they are celebrating the achievement and so the display was a collection of photos from the past 50 years showing different moments in Malaysia's past. It was a very neat stroll through time. The sculptures were made by a Japanese engineer turned artist and consisted of pieces of metal arranged in ways so that their movements were in part controlled by motors and magnets and in part by kinetic and potential energy. Their movements were controlled chaos. They never quite did the same thing twice but they always operated within a defined boundary. They were stunning. I hit the mall and got nice and chilled before venturing out into the heat and finished my tour of the city. At this point, I was tired of walking. But I couldn't bring myself to go back to the hotel since I wanted to get some pictures of the Petronas Towers at night so I dragged myself back to the mall and went to a movie. I saw the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in Malaysia under the Petronas Towers. I would have liked to have seen Entrapment, but that would have been too complicated. I had dinner and I had killed most of the afternoon and the sun began to set and I got my pictures. I headed home, packed, slept and was off the next morning bound for home.

And that concludes my summer travels (at least my excursions out of Thailand). I'll be sure to add to the blog in the next few days and complete my attempt at updating things.

Until then,

Ryan