Around KL - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Old houses in Kuala Lumpur. By Fabio

Unlike the European city centers, too heavily restored, the Asian colonial quarters retain a genuine air. In the back of the Chinese taverns the battered utensils relentlessly hit the woks with hypnotizing tok-toks. In the Indian restaurants curry-stained fingers keep stirring rice and vegetables on banana leaves. After a while though one gets hold of his glare, aims it at the facade and sees the pastel colors, the cracked and blackened plaster, the decorated balconies and a date in relief.

The models at my condo beside beauty and nice dresses possess some amazing superpowers as well: when I meet them in the lift and smile at them they appear to be able to see right through my body and they keep staring blankly at the wall behind me.

At the gym

A: What's the best part or working out for you?

B: [Seriously] The sauna...

A: hahaha...OK, I like that as well...and the second best?

B: [More seriously] ...the hot shower...

A few days later I met the models again. As the corridor is narrow I made some space for them. They walked past me without acknowledging my existence as if they were some princesses in an ancient kingdom and I just a simple untouchable pariah. Next time I meet them I'm gonna walk on their bodies. Considering their height, I might actually have to climb them...

Still at the gym

A: Hey, why don't you put some weights on that barbell?

B: [As serious as ever] Because then it's hard...

If the rain in KL stops when the sun has just set you can watch the city through an HD screen: the atmosphere is high-tech, as in a computer game, and the edges are shiny, as if they were sprinkled with gold dust.

They call it planning, they call it development, but these are words with a positive connotation. And the planners in KL are developing a mess...