kuala lumpur 2 May 31, 2009

My journey continues, on my 5th or 6th day there I went to Putrajaya, Putrajaya is new federal administrative of Malaysia, de jure Malaysia capital city is Kuala Lumpur, but the facto their administrative already moved to Putrajaya . Putrajaya is like 30 min away from KL, I took KLIA express to get me there, the interior of the train reminds me of Veolia train that took me from Leeuwarden to Hindellopen.

My first impression of Putrajaya is this city is similar with  Dubai, they build all the building looks like Persian capital city, like city on 1001night stories considering the diverse background of Malaysia, they should put something that show the people of their country. Anyway it was a nice walk with my boy friend we went to the Putra Mosque, saw the prime minister office on the distance, even more we met Indonesian student who had their excursion to KL!

Our journey continues to china town, this was a sudden change because at the first place I’d like to visit my brother, but unfortunately he’s unavailable. KL’s chinatown just like the combination between Hindu, China, and Malay culture. I went in to Sridevi temple on Chinatown *I forgot the exact name* it is beautiful temple, they deaorated the temple with beautiful statues, furthermore this temple is dedicated for Sri Devi, the one ehich I think her popularity is equal to Virgin Maria in Christian. I know that Hindu people is paternal society, I’m really proud to come to the temple that dedicated for a girl.

Not so far away from this Hindu temple there’s chinese temple, it’s amaze me how building in KL could be so diverse.

I continue my walk to Pasar Seni to buy some souvenir and to walk through the Petaling Street, the place where fake stuff of any brand is available.

My last day there I went to see Malaysia Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) on that day they are showing LAT’s window to the world, unfortunately no classical music today, just some music arrangement for Charlie Chaplin’s Movie Modern Times and music arrangement to honour LAT a Malaysian cartoonist, he’s famous for his character Kampung Boy.

Nothing last forever, including my holiday, so on 5th of May 2009 I went home to Netherland, and keep ask myself when I’m gonna graduate from my study here.

Kuala Lumpur May 31, 2009

Last spring break I went to Kuala Lumpur to visit my parent (they had a vacation there), my brother (whose studying there) and my boy friend (whose working there). I took wmirates flight with stop over in Dubai, I walked through the biggest airport terminal in the World, and I mean it it’s huge, and in the middle of the terminal they put super huge duty free mall *yes. it’s a mall, not a duty free shop*

Peoples asked my why did I go there? If you want to feel metropolitan just go to Jakarta and stay in Kuningan+Thamrin area, hell yeah back there in Jakarta didn’t have my precious boy friend or should I say my fiancee *blushed*

Kuala lumpur is basically the future of Jakarta, the city defenitely has same ‘aura’ for example those cities has same temperature *eventhough Kuala Lumpur is slightly higher*, same people, same type of food, same type of shopping mall, same type of house, same type of cars, same type of plants, same type of hawkers, same type of chinese products.

For your information KL has tons of shopping mall, and just like Jakarta’s malls they put like super expensive and luxurious brand on fascinating structure with beautiful interior (ex:KLCC) and they put less expensive brand on average sub urbanmall (ex:Ampang Point), although sometimes they combine average+luxurious brand (ex:Bukit Bintang)

KL definitely has better transportation system than Jakarta, they have LRT , metro  buses, all those transportation units has air conditioner *it makes sense considering the heat of the city* unfortunately they never show the schedule of the public transportation, furthermore they don’t have ‘unified’ ticket on transportation system so everytime we take a ride we have to pay for the ticket, that’s little bit turn off but it doesn’t stop me to use it *I still need it anyway*.

Everyday when I took a walk on KL I always bring my Lonely planet book as my guide, first day I went to Kolonial walk, it’s super hot walk that cover little India, Masjid Jamik, and Merddeka Square, it should take only 2 hrs for the walk, but due to the fact that I’m always lost on first day makes my walk turn into long walk for 4 hrs. but indeed it turn to be tiring walk. I walk by myself, I spotted few tourists taking the same walking path like me, and I feel that I’m not alone, especially along the way there are plenty people wearing hijab juat like me, I felt that I’m save there the good thing from KL because it has not musc different than Jakarta, every time I felt thirsty or hungry I just stopped by on a hawker and buy cold drinks or snaks.

This walk start from Asian heritage Row and ended in Merdeka Square, how do I return to Bukit Bintang *where my parents stayed* ? I walked all the way back to Masjid Jami LRT to take another train to their place, by the time I got there my parents were so angry and worries about me, basically because we should meet each other and then walk together, but eventually we were separated on Bukit Bintang LRT station right after we came out of the hotel. O my parent, I’m really sorry to leave you guys.

On my next walk I took a trip to Malaysia Islamic Art Museum, I really recommend this museum, this is like one of the best museum that I ever visited, I have to be honest and put it on below Uffizi museum *well ok, it’s not really historical* but from aspect of collection and the explanation of the item, it was really impressive. My walk start from the old train station and walk continue to Lembah Perdana, it’s like a huge park on the hill and they built a museum complex there, if I had another time I’d like to visit all museum, unfortunately I started as late as 12.00 and I spent 3 hours on the Islamic Art Museum, by the eime I got out of the museum the time shows 16.30 I took a short walk  with Planetarium but unfortunately I missed the last show, it’s really a pity. But that’s Ok coz that night I had a date with my boyfriend *joy*, ooops fiancee *blushed* to watch movies on KLCC.

As a moslem I’m really proud to have my own art museum, it was fascinating just check this marvelous entrance.

I’m affraid this post will be very lenghty if I wrote all my experience on KL, I will write on next post or in dutch word volgende posting