Kosmopolitan, Kultured, Kaotic Kuala Lumpur

Selamat pagi. Arrived at the Traders Hotel, Kuala Lumpur at 11pm Thursday after a pretty good flight with Air Malaysia. Superb hotel and our room looks directly across to the imposing Petronas Twin Towers, as featured in the Sean Connery / Catherine Zeta-Jones film "Entrapment". (We have a new respect for the stunt men and women who did the scenes on the tension wires under the sky-bridge.) At 4,519 metres tall and with 88 floors, the towers are the second highest buildings in the world. They are spectacular at night when they light up and they have some lights that flash on and off.
Friday morning we took a city tour with two other couples (from Perth) and our Indian guide Raja. We learnt that Kuala Lumpur literally means "muddy estuary" and it is a truly cosmopolitan city with Malays, Chinese and Indians the dominant races making up its 2 million population. Raja provided us with a comprehensive briefing on Malaysia's history and culture. We visited a batik factory, a pewter factory, the National Museum, the National Monument and lake garden, the Royal Palace where we watched the changing of the guard (incidentally, the Malaysian throne is shared among the nine provincial royal families, who take turns at occupying the central Malaysian throne for a five year term).
The evening was spent again with Raja, first battling bumper-to-bumper traffic,and then enjoying a buffet dinner at a Malay restaurant and watching a floor show of traditional dancing. After dinner we went to Chinatown for a look at the night markets. All in all a fun day; good weather at 35 degrees and only one brief shower that we managed to avoid.
Today we had nothing specific planned, so we caught the hotel shuttle to the Petronas Centre and then a train to the Central Markets and Little India area. We were impressed with the clean, efficient and easy-to-use rail system and had no problems getting around. We enjoyed a few hours pottering through the markets, ate a a delicious Malay lunch that cost us four dollars each including drinks.
We're going to find a local restaurant for dinner tonight, then off to Melacca on the west coast for the day tomorrow, then fly out at midnight. Next stop - Prague.