{"id":971,"date":"2010-03-13T19:02:55","date_gmt":"2010-03-13T19:02:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nomadscatalans.net\/fetataiwan\/?p=971"},"modified":"2010-03-14T14:16:26","modified_gmt":"2010-03-14T14:16:26","slug":"per-feina-kuala-lumpur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nomadscatalans.net\/fetataiwan\/?p=971","title":{"rendered":"Per feina: Kuala LumpurBusiness trip: Kuala Lumpur"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

La setmana passada vaig haver d’anar a Kuala Lumpur<\/a> en un viatge de feina. Aprofito per explicar-vos l’experi\u00e8ncia del que representa un viatge per feina a un lloc desconegut.<\/p>\n

Viatge d’anada<\/h4>\n

\"CIMG2845\"Havia d’estar a Kuala Lumpur el dilluns a les 10 del mat\u00ed, amb el que em va tocar viatjar el diumenge al migdia. A \u00c0sia, degut a les grans dist\u00e0ncies, la majoria dels avions s\u00f3n dels realment grans, tipus Boieng 747<\/a> o Boeing 777<\/a>. En aquest viatge per\u00f2, em va tocar un Boeing 737<\/a>, la mena d’avions m\u00e9s normals a Europa. Aix\u00f2 va fer el trajecte m\u00e9s llarg (la velocitat punta de l’avi\u00f3 \u00e9s 100 km\/h m\u00e9s lenta que els models m\u00e9s grans) i m\u00e9s inc\u00f2mode (menys espai i sense pantalla per entretenir-se). Habitualment no hi ha temps d’estudiar la destinaci\u00f3 com faries per unes vacances. Jo he agafat el costum de consultar el Wikitravel<\/a>, imprimir-lo i llegir-lo a l’avi\u00f3.<\/p>\n

Un cop arribat a l’aeroport<\/a>, taxi cap al hotel. Vaig arribar a l’hotel cap a les 21:30
\n\"CIMG2846\"<\/p>\n

\"kulrn_phototour49\"Kuala Lumpur, o Malaysia en general, \u00e9s un dels llocs m\u00e9s barats del m\u00f3n per disfrutar d’un hotel de 5 estrelles. Tot i reservar a \u00faltima hora, pagant uns 110-120\u20ac la nit, em vaig allotjar al Renaissance Kuala Lumpur<\/a> ja que la confer\u00e8ncia del dilluns era all\u00e0 mateix.<\/p>\n

L’hotel est\u00e0 b\u00e9 per\u00f2 les habitacions s\u00f3n antigues i no estan gaire acondicionades per treballar des d’all\u00e0. Vaig tenir problemes per conectar-me a internet, les claus electr\u00f2niques fallaven i totes les llums es controlaven des d’una mena de consola central for\u00e7a complicada.
\n\"CIMG2925\"<\/p>\n

Dia 1<\/h4>\n

Al llevar-me vaig poder disfrutar d’unes bones vistes de les Petrona Towers<\/a>, que estaven for\u00e7a aprop de l’hotel. El buffet de l’esmorzar era espectacular… llastim\u00e0 que al mat\u00ed no tinc gaire gana.\"CIMG2901\"<\/p>\n

I tot seguit cap a la feina! …\u00a0 a la planta baixa de l’hotel per unes jornades\/xerrades i unes demostracions.<\/p>\n

\"CIMG2852\"\"CIMG2854\"<\/p>\n

Aix\u00f2 va durar fins a les 16:00, amb una pausa per dinar (al mateix hotel, \u00e9s clar).\u00a0 Vaig encadenar-ho amb una reuni\u00f3 (al bar de l’hotel) que es va encadenar amb un sopar (amb la mateixa gent) al Malaysia Tourism Center<\/a> … just davant de l’hotel. \u00c9s un lloc molt de turistes: sopar buffet + balls tradicionals. Els qui em coneixeu sabeu que no \u00e9s el meu tipus de lloc.<\/p>\n

\"IMAG0215\" \"IMAG0216\"<\/p>\n

Com podeu veure: hotel + hotel + sopar davant l’hotel…<\/p>\n

Dia 2<\/h4>\n

El segon i tercer dia hav\u00edem d’anar a un altre hotel, per anar a unes confer\u00e8ncies<\/a> del Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU)<\/a> i tamb\u00e9 organitzar unes demostracions.<\/p>\n

El tr\u00e0nsit \u00e9s terrible a Kuala Lumpur a l’hora punta. Per sort l’hotel on hav\u00edem d’anar estava nom\u00e9s a una parada del monorail<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"compo\"<\/p>\n

I tot seguit un altre dia de confer\u00e8ncies i demostracions.<\/p>\n

\"CIMG2868\" \"IMAG0218\"
\nEn acabar les jornades, cap a les 18:00, una altre reuni\u00f3 (organitzada el dia abans). Vaig arribar a l’hotel molt cansat i nom\u00e9s em vaig animar a anar caminant fins a les Petrona Towers i sopar al Pizza Hut del centre comercial que hi ha dintre.<\/p>\n

\"CIMG2871\"\"CIMG2875\"
\n\"CIMG2882\"A Malaysia tenen organitzada una campanya interna que li diuen \u00abOne Malaysia\u00bb<\/a>. Era f\u00e0cil veure anuncis, gent amb pins o sentir-ho durant els discursos del pol\u00edtics. La idea principal \u00e9s que no hi hagi difer\u00e8ncies entre Kuala Lumpur i la resta del pais a nivell de serveis b\u00e0sics, i a la vegada \u00e9s vol que Malaysia sigui el pa\u00eds n\u00famero 1 en una s\u00e8rie d’aspectes. Tamb\u00e9 \u00e9s important unificar un pa\u00eds on conviuen moltes cultures i religions (de manera for\u00e7a harmoniosa pel que jo vaig poder veure).<\/p>\n

… i cap al llit.<\/p>\n

Dia 3<\/h4>\n

M\u00e9s confer\u00e8ncies i m\u00e9s demostracions (s\u00ed, s\u00f3n les mateixes fotos d’abans :))
\n\"CIMG2868\" \"IMAG0218\"
\nTot i que no es pot fer en tots els viatges per feina, aquest dia a la tarda vaig aconseguir tenir una mica de temps lliure per poder fer el turista.<\/p>\n

Primer a l’hotel mateix, on hi ha una piscina exterior brutal a la quarta planta. Nom\u00e9s vaig estar-hi uns 15 minuts.<\/p>\n

\"hotel\"<\/p>\n

Havia de marxar perqu\u00e8 havia quedat amb l’Emilia (un company de feina a Taipei m’havia passat el seu tel\u00e8fon). L’Emilia \u00e9s la fundadora i directora del TMSART<\/a>, una galeria d’art enfocada a la difusi\u00f3 i venda de productes relacionats amb el Batik<\/a>. El Batik \u00e9s una t\u00e8cnica art\u00edstica que consisteix a encerar amb cera fosa les zones de la tela que es volen deixar sense tintar. <\/em> Despr\u00e9s es fa fondre la cera i es recull en un recipient. L’operaci\u00f3 es va repetint aix\u00ed succesivament amb cada color per separat. El Batik \u00e9s molt popular a diversos pa\u00efsos de la regi\u00f3 i a Malaysia \u00e9s una art nacional.<\/p>\n

\"batik\"<\/p>\n

Al tornar a l’hotel encara vaig trobar gent de les confer\u00e8ncies al lobby <\/em>i ens vam animar a treure el cap a la zona de bars m\u00e9s propera. Hi havia molts militars americans (ja que un vaixell havia atracat en un port proper de Kuaa Lumpur, feia pocs dies). Nosaltres vam acabar al Aloha KL<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMAG0223\"<\/p>\n

Tornada i conclusions<\/h4>\n

Tot i anar a dormir cap a les 2, em vaig haver de llevar a les 6:30 per no perdre l’avi\u00f3 de tornada a Taipei, a les 9:20. Despr\u00e9s de 4 hores d’avi\u00f3 i una estona de taxi vaig arribar a l’oficina a les 15:00…<\/p>\n

Com heu pogut llegir, un viatge de feina no \u00e9s un viatge de plaer tot i que a vegades hi ha oportunitats per poder encaixar-hi una mica de turisme.<\/p>\n

Respecte la primera impresi\u00f3 de Malaysia, jo ho compararia una mica amb Gr\u00e8cia o Turquia per\u00f2 amb paisatges tropicals. Malaysia \u00e9s una societat multicultural, amb una majoria de malays, un 25% de xinesos, un 8% d’indis i un 12% d’altres. Els turistes sobretot anglesos (\u00e9s una ex-col\u00f2nia), australians,\u00a0 americans i n\u00f2rdics. \u00c9s un pais musulm\u00e0 per\u00f2 amb forta pres\u00e8ncia d’altres religions\/fe com la cristiana, el budisme o el taoisme, cosa que permet que es pugui beure alcohol o menjar porc sense cap problema.<\/p>\n

Kuala Lumpur en si no t\u00e9 massa encant (pel que jo vaig poder veure) per\u00f2 pel que diuen les guies de viatge, sembla que el pais amaga racons interesants fora de les ciutats i est\u00e0 menys explotat a nivell tur\u00edstic que la ve\u00efna Thail\u00e0ndia.<\/p>\n

Fins a la pr\u00f2xima? … potser<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Last week I had to go to Kuala Lumpur<\/a> on a business trip. Let me use this trip as an example to explain what a business trip to an unknown place is.<\/p>\n

Going there<\/h4>\n

\"CIMG2845\"I had to be at Kuala Lumpur on Monday at 10:00am, so I had to travel on Sunday afternoon. At Asia, due to the huge distances, most of the airplanes are really huge, like Boieng 747<\/a> or Boeing 777<\/a>. But in this fligth from Taipei to Kuala Lumpur, a Boeing 737<\/a> was used. This is the kind of smaller planes more usual in Europe. This fact increased the duration of the flight (as the top speed is 100 km\/h lower than on the bigger models) and made the experience less comfortable (less space and no personal entertainament system). Usually there is no time to study the destination, as you would do for a holiday trip, so I am now used to print the Wikitravel<\/a> page and read it on the plane.<\/p>\n

Once arrived at the airport<\/a>, taxi to the hotel. I reached my room around 21:30 and went for a quick dinner downstairs.
\n\"CIMG2846\"<\/p>\n

\"kulrn_phototour49\"Kuala Lumpur, or Malaysia in general, is one of the cheapest places to enjoy a 5 star hotel. Even I booked at the last minute, for 110-120\u20ac per night, I could stay at the Renaissance Kuala Lumpur<\/a> as the conference on Monday was at the same hotel.<\/p>\n

The hotel is quite ok but the rooms are old and not very well prepared to work from there. I had problems to connect to the internet, the electronic keys failed and all the room was controled from a central console (that was not easy to operate).
\n\"CIMG2925\"<\/p>\n

Day 1<\/h4>\n

After waking up I could enjoy a very nice view of the Petrona Towers<\/a>, that were not far from the hotel. The breakfast buffet was spectacular… it is a pity that in the morning I am usually not very hungry.\"CIMG2901\"<\/p>\n

Let’s go to work! … at the basement of the hotel where the conferences and demonstrations where held.<\/p>\n

\"CIMG2852\"\"CIMG2854\"<\/p>\n

That lasted until 16:00, with a break for lunch (at the some hotel, of course). That was followed with a meeting (at the bar of the hotel) and then there was a dinner (with the same people) at the Malaysia Tourism Center<\/a> … just in front of the hotel. It is a touristic place: buffet dinner + traditional dancings. Those who know me a little bit can imagine that this is not my kind of place.<\/p>\n

\"IMAG0215\" \"IMAG0216\"<\/p>\n

As you can see: hotel + hotel + dinner in front of the hotel…<\/p>\n

Day 2<\/h4>\n

On the second and third day we had to go to another hotel, for more conferences<\/a>, from Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU)<\/a> and some additional demonstrations.<\/p>\n

The transit is terrible at Kuala Lumpur during the rush hour. We were lucky as the hotel we had to go for just one stop away using the monorail<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"compo\"<\/p>\n

And conferences and demonstrations all day long.<\/p>\n

\"CIMG2868\" \"IMAG0218\"
\nThe conferences ended around 18:00 but I had to join another meeting (organized the day before). I crashed at the hotel really tired and I only had energy to walk to the Petrona Towers and have a quick dinner at Pizza Hut at the mall located at the basement of the towers.<\/p>\n

\"CIMG2871\"\"CIMG2875\"
\n\"CIMG2882\"At Malaysia they are running an internal promotional campaign \u00abOne Malaysia\u00bb<\/a>. It was easy to spot adverts, people with pins or some words on the political speeches. The main idea is to minimize the differences between Kuala Lumpur and the rural areas of the country (specially on the basic services), at the same time Malaysia wants to be number 1 on a various fronts in the South-East Asia. It is also important to unify the country where various cultures and religions coexist (without any big problems as far as I could see).<\/p>\n

… and then to sleep.<\/p>\n

Day 3<\/h4>\n

More conferences and more demonstrations (yes, sames pictures as before :))
\n\"CIMG2868\" \"IMAG0218\"
\nEven if it is not always possible on a business trip, this afternoon I managed to arrange some free time to act like a tourist.<\/p>\n

Starting at the same hotel to enjoy a huge swimming pool on the 4th floor. I only stayed there for 15 minutes.<\/p>\n

\"hotel\"<\/p>\n

I had to leave because I had an appointment with Emilia (a colleague from the company gave me her contact). Emilia is the founder and director of the TMSART<\/a>, an art gallery focused on the promotion and on selling Batik<\/a> products. Batik is an art technique where wax is applied on the area that does not need to be painted. After that the wax is melted and collected. The process is repeated with every colour that needs to be applied. Batik is very popular in various countries of the regions and at Malaysia is the most prominent national art.<\/p>\n

\"batik\"<\/p>\n

Back to the hotel I found people from the conferences at the lobby and decided to join them for a drink in a nearby area. We ended up a the Aloha KL<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMAG0223\"<\/p>\n

Going back and final remarks<\/h4>\n

Even I went to sleep around 2am, I had to wake up at 6:30am in order to take the plane back to Taipei at 09:20am. After 4 hours on the plain and around 50 minutes on a taxi, I finally arrived at the office around 15:00…<\/p>\n

As you can see conclude from this post, a business trip is obviously not a pleasure trip although sometimes it is possible to act like a tourist for couple of hours.<\/p>\n

After this trip, my personal first impression of Malaysia is that it is like Greece or Turkey with tropical landscapes. Malaysia is a very multicultural society, Malays being the dominant group, 25% of Chinese (they speak Cantonese, not Mandarin), around 8% of Indian people and 12% of others. Most of the tourist are from UK (Malaysia is a former British colony indeed), Australians, Americans (navy people and business people) and nordics. Malaysia is mainly a muslim country but with other groups such as Christians, Budists or Taoist being aso important. This fact makes it possible to drink alcohol or to eat pork without any problem.<\/p>\n

Kuala Lumpur is not a very charming city (at least the bits that I could see) but according to the travel guides, the country hides a number of very interesting destinations on the rural areas with the advantage of being less touristic than the nearby Thailand.<\/p>\n

See you again in KL? … maybe<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

La setmana passada vaig haver d’anar a Kuala Lumpur en un viatge de feina. Aprofito per explicar-vos l’experi\u00e8ncia del que representa un viatge per feina a un lloc desconegut. Viatge d’anada Havia d’estar a Kuala Lumpur el dilluns a les 10 del mat\u00ed, amb el que em va tocar viatjar el diumenge al migdia. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,10,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-malaysia","category-business","category-turisme"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t