KL: Day Three. Eating it Up.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - This city is so much about food -- it's every- where. Which, of course, makes me very happy. 

Restaurants, street corners, side street alleys: food is all around, wafting into your sinuses and wrestling you in new directions. What do you feel like? It's all here.

Big restaurants to little stalls with a couple of red, plastic chairs. Or the curb. Indian, Chinese, or just plain ol' food. Traditional family recipes. New ideas. Everywhere. And it's cheap. In most cases, it's people's livelihood. While I expected the so-called 'street meat', nothing really prepared me for people emerging from holes in the walls of dank alleys with Corningware dishes full of meats, potatoes and vegetables swimming in a variety of sauces and other coatings. 

A bag of fruit, served with a long wooden skewer, will maybe set you back a quarter. And there's little more refreshing on a hot day than a bag of fresh watermelon. Beverages, too, in colours that would make Benjamin Moore proud. Deep purples (no, not the 70's hair band), the limest of lime greens, bright reds and rich browns. Grape, lychee, starfruit and watermelon, all mixed with giant slabs of ice, carted around town to quench you from the omnipresent heat, which drapes itself over your shoulders like a giant, wool suit. I had the sugar cane. While these pictures don't really do it justice, hawker stalls are everywhere, some with little kitchens in the back where their owners pare garlic, chop vegetables and prepare meats for grilling, boiling or -- more likely -- frying. Others just appear, as though by magic. 

We walked down the alley to the right around 13:00 local time today, squeezing between tables and vendors, and it was packed. With likely a half dozen or so vendors in this alley alone, the smells, colours and commotion were frenetic, bombarding the senses. From each table we passed, you could hear people exclaim, "Mat Salleh! Mat Salleh!", meaning "White People". Apparently, in Malay, this also refers to "Mad Sailor". Well, I guess I was a mad flyer the other day. We had had too enormous a breakfast -- which included a waffle bar, an omelet bar, fruits and breads of every variety, as well as number of ethnic recipes -- to stop for lunch, but much of the food looked and smelled incredible. Bellies, aching.  

We spent the morning wandering through India Town, which had its moments of garishness (gold jewelery stores, guarded by large, gun-toting security personnel), bright colours (saris and other fabrics) and food for as far as the eye could see and the nose could smell. It was a good walk through some of the less-travelled (by tourists) streets. But far from quiet. We had hoped to make it up to the observation bridge which connects the two spires of the Petronas Towers, but all of the day's tickets had been distributed by the time we got there (they're handed out on a first-come-first-served basis, starting at 8:30).

In addition to food, there are also many malls here. For being a relatively poor country (though there are more millionaires per capita here than anywhere else in Asia), commercialism has sunk its claws in quite deeply. I wasn't quite able to get my camera out quickly enough to adequately capture the juxtaposition that seems to demonstrate this, but the picture to the right is of KL's 'Mega Mall', which was built right around a previously existing Hindu Temple. The circle shows a part of where this tiny temple hunkers in the shadow of the mighty Ringett. The many arms of Vishnu waving away Starbucks, The Body Shop and McDonald's, statues of Ganesh, trumpeting in horror. Capitalism, seemingly, the new religion.  

While our hotel has real pine trees in its lobby and a 30 foot-high Santa Claus, it still makes relative sense to me considering its clientele. But, along the same lines as the dichotomy described above, SCS and I were somewhat startled when we saw a Muslim woman wearing, on top of her tudung (a Muslim headdress), a Santa hat, replete with reindeer antlers. It was hard to justify in our minds, it was so banal. I didn't want to be insensitive when taking the picture, so I hurriedly took it from behind: a commercial, Christian holiday advertised by a woman in full Muslim dress. My, the dollar beckons. And yes, that's McDonald's -- offering McRingett Savers -- in the background.

Interesting side note: Kuala Lumpur is the only city in the world to have a million-year-old primary forest within the heart of the city. That said, it's our last night in KL -- our Malaysian tour continues to Penang tomorrow and we have to catch our flight early in the morning. 

Back to the airport!