KL

My arrival in KL also marked a large number of things: Celine has arrived at last; I left a buddhist-deminated area to enter one of the most modern muslim nations; and Malaysia is the richest country I visited in this trip.

The city centre of KL is litterally packed by skyscrappers, and a monorail (elevated metro) trip is quite impressive as you are surrounded by nice buildings. It looks like some parts of Bangkok, except the whole city looks like this. Unlike anywhere else in Southeast Asia, foreign travellers go almost unoticed, which is both pleasant, surprising and somewhat disturbing.

J'imagine mal Sarko mettre ce genre de panneaux dans les bars francais...

If you ever thought the UK is a model for the integration of minorities, you should come to KL, as this is really where true multiculturalism can be seen. Due to British-orchestrated mass migrations at the beginning of the XXth Century and like in Singapore, there are now three main ethnic groups in Malaysia: Malay (dominant and muslims), Chinese and Indians. It is truly amaizing to see this mix of different people, religion and cultures which makes nowaday's Malaysia. Every single city has its "Little India" or "Chinatown" area, and due to this KL really looks futuristic. Old Malay language has been replaced by a new one using Western alphabet, but English is often the language of choice - and the people's level of English is much better than in any European country!

So, here we are with the first impressions on Malaysia...definitely weird and very different from former Indochina and Thailand, but so far so good. More to come in the coming days as we will travel to Penang...