Kuala Lumpur

We get off the train at KL Sentral train station, and go find food that I can hold down and Dominic will eat. Fast food fits the bill, so we find a place and drag our beaten up bags and carcasses, both of which are beginning to resemble each other after the train trip, slump the in a corner to eat. I decide to go get some things from a pharmacy, so upstairs we go finding a great big, multistory shopping mall is attached to the station. Confusion sets in for just a few seconds as I spy a mall cop, and ask him directions. Most people here speak even rudimentary English so communication is no problem. We get what we need, and then it's on the metro to the bus station. As our hotel is located near the bus station, we walk to the hotel which is on Petaling Street, a very famous shopping street where you can by any brand of knockoff product you want. The hawkers have catalogues full of product, with any style, make and colour you desire, of any item you could ask for. Carti-ish watches, Chan-esque hand bags, Micro-sorta software, Pana-sorta hardware, plus Nikely and Crock shoes, clothes by Dolce and Gibbon, and the latest music and movies, some even before they are released, all under an enormous covering with a very Chinese feel, as this is in Chinatown. I try for our whole stay in KL to find souvenirs which are indicative of Malaysia, and find that there really aren't any. The most Malaysian souvenirs really are cheap, fake product made in China.
A thought about Malay culture. It seems to me that because the country is so new, really only 50-odd years old, that there is no established Malay culture. It is made up of Chinese, Indian, Indonesian and British cultures mostly with smatterings of local island monarchies and hill tribes. It may take some time to become it's own entity. and the fact that I didn't see evidence of a written Malay language in use on official signage (the fact is that the Malay language is written using the english alphabet and the signage is a phonetic representation of the spoken Malay language) is proof of an emerging culture which has a way to go to becoming it's own animal. There are many things which can be bought that are made in Malaysia, various handicrafts like masks and cloth with patterns, but the masks are Thai, Indonesian  or Indian in origin and the cloth patterns are the same.
The whole city is remarkably clean for a very big urban hub, and we look forward to seeing what it has to offer. My dear friend from way back when, Sarah, lives in Jakarta, Indonesia, so she comes out to hang with us for a couple of days. She looks great as always and we catch up on all the mutual goings-on, where our lives have taken us, and how we have grown as people. We drag her around to various temples, have a beverage and a meal or two and brave the markets looking for handbags and stuff. She kindly agrees to go where we go when we go, so we put her through our brand of tourism for a bit, and she keeps up, brave soul that she is. Siobhan's brother's friend, Paul, also lives in KL (such a very small world when you get out into it), so we go and have breakfast with he and his charming wife. Lots of good chat and laughs and then Paul has to go and Sarah has to go at the same time, as she needs to get home and get ready for her trip to Israel and Egypt. Given what's happening now in Israel, I hope she's OK. It was really nice to see her, even for a little bit, and great to meet Paul and his wife, but it's back to just our little family unit again.
We do notice that our hotel does have some very sparkly dressed women in very high heels coming and going quite frequently, and sometimes a few times in the same day. Then they just go and stand outside for a while. At all hours of the day and night. Hmmmm. We just didn't catch on at all for a few hours because we don't tend to stay at places that so overtly rent their rooms by the hour. It seems to be the same women too. Busy people.
So the days pass fairly quickly, just walking around the city, or as much of it as we can see in the short time we have. Conclusions are simply that it is an enormous, rapidly growing city, like most major cities in SE Asia, but the religious and cultural tolerance is a revelation. The prevalent religions are Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity, and they all exist quite happily alongside each other. Culturally, the city is a mosaic of its origins, and because this is such a new country and all cultures must build the country together, everyone seems quite happy to be with each other, and to make the country an example and model to other countries. Perhaps I am naive, I have seen stickers calling for Sharia law to be installed in Penang by 2020, as it is in Wakaf Baru regarding family matters, but for the most part the tolerance is nothing short of wonderous. Burma calls.