KL, lah!

Greetings from KL. I've been here for two nights already. I'm headed to the Cameron Highlands later in the arvo for some trekking. Or at least, I hope I can do some trekking and don't get rained out. I've also heard that it's cooler up there, which will be a nice change from the sweltering humidity of the trip so far. You don't have to do anything except stand outside and you start sweating. I have no idea how the Muslim women do it here - dressed up in their hajib, let alone the women who are cooking in super hot kitchens in full Muslim garb.

Kuala Lumpur is a pretty cool city. It's not as crazy as Bangkok or Hong Kong, but definitely more grittier than Singapore, which is okay with me. My chinese is coming in handy again as I use Cantonese to get around w/ shopkeepers. I LOVE the food in Malaysia, I've eaten something different for almost every meal so far. You can have Malay food, Indian food, Chinese food... That and I'm feeling bold, so I pretty much only eat street hawker food. I havne't been sick so far (knock on wood). And it's ridiculously cheap here. What isn't cheap though is the alcohol relative to the other countries that I've visited in SE Asia. I think it mainly has to do with the fact that malaysia is a muslim country.

That and you do notice that fact. It's weird, b/c I never relaly thought about that fact. But there are mosques everywhere. Women wear hajib - they're quite colourful. And even some of the skyscrapers here in KL have a certain islamic design to them - the use of arches and symbols, incorporated right into the architecture. It's really quite fascinating. I visited a mosque earlier this morning, which was cool. They get quite busy around lunch time when worshippers come. I also visited this islamic art gallery yesterday.

Speaking of skyscrapers, I visited the Petronas Towers yesterday. You know the big twin towers with the skybridge in the middle of it. See the movie "Entrapment" to know what I'm talking about. The towers are quite pretty - esp. when lit up at night. We were subjected to a long corporate propaganda film about the company Petronas (malaysia's national oil and gas company) prior to going up to the skybridge, which I guess is alright, b/c it's free.

The heat here is pretty oppressive and I regularly seek refuge in shopping centres. Although, I haven't really bought anything so far. I realise that anything I buy, I need to carry for the next few weeks. That and I'm just not in the mood to shop although apparently Singapore and KL are suppose to shopping meccas. I do eat every few hours here though. ;) Did I mention the food is amazing. Like AMAZING!

Alright, gotta go eat again. I'll catch you folks later.