A week in KL with a Trailing Spouse
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - November, 2005
When my best friend went out with her husband and two sons to live in Kuala Lumpur the last thing she expected was to become a Trailing Spouse attending shoe parties and champagne cookery lessons and be an expert on KL's plethora of shopping centres.
360 degree view from the observation platform is a fantastic way to orientate yourself with the city.
Forget Tupperware parties, in KL the latest craze for the discerning housewife is made-to-measure shoe parties. Along with a dozen or so trailing spouses - the name given to the wife (or husband) of an Ex Pat working in the city - we eagerly awaited the arrival of Jackson, The Shoemaker. He eventually arrived laden with photo albums of all the styles available, along with a dozen pairs of shoes to try on and leather samples in a broad spectrum of colours.
He sat quietly on the floor with his notebook scribbling down measurements and requests. Long leather boots made to fit perfectly around your feet, ankle and calf will set you back just £66 and sandals and shoes in any colour with your choice of heel shape and height cost £18. A couple of hours later a date was fixed for the next shoe party where orders would be collected and without doubt more placed.
The shoe party was followed by lunch at a nearby café run by a Geordie and his aunt where baked potatoes and home made pasta dishes were on the menu. I discovered that TS's either meet through their kids attending the Alice Smith International School or from the ÒHello KLÓ orientation course run by the ABWM (Association of British Women in Malaysia) where newcomers are taken off the beaten track to visit hidden temples, shown where the blind massage parlours are located and are given lunch served on a banana leaf.
The following day we visited the home of a Kiwi TS to learn how to make her infamous Chinese dumplings. Having lived in China for five years she had everyone in awe of her Asian culinary skills and after being taught how to make the dumplings and savoury crepes a bottle of champagne was opened which we enjoyed as her maid cooked the dumplings. As we eagerly waited for the dumplings to float to the surface the gossip centred round the previous evening's Pot Luck party. Everyone is supposed to arrive with either a home made starter, main course or a dessert although someone after my own heart turned up with a carry-out of spare ribs from her local restaurant.
A TS only has between the hours of 7.15 am, when the eldest kids get picked up for school and 2.20 pm when they are dropped off back home which means the mornings become dedicated to coffee mornings, shoe parties and the less glamorous grind of food shopping before dashing home to oversee the homework. The local supermarkets are very well stocked and looked similar to back home although pork products had a fridge of their own and a separate till for paying. The same applied to the wine which was much more expensive than back home.
Getting round KL is an experience in itself and listening to debates on the best way to get from A to B is like listening to a foreign language as every street name was triple barrelled with names like Jalan Sultan Ismail and Jalan Bukit Bintang although it doesn't take long to realise that Jalan means Road. Another common word that appears all the time is Negara meaning National and then there are the abbreviations such as KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Centre) or the airport KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport). Most of the roads in and around KL are freeways and there never seemed to be a direct way to get anywhere and its apparently quite common to start off your journey heading in the wrong direction.
Forget Tupperware parties, in KL the latest craze for the discerning housewife is made-to-measure shoe parties.
On the days we left the car at home we ventured out with the locals on the monorail or train and took a taxi home although giving directions was a mammoth task and my friend appeared to know her way round KL better than the local taxi drivers. Between settling into their new house, renting furniture, purchasing a new 6 seat Toyota and getting the kids settled into school meant there had been little time for the family to be tourists in their new city. So as their first visitor we discovered KL's two main tourist attractions together.
The sky bridge linking the 1,453 ft high Petronas twin towers at the 41st and 42nd floors is free but you can only get your ticket on the actual day of your visit and they are given away at 30 minute time slots on a first come, first served basis. It is also worth noting that the tour is not open on the religious days of Mondays or Fridays. Queuing starts from about 8.00 am with the ticket desk opening at 8.30 am although if you are flexible and happy for an afternoon slot you could risk turning up mid morning to avoid the main rush. We arrived at 8.15 am and successfully acquired tickets for the 10.30 am tour which gave us time to have breakfast al fresco overlooking the lake and gardens at the base of the towers.
After watching a stomach churning video of the 88 storey towers being constructed we were herded into a double-decker service elevator and taken up to the walkway. We were given 10 minutes to walk back and forth before the next group arrived but there was plenty of time to take pictures and admire the view. However, the best photos are taken from the ground looking up as the towers resemble art deco rockets about to fire off into the stratosphere. If you think the towers look stunning in the daylight at night they are breathtaking as the stainless steel and white lights glow and the towers appear ten times larger set against the black sky.
Our next stop was Menara Kuala Lumpur or the KL tower and the 360 degree view from the observation platform is a fantastic way to orientate yourself with the city. The tower sits on a hill and at 1,380 ft above the ground it's easy to pick out all the landmarks but the main thing you notice is how green the city is and that it is entirely surrounded by mountains. One of the largest green areas is the Lake Gardens or Taman Tasik Perdana, a beautiful park with orchid gardens, a butterfly park, police museum and planetarium. It also has the largest covered bird park in the world. The park covers 229 acres and surrounds an artificial lake and is the perfect place to spend an afternoon in the sunshine.
...the best photos are taken from the ground looking up as the towers resemble art deco rockets about to fire off into the stratosphere.
KL has a reputation of being a shopaholic's paradise but nothing can prepare you for the number of shopping opportunities there are. It would be interesting to know how many enormous shopping malls the city has as there seems to be about five on each street and one even has its own roller coaster. Bukit Bintang Street is the main shopping street where you will find something for every budget and for the ex pats there is even a M&S and a British Homes Stores. With temperatures in the city averaging around 35 degrees its perhaps not surprising that the national hobby in KL is shopping as it's the perfect way to cool down in air conditioned luxury.
When you are fed up of the immaculately clean shopping malls head to Central Market or the recently covered Petaling Street in Chinatown where stands selling fake watches and DVDs are mixed in with fruit and veg stalls. Once you've had enough shopping a good place to get away from the hustle and bustle is a visit to the Masjid Jamek Mosque that sits on the junction between the city's two muddy brown rivers - the Kelang and the Gombak. You will be given robes and headscarves to wear as you walk around the mosque and the contrast between the white domes and the glass skyscrapers behind is dramatic.
It was a wonderful surprise to discover that KL isn't all shiny new skyscrapers and that its Colonial past sits happily side by side with Malaysian, Chinese and Indian cultures. All over KL there are examples of Colonial architecture although sadly some are neglected if not derelict. The best place to see the city's colonial architecture is around Merdeka Square - or Independence Square - where in 1957 the city gained its independence from British rule.
Here you will find the city's most famous landmark, the Sultan Abdul Samad built in 1897 to house the British Administration and apart from the clock tower in the middle it doesn't look very British with its Moorish architecture and striped brickwork and domes. Across the road is the Tudor-style Royal Selangor Club built in 1884. It is still ÒtheÓ place for Ex Pats to hang out, drink G&T's and imagine a game of cricket taking place on the Club's perfect lawn. Close by is another stunning building the 19th century Kuala Lumpur Railway Station with its Islamic/Indian architecture.
To have the opportunity to spend time with good friends not only doing the tourist thing but also getting a glimpse of what it is like for them to live and work in KL was a wonderful experience. To say I was impressed at how well they had settled in after only three months would be an understatement and I've no doubt they will become experts in all things Asian. The big question is whether they will ever come back to the UK or if after two years being an Ex Pat and a Travelling Spouse are titles they're reluctant to give up.