Dinner with a Stranger: Kuala Lumpur

'Muddy confluence' said the fat man sitting across from me, 'that's what Kuala Lumpur means'. Leaning back in the rusty chair, I reflected on his translation. Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur is, in some sense, a city of muddied boundaries. It's caught in a metropolitan dilemma; it aspires to be Singapore, but at times feels more like Bangkok. Much of city has the appearance of its clean and clinically efficient brother in the south. But on the edges, it's all the raffish ins-and-outs of its wilder sister in the north.