First Impressions of an Irish Rover

KL Airport, sleek, modern, plenty of empty designer shops. Note: You need to take the monorail to Baggage Claim and Passport Control, it was not obvious to me. Queue at Passport Control for non nationals (and non diplomats),was very long but no one at the other counters.

Took the KL Express to KL Sentral, a little disappointed with the train as it had seen better days and was dirty with most seats being quite low, so you could not see much out of the window. I thought they would have made a greater effort to make a good first impression.

Surprised the locals have such a sweet tooth. The supermarket I went into had very little fruit, veg, dairy products or meat but aisles and aisles of chocolate and sweets. A local encouraged me to try white coffee, it is very sweet and not white.

I was also surprised to see Malay families talking amongst themselves in English. The older generation had to learn everything at school through English. Though I believe there is now a move away from this.

The following are some random observations:

Footpaths are in a poor state in the older parts of town, with a little step thrown in here and there, where you least expect it. The tiles are particularly treacherous when wet.....the monorail I took had no driver.....why do they have pedestrian crossings?.....they do drive on the same side of the road most of the time, but I would be curious to see what they have to do to pass their driving tests.....motorcyclists are maniacs and seem to be able to drive anywhere they like, including up on footpaths, I saw one driving the wrong way up a busy road while texting on his mobile phone.....do Chinese girls wear short skirts to wind up the Malay girls?......there are place names like Bukit Nanas and Tittiwangsa (yes, I am the boy who never grew up)....places don't correspond with the details on the map I have, Central Market was on a different side of the river...very difficult to find an air conditioned pub apart from in v expensive hotels....I did not realise 4 was such an unlucky number, my lucky number has been 44 for many years, which probably explains a lot. Should I change it? If so, what to?.....I have never seen so many United shirts outside of Old Trafford....having said all that what a fantastic city and I look forward to spending the next 2 years here.

On a separate note, I will be looking for accomodation from mid October, either to share or to rent, close to a train line.So if you know anybody who can help, you can let me know through this forum.