Day 1

Since crossing the dateline, I am 15 hours in the future. I can actually be nostalgic about the present. The first picture I've included was taken off the coast of Alaska, probably around 2AM local time, the sun can be seen just peeking over the horizon and it was bright as day.

We toured the Taiwan airport during a 2 hour lay over in Taipei. This airport has the coolest smoking lounge I've ever seen, the place looked like a night club. Another picture taken at the airport shows how light Arthur and I both packed. What you see in the photo is all of our luggage, no checked baggage, 1 month, 4 countries.

Kuala Lumpur's airport was a pleasure to travel through, clean and efficient, and everyone was SO friendly, literally right out of the gate. The KLIA Ekspres takes you directly to the city center, 57km in 28 minutes, through this very lush, green land.

The first day in Kuala Lumpur was full, and exhausting. A lot of the sights, sounds, and smells remind me of Bombay. One thing that is very interesting about this place is how diverse the population is. Malays, Chinese, Indian, foreign businessmen and white and African tourists, all woven together. This really is the center of Asia. I read about recent ethnic tensions but saw no evidence of anything but tolerance. Head-scarved Malays walking side by side with Chinese in miniskirts.

We are staying in the tourist heavy Bukit Bintang district. Apparently the most common pastime among Malaysians is mall shopping. My first forey into this consumer culture was the 5 story electronics mega shopping center, Low Yat.

I bought a travel adapter, which after the special discount I was offered, was 3 times the price of the same model in another shop. We roamed around town surveying our surrounds and finding $7 Mont Blanc pens, not to buy, but to hone the old haggling skills. I tried a couple other malls but that's just not our scene. The food here is delicious, I had abalone at the noodle house.

After a long couple days of traveling and walking, with only a few hours of sleep on the plane, we deservedly indulged in a well deserved foot massage. Before finding a reputable spa I had to turn down about a dozen offers for a discount on "nice Chinese girls."

That's all for now, I'm going to head out to see what the nightlife is like, if I can manage to stay awake for another couple hours.