Santa-dodging from Sri Lanka to Malaysia...
Sri Lanka does Christmas in a big way: palm trees with tinsel and lights on them, a life-size plastic Santa rocking and waving and going 'ho-ho-ho' over and over. The stuff of nightmares. This grumpy auld bastard figured hitting a predominantly Buddhist country for the festive season would have meant nae festive season - peace and quiet, but no such luck.
But we're not there any more... now we're in Kuala Lumpur, where we've spotted a few wee plastic Santas and, on one occasion, a load of cute shop assistants in mini skirts and santa hats, but otherwise it's all fairly low-key and quiet Christmas-wise. And that'll do me. Yes, Ebaneezer Scrooge Macbean hates Christmas... has done for years... just canny be bothered wae all the nonsense, hypocrisy, talking dugs and twee table decorations. Christmas is shite!
Kaula Lumpuron the other hand, is great. I often read and hear that this is a boring city, but I don't see why people think that. There are loads of things to do and some cool things to see. Yesterday we went to the KL tower... didn't go up in the lift - just walked up to the base through the forest reserve. The tower is surrounded by a well preserved chunk of secondary jungle, which considering it's smack in the middle of a city, is in very good condition.There are lots of wee trails you can follow and sigboards telling you about all the different trees and stuff.
At the top there's a really kitch restaurant and shopping complex which makes a wonderful contrast to the serene green of the jungle below. There's a big set of disco speakers banging out really crappy pop music and there's an area with palm trees wrapped in what looks like red and white police warning tape and it's called 'Winterland'. Didny see any Santas, but I suppose this is a wee Christmas intrusion into KL park-life. I have to say, but, I really enjoyed it.
The day before yesterday we walked all round the city centre - through Little India, past all the weird and wonderful Islamo-gothic British Colonial buildings and through the Lake Gardens - that's another great quiet and relaxed city centre place. There's a landscaped lake and lots of flower gardens and little pavilions and picnic tables. We counted five bride-and-groom sets out getting their photos taken. If it's the same as in Hong Kong, then these kids will be spending the few days leading up to their wedding going around the city getting their photies taken in all the nice spots. I suppose it ensures a good photo album whatever the waether on the day.
Talking of weather, it was absolutely pishing down last night. We got caught in it briefly but had our umbrellas at the ready, as we have had constantly since the afternnon in Unawatuna when we went for a walk and thought, 'No, it's no' gonny rain today. We'll leave the brollys in the room...' The weather in this part of the world (I mean South-east Asia generally) seems unusual this year. It's usually much drier and people in Sri Lanka said the monsoon should have finished weeks ago, but it doesn't seem to have stopped this year. Weather's changing everywhere, but. Innnit?
So, today we meet Lucy at the airport and then have another couple of days in the capital, before heading north to Penang and Langkawi. It's a route we've done several times, but I'm sure we'll enjoy it just as much as we always do.
Should mention that food has been pretty good since we arrived in KL. Lot's of tofu, of course. Last night we ate in a really freaky Buddhist restaurant where everything is vegan, but the dishes have names like, 'Braised chicken with shrimp', 'Fried beef with chilli' and so on... and when the dishes come, they look like they got real prawns on them and there's meat with skin and bones...We had vegan fried pork with pineapple followed by vegan chicken satay. A trully weird experience. I think we'll do it again once before we leave....