The English lads headed off today, first to the Petronas Towers, then to Pulau Tioman.

A Roam with a View

I walked through Petaling Street—not nearly as chaotic and packed with stalls this morning as it was last night, but still pretty run-down—towards Independence Square (Dataran Merdeka), at the heart of the city. On the way passed the Jame Masjid (Friday Mosque), the oldest mosque in KL (1909). This building, on Jalan Kuntun Perak, is in the style of a North Indian Mosque. It is situated at the confluence of the Klang and Gambak Rivers, the birthplace of Kuala Lumpur (which literaly means muddy waters in Malay). KL was dug from mosquito-infested muddy ground and built by labourers in the 18th century, most of whom succumbed to diseases, mainly malaria. The Mosque was designed by the British architect A. B. Hubback, who also designed the old railway station. It has a walled courtyard and three domes flanked by two minarets.

Just before I reached the Square I found a pleasant complex of cafes and stopped off for a chicken and chips and coffee at Cafe Lascito, on Jalan Raja. The Dataran Merdeka is interesting-—the green sward was once a cricket pitch during colonial times, with the usual Club House (for whites only, of course!). On one side of the square is the moorish facade of the Sultan Abdul Samad building (named after the then Sultan of Selangor), topped by a clock-tower, now used by the Justice Department. I was designed by the British architect A.C.A. Norman, and built in 1897. Norman spent about 20 years in Malaya and designed a number of public building for the Public Works Department, but was compulsorily retired for ineffiency at the age of 45.

Other historical and restored buildings surround the other sides of the square. On the north side is the Anglican St. Mary's Church, built in 1894, on land originally occupied by the stables of the nearby Selangor Club. Beneath the square is the Plaza Putra, an uderground food, leisure and entertainment complex.

I then visited the National Historic Museum on the corner of the square. This building, completed in 1963 on Jalan Travers, is based on old Malay, Minangkabau architecture (the word Minangkabau means buffalo horns, and the roofs in that style have two hornlike peaks). It doesn't look so big from the outside (I'm comparing it to the Edo-Tokyo and and Seoul museums which I visited recently--but then, didn't someone say "comparisons are odious"?) but it does occupy three floors, and if you stop to examine every exhibit and read the explanations, you can easily spend a good few hours there. So it was early afternoon before I started making my way to the Petronas Towers, the highest building in the world. The Putra line takes you there (I eventually found out!), and the stop is KLCC (1.40 ringitts for the ride, that's less than 50 Euro cents.)

Climbing the Heights

Completed in 1996, the twin, 452m high Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur are “officially” the tallest buildings in the world.

However, by the time I got there there were no tickets remaining for that day. Undaunted (I just had to get my view in!) I headed on foot to the Menara Kuala Lumpur (the telecoms tower), which is the highest tower in Asia and the fourth highest in the world. Steeling myself against my fear of heights I ascended to the observation platform, from where an (irritatingly long-winded) audio guide is provided to point out the sites in a 360-degree radius. The interesting thing about Kuala Lumpur is that it does not appear to be the sprawling metropolis one would expect—they decided to go up, rather than out—so there are large green belts relatively close to the centre of the city.

Planning for Penang

However, I couldn't remain admiring the view for too long, as I had to get over to the train station to check the times for the train to Penang. I took a taxi to the old station first. This was an interesting building, constructed in 1910 and was designed by A.B. Hubback, whose previous posting was in India--this may help to explain his passion for Moorish/Northern Indian designs. The result was a building capped with beautiful Moorish towers, domes and arches that takes its place as one of the most recognisable landmarks of the city. There is a legend that the design was originally intended for a Moscow trade fair and later built in here with snow gutters and a roof to withstand at least 2 metres of snow! Hubback was in England, about to return to Malaya, when WW1 broke out and he joined up and became a brigadier-general, seeing action in several battles, and getting wounded in the process.

However, I found out that since last year only local commuter trains serve this stop. All inter-city trains now head to KL Sentral. I thought the officials would be able to provide the train timetables (and they might have been, had I been more persistent), but I allowed myself to be persuaded to take a commuter train to the central station (one stop up the line) which is where I would have to take the train from. Only one train a day left for Butterworth, where I would have to change for Penang, and that left at 7:50 PM. Bought the ticket, a sleeper,for 40 Rinngits, then took the train back into Independence Square to watch the second semi-final, Brazil versus Turkey. There was a big screen set up in the corner of the square, and several hundred spectators enjoyed the game. Brazil beat Turkey 1-0. Ronaldo's shot, which Turkey goalkeeper Recber got a hand to but could not keep out, decided a tight tussle.

Pirates

On the way back through Petaling Street, the stalls were all back up and it was the usual chaos. Everywhere along this street there was a good choice of fake Rolex's, leather goods branded Dunhill and clothes branded Gucci and Versace. I had just bought a CD containing a selection of web application SW for RM10 (all apparently free demo versions downloaded from the web, so not illegal), when a cry went up that the police were coming. In an instant all the CD/DVD/SW hawkers covered up their stalls (all were on wheels) and rushed around the nearest corner. Seemingly piracy of CDs, SW and movies is big business in Malaysia. Malaysian pirates are generally said to be the producers of better and clearer copies of VCDs and DVDs. This is because they have sophisticated replicating machines and other advanced equipment, which can churn out 21,000 copies an hour. But according to the newspaper the authorities are fighting back, led by the Domestic Trade and Consumers Affairs ministry. As regard movies, the latest blockbusters are available on the pirates' stalls long before they are available for public viewing—they are simply downloaded from the Internet and copied. However, who is going to pay RM42 for a DVD that can be bought for RM5 from a pirate's stall?

Another thought going through my head at this time was, how many of these hawkers are illegal immigrants? The Malaysian government currently has an amnesty for illegal immigrants, which has a deadline of 1 August. They are expecting 200,000 illegals to leave the country under this amnesty, or face the full rigours of the law (whatever that may be). According to today's newspaper, so far 133,000 Indonesians, 13,000 Indians and 12,000 Bangladeshis had left, while smaller numbers had left for China, Thailand and the Philippines.