Reminiscing Asia (1): late night Kuala Lumpur

late night supper with sweet milktea/KL
Originally uploaded by macchi.

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Following my earlier post I've been looking at some of my Flickr series of trips to Asia. And I'm going to share some of my most memorable moments during those trips with you here.

First up: Kuala Lumpur, where I visited for work in June 2008.

It was my first time to this country, and I only spent a short week there mostly working. But I'd convinced my boss that I should really arrive on Saturday to be rid of my jetlag by Monday to be able to do that work well.

And that gave friends of mine the opportunity to drive up from their city in southern Malaysia to KL to come and meet me. I never cease to be amazed at how these friendships can stand years of irregular contact; and yet some people will drop everything to come and see you.

I had the best introduction to KL that I could've wanted: starting with amazing Chinese food, then being taken around the city to go up KL Tower and have an incredible view of the city, finishing off the evening with the above - a late night snack with milk tea. And of course, the whole night accompanied by my friend and his wife and 3-yr old daughter.

Sitting outside on a terrace at midnight, in warm balmy tropical weather, sipping milk tea and chatting to friends after a long day of travelling - bliss.

Flower in the pocket

Yesterday Last week, I saw the movie "Flower in the Pocket" - one that I have been curious about this year as it was playing at the Rotterdam film festival in January and won a big award there.

By accident I discovered that it was on television late last Saturday night.
It's a very nice movie but what struck me most was the similarity in story (partly) and atmosphere to the movie Nobody Knows/ Dare mo shiranai.

'Nobody Knows' is about four siblings living in Japan, whose mother has left them to fend for themselves. Absolutely beautiful film, but very sad also. 'Flower in the pocket' is much less sad luckily, but is about two brothers, who basically also have to look after themselves. The stories have very different plots and endings, but interesting to see the similarities.

What was also good about it is that it gave a good idea of the complex society in Malaysia. The boys are Chinese Malaysian, and speak Chinese with their dad and between them both. Only the older boy speaks Malay and can communicate with some of the other kids, and people in the movie. Then a doctor who appears seems to speak only English, but can understand the father speaking back in Chinese. Malaysia has a very mixed, and complicated, society which I've also written about when I was there earlier this year and it's very apparent in this film.

Definitely a recommended film.

Malaysia pictures

Am making use of my first day at home to unpack and get some of my photos that I took online. Here are a couple to see, the rest with a few explanations are on flickr, as always.


View from KL Tower


Late night supper with friends on Saturday night - a great welcome to KL!


Palm trees all over the place, and now I finally know and understand where palmoil comes from.

Dear highly distinguished guests

One of the things that has most amazed me during this week has been the reception I and my colleagues have received at the various and many meetings.

While we would only be with two people of low to medium status, we would be welcomed by at least three - but more often many more - people, one of which would be a high-ranking official who did all the talking during the meeting. The others don't speak at all at these meetings, except for a particular daring employee who would pipe up to add something every now and then. It always made me wonder why these people were even at the meeting in the first place.

This morning my last meeting topped all of the others of this week: we were met by no less than seventeen (17!) people. The programme included breakfast, a 15-minute group photo shoot and of course lunch (there's always food included in whatever meeting you are at). Luckily the food was indeed good and the actual programme which was the reason we were there was very very interesting.

The lavish reception at so many (government) organisations has made me wonder why that happens. Of course there could be different reasons:
1) We really are incredibly important. We just don't know it ourselves;
2) Government receives disproportional respect in comparison to the value of our work;
3) There is a lot of hidden unemployment in Malaysia; or
4) People will use any excuse to get away from their mindnumbingly boring tasks.

Any other suggestions?

Chinatown

Sitting in Chinatown, on Jalan Petaling, KL finally feels like Asia. Hot and sweaty, a monk wandering the street in the midst of hawkers selling almost-real LV, Gucci, Adidas. Chaos, too many people, too much noise and light.

This is my final night in KL. Pretty much as I expected and feared it has been a week mostly without sightseeing. Many early nights caused by long and exhausting days, leaving little energy or time to venture out into the unknown. Today wasn't much different except for the urge to see one other part of town before I head out tomorrow night.

Not being able to sightsee doesn't mean that I haven't seen anything of the country though. If anything, this has probably been a much better week to learn about Malaysia than if I would have been backpacking. Maybe by talking and talking and more talking to many different people you find out more about a country than by seeing temples and palm trees.

Talking with NGO-workers, for example, who are explaining the complexities of Malaysian politics and the need for more transparency. And then, at lunch, the Indian woman of this group starts going off on Muslims and how we have to stop them from taking over the world. Right...

Or the couple, Chinese Malaysians, of which the woman speaks and writes Cantonese and English fluently but no Bahasa Malaysia at all. And the man speak and writes English and Malay perfectly but only speaks (and doesn't write) Cantonese. They commute into Singapore daily from Johor, on the southern tip of peninsular Malaysia.

Or Malaysian politics - which seems like a complicated maze as well. Current Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi is under heavy criticism after his party lost heavily in the general elections in last March (though they still have a majority in parliament). He's apparently sometimes compared to a Malaysian version of Gorbatsjev - opening up the country but currently risking his own position as a result of that. He's inherited many big issues from previous PM Mahathir Mohamed (also known as Dr. M). Although he built up the country so it now has 6%-plus annual economic growth things such as corruption and non-freedom of press became normal throughout the country. He also left the country with a heavy car-dependence. Obsessed with creating a domestic automotive industry, he heavily protected this industry and promoted individual car ownership. Now, in a time of record-high oil prices, Malaysia is also suffering. With the country dependent on cars, fuel subsidies were finally mostly removed last week causeing fuel prices to rise with 41%. Combined with the worldwide increase of food prices and an expected big hike in electricity prices next month, Malaysians are not a happy people right now.

This moment is an interesting time to be in Malaysia - not only for the ecnomic and political situation but also societal. The Indian and Chinese part of the population (making up almost 40% of the total population) is seeing the country transformed into a more Muslim-state, and the local Malay population (also called bumiputra's) gets advantages on all kinds of things: from favourable interest rates on mortgages to entry into government jobs and so on. At the same time, all population groups in Malaysia claim that the beauty of the country is that different ethnicities can live together peacefully. Yes, but only to a certain extent it seems. There's a lot of frustration hidden underneath that surface and it will be interesting to see how that will change in the coming years.

KL

After having spent 1,5 days in Kuala Lumpur so far, I've decided that this isn't Asia. There isn't any of the chaos, the weird looks, the tons and tons of people, the big differences in old & new, the lights and sounds that I am used to in random other Asian cities (Bangkok, Shanghai, Tokyo - to name a few).

Of course, it's also not Europe. Something in between, though I'm not sure what.

Or I've just been looking in the wrong places so far, I hope to discover that during the rest of the week.

Palm trees, palm trees, palm trees

That was pretty much all I saw while getting closer to the airport at Kuala Lumpur, and on the drive from the airport to my hotel. I'll be getting a closer look on Friday - when I'm visiting an oil palm plantation - which is what almost all of these palms are used for.

And also: my room is on the 20th floor and looks out straight to KL Tower and the Petronas Twin Towers! Pretty amazing view, pictures to follow of course.

Work starts tomorrow - last night was spent catching up with a Malaysian friend and his family who I met 13/4 years ago in Australia. Great way to get introduced to KL and Malaysian food, and of course to see an old friend again after 10 years. Today, more good food with a colleague and her family at lunch. A few work things that didn't go so great, which is why I'm now at a computer, but will be off to do more sightseeing soon.

Guidebooks

I guess you could say I'm a little bit addicted to guidebooks. Although I try to keep it simple - so when I'm just in a new city for a day or two I won't bother. And I try to borrow books from others if I'm really really broke.

But anyway - I bought a guide book to Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, because well - even if I'm there for work, I'm still there for six days which in my mind warrants the book (not that I've actually looked at it yet of course).

Except that I'm not actually in KL for six days.... out of the preliminary five day working schedule, I think I'm only spending 1,5 days in the city itself. Very excited, although to be fair I think meetings in the city for an extra day would be more useful workwise. I've been a good girl and suggested that to my colleagues as well. We'll see what happens.
But still - I really should've bought the full-on Malaysia guide apparently.