Kuala lumpur

Starting the day with a great breakfast with coffee, fresh pancakes, fruits and omelets, we were looking forward to our very first appointment of the trip. We had arranged a visit at the University Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN), which is a private university, located in Selangor, just outside of Kuala Lumpur. So to live up to one’s name as Germans we left the hotel at 8.00 am by bus to be sure to be on time for our 10 am meeting. During the bus ride, our tour guide explained a bit about life and culture in Malaysia and especially in Kuala Lumpur. A funny fact is to mention the reason why the locals wear their jacket from on back to front when driving their motorbikes:

1.   To protect themselves against wind and rain

2.   To not damage the buttons

3.   To save time through a fast take off

4.   That the girls on the back are free to do their full job

As expected, we arrived early (08.45 am). To pass the time we stopped at a local shop, similar to a coffee house. But instead of drinking coffee, we enjoyed a Teh Tarik, which is a hot milk tea beverage which can be commonly found in restaurants, outdoor stalls and kopi tiams within the Southeast Asian countries of Malaysia and Singapore

   After arriving at UNITEN we were guided to a lecture room, where the representatives addressed their welcomes to us. Dr. Schellhase took the chance for a short lecture on the topic “Why is culture important for business?” with a Q&A session and he handed out hospitality gifts. Afterwards, we took group pictures and got a guided tour through the campus and the new library. Due to spring break the amount of students present was rather small.

We finished off our visit by taking a small lunch in their canteen with local spicy food and jelly juice for drinking.

In the afternoon all of us were free to spend our time as we wanted. So groups split up and most of the students went to the Batu Caves.

Batu Caves are inside a limestone hill that has a series of caves and cave temples in Gombak, Selangor. It takes its name from the Sungai Batu (Stone River), which flows past the hill. The cave is one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside India, and is dedicated to Lord Murugan. Standing at 42.7 m high, it is the world's tallest statue of Murugan. The statue, which cost approximately € 350,000, is made of 1550 cubic metres of concrete, 250 tonnes of steel bars and 300 litres of gold paint brought in from neighbouring Thailand. Rising almost 100 m above the ground, the Batu Caves temple complex consists of three main caves and a few smaller ones.

The biggest, referred to as Cathedral Cave or Temple Cave, has a very high ceiling and features ornate Hindu shrines. To reach it, we had to climb a steep flight of 272 steps. The site is also well known for its numerous macaques, which visitors fed — sometimes involuntarily. These monkeys may also pose a biting hazard to tourists (especially small children) as they can be quite territorial.

The early evening, we spent in China Town also known as Petaling Street to sample the local beer.  China Town is easy to spot in Kuala Lumpur. Red lanterns and various cultural motifs, restaurants and street food vendors add decor to narrow streets lined with the typical market vendors selling everything imaginable, a lot of it definitely illegitimate. Our favorite was definitely the Montblanc Louis Vuitton special edition pen. We tasted some of the street food and drinks and let the melting pot atmosphere work. We enjoyed the first impressions of Kuala Lumpur and thought about what would still be waiting for us in the next days of our journey.

Tuesday, April 11th 2017 - Kuala Lumpur 31 ° C and very sunny

Today, we visited the Asia Pacific Shared Service Center of BASF in downtown Kuala Lumpur. Again, we left early taking the arranged bus. BASF has its office on the 25th floor with an impressive view, which sometimes made it difficult to follow the presentation.  We were welcomed by Paul Gan (Project, Quality & Compliance) and Too Wai Yee (Controlling Services). The presentation took over one hour and had its focus on why and how the service center was set up and its challenges of Asian Pacific Area. The Shared Service Center is part of BASF’s global network of shared service organizations, providing functional services to the BASF group of companies in the Asia Pacific region. As Malaysia developed to become an attractive hub for regional services over the past decade, BASF established the BASF Asia-Pacific Service Centre Sdn Bhd (Shared Service Center) in 2005, providing functional services in the areas of Finance, Human Resources, Environment, Health & Safety, Controlling, Procurement and Information Services to countries across Asia Pacific. Finally, we learned from Sand Dee (HR Services) the difficulties of the Asian labor market. This is characterized by low unemployment and low qualifications. It is difficult to find local Asian employees, who have a level of education that can live up to the european standards.

We all thought it was a pleasant visit and you could really feel the interest of the employees in transferring their ideas and knowledge of their company and site to us.

We finished off with the usual final photo with the management, in front of the company logo.

Our afternoon program included another company visit. We had an appointment with the Executive Director of the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Malaysia (Deutsche Auslandshandelskammer), Thomas Brandt.

After a friendly welcome, he introduced us to his previous career steps and how he ended up in Asia/Malaysia, the structures and the tasks of a German Chamber. Additionally, we had an open discussion about all sorts of topics. Mr Brandt, who additionally has published a few books like "China in Those Days", opened the eyes of the majority of the students when addressing the current palm oil problem that Asia and the whole World has. Malaysia is

In the evening, the group split and did different things, like visiting shopping malls. The Mall Persekutuan Square seemed to be a good place to eat.

Others went to visit the Petronas Towers, had dinner or went to Sky Bars.