A birthday coincidence in Kuala Lumpur

The day we made it to Kuala Lumpur was a special one – the 18th April, my birthday. Even though the plane was late, our Couchsurfing host Charles was so kind to wait for us and drove us to his flat. We did not tell him about my special day, because that might have seemed a bit demanding. But anyway, Charles made my birthday a great one. In the evening we went out for dinner to a typical Malaysian street food market.

Malaysia is a very multicultural country: about two third of the population are Muslim Malayans, twenty percent are Chinese, a bit less than ten percent are of Indian origin. It is a peculiarity of the country that traditionally the minorities are economically much more powerful than the rest, but over the last decade the Malayans have caught up, mostly due to government initiatives. Nonetheless, the distinct ethnicities have almost always lived together peacefully since the independence from the UK in 1957. We really think that we could still learn from the coexistence of all these different groups, because culture or religion does not prevent them to behave in a respectful and tolerant manner.

In KL, there are even more Chinese and Indians, so the city is in a simple charming way international. When we say international, do not think of westernized, like Shanghai or comparable cities. Internationality does not mean modernity here, the city does not have to prove its multinational character – it is simply rooted in the country’s tradition. English is extremely widespread, not only the educated ones speak it. So even though we were new to the city, we never felt alien or strange, but in a certain way we felt at home from the very first moment.

And of course the multi-ethnicity enriches the local cuisine a lot. We had thought the variety of Chinese food would have been unsurpassed …. how wrong we were! When on our first evening Charles introduced us into the Malaysian gastronomy, he could recommend us nearly everything. After our enthusiasm about China, it is hard to find words in order to describe our increased exaltation about the creativity and mix of Indian, Chinese and Malaysian tastes. Unfortunately, the size of our stomachs formed a natural limit and hampered us to try everything offered at this street market. But luckily, the culinary adventure continued during our whole stay in Kuala Lumpur and surpassed itself time and again.

After this delicious dinner, Charles took us to down-town to see “KL City Center” by night, where we walked through the illuminated streets and marvelled at the modern skyline, with the diamond-like “Petronas Twin Towers” as highlight. Admiring the impressive height and symmetric beauty of the former tallest building of the world, I said to myself “what a wonderful birthday”.

However, the best was still to come. Our host Charles turned out to be extremely helpful and full of ideas to make our stay most enjoyable. Furthermore, he did not just recommend us where to go and what to see, but he accompanied us to all the places and we did the activities together. Thanks to him, we discovered many more areas in and around KL and learned lots of things about Malaysia, which we would never have known if we had been on our own.

Since Charles is a landscape designer, it was great that he showed us “Putrajaya”, the administrative capital of Malaysia. Putrajaya is a totally planned city which was built and founded in the late 1990s. Although Kuala Lumpur remains the national capital and financial center, the Malaysian government and federal administration are nowadays seated there. While walking through the town and visiting some edifices, Charles explained to us how the artificial lake was flooded, outlined how the streets and parks were aligned and told us many facts about the Islamic and Malaysian influenced architecture.

The next day, we explored KLCC by foot, seeing the National Museum, the National Mosque, the Museum of Islamic Arts (nice to be inside during a terrific thunderstorm), the Bazaar and touristic China Town. The people here are a bit more reluctant than they were in China, but they are very polite, calm and helpful. After the noisy Chinese traffic, where people try to drive using the horn instead of the motor, it was a pleasure to be in such a quiet city. So we think the best word to describe Malaysians is perhaps “pleasant”. The city itself is really green and tropical. Surely, it is hot, but on the other hand, every evening is one of these warm, magic summer nights we only have so few in Europe. However, one disadvantage in these nearly perfect five days remains: KL is probably the most pedestrian-hostile city in the world. There are just a few side-walks, public transport outside the small center has a frequency of two per hour and to get to the station you have to pass enclosed and guarded neighbourhoods. If the car industry got the chance to design a city, probably it would look exactly like KL.

On another day, we went (by car, fortunately) to a nearby jungle, watched at hundreds of crazy plants and trees and were almost killed by a 2 meters long lizard. The most exciting part was when we walked over a shaky canopy-walk and enjoyed the super green landscape from above, despite the hot and humid climate. Afterwards, we drove to the “Batu Caves”, a holy Hindu site inside a stalactite cavern, which additionally is invaded by many hungry monkeys. And this was the place where we should find out the funny coincidence indicated in this post’s title: Charles also had his birthday on the 18th and also did not tell us anything on our arrival such that no embarrassing situation might arise. That’s why the climax of our stay became even more special: we drove home, took a shower and changed clothes in record-breaking 7 minutes and went to a concert of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. Attending such a world-class performance left us speechless. With Paul Goodwin as conductor and Alexei Ogrintchouk on the oboe, we had – among others – the pleasure to listen to Stravinsky’s diverse “Pulcinella Suite”, Marcello’s baroque “Oboe Concerto in D minor” and Mozart’s majestic “Haffner Symphony No. 35 in D major”. What a marvellous way to celebrate our double birthday – with a small delay but this time knowing it.

And to conclude our time in Kuala Lumpur, we took the expensive German transrapid to the airport, remembering Edmund Stoiber’s famous “10 minutes” speech ….

Dear Charles, “terima kasih”!

5 thoughts on “A birthday coincidence in Kuala Lumpur

  1. Très beau texte ! Et je suis très Content que tu aies pu assister à un “vrai” concert avec de la “vraie” musique pour ton anniversaire !
    Matthieu

  2. Bonsoir Thomas,
    je ‘réponds’ à ton dernier article seulement que maintenant. Désolé… Mais on a tout lu avec plein d’attention avec maman. Tes talents non seulement en anglais mais surtout ta façon de raconter avec humour et aussi d’analyser ce que tu vois m’impressionnent toujours….
    Il y a quelques semaines, on te disait que tes photos, c’était comme à La Réunion, aujourd’hui là on te dit que les gens dífférents qui vivent ensemble pacifiquement, ça aussi c’est comme à La Réunion.
    Sinon, les mosquées là-bas, c’est propre, c’est nickel..!!..
    Et l’histoire de ton anniversaire et de celui de Charles est incroyable.
    Merci de tes récits — et des photos. C’est toujours toi le plus beau..!!.. Steven va en avoir assez que j’écrive ça tout le temps :-)

  3. Hallo ihr Zwei, euch hat KL wohl ebenso gefallen wie uns. Wir waren impressed. Guter Bericht, schöne Fotos. Als wir übrigen da waren, war gerade Wahl. Leider ist der Alte auch der Neue. Einige Malaien sprachen von Wahlbetrug, teilweise auch die Presse… Aber wo treibt ihr euch rum??? In KL enden eure Berichte. Wir sid gerade noch in Indonesien. Wir fliegen in 10 Tagen über Singapur zurück. Dann geht es bald ab nach Korsika… Euch noch eine schöne und vor allem sichere Reise
    Herzliche Grüße Arno+Gitti

  4. Hi Steffen & Thomas!

    I would be hosting u guys in KL if not because of me reading your CS request late. Sorry for that. I am so glad that both of you enjoyed your stay in KL. If by any chance both of you are coming to KL again, do let me know and I will host you and bring you to other places. At least, I can also brush up my very rusty French. Hahah. Hope to hear from you guys again and enjoy your journey. Travel to as many places as you can while you are still young! ;)