My time in Kuala Lumpur is coming to an end, tomorrow morning I’ll fly to Myanmar. I was here a total of 4 days, interrupted by 3 days in Singapore (there’ll be a separate blog entry). Some thoughts:

– Monsoon is not in May. I’d been of that opinion, but 32 degrees centigrade with 90% humidity, interrupted by heavy rain and 100% humidity, taught me otherwise. Even I finally admitted that I was wrong.

– Monsoon is not my favorite season (if you can even call it that), and probably never will be. Guys, stop whining about the “warm” European winter, all is well, believe me!

– I now also know how to end the rain – the usual ritualistic purchase of an umbrella will work every time – it also did the trick after 5 hours of near continual rain, as soon as I left the shop, the rain stopped! It will never cease to amaze me. 

NB from Singapur: Because I’d forgotten both my umbrellas in KL, I wasn’t willing to buy a third one, but gave up on that principle after a while. I now have three umbrellas, but the sun was shining for a few hours 🙂

– People in Malaysia don’t know that green tea usually comes with water, they drink it with milk. At least, that’s my impression after a rain-induced stop at Starbucks. Is it always like this, or is that Starbucks talking? I’ll find out. 

– My first attempt to buy a subway ticket: Not too difficult once you find the „English“ button. I was just in the process of pressing the „purchase“ button and proudly buy my first ticket, when a man called „I help, I help“, cancelled all my information, asked me for my destination, entered all the same info again, paid, presented me with the ticket,  wished me a nice day, and walked away. That’s what I call hospitable. Note to self: Be more friendly to strangers in your home country.

I’ll write later about my obligatory temple visit (including predictions about my future), and my cooking class. KL has one impressive skyscraper (Petronas Towers); one television tower (also very high); shopping malls with all famous designers; good food; an interesting population mix (ca. 60% Malay, 30% Chinese and 10% Indian), which brings its own challenges, but also makes for a very diverse city and society. 3 days in KL should usually be enough; to see more of the country, people mainly recommended Penang, which must be very beautiful, with even better food. And all Malay I met were truly friendly and helpful (even the taxi drivers).

A few quick pictures of KL (the sunny one I actually photographed off a poster…):