Leaving Kuala Lumpur

After five days in Kuala Lumpur, we’re heading to India tomorrow. We chose to break our journey between our South East Asia travels and India in a big city. Kuala Lumpur certainly provided that, with its mega highways, super clean transit system, world class health care and malls malls malls. I admit that I was somewhat dissappointed not to see more history here. Then again, if we had done our homework, we would have known the city was only founded in the mid 1800s, making it a newcomer by Asian standards.

We figured as long as we were in a modern city, we would check out the new wave of health care tourism in Asia. Foreigners travel here for lower cost health care and higher quality service. We’re all in good shape, so decided that the easiest way to get a taste for the health care situation was to send the kids for a check-up. I’ve admitted before to exploiting our children for travel education, and this is an instance where we did just that. In our defense, the kids love doctor’s visits and would have been upset if one of us went instead of them.

Gleneagles Hospital is like a country club. Porches, Mercedes, and BMWs roll into the entrance to be passed on to the valet. At the base of the building is a French bistro. We went to the pediatric wing, where we were taken in immediately for a consultation. I filled out forms while Sandeep tried to stop the kids from toppling over the tropical fish tank.

I got a kick out of the forms – just one sheet of paper  – as opposed to the 6+ we need to fill out back home – and a race choice of Chinese, Indian, or Malay. It’s the first time I have been able to select a race other than ‘Other’.

The doctor spent half an hour with us, taking her time to ask the kids questions. Kayan bounced off her walls and smacked down her toys. Ava sang ABC at the top of her lungs. At the end of the visit she politely claimed “These kids are healthy. I can tell by how interactive they are.” That pronouncement cost $40 per child.

While we’ve had our fill of big city and are ready to lay low again, we will miss Malaysia’s amazing diversity of culture and food. Here is our dinner bill from tonight. We had freshly squeezed and blended juices, Indian naans and rotis, Malay chicken and European ais krim all for $14.

See you in India!