Malaysia, truly Asia

It was not to be (see previous post), and we landed in Malaysia at 10.30pm. Between getting off the first malfunctioning plane and onto the second, we only had enough time to procure a diet coke, small bag of peanuts and two pastries that were no doubt delightfully fresh sometime in August.

I was actually sitting on the plane on the way to KL reflecting that we are two months into mega-trip, spending virtually 24/7 together, and still talking... how well we must know each other now, I thought. And then Phil leans over while filling in my Malaysian immigration form and says, "you were born in Melbourne, weren't you?". Uh, yes, yes I was.

As if to punish me for my merciless teasing, the pen chose the very next moment to leak all over my hand as I signed the form.




The title of this post comes from a widespread and persistent TV tourism campaign by the Malaysian tourism board. I don't know exactly what "truly Asia" means - I pay special attention to the commercials though because Phil likes to sing along to the jingle. And it's a special, warbling experience...

Ahh Malaysia. The food is so good and there is so much English and roads without potholes and public transport. And it's so clean!!

Yeah, okay, the traffic is terrible:




And the shopping malls are really a touch too massive:




But people are also so helpful here in a purely nice, not-trying-to-sell-you-anything-way. I should emphasize that I don't mean polite, which is an important distinction. Look confused for even a moment and they will stop in the street and ask if you need directions, but get in the same queue and it's every man for himself. Today just as we were getting on an escalator, a guy came up from behind us, said excuse me and strode ahead of us. I literally had to jump back to let him through. And then he just stood two steps ahead of us the whole way down. Seriously guy??

We've spent more time in malls in the last 2 days than over the last two months in Bali. We've caught a movie and found the holy trinity of shops for Phil - Crumpler, Apple and cameras. One Crumpler backpack, an iPad2 and camera film later and Phil declared himself to be "in shopping heaven". Yup, he really did!

What pushed my buttons was finding decent coffee. Actually more than decent - almost Melbourne coffee (at Ben's at KLCC if you're ever in KL in need of a good roast).

This cafe featured a box on every table filled with cards with conversation starters on them:







Ooh, and also giant mutant prawns. I think KL is the only city in the world where you'd eat this from a food court:



And we squeezed in probably the dorkiest, but actually really fun, indoor activity in KL. Indoor archery:




Tomorrow is the most important day of the Hindu festival of Deepavali and the start of the Hindu new year. The hotels and malls around the city are all decorated with these murals made of coloured rice powder called Kolam.




It's a public holiday and the plan is to head to the Batu Caves which us the site of a Hindu temple about 45 minutes from the centre of KL. Apparently the official "open party" is being held there this year, whatever that means...

I'll let you know...

- Posted using... not a pen!