Kuala Lumpur in October

Hot and humid among the high-rises of this aspirational metropolis.

The Prince Hotel is grand and luxurious but also sterile. At the foot of the lifts is a large, bold sign that says:

The Durian is a highly-prized fruit that looks innocuous. But it tastes like heaven and smells like hell...

My room is on the 28th floor, with a view of the KL tower. It's rained a lot since I arrived and it feels like walking into something between a sauna and an oven when you step outside air-conditioned buildings or cars. But it's a city I like, a kind of fusion between East and West, North and South.

I had a meeting at the British Council this morning and then my guide (Siti) and her driver took me to Saloma's Restaurant for lunch: a very traditional, colonial-style building with wonderful Malay food and the usual exquisite service. Strangely, there was an Indonesian promotion going on, publicising cheap flights between KL and Jakarta.

Saloma was a singer and film star of the 1960s and we heard her songs briefly transmitted in the restaurant. She was a champion of women's liberation, rejecting the traditional Muslim veil and earned herself a niche as the darling of the cultured classes...