Kuala, Kuala

Guest post! Guest by me :p. Guest in terms of place. I had a chance to visit Kuala Lumpur, yessss. Since I'm in China for some time now, it was great chance to compare two big cities (heh.... 1.4mln vs 20mln ppl, 243km^2 vs 17000km^2 ;) )

Here we go....






The BIG difference - air. Man, I already got used to level of pollution in Beijing, but KL reminded me that THERE ARE PLACES WITH CLEAR SKY! The feeling is amazing. Everything is so.... bright... and... shiny... and... clean... and... colourful...




The other thing, because of climate, there are tons of greens in the city. You could say that Kuala is a City in a Jungle, while Beijing is Concrete Jungle. Almost the same, almost ;). You have trees, palms, flowers etc almost everywhere. As a bonus, since the air is clean, they look nice :p.

Oh, btw, how cool is having a pool in your compound? Nah, boooring, who'd wanted something like that? Again, because of yearly  temperature changes, this makes sense :). Yes, it is as fricking awesome as it sounds.

Next great thing, tons of fountains and water structures. Here's one of them, making the whole temperature level more bearable. Also, as a side note, water is always fun!

Which is known to the people designing city :). Free fountain / kids pool place, in front of Petronas Towers, in green green greeeeeen park. You just want to jump in and play :). Can you image that? Hot day, exhausted, you just go under the water curtain and let the flow wash away all your tiredness.

Enough about weather! (for now) Another difference, tattoo culture. A lot of people have amazing, colourful tattoos. Small difference, but if you like tattoos, noticeable :) (and, because of weather - ups, again - people are dressed up in light stuff, meaning yo can see those pieces of art)

Well, yea, tattoo. Not that I wanted to take a pic of monkey, it was pure accident ;)

Whole Malaysia is a total mix of different cultures. You have Malay, Indian, Chinese, and small pieces of everything else. Which make it awesome :). Want to see Chinese temple? No problem. Mosque? Yep, it's here.

Kind of sad thing is KL Chinese temple was more awesome that the ones I saw in China for now :D. Sorry, but that's the truth :). In defence, I didn't go to any known temple here so that might be reason :).

Ok, switch to food. As I mentioned, mix of cultures. Which equals toooo?..... Anything you want to eat, you can find. Western, eastern, middle, upper, lower, whatever :). The food is basically good. As in Beijing :). I'm not sure which one is better, Beijing has awesome chinese food and it's hard to beat :D (呷哺呷哺 for then win!) Yea, I think Beijing wins here :)

As a side note, there are some common things. When your party is over, you are hungry, no matter if you are in Beijing, KL, or Krakow. That's the moment when street food rocks! And it doesn't matter if you are coming from tie-only party or some crazy D'n'B killer place :)

Ok, time for some random stuff that's just different. Here we have... speed bump! Which, more correctly, should be called Suspension Killer. There are lots of them (big ones) in KL, even on main roads. Those are funny, you are driving relatively fast on two-lane road and you have to break to not bite your tongue from jump.
Oh, of course, cars are driving on the wrong side of road, which might get you killed. Looking first to the left when crossing streets is so hard-wired that you might end up under some car :). That's annoying :).

KL wins with airport. They have small jungle inside :O Yea, that's a pic from airport.
Next advantage, Relax Spots. There are free computers to surf internet, LCDs showing latest news or sport events with comfortable couches to sit - not those usual crappy seats. Yea, there aren't that many of them, 5-8, but it's still better that none, right?
Oh, and free wifi and usb chargers.





Aaaaand, last pic :D. FB and Youtube are not blocked :p. I wasn't sure, if I bought them, would they pass customs? :D Might be problematic :)

Yes, internet is not crap, works as it should work. Damn you, China! :D



Ok, time for some stuff that doesn't have any pics :). There were a lot of things I liked (as you can guess), but there were also some that I didn't....

One of them is Beijing for sure feels safer. Really, what the hell? In KL, in shops, public places etc you have signs "beware of pick pockets". Whaat? I could leave my stuff unattended in Beijing and don't worry about it (too much ;) ). In KL, no way.  The same with walking on streets. I didn't have situation in Beijing where I didn't go into some street because I felt unsafe. KL, you suck here :P

People in Beijing feels more friendly. I don't know why, event despite the fact that here everyone speaks English and you don't have to use your hands to communicate too much, the general feeling in KL was way less friendly that in Beijing. It just was :)

Yea, that basically sums it up. There were other small things, but they aren't that important. KL roxx, you cannot argue with that. But you can argue with the question - would the feelings be the same if I stayed there for a longer time, working, and not only partying etc? Hard to say :)

Still, I really like Beijing - despite the fact that I was greeted by drunk taxi driver who didn't want to take me home. And put his seat belt on - which scared shit out of me :). It's great to be back here :)

Oh, the best thing in both cities - people. No matter if it's KL, Beijing, Krakow, or any other place. As long as there are people like Jo, you can have fun anywhere. Thanks Jo for amazing time :)

And with that sweeeeet sweet phrase, goodbye :)