Saturday 4/8 - settling in

Hello everyone - I have arrived, am settled in (my new home for the next 8 weeks), and have started finding my way around.
The flight over was long but fine. I went from KC to LA to Taipei to KL. During the long leg, LA to Taipei, I got a good long nap. I had an emergency row seat, and the seats reclined fairly well, so it wasn't bad. The 747 was huge and there were many flight attendants, very attentive and friendly.
KL a large town. It is probably at least 50km in about every direction to open countryside (jungle). The coast is about 35km to the west, I think. That water is the strait between Malaysia and Indonesia. The city is very busy, pretty clean, very hot. It is in the low 90's and very (very very) humid every day. They tell me the only difference in the seasons is that while it normally rains most days, in the late afternoon, during the rainy season (Dec to March in KL) it rains everyday, in the morning then also in the afternoon. KL used to be a British colony. Driving is on the left, as are escalators.
The ethnic/cultural mix is really interesting. Malay, Chinese, Indian peoples with Islam, Hindu, Buddhist, etc. are all everywhere. The country works very hard at maintaining everyone's separate culture, thoroughly mixed with everyone else's. By that I mean that you see various temples and manners of dress, languages, etc casually (harmoniously?) everywhere. That's the message preach for sure. While Islam is somewhat dominant, you don't get the feeling that it is ......... Pushy. Plenty of women are in religious head coverings, but they are walking/working alongside other women in tight shirts and mini-skirts, or whatever. Very interesting.
Dining here (I have only started to explore) is very Asian. While I did eat at an Outback steakhouse tonight (I know, I know), 90%+ of restaurants are Asian. The food court at the Mid-Valley mall has about 2 dozen restaurants, all some type of Asian food. Side-note - the Outback didn't have their better steaks, as beef imports from the USA and Australia are currently banned in Malaysia (health concerns, I understand).
I took a tour today (Pewter factory, Batik demonstration (wax art dyed silk), Batu Cave (big Hindu shrine cave). I have another tomorrow (city-center stuff). The other people in the tour were a couple from Saudi Arabia, a women from Australia and a guy from Lebanon.
I'll send more pictures. Work starts on Monday.
Take care all.