Seat Belts!

Sorry I've been falling behind on the blog (especially with pictures), but as this is going to be a very busy week, you'll all just have to bear with me for a little while.

Petronas towers

I got down to Kuala Lumpur this afternoon.  I have to say that it's by far the nicest big city that I've been in this trip - it's clean, it's easy to walk around, people are ridiculously friendly, and there's all sorts of good food.  I walked around the city for about 4 hours after I got in and got into three different discussions with random people I met on the street.  I talked US politics for a while with a malaysian guy, then talked about india and gemstones with an indian guy who happened to be a gemologist in the KL market, then talked about the US with a filipino guy (who actually invited me to stay with him and his family).  Can't imagine wandering around any US cities and having that happen...

So, initial impressions of malaysia:

1. It's shockingly industrial and high-tech.  I realize that the west coast (where I've been) is the most populated and most industrial part of the country, but if you ignore the palm trees and the language on the street signs, I could be in any big US city.  Kind of unexpected.

2. I get to wear seat belts again!  I know it sounds silly, but I hadn't worn a seat belt in four months.  Back to reality.

3. The mixture of cultures is kind of staggering.  There's obviously a strong muslim influence, but then there's also a strong indian influence, as well as the british colonial influence, not to mention the strong chinese influence.  Are you kidding?  Example: the other day I had a stuffed indian pancake for breakfast (northern india), a chicken kebab with peanut sauce for lunch (malaysian), tea and scones in the afternoon (british), and then a braised pork and mushroom dish for dinner (chinese).  Or today, when I talked to the malaysian guy (muslim), the indian guy (buddhist) and the filipino guy (catholic).  I think it's funny that we always refer to america as a 'melting pot' - there are at least four major cultures all thrown together here, and they seem to be getting along fine.  Kind of ironic, especially when I get online and read about rush limbaugh making jokes about barak obama because he's black... which is the country that's supposed to be all about diversity and equality again?

4. The monsoon is here!  Crazy crazy crazy thunderstorms every afternoon.  It's fun.