KL - living the high life
Trip Start
Aug 19, 2006
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3
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Trip End
Sep 01, 2007
Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia
Monday, August 28, 2006
We moved into an apartment that felt strange at first but now has been transformed into home after rearranging the furniture, installing the PC and internet, and killing all the sweet harmless animals that freaked Marta out. Three times the required amount of cockroach traps certainly did the trick - but there may still be a little gecko reptile cowering in a corner somewhere.
The location is brilliant - opposite Marta's office, and near a monorail station. The Estana restaurant and disco, 200m away along the main road, is a bit of a problem - the boomboom resonates all night long, very annoying. On Sundays when the Philipino maids all have their day off and go partying it's boomboom all damn day long
01 Twin Towers
. Another annoyance for Marta is the rats that inevitably thrive in the dirty streets and this warm climate. At night there's often one scurrying along the side of the alleys leading from the main road to our apartment - but always running away, I tell Marta.We're also 300m from a row of three massive air-conditioned shopping malls, all of which have supermarkets, food and an eye-boggling amount of shoes and bags, much to Marta's delight. We arrived during the last week of the summer 'mega-sales' and she scored two very nice original handbags for a lot less than you pay in Europe. I never spent so much time in malls. It's a way of life here.
We've been by bus (ticket 90 sen) to the Central Market, a cute art-deco hall full of tourist shops, and Chinatown which is more rough-and-ready and fun. Lots of pirated stuff, heavy bargaining going on, and stallkeepers keeping track of the the police by walkie-talkie... when they approach, all the watches, DVDs, Nikes and Versace wallets dissapear in about 15 seconds. We had dinner at one of the Chinese places (we selected one with 100% locals - a good tactic) and had fabulous fresh and simple food.
We made it to KLCC one afternoon, the area with the Petronas twin towers, a large park and of course a massive shopping mall. It's easy to get sucked into these traps. From there it's a short walk across the park and through an area with new skyscraper hotels and apartment buildings to our place.
We've uploaded some photos from the first week here so you can get an idea of the place - happy viewing.
xxx
Sign of the day: 'Do not feed the monkeys' (in the Lake Park)
Exchange rate: €1 = 4,7 Malaysian Ringit
