Malaysia, Or "Where'd you get those glasses?"

Joan and I set out on our excellent adventure after work on Thursday. We first sailed the high seas to the land of Macau, taxi to the "aeroporto" (this was a Portuguese colony), only to discover our flight was delayed. We took the time to find internet and book a hostel for that night. A 3 -hour flight later, we landed at the Kuala Lumpur (KL) airport, which is actually a Morrison building. We split a taxi, or "tecksi" in Malay, with a self-important Canadian banker from HK for the 73km ride into the city. We dropped him off at his posh hotel and then the driver had a difficult time finding our humble accommodation. Around 2am, we arrived at this beautiful place:This innovated design combines a shower and sink in one easy-to-use facility:We weren't sure, so we ate Corn Flakes:Malaysia is a strongly Muslim country, and this was the first time I'd ever visited one. I was initially apprehensive--mostly a fear of being feared, but that proved to have no grounds, as no one ever seemed to judge the fact that Joan and I didn't have burkas on like every other woman in the city. I'm so thankful that the U.S. has a president with sympathies to--or at least an awareness of--the Muslim community.

Understanding is the essential first step to peace. We don't have to agree--I certainly don't agree with Islam, but ignorant hate on all sides cannot possibly end well. Malaysia, at least on the surface of Kuala Lumpur, seems to have the harmony thing (between Indians, Chinese, and Malays) working. And the food looks like this: Almost every meal looked identical to this. And is was delicious and cheap. The above cost the equivalent of 95 U.S. cents.

A minaret to call Muslims to pray:

The Petronas Towers. The tallest twin-towers IN THE WORLD!:
It was the tallest building from about 1998 to 2003 when Taipei 101 overtook it (and I hear that in a few years, there will be 7 buildings in Dubai taller than that). We even walked across that "Skybridge" between the towers:

We only had a few hours in KL before we needed to go back to the Morrison Building to fly to Singapore, so we did a "Hop On, Hop Off" bus tour. For a mere 38 ringgits (Malay currency), we hopped on a pink bus and periodically alighted, or hopped off, to see the sights. However when.we hopped off in Little India (which was not very Indian, except for a Bollywood song I heard coming out of a cycle shop), we were unable to locate the next place to hop on and ended up taking a tecksi back to the hostel, loading our belongings into the tecksi we had booked, and headed to the airport. En route, I practiced my Malay with the driver. My Malay consists of "please," "thank you" and "dugong", the three things which will get you by in any country.

But I get ahead of myself...more pictures, mostly from the bus.

For The, Dad. A sultan lives here:
For anyone who speaks French:
The Petronas towers as seen from "Little India" which wasn't Indian at all:

A street sign, for those who relish in the ordinary, but do not particularly like relish:Our budget airline, Air Asia, not only provided cheap flight for us (2 round-trip flights for under $300 US total), but also neat umbrellas for the walk in the rain to our plane to Singapore: