Yesterday, walking from the conference centre to the hotel, we found a dead snake on the pavement. Significant, or what? Turns out Ruth hasn't even seen Blade Runner. So the snake had no more than the usual curiosity value for her.
Dinner: more exceedingly fresh fishy stuff, flip-flapping and cl...
Advised to go to Bintang Walk in search of good local cuisine, last night we ended up at a covered food hall about the size of a football field, though not as wide. Down each long side were booths that each seemed to specialise in a limited repertoire of dishes. We approached Kee Yuan's Seafood and asked the man what he had. He pointed to a glass tank clacking with crabs and in a couple of minutes the deal was done. Seafood noodles and steamed crab. We sat down at a table, bolted to the floor, on chairs bolted to the floor. Our host arranged for someone else from way down the food hall to bring cold beers, and we waited.
Kuala Lumpur is "very Blade Runner". I confess I lean to the Futurama interpetation myself, but a woman who has already visited Chinatown (while I've been oscillating between hotel and conference centre) assured me it was so. In that spirit, my colleague Ruth wishes it to be known that she is available for anyone who would care to stalk a replicant through the rain-soaked streets of KL. She doesn't know what that means, but I do, and that's what counts.
Of course it is fun when abroad to point out the quaintnesses of the locals. But breakfast raises serious questions.
From the 26th floor of the Dynasty Hotel one has a pretty good view of the Kuala Lumpur skyline, and what it looks most like is a scene from the Dan Dare comics of my youth. All that's missing are the personal space vehicles zipping overhead. And the one-eyed babes in purple.
