Monday, KL

My second last day in Malaysia. I am going to see my friends, Basmin and Leslie today. I haven't coped well with the public phones and long phone numbers. I think quite a few people around KL are wondering who this ferrenghi, Celia, is, who has left a message on their voicemail. Is it a CIA plot? :-)

Yesterday while I was at the internet cafe the two young men on the next machine were watching porn sites. I was curious, but also didn't want an eyeful of synthetic sex. I am glad I didn't understand what they were saying. I found the experience very unsettling and distasteful. A contradiction in a country where women are veiled.

Today I am wearing a white blouse, not a good choice when further encounters with chopsticks are in-store. It doesn't seem right to eat Chinese food with a fork and spoon. When I was staying at the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion in Penang they served Western style breakfasts. I felt it was kind of letting the side down. As a token of homage to the man who built the house, I could have had tea at breakfast, but I didn't.

I have tried eating a little chilli when eating Chinese dishes. A small dish of chopped chilli is served with most things. Chilli does make an important difference to the taste, but when it hits my throat, my eyes and nose run, and my mouth and throat burn almost taking my breath away.

I was walking around some food stalls last night. The man who was selling rambutan, a largish, red spiky type of litchi, was sitting back enjoying a tin of Guiness. I find it very odd that Guiness (Ribena and Milo) are so popular in a very hot country.

There is also a Chinese version of a braai (barbeque). Flat, square pieces of dried meat are cooked on a grill over a wood fire.

I travelled on the monorail again yesterday. It is fun because you can look down on the city streets. It is very cheap. The airconditioning in the carriages is fierce. Everytime I disembark my glasses steam up. There is also an LRT train system, which is like the London underground. Compared with Cape Town, public transport around the city and to some suburbs is a dream. The "Mother City" (i.e. Cape Town) Transport Dept must pay KL a visit.

Department stores and the malls were open on Sunday, "business as usual". KL is a vibrant city, partly because life encompasses the streets. This can be a nuisance in that one has to walk in the road because a food stall or business uses the pavement. People park on the pavement, just as they do in Cape Town, and the 4X4 is "the in" vehicle.