Not that sort of erection, obviously, as this is a country full of very devout Muslims. I mean I was sucked into the "tall building as tourist attraction" thing again today, after specifically promising I'd never do it again after the underwhelming trip up Taipei 101. This time it was the KL tower, the other very tall thing apart from the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur. It looks pretty impressive, sort of like an extra large version of that tower in Sydney that no one knows the name of. All spindly with a big blob at the top. It's was built as a communication tower but like all of those it is slowly becoming redundant as microwave transmissions are replaced by fibre optics (as shown by the poor old Post Office Tower in London that's slowly being shorn of all it's microwave dishes revealing its spindly core) but the KL Tower has an extra use as a way to part tourists with quite a lot of ringgits. The walk to get there almost killed me to be honest, and not because of the terrible traffic and pavements this time, more that the damn thing is built on top of probably the only hill in KL. There are a LOT of steps and this is not a good thing in 30° heat and 100% humidity. "At least" I thought "I'll be able to get a nice cool drink at the top of the tower". Firstly I had to go through some amazing security systems consisting of a smiling indian chap who completely ignored the beeping metal detector and waved you on into the lift. Sadly the viewing deck at the top has no cafe, or drink outlet. It did have a shop selling cheap, digital watches though. Not the first place I'd go to buy a timepiece but obviously they must have some sort of business plan. The the viewing deck just had views and souvenir shops, if you wanted a beverage then you had to pay to go to the Restaurant, revolving of course as this was built in the dying years of the 20th century. Remember when every city that wanted to be sophisticated had a revolving restaurant? Actually perhaps they still do but it doesn't make them sophisticated, just look at Perth. It just makes you look like it's still 1985.
I have also realised that in my underwhelmed-ness I didn't take a picture, you'll have to just look it up.
Anyhow after a short, yet expensive (I can't get past the $18 entry fee) look at various ugly skyscrapers from a moderate height I headed off to Chinatown. It's amazing how all those high end designer goods corporations sell their products through rickety stalls in the less than gorgeous parts of Asian cities. I've never seen so many Prada and Gucci handbags in one place before. Chinatown here is pretty much like the Chinatowns everywhere else with much haggling required and much hassling committed. Two things that make most Englishmen's blood run cold, well mine at least, but I did manage to get a not too tacky souvenir Twin Towers for about $2 without haggling at all. At that price it's not worth the expenditure of calories.
I had a bit of a wander around the central National Square (which was laid out by the British to play sports on for the health of all those public school boy colonial types) to look at the old bits of the city, which are beautiful but completely overwhelmed by the multiple lane roads and busses and diesel fumes. It's difficult to imagine what it was like here with cricket outside the Royal Selangor Club and just minor mutterings of independence. It must have been a pretty easy life as a colonial officer in the Empire, although the lack of aircon must have sent them completely bonkers after a while. There was a very polite student demo in the Square as well, just a few very grammatically beautiful signs and some smiling. I think they want free education at uni. Good luck with that.
So today I'm deciding on a quiet day by the pool and shops or a trip to the Batu Caves. It's just another temple in a cave so probably not.
If it was the Bat Cave then it would be a different decision.
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