Doha, Qatar International Airport. Signage in Arabic is novel. (Grateful English is the default second language)Interesting playground.Moving signage. Melissa pointed out it's not exactly an *inviting* image, at least if you don't like the heat.Lamp merged with Teddy Bear?Hydration is important.Oh good lord. One of the first places we see at the KL airport.At least the KL Dunkies had some localization.'Til we got in the cab I forgot the Malaysia is "drive on left"'Til we got in the cab I forgot the Malaysia is "drive on left"Plantations of Palm Oil Trees, a major export. Though frankly at this point things were looking suspiciously Florida like.Toll booth. Caught my eye that "Mex" means something different here.Elevator at my cousin's place - they live thirty floors up. Ken pointed out all the floor ending with 4 get called "lowerfloor A" - "24" is "23A", because the Chinese word for 4 sounds like the word for death. Combine with the Anglo "fear of 13" and at one point you have the sequence "11, 12, 12A, 13A, 15".The view from my cousin's apartment is amazing. Most prominent building is KL Tower. They have a festival including BASE jumping from that.They do love their scooters and motorcycles...KL is not a great "walking" city - everyone drives! Gas is cheap and the national banking system encourages people to buy the local car brands Perodua and Proton. Besides having to watch out for daredevil scooters, walkways are often a bit broken and uneven.Tree embraced (strangled?) with other tree.Petronas Towers "the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004 and remain the tallest twin towers in the world" - my aha moment was realizing they were the inspiration for the video game "Just Cause 2"'s Panau Falls Casino: http://justcause.wikia.com/wiki/Panau_Falls_Casino Quick intense rain shower happened then, so people are used to ducking out of the rain and waiting it out.Inside the Petronas Towers there is a mall, interesting architecture inside.I was almost hesitant to post this, I don't want it to be "ha ha, weird asians" - squat toilets make a lot of sense biologically (at least according to the unicorn in those squatty potty ads) and this is just a bit of culture clash where a person used to this might suffer because Westerners like to plop down.Malay is an interesting trade language, a blend of multiple influences colonial and otherwise, but mercifully with latin letters. Sometimes they correct weird spellings or English, or sometimes the spelling reflects local pronounciation, ala "Restoran"I think these lanterns are going to be in my second of the dayMore Malay - it's not a cab, it's a "Teksi"Colorful streetsInnuendo intended, I assume.Kitty. There are a number of feral cats around, but they seem to be taken care of usually.Ended the night with a nice meal with my cousins Ken and Mary at "Opium"; they server Tiger Beer in this kind of mini-jug with a bowl to drink it from.
