Greetings from Kuala Lumpur

Well here we are in KL. I like to say KL because I'm afraid I'll pronounce it wrong (koala lumper anyone?). As could be predicted, it's hot and humid here. We just spent some time at the bar in our hotel by the pool, a very civilised way to have a beer and some chips until a tropical storm blew in. Even then it wasn't so bad. Things you would never put up with at home become bearable when you're on holidays. When in Rome.

We arrived late last night and quickly realised our lack of preparation for our time here was, while unavoidable, a good recipe for feeling out of one's depth. For the first time we have arrived in a foreign country without (a) an idea of what we'd like to do here, or (b) how to say hello or thankyou. We have previously found that these two words are the most important to have in order to come across as polite. Instead we have found ourselves like bumbling strangers, without any social graces, simply nodding our heads and murmering thankyou everywhere. We have since looked up online how to say those words, but have yet to try them out properly.

After a lazy morning we ate breakfast in the hotel lobby (lazy, but easy when one's brain has shut down due to lack of fuel) and then headed off to see the Petronas Towers. They are about 10 minutes walk from our hotel. When we glimpsed them from the taxi window last night they looked pretty, all lit up in silver lights, and reasonably impressive, but seen from the ground level in the daylight they were massive. And beautiful, all curves and squares, not your average skyscrapers:

At the foot of the Towers is a shopping mall, of course. Seven levels of window-shopping, because (a) we don't have any room in our luggage for more stuff, and (b) we couldn't afford a lot of it anyway. Which is a shame as we both had some very exciting moments in the mall. The first was when we saw a real-life Jimmy Choo boutique. I have never seen Jimmy Choos outside of TV or magazines so this was a moment where dreams became reality for me. I only saw a few pairs from the window as I wasn't really dressed for browsing, but suffice to say they were as gorgeous as you would imagine. Toby didn't share the amazement but his time would come in the toy shop a few levels up when he spied a miniature monster truck with 5 horse power. Apparently this is about on a par with our lawn mower at home, even though it looked like a toy. There was a sign on it saying THIS IS NOT A TOY. I found it hard to imagine the point of it, but Toby tells me boys would understand.

Other interesting things in the mall included the creepy mannequins (little boys making faces and holding their fingers like guns, small faces with noses but nothing else), Muslim women dressed in full garb, the pink laptop I was almost tempted by in the Sony shop, and job vacancy posters in shop windows which would not be allowed in Australia ('cashier needed, female only'). The mall was full of expensive designer outlets, so there must be a good bit of money in KL, although the busiest section was the market area down the bottom with jewellery and knick knack stalls. It's amazing you can fly on a plane for 9 hours only to find the same shops selling the same things.

We are having a relax this afternoon since the weather's not good and we think we deserve one. Plus I found a Malaysian soap opera on TV, I'm not quite sure what the story line is but from what I can tell the young handsome doctor is involved in an illicit affair, possibly with the headscarfed woman old enough to be his mother. His real mother is a real drama queen who doesn't stop shouting. They have an innovative plot device on the show which consists of playing a scene twice - once for real, the second time with one of the characters replaying it in their head, like a memory montage.

Tonight if the weather clears we'll head off to Bukit Bintang, KL's 'premier shopping and entertainment district' for dinner etc. If the weather stays like this we'll go downstairs, since the hotel has a reasonable looking Japanese restaurant. Tomorrow we're hoping to head out to the Lake Gardens to check out some museums, markets and the Independence Square where Malaysia was declared independent from Britain 50 years ago, followed by dinner in Chinatown if we can last that long. Should be a good day.

I will end with a final picture of what I like to call the scooter jungle. This is KL's efficient and sensible solution to parking shortages in the city.