I really don’t know where to start this post… so I’ll just start from the beginning. Although many airports in bigger cities are located quite far from the center in case of KL it’s about 60km and at least an hour ride. During this time we saw quite much of the city and surroundings. Near the city there were just acres of palm tree plantations related to Malaysia being the biggest palm oil exporter in the world. But when we neared the city we were astonished by how many skyscrapers there are in KL and nearby locations. And if in other cities I have gazed my eyes upon most of the skyscrapers are some sort of business buildings in here they are mostly residential flats. Some 40-50 stories high with hundreds and hundreds of apartments in them. We’d never seen anything like that before. And in downtown KL it’s the same story. Although it’s known mostly by the famous Petronas twin-towers there are dozens and dozens of same kind of skyscrapers everywhere! I’ve been to Manhattan and similar places but for some reason in KL it really stands out and quite often you find yourself looking above at the heights of these giants. Plus it seems that they are constantly building even more of these, each higher than the previous.
Downtown Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur really can’t be compared. Not to make any harm to BK but the latter is much more cleaner, glamorous and business-like. There is no litter around and everything seems to be tidy. There are several huge parks and forests to go and have a walk and enjoy the jungle in the middle of the city. And when we were staying in Bangkok I wrote about huge shopping malls but KL is on another level! Kuala Lumpur is one of the leading cities in the world for tourism and shopping and it really shows out. 3 out of 10 worlds biggest shopping malls are located in here and the rest are not much smaller. Today we went to 2 of them and it’s quite impossible to describe the scale of these, you just have to see it with your own eyes. Probably the most high-end of these is the Pavilion KL with over 700 (!) stores and every known brand in the world represented. You can see names like Armani, Gucci, Chanel, Valentino, Roberto Cavalli, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Versace etc everywhere! Of course they are supported with Lamborghini’s, Porsche’s and Bentley’s driving around on the streets… And they have quite a Christmas madness here. I made a picture so you’d get a glimpse of what’s going on 🙂
Our accommodation is located in dead-center of everything. Biggest shopping malls, markets, nightlife streets, food courts, parks, twin-towers and everything else are just a small walk away. Which is good since we already got to comfortable with riding a scooter for nearly 2 months in Phuket and Langkawi. The building that our apartment is located is not the newest one but everything you could ask for is provided. Huge living room/area shared with 2 other apartments, a balcony, big kitchen and so one. We have also a swimming pool and a small gym on the first floor but our host was so kind to provide us a free pass for the whole 13 days to the well-equipped gym located just at the next building! There’s also a top-notch pool and even a sauna with proper Harvia heater! So there will be a gym and relaxation time planned for each day for our stay in here :).
In tomorrow’s post I’ll share our Langkawi budget and also the second video of our stay on that beautiful island 🙂
All the best!
Lauri
