Ah, the Petronas Towers... just about the only thing my ignorant self could identify with Malaysia before coming. Otherwise known as the site for Sean Connery & Catherine Zeta-Jones' film, Entrapment. It is an office building, of the Government Linked Company (GLC), Petronas, and also called KLCC - Kuala Lumpur City Center. Other interesting things about Malaysia are... - Buses often have a sales person on the bus who helps the driver get customers - sometimes, drivers don't leave the bus stop until they get a full bus, thus delaying the "schedule".
- Cabs often try to rip you off - skipping the meter in favor of a verbal agreement. This was quite frustrating, in having to negotiate for a 2 minute cab ride home. Also, they are sometimes so lazy that they won't even stop to pick you up, even if it's 12 AM and they won't get any other business anyways.
- The Malay government heavily favors the ethnic Malays, also called Bumiputera. For instance, publicy-listed businesses must have 30% Bumiputera ownership, developers must reserve 30% of new developments for Bumiputeras, and there are huge affirmative actions in Universities. I went to the National Museum, and paid all of RM 2 (USD 0.57) to get in - the Bumi's got in free!
- They have the "World's Largest Bird Park" - yes, I went - upload photos some other time... it's big, but probaby not the largest. Pretty cool, and I escaped sans bird flu.
Pictures from the plane to KL:
Surprisingly, there's some innovative advertising ideas in KL - the Monorail (their above-ground subway) is sponsored by companies, who have adopted stations, and actually get logo sponsorship on the monorail map.
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