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Malaysia is the home of the world's tallest building, the Petronas City Center. The two twin towers stand at 451 meters and dominate the KL landscape. Just underneath is a nice park where local children pee and then swim in a shallow pool while their parents do their absolute best to stay cool in the 32C (90F) sun. The shopping center housed nearby is a monstrous 5 story deal with just about everything you can imagine at extremely high prices. Gucci, TAG Heuer, Armani... They're all there.. Another interesting site in KL is the Menara Tower, a 411 meter tall observation deck complete with rotating restaurant and TV/radio broadcast facilities. For a very cheap $2 you can spend all day gazing over what is one of the finest BIG cities I've ever seen.
The caves, about 30 minutes outside of KL, are accessible by a flight of 272 stairs... It reminds me quite a bit of Do Sothep in Chang Mai, actually. Anyway, there are these darling little mischievious monkeys everywhere that just love to try to snatch just about anything in your hand away from you -- cameras even! At the top of the staircase are huge limestone caves that are used for religious ceremonies.
This 500 hectacre park about an hour from KL has some magnificent waterfalls, hiking trails through the jungle, and is a must see if you're ever around here. I was slightly disappointed with the amount of trash around, however... If you're quiet while walking along the trail, you're very likely to spot a band of monkeys playing in the trees. Bring along your swim trunks, the water is really nice after the long hike.
I arrived in KL on Wednesday afternoon. After a few days of jet-lag and recovery from an excellent week in London, I was ready to rock-and-roll on Friday night. According to all the locals I quizzed, the happening nightspot is the Hard Rock Cafe. After a quick shower and shave, I dressed to kill in my standard backpacker grunge outfit and hailed a taxi.
A few minutes later, I arrived at the Concorde Hotel in the Golden Triangle district of KL. There was a fifteen minute queue outside the Hard Rock, but I wasn't much in the mood for lines. I walked right to the front, handed the bouncer a 5 Ringgit note (about $1.50) and he let me right in.
The place was packed. There was a live band playing excellent 80's and 90's songs. There was was appeared to be a good mix of locals, expats, and grunge backpackers. I quickly ordered my beer and did a quick tour of the joint.
I still wasn't quite in the mood, I must say, so I decided to have some fun and pretend that I was from Argentina and spoke very little English. My first victim of my little practical joke was a well-dressed muscular guy from Belgium named Neil. We chatted in broken English for quite some time and it was pretty clear early in the conversation that Neil had an eye for me...
Anyway, I went to get another beer and when I returned, Neil introduced me to his good friends Emma and Stephan. Emma was a spectacular beauty despite being absurdly short. I was shocked when Stephan, a blonde-haired Belgian, started really speaking in Spanish to me. But, I fielded a few questions well and the loud music definitely helped to cover my less than adequate accent. Turned out that Stephan only knew Portuguese, and lucky for me the differences are too many -- at my suggestion, we decided to only speak English.
I noticed a few really big guys in dark blue suits standing over in the corner checking out Emma. I mentioned this little fact to Stephan. Stephan took great pride in telling me that his girlfriend, cute little Emma, is the mother of the Crown Prince of Brunei. Yes indeed, Emma divorced the Sultan after bearing his first born son. The guys in blue suits were bodyguards! Fortunately, they were excellent beer fetchers as well, and pretty soon we had them running back and forth to the bar buying beer on the Sultan's tab!
A few Sultan sponsored beers later, Neil asks if I like the music. "Let's Dance," he said. Unfortunately he knew that I knew enough English to understand. I danced for a few songs and told him I didn't really like the music. Well, that did it.
In just a single minute, we were all out of the club and in a black limo headed for a local Salsa club -- just so I might be more at home with the music. The Sultan paid the cover charge and the first round in the new bar... I was, if you can't tell, having an excellent time.
Neil immediately recruited me to dance a little, and I was extremely fortunate to find a decent looking group of Canadian girls doing their thing on the dance floor. I lambada'd my way over there to their group and in my best Spanglish explained that I needed help getting away from Neil. They were more than happy to help Argentina!
Emma appeared a few minutes later and called me over. She said that she had just spoken via cellphone to her people at the palace and they would be most honored if I would be their guest for a few days. I was shocked and thrilled! I was going to get the behind the scenes tour of the Sultan's Palace! I kissed her on both of her Princess-like cheeks South American style and thanked her profusely.
"You're in luck," she said. Uh-Oh, I thought. "My staff will arrange to have a Spanish speaking guide available for your stay in Brunei... I thought it might make your visit more pleasurable."