Kuala Lumpur

After finally arriving in Malaysia, the first thing that you notice, is the excessive humidity and heat. The day I arrived it was 33 degrees Celsius, at about 90% humidity. You walk out from the air conditioned airport, and it's like a warm slap in the face. Reminds me of Dominican Republic, but worse.

I made my way to my hostel, which is nice and new, and luckily has separate rooms, which is great. Finally able to get some solid rest without having to put up with idiosyncrasies and habits of those around you.

In the morning, I headed over to Kuala Lumpur's famous twin towers. They were the tallest buildings in the world from '98-'04, and are quite a sight. There is a connecting skyway between the two towers on the 41st and 42nd floor, and it is free to go up there to have a look around. Regrettably, it is closed on Monday, so I missed out on going up. The towers reach a total height of 1482.9 feet, at the top of each spire.

After not being able to get in there, I wandered around for a while. People sometimes approach you here, some for honest reasons, some for not, as I found out.

As the scam goes, someone approaches you, asks you where you are from. Harmless enough. They then try and associate with you, saying they have a sister or cousin who is going to your country soon, specifically a big city. Their mother or grandmother or whatever is worried about their sister or cousin going to such a 'large' country, and it would sure be great if you could calm her fears about your country, as the cousin or sister is only 18 years old.

They then ask you to come back to the apartment they live at to talk to the grandmother or mother, as she can not come talk to you, because she is sick and suffering. Won't you please help out a sick lady? Make her feel better? I laughed a bit at the lady that was pitching this to me at the time, and 'excused' myself from the conversation. Talking with a few vendors in the market in Chinatown later, I found out how the rest of it goes, even though I cant believe people actually fall for it.

So, if they can get someone to come back with them, they show up to the apartment, but nobody is home. They make a phone call, and say the sister or cousin took the grandmother or mother to the hospital, so we can just wait a bit for them to come back. Say, in the meantime, why don't we play some cards to pass the time? No money involved, of course, just for fun, between 'friends'.

After playing a few hands of whatever, it is apparent you are winning all the time. They compliment you on how god your skills are. Why, you must be a real card shark! Amazing! I can't believe you win so much! They then say that they know somebody that works at a gaming house nearby. You could probably win a lot of money with your skills. What do you say?

So, after getting you there, you are systematically picked apart in card games played by people better organized at cheating and scamming than you or I ever will be. Some market vendors even told me that they get the fake jewelery scam involved as well, selling you fakes to export to your country, convincing you to re-sell them there for a profit.

I had a good laugh over it, but they say that a lot of people actually go for it. Talking to a guy from Calgary, he had the same story fed to him twice in the same day. Funny.

Next stop is Singapore for a few days, then back to Kuala Lumpur for a day before the long, long 14-hour flight to Cape Town, South Africa.