Well known hotels, such as, Marriott, Ritz, Westin and Sheraton are there to satisfy your lodging needs.  Two well known symbols, the Hard Rock Café and Planet Hollywood are there to feed you.   Malls filled with elegant stores and top named brands are in abundance, as are (possibly) more familiar names such as, Subway, McDonalds, Burger King and the ubiquitous 7-11.  The Petronas Twin Towers, the world’s 3^rd tallest structure (after Dubai and Taipei) towers 1,483 ft above the city can also be found in KL.  A terrifying 40 stories up the two buildings are connected with a walkway bridge.

English (as in American English) is the chosen widely-used second language.  On the other hand, Americans in Kuala Lumpur were not observed in abundance despite Malaysia’s heartening attitude toward the U.S.  Who then does visit Malaysia?  Possibly not every country in the world is represented, but certainly every Asian country, plus Australia and New Zealand.  Those from Great Britain I am told head for the beaches on the east side of the Malay Peninsula.  A peninsula that has Malaysia sandwiched between Singapore at its southern end with Thailand stretched above it.  

The South China Sea laps its eastern boundaries while Taiwan, Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan are among its South China Sea neighbors.    Okinawa in particular looks out to the South China Sea.  I know this as a fact having recently visited my daughter and son-in-law in Okinawa and peeked out at the South China Sea from their windows many times.  Little did I know that less than a year later I'd be peeking back at them from the other side of this massive sea?  Of course, the Island of Taiwan mars our view of each other. 

I was in Malaysia to play golf, so frankly my sightseeing time was somewhat curtailed.  Also, my 4-star Concorde Hotel Shah Alam was not in KL but in Selangor adjacent to the striking four minarets topped Blue Mosque.   The Shah Alam is managed by an elegantly dressed New Zealander, Karl Muir and he is assisted by the personable Margret Lindblom-Lou in sales and the efficient Karen in the business office.  Persnickety traveler that I am I can assure you that they were supported by a well trained staff from housekeeping to the restaurant service.  

That said, our group of golfers did manage to do a bit of sightseeing by bus in between rounds of golf and hotel receptions.   Traveling around Selangor we were able to visit some splendid sites which included the current capital Kuala Lumpur and the future capital Putrajaya.   Permit me to briefly explain the capital city situation. 

Putrajaya is a planned city under construction and will eventually be the administrative capital for the federal government of Malaysia.  It will also be the central point for all the foreign embassies.  The intention is to leave Kuala Lumpur as its financial and commercial center and ultimately reduce the traffic in KL “by constructing Malaysia’s first intelligent garden city,” Putrajaya.   I believe the intention is to bookend these two cities so as to develop a thoroughfare similar to the Washington, DC--Baltimore corridor.   

In conjunction with Putrajaya another new city is being constructed called Cyberjaya (nicknamed by locals as Cybercity.)   I believe Cyberjaya is unique to the world.  It is perhaps the world’s first city built strictly to house Industrial Technology (IT) rather than a “Knowledge-Economy (K-Economy)”.   I'm not preaching that this is the city of the future, but if you're in the “IT” business you might want to check Cyberjaya out on the Internet at http://www.cyberjaya-msc.com/