5Y6M 3Y9M 15年ぶりのKL 15 years on

JasonママがKL（クアラルンプール）から帰国したため、みんなでKLへ行って来た。私にとっては15、6年ぶりのKL。

シンガポール在住時代、たまにKLに遊びに行っていたので、正確には最後にいつ行ったのか記憶は定かではない。どちらにしろ、ツインタワーや地下鉄、モノレールなんてものはなかったし、トイレは汚かった。

私の印象では、KLは15年前のシンガポールに追いついたという感じ。今ではシンガポールは更に進化してしまって全くの未知の世界だから、KLには懐かしさすら覚える。

今回気がついた事の一つに「街」の魅力がある。街を徘徊しながら、気に入ったカフェに入ったり、お店に入ったりという何気ない時間の過ごし方は、私にとっての一番のセラピー。残念ながらペナンにはそういう場所がない。

そして中央と地方の格差も。KLはペナンに比べるとバイクの数が断然少ないし、年代物のプロトンは皆無に等しく、新車が多い。（Jasonママは、シティだから羽振りがいい人が多いだけの事だと言っていたが。）なんと言っても、ペナンではよく見かける我が愛車、ケンバラすらほとんど見なかった。

・・・とは言え、所詮小さな都会なので、私には物足りないだろうな・・・。

ところで、1992年の夏、ブリストルから帰国する時に立ち寄ってお世話になったオンちゃんのお母さんのコニー、オンちゃんのおじさんのMrLawに再会。相変わらず、食べろ食べろと色々ご馳走してくれて、明日も明後日もどこどこへ連れて行ってやると気にかけてくれた。オンちゃんファミリーは、チャイニーズ式ホスピタリティの私の中の原点だ。

As Jason's mum went back to NZ from Kuala Lumpur, we all went to spend 4 days over there. It's been 15 or 16 years since I was in KL last time.

When I was working in Singapore, I went to KL from time to time, and to be honest, I can't recall exactly when I went there last time. Whenever it was, there were no monorails, no underground or no twin towers, and the toilets were not really clean.

I felt KL has at last caught up with Singapore of 15 years ago. As Singapore has evolved too far beyond my imagination, KL gives me rather nostalgic feeling of old Singapore. On top of that, I realised the existence of a 'town' is very basic for me, where I can walk around and get into a cafe or shop wherever I want. Unfortunately, there are no such areas in Penang.

It was also obvious that Penang is still much behind. Compared to Penang, there are significantly less motorbikes in KL, I assume more people own cars, and hardly any old boneshaker Protons, which we see a lot every day in Penang. (Well, Jason's mum thinks it's because we were in the centre of KL and most of the people working there are successful high-flyers in the financial industry.) I must point this out as well - in KL, you don't see many Kembara, my car!

Well, though, I will probably get bored sooner if we happened to move to KL, because KL is still relatively a small city after all.....

I had a happy reunion with Connie, Ong's mother, and Mr Law, his uncle. On our way back from Bristol in 1992, Nayumi and I stayed with Ong's family for about 10 days. They are still the same, they try to buy meals and drinks for us, and they keep offering us to take us around on the following day, too. It was really nice to see them again as Ong's family was the starting point of Chinese hospitality for me.