KL and Penang
From Melaka we took the bus the capital Kuala Lumpur. Lesson learned from Melaka was that a city stay without having the possibility to swim in sea or pool was not okay for Sara. Therefore we had pre-booked via Internet a hotel with pool which was not too expensive. We had quite a large room with a porch that led to the swimming pool which was perfect for Sara. A swimming pool also meant new friends for her.
As with every big city traffic is a real problem and there seems to be a permanent congestion. It took ages for our express bus to reach the bus terminal Putraya with the usual chaos and taxi mafia. After turning down 2 drivers because of the high price, the third one even claimed he did not know where our hotel was. Finally got into a regular car for the price we were willing to pay. The driver ran an illegal taxi service next to his normal job but the difference compared to illegal taxi’s in Holland is that he got customers from the regular taxi drivers. If they couldn’t get the fare they wanted they simply refused to go out and made up excuses like not knowing where the hotel was located. Our driver Sow turned out to be a militant fighter for the Justice party and the next 10 minutes he fired a rather aggressive speech against the current government at us. Luckily, I had been reading up on things in Malaysia in the papers as he switched from murder to fuel prices to a conspiracy against his party. Upon arrival at the hotel he gave us his card with phone number which I got rid of instantly. No rides with this crazy guy.
KL looks a lot like Singapore. Almost the same amount of people (a bit over 4 million, but Singapore has almost 4 times as much people per square kilometre), construction sites everywhere en long traffic jams causing dirty smog. Although Singapore is leading the competition things slowly seem to shift to KL. Our own impression is that Singapore is much better organised and structured and that the people are friendlier. KL is chaos at times but this has a certain charm as well. For tourists like us who like do explore things walking around KL is not really suitable, especially not with a stroller. Pavements have been taken away for road expansion and what is left is of poor quality. We had to manoeuvre creatively to find our way without getting on the road full of speeding cars.
The Petronas Towers were only 2 minutes by foot from our hotel and from every angle it is a true architectural piece of art. Sara was not allowed to go up the elevators so no breathtaking view from the top unfortunately. Beneath the towers was the latest opened shopping mall, Suria. Take the following ingredients: Brigitte, 4 huge storeys with all the famous brands in nice boutiques, mega sale en a travel budget. Mixed together you get a cocktail of excitement and frustration. In the end, the damage was limited to a bikini from Zara. Although I have been running around in the same swimming shorts for the past 5 years, having only 1 bikini for a woman basically means going nude as you cannot switch between outfits. In Suria was also a big food court on the 2nd floor where you could get meals from all areas of the globe. Not exactly cosy but ideal for Sara. We got her the first happy meal of the trip and spaghetti. Brigitte became a Sushi King regular and I had a taste of Bengal, Thai and Mongolian food. It was funny to see that the longest queue was always in front of McDonalds. Despite the unhealthy stuff it still appeals to children everywhere, although they did have a large Halal certificate hanging above the menu.
Next to the Petronas Towers was a park with swimming pool and large play garden, both for free. When Sara saw the play garden she went completely crazy, so many slides and swings. The pool next to is shallow and has water falls and small fountains. Around it were the ‘fashion police’, female park rangers whose job was to watch out for children going into the water naked or with a diaper. Pants were the minimum piece of clothing. Sara loved to wander through the pool, and lots of children came up to her and touched her. She had a ball and the pool became a daily stop on our walks through the city.
In the end we didn’t see that much of KL. We have been to Chinatown with the famous Jin Petaling Street full of aggressive salesmen. Whatever you do, don’t look at an item longer than 1 second unless you really want to buy it, otherwise you will be chased down the street almost being forced to buy it. We also went to Bukit Bintang, a touristy part full of restaurants and shops. Mark and Laura stayed here in a hotel and where we went for dinner with them on Jalan Alor, a long street with loads of hawker stalls, predominantly Chinese. Sara and Madeleine couldn’t take their eyes off the living clams while we had a feast with crab, squid, fish soup and loads of sateh, washed down with Tiger beer. Way above our budget but still very cheap according to Western standards (€50 in total). Although the hygiene in these hawker stalls is very good most of the time, the toilets seem to be a forgotten area. When Brigitte opened the door a huge rat came crawling up the hole in the floor…
Mark and Laura would stay until Sunday and would then move on to the East coast before heading into Thailand. We chose for Penang on the West coast instead, where we would take the ferry to Langkawi afterwards. In front of our hotel an express bus conveniently drove straight to Georgetown. As we were practically the only passengers, they put Chicken Little on twice for Sara so the 3 hour ride went by for her quickly.
In Penang we had booked another hotel with swimming pool, this time a bit out of Georgetown’s city centre. Hotel Naza was a nice hotel at the beach of Tanjung Tokong with a small swimming pool and kid’s pool. The sea was rather dirty here and did not invite for a swim though. We took the bus to downtown Georgetown, a ride of half an hour due to traffic but only € 0.30 fare. Georgetown is Malaysia’s second largest city but you could not tell by the buildings you would pass. Instead of KL’s large sky scrapers lots of colonial mansions from the British era. The centre is dominated by Chinese restaurants and shops. The part we liked most was Little India with completely different colours, sounds and smell. Well worth a stroll. Next to the uninteresting Fort Cornwallis with a sun tanned Malay guard pathetically dressed as English soldier was a small food court and play garden. Perfect place to let Sara have a run without the danger of rushing traffic and to digest an excellent Nasi Lemak. Food leftovers were aggressively taken by large birds and you had to be careful not to be hit by flying sateh sticks with still sauce on it. At the end of the day we went back to the hotel for a swim before dinner and had great Malay food and sushi in a food court next to the hotel. I probably fell for Montezuma’s Revenge resulting in stomach ache and dhiarea which kept me from falling asleep. Sleeping would have been a problem anyway that night as a huge thunderstorm crossed Penang. Sara tried to be a big girl and said with trembling voice that she was not afraid. Thankfully she crawled in between us and fell into a deep sleep.
We would liked to have stayed for a few nights in the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion (www.cheongfatttzemansion.com), a beautiful B&B in the city centre but this was unfortunately booked solid for weeks. In contrast to what the tourist office promoted Penang and Georgetown in particular did not really appeal to us. Perhaps it was also because we were getting tired from traffic and car exhausts and were craving for fresh air. We decided to take the ferry to Pulau Langkawi earlier, a group of tropical islands close to the Thai border.
Here Sara could run around again and build sand castles on the beach. To end, a small update on Sara’s wellbeing. We got rid of the pacifiers because she broke them all and we told her they were not for sale here. She accepted it and is no longer asking for it. We also are trying to get rid of diapers during the day and this seems to work really well, although it is sometimes a hassle to find a toilet in a city or park. Would be great of she can do without diapers as it would save us from dragging them around for the rest of the trip.
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