Milliman6

Chris Milliman for Rapha. Reminds me of the Beef Wellington at The Smoke House in Malaysia.


http://www.selectism.com/features/chris-milliman/0/

Mr T

Originally uploaded by VertigoCycle

Here's a head tube badge to be proud of! I was put onto these guys after a bit of hub gearing chat with the The Peripatetic Pedaller, but I thought this was more fun. If you're interested, you should definitely check out Joe's custom 6 speed rear hub on his Malaysian Maverick- food for thought.

http://joeadnan.blogspot.com/2010/01/maverick-durance-one-year-on.html 

KL Twin Towers vs. Taipei 101

Before moving to Asia I recall acknowledging the battle for the world’s tallest building between these two Asian emerging powers in a kind of re-enactment of New York back in the day when the Empire State nudged out the Chrysler for top honours (image from here). 

In this 21st Century equivalent scenario it was Taipei 101 that emerged as ‘The Empire State’, taking over from KL’s Twin Towers the brief accolade as world’s tallest building, until the completion of the Burj Khalifa earlier this year. We’re now in a position where these buildings make an interesting comparison as reflections of their respective country’s socio-economic prospects and aspirations, especially since it now doesn’t really matter if you’re the 2nd, 3rd or 4th tallest- 1st is the only number that matters in that battle. So, leaving the issue of who is tallest aside for a moment, and seeing as I’ve visited both buildings within brief timescales I thought they’d make an interesting subject for comparison.

Cityscape

Both buildings are visible from miles around and stand head and shoulders above anything else out there. They emerge from the skyline in the unlikeliest of places and dominate as you enter both cities from the airport. I’ll leave judgment of their respective forms for later but in terms of impression on sky line you’d have to call it a dead heat.

Tourist Attraction

101 is quite a remarkable tourist experience. There are queues for the lift that even at 11am on a Monday morning lasted 20 minutes. And what a lift is- the world’s fastest, taking you up half a kilometer in 30 seconds! When you get up there the views are spectacular and the sense of height is quite remarkable. Living in Hong Kong I’m used to being 30 or 40 stories up and height doesn’t bother me so much, but being on the 92nd floor is the highest I’ve even been and whatever you think of the building, it is amazing to be up there. 

What is perhaps equally remarkable is that they have marketed everything, from the stabilizing damper (Damper Baby) to the Jade ornaments on sale and the ubiquitous gift shop junk.





I’d like to say I had the equivalent experience in KL, but didn’t get there early enough to make the ticket give away (you need to be there before 8am and well, I was on holiday).

Besides, they only take you up to the sky bridge on the 40th floor, so we agreed that a much better option was evening cocktails on the 33rd floor of a nearby hotel overlooking the Twin Towers. A tough call given the circumstances but I think 101 has to get the nod in this respect.

Contribution to City

View Tapei in a larger map

It is here that the two buildings suddenly become world’s apart. Taipei 101 stands as an isolated monolith with no connection to it’s surrounding area. It is what it is, but in terms of contribution to city I couldn’t see what it offered beyond another expensive mall. If I lived in Taipei I can’t see myself spending much time mixing it in the mall with the coach loads of mainland tourist who visit.

KL’s Twin Towers on the other hand really surprised me in terms of what they offered. Yes, there is another expensive mall- which is the Asian way, but there was a complete change in terms of clientele and ground floor experience. Locals and tourists alike seemed to love the place, soaking up the shopping and, most importantly, the relationship to KLCC park. There were nice coffee shops where you could stop, watch the world go by and enjoy this little bit of calm green oasis. 

View Kuala Lumpur in a larger map


The area seemed to have been masterplanned coherently around the towers and this was obviously their new modern civic hub, with the shops, offices, hotels, restaurants and a concert hall linked to the tower’s base. If there’s a criticism it is that it would have been nice if the very formal axial relationship between park and city, via tower base led to something more coherent than the busy highways surrounding. But, this is Kuala Lumpur and to achieve what they have done must be considered a success.

Architecture

Of course, things like cityscape and contribution to city define a building’s architectural success in a much more fundamental way than any stylistic niceties, that ultimately come down to personal preference. I think it’s established that KL wins already on the count of it actually working as a nice bit of city. But hey, I’ve got opinions too, so why not go for it! 

As I say, before coming to Asia, I’d watched these buildings go up from afar and dismissed them both as cynical Americanised interpretations of Eastern culture that were pure kitsch, and not serious Architecture (with a capital ‘A’) per se. Taipei 101 lived up to this expectation- it’s a horrid and obvious take on the stacked temple with ornamentation of the ugliest form that gets even worse as you get up close. The cladding is cheap and the building looks old already. It’s everything nasty about modern day China- throwaway culture and built to fall apart.

KL’s Twin Towers had never captured my imagination either. I never felt so strongly against them but I certainly thought they looked rather ornamental and not in keeping with the dictum ‘a building should be what it wants to be’. Actually seeing it within it’s context of Kuala Lumpur I have to say I reconsider. The plan is generated off two squares, one rotated 45 degrees, with arcs built around a radius off these square’s intersections. It’s a very Islamic formal move that references in quite a subtle way the surrounding mosques and the end result is actually quite a nice modern interpretation of this historical architecture. 

I wasn’t expecting to like them, but I thought these towers were very contextual and considered. They’re obviously modern, and sure, they’re a bit kitsch, but it’s in a likeable way. Furthermore, the cladding is of a remarkable standard for SE Asia and it still looks good. The gleaming stainless steel (a la Cheung Kong Centre in Hong Kong) is a bit of a Cesar Pelli trademark and it’s something that really comes to life when you see it in the flesh. Again it comes down to the Architecture forming part of the contribution to city- these towers gleam and reflect from miles around. There is a sense locals are proud, and they look to these towers as a sign of a prosperous future. I went to KL with no expectations, but I came back pleasantly surprised.


Gratuitous KL photos below:

KL 10

Fraser's Hill Down > Up

Tuesday was much more pleasant at just the 80km riding down and then back up the usual climb way up Fraser’s Hill (reservoir at base pictured). This meant not so much time spent in scorching sun as I was a bit worried I'd come a bit too close to heat exhaustion yesterday and the body may not react well to more of the same. So, a nice normal ride followed by a very chilled afternoon lounging around the Smokehouse seemed a more civilised way to spend my little holiday. 

Alongside books on Scottish castles I've also been reading the Mark Beaumont ‘around the world’ book. I have the greatest respect for him for what he did, and what he talks about with the mental side being the hardest aspect I can completely relate to. I've done long distances solo before and even toured solo, but somehow I'd forgotten a bit what it is like. It's hard- you question yourself, your motivation in a way you don't need to when you're in a group or you're racing. ‘A chapeau’ as they say in France.

Finally, I know I've blogged about the Smokehouse before but it really is amazing- they have pictures on the wall of places like Borrowdale and Norfolk, which is the stylistic cue, but it's staffed by mainly Muslim Malays and of course the local vehicle of choice is a Proton not a Ford.

I still think their Tea & Scones followed by Beef Wellington is hard to beat after a long day's riding, especially when the sunset is like this. I only wish the flat lands of Malaysia had a bit more to offer and a bit more opportunity for poor innocent Western cyclists to stay cool beyond the petrol stations…

Fraser Hill > Kuala Lipis > Fraser's Hill

It wasn’t meant to be this hard. Sitting in yet another Petronas petrol station, trying to force down yet more water and eat some crisps to get some salt in the system I was trying to remember why on earth I’d checked out of my executive suite in KL, traveled 3hrs to get up a hill to another nice hotel, only to trade it all in for a petrol station. But right at that moment I knew it was the only place I could be. An overheating core and a seemingly unending afternoon on a road that was getting busier and busier in the baking equatorial sun with 30+C heat and 90% humidity had finally taken its toll. I felt spent, not sure what I was doing here or how I was going to go on but for that moment A/C was the only solution. Maybe by the time I left it would have cooled down. I’m not sure how long I spent there but by the time I left it certainly hadn’t got any cooler and the road was busier still.

The morning had been good- I’d made my turning point of Kuala Lipis 102km in with plenty of time for lunch at a nice steady 32kph average, enjoying the ride. Kuala Lipis had been sold to me by the taxi driver from KL (some know him as Ronnie) on the basis of a clean river where they have a fresh fish festival each year. This spurned me on, which visions of a tropical Seine like environment with some fine food to accompany. The river was in fact the usual Asian shade of brown and the waterside bistro I hankered after turned into a Chinese hawker stall in a shaded alley off the back of the train station. Surprisingly a Euro backpacker had also found his way to this unremarkable town and I joined him for lunch. He was just passing though waiting for a train. Not much else to do in Kuala Lipis.

The afternoon was a different story. My speed was fine and I didn’t feel like I was pushing it but my heart rate just kept on going a zone too high compared with where I thought it should be. This is where the A/C induced petrol station breaks started- out of a need to cool down. I discovered some interested things about Malaysian petrol stations, like the prayer room out back by the toilets. And where else could you find some windscreen wiper bottles arranged on the floor in the shape of the company logo?

Am I hallucinating? No, I have photographic evidence! God it's hot, why don’t I ride in normal places like the Alpes? Why would anyone ride a bike in Malaysia??? After all the petrol station breaks, including the rather prolonged one with the crisps, I eventually turned off the main road and found my answer.

The village was evidently somewhere tourists don't go- being at the bottom of the back way up Frasers there is no reason to go there- so I was greated with lots more funny looks than usual. My requests for water were met with much hilarity in the bar where I stopped, but they did serve me 100+, a sort of Malaysian Sprite, which did the trick also. 

I like this quick photo of a little girl checking out my Garmin- obviously so different to her village life, quite the contrast. She didn't understand when I tried to explain “look-170km and still the big hill to go”. I don’t think any of them understood how much water I’d need to carry to make it up the last 35km climb without any more places to buy such luxuries.

The climb back up Frasers was actually remarkably pleasant and quite enjoyable. I'd expected this to be the hardest part of the ride but in actual fact as the temperature dropped and I took advantage of the shade from the trees I got into a rhythm and just started to enjoy the sound of the birds, the steady gradient and the sheer beauty of the place. I hadn't realised quite how much the traffic on the flats had worn me mentally and how much the heat had taken out of me pyhsically. Given the distances involved the legs felt reasonable and I was pleased not to cramp but at the end of the epic climb and after 205km I was pleased to see 'Ye Olde Smokehouse'. I made it at least 12litres of water / coke / 100+ consumed and a 10.5hr ride, but only 7.5 of that ride time.

Looking in the mirror was a sorry sight, but nothing some tea & scones couldn't fix!

Turns out this is the highest scoring TRIMP ride I’ve done since recording these efforts. The 2^nd highest being, yes, Fraser’s Hill earlier this year! In terms of lessons learned I won't be doing another unsupported ride of that distance without any modern day hydration / energy foods and relying on petrol stations alone! Much as I dislike all that cr*p it does kind of work in these situations. I also decided that there was no need to ride Genting again the next day…


Full photo album for Fraser's Hill below:

Fraser 10