Melting

Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, is a sprawling city of 1.5 million people. Huge skyscrapers, most seemingly with names of banks on them, loom in the center of the city, surrounded by endless neighborhoods of Malays, Chinese and Indians. Petronas Towers, the huge two towers which pulled rank on the Sears Tower as the highest building in the world, only to be overtaken by Taipei 101 in 2004, is the city’s pride and joy. A sprawling complex of offices, apartments, and shops, surrounded by huge fountains, parks and a mosque, it is never quite out of sight. It disappears around a corner, only to appear a second later in between two other buildings. The two towers, linked by a skybridge on the 41st floor, is I think the main tourist attraction in Kuala Lumpur, but somehow stupidly so. This city, with hectic Chinatown and fragrant Little India, plush gardens and a swirling mass of people dodging cars, has so much more to offer. [read on]

There is a Hooter’s in Singapore. I walked past it my second night there, and stopped and did a double-take. Pushing aside the temptation for spicy chicken wings, I passed the girls in bright orange shorts spinning hoola-hoops to try and attract customers, which seemed to be working as the bar was full of people, foreigners and Asians alike, families sitting alongside groups of businessmen. It confirmed my initial reaction to Singapore; that is was not quite Asia, not quite the West, but languishing somewhere in between. [read on]