First of many times in Kuala Lumpur

(A greeting to close friends, one hot morning wide-eyed in KL)

Hello from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where we arrived well. It is hot here, oh my God! Hotter than Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia... and that was very hot already! Very tropical and luxuriant, 100% humidity and 30+ degrees. MH, M's friend, who is hosting us, has this totally amazing apartment where each of us have our own bedroom (!), there is a pool attached to the resort, and the nearest metro station is... right in front. MH plays for the Malaysia Philharmonic Orchestra which belongs to the Petronas corporation. The room where they play is right below the famous Petronas towers, which we are planning to visit tomorrow.

The flight was long. Thank God for the several movies available on Singapore airlines where each passenger can decide which movie or game to play on their own special screen - a first for me, never seen that even on Qantas or Air NZ. I even enjoyed playing Super Mario Bros because it's available on the screen! Whoah, technology, awesome. I flew Montreal-London with Air Canada (bad service and not great comfort compared to Singapore Airlines or British Airways!), met M at the gate for our Singapore Airliles flight, then we stopped by Singapore on the way to KL. For the Singapore stopover I had brought some duck masks from the hospital in fear of the SARS. However, we got there very early in the morning, our stopover was less than 45 min (thanks to our awesome travel agent, kudos to her!) and we didn't even have to change terminal. So we didn't wear them, and watched carefully for coughing people (there were none). I had some regrets disembarking in KL when the agents at the KL airport WERE wearing high-filtration masks and handing off warning papers about SARS. But it's done, and really, we weren't there for long at all.

From the first impression, KL is not like all the bustling busy Asian cities that I'd imagined; it's rather quiet, safe, and quite hot. We haven't been much in town yet, but I am very impressed with the brand new metro system (c/o Bombardier and SNC Lavalin) which is quiet, efficient and air conditioned. There are a lot of muslims here and we are careful not to dress too skimpily..as if I ever did. Our first meal was an Indian one, and the curry was very good. We went to the Sunday night market and had some jackfruit (but no durian for me, oh no!). Then we went to bed - for 14 hours in my case, after which I proceeded in spending the afternoon at the pool.

So that's that. I'll be in touch more with more details about KL - will be here for another 4 days, then I'm off to Sipadan on the Borneo Malaysia for some diving (one of the top world diving destination). I'll let you know if I come down with SARS, as I'm telling my parents who are thinking of heading off to China in 2 weeks. Thanks A for the mefloquine prescription (an afterthought), which I think I'll use for treatment because there isn't much malaria in Sipadan (it's an offshore island).

For now, health concerns are Sars and dengue fever. I'm covering myself with DEET for now...