Two expats, one lost plane and a boomtown

It’s not easy arguing with an old chum if he drops in unexpected, but I have the advantage over him of having covered the region for the past quarter century and more. Besides which, said I, rummaging for a cork screw, I actually lived and worked in Kuala Lumpur for six years and was even arrested, jailed and genitally abused there. Well, at least, verbally.

But that’s the drill when hosting friends from the same hack pack. Even with world-beating growth, gleaming new skyscrapers, and local politicos just as ulterior in motive as the guys who shut down the American government with their bickering last year, the Western visitor will find reason to rant in KL or any Asian capital, for that matter.