Malaysia

We had originally planned on taking the train from Bangkok all the way down to Singapore, stopping at several places along the way. However, we read and heard of "unrest" near the southern border of Thailand. Now, the word "unrest" doesn't sound nearly as scary as the reality of terrorist attacks, kidnappings and killings. Same with "uprising". You just wouldn't think, to hear the words that things would be bad. I mean if you forget the current meanings, the sentence "Siena is a bit late 'uprising' this morning as she had some 'unrest' last night," makes perfect sense. But, I digress. Suffice it to say we skipped the whole region by flying over it at 30,000 feet, landing in Kuala Lumpur.

We were all very surprised by the capitol of Malaysia. We had pictured people in sarongs and Southeast Asian architecture. But, KL is very modern. We got the feeling everything had been erected in the last 5 years. But, we are still very much in the tropics. It is hot and humid, and there are open spaces with palm trees and grass interspersed with the skyscrapers. Where in the world are Ethan and Siena? They are in front of the largest, twin towers in the world. This would sound more macabre if these weren't the tallest before 9/11. We always like when there are all kinds of disclaimers to a statistic. You know, like when watching baseball, and hearing the batter has a .400 batting average on Tuesdays in July against pitchers whose names start with "J". Anyway, I've wandered again. These buildings are 452 meters tall, connected by a skybridge midway up. They were the tallest buildings of any kind in the world from 1996 to 2003, until the one in Taipei was erected. Currently, there's one in Dubai going up higher, but it isn't done yet. These are the Petronas Towers.

We spent two days in KL before traveling by bus down to Melaka (or Malacca). This small city has a completely different flavor to it. Malacca, a strategic seaport, was ruled by the Portuguese, the Dutch, the British, occupied by the Japanese, before finally gaining independence. The city has lots of remnants of those former inhabitants, and has a weird combination of European and the tropics--like Puerto Rico in Southeast Asia. We meet a great family here, and enjoy an evening with the locals. Chris, center in red, a dance instructor, even tries to teach me some steps. Chan, far right, is like Mr. Malacca. We must have a dozen people greet him and come over to chat. We hear there is a bridge and a road named after him and are mighty impressed until he tells us he shares the name of a famous philanthropist of old.

The food in Malaysia is fabulous. Satay is the national dish, and Ethan tries it everywhere. We have one dinner wandering from streetstall to streetstall. The combination of the Portuguese spicy fish, with the local peanuts and coconuts is wonderful. Believe it or not, the "local" brew is Carlsberg, which is brewed here. The prices are higher here, almost $2 a bottle, and, it tastes just like Carlsberg.

Battam zup (which we had to have repeated several times when we ask how to say "cheers" in Malay. Say it over until you figure out what they were really saying...")

The Beatties