Hot and steamy KL

Kuala Lumpur is hot and humid.  Always.  To go outside of air conditioning is to sweat.  Profusely.  Yet the people who live here wear long sleeved shirts and suit jackets.  And they don't look uncomfortable at all. 

KL is a mix of three different cultures: Chinese, Indian and Malay and it is predominately a Muslim country. 

At one of the malls-note the other shoppers

We've seen Muslim women in varying degrees of coverage-bright head scarves, bland head scarves, fully covered in long dresses and the full-out black burka with only a slit for the eyes. 

Burka-with clothes on underneath
despite the heat outside

 These women are not only covered from head to toe but they wear their regular clothes underneath it all-and they walk around this steam bath of a city.  We have no idea how they do it without turning into a big sweat drop, because that's what happened to us in our minimalist shorts and t-shirts. 



Asian squat toilet
a challenge to use



Another puzzle is how these strict Muslim women use the Asian squat toilet.  There is no seat to perch on, yet they have about 10 metres of fabric to hold up off the floor (which is wet, oh yuck) plus their regular clothes on underneath that they have to keep out of the way and off the floor. No idea how they work that one. 

KL is a new city, younger than Stratford, and growing very fast.  Built on the jungle, and situated where tin mines used to be worked, it is now one of the wealthiest cities in South East Asia, second only to Singapore.  The downtown core has a plethora of highrises and malls and tons of people yet it is very clean here. 
Our flight out of KL was delayed because they only had one runway for inbound and outbound planes.   We flew Malaysia Air and they were much better than Air Asia.  At least Malaysia Air fed us (and we didn't have to sneak eat like we did on Air Asia, which didn't allow outside food on it's plane.)
The flight to the Indonesian island of Bali was 3 hours, over beautiful blue water.  We approached the airport over the beach surf-very scenic. 
We heard about a scam that operates at the Bali airport.  Men will approach travellers and take their bags.  Then, these men demand to be paid for carrying the bag.  They charge exorbitant fees and the distance isn't far.  We were prepared.  We weren't going to be taken.

Al turned his ball cap backwards, put on his sunglasses, unbuttoned his shirt and strode through the airport, snarling like an angry Aussie while Kim meekly followed behind.  This worked.  We pulled our own suitcases along and no one approached us.  We hailed a cab and shortly we were pulling up to paradise. 

Dinner overlooking one of the pools

Al enjoying the day



Our room



The water is warm, and the sun is hot

The Ramayana Hotel and Resort is beautiful.  It is very Polynesian in appearance, with lush grounds.  It is located right in the middle of all the action, and we've just started to explore the area.