Done with KL
Yes, am done with the Kuala Lumpur leg of my career as a TV journalist...and I have to say that it's not a trip I will look back upon with any great affection. There was far too much work as I have mentioned in one of my previous posts from here. And when I say 'far too much work', I mean far too much work even for someone like me who loves to work. So that's saying something.
The distances were unnecessarily great and the whole thing was badly organised in the sense that there were three teams with separate practice and press briefing timings in three different parts of the city and its outskirts. Taxis aren't easy to access in some of these parts and have to be radioed; and they often take hours to finally arrive after a lot of no taxis, laa messages from bored sounding incoherent local women on the phone. Plus, the lack of any gaps between matches meant we were previewing the next match after just having finished reviewing one. And so on and so forth and yada, yada, yada...
The second big negative about KL is that there isn't much to do here if you are not too kicked about spending the late evenings in nightclubs (or pick up joints or whatever)...which is fine, because it's not like Delhi, for example, offers anything more. But when you come out of India, you sort of expect something different, which is not the case with Malaysia. Unexpected. Something you would be fine with in Singapore or Hong Kong I suppose... And oh, of course, you can shop here if you want and get all the sandwich massages you please.
Now the shopping part troubles me anyway. Because of my colour-blindness and because of my inherent impatience with things, it's very difficult for me to walk around for hours in shopping complexes/areas looking for exactly what I want. And in KL it was made worse because I had to spend half my money on a new cellphone after the one I brought with me was stolen.
But then it's not all bad and I have to admit it. The options when it comes to food are immense. And watching cricket at the Kinrara Oval was quite fascinating as well. Plus, of course, the fact that we managed to do more constructive work than any other channel was a good thing.
We leave today...stop by at The Aquaria before checking out. That's the place I had mentioned about earlier. It's just next door to the hotel, and having checked out the Shark's Fin Soup here on one of the nights out, we'll get to meet the fin's owner now.
So not all bad. But certainly not a place that I would recommend to anyone looking for a short flight out of India. Choose Sri Lanka instead. It's waaay more beautiful. And dirt cheap.
Selamat tinggal to all of you then, till I blog again.
The distances were unnecessarily great and the whole thing was badly organised in the sense that there were three teams with separate practice and press briefing timings in three different parts of the city and its outskirts. Taxis aren't easy to access in some of these parts and have to be radioed; and they often take hours to finally arrive after a lot of no taxis, laa messages from bored sounding incoherent local women on the phone. Plus, the lack of any gaps between matches meant we were previewing the next match after just having finished reviewing one. And so on and so forth and yada, yada, yada...
The second big negative about KL is that there isn't much to do here if you are not too kicked about spending the late evenings in nightclubs (or pick up joints or whatever)...which is fine, because it's not like Delhi, for example, offers anything more. But when you come out of India, you sort of expect something different, which is not the case with Malaysia. Unexpected. Something you would be fine with in Singapore or Hong Kong I suppose... And oh, of course, you can shop here if you want and get all the sandwich massages you please.
Now the shopping part troubles me anyway. Because of my colour-blindness and because of my inherent impatience with things, it's very difficult for me to walk around for hours in shopping complexes/areas looking for exactly what I want. And in KL it was made worse because I had to spend half my money on a new cellphone after the one I brought with me was stolen.
But then it's not all bad and I have to admit it. The options when it comes to food are immense. And watching cricket at the Kinrara Oval was quite fascinating as well. Plus, of course, the fact that we managed to do more constructive work than any other channel was a good thing.
We leave today...stop by at The Aquaria before checking out. That's the place I had mentioned about earlier. It's just next door to the hotel, and having checked out the Shark's Fin Soup here on one of the nights out, we'll get to meet the fin's owner now.
So not all bad. But certainly not a place that I would recommend to anyone looking for a short flight out of India. Choose Sri Lanka instead. It's waaay more beautiful. And dirt cheap.
Selamat tinggal to all of you then, till I blog again.
posted by Black Muddy River at 6:57 am
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