KUALA LUMPUR

I have visited KL a couple of times, the first in 2010 during a long six-month trip to South East Asia and the second time in 2014 for another six-month trip again in that area although in India rather than the Philippines, but both with Malaysia and Thailand in common. I immediately liked KL for various reasons related to the fact that it is a beautiful, very green city with very tall trees that limit its central avenues, parks, greenhouses full of orchids and other flowers, then modern buildings, skyscrapers like the Petronas Tower two twin towers all made of steel and glass joined by a bridge about a quarter of the height and where you can go up to see the panorama, but the ticket costs too much, instead it is better to go up to the Menara Tower 421 meters high and the ticket for which is much less Dear. There is the central area of Bukit Bintang which is very lively and pedestrian-friendly with many bars and restaurants, shops and the Pavillon Mall, a large shopping centre. Petalink Street in Chinatown is very lively with a market and many backpacker hotels where I have always found comfortable and cheap rooms. Then there is the colonial part around Merdeka Square which has the building of a polo club, the nearby Masjid Jamek mosque and a huge lawn. There are very rich shopping centers and long elevated tunnels for pedestrians so that they do not interfere with the traffic below Outside KL you go to see a temple inside the very high Batu cave which can be reached by metro and then climbing a high staircase with a very tall yellow statue of an Indian god. Unfortunately, at the edges of the stairs there are also mischievous and thieving monkeys that you have to try to dodge. There are elevated tunnels for pedestrians so they do not interfere with traffic below I went on an excursion to the beautiful new capital Putrajaya with beautiful institutional buildings, palaces of beautiful architecture across an artificial lake and a river crossed by a bridge that replicates an ancient one in Baghdad. Another excursion to the splendid colonial city of Malacca, a former Dutch and then Portuguese colony which has preserved buildings from the brick era and Catholic churches, a very rich Chinatown with many Buddhist temples and very lively, a river which can be crossed by boat to see the little houses along the banks frescoed with beautiful graffiti. After Bangkok and Singapore, Kuala Lumpur is the Asian city that I like most.

che si raggiunge salendo un'alta scalinata con una statua altissima color giallo di un dio indiano.

Michael Elkan