Jeff's Recent Travels

In the past few weeks I’ve been traveling extensively. Dale has already described our trip to Macau, but earlier that week I was in Singapore. The next week I spent in Taipei, Taiwan and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with an overnight back home just to change suitcases. Yes, I actually packed different suitcases for the two trips.

Singapore is a very clean city, but somewhat of a disappointment. In some ways it really is the Asian Switzerland – clean, neat, functional, precise. But from what I saw, it has no grit, no soul, nothing that makes you want to return as a tourist.

Despite the exorbitant taxes and duties placed on cars (to keep them out), the traffic in Singapore is quite heavy. Because of the taxes and the overall level of income, the cars are also quite new. Also because of the affluence, the downtown area is filled with large “label” stores in upscale malls within new high-rise office buildings. We visited one mainly-English bookstore the size of a large Barnes & Noble or Indigo, but on one floor. Most of the books were British imports and there weren’t any bargain bins, so I bought nothing.

The highlight of the visit was a lunch of Black Pepper Crab, Garlic Prawns and Bamboo Clams with one of my colleagues. 

Unfortunately, I don’t often eat shellfish. I found out two days later that my pigging out had resulted in a bout of gout. Unknown to me, shellfish are high in purines, the main cause of gout.

The part of our trip to Macau that Dale didn’t mention was my hobbling around. When my boss and I left for Taiwan on Monday it wasn’t too bad, but by Tuesday night my biggest worry was that they would make us take our shoes off at the airport to go through security and I wouldn’t be able to fit back into mine. In between Taiwan and Malaysia I found the time to visit the doctor and get a prescription to help me out. I looked tres chic walking around Kuala Lumpur in one dress shoe and one Teva sandal, with black socks.

Taipei was a quick two-day trip, and I saw very little. It does boast one of the tallest buildings in the world, the Taipei 101 (509 metres, 1670 feet). It has just recently been beaten out by the Burj Khalifa, the white elephant in Dubai. It in turn had topped the Petronas Towers (see below) in Kuala Lumpur. I had lunch in the Taipei 101, but got no higher than the third floor.

What little I saw of Taipei was nice. Taiwan is a mountainous island, so the views in the distance are pretty, with green mountains rising out of the lowlands. The area in which our office is situated was a former army base, now given over to mid-rise office buildings and high-end apartments and town houses – all built within the last 15 years.

Kuala Lumpur, or KL, as everyone calls it, is a very pretty city – lush, green, lots of park space. It has a somewhat North American feel, as it is more spread out, affording the opportunity for suburban housing tracts. The difference is in the size of the houses and the lots. Suburban Toronto's (905-land) zero-lot line developments look spacious. KL also has a cosmopolitan feel, since it is 60% Malay and 30% Chinese. Most of the rest of the population are Indian. It’s officially a Muslim country, but the only overt sign is the head scarves worn by many (but not most) women.

Not to be outdone by other Asian cities in the quest for a landmark, KL boasts the Petronas Towers (452 m., 1670 ft., see Taipei 101 above) and the KL Tower, a communications tower that looks like the CN Tower and is the fifth tallest freestanding building in the world. We didn’t get near them.

As for eating, Malaysian food is a wonderful blend of Chinese, Malay and Indian food. I tried their specialty, Fish Head Curry, twice. It is apparently Singapore’s claim to fame, but the Malaysian version is perfectly acceptable. It turns out our GM in KL also suffers from gout, so I just ate whatever he did and stayed away from the rest.

The advantage of all this travel is that I’m already at the second rung of the perks ladder with Cathay Pacific. I think it entitles me to two packets of peanuts with my water and the ability to board early so that I can spend more time in the sardine can.

Now that I’m home, with no business trips in the near future, Dale has decided that we must plan another international long weekend. Stay tuned.