Kuala Lumpur

We woke up this morning and checked the latest earthquake news to find that an aftershock of 6.0 happened last night. We emailed and skyped our friends in Chengdu and were glad to find they were okay. One of our American friends ran from his apartment and was not eager to get back to work today. We're glad to be away for awhile. The thunderstorm here seems pretty tame in comparison.

This morning we stood in line for 45 minutes to get tickets for the skywalk between the Petronas Towers. Those of you who are shoppers, (that doesn't include us), would be very content to spend time in the towers shopping. The bottom 6 floors are filled with prestigious shops from around the world. Most of them far beyond our league or pocketbook range. Because this is a major tourist spot for this part of the world we're experiencing the most multi-ethnic crowds we've ever been in. There are many people from India as well as people from the Middle East. Airports, bus stations and malls have prayer rooms for Muslims. Our hotel room even has an arrow on the ceiling pointing to Mecca. As Dorothy would say, "This isn't Kansas, Toto".

As we went to an ATM to get some local currency we realized that we would be carrying cash from four different countries. Keeping the exchange rates clear is a bit complicated. But, we're kind of figuring it out.

Tomorrow it's back on the bus for an hour ride to Penang where we'll be spending some time on the beach.