Without Fear and Without Research

Dearest Rachel –

It’s not much of an excursion, though; just transport from the port to the capital city, where we’re to be dropped off at Pavilion Shopping Mall in the Bukit Bintang area (the advertising copy adds the adjective ‘famous’ to the district, but given my familiarity with the city – which is absolutely none – what does that mean?). To be sure, the Petronas Twin Towers, one of the world’s tallest buildings, is only a ten-minute walk away, so I might amble over there at some point, but that’s basically it.

Between filming, editing and writing up my letter to you about Singapore, honey, I haven’t had the chance to bother doing any research about Kuala Lumpur, or even Malaysia in general. It’s all so much work, and I’m supposed to be on vacation, after all. Besides, it often feels like the details that I do research turn out to be at best only peripherally connected to what I ultimately end up seeing and experiencing. While that could mean that I get to understand two parts of the elephant (researching the feet, and latching onto the tail, perhaps), if I had my heart set on finding the trunk, it’s a bit disappointing.

Then again, if I’m going to keep using this analogy, I wouldn’t be aware of the trunk in this case, now, would I?

In any event, since I’ve run out of time to do so, for one reason or another, I’m going to go into this particular trip “without fear and without research,” as Dorothy Parker is supposed to have said about a certain scientific text she was reviewing (although as a literary critic, why she would bother with a mere textbook escapes me). I will see what I will see, with absolutely no idea what to expect. It’s not like I haven’t done this before, after all…

***

I barely make it to the theater by the appointed time of 8:15, but it doesn’t matter; the ship has yet to be cleared by the local authorities for anyone to go ashore.  I realize that the tickets are printed up and distributed at the beginning of each cruise segment, with the meeting times already on them, but it would be nice to have a little less time spent cooling our heels here, waiting for permission to disembark.

Once we make it onto shore, and through the terminal, I almost find myself heading to the wrong bus; I’ve been on so many excursions, and been tagged with so many different numbers, I forget that I’m wearing number 28, rather than 24.

Our guide introduces himself as Lim Seh How; according to him, when other people are asked “How are you?” they say “Fine, thanks,” but in his case, he simply says, “Yes!” He gives us a basic rundown of places we might want to visit while in KL (and yes, he alternates between saying its full name and referring to it by its initials).  He downplays the twin Petronas towers, however; while it might be a point of municipal and national pride to have had the tallest building in the world (which was shortly thereafter eclipsed by the Taipei 101, and then by the Burj in Dubai), what does it say about you and your building when everyone involved in its creation is foreign?  The architect was Argentinian-American, and the construction was handled by Samsung and several Japanese companies.  Where’s the local pride in that?

He also acknowledges that KL, while reasonably safe, it’s not as much so as, say, Singapore. “It’s an island,” he says about the city that Malaysia kicked out of its federation some sixty years ago, “if somebody does something bad there, where are they gonna go?”  Just stay vigilant while wandering about, he cautions us; which I suppose is fair advice no matter where you are.  I have give him credit for not sugarcoating things about his home.

In fact, now that I think about it, throughout this entire trip, I have yet to see any speed limit higher than 120 km/h (which, to be fair, is a pretty respectable 75 mph), and that was in very rare instances on the Japanese tollways.  Most of the time, it’s been like with these trucks: around 50-56 mph – which would feel like wearing ankle cuffs to your average American driver.

We finally arrive at eleven, and are set loose upon the town once we are escorted to our meeting point. After a moment to refresh myself, I head down into the mall only to find myself in a different mall, and with no idea how I got there (upon later inspection, it turns out that the food court in the basement links to the Fahrenheit mall from the Pavilion, and trying to work my way back from the surface outside is virtually impossible).

At least I manage to get my hands on some local currency, but until I figure out where I am – and how to get back – I’m not particularly comfortable stopping to spend anything.

And once I have that reference point, I’m wanting to get onto the walkway that heads to the Petronas Tower, despite How’s lack of enthusiasm for the place.  Even with the frequent signs pointing me in the right direction, I still confuse the Kuala Lumpur Convention Center with the towers.  Although, considering that I assume that the KLCC is at the base of the towers, I’d like to think I could be forgiven for that mistake.

There are actually two convention centers, more or less next to each other.  And while there’s a bit of a walk between them, it’s not a particularly bad one – aside from being out in the heat and humidity.  The second center is basically an upscale mall, with a virtual reality experience sponsored by Petronas on its top (fifth) level.  However, it’s not the trip to the observation deck I assume it to be; an attendant at the door sets me straight as I prepare to enter.  Thus imbued with knowledge, I head down to the ground floor and to the towers’ real base, in order to see if I can get tickets to the top.

It shouldn’t surprise me to stop several other fellow cruisers in line to check the towers out.  However, one wife comes up to her husband, who’s waiting in line for tickets, and informs him that times to ride up are sold out through 3:30; that’s a half hour after we’re supposed to be on our coach, headed back to the port.  So this is going to be a no-go, after all.  Honestly, since I’d been to the top of Taipei 101, which nudged the towers out of the top spot some years ago, I think I’m okay with that.  Heck, at the risk of sounding like I’m the sour graping things, there would be one direction where the only view you’d get would be the tower’s twin.

That bit of the trip sorted out, albeit not in the most ideal of circumstances, I do what I can to make my way back to the Pavilion (even as, at the time, I don’t remember that’s what it’s called, so I don’t know quite what I’m looking for on the signs directing me one way or the other), and hopefully, a bit more lunch than I managed in Chinatown yesterday.

And boy, did I!

All in all, a reasonably successful trip.  Not so much in terms of sightseeing, but there weren’t that many sites I was trying to see in the first place, so I can’t be disappointed in that.  I had fun, I got lost (twice), I found my way back with plenty of time to spare – what’s not to like?

So, thanks for watching over me, honey, and if you’d be so kind as to continue to do so, and keep wishing me luck, I’d really appreciate it. After all, you can probably tell that I still need it.