A country my age (and considered very young!)

We don't seem to get enough of traveling: after an eight hour flight from Melbourne to Singapore, we pause for sight seeing and dinner in China Town, then take the night train to Kuala Lumpur (departing from the railway station, not the train station!). Christine's friend Gilbert walks us through the city, from its own China Town, which still sleeps early morning, through the old town with the muddy river (= kuala lumpur), up to KL Tower (with 421m the third highest telecom tower in the world, though the observatory is "only" at 276m), and around the twin towers of Petronas. A bustling mixture of cultures and their religions appears to live together happily here, reconciling conflicting social and legal systems. A 2.5 hour car ride takes us over a pass and down into the home town of Malaysia's first king. Near to his old and new palace, in a remote and thinly populated Malaysian kampung (village), Christine and Roger occupy a traditional house "on legs", surrounded by goats, chicken, and monkeys in the trees. They host us (in addition to Roger's mother and her friend) very warmly and we enjoy a relaxing rest in nature after having visited four big cities in a row. Just as we get up in the morning, a baby goat is borne, and Carlos becomes goat godfather, baptizing it to the Nahuatl name of Yolot. After breakfast with home-baked bread, delicious mango, and coconut jam, Christine drives us to Seremban, where we catch the train back to Singapore: seven hours of palm trees on the left and palm trees on the right, with one quick glimpse of a temple. In all other aspects, this was a memorable trip to meet up with Christine again, after 35 years!