Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia II

Now that I have traveled to a few countries during my stay in Tokyo -- Singapore, Hongkong, Korea, Taiwan, and Malaysia -- I am still surprised by cities each time I land. The airports are nearly uniform everywhere. The only difference is the variety of languages that appear on signs. The difference starts on the journey from the airport into the city. What do the highway signs or the train tickets look like?

Some things are completely domestic to each country. Two things that come to mind are payphones and taxis. Payphones in Kuala Lumpur were predictably dirty. Japan is the one place I would dare use a public phone. Unlike most places I have traveled, they feel more like a home telephone from the 1960s or 1970s. The cord is curly plastic like United States analog phones from the 1980s and 1990s, not metallic like Time Square and these photos.

The taxis were tiny Proton-brand cars with manual transmissions, and the drivers refused most destinations. Many tried to travel without using the meter. (This is most negative point about travel in Kuala Lumpur.)