Kuala Lumpur

We flew with AirAsia again from Langkawi to Kuala Lumpur (KL to the locals), to avoid a long drive down the length of Malaysia. A good idea, makes life easier. We booked a good deal at the Novotel KL, AUD87 per night including buffet breakfast. It is showing its age a bit, but is very well located near the monorail and a short walk from the very large and modern Pavilion shopping centre - see interior view below.

There are many good quality, well priced restaurants in the Pavilion, including Ben's - see pic below of Pad Thai meal. Gail transferred all the little octopi to Don's plate.

Like most big cities, KL has a Chinatown, which we visited. It is a jumble of shops selling fake designer clothes and watches and pirate DVDs, as well as food stores. See pic of main street below.

The prepared food from buffet style outlets has great variety, as well as being very colourful - see pic below.

The Central Market is nearby. This was originally a wet market, but has been redeveloped into a permanent collection of small shops undercover. It is broadly divided into areas representing the products of the various ethnic groups in Malaysia. Gail bought a carved Malay wooden bowl which collapses flat because of its method of construction. The pic below shows Don checking the quality of a batik dress.

KL also has a Little India area, full of shops catering to Indian interests, eg expensive weddings. We saw flower garlands being made. Bollywood music blares from the DVD shops. The pics below shows an Indian style fountain, complete with elephants, and colourful arches along the main street.

  

KL has two famous tower which figure in all the city publicity. One is the Menara KL Tower (pic below). It is 421m high and is currently the world's fifth tallest structure.

The most spectacular structure is the Petronas Twin Towers (day and night pics below). The 88 storey chrome and steel towers are the HQ of Petronas, Malaysia's oil and gas company. A skybridge connects the towers and is a popular viewing location. Tickets are needed but we were unlucky in our attempt to get two. The concert hall of the Malaysian Philharmonic is on ground level between the two towers and is said to be the best classical music venue in SE Asia. The lowest levels have a flashy shopping mall with famous brands (eg Gucci, Prada).

This night pic was taken from the trendy cocktail bar on the roof of the Traders Hotel. This was a rare occasion when we went to a trendy bar (for photographic purposes only).

  

The Islamic Arts Museum is one of the major cultural tourism attractions in KL (pic below). It is in a modern building in KL's huge Lake Gardens Park and covers the history of Islamic art and architecture, especially in SE Asia.

The pic below is of a Koran with elaborate calligraphy (writing).

One of the KL shopping centres (Times Square) is famous for its large indoor amusement park, complete with roller coaster. See pic below.

Gail had to endure a visit to Low Yat Plaza, which has five floors of electronics shops (pic below). Instead of an educational trip through the shops, Gail wasted her time in a coffee shop provided for the female population.

The most unusual activity of our time in KL was our visit to the Kenko Fish Spa in the Pavilion shopping centre. The customers (who are the humans, not the fish) sit with their feet in the fish tank - see general pic below, and pic of special customer about to be eaten.

A special species of fish nibble at the dead skin of the victim's feet, thus this is an exotic variety of pedicure. We had hoped the fish would devour any callouses on the feet, but unfortunately the fish are a bit lazy and favour the softest skin they can find. Better fish training needed.

Gail laughed hysterically when the fish nibbled/tickled her feet, but Don maintained a reserved decorum, so as not to scare away the fish.

Compare the above and below pics and you will see that the fish come in small

 and large varieties. The large ones have quite a strong bite.

Having provided Xmas dinner for the fish, we now depart KL, home destination BNE.

Goodbye till next time.

Langkawi

We flew AirAsia from  Penang to Langkawi, mainly because we had heard bad stories about the boat trip. We rented a car, in order to get around the island.

Langkawi is an island group 30km off the west coast of Malaysia, near Thailand. It has native villages but is mainly known for luxury resorts and duty free shopping. As an example of how affordable Malaysia is for those with AUD, we booked the 5 star Berjaya Resort for AUD125 per night including breakfast for two, and in the event we got a water view room upgrade also. This pic shows our rainforest chalet (we occupied the top right hand quarter of it).

The following pic shows the more expensive "over the water" chalets.

The resort covers a substantial area, and guests are moved around in shuttle buses.

The hot humid weather makes the pool popular. It is set in landscaped surroundings and has a bar swimmers can swim up to. See pic of Don at the pool.

Of  the many water actitivies, we did kayaking – see pic of Gail showing off water skills.

Guests can have a free 10 minute shoulder massage, presumably to develop interest in the paid 60 minute one. See pic of Don getting the free 10 minute version (naturally).

The food and drinks at the resort were very good quality and value, so we indulged more than usual. See pic of Gail with Strawberry Daiquiri and satays, and Don with Singapore Sling.

Near the Berjaya Resort is a shopping area called the Oriental Village - see pic of Gail there.

The Oriental Village is also the terminus for the cable car line up Mount Mac Chinchang – see pic below of cable cars.

At the top of the line is a spectacular curved suspension bridge, 125 metres long, suspended above the jungle from a single 82 metre pylon – two pics below.

There are good views over the islands from the platforms at the top of the line. See below.

We spent a day driving around the main island of Langkawi. We visited the Batik Art Village where the batik process was explained and Gail was pursued until she bought a tablecloth. See pic of batik wall pictures.

We also visited Mahsuri’s Tomb, a local historical attraction. Mahsuri, according to legend, was a young woman unjustly executed for adultery. The tomb (see pic below) is modest, and the whole saga is an example of the locals inflating an attraction for tourist consumption.

The site also has reconstructions of traditional Malay houses, with detailed wood carvings – see pic below.

The island is still very rural – see pic of paddy fields. The locals run many fruit and vege stalls along the roadsides.

One of the prominent landmarks in the main town of Kuah is a huge statue of an eagle – see pic below. The eagle is the symbol of Langkawi (which means “brown eagle”).

We saw examples of the local Langkawi wildlife. We were lucky to find a cooperative monkey watching us for long enough to photograph – see below. The Berjaya Resort warned us about the thieving habits of the local monkeys. The way the staff described the problem, you would imagine the monkeys would steal your underpants while you were getting dressed. But in fact we only saw monkeys in the high trees. We suspect this is another example of a local phenomenon hyped up to impress the tourists and add drama. Plus if a berserk monkey does steal a Japanese woman's Prada bag, the resort can say "well, we warned you, silly city slicker. You came here to experience wild nature in the raw, and you have succeeded. Don't sue us."

 The water buffalo are so sluggish, they are easy to photograph – see below.

Next stop Kuala Lumpur.

Penang

We drove from the Cameron Highlands north to Penang without mishap, fortunately accepting the advice of the locals about which road to take. It was better and shorter than our inbound route. But on the down (in every sense) side, Penang demonstrates customary dangerous Malaysian driving habits on steroids. Georgetown is the main city on Penang island, and the local driving ambience is: run red lights; ignore lane markings; do not signal intention before weaving across lanes; force your way into traffic flow. All this spiced up with numerous motor cycles, some irritatingly slow and some flying through any gap between cars. All this is daunting for the humble AU driver who is worried about local traffic offences or damage to the rental car. But we and the car survived intact.

With the help of our invaluable GPS (whose voice is called Jane and sounds like Nigella Lawson), we arrived at the Hard Rock Hotel (pic below).

This is a trendy modern high rise on the beach, and is part of the Hard Rock Cafe empire. We ate/drank at the Hard Rock Cafe on site. We do not usually engage in such trendiness, but we tolerated the non stop loud pop music for the sake of the happy hour drink specials. The pool was very refreshing after a hot day of tourism (pic below).

Our first major Penang event was the Malaysian cooking class, held at the Eastern and Oriental Hotel (E&O), a grand establishment dating from British colonial times (pic below).

The class occupied a morning, starting with a visit to the local market to buy fresh ingredients. While there we saw preparation of the thin spring roll skins (pic below).

Then followed much chopping, grinding and cooking (see pics below). As the finale of the morning, we consumed the spicy but tasty results at a sit down, formal white napkin lunch.

The next day we returned to the E&O for the high tea (see pic below). This is a common event in flashy hotels in ex British colonies. We have had high tea at the Peninsular Hotel in Hong Kong (at a higher price).

In Georgetown we did a guided tour of the Cheong Fatt Tze mansion (known as the Blue House – pic below), formerly owned by a wealthy Chinese businessman who rose from humble origins. The tour guide described how feng shui principles were incorporated in the house design, and what life was like in former times for a prominent Chinese with eight wives.

Southeast Asia contains many Hindu temples, Buddhist pagodas, Muslim mosques and Christian churches, and these are part of the tourist trail. In the Little India district of Georgetown, the Mahamariamman Temple (say that ten times quickly) is adorned with the numerous sculptures typical of Hindu architecture (pic below).

On a much more monumental scale, we visited the Kek Lok Si Temple, which stands on a hill overlooking Georgetown. It is possibly the largest Buddhist temple complex in Southeast Asia and is over 100 years old.

Dominating the complex is the 30.2m high statue of Kuan Yin (the Goddess of Mercy) – pic below.

The seven storey pagoda (pic below) in the complex is famous because it is said to contain 10,000 buddhas. Not, as you might imagine, an army of 10,000 statues. Most are representations of Buddha on wall tiles.

We walked up the internal stairs to the top of the pagoda, on the way taking the window view pic below.

From the top of the pagoda there is a fine view of the whole complex of gardens and buildings. The pic below shows part of the complex.

One of the more eccentric temples in Penang is the Snake Temple (aka the Temple of the Azure Cloud). It is famous for the pit vipers which guard the deity, and it is believed they are rendered harmless by burning incense. We do not know whether this has been tested by worshippers. See pics below.

Next stop Langkawi.