Kuala Lumpur was an exiting experience. The city is modern and the malesians are working hard to make it exactly that. I'd never seen a muslim metropol before. I came in just after the Formula 1 Grand Prix there and it was somehow amusing to see this finnish driver Kovalainen's face above the driveway.
I liked the architecture around.
The new and old.
But somehow malesians can be quite rude sometimes. I don't know why. Somebody said, that it's because they see the western world as a place with lesser morals and to them there's nothing between good and bad. And if somethings not good, then it must be bad. It's said that in KL the different ethnic groups live in harmony together. But its relative. Its more like a silence saying "Dont interfere with our business and we won't interfere with yours". So its somewhat like an iron curtain hanging between the different ethnic groups here. The Malays want to pretend the whole country is malay ad thus opressing the chinese and indian communities that have been here since anchient times. So the different groups have a silent tension going on. The chinese and indians have to pay more tax and hire a quota of malays. The Malays run the government and have all the governmental jobs, the chinese run their trades and the indians typically run restaurants, manufacture textiles and trade gems and jewellery. And keep to them selves. Suprisingly enough there's also pressure for voting for a certain pary, because somehow they can trace who voted for who. Who knows how.. I heard the ethnics call the malays "pigs". Well, who knows?
I like the typical malay though. They're decent hospitable folks that don't drink and who take care of their families and make their prayers five times a day.
I bumped into this aussie girl I'd met on Langkawi before and met her cousin. We had a really nice night out finding a deli along the way and I went crazy seeing all these molded cheeses jumpung around drooling and ended up buying a bunch and some grapes and crackers -and wine. Then we proceeded to enjoy the catch up on a rooftop overlooking the city. A beautyfull night indeed.
The backpacker truly seem to run into each other along the trail, cuz' I also ran into these two brit girls and a canadian lad I'd met on the Cameron highlands and a german girl I'd allready met on Langkawi who'd hooked up with them.
Well after a hassle with the indonesian embassy here I decided that maybe one month in Indonesia has gotta do. There was almost a riot of somekind at the embassy.. I guess they were all relly eager to get something from the officials, but with a huge crowd there nothing was progressing and it was quite a circus. You can't get the visa without a return ticket and it's impossible to get a ferryticket in advance.. But my passion in Indonesia was to go to Flores to see the Komodo dragon and going through Sumatra, Java, Bali, Lombok and Sumbawa to reach it was way too ambituous for only a months round. Indonesia is HUGE, by the way. So once again I decided to change my plans (well my mission was to go to the south side of the equator, so it all fits in) But I'd imagined to do this by taking a ferry to southern Sumatra and in the end this was not going to happen. So once again I decided that the airplane would do the trick eve though I really don't like flyin that much. Its not about the flying itself, but the lack of the feeling of travel and feeling so disoriented just stepping out of the plane somewhere totally different.. Maybe if I flew myself or with a slower plane.. So I booked myself on to Airasia to fly to Bali and back and since there was an offer on flying to Bangkok I decided to book myself all the way back there all this would cost me about 90€ -pretty cheap I might add. Well I had a week on me to wait for the flight so I decided to pop by Melacca and visit this group of people studying in the Singapore National Univercity..
And yes, its the Petronas Towers.
Hmm.. Ihope this post doesn't sound too negative.. I kinda' like Malaysia. Especially the Malay/Indonesian cuisine in my opinion is delicious. Rice with ginger, coconut, curry and chili.. Chiken and beef.. Mmm..
Today I ate all this and had water and coffee and the total was 4RM (just under one €).
I like it!
So I decided to visit Melacca because of it's historical past.
Afterall It had been a significant tradepoint between india and china as monsoonwinds brought sailships in turns from the east and west. Well, the days of it's past glory were long gone and the growth of Georgetown in Penang and Singapore had long ago diminished its growth. But it used to be a mighty kingdom before the portugese and later the dutch came in. In the end it was probably the Dutch with their monopoly taxing that drove the growth away as in the end there were only dutch ships floating about in the harbor and later the brits, who at the time of conquering melacca had allready established itself in Georgetown and Singapore. 
The town is full of museums and I visited a museum of architecture, which proved to be interesting with traditional and modern Malaysian architecture. Also the maritime museum was nice as it shone light on the past glory of the place. A part of the museum was built inside a replica of a portugese ship.
I never thought the space inside could be so vast.
The guesthouse "Shira's GH" I ended up staying in was a lucky strike as the lady keeping it was the nicest ever offering me food for free and baking cookies -and always being so nice and genuinly interested in your wellbeing. They also had a really nice rooftop where I hung my hammock..
