| Malaysia October 2006 |
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| Langkawi, Malaysia |
| Penang |
| Kuala Lumpur |
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| Arrival at Langkawi Island |
| First thing to do - plop! |
| We found this beachfront bungalow for RM80 ($20)/night. Not bad. |
| The usual sunset |
| Of course we encountered the "Babylon Bar" with the usual dreadlocked local reggae boys and hanger-on western hippie girls. |
| ...and the inevitable fire dancing |
| Oops! another beautiful sunset. |
| "Langkawi" means "strong eagle", so they have to have a big eagle for the tourists to photograph. |
| The city of Georgetown from the top of the Oriental Hotel |
| Typical Penang streetfront with colonial windows, Chinese rooftops and businesses reflecting a mix of old and new. Overall it's just a very busy fast-moving place. I think I'd go crazy living there. |
| The Chinese Buddhist Kek Lot Si temple, just outside Georgetown. |
| In front of the derelict Rex Theater - one of many abandonded gothic-style cinemas in Georgetown |
| The busy Petaling pedestrian street in Chinatown. We made the mistake of getting a hotel room here - very noisy. |
| The Blue Mosque in Shah Alam, just outside Kuala Lumpur. It doesn't look so big until you notice the people in front. It's the largest mosque in Malaysia. Allahu Akbar! |
| The Petronas Twin Towers, at 452M/1483ft, were officially the highest buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004. Still it is just 3 meters taller than the Empire State Building and depending on if you count spires or not it's really a toss-up between Petronas, the Taipei 101 and the Sears Tower for who's number one. But since there are two of them side by side I really like the Petronas twin towers. And they're finished in a metallic surface that both absorbs and reflects light so they look great at night. I could look at them for hours. |
| Back in the decedant western-side of KL is the many-tiered KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Centre) shopping center. It's housed within the Petronas tower complex. |
| Speaking of towers, there's a famous landmark just outside. |
| The Maybank building and Menara Kuala Lumpur ("Menara" just means "tower") so it's the uninspiringly-named KL-Tower, with the usual revolving restaurant. |
| We made another mistake - We arrived in KL during two major holidays: Indian Deepavali and Muslim Hari Raya (the end of Ramadan). So every bus, train, and airplane was full. So I had to pay a guy about $120 for a private taxi to the Thailand border. It took all day, eeking our way through thousands of slow-moving cars. It was a relief to arrive back in Thailand, where people just seem happier and less serious. |
| Of course you know you're back in Thailand when you see something like this - right at the border in fact. A sleezy bar called "High Society" with bad girls out front. Note the convenient ATM downstairs. |
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| In far southern Thailand city of Hat Yai, we saw many Malaysian tourists. Many restaurants serve shark fin and birds nest soup to the ethnic Chinese, mostly from Malaysia. |