Kota Kinabalu, Borneo

As we waded through the head-hunters on the way to the mall today, trying not to bump into protruding nose-bones, I wondered whether the bookshop would be well-stocked. The only books on sale in Kuala Lumpur seemed to be Islam-based tracts of one sort or another, and as I've nearly finished my Iain Banks novel, I'm in the market for some lit. Loads of fiction in the smart bookstore here in Sabah, but not a sniff of Popular Science. I even asked  whether they stock Richard Dawkins, but it was blank looks all round.

And the internet connections are terrible. Wi-fi, so ubiquitous now in Thailand that interntet cafes are almost redundant, is virtually absent here in Malaysia.

Malaysia seems pretty happy and functional on the surface, but the taxi drivers tell you some imteresting stuff. Notoriously, the Leader of the Opposition continues to be incarcerated following rigged sentencing based on trumped-up charges of buggery, despite several inquiries that found to the contrary. That's in the papers too.

Head-hunting is now outlawed, of course, but other forms of consumerism have taken over - the national sport is now shopping.