Pictures from Malaysia: Johor Bahru and Kualalumpur

After spending some time in Singapore, we decided to also go to Malaysia. So we did, for 3 days.

Malaysia is like the older, shabbier, poorer version of Singapore. Malaysians in general aspire their country becomes Singapore, while some are jealous of Singapore's achievements.

This photo on the right was taken in Johor, which is Malaysia's second-largest city and borders Singapore.

A place to eat on our way to KL(that's what everyone calla Kualalumpur) It was impressive because this is such a better option to our highway bhattis. And take note, it has tens of outlets, sometimes several of them competing with each other on the same items.

I had on of my best highway-meals here. As much as I like Malekhu's alu chop, it's time to change the system.

An outlet in the above-mentioned place. I was impressed how hygienic everything was, despite being in the middle of nowhere and everything.

The buses parked for lunch. Those buses running on highways are monstrous, unlike anything I had ever seen. They are air-conditioned, though I did not find them as comfortable as I had hoped.

I have included two angles of the same building for the effect. The building on the second picture has air conditioners more than double the number of windows it has. It does make sense though--why would you want windows in a really hot place if you can have ACs.





I assume they have some other form of ventilation for these rooms. When a floor has zero windows and 8 ACs for probably six rooms, you have to wonder what the inhabitants would do if the rooms needed ventilation. ACs can be used as ventilations, but they are ineffective and really slow.

Maybe the other side of the building has more windows? For the sake of those living in the rooms, I really hope so.

The KL-tower, the tallest freestanding structure in Malaysia. From the top of the tower, even the Patronas towers look kind-of small.

The lift that takes to the top of the tower claims to be 'one of the fastest of its kind in the world'. It's doubtful because a lot of similar buildings making claims like that, some of which are a lot more outrageous.

The next four pictures are taken from the top of KL tower. The topmost deck of the tower is a restaurant--a very, very expensive one at that, so we were at the second(or was it third?)-highest deck of the tower. From that vantage point, everything else looked tiny in comparison. For a moment, I lost my sense of scale and imagined KL to be not very different from Kathmandu.

....Till I saw the Petronas towers. Granted, even the topmost masts of the towers were below us, but still they were almost thrice as tall as any other building in KL. A very childish fascination got into me, and I started counting the storeys. I had reached to 21 when I started feeling dizzy. It was then I got the idea how tall the Petronas towers really were, and how high we--above even the topmost point of the towers--were. I had to sit down on the floor for a moment to regain my balance and composure.

The KL Tower garden. It had a few other attractions besides the observation deck, but they were all clichéd and not worth mentioning at all.

The actual Petronas Towers. So friikin' cool, yeah? It's hard to convey their scale, even to those who work/live in tall buildings, so all I could say was--they are really, really, really tall.

Made me wonder how tall the Burj Khalifa must really be...

OMG, apparently, reeeaaaallly huge... found this picture comparing heights--khalifa is almost double the height of Petronas towers
http://www.chetanbhawani.com/images/B/burj-compare.gif

The monorail in KL. I was sort of getting tired of seeing trains without wheels in Singapore. I was expecting to see one in KL. No such luck--the only train we rode was this monorail in downtown KL. I almost got lost there.

The food I had at this place gave me stomach ache, and after going there, I felt at home in Malaysia. This place is at the cablecar station on the way to Genting. I also saw lots of flies here, which reminded me more of home than anything had done until then. It was like being somewhere in Kurintar--waiting for the cablecar while eating food that might give you stomach ache, and fighting with flies for your right to your food.