Hot and humid

This day was spent walking. Lots of walking. The town is a little hard to navigate because the roads feel totally random. This is clearly not a planned city. The street signs don’t tell you the name of the street you are on, but are a list of about 5 other streets that can be caught in that direction. Getting around was all the more difficult because of the heat. It was hot and HUMID, no, really hot and humid. The picture opportunity that got away was this heavier kid who couldn’t take another step, slumped over in front of me, t-shirt soaked, tongue hanging out, panting, with the perfect look of defeat. I sympathized.

I tried to go up to the skybridge of the Petronas towers but the sign at the base said no more tickets for the day, so you'll see some pictures from the outside. It's a spectacular set of  buildings, and shiny to boot. Of course there’s a mall at the base, there’s a mall everywhere.

The monorail is fast, airconditoned, clean, and has great views of the city but by the time you get to and from the station you might as well have walked because everything’s so close. It’s a compact city, about 1.5 million people and very vertical, so everything is near, even though it may look far on the map. Also, cabs are incredibly cheap, about 30 US cents per mile. That's if you can convince the driver to turn on the meter, otherwise it’s up to your negotiation skills.

I took the monorail to Chinatown’s Steson Sentral (Central Station). Malay uses a Roman alphabet and has adopted a lot of words from English so it’s fun to try to guess what the words mean, e.g. bisnes, teksi, bas, tiket, skool, kolej. The English here is interesting. It sounds like a mix of every other accent you have ever heard with each word sounding like it’s spoken by someone from a different country than the previous word. Remember to throw in a casual "lah" at the end of sentences the way we used to say yo.

Chinatown has many intricately decorated Indian and Chinese temples, sometimes immediately next to each other. Ther places of worship here seem to compete for the title of most elaborate. There’s nothing subtle about their style. I think some of the designers must have graduated from the Atlantic City College of Architecture. The national museum was a disappointment. The museum was divided into two sections, colonial and post-colonial. It was pretty much a collection of guns and independence posters. I hope that they touch on the land’s culture somewhere in the closed off section that’s under repair. The Bird Sanctuary, Orchid Habitat and Butterfly Area were nearby but all closed. I found the Aquaria (Aquarium) in the convention center but opted out when I realized that you walk around the outside perimeter in five minutes.  Did I mention it's hot and humid?

Finally I made my way to the Central Market, yes, another mall but this one’s for tourists to buy Malaysian handicrafts, some of which are actually pretty cool. Bargaining is required. If you make eye contact with something in the store, they will descend on you immediately offering you a discount. Starting prices are generally at least double what they’re willing to sell at. This is a commerce culture, the malls are huge, fully stocked, and packed with people. The shopping continues out on the street as well, being packed with hawkers and restaurants.

The day ended abruptly at 8:30 when I stopped by the hotel to check my email and passed out. Not a wild any crazy Saturday night for sure.