Kuala Lumpur (not to be confused with Koala Lumpur)
I actually enjoy saying Kuala Lumpur, dunno why, guess I just like the way it rolls off my tongue.
So I was in Malaysia for.... roughly 8 days.
So my friends Kenny and CK live in KL and I acquired them (almost accidentally) the last time I was in KL. They were kind enough NOT to sell me to a Singaporean brothel.
So I hopped off the plane onto the KLIA express into the city and met up with Kenny. First thing we did? Fed the Jenny, bc I'd skipped the food on the flight due to my loathing for airplane food. We had very nice Indian food since CK was still at work and he doesn't like Indian food. Everything was fantastic but in particular the fish tikka. After lunch we picked CK up from work and headed off for dinner. Kenny had an excellent food tour planned for the first few days of my trip.
Ah. I guess this would be a good time to mention that I lost my camera on the trip. Erk. Here's to hoping that Kenny and CK can find it (I suspect it's lying in a restaurant) but due to the lack of pictures I've already begun forgetting things and blurring days and meals together.
The second day was when my friend Jess showed up. Kenny, CK and I'd already grabbed breakfast. We did a boo-boo and tried to walk off without paying, we just weren't moving fast enough. After collecting the Jess we went to this Australian cafe with AMAZING desserts and some other things like sandwiches, which I didn't bother wasting the tummy space on. My fav was the banoffee pie, we also had raspberry lemon cheesecake, honeycomb cake and something chocolate-y.
Dinner was at the yummy restaurant we'd gone to the last time I'd been in Malaysia (in 2009, yikes!) and tried to order the butter sauce crab unfortunately "mo hai" (out, 沒有) but got a veggie dish, the tasty pork ribs, the salty egg calamari, some steamed fish and the butter cream sauce shrimp instead. So good.
We had the fried chicken and nasi lemak for breakfast one morning. I had it again for my last breakfast in KL before heading to the airport.
But Kenny also made sure that we got some history and culture in. We went to his hometown Melaka (Malacca?) which is where St. Paul's cathedral is which is where Francis Xavier was buried for roughly 9 months before his remains were expatriated. But before we did the history stuffs we had Hainanese chicken rice balls and cendol in shaved ice with other sweet things mixed into it. We also went down the street which had a Chinese temple, Hindu temple and Islamic mosque built right next to each other. It's supposed to be a symbol of Malaysia's religious tolerance/diversity/mixing. That day was hot hot hot and I got sunburned. Whoops.
The culture part was from the day trip we took to the Batu Caves. It's weird to see this flat area with houses and development and then BAM there are some looming cliffs which contain the Batu Caves inside them. So the Batu caves are named after a river which runs nearby.... somewhere and are primarily limestone. The caves also contain a Hindu temple which is the site for a famous (or infamous) ceremony called Thaipusam. If you've ever watched Discovery Channel or National Geographic when they do their various religions or taboo series this festival is featured in one of the episodes because devotees go into trances and pierce their bodies with a variety of swords and skewers. They don't seem to feel pain but the part that freaks me out is the fact that THEY DON'T BLEED. Anyway, enough of that, the part we were more worried about were the pigeons, roosters and monkeys that also hang about the area. They're very comfortable with people and the monkeys have no problem coming up to you and snatching stuff from you. We climbed the 277 steps and avoided the potential animal attacks for the day.
After the Batu caves we had Malaysian food for lunch and Jess very sneakily still managed to the pay the bill, so don't ever underestimate the sneakiness of this girl. ^_^ She got lucky that Kenny had his back to her during the paying process, although I did see and was distracted. So Jess left us on that Monday bc of her stupid job but I continued to loiter about. Kenny had arranged a business trip of his to Kota Kinabalu (aka KK) so that I could tag along, stay at the Hyatt with him and have a mostly paid for trip. Yay! The first day was really a half day and it rained so the Hyatt closed the pool (I was told they were worried about patrons getting wet and after I told them they were being stupid, they said it was for safety reasons which I grumbling accepted) for the afternoon. The next day Kenny carefully stuffed me into a cab and sent me down to the dock where you can choose an island to visit. There are a lot of beach resorts on the islands or you can just go out for a day of snorkeling, swimming and sun bathing.
After suffering a VERY obnoxious Japanese tourist I was finally dropped off at Manukan, one of the smaller islands. I happily splashed into the slightly cool water (cloudy day), dodged the Cantonese tourists in life vests splashing and shrieking in the shallows *rolls her eyes* and swam out into deep water to snorkel. I felt a tickle against the left side of my face, figured it was my hair, ignored it and then was slapped with a stinging pain that had me gasping in pain face down in the ocean. I swam back to the beach and stumbled towards the bathrooms where I ran into a nice older British couple who had come over on my boat. The husband pointed out that I had something stuck to me and he started pulling clear gooey chunks of a now dead (originally mostly dead) jellyfish which had wrapped itself to the left side of my face from my ear to my chin. His wife had some great antihistamine cream which we liberally spread over my face and neck. It was amazing stuff! And she very generously gave it to me in case I should need more later. I stayed out of the water until the swelling had gone down, my face still felt super sensitive and tender (like razor burn times 10) but I wasn't about to waste my day at the beach so gamely returned to the water. I was left alone this time and got to watch the tropical fish swim by and see all the rainbow parrot fish and swarms of other colorful fish I can't ID.
After the beach Kenny was still working and I decided I wanted some more sun and water so plopped into the pool to do laps. A group of old China men came out onto the balcony to smoke and watch me swim.... er, creepy? When I decided to do laps in the pool on our last day they would be there discussing whether or not I was a call girl and how much I cost. They came to the conclusion that I must be Malay (WTF?) and was probably brought there by another man 'to be used' (一定是男人帶來的要用的).
In a related but unrelated note, Kenny also save my life at least twice during our trip to KK. We were walking down a tiled slope in the rain and he was explaining how he usually walked either in front or behind his female friends in case they slipped. He'd barely finished his explanation when I slipped and would've plunged to the bottom of the slope if he hadn't been there. I tried to laugh it off and said I was a pretty independent girl who usually didn't need to cling to men--SLIP! Yeah. So I decided to hang onto Kenny until we were on flat ground.
I also got to meet a collection of Kenny and CK's friends, Nissa, John, James, Shannon, and Albert (I think) and have lots and lots and lots of Old Town White Coffee. That stuff's addictive! Ok, I went so far as it switch it up and have Cham from time to time (1/2 coffee, 1/2 tea).
I think I started to miss the boys the last morning I got up. I know, I don't seem like the sentimental type but realizing I'd have to go a few more months without seeing them made me all emotional inside. Aw. *squish* Yeah, something like that. But during our trip in KL the boys pointed out that they'd be in HK during the end of June, we have exact dates no less, so Jess and I are going to pop over there for the weekend (I have orientation around that time so am not so flexible with days off for a change) and we're probably going to invite/drag some other friends along. It'll be a big party! Our friend Paul will also be there from NYC. Whoot. So I know I'll get to see those two very soon!
I must now be a good girl for the next month, because next month it's London -> NYC -> DC. June=HK. I have nothing planned after that... heh.
So I was in Malaysia for.... roughly 8 days.
So my friends Kenny and CK live in KL and I acquired them (almost accidentally) the last time I was in KL. They were kind enough NOT to sell me to a Singaporean brothel.
So I hopped off the plane onto the KLIA express into the city and met up with Kenny. First thing we did? Fed the Jenny, bc I'd skipped the food on the flight due to my loathing for airplane food. We had very nice Indian food since CK was still at work and he doesn't like Indian food. Everything was fantastic but in particular the fish tikka. After lunch we picked CK up from work and headed off for dinner. Kenny had an excellent food tour planned for the first few days of my trip.
Ah. I guess this would be a good time to mention that I lost my camera on the trip. Erk. Here's to hoping that Kenny and CK can find it (I suspect it's lying in a restaurant) but due to the lack of pictures I've already begun forgetting things and blurring days and meals together.
The second day was when my friend Jess showed up. Kenny, CK and I'd already grabbed breakfast. We did a boo-boo and tried to walk off without paying, we just weren't moving fast enough. After collecting the Jess we went to this Australian cafe with AMAZING desserts and some other things like sandwiches, which I didn't bother wasting the tummy space on. My fav was the banoffee pie, we also had raspberry lemon cheesecake, honeycomb cake and something chocolate-y.
Dinner was at the yummy restaurant we'd gone to the last time I'd been in Malaysia (in 2009, yikes!) and tried to order the butter sauce crab unfortunately "mo hai" (out, 沒有) but got a veggie dish, the tasty pork ribs, the salty egg calamari, some steamed fish and the butter cream sauce shrimp instead. So good.
We had the fried chicken and nasi lemak for breakfast one morning. I had it again for my last breakfast in KL before heading to the airport.
But Kenny also made sure that we got some history and culture in. We went to his hometown Melaka (Malacca?) which is where St. Paul's cathedral is which is where Francis Xavier was buried for roughly 9 months before his remains were expatriated. But before we did the history stuffs we had Hainanese chicken rice balls and cendol in shaved ice with other sweet things mixed into it. We also went down the street which had a Chinese temple, Hindu temple and Islamic mosque built right next to each other. It's supposed to be a symbol of Malaysia's religious tolerance/diversity/mixing. That day was hot hot hot and I got sunburned. Whoops.
The culture part was from the day trip we took to the Batu Caves. It's weird to see this flat area with houses and development and then BAM there are some looming cliffs which contain the Batu Caves inside them. So the Batu caves are named after a river which runs nearby.... somewhere and are primarily limestone. The caves also contain a Hindu temple which is the site for a famous (or infamous) ceremony called Thaipusam. If you've ever watched Discovery Channel or National Geographic when they do their various religions or taboo series this festival is featured in one of the episodes because devotees go into trances and pierce their bodies with a variety of swords and skewers. They don't seem to feel pain but the part that freaks me out is the fact that THEY DON'T BLEED. Anyway, enough of that, the part we were more worried about were the pigeons, roosters and monkeys that also hang about the area. They're very comfortable with people and the monkeys have no problem coming up to you and snatching stuff from you. We climbed the 277 steps and avoided the potential animal attacks for the day.
After the Batu caves we had Malaysian food for lunch and Jess very sneakily still managed to the pay the bill, so don't ever underestimate the sneakiness of this girl. ^_^ She got lucky that Kenny had his back to her during the paying process, although I did see and was distracted. So Jess left us on that Monday bc of her stupid job but I continued to loiter about. Kenny had arranged a business trip of his to Kota Kinabalu (aka KK) so that I could tag along, stay at the Hyatt with him and have a mostly paid for trip. Yay! The first day was really a half day and it rained so the Hyatt closed the pool (I was told they were worried about patrons getting wet and after I told them they were being stupid, they said it was for safety reasons which I grumbling accepted) for the afternoon. The next day Kenny carefully stuffed me into a cab and sent me down to the dock where you can choose an island to visit. There are a lot of beach resorts on the islands or you can just go out for a day of snorkeling, swimming and sun bathing.
After suffering a VERY obnoxious Japanese tourist I was finally dropped off at Manukan, one of the smaller islands. I happily splashed into the slightly cool water (cloudy day), dodged the Cantonese tourists in life vests splashing and shrieking in the shallows *rolls her eyes* and swam out into deep water to snorkel. I felt a tickle against the left side of my face, figured it was my hair, ignored it and then was slapped with a stinging pain that had me gasping in pain face down in the ocean. I swam back to the beach and stumbled towards the bathrooms where I ran into a nice older British couple who had come over on my boat. The husband pointed out that I had something stuck to me and he started pulling clear gooey chunks of a now dead (originally mostly dead) jellyfish which had wrapped itself to the left side of my face from my ear to my chin. His wife had some great antihistamine cream which we liberally spread over my face and neck. It was amazing stuff! And she very generously gave it to me in case I should need more later. I stayed out of the water until the swelling had gone down, my face still felt super sensitive and tender (like razor burn times 10) but I wasn't about to waste my day at the beach so gamely returned to the water. I was left alone this time and got to watch the tropical fish swim by and see all the rainbow parrot fish and swarms of other colorful fish I can't ID.
After the beach Kenny was still working and I decided I wanted some more sun and water so plopped into the pool to do laps. A group of old China men came out onto the balcony to smoke and watch me swim.... er, creepy? When I decided to do laps in the pool on our last day they would be there discussing whether or not I was a call girl and how much I cost. They came to the conclusion that I must be Malay (WTF?) and was probably brought there by another man 'to be used' (一定是男人帶來的要用的).
In a related but unrelated note, Kenny also save my life at least twice during our trip to KK. We were walking down a tiled slope in the rain and he was explaining how he usually walked either in front or behind his female friends in case they slipped. He'd barely finished his explanation when I slipped and would've plunged to the bottom of the slope if he hadn't been there. I tried to laugh it off and said I was a pretty independent girl who usually didn't need to cling to men--SLIP! Yeah. So I decided to hang onto Kenny until we were on flat ground.
I also got to meet a collection of Kenny and CK's friends, Nissa, John, James, Shannon, and Albert (I think) and have lots and lots and lots of Old Town White Coffee. That stuff's addictive! Ok, I went so far as it switch it up and have Cham from time to time (1/2 coffee, 1/2 tea).
I think I started to miss the boys the last morning I got up. I know, I don't seem like the sentimental type but realizing I'd have to go a few more months without seeing them made me all emotional inside. Aw. *squish* Yeah, something like that. But during our trip in KL the boys pointed out that they'd be in HK during the end of June, we have exact dates no less, so Jess and I are going to pop over there for the weekend (I have orientation around that time so am not so flexible with days off for a change) and we're probably going to invite/drag some other friends along. It'll be a big party! Our friend Paul will also be there from NYC. Whoot. So I know I'll get to see those two very soon!
I must now be a good girl for the next month, because next month it's London -> NYC -> DC. June=HK. I have nothing planned after that... heh.