5. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Feb '98

What could be more romantic than Valentine's Day in KL? Well, as you may have guessed, pretty much anything. KL vies with Singapore for the most oppressive weather. Despite the fact that the two places hate each other for historical reasons, the two cities are actually pretty interchangeable. In addition to the steamy weather, they both have a striking absence of sightseeing opportunities, and both compensate with an overabundance of malls. The ethnic balance between Chinese and Malays is skewed differently in the two cities, and KL definitely has a Muslim feel to it, chiefly due to the headscarves on most women. Both cities are traditionally very strict and boring, but fluctuate wildly so it's hard to tell what it will be like at any one time. Being gay is illegal in both places, and everything is pretty heavily censored in both, but Singapore has been trying to show its wild side by allowing bars to stay open 24 hours and bringing in gambling. KL was attempting to keep up, and for a while it was a really wild party town, but they've gone back into hibernation recently.

These pics are of the real historical building, which is the train station. And when I say historical, I mean like 100 years old. Malaysia has a couple of old colonial trading centers like Penang and Malacca, but very little of their own history on show architecturally. The train station is one of the only colonial buildings in KL, which wasn't an important trading post. It's done up in a sort of Muslim fantasy style, and it's quite fetching. We somehow managed to spend the weekend without taking any photos of its most famous building, the Petronas Towers, but if you strain your eyes you can just see them poking through the haze in the pic with Somchai in it.