DISCOVERING KUALA LUMPUR (PART II)

DISCOVERING KUALA LUMPUR (PART II)
By Doods A. Amora, PEE

MOTORING TO KUALA LUMPUR

Sidebar: In my previous experiences, the scariest moments in foreign travels were the taxi episodes. Maybe because I had lots of these encounters before. But alas, most of these sour experiences happened nowhere else in the world - ironically, in our own City of Manila.

I recalled that in Germany, taxis were giving out ‘quittung’ (official receipt), and the drivers were wonderfully honest & helpful to foreigners. In Singapore, taxi service may be paid for by credit cards. And in those places, I felt safe & secured, and more importantly, the feeling of nobody is fooling who.

[The Arrival Corridor Going to the Immigration Counters]

In Manila, especially if you emerge from an international flight, then you are pretty sure to be in a frustrating outbreak of your trip.

Pilipino nangloloko sa kapwa Pilipino sa lugar mismo ng mga Pilipino.

The Kuala Lumpur Experience: At KLIA's 'Meeting Point', we were now set to exit the terminal. At this point in time, we must face my fears once again.

The Teksi (Taxi)… What would it be like in Kuala Lumpur?

In her anticipative research, my wife Mimi learned from a travel forum in the web that the antics of taxi drivers in Kuala Lumpur are similar to Manila taxicabs. Usual tricks like no meter flag downs thereafter demanding RM 20 (PhP 240) for a usual RM 6 (PhP 72) within short city transports. Yes, I would agree to that because we experienced it ourselves in our subsequent days.

[My Son BOBOY, at the MEETING POINT]

But somehow in KLIA (and in other major stations & government establishments in Kuala Lumpur), we discovered we don’t have to worry. The airport for instance has taxi booths where one can buy tickets for a specific destination. The taxi counter determines the type of taxi for the service according to the distance, the number of passengers and volume of baggage. By the way, baggage loads are being paid for, which to me, is fair enough.

As far as I knew, there were three types of taxis to choose from, the ‘budget taxi’, the ‘premier limousine service’ and the ‘free-lancer’ taxis. One has to avoid the free-lancers because they are reminiscent of the Manila taxis.

By the way, there is a high-speed train plying KLIA to Kuala Lumpur Sentral Station (KLSS) route in 28 minutes non-stop costing RM 35 per head. It would be a good choice if one doesn’t have lots of baggage and in a hurry.

We chose the budget taxi for RM 67, that’s roughly PhP 804. Quite a lot of money, I thought. A quick mental calculation later relieved me. In Mactan Cebu Airport for instance, a trip home to Mandaue City of only 6 kilometers distance costs us PhP 300 and that is PhP 50 per kilometer. The heart of Kuala Lumpur, this time our destination, is 70 kilometers away and that would be PhP 11.48 per kilometer only. Quite cheap, huh…? By the way, the payment is done at the taxi counter (not to the driver) and a receipt is issued. Then there’s a specific taxi exit door leading to a corridor where an attendant is waiting who will in turn give the taxi that you need as indicated in the receipt. Our taxi turned out to be a Malaysian Proton version of a semi-SUV.

KLIA is situated in Sepang area in the Malaysian State of Selangor, a 70 kilometer stretch to the heart of Kuala Lumpur. At an average of 70 kph, travel time was one hour. Traversing through 8-lane super highway (4 lanes in each direction, sometimes 5 lanes in interchanges), the ride was a real joy to remember.

[The KLIA to CITY HIGHWAY: Note the Excellent Lanes]

The highway ride was flawless & bumpless in a high quality concrete road overlaid by asphalt – “it’s like the Expressway in the USA”, as described by my son Boboy, who is still fresh from a US trip. The gorgeous ‘highway interchanges’ along the way were by themselves scenes to behold - very similar to the Auto-Bahn I experienced in Germany. For the entire stretch of the highway, there were underground storm drainage systems intended to arrest rain waters from the road itself as there were also open drainage systems that catch the sliding waters from the side hills. These explain why the roads are still in excellent condition since 1993.

Unlike in the Philippines, all the highway side lights we passed through were working, and all the traffic lights were operative. Except for the 132 kV, 275 kV and 500 kV high & extra-high voltage grid towers on the hilltops, I didn’t see any medium voltage overhead electric distribution lines – all must have been underground in that entire seventy kilometer span.

Amidst my admiration I thought why our country can’t build faultless superhighways like what I saw in Kuala Lumpur...

By then I recalled the late Max Soliven, former publisher of the Philippine Star in one of his columns many years back, when he praised the Malaysian highway to the superlative degree but not short in saying that the road networks in Malaysia were constructed by Filipino expats and engineers.

There you are my friends; it is not that we don’t have the capability – because for every great infrastructure or edifice anywhere else in the planet, there must be Filipinos out there behind the scene. But why can’t we do it in our country? Is it because of too much politics? What kind of politics? Patronage Politics, Partisan Politics? Or Politics of Greed? Whatever it is…

[The TOLL PLAZA: Note the number of Gates]

Probably we need Professional Management in Governance. Another wishful thinking, huh? I told myself…not to care for it anymore.

In recollection, the conceptualization of the super-highways in Malaysia started after the separation of Singapore in 1965, when the Malaysian government opted to make Port Klang as Malaysia's new national port as a replacement. The government then built super-highways and road systems covering some 66,000 kilometers connecting Port Klang to Kuala Lumpur and the rest of the country. Malaysia's highway system comprises several types of roads. There are Federal Roads, State Roads and Municipal Roads; all of which made up one of Asia's most advanced road systems. Made operational in 1993, the main highway system is a combination of ten-lane (5 - 5 lanes each side ), eight - lane (4 + 4 lanes) & six - lane (3 + 3 lanes each side) infrastructures with Toll Plazas (as they call it).

The 26 gate Toll Plazas (13 + 13 at each side) in themselves were scenes not to be forgotten in one's memories.

But those are just a prologue to its more alluring attractions.


APPROACHING KUALA LUMPUR

From my readings back home, I learned that Kuala Lumpur bestows an exotic blend of the old and the new. The signs of modernity & technological progress are evident in the intelligent high rise buildings, excellent roads, high speed urban transportation, advance tele-communication systems & information technology revolution.

I should see it first hand, by now.

But Kuala Lumpur’s humble beginning was a matter of fact, a muddy & messy confluence. That’s what ‘Kuala Lumpur’ literally means.

Its origin was a murky shanty mining outpost for the tin trade in the 1800's sitting on the convergence of two major rivers. ‘K L’ as it is popularly known today is a bustling metropolis, the federal capital of Malaysia and the principal center and host for commerce and international affairs.

[KUALA LUMPUR by night from a Distance]

And here where we then, to our eyes after nearly an hour of travel by car, Kuala Lumpur’s buzzing skyline had slowly been unfolding - so inspiring from afar like heaps of multi-colored high-rise jewels. Amongst the high rise buildings unveiled, the first identifiable skyscraper to stand proud in sight was the Times Square, and then followed by the imposing magnificence of the Menara KL Tower, the fourth Tallest Tower in the world.

And then, Oh my God…! Slowly revealing from the distant horizon was the majestic grandeur of the Petronas Twin Towers, once the tallest building in the planet, now still the tallest twin buildings of the world!

[The Fabled PETRONAS TWIN TOWERS; Soaring to the Nightsky]

So regal was the sight of the mirror images as if painted like diamond lining silhouettes with its cosmic pillars spiraling up to the sky against the backdrop of the ebony heavens. And as we came closer and closer, we realized its unbelievable proportions. So bewildering that we forgot to photograph the sight until we were past through them.

But I promised myself: “Tomorrow, I will touch you, Petronas…; I shall conquer your many splendored beauty!”

In restrospect, until 1998, the world's tallest skyscrapers had always been in the United States. But that year, Malaysia's Petronas Towers laid claim to this distinction. Squeaking past the Chicago Sears Tower by 33 feet, the spires the Petronas Towers peak at an impressive 1,483 feet. After six years of reigning glory, Taipei 101 Building at 1,670 feet grabbed the laurels as the supreme edifice, but still Petronas retained the honor of being the Tallest Twin Building of the globe - and to think that these colossal structures are in Asian soil!

[Kuala Lumpur's Downtown at Night]

Then our taxi navigated through the brightly-lit thoroughfares leading to the multi-hued pieces of night life of Kuala Lumpur - similar to our J. P. Rizal/Makati Avenue or Ortigas Center's El Pueblo. From the air, I took notice of a band’s perfect rendition of Carlo Santana’s Corazon Ezpinado - in an unmistakable Filipino fiber.

How I wished I was there. The performers could be my friends…

[One of The City's Night Life Pieces]

THE CROWNE PLAZA MUTIARA HOTEL

At 11:00 PM, we arrived at The Crowne Plaza Mutiara Hotel (a sister-chain hotel of the Philippines’ Crowne Plaza Hotel in Robinson Galleria Complex of Ortigas Center, Mandaluyong City), where my daughter Kitty was waiting to unite with us.

Crowne Plaza by the way, used to be Kuala Lumpur's Hilton Hotel. There’s not much new to talk about the hotel being typical to the five star hotels we have in Manila and Cebu.

Nevertheless, as the entire family reunited, emotions came flying high, followed by the usual tears - normal to the Filipino character.

[That's Me & my Wife]

Exhausted at last, all others were duped to slumberland at 2:00 o'clock in the early morning. But sleep never caught me, probably because my mind was still full of the overdose of realities I didn’t expect. There should be more as daytime soon begins again.

Feeling alone in the midst of non-unison snoring music, I grabbed my laptop and started writing…

(To be continued… Abangan ang susunod na kabanata…)