This morning I woke up sneezing and with a sore throat – but in three weeks I have already learned, before you wonder if you are getting a cold look out the window. Sure enough, the haze is worse today. It is not as bad as the first few days in the apartment but the visibility is dropping, the hills are gone and the outer layers of buildings are beginning to fade into the mist.

In KL the casual chat in the lifts, with shop assistants and taxi drivers is about the level of the haze. A good haze day or a bad one, getting worse or getting better.  Most days I wear sunglasses as much to protect my eyes from the grittiness as the glare. On the worst day a couple of weeks ago my skin felt itchy from the air.

When we have Internet sorted I’ll add some pictures to this post showing the difference out our windows. Ironically only yesterday I was surprised at how brilliantly green the hills were in the distance from our windows (a good day) and how many there were.

The haze, I’m told, is caused by forest burn off in Indonesia as they prepare for planting, so it is seasonal. My language skills are failing a bit in discovering when the season ends!