Unlike India, I have no problem answering the question “How is Malaysia?” Malaysia is beautiful. Great infrastructure , lovely scenery and awesome people.

One World Hotel – Petaling Jaya

The hotel we arrived at is One World Hotel located in Petaling Jaya a city about 10 Kilometers from Malaysian Capital City, Kuala Lumpur. It is impressive to note that in Malaysia, cities have websites. See for example, Petaling Jaya’s fully interactive website complete with a  link to their Twitter account and a Youtube channel. How cool is that! Can you imagine Mombasa City Council tweeting? I can’t imagine. 🙂 I can imagine. I can imagine because that’s where the world is headed after all. NyeriOnline can attest to this.

I digress.

Back to the hotel.

If you follow Football news then this name may ring a bell. It is the same Hotel that Chelsea are staying during their pre-season tour. I am told that Arsenal were staying in the same hotel last week. Ahem! But do I say!

One world Hotel is a busy Hotel. Our hosts in Malaysia had had to make reservations for us for twin-bed rooms as there were no other rooms available. When we checked in at the hotel on 28th of June, it was fully packed but fortunately, they managed to get two rooms for us,my colleague and I, before the usual check-out time of 12:00 noon.

The TV greets you

The first thing you notice when you get into your room at One World Hotel, is that the TV greets you. That’s right. It knows you. I am not a TV person but this was one TV I couldn’t ignore.

This TV, knew my name.

And, forget the TV, the general manager acknowledges my presence too 😛  Yeah right.

The Country

Malaysia has a population of approximately 28M. It is a mornarchy which basically means they have a King and Queen who are just ceremonial but they also have the Prime Minister who does all the work.

Kuala Lumpur is the capital city of Malaysia but it is Putrajaya city that is the administrative capital of Malaysia.  Now, Putrajaya city is a spectacle. It was planned and built by the Government from scratch.

It is said to be the best planned city in the world.

I found that appaling. I mean, a country where the Government spends time doing things for the people it serves instead of stealing from them.

When I came from Malaysia I came home to stories of people narrating how they had heard on Churchill Live that

once, immediately after indipendence we, Kenya were doing so much better than Malaysia that we loaned them money.

Cry my beloved country! What happened? What happened?!

The People

Malaysian population consists of three main ethnic groups : Malays, Chinese and Indians. Malays are by law, muslims. The Chinese and Indians can choose whatever religion.

Malay is the official language but English and Chinese are widely spoken.

Strangely we did not meet any black person during our stay there, apart from Eric, a friend of my husband, who at hubby’s request, graciously picked us from the Hotel one evening and took us (my Kenyan colleague and I) shopping . God bless you Eric!

But more importantly, no one was looking at us strange because we were black. I can describe Malaysians as warm, friendly and business savvy.

Shopping

Malaysia is a shoppers’ paradise. They have got these huge malls, like four times the size of Westgate. In the evenings we’d take a cab to Kuala Lumpur and spend time shopping and Window shopping at the malls. Whenever you asked how much an item cost you’d do some quick math to see how much that was in Kenya Shillings. 1 Malaysian Ringgit is equivalent to approx.  30 Kenya shillings which tells you that they are way ahead. Malaysia is the 29th Largest economy in the world.

Malaysia is known for electronics. In fact there is a whole mall(huge as they can be) in Kuala Lumpur that just deals with computers and all other devices.

And they are abreast with the latest technology, those people. You get an impression that everyone has an iphone!

And just because, I got myself a white sexy iphone 4 that I am going to be paying for for months on end I will not even let my own kids touch.

MyVi

No, I did not leave out tz (and forget to put a space bar after My). hehe.  Myvi has for the last five years been Malaysia’s best selling car.

Myvi is a small car. What Vitz is to Kenyans, MyVi is to Malaysians. Only in Malaysia they drive their little car with pride, because it is proudly Malaysian.

A brand new Myvi costs around 50,000 Ringgit. I’ll let you do the math.

Who run the world? Girls

Beyonce should have shot the video of her hit song Run the world (girls) in Malaysia. In Malaysia it is women who run the town! You sit in traffic and on your left and right are women driving powerful cars or even Myvis. But of note is that it is mostly women who are on the road.  At the offices it is women who are Chief Finance Officers and ICT managers. But Mostly, Chinese women.

The younger ladies can be seen walking in groups of two or three looking all empowered and clad in hot pants, at the malls buying the latest ipads and iphones.

The food

Oh, I loved the food in Malaysia!  Whether chinese or Malay it was yummy. Unlike in India, Malaysians don’t shy away from meats.

I was disappointed though that they didn’t serve bacon at One world Hotel. Only Halal, the said. For those who thought Halal is a Kenchic brand (I did 🙂 ), then FYI, Halal means something that is permissible to Muslims.

One, Majiwater advises that Malaysian cuisine can be had at Sankara, Nairobi.

Drug free zone

Just before landing at Kuala Lumpur they warned us. They warned us that if anyone was found with drugs, they would be KILLED.

You are joking, right?

No seriously its true. Eric, confirmed this. He told us also that Nigerians in Malaysia had a reputation of drug trafficking.

In Conclusion…

Truth be told, in another life I want to live in Malaysia. It’s so beautiful, you just fall in love. Of note is infrastructure – the subways and all.

And everyone seems to be doing well…. There are no beggars on the streets….just awesome.

And this below; this is Petronas Towers, in Kuala Lumpur. At 88 floors, Petronas towers is the tallest twin building in the world.

Did I mention that they have states in Malaysia? Oh, yes, they do. 13 of them.

Malaysia is like the states but without all the be-sure-to-always-hold-your-fork-on-your-left-hand pretense. 😛