Friday, September 30, 2005

Life: Malaysia calls

My first overseas trip for several years started in KL, Malaysia. Lin and I set off early Sunday after the AFL grand final, which meant no big night.. Not really a bad thing!

Kuala Lumpur is quite a city. Huge, smelly, and full of smog. Great food, great fun, great adventure. I only wish I had more time to explore it all.. I intend to return one day soon.


Highlights - The food..!!!! Well, I love Indian and Chinese, so Malay is a natural fit. I ate all the time, and due to Lin's family being locals, it was all free, all the time! Against our constant urging, the Ng family would not let us buy a single meal.. Luckily, when Collin (Lin's cousin) wasn't looking, I rushed off to pay our final bill!!! So many options - from stuffed tofu to curried fish or beef, chicken rice, steamed boat a plenty... Mmm.. mmm..

Also, we visited a shopping complex devoted entirely to IT hardware and software. I'm talking about a place larger than any shopping centre in Adelaide - 6 levels of laptops, CDS, flash drives and the like.. I was naturally in heaven!!! The price for a notebook is amazing. Compare: a $AU2500 lappy there to an equivalent machine back in Adelaide would be around 4000.. I think I would have to think twice about a local purchase..

KL is a shoppers paradise, no doubt about it. Not that I wanted to go to market after market, but we could have - the exchange rate was very generous as well.

Unfortunately, all that buzz comes at a significant price. the skyline is 'hazed' 24-7, and the air is smelly. Not to mention the traffic, which was, to put it midly, a nightmare! I don't think I ever saw Sydney so bad!!

Overall, I think we will definitely return sooner than later..