Yesterday was Kuala lumpur, Malayasia. I was really concerned we had chosen another doozy of a tour.this was was called Handicrafts and Countryside. It included a 1 hr and 15 minute ride to the city to see the twin towers which were the highest buildings until a few years ago, then a pewter factory and then some caves and then the ride back. Most of our group did either the highlights or created a sea day.

The city portion of the tour was a drive by / parking lot photo shoot. The pewter factory was actually fun.we got a tour of the manufacturing and creation of pewter and then we actually got to make our own bowl. We were given aprons which said"school of hard knocks" and then started banging them out. Why a pewter factory? It seems that this area was developed around the abundance of tin, which is a key component of pewter. Today, this factory has to import the tin, so all that is left is the manufacturing. But, back to the tour... It was a very modern facility with only the visitor areas air conditioned. After watching workers actually making the pieces and then being allowed to bang out our own, like children we compared our rudimentary pieces with one another, taking photos proudly. I think, though, that they really wanted to show us how hard it was to make something that looked lovely and they had beautiful, but costly, things in their showroom. Doug and I resisted, however tempted, and went off to the Bantu caves,

We arrived at the caves and the monkeys...I attempted the 252 vertical stairs but backed out but i heard they were nice. We have plenty of caves back home without a gazillion stairs. Last night, many of us has dinners with the staff and lots of interesting discussions. Food was great.

At some point, we may opt for a do it yourself day again. Today is a cooking class. And spice fields. Luck please as I hear thunder.