Last whirl around KL
Today we went around Kuala Lumpur one more time. Eunice's brother picked us up and we drove to Thean Hou Temple, a Buddhist temple. We had fun walking around, kneeling in front of the Buddha, getting our fortunes told, and washing with holy water.
I wanted to go to the National Museum, so we got dropped off there. It was interesting learning about all the different cultures in Malaysia, like the Chinese, the Indians, the Malay, and the many indigenous tribes.
In the evening we were picked up by Eunice's friends, Siew Li (her former coworker) and her husband Chin. We went out to dinner at a famous place in KL, Jalan Alor. We had LOTS of yummy food! We even ate a shellfish that I had never seen before. Its shell looks like bamboo. After dinner we walked along Bintang Walk, a part of town with lots of restaurants, shopping, pubs. We bought durian fruit off the street. Most people think it is stinky, but I think it's ok. :)
After dinner we drove about an hour out of KL to visit Putrajaya, Malaysia's government city. Chin explained the city to me this way, and I agree: it is brand new (about 4 years old), very stylish and futuristic, but a complete waste of money. We drove over a bridge that had been built BEFORE the man-made lake was constructed underneath it! The city had huge buildings, wide streets, large grass lawns... but nobody was there. The city was completely empty, except for a few lit windows and some tourists wandering around. There is nothing to do in Putrajaya at night. It only exists for governmental functions during the day.
Putrajaya is one example of what I like to think of as the "Malaysian inferiority complex." Malaysians are proud of their country and their cultural heritage. They only recently began to modernize (about 50 years ago), and they don't want to be seen as savages "living in the jungle" (to use Eunice's words). So, to try to distinguish themselves, they pour a lot of money into constructing huge, impressive monuments: skyscrapers (KL Tower and the Petronas Twin Towers being the most conspicuous examples), huge shopping complexes, huge theme parks and hotels; Putrajaya, a huge modern city; Cyberjaya, a huge IT city, etc. All around you can see boasts of "we have the largest so and so in the world/Asia." The Malaysian Tourism agency pushes an ideal image of Malaysia as "the heart of Asia, where everyone smiles." They show videos of beautiful native people smiling and dancing, with perfect white teeth. But obviously the whole country isn't like this. Not everybody is happy all the time. A significant number of its people live in poverty, and barely have enough money to pay the bills. Money that could be better spent giving people clean drinking water or building the economy is instead wasted on an unnecessary government city and propaganda.
That's my point of view anyway. In Eunice's view, the money is not wasted, because these landmarks make Malaysia stand out and attract tourists. Tourism makes up a large percentage of Malaysia's income.
So, after Putrajaya, we stopped for dessert at a famous restaurant, which translated is called "Remember to Eat!" We had mango ice, honeydew ice, sesame seed glutinous rice ball (kind of like mochi), yam cake, "ju cheong fan" (a kind of thick noodle wrapped with meat), and more delicacies that I can't remember.
I wanted to go to the National Museum, so we got dropped off there. It was interesting learning about all the different cultures in Malaysia, like the Chinese, the Indians, the Malay, and the many indigenous tribes.
In the evening we were picked up by Eunice's friends, Siew Li (her former coworker) and her husband Chin. We went out to dinner at a famous place in KL, Jalan Alor. We had LOTS of yummy food! We even ate a shellfish that I had never seen before. Its shell looks like bamboo. After dinner we walked along Bintang Walk, a part of town with lots of restaurants, shopping, pubs. We bought durian fruit off the street. Most people think it is stinky, but I think it's ok. :)
After dinner we drove about an hour out of KL to visit Putrajaya, Malaysia's government city. Chin explained the city to me this way, and I agree: it is brand new (about 4 years old), very stylish and futuristic, but a complete waste of money. We drove over a bridge that had been built BEFORE the man-made lake was constructed underneath it! The city had huge buildings, wide streets, large grass lawns... but nobody was there. The city was completely empty, except for a few lit windows and some tourists wandering around. There is nothing to do in Putrajaya at night. It only exists for governmental functions during the day.
Putrajaya is one example of what I like to think of as the "Malaysian inferiority complex." Malaysians are proud of their country and their cultural heritage. They only recently began to modernize (about 50 years ago), and they don't want to be seen as savages "living in the jungle" (to use Eunice's words). So, to try to distinguish themselves, they pour a lot of money into constructing huge, impressive monuments: skyscrapers (KL Tower and the Petronas Twin Towers being the most conspicuous examples), huge shopping complexes, huge theme parks and hotels; Putrajaya, a huge modern city; Cyberjaya, a huge IT city, etc. All around you can see boasts of "we have the largest so and so in the world/Asia." The Malaysian Tourism agency pushes an ideal image of Malaysia as "the heart of Asia, where everyone smiles." They show videos of beautiful native people smiling and dancing, with perfect white teeth. But obviously the whole country isn't like this. Not everybody is happy all the time. A significant number of its people live in poverty, and barely have enough money to pay the bills. Money that could be better spent giving people clean drinking water or building the economy is instead wasted on an unnecessary government city and propaganda.
That's my point of view anyway. In Eunice's view, the money is not wasted, because these landmarks make Malaysia stand out and attract tourists. Tourism makes up a large percentage of Malaysia's income.
So, after Putrajaya, we stopped for dessert at a famous restaurant, which translated is called "Remember to Eat!" We had mango ice, honeydew ice, sesame seed glutinous rice ball (kind of like mochi), yam cake, "ju cheong fan" (a kind of thick noodle wrapped with meat), and more delicacies that I can't remember.