We're in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia and it so not what we ever imagined. The city is known as The Garden City of Lights. The city was founded less than 150 years ago for its tin mines. The British ruled the country and 50 years ago the country became independent. It is a multi-cultural and multi-racial country with 14 states and 9 royal families. Every 5 years one king rules the country and they cycle - so each region is represented. Mostly Muslim population, but also Hindu, Buddhist and Christen live in harmony together. We checked in on the 27 December to the Shangri-La Hotel just across the park from The Petronas Tower, the tallest twin towers in the world. It's awe inspiring and again the city skyline is not what you expect in this part of the world. Our hotel is a contemporary 5-star skyscraper. The top floor has a two-story swimming pool with retractable roof that doubles as a hip nightclub when the sun goes down. Their seems to be a staff of thousands providing some of the best service one can imagine and the rooms have state of the art electronics and amenities, such as a toilet seat with an automatic bidet built in the camode (strange yes, but it I must say refreshing...)
We had a wonderful tour guide the following day who took us throughout the capital. It is the cleanest city that I have ever seen. No signs of trash, graffiti or homeless population. Beautiful parks, fountains and spectacular new buildings galore.
One of the highlights was to a sacred Hindu shrine built in a bat cave up in the hillside surrounding Kuala Lumpur. 
So many Hindu pilgrims climbing up the over 200 steep stairs into the large caves filled with bats. Roberta and the boys made it up a quarter of the way and turned back down. I was determined to complete the walk, especially since their are hundreds of elderly barefoot ladies dressed in saris making the journey. I'm not sure if this trip has been my version of the TV show, Fear Factor, I needed to get pass the monkeys jumping down on people along the stairway and then ducking past the bats in the cave. I have a fear of most living creatures - so I ask myself "why do you do this to yourself?".... It was worth the climb and there is a small bit of self-fulfillment (along with photo proof that I did it!). 
We then went on to Royal Selangor Pewter Center - to learn more about the power tin & pewter brought to Malaysia during the turn of last century. The museum and factory tour really was interesting. We then were enrolled in "The School of Hard Knocks" - a fun activity and where we each received a piece of flat pewter and were instructed to bang out a bowl. Well we all created interesting asymmetrical-looking bowls as a wonderful souvenir. After working up an appetite we were invited to a unique Relais y Chateau restaurant called Mandi-Mandi located on the out skirts of the city and set in a very upscale residential community. We were the only guests and were wined and dined in this lush tropical setting. The weather could not have been more perfect today and we truly enjoyed the local cuisine and the outdoor setting.
Many families ski, hike, camp and share other family outings together. The Almeas family enjoys trekking in air-conditioned malls and I think we found our retail mecca in Kuala Lumpur. I have been fortunate to travel and I've shopped in Las Vegas as well as Dubai where you can't imagine how all these malls can compete so close to the other and all stay in business. Well move over - Kuala Lumpur has won the retailer of the century award for the most retailers in such a small area. You name a retail shop anywhere in the world and there is an outlet in one of the dozen glass & marble multi-level malls all within 8 city blocks apart. Roberta died and went to heaven! My children felt like they were in Oz - it's hard to describe the frenzy my family felt when we entered the first mall and then the second and the third... it was like the time I first skied in Vail, Colorado and encountered the back bowl areas and learned that I could ski all day and never duplicate the same trail. What a feeling of excitement!!!
So when you get a chance, pop on over to Kuala Lumpur to discover that this is not the banana republic you assumed - it is a modern and vibrant city where there is a large Silicon Valley district, a large medical and university community and world-class dining, shops and museums. The city is multi-racial and there is little poverty. The city that was built on tin is now a shiny metropolis that compete with any Western city in the world.
On to Cambodia tomorrow morning, 29 December. I can almost bet we are going to go back in time and see what we imagined Malaysia was - third world.
