In case you didn’t know (and I certainly didn’t) batophobia is fear of sky-scrapers. If you suffer from that particular perfectly sensible irrational terror, don’t ever, ever, ever come to Kuala Lumpur – the place is chock-a-block with the bloody things! There are a few architectural remnants of the old colonial days: the British administrative offices (top photo above) and the astonishing mock Tudor(??) cricket club, for instance (below).
But even in those two central examples of benign (suppose so) British imperialism, there they are, lurking in the background, bloody towers!
The food’s pretty good, the monsoon’s fun – for the Swansea dweller it can be classified as ‘light drizzle’ – and the people are generally charming; but the skyline, the skyline’s a nightmare!
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The Art of Listening 
Hi, Chris.
Thanks for the posting. Great to hear that you arrived safely (on stage 1 of your journey?).
Pedantopedia (*) records that the meaning of “batophobia” is disputed: some holding that it relates to the “abnormal (***) fear of being near an object of great height, such as a skyscraper or mountain”, others (more strictly) that it pertains only to “the fear of [such] high objects falling down”, while the more laid-back freely admit that if God had really intended the righteous to choose to live and work in the sky then he would never have permitted the birth of Elisha Otis, father of the elevator and, clearly, spawn of the devil — yes, we DO hate skyscrapers tels quels…
Actually, though, if you look again at your second picture the tower to the right of that braced pair DOES seem to have a pair of bat’s ears on its roof…
My special reason for liking the first picture is that it demonstrates that Malaysia uses Irish-style warning signs (yellow diamonds): OK, they’re US-inspired — but only Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia place them on the left-hand side of the road!
Pob hwyl,
Kevin
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(*) The would-be web presence of my Pedants Are We Society (**) which I’ve never actually launched on-line for fear of being fire-bombed by Daily Mail readers who take the view that pedalos should be banned from all park lakes where children might be present
(**) Sponsors of “PAWS for Thought”, an occasional series on Radio Glan y Gamlas, Pontardawe [station manager and sole employee: Caoimhín Ó Floinn]
(***) “Abnormal”? C’mon: what kind of Mies-van-der-Rohe-lovin’ freak DOESN’T hate skyscrapers?
“if God had really intended the righteous to choose to live and work in the sky then he would never have permitted the birth of Elisha Otis” Hmm: logic failure there. That should really have read “”if God had really intended the righteous NOT to choose…”
Strange that I can see that now, after a post-prandial drink or two, when this morning it made perfect sense to my still sober brain. The remedy is…