kuala lumpur aka slummy singapore

So we spent five or so days in Kuala Lumpur.  Ahhh, KL... so much to say.  I must admit I quite enjoyed my time there.  Evidently I have turned into a big fan of Cities!! KL has the big shopping centers and beautiful buildings like Singapore has... but KL has a few things Singapore didn't...  crappy hotels, decrepit buildings, garbage on the streets, and an impossible transit system.  But I'll take all that since KL is actually an affordable place... we could get a fabulous bed and breakfast for $40 a night, and meals for $2 are easy to come by.

KLCC twin towers

Where to start... well, we had to move hotels three times until we found one that was acceptable.  I guess we were a little more picky than usual because we were spending 5 nights, so we wanted to be comfortable.  The first hotel was alright... it had a clean bathroom (with zero water pressure) but it was the size of a shoebox, and the double bed was worn so that we rolled into each other throughout the night. There was absolutely no where to put our bags and belongings without tripping over them.  Not comfortable enough for four more nights.  So, we moved.  The next place LOOKED decent.  It had a great common area with a tv, couches, kitchen, and free coffee all day (that sold me)...  the room seemed fine at first... two beds (yay) private bathroom... enough space.  However... once we had a chance to settle in we noticed the details... I could have dealt with the giant dust bunnies, but they didn't even PRETEND to clean the bathroom... there was actually empty bottles in the shower, water all over the floor, and urine on the toilet seat!  After asking three times for someone to clean our bathroom, at 10pm  (when we were exhausted from the day) two men finally came up to clean... (that's what they called it at least) they emptied the garbage and took some of the garbage out of the shower (I noticed another lid later) ... then they went to leave... we asked if they could clean the toilet please (as that was our main concern anyway.. you know, I want to be able to sit on it) they came back and (with a towel that was exactly the same as the ones we were provided with for our showers) wiped the toilet seat off and soaked up the water from the floor.  Great.  Thanks.  really, all we could do was laugh... I mean, we could have done THAT ourselves... how many hotels do we stay in that don't use cleaners? *shudder*  that's why we carry sanitizer and sanitize everything important ourselves anyway.  Needless to say it was a sleepless night as I wondered if they even bothered to change the sheets between guests....  The next day we went over our budget so we could stay in a place that was big enough AND clean (because you cant get both for under $30, at least not with a private bathroom) I mean, realistically it was only $12 over our budget... so not really a big deal... It was three more nights, we had to.  PS the next place was BEAUTIFUL, if you ever go to KL, stay in Rainforest Bed and Breakfast . Trust me.

So, KL itself is a really nice city.  As I said, it's got some really beautiful buildings and insane malls (like the Twin Towers... so beautiful) and there are some interesting places to visit (like the Batu Caves), and then there are some of the slummiest looking buildings I have ever seen.  It's interesting because some of them are right in the middle of a bunch of big, beautiful  buildings... I guess they were there already when the city decided to try and give itself a facelift maybe?  And China Town!!  You can get ANYTHING there... all the knock offs you could imagine... like... I was so overwhelmed with the sheer magnitude of merchandise... Armani everything, Prada, Gucci, you name it handbags, Rolex watches, Polo shirts, Tiffany jewelry, it was INSANE.  I was in heaven.

KL tower

entrance to the batu caves

the best place to buy anything knock off

my FAVORITE building in the city... I stopped in the middle of the street to stare

Oh, oh the transit!!! *shudder* NOT like Singapore.  So, there are five different types of rapid transit: the monorail, KTM Komuter train, two LRT lines, and the KLIA Ekspress (which just goes to the airport).  That's fine, different lines means more service right?  Well, it would be nice if they were integrated.  Yes, SOME of the stations line up with each other, and SOME of the time it's only a couple of blocks to walk to the next line, but what I found PARTICULARLY  frustrating was the fact that you had to buy a new ticket each time you transferred.  There was no integrated passes to buy... not even a day pass.  I can understand that the Monorail is different from the train and different from the LRT, but shouldn't the two LRT lines at least have the same ticket system?  It became expensive over the days buying at least two tickets to get anywhere.. and two more to get back.  And then there was the day the Monorail was down (after we spent forever trying to figure out the KL Sentral station (none of these names are spelling errors on MY part... all of these countries seem to spell  things in an interesting way) to even find the Monorail station) then we had to walk in the middle of traffic whizzing by us to try and find our neighborhood... (we got stuck on the wrong side of the road and ended up walking on the meridian) ... at least taxi's are pretty cheap so we splurged a few times to avoid the hassle of the public transit system.

My FAVORITE part of KL (get ready for it) .... the signal to say it's ok for pedestrian crossing is a little green man that's running!!  hehehhe... made me giggle every time I saw it.  His little legs just goin for it... and you have to run too... cars don't listen to traffic laws so there is always a good chance of getting your legs broken while crossing the street.

You know what else I loved about KL?  People watching.  There is an amazing diversity among the people, and again, I am a minority (which is strangely alluring for me... perhaps because I have spend my entire life being the majority, it's  a neat feeling to be the one who is "different"). I have particularly enjoyed the variety of apparel in women, specifically headscarves.  Now, for most of my life I have always thought that headscarves are... oppressive... they reminded me of people having to wear school uniforms, in a sense that it constricted your ability to be yourself, to be unique.   I realize now that my limited knowledge around the diversity of headscarves was absolutely a product of my ethnocentrism.  Headscarves (from my observations) give women another means in which to express themselves.  There are a plethora of different styles, fabrics, and colors to choose from, not to mention the way that it is worn: set back on the head, tight and forward, lose and forward.  Then there is the choice in pins, where the pins are worn (in the back, on the side, in the front) and there are some BEAUTIFUL and unique pins.  Some headscarves are so long that they cover the whole upper body, some just go around the neck.  Then there is how it goes with the rest of the outfit, some wear one that is the same color as her shirt, others choose a contrast color that really pops, or one with a funky pattern.  It doesn't look to me as a culture of oppressed women... I have seen countless young women dressed in a trendy way (while still remaining covered) with a headscarf that is more an extension of her outfit than anything else.  They look just like girls that you would see in a mall in any other country, laughing and joking with friends, holding hands with a boy, shopping, working (and who says that it is better for young girls to die their hair and wear mini skits and tube tops anyway?).  I guess it just goes to show that you can't (well, shouldn't) judge others through the lens of your culture... you have no idea what it is really like (not that I have any more of an idea, but I am realizing how quick people (myself included) can be to judge anything different as "bad").

To sum it all up... KL is pretty awesome.  You should go there.  But, well, I think that about everywhere I have been... so in my opinion you should go everywhere.