Route of the Ancient Traders
Day 39
M/S Nautica
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Showers - 86 Degrees
It was another rainy day in Malaysia, docked in Port Klang, 45 minutes outside of Kuala Lumpur.
Cyprus has one kind of divided capital, Nicosia split between Cypriot and Turkish control. Malaysia has another. KL remains the seat of parliament and the financial center of the country, but the seat of government and the Federal Administrative Centre were moved to the planned city of Putrajaya in 1999.
Kuala Lumpur would like to compete with its neighbor and former sister, Singapore, as a center of international commerce, but they aren't there yet. The heart of the city is Independence Square, the former playing field of the Royal Selangor Club. The bus, and the rain, stopped long enough for a visit to this civic square and festival grounds, but despite the moniker of grandeur, it's really just a muddy field.
Our tour of the city continued to the icon of modern Malaysia, the Petronas Towers. Completed in 1998, these were the tallest buildings in the world until Taipei 101 surpassed them in 2004, but they remain the world's tallest twin towers, connected by a sky bridge on the 41st floor.
The towers were designed by a team led by Cesar Pelli with traditional Islamic art and geometry, reflecting the Malaysian Muslim majority. A cross-section of the towers is a riff on the shape of the Rub el Hizb, an ancient symbol from Islamic literature.
The Petronas Towers represent a mid-point between the boxy sky scrapers of the American era of dominance, and the more graceful towers of modern international design, like the Burj Dubai. The towers eschew the "less is more" aesthetic for an elaborate, complex, highly adorned design. More solid than airy, but still full of character, the towers are both beautiful and beguiling, like a Malaysian woman shrouded in a burkha. The Petronas Towers are iconic, unrivaled as the symbol of Kuala Lumpur and vastly exceeding the fame of the oil company that is their primary tenant and namesake.
In the base of the Petronas Towers is the Suria Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC), a modern six-level shopping mall. Yes, we came half way around the world to spend the afternoon...in a mall. But, few other malls in the world provide access to this kind of architecture. Besides, it's raining. What else were we going to do?
Finished exploring, we followed the longest line of locals to the most authentic lunch we could find. The reviews for Madam Kwan's are mixed and we are under no illusions that this represents the best of Malay cooking, but it was outstanding for mall food. The menu here is inspired by the "hawker" street food tradition in Southeast Asia. We started with very good spicy prawn stuffed crispy wontons. Chicken curry was spicy and rich, luscious dark meet in a mostly familiar curry with a hint of something we didn't recognize. The clear favorite was beef rendang, a sweet and flavorful pot roast braise of beef in coconut milk and spices. The liquids reduce as the beef falls apart resulting in a thick ragu of stringy-tender beef. Awesome!!! Char Kuay Teow was a late add to round out the meal, wet, flat rice noodles, stir fried with meat, scallions, and beans prouts.
KL wasn't exactly disappointing, but it wasn't inspiring either. The Petronas Towers set the tone, but the band hasn't fully formed. Not yet what it wants to be, Kuala Lumpur is still a work in progress.
Next Stop: Singapore, Singapore and Disembarkation
No comments:
Post a Comment