Anyway, Christmas was duly celebrated over a busy weekend around mid December, taking in a variety of parties, dinners, pantomimes and even a carol service or two. In fact one of the more imaginative parties even included a carol service as well as a treasure hunt! However, while these were fun, we were all looking forward to our trip eastwards- a family Christmas present to ourselves.
Soma organising the children's choir- Carol Service at the British High Commission, Dar es Salaam
Soon enough, the day of departure dawned and by 5pm we are sitting on an Emirate airlines flight to Dubai. Fortunately for me, who, has travelled that particular leg about once a fortnight for the past few months, Emirates had finally got round to changing the TV schedules. Kieran had no such worries and settled down to the four hours of uninterrupted viewing he would never be allowed at home!
We finally arrived in Kuala Lumpur late on Christmas Eve. Time zones being what they are, we had left Dubai mid morning and, after only six hours of flying, landed at 9.30pm. After a long wait for baggage, we carried out a last search of our bags (I personally didn’t fancy getting hanged just because someone had planted some hash in our suitcase so got a little over paranoid). All the worry was pointless since, by the time we headed out, customs was empty anyway. An hour or so later, we finally drew up to our hotel.
The Traders Hotel is a lovely place- a five star hotel at three star prices. It is located directly opposite the Petronas Towers, a truly spectacular construction which is either the fourth or fifth tallest building in the world. What was most impressive was that each night, the towers were lit up and looked like a pair of colossal jewels, sparkling away. In fact, despite the fact that it was gone midnight by the time we got to bed, Kieran sat up for some time simply gazing out of his window at the towers. I know this probably had something to do with jetlag, it being only about 7pm back in Dar, but it’s a poetic image isn’t it!
The best view from any hotel room we've ever stayed in- the Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur
We spent about a week in Kuala Lumpur in total, two short stays in between a four day trip up to Penang. We emerged from four very deep sleeps around 9.30 Christmas morning. After the usual minute or two of trying to remember where and when we were, it all came flooding back- we were in Malaysia, we were jet lagged and oh my God there’s only an hour before they close breakfast! After a rushed breakfast, we set out to explore the city.
Kuala Lumpur is a truly beautiful, almost futuristic place. It is also a place of contrast where spectacular modern buildings stand side by side with beautiful green parks and busy, crowded Chinese and Indian quarters. As a result you have a city that both looks clean and spacious, yet also has the kind of character you might find in an older place. You might not get the dusty hustle and bustle we’ve been used to in Egypt or Tanzania, but that doesn’t mean you lose the sense of possibility- the feeling that the next dozy side street might just house a really special little restaurant or shop. If London is a step above Dar es Salaam or Cairo ,then Kuala Lumpur takes things even further. It has the futuristic luxury of Dubai but in contrast has a true sense of itself- it is a proper city rather than a sprawl of impressive buildings.
Perhaps it is the ethnic makeup of the country which has made KL what it is. The majority grouping is ethnic Malay, a predominantly Muslim community, with a Catholic minority. Added to this are substantial Chinese and Indian minorities. As a result amid the big shopping centres you can also find a busy Chinatown and an Indian quarter. This made for interesting sightseeing and the kind of culinary experiences which blew my diet to bits! I asked Kieran what he enjoyed most about his holiday and food came second on the list (new toys came first naturally!) Luckily for us our stomachs have been well trained in various parts of Africa and India so, unsurprisingly, we had our first evening meal in a small restaurant somewhere in Chinatown- a meal for which even Kieran managed to use chopsticks!
Kieran tucking into dinner on Petaling Street- Kuala Lumpur. The chopsticks came out shortly afterwards!
One of the best things about Kuala Lumpur is that there is so much to do. In our week there we managed a bus tour of the city, dinner in the revolving restaurant of the Kuala Lumpur Tower and visits to an aquarium, an amusement park, and plenty of self improving museums! Actually one museum came as a real surprise to us all. The Petrosains museum, located in the Petronas Towers, is a museum related to the oil and gas industry- not perhaps the most exciting place one might imagine. We headed there to kill an hour or so on our last day and emerged many hours later blown away by the helicopter simulations, aeroplanes, dinosaurs and Formula 1 racing cars- all somehow connected to Petronas and its business. It sounds odd, but it seems to me that engineers just know how to make good museums- get a room, fill it with cool gadgets and watch the punters come!
After four days exploring the city, we headed back to the airport, this time to the domestic terminal for the short one hour flight up to Penang. Penang is both a state and an island, located a little to the north of Kuala Lumpur, on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. The state capital is Georgetown- the name perhaps giving a clue to exactly which imperial power spent a good while knocking around there. From what I could glean from various museum walls and a very helpful guidebook, Penang is little like Zanzibar in that it held a real strategic importance in past centuries. The Portuguese were the first western powers to take an interest in the place, naming the small island they used for water replenishment on their way to and from Goa “Pulo Pinaum”. The island was ruled for centuries by the Sultan of Kedah until the mid 18th Century when he ceded the island to the East India Company in exchange for British military assistance. The British naturally reneged on their part of the deal but retained the island nonetheless. Almost to rub it in, they agreed to pay the Sultan a small annual fee for the island- his descendants receive the princely sum of 18,000 ringgits per annum to this day!
Anyway, back to the present, or a very recent past at Kuala Lumpur airport. Although the flight was delayed (I get especially fed up and intolerant when the delay is longer than the flight itself so Soma had to placate me with a coffee!), we still managed to arrive before lunchtime. After checking into the hotel, we headed out to find some lunch and duly found it in a small restaurant which was apparently over 100 years old. Although the place had clearly seen better days, as evidenced by the combination of garden furniture and plastic stools which served as our table and chairs, the food was, as usual, magnificent. As with most of these restaurants, your table serves as your base but, other than that, you are fairly mobile. A waitress will come and take an order, but only for beer. The rest of the food is served at a number of small stalls- a little like a small food market.
Soma duly headed off to provide for her starving young and came back with a vast array of interesting dishes. We all worked our way through the dishes in that slow and considered manner that so characterises the eating habits of the Chubb male. Needless to say, two minutes later, three of us were looking at empty plates, watching poor old Soma just getting started on her lunch- we really need to start chewing our food this year!
For such a small place, there was a lot to see and do in Georgetown for the three days we were there. The first full day was devoted to sightseeing. This was a busy day in which we took in the best of the British, Chinese and Indian influences. We started our day at Fort Cornwallis, the very first British fortress built in Malaysia by its “founder” (from the British point of view at least) Sir Francis Light. The fort is pretty overgrown these days and, apart from an impressive collection of cannons had little to keep us there more than an hour. From there, we headed towards the Indian quarter, via my first Buddhist temple of the holiday, the Kuan Yin, Goddess of Mercy Temple. This is a small but very old temple, dating back to the 1800s and is dedicated to a daughter of a king who so wanted to become a Buddhist nun, she defied her father and was ultimately executed for her defiance. At her execution she prayed so as to take the mortal sin of the axeman onto herself and thus descended into Hell. She was so good in Hell that she transformed the place into another heaven. She was taken out of Hell so as to return the place to its previous state, providing the justice required for wrongdoers.
Some of the biggest incense sticks we'd ever seen- outside the Goddess of Mercy Temple, Georgetown, Penang
Although old, the temple is still very popular. Outside was a proliferation of traders and some of the largest incense sticks any of us had ever seen. We bought some smaller ones and made a few offerings- Kieran in particular got very Buddhist all of a sudden!
A one hour bus ride out of Georgetown, to the base of Penang Hill, took us to an altogether different temple. As with the Goddess of Mercy Temple, the Kek Lok Si temple is also devoted to Kuan Yin. This temple, however, is one of the largest in South East Asia, and, although it was started back in 1890, is still partly in construction. Interestingly, this is a temple that absorbs both Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, with imagery from both Burma and China found there. Most spectacular, though, was the 30 metre high statue of Kuan Yin who looks out over the island in a way reminiscent of Christ the Redeemer in Rio.
Kek Lok Si Temple
The newly completed status of Kuan Yin at Kek Lok Si temple, Penang
A couple of days later found us back at the base of Penang Hill, this time for a try at getting on the funicular railway to the top. We’d actually tried the previous day but upon getting there at 1.30pm, found that the first available tickets were not until 5.30pm. This time we were there just before 8am. We got tickets and boarded an almost empty funicular. Apparently, the problems only start at about 9am when the hoards of tourists from the cruise liners make it ashore and block book the rest of the day. Fortunately we were at the top of the hill before they’d even woken up! Sadly, our hopes of getting a panoramic view of the island were dashed by the equally beautiful morning mist. The top of the hill, seemed like a little world of its own with a small village, a little Hindu temple and a few curious monkeys all we really had for company. However, nice as it was to escape the heat and humidity, we had to get back on the car and down to civilisation. One of the most important aspects of civilisation being breakfast, we walked over to a nearby street cafe and tucked into a few plates of dimsum.
A rare sight- three Brits happy to see snow this winter. Soma and the boys at the snow park in Dubai
From that moment on, our direction was really homewards. We had a fine few days back in Kuala Lumpur- shopping for luxury items such as Rolexes, Breitlings and Patek Philippe watches, all at $20 each. After a further few days in Dubai, it was with a surprisingly heavy heart that we headed back to Dar es Salaam and a parallel world of power cuts, cockroaches, heat and dust. Actually, we’ve been back a week or so now and after a tough few days battling the cockroaches, we’re happy again. However, the world of possibility and excitement offered up by Malaysia remains a happy memory fixed in all of our minds.
