Malaysia: It's "truly Asia"

Hi everyone,

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur safely after a very luxurious Malaysia Air flight. Even though we had no doubts on the matter, the tourism video on the plane kept insisting that Malaysia is Truly Asia. I guess maybe the other Asian nations give them a hard time.

Our New Zealand adventure ended with a series of fortunate events:
-we sold our car for more than we expected on our last day in the country
-we got cheap tickets to the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra
-we were offered the last available parking spot at the Orchestra AND a paid parking voucher by the spot's former occupant
-we had a drink with the orchestra after the concert
-we were stopped at a police checkpoint outside the concert - note that this is after we had officially transferred ownership of the car, and had absolutely no proof that it wasn't stolen - and were sent along by a friendly officer
-we got a discount taxi to the airport with time to spare (an improvement on our Christchurch flight)
-we were given the exit row on our 10 hour flight
-Mr. Tan, the flight crew manager (who kept calling me Mr. Tall and laughing), insisted that it was "Happy Hour" and that we had to take all the extra beer, as we were closest to the bulkhead

So, all in all it was a great end to the first leg of our trip. Malaysia has been more complicated so far. We were suckered in by the extremely expensive cab fare trick on our first night, and probably paid way too much for the express train too, but we have been learning fast. We've walked all around the city centre and taken the monorail to various attractions. Tomorrow we hope to get to the Sky Bridge in the Petronas Towers.

The city is big, sweaty, incongruously modern at times. Nevertheless, we did see some good old fashion nature, including a baby monkey that climbed up Sara's arm, a pair of giant rats in a tree, and a crow that attacked and ate an adult sparrow in mid-flight. There's a lot more to talk about, but here are some pictures instead. These are just a sample as we are having trouble with one of our memory cards at the moment.

Love to everyone,

-Gareth and Sara
Sara with the Petronas Towers


"Kenu" rental in the KL Lake Gardens


Sara with our accomodation, the Hilton. Kidding.


Orchids anyone? 1 dollar a pot.