Air flights are not really travel. The only input from us has been to be walk down the gang plank ( air bridge ) , enter a tube , then eight hours later reverse to somewhere else. It’s the closest to teleportering . A blink, and we have arrived in a completely new environment ; that is once we have negotiated the final obstacles of border officials and taxi drivers ; our sole contribution to the change of scenery .
We had set off two days earlier , spent a night in the terminal ( airport hotel ) ; and now after another flight , when awakened in our new bed , the outlook couldn’t have been more different . On the 9th floor , surrounded by 20 storey tower blocks and the continuous noise of a major metropolis. KL ( Kuala Lumpur ) is a vibrant , bursting city . Certainly not at peace with anything , since with double digit growth it reinvents itself every ten years .
When we were first here 25 years ago , the tallest towers ( Petronas at 450m ) in the world were completed . Just to make sure they built two identical ones. Now , they are just finishing off another tower 50% taller ( Warisan Merdeka at 680 meters. ) . Surprising what you can do as a small country with lots of oil. But Dubai have more money and ambition ; so even this new tower is only two thirds the height of the Burj Dubai ( now renamed Burj Kalifa in deference to Abu Dhabi , who actually have most of the oil. ) .
It’s a strange existence living vertically , surrounded by hundreds doing the same , most on show . It’s not nice living behind a curtain all day , so many remain on display . It’s not a matter of exhibitionism , but rather merging into the crowd . Why would anyone choose to look at me , when there all those other windows. Certainly not an instinct followed in suburbia . In our apartment here in KL , I counted 100 others , all with a direct view of us ; and we are located in one of the least dense areas.
The view from the living room is in total contrast . There seems to be nothing but trees and jungle for a kilometre ; then with a view reminiscent of Central Park , the tower blocks seem to form a boundary wall to this greenness. The reason for this special view , is that this gap is inhabited by individual houses , with gardens and road sides full of tropical trees. Our vista is mainly tree tops ; but google earth shatters the illusion that the space is jungle. When google maps first arrived in KL , it was perceived a threat to security by seeing sensitive areas . The American Embassy was in a very built up area , but on google maps it was replaced by a square of jungle. It stood our even more from its neighbours on the map ; there must be a reason why buildings rather jungle weren’t used to hide the reality !
From giant towers , to never ending shopping malls , KL advertises its wealth and the transformation over recent years . Forty some years ago a local Chinese business man, with incredible foresight and vision bought a 350 acre redundant tin mine , lots below ground level . The centre is now a series of theme parks , surrounded by a city of 200,00 people complete with universities and hospitals. We attended the Christmas lighting ceremony in the main hotel’s glitzy foyer . Drinks and canapés were followed by the finest sea food platter at Gordon Ramsay’s latest restaurant . KL is firmly “ First World “.
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