KL shuts down on Sundays. It’s official. After our now routine late lunch, we were once again scouring the pages of Time Out KL trying to find something interesting to do. However, try as we might nowhere was open that sounded vaguely interesting. In the end we opted to go wondering around KL centre again, choosing this time the Lake Garden area. This green park which blends everything from outdoor Auditorium, Botanical Gardens and Butterfly Houses was a wonderful area which from the looks of it was criminally underused. I however was not complaining as this meant we could walk in the peace and quiet off from the city that lay surprisingly close. This has easily become my favourite spot in KL now and I am trying to organise an office picnic there – however I am not too sure how many people would attend – as it requires something Malaysians are not very fond off, walking!
At the end of our leisurely stroll through the parkland, we came across the National Museum. While the building was very impressive with its enormous pitched roofs the contents within the walls were nothing more than souvenirs from the colonial times and what they call Modern Malaysia. The fresco outside on the walls was by far my favourite thing about the museum. It depicts the history of the country in simple images picking out the major events – including the coming of the Dutch, Portuguese and of course the British. What I loved about it was how the British were depicted – Men with colonial hats and Women carrying delicate umbrellas.
From the National Museum we headed towards Petaling Street, aka Chinatown! Once we arrived we knew that the Sensory Overload mentioned about Little India was shoved into overdrive here. The very narrow market alleys held tiny kiosks selling everything from Rolex’s to Louis Vuitton bags – of course it goes without saying that they were all fake – unless we were to believe that you could buy a Gucci wallet for Fifteen Ringgit. While initially I liked this place for its character, it was just this same reason that I ended up being annoyed by it. The constant bombardment from the retailers asking you to buy their goods wore thin, especially when they would not take no for an answer. I walked behind a poor Australian man who was followed by two men trying to sell him a Louis Vuitton wallet for most of the street.
Having had enough of the chaos, we decided to head home and stop being tourists once again. The three day weekend was over – now it was time for work, once again!
