KL Journal #3

6/15/2006 9:15 AM

Why do people gamble? I always had this vision of gamblers. Desperate people, who are trying to reach out to that straw of hope. But at Genting Highlands, last Sunday, I saw real gamblers for the first time. Real people. Old Chinese ladies who you would otherwise see selling their merchandise in a night market. With the obligatory cigarette dangling from their lips. Quite the opposite of a suave James Bond playing roulette in a Nice casino. I guess it somewhat brought down the glamour of gambling in my eyes.

Next day we went to the see the KLCC Mall below Petronas Towers. Malls. You see one and you’ve seen all. Mannequins, the smell of plastic, shiny shop windows and the silent collective sigh, that you can hear if you listen a bit hard. I think malls are the confessionals of these times. You wash away your sins, make new resolutions…to drop a few pounds to get into that dress, to drop a few expensive habits to afford that dress.

One odd thing though. Kinokunhiya (I guess that’s the spelling) is the largest bookshop at KLCC. And 90% of the books at the shop were sold sealed. Yeah, I know you are supposed to judge a book by its cover. But where’s the charm of buying a book, if you can’t leaf through a few pages, read the first line? Where’s the charm of reading something like "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again," for the first time? It’s a kind of flirting that romances you into buying that book. To take it home that night. To make it a part of your consciousness. You can’t do that with a sealed book.

And then we went to Melaka. Melaka is a melting pot of cultures. Portuguese, Dutch, English, Malaya, Chinese…a perfect example of what really South-east Asia is all about, if you care to look below the Sony Handycams, pirated DVDs and tiger economies.

We saw Buddhist temples that double up as karaoke bars and Portuguese townhouses that double up as hotels.

Clearly the highpoint of our trip so far.