hardly five days in malaysia and I am dying to come back. Not that I didnt like the place, its the food that has taken toll on me. Matlab chirag leke bhi dhundne niklo toh jaldi se vegetarian food nahi milta......but then its a beautiful country as if someone might have pull in the weather of Dehradoon to Connaught Place.
Hmm...so my trip started as soon as I stepped out of airport. The first thing you will notice about Malaysia is its excellent transport system. Wide roads, fast running buses, easily available cab and efficient taxi services make it even more appreciable. Infact for the first time in my life I got to see a tunnel, meant for reducing the traffic jams, like the ones we generally see in hollywood flicks. It is known as the SMART Tunnel and is is the longest stormwatertunnel in South East Asia and second longest in Asia. It took me around one hour to reach the hotel. The very next day was a public holiday here and I got a three day long weekend to roam around and see the places.
The first place I visited was none other than the famous PETRONAS Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur's biggest tourist attraction. I know we all have seem it in pictures and its beautiful. But believe me, when you actually see it then only you realise that its far more huge than how it looks like in the pictures, i mean huge as in 'really huge'. At the back side of twin towers is the KLCC Park. It contains a fountain with incorporated light show and is a nice place to be visited in the evenings. While returning I took a taxi and for the first time in my life it so happened that somebody thought that I belong to SriLanka. When I asked that taxi wala that what made him think so, he told that my face cut is like that. I just hope thats not true.
The next day one of my colleague and I went ot Batu Caves - the greatest murugun temple in Malaysia. Its situated in the hills and to reach the main temple one needs to climb a steep flight of around 300 steps. It being a Hindu temple there are a lot of south indian food restaurants nearby and hence I finally could manage to get a meal of my choice. We had south indian meal and yes ..it included Rasam as well. Khane ke baad we proceeded to the main temple and spent some time inside. The whole place looks marvellous from inside. And as in most of the Indian temples, monkeys can easily be spotted here also. Isn't it strange? Like as if there is some strange connection between monkeys and temples. Nearby the Murugun temple is a Ramayana Cave and a big statue of Hanuman ji. Evenings, it generally rains here in KL and while we were returning it started heavily. So while waiting for the rain to stop we had some coconut water,one other good thing you get near Batu caves. Finally, on our way back we stopped at One Utama City Center and booked the tickets for 'Genting Highlands'.Yep, 9:00 am package is what decide to take. I only know how I managed to wake up and reach in time. I actually put some 15 alarms and thank god! I reached in time.
'Genting Highlands' I was really looking forward to visit there, cause one of my friends had told me that if you are going to Malaysia and you dont go to Genting then its a waste. Also known as the Las Vegas of Malaysia the place features a lot of exciting things like 'Genting Skyway a 3.4 km ride in a cable car', 'indoor and outdoor amusement theme parks', 'casino' and 'First world Hotel which is the world's largest hotel'. Oh! did i mention 2002 IIFA awards ceremony was held in Genting Highlands only? Yeah mujhe bhi aane ke baad hi pata chala. Well....yes the place was extremely beautiful and we had a lot of fun. In fact some silly incidents happened as well. There was a ride named as space trip. The picture outside created an impression as if there will be a gravitation less chamber wherein you can go and experience the feel of being in space. So with lot of enthusiasm and expectation, I decided to go for it. Now, inside there were quite a few people, all left in doubt what exactly gonna happen, then finally they switched off all the lights and the show began. And you know what happened then, instead of rotating us they rotated the round chamber we all were seated in.........sheer torture of full ten minutes.........yep it actually was meant for small kids.In Genting there is one Indian restaurant as well. Its name is Spice Garden and they serve pretty decent food. Finally the three day weekend was over and we returned back to pavilion :).
Hmm...so my trip started as soon as I stepped out of airport. The first thing you will notice about Malaysia is its excellent transport system. Wide roads, fast running buses, easily available cab and efficient taxi services make it even more appreciable. Infact for the first time in my life I got to see a tunnel, meant for reducing the traffic jams, like the ones we generally see in hollywood flicks. It is known as the SMART Tunnel and is is the longest stormwatertunnel in South East Asia and second longest in Asia. It took me around one hour to reach the hotel. The very next day was a public holiday here and I got a three day long weekend to roam around and see the places.
The first place I visited was none other than the famous PETRONAS Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur's biggest tourist attraction. I know we all have seem it in pictures and its beautiful. But believe me, when you actually see it then only you realise that its far more huge than how it looks like in the pictures, i mean huge as in 'really huge'. At the back side of twin towers is the KLCC Park. It contains a fountain with incorporated light show and is a nice place to be visited in the evenings. While returning I took a taxi and for the first time in my life it so happened that somebody thought that I belong to SriLanka. When I asked that taxi wala that what made him think so, he told that my face cut is like that. I just hope thats not true.The next day one of my colleague and I went ot Batu Caves - the greatest murugun temple in Malaysia. Its situated in the hills and to reach the main temple one needs to climb a steep flight of around 300 steps. It being a Hindu temple there are a lot of south indian food restaurants nearby and hence I finally could manage to get a meal of my choice. We had south indian meal and yes ..it included Rasam as well. Khane ke baad we proceeded to the main temple and spent some time inside. The whole place looks marvellous from inside. And as in most of the Indian temples, monkeys can easily be spotted here also. Isn't it strange? Like as if there is some strange connection between monkeys and temples. Nearby the Murugun temple is a Ramayana Cave and a big statue of Hanuman ji. Evenings, it generally rains here in KL and while we were returning it started heavily. So while waiting for the rain to stop we had some coconut water,one other good thing you get near Batu caves. Finally, on our way back we stopped at One Utama City Center and booked the tickets for 'Genting Highlands'.Yep, 9:00 am package is what decide to take. I only know how I managed to wake up and reach in time. I actually put some 15 alarms and thank god! I reached in time.
'Genting Highlands' I was really looking forward to visit there, cause one of my friends had told me that if you are going to Malaysia and you dont go to Genting then its a waste. Also known as the Las Vegas of Malaysia the place features a lot of exciting things like 'Genting Skyway a 3.4 km ride in a cable car', 'indoor and outdoor amusement theme parks', 'casino' and 'First world Hotel which is the world's largest hotel'. Oh! did i mention 2002 IIFA awards ceremony was held in Genting Highlands only? Yeah mujhe bhi aane ke baad hi pata chala. Well....yes the place was extremely beautiful and we had a lot of fun. In fact some silly incidents happened as well. There was a ride named as space trip. The picture outside created an impression as if there will be a gravitation less chamber wherein you can go and experience the feel of being in space. So with lot of enthusiasm and expectation, I decided to go for it. Now, inside there were quite a few people, all left in doubt what exactly gonna happen, then finally they switched off all the lights and the show began. And you know what happened then, instead of rotating us they rotated the round chamber we all were seated in.........sheer torture of full ten minutes.........yep it actually was meant for small kids.In Genting there is one Indian restaurant as well. Its name is Spice Garden and they serve pretty decent food. Finally the three day weekend was over and we returned back to pavilion :).
There is a lot of self realization that has happened during this trip. I in fact believe that travel more than an opportunity of learning new cultures or things, is an opportunity of learning ourselves better. And the first thing I noticed about myself is that mujhe daily soaps dekhne ka keeda hai. Yeah I started watching a Malaysian tv serial there. Its name is Siong and it has got English subtitles. Believe me its good, quite like Mandira Bedi's Shanti. What? I am not talking about the female protagonist; the serial is good. Waise you may be surprised to hear that they play Bollywood songs in the background songs in their serials. In one of the programmes based on a love story they played Kuch Kuch Hota Hai while the hero was day dreaming about the heroine. Even bollywood radio stations are also there. And their song selection also is pretty awesome. I was thrilled to hear them taking about Deepika Padukone, Ranbir and Katrina. Well I don't know why but it really felt good.
When in Malaysia I used to feel very special about I being an Indian and would thank God every now and then. And there were a lot of reasons behind it. I generally don't watch news channels much but as there were no Hindi entertainment channels available, I would see BBC World at times. And it used to be heartening to see India being the highlight in many a special reports.
Isn't it nice to see our Finance minister's daughter writing an open letter demanding solutions from him on the eve of Union Budget. Its great! In Malaysia also the dropping attendance in Parliament is a concern these days. At least that's what I read in Strait Times one of the leading newspapers there. I felt proud when I read on net, the ruling party chair person in India is taking strict steps in this direction. Another programme on BBC talked about the nation wide competition to select a currency symbol. And again it was heart touching to see the sheer energy and passion with which people from all age groups were going gaga to tell their views about the same. Another great thing to be seen was Sandra Bullock receiving the Oscar at an age of 45 reiterating the fact that if you work hard you are bound get your dues some day or the other. And what an acceptance speech, still doing rounds all over the net.
Ok ab bahut ho gaya I don't think anything else is left to be written. Yeah that's it for today.
