Malaysia..my project trip in Asia
Finally, back at it again! I was away for 3 weeks in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for one of my mobile projects. After the trip, I took my vacations and holidays and stayed away from anything I consider hard work (Yes, blogging may fall into one of the hard work category). I have been cooking this blog in mind for a while, but just the effort it would take to select a couple of photos from the huge batch, post them, and embed them on the blog – kept me away from writing anything at all.
So back to Malaysia. What a country! It has a unique blend of Asian culture and modern infrastructures and entertainments. I was surprised to see how good everyone was in speaking English and the writings everywhere on the city is also in English. They even write native Malay in English. It helps that they have a good mix of original Malays with Chinese and Indian immigrants. We all know the weather is nice and hot in Asia, but the fall/winter time I went was the perfect conditions with temperatures around 25 C.
Public transportation is really sophisticated in KL with a mix of buses, subway, monorails, express trains, etc. Some of the shopping malls were huge, even much larger than what I am used to seeing in Toronto. I could not think of anything from Canada that was not there, including the fast foods.
Because I was busy on the weekdays, we could not really venture outside of KL too much. I really would love to check out Penang and some other beach areas, but I guess that will have to wait for the next time. However, we did get a chance to visit Genting, where you take World’s longest cable car (over 4 Km) to go up 6000 feet high. You get casinos, varieties of hotels, and even a theme park when you go up there. It was an awesome day, I mean how many times can you be on a roller coaster on top of a mountain with clouds going through you.
I have to give a big shout out to Pan Pacific hotel near KLIA Airport. The hotel was beautiful, had all the facilities I could think of and their hospitality was out of this world. Even though I stayed there for 3 weeks, I never felt like I was stuck in a hotel room. The singers they had performing at nights were really top notch as well. Any food I had there or anywhere in KL from authentic Malaysian, Chinese, Continental, or Italian – the taste was incredible. Some of my favourite Malaysian dishes includes Nasi Lemak, Roti Kanai, Goreng Kimpeng, Mee Rebus. They have perfected the art of spicy food mixed with tropical and Chinese flavours, mmmm.
The hotel was really busy on one of weekends , I found out Malaysian Motor Cycle Grand Prix was happening and it was in nearby Sepand Circuit. So I had to go check it out. My first time ever in a Grand Prix, courtesy of Malysia!
So there you have it, a brief walk through some of the great times I had in Malaysia. No matter where you are from, I highly recommend that you check out this region. Sometimes (especially winter days like today) I wonder if living in KL would be better than life in Toronto. And I love my Toronto and think it’s the greatest city in the world.
AsHeZz.. 