Everybody I meet here says it's too hot to walk, and generally we drive to the Jusco department store, even though it's only 300 m away. But the main deterrent to pedestrianism is not the heat but bad urban design. Streets are narrow, there are no sidewalks, cars always assume right of
way, drivers are aggressive by North American standards, and the verges, although they may appear smooth and grassy, conceal significant holes.

In Kuala Lumpur, Frances and her brother live a short distance from a mall, but there is absolutely no way of walking to it short of dashing across a 6-lane dual carriageway. [Later I discovered that you can indeed get there via two pedestrian overpasses -- but the point remains that the people who had lived there for years were unaware of this].

In the evening, we drive to Seenivasagam Park, where we toss stale chapati and uncooked pasta (also expired) into a pond teeming with fishes and tortoises. The fish were quicker, but the tortoises were getting away with some questionable blocking manoeuvres. Apparently there was no referee.