We are only staying in Kuala Lumpur for a short while, but so far we are liking everything we see! Here are our first thoughts.
People
Malay is the official language (it’s a bit like Indonesian), but everyone also learns English in school. People of Chinese descent speak Chinese as well, and those from India speak their own native languages. Malay people (especially religious ones) are increasingly learning Arabic.
Speaking of which, Malaysia is predominantly Muslim, but it is a secular country. About two-thirds of the population practice (Sunni) Islam. You can hear the call to prayer in most parts of the centre of Kuala Lumpur, and mosques abound. But at least at first glance, we do not get the impression that it is a religious city. At least not in the way that, say, Istanbul is. (Both are officially secular countries…)
This may be, in part, because of the large percentage of the population who are of Chinese and Indian origin. Their presence stems from colonial history, but these days they are very much integrated into Malaysia. Indeed, in many ways they make it the modern city that it is.
That said, however, Article 153 of the Constitution decrees ‘special rights’ for Malays, including guaranteed seats in corporations and governments and positions at universities. This has the effect of limiting how far non-Malays can rise in industry, education, or politics. Not surprisingly, perhaps, this provision, which has been around since before the country’s independence, remains a hot-button issue.
Layout of Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur looks and feels like a big city, which we like. We happen to be staying close to the centre. So we are surrounded by skyscrapers. And we are finding the architecture to be interesting and attractive! Right near us are some very famous towers, but there are all kinds of other interesting buildings around. And more are going up every day. We’ve noticed that nearly all of these big buildings tend to have something distinctive, either in structure or design. They repay repeated observation.
As a big city, Kuala Lumpur also has lots of highways. Perhaps too many. While highways allow for easy access throughout this compact city, they – unfortunately – also make it difficult to walk around. We have more than once found ourselves unexpectedly on a highway. Or taking a forty-minute detour in order to get from right here to just over there. Even worse, some of the access ramps and fly-overs have ruined the neighbourhoods where they have appeared.
Other Features of Kuala Lumpur
On a happier note, there are also lots of green spaces in the city. There are some very large parks, but small bits of greenery are also well-integrated into the fabric of the city.
On the positive side, we’ve been impressed with the public transportation system, especially the metro. It goes pretty much everywhere and is very inexpensive. But we are finding the fare system a bit odd. You can buy a card with money on it but it’s mostly of use for long periods, so it makes no sense for us. What we have to do is buy round tokens. You tell the machine what stop you want to go to and it produces a round plastic token. To enter the gates, you hold the token over a reader; to exit, you deposit the token in a slot and the gates open. But here’s the catch: the token works only for the stop you told the machine you wanted. There are no zones. We ran into trouble by buying a few at a time, only to learn that we had to use all of them at the station where we bought them!
Malls
In our previous life, we weren’t huge fans of malls. But in Asia – or at least here in Kuala Lumpur – malls are king! And Kuala Lumpur has quite a number of them. The one closest to us has a movie theatre, a gigantic food court, several fancy restaurants, major department stores of two nations (UK and Japan), grocery stores, a car exhibition, play areas for kids, and dozens of stores we’ve heard of plus dozens we haven’t. Our mall is at the base of the Petronas towers, the largest twin towers in the world, and outside there is a fountain with a light and music show in the evenings. One of the restaurants has (we are reliably told) some of the best dim sum in town – more on this soon, as you can imagine! We have ended up at Suria KLCC, our local mall, roughly once a day so far. But that’s just one of the malls with easy walking distance; really, they are everywhere.
So those are our first impressions. We like it here, and while we enjoyed the quiet vibe of Vanuatu, we are happy to be surrounded again by the sights and sounds of a big city!
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