The bus pulled up by the curb in KL at 3:30 AM. After collecting our bags, the first thing in mind was to find a place to sleep. We checked the first hostel we could find, knowing that it could not be too expensive since we were in the outskirts of Chinatown. The hostel we entered was very dirty, and the smell was not too good, but it was about as cheap as we had heard it was possible to get, so we took the room. This was the first time since Omsk that I made use of my sleeping bag, but I used it as a mattress, since I offered to sleep on the floor. The beds were not possible to put together, and they were so small that three people could not have fitted anyway. In the morning I realized how nicely the curtains were decorated with puke, rusty water and other delicate substances. To pay for the room I had to go to 7-eleven and use the ATM. On the street I met a French guy, Matthieu. After a small talk we figured we were going the same way, and decided to meet up in the morning. He stayed only 30 meters from where I stayed, and it turned out to be a lot nicer than where the girls and I stayed.

In the morning I met Matt out on the street again, and I took all my stuff to Pudu Backpackers, where he stayed, locked it up in his room, and joined him for a walk around the city. Kuala Lumpur is a big city, and people all over Malaysia are proud of it. We did not need more than half an hour to be perfectly clear on that Kuala Lumpur was a lot better than Bangkok. The city is cleaner, both when it comes to the air and the streets, the people are nicer, and there are almost no tourists to see. Fewer tourists mean no souvenir shops and people yelling and waving, trying to sell you their stuff. Another big difference from Thailand is the cars. In Thailand the have pickup trucks everywhere, but in "KL", as the locals even call Kuala Lumpur, and the rest of Malaysia, there are small cars. Most of the cars are from a Malaysian brand called "Proton".

We walked up to the TV tower, a tall slim tower with an observation deck on the top, almost like the Tyholt tower in Trondheim. We were hoping to get in there, but the free shuttle service up to the tower was a strong indicator of what was to come. They charged you a lot of money to get up in the tower, and you could not buy only the lift ticket. You had to choose among a couple packages, the cheapest one was 38 RM (that is 28 USD, and about the price we paid for the room), and it included entrance to some park, a ride in a Formula 1 simulator and a pony ride. We did not want to pay anything extra for a pony ride, and just got the free and air-conditioned ride down the hill again. But before I left I used the opportunity to exchange my Thai Bath to Singapore Dollars, in a serious bank.

Next we looked for something to eat, and that is when we first encountered the Malay food. We found a small food court where a lot of locals were eating, and sat down. I had rice and chicken in some kind of spicy sauce. To our surprise the food was cold. We should have known, but did not remember. Here in Malaysia, the Muslim population, to a big extent, eats with their hand. Only the right hand, though. The left hand is saved for something else.

Talking about Malaysia and religion is a very interesting topic that I could talk about for ages. But essentially every Malay (everyone wit a Malaysian passport) is 100 % Muslim. That is at least what the constitution states. The government is Muslim, and Malaysia is therefore a Muslim country. Nevertheless, only a little more than 60 % of the Malays consider themselves Muslims. About 20 % are Buddhist, and there are a lot of Hindus and Christians. Malaysia is truly a melting pot, in just the same way as the United States, but it is a lot more evident in Malaysia. Looking at the history, the native Malays moved into the region from areas in today's China. Later, Chinese, Thais and Indians have been moving to the country. The area was also ruled from Angkor at times. In the 1600's the Dutch allied some Sultan and occupied the area. Then the British took over in the 1800s's. The British brought in more Chinese and Indians to run the business and labor the factories in Malaysia. Today all these cultures are present, and as in the rest of the world, the Chinese take away the prize for overdoing it the most. The Chinese architecture, food and people are all central parts of every Malay city, KL no exception. Little India is also noticeable, mostly for the signs with "masala" and "tandori" written all over them. And there is no way you are going to avoid the horrific music from the Bollywood movies that are played on full volume in every restaurant.

Because Malaysia is a Muslim country, they have very hard taxing on the alcohols, and according to a Chinese bar owner (in Melaka), Malaysia had the second most expensive beer in the world. He claimed Norway was the most expensive, and I can attest to that. There were only the Chinese and Indians who drank beer in Malaysia, and the prices were pushed up both by the government and by a relatively low demand compared to other countries. That cannot be said about Norway. Only the government is at fault there.

After eating we walked around the Petronas Towers, one time the tallest towers in the world. The twin towers were built by two competing companies, racing to finish first. Apparently one of the towers was built in a 2% angle away from the other. When they realized this they tried to compensate when they built the last half of the tower. No matter how much I looked at them, and from any angle, I was not able to see it, naturally. The towers are about 452 meters tall, and between their completion in 1998 and the completion of Taipei 101 they were the tallest towers in the world. They are still the tallest twin towers in the world.

There are a lot of things I like about Matt, and one of the funniest things is that he uses the word "Naturally" in almost every sentence. It feels so natural to put it in everywhere now, both in the beginning, middle and end. Naturally in any sentence, of course. I am sure I am doing the same with other words, but not realizing it. Matt always has a lot of good stories to tell, and I have enjoyed hearing about his Vespa trips from Lille to London, and all the stories form working in a wine bar.

The meeting with Matt turned out to be a lot better of a match than a similar itinerary from KL to Singapore. Matt was working in the marketing and web-development business, having his own company and mainly working towards the wine sector. All of great interests for me. Over the next week we would have so many good and positive talks about business in general, and down to specific projects we would like to do. I am sure that we will do business in the future.

After walking around in the city the whole day I liked it more and more, and by the time I was ready to have dinner with the three "M's" (The two Swedish girls, Malin and Mikaela, and Matt), I had so much to write notes about that I filled several pages in my pocket notebook. We headed into Chinatown to eat, and because of the most sudden, massive and loud rain I have ever experienced, the streets were wet, and not that many salesmen were out in the street.

The food was good, and this time it was Chinese, and very warm. They actually served it in a steel pan that was so hot that the ingredients were popping around, as if they were trying to escape the heat. The food was alright, but nowhere I have been since China, I have found really good Chinese food. After dinner we met some Swedish guys who were traveling around the world playing Poker. They were on the way from the Philippines to Macao. They wanted to win a lot there, and were quite confident that they would make it. If they did, they would go to Vegas. If not, they would go rest in Thailand. The only thing they were sure of was that they were not going home. We had a few drinks whit the Swedish, before going to bed.

The next day was all about sightseeing again. As we walked the city, kilometers of pavement, asphalt and marble were left behind us. The heat was so bad that ever time we saw a shopping center we would go inside to cool down in the air-condition. I have never seen more impressive malls anywhere in the world. They were so clean, so big, and so diverse that any of them, and there were many, could be a day of window-shopping worthy.

No matter how much I liked KL, after a couple days I felt like it was good to get back on the road again, even if the bus ride to Melaka was only 3 hours.