A quick stop in Kuala Lumpur then on to Hanoi

My flight on Malaysia Airlines was so nice.  They have the cutest staff and the food is very nice.  They give you full service.  Truly the Malaysians are into service with a smile.  In fact I wanted to take a picture of the customs agent who was wearing a pin that actually said exactly that.  What an incredible change from the US.  Kuala Lumpur or KL is very modern.  Very business oriented and booming with construction.

The place I stayed at is nothing to write home about except for the location which was right in the heart of the chinatown area and there is a street market filling the street by the entrance of the place extending for blocks.

The city was hot and sticky.  Luckily they are into large air conditioned malls.  I ate lunch at one which was called Miss Jane's Penang delicacies.  I had a bowl of Pan Mee which consisted of broth with dried fish, beef, onion, a spinach like green and what looked like a seaweed but didn't taste it.  Anyway it was tasty and I drank a ginger tea to top it off.

I got up early and stood in line for an hour in order to get a ticket to go up to the 41st floor of the Petronas towers where they have a sky bridge that gives you a commanding view of the downtown.  Of course the building goes up another hundred floors as it was the tallest and I think is still number 3 or 4 in the world.  Designed by Pelli it is a beautiful structure.

Malaysia is quite impressive and I want to wax more upon this subject later when I return in about a month.  For now lets say it is a conglomeration of Muslim, Hindu, Christian and Bhuddist with large Indian, Chinese and Malay populations along with many western business people.  This is there 50th anniversary of Independance and they are really promoting tourism.

An excellent train gets you to a fro from the airport  where I caught my continuing flight to Hanoi.

Hanoi on first impression is really a few steps down.  Very poor, a bit shoddy and not into smiling.  I gave my bag over to a guy who claimed to be a taxi driver only to have to get it back because he was obviously full of shit.  Then I got a cab from the official stand and took a very long drive into the city for 10 bucks.

106,000 dong to the dollar.  Makes it quite interesting to convert.  I mean at the ATM staring at the number 500,000 as my withdrawal and realizing that isn't 50bucks.  They really ding you on the charge though.

So I am here in downtown Hanoi at a  very different hostel then Kyoto.  Very Aussie and young and loud.  But free internet and really good connections to everything I want to do in the area.

I will now head out into the streets for a view