Fell in love with a city today...

Let me be honest, day 1 in Kuala Lumpur L was really ordinary. Apart from the sleep deprivation, I was quietly disappointed in KL and desperately homesick. I hadn't been able to see the kids on Skype as there were internet issues in the hotel. All I had really seen was a jungle of tall buildings and shops- Chanel, Dior, all the usual suspects. Guiltily, I thought "yawn".

The city centre seemed very much a construction which was steeped in the Western/globalized capitalist culture. Evidence of original Malay culture did not seem to be apparent at all, as far as evidence of any animist religious rites etc, but one would think that if these religions were still practiced they might be more likely to be found in the outer areas, not in central KL. (Apparently Sufism and Shia mysticism can be found to be intertwined with remaining animist beliefs but I never saw evidence of this in KL).

There wasn't really a strong presence of Islamic culture either in that central KL city area, except of course things like prayer rooms being available, Islamic dress among the women, Islamic greetings, all of which distinguished Malaysia from home. I had expected to hear the Athan being called from somewhere, but we didn't hear it at all from where we were positioned.

With the advent of day two, however, I opened up a bit and so did KL. The clouds, which on day one seemed never-ending, as if someone needed to get amongst them with a shovel and dig out the blue, even conceded a little azure...