A tale from today

The plan was to walk across to the National Museum after checking in our luggage at Sentral Station. It's very close on the map. But no one knew how it could be done. We divined its location behind the Hilton and Meridian but the porter at the Hilton suggested a taxi. I got a bit argumentative and probably rolled my eyes. He said I could walk along the roads and it might take 30 minutes. We took a taxi, although the taxi driver and I chuckled at the 30 min estimate when we set off. Actually if we tried to walk Grette and I might still be there. Even the taxi had to drive in spirals for close to 10 mins to get there.

The museum is a good one. lots of detail on the various Malay kingdoms of the past thousand years, installations to recreate colonial times, detailed information on the Communist emergency ... My aunt Beryl was serving in the Army in Malaysia then I think.. and quite a lot about Government programs and progress on  sharing development and promoting  cultural harmony. As always the stuff on trade proved most interesting to me.

I'll insert a snippet of our lunch in the cafeteria when I can get the technology sorted.

That did get me thinking about being a pedestrian. So many people who work here come into the city by train and bus. And others live here anyway. But even new developments rarely allow for pedestrians who of course walk in the road which is a little hairy in Melaka but can be really hairy in KL.

The buildings here have really interested me: from the grand to domestic, ancient and modern. Even unit blocks and office towers are often inventive, meaningfully reference culture, history and religion, are a pleasure to look at and to be in. But getting in and out of those buildings must be perilous at times.

The buildings work for human beings but the ground around them, in the auto era, do not.

Moderate lunch at the cafeteria - yes, chilli