"The Capital Of Malaysia, Formerly Known... " a Kuala Lumpur Travel Page by Bix10

Being a Malaysian and someone who was born in Kuala Lumpur itself has made me an arrogant person, I must say. I never look closely of how beautiful my country is. Although I've started living abroad since at a very young age (boarding school), I still couldn't see the true beauty until... a friend from London came over and I had to be a foreign tourist in one's own country. I had exactly one week to think of places to go to. Places where tourists would find it exciting and most importantly, picture taking places. Furthermore, culture and history would be a good blend for someone who has absolutely no idea about Malaysia.

I must say that there are a lot of places to go to in KL itself and there are plenty of pictures to take, which turns out great. I even look more like a tourist than my friend. One of the feedbacks that I get from him was that there are more malls here for a condensed city such as in Asia than anywhere else he's been (and he has been travelling around the world for a year, twice!) So, I supposed we do have loads of malls or shopping centers as we in KL would call it.

Places that I took him (in a very touristic view) were Suria KLCC (which was the 1st place that we headed to. Went around the park, had lunch there and visited the Aquaria which is at the KLCCC - we took a walk by the park to get there). Then it was Kota Damansara area, which consists of The Curve and One Utama (For lunch, Baseball Batting Cage and Wall Climbing). In the evening, we headed to Petaling Street (Chinatown). The next destinations were Batu Caves, Zoo Negara (National Zoo), Dataran Merdeka, KL Tower and Sunway Lagoon.

Kuala Lumpur definitely has plenty to offer, in terms of buildings and sceneries. However, many are not well taken care of. I must blame the government and the mindset of the owners of the authentic buildings for it. Now that Putrajaya is part of the capital and is the capital, I can now include the beautiful picture and compliment our former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohammad for his brilliant mind and such a person is truly rare for creating a beautiful country that we now call Malaysia.

The places that I'm about to write is not exactly the 'hot' places that the locals go as club scenes around the world changes after a certain period of time. As for tourists, anywhere that serves drinks, good music and a great blend of crowd is good enough. I must say that my time for clubs have rather slowed down. I am now more focus on salsa, and there are limited places to go to for salsa clubs.

This picture was taken at the bar in Qba, Westin Hotel in Starhill. The places I took my friend who visited me were Asian Heritage Row - Bar Savanh, Bar Blonde, Mojo, Qba, Zouk, Velvet Underground and Laundry Bar at The Curve. These are places that I frequently visit and there were a few parties that we attended to.

If you're into salsa and latin dancing, here are the places to go to: Qba at Westin Hotel in Starhill, Salsa Havana at Federal Hotel, White Room, Bond at Avenue K and Little Havana at Changkat Bukit Bintang.

To end this introduction of Kuala Lumpur, I must say that KL is not as fun as Bangkok and not as accessible as Singapore but it certainly has its own speciality. What the city really needs is a good public transportation system. When my friend came over, I wonder how would he get from one place to another if I weren't there to drive him around. Fascinating places are scattered everywhere and public busses or trains don't exactly go to one place to another. It simply is bloody difficult.