Off to the lost island

So I'm off to Singapore tomorrow. It was part of Malaysia but very briefly (about five years if my memory of the museum is right). I think they were asked to leave for trying to treat the Chinese equally to the Malays, or the Malays equally to the Chinese. What ever it was probably didn't involve the Indians.

I've decided KL is not a place I'm likely to come to again. It's one of those newish countries that have a veneer of civility but the poverty and corruption still show through. Why do I say that? Well for a start there's the massive skyscrapers and shopping malls yet a complete lack of investment in infrastructure. I always think this is a sign of backhanders, and you see it in lots of places, some official sells the land to developers for a cut so they get rich and everyone else pays. The fact that the police are dressed like paramilitary is also a sign, in my opinion, of a population whose rights are not fully respected. I am only going by the places I've visited and it seems to be the closer to a dictatorship/military regime/socialist paradise you are the more the cops look like storm troopers. Except in Italy where they just love shiny uniforms and medals of course. The old ladies begging in the street don't really instil confidence that this is a fair and equitable democracy either. Yes I know we have beggars too but it's rarely old ladies and people with limbs missing. The final thing that made my mind up today was when dozens of police motorbikes and cars and blacked out vehicles screamed down the main road, scattering the rest of the traffic. They weren't responding to an emergency just escorting someone too "important" to sit in the traffic. This is definitely a sign of despotism well practised in the USSR and has no real place in a democracy. Unless the Olympics are on of course then the tax payers just have to wait for the synchronised swimming judges, after all think of the legacy!

A few other observations.

The boys here REALLY love complicated hair. I've never seen so many combinations of undercuts, rat tails, Mohicans and mulletesque styles in my life. If I had shares in a hair product company here I'd be a millionaire. I suppose that if everyone has pretty much the same colour, straight, thick hair then you got to try really hard to stand out.

I have a new tourism campaign for Malaysia, in fact pretty much any Asian country;

"Smoking? Why yes, you can!"

It's a bit of a surprise to see so much tobacco smoke but it does make you realise they even if Australia does ban pretty fag packets, the ciggie companies are still going to be ok.

People will step out of shops and offices here and noisily expel the contents of their nose onto the pavement. So watch your step! To be honest I prefer the smoking.

Most escalators here are for show and never work, the rest will come to a stop while you're still standing on them. I don't know why but it does add some excitement to every automated ascent.

Malaysia must be on the list of sharia holiday destinations for Saudi and Iran as there are lots and lots of women here in the full burka/hijab, slit-to-look-out-of rig. This isn't the place to comment (I hate it, it's degrading) but it must make for some interesting Saudi Facebook pictures with all these anonymous, identical women posed in front of various tourist attractions.

Anyway that's enough raising the ire of the Malaysian government and the whole of Islam. I'm off to the friendliest dictatorship on earth so I'll add more from there. Possibly.