HOTTER THAN SINGAPORE IN SO MANY WAYS

Friday - 20 March 2015 - Kuala Lumpur

The portentous Port Klang hopes to attract cruise ships to Malaysia 

We docked early at Port Klang, Malaysia, the port for the capital city of Kuala Lumpur. There is nothing at Port Klang of interest except an oddly pretentious but the empty "Cruise Center" terminal building. The government hopes to attract large cruise ships with this facility but apparently without great success. This was Barbara's first visit to Mainland Malaysia. So we decided to visit KL.

We took a tour to Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur has a climate that rivals Singapore. It seemed even hotter and more humid. During my four or five visits on Song of Flower in the 1990s, KL was as alive as Singapore was sleepy, much more like one would expect for a large Asian city. But twenty years ago the capital of Malaysia was still a bit of a teaming remnant of colonialism with just a little new construction, most notably the Petronas Towers which was being built by the partially government owned oil company.

In the 20 years since I visited last, the city has grown to 1,600,000 people and investment from the Chinese and the Emirates has made the city into an economic powerhouse. There is construction everywhere in the city. The ship offered an all day transfer to the city. For $20 more we opted instead to take the guided tour, essentially the same one I had taken three times during my lecturing days. This time I was not obliged to be the ship's escort. By the end of this tour, I was sorry I was not obliged to submit a comment form.

Malaysia is officially a Muslim country, but barely half the population of the country are of that religion. Our tour guide was of Chinese heritage. Her commentary on the hour long drive from the port was short on the traditional touristic information about Malaysia. Instead of details on compulsory education, size and population, she explained--at great length to her captive audience--that the Malays (i.e. Muslims) were "nice and happy but lazy" and that the government was corrupt. The prime minister must be Muslim as per the constitution, she said with a scowl. The Chinese she said, on the other hand, are hard working and run the small businesses. She also said the sizable Indian population "does all the low paid hard work". She explained further, "No one pays taxes because the corrupt government won't provide decent roads or other services". We had heard the same thing from a tour guide in Sicily some years ago. I asked that guide, "How is this working out?" I chose not to follow up on the this guide's similar comment.

As Islamic countries go, Malaysia is pretty tolerant of their Buddhist and Christian minorities. We saw lots of women in Western dress on the streets, although an increasing number of young Kuala Lumpurian women seem to be wearing head scarves. Our guide's point of view was sincere albeit a bit forced on us (see her expression in the photo above), but it made the drive on a good four lane highway go quickly. The road was quite smooth despite her continuing to apologize for the non-existent potholes "due the corrupt (Muslim) government".

Malaysian Independence Memorial in Kuala Lumpur

US Iwo Jima Memorial at the entrance of Arlington National Cemetery

As with my earlier visits this tour stopped first at the National Monument commemorating Malaysian independence from Britain after WWII. The monument is impressive but oddly familiar to Americans. Apparently the new administration was impressed by the Iwo Jima memorial in Washington and approached the sculptor for an equally inspiring statue. Unfortunately he took the "equally" part a little too literally.

Modern high rise office buildings surround the British colonial Malaysian administrative center 

The 1500 foot high twin Petronas Towers behind the ho-hum more modern highrise buildings behind the colonial district.

The administrative area of the capital is housed in the old British offices in the heart of the city. Modern KL seems to be encroaching to an alarming degree. Not as bad as Singapore, but it is pretty incongruous to see the aluminum and glass high businesses looming over the strange characteristic Moorish/Indian architecture the British colonial government built all over Asia.

View of downtown Kuala Lumpur with  monorail station in lower left corner

We concluded our scheduled tour of Kuala Lumpur at the observation level of the 1200 foot high TV tower. We could see the full extent of economic growth of the city. A network of monorail train lines snaked around the downtown which seemed to extend for miles in every direction. Clearly KL is doing well. Because of the heat and the urban sprawl, I was very glad we had decided to be driven around in an air conditioned tour bus rather than spend the day on our own. Kuala Lumpur charms seemed to be hidden and would require a number of days' stay to be explored at leisure using its modern transit system rather than on foot.

1,500 foot high Petronas Towers was just building built when I was there in the 1990s

Before heading back to the port, the ever dour tour guide insisted on a photo stop at the base of the Petronas Towers. We had been looking at the buildings from every angle all morning including at eye level from the TV tower, but she seemed most enthusiastic. The stop made sense to me when as the driver pulled over, the guide took the opportunity to explain that the buildings were designed "with various Islamic symbols as part of the architecture". Something about the view from above (!) was particularly Islamic she declaimed. We could not check that out, of course, She sounded quite offended by what she felt were occult architectural Muslim elements in the government funded construction. 

We drove back to isolated Port Klang as our guide was reduced to mumbling about how, as Chinese, she was very lucky to be able to even get a job as "only a tour guide". We returned to Silver Wind in time to have a late lunch as we anticipated a more intimate visit the next morning to Penang, a famous Malaysian island with an historically predominant Chinese population.