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A 24 hour stopover in Kuala Lumpur sounds, theoretically, like a good idea, and it was rather nice to sleep in a real bed and relax a bit and have a shower. Still, I was too tuckered out to want to trek into the city and explore, so mostly it was a time for airconditioning and reacquainting myself with Star World: purveyor of crappy US tv shows. Some stuff:
* As a welcome break, I watched a Malaysian tv show about a group of uni students, which came with English subtitles. It was actually quite good, I'm a bit disappointed that I don't get to tune in next week. My favourite bit was that during all of the dramatic scenes, they played 'Zorba's Dance'.
* Terrible Western tourist spotting: coming into Malaysia, a white guy (no neck, shorts, camera cases swung like bandoliers) wearing a shirt that said "NO I DON'T WANT A F#@*ING TUK TUK, MASSAGE OR SUIT". Charming.
* Overheard a US engineer talking about his work. He's over here helping set up a steel mill (? factory? smelter?). They moved the mill over on barges from Trinidad and Tobago*, because natural gas here is so much cheaper than in the US and so they can run the operation much more cheaply. He was bitching about the Chinese workers, and how they never do what they're told. I asked what they were making - US$300 a month.
*big waves* to all of you!
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* Or possibly moved a mill to T&T from the US, and are starting/moving antoher one here.
* As a welcome break, I watched a Malaysian tv show about a group of uni students, which came with English subtitles. It was actually quite good, I'm a bit disappointed that I don't get to tune in next week. My favourite bit was that during all of the dramatic scenes, they played 'Zorba's Dance'.
* Terrible Western tourist spotting: coming into Malaysia, a white guy (no neck, shorts, camera cases swung like bandoliers) wearing a shirt that said "NO I DON'T WANT A F#@*ING TUK TUK, MASSAGE OR SUIT". Charming.
* Overheard a US engineer talking about his work. He's over here helping set up a steel mill (? factory? smelter?). They moved the mill over on barges from Trinidad and Tobago*, because natural gas here is so much cheaper than in the US and so they can run the operation much more cheaply. He was bitching about the Chinese workers, and how they never do what they're told. I asked what they were making - US$300 a month.
*big waves* to all of you!
------
* Or possibly moved a mill to T&T from the US, and are starting/moving antoher one here.