First Day in Kuala Lumpur

As you can see, Carol's very happy being able to hold grand-kids again.

After breakfast we drove by the girls' schools and then went to feed the monkeys. But no luck today.  Amy says there are usually scores of monkeys at the spot we went to but today there were only a few and they ran away when we stopped the car.  We'll try again later.

Then we went to get some groceries and on the way there and at the store you can definitely tell you are in a whole other world.  It is teeming and steaming.  It is very densely populated in Kuala Lumpur - about 7 million people in the metro area -- with worse traffic on a Saturday morning at 11 a.m. than rush hour in Minneapolis any day of the week with the added attraction of many motor-scooters zipping between cars in the lanes and crossing lanes.  I can now understand why Amy doesn't drive here and they hire a driver.

I was also amazed last night at how many people were in the Kuala Lumpur Airport on a Friday night at 11 p.m. and all the traffic so late on the roads to Amy's house.  It is hot, hot, hot and it's a wet heat because it usually rains here every day in the afternoon even when its not the rainy season.  The KL airport parking garage reminded me of a gritty, steamy New York subway in August.

Some of the food items at the grocery store were strange to our eyes, and noses.  There is an usual fruit here called Durian that has a very strong smell which is so unpleasant that some apartment buildings have banned the residents from bringing it into the building.  But at the store we went to it was the first thing they had at the  entrance to the store and the smell was overpowering.  Then immediately after that was the fish section which was not only pungent but visually startling as well with items like fish heads for about 50 cents a pound.

The very next section after that was a walled off section where they sell pork products for non-Muslims and require that such non-Halal items be purchased at a separate counter.

It is very definitely a Muslim country.  You could see the signs of that even in Korea at the gate for our plane to Kuala Lumpur because many, perhaps most, of the women were wearing scarves covering their heads.

 I don't know how they do it in the intense heat in Malaysia. When we were back at Amy's house late in the afternoon we could hear the Muslim afternoon call to prayer over loudspeakers about two blocks away.

This evening we went to dinner at Suzie's Corner, an eclectic collection of hawker stands under one roof with remarkably good and very cheap food.

On the drive there, Justin, my son-in-law, said we were likely to see feral cats walking around inside the place and that if we saw any rats we should just look the other way because the food was really good.  It was at that point that I said to Justin, "OK, you have got to teach me the Jedi mind trick you used to get Amy to agree to move here".

The food was excellent however and really cheap.  We had 5 beef tenderloins that were as good as any you would find in a good steakhouse in the U.S., chicken fried rice, naan, soft drinks for the girls and a couple of rounds of Tiger beer for less than $60.  The guy cooking the naan invited me, and two of my grand-daughters, Hannah and Kaylee, behind the counter to watch him cook it. The crowd in the restaurant was a nice mix of Malays, Chinese, Indians, and a few ex-pats, all having a good time.  We plan on taking my son and his girlfriend there when they get here.