Monday, October 22, 2007
Kuala Lumpur/MALAYSIA – City above clouds
After landing in Malaysia, we took the KLIA Express (Kuala Lumpur Intl. Airport) to the city and tried to get a taxi to our hotel. The question where exactly it is, how to drive there and what it would cost drew the attention of five people, all of them Arabs. Europeans are usually lost in such situations (like in many others) – they have never seen real poverty, they don't know natural disasters except floods, they live in a stable political environment, dangerous animals are only known form the zoo, and everything is labelled with the price it actually costs.
"The ride will be 30 Riggits." – "Hmm, I will pay you 20." (I had no idea what it costs, but negotiating about the price is perfectly normal for this society) – "It's far away, you have to pay at least 25!" – "Come on, it's not really far, 20 is ok!" – "Hrrrgh, ok, you go for 20."
So the driver and I walked out onto the street where Saskia was waiting with all the baggage on an overloaded trolley. I called out to the driver and pointed to her. You could literally see his jaw dropping. "No – no – no! You tricked me!" He couldn't believe it. "Look, you have a big car anyway, it doesn't make a difference." – "You tricked me!" He really couldn't believe it; we obviously were the first Europeans in his life who ever got a better price than he was willing to give. :-)
The other four guys showed up and also started talking to me; the baggage would be extra. "Now it's really 30!" – "Like I said, I will pay you 20, and that's a fair deal, Sir." – "Make it 25." – "22 is fine." – "Ok." :-)
I really hated this kind of negotiating until some time ago; it eats up precious time and is simply a pain, and if you're not used to it, you will always have a bad conscience – and that's their trick here! Unless you are in a public place where there are dozens of other potential customers, simply walk away if you're not satisfied; this usually helps. And the last tip: NEVER give the impression that you really need or want something, because then it's over.
Kuala Lumpur is just incredible! You cannot really compare it to other big cities; the citizens are mainly Malaysians, Chinese and Indians, and quite a number speak basic English; probably one of the results of British, Dutch and Portuguese colonial rule (they left in 1957). Other languages are – as you would expect – Malaysian, Indian and Chinese. There are many Hindus here, only 55% of the population are Moslems – still, the Islam is on the advance, and discrimination against other religions is a reality.
Flying in KL (it is always abbreviated this way) will be a problem! There is almost no spaces where you could take off and fly, because security in town is strong (especially in parks); also, if there's tall buildings all around you, you don't see the wood for the trees! And then, almost every day in the early afternoon as well as in the evening there are heavy rainfalls (you're really worried you could drown in the street) plus some impressive lightning.
There are some hills outside the city, and we drove there (see the "funny" sign we found inside the taxis; pic. below) – but while the view is incredible at night, the vision is totally blurred during the day because of the high air humidity. Hmm, so unfortunately flying against the skyline will not work.
We addressed the security around the world-renowned Petronas Twin Towers. They had been completed in 1997 and were the tallest buildings in the world until 2003 (452 m); the weight is app. 270,000 tons per tower, and they are built on the world's largest foundations. Petronas is the state-owned oil company, BTW, and the towers were a prestige project. The ground plan is an octagonal star – for Islamic cultures this symbolizes order and harmony. The building cost were app. 950 million EUR.
After some discussion we managed to get the chief of security in all KL on the phone. He was nice and understood the WSF project, but pointed out that all activities related to the Twin Towers required clearance by the PR guys sitting in the tower. He said that any attempt to lift off would be immediately stopped by the security forces. About this we have no doubt, because they're really everywhere. Hmm, we'll have to see how to cope with this. It's really a hard nut to crack. We'll keep you posted!
Labels: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Petronas Towers, taxi ride
# posted by hg/tuw @ 15:12 
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