Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Home to the world’s most memorable cab drivers.

After the successful bus rundown we boarded a night train to KL. Despite a few mishaps, this proved to be the most comfortable mode of transportation in SE Asia. Besides flying.

Following a restless night of yelling at people to close the goddamn door because they were too dumb to push the freakin’ automatic close button, I finally managed to get some shut eye. Probably around 3am.

At 4:30 we awoke to pounding on the windows and yelling in our ears.

Time to get off the train.

In the mad dash we managed to loose the stupid bag thing I had strapped to the outside of my pack. Key items included my running shoes and the underwater camera from Phi Phi.

Sadpants.

Once into town we went on a crazy search for accommodation. Things were quite pricey here, in comparison to Thailand.

After we settled in and took a nap, we started a 3 day stint in the city.

It was raining a lot, putting a damper on the trip.

Pun.

We took a stroll around Chinatown, which looked like every other Chinatown I've ever seen anywhere else in the world.

Adam tricked me into getting under a huge gutter stream with an umbrella. And then made me think he was taking a picture and not a video.



Ass.

As a result of the rain, we ate a lot. Because the cheapest (and best) food was in the tents, which also happened to be the best place to hang out in a rainstorm.

I think we had 6 meals one day. And waaaaay too much Indian food the whole time we were there.

We also got a bit daring on day one and got fish pedicures. They have them in the States too, but I’ve never seen them.

Basically, you stick your feet in a big fish tank, and the fish eat the dead skin off.

Yup, it’s as gross and uncomfortable as it sounds.



Not painful. Just ticklish and weird and wrong. But fun. I wouldn’t make it a habit, but they sure did get the job done.

Besides rain and Indian food, this city had a pretty great bird park. The world’s largest covered bird park, or something. I don’t remember what it is officially.

Unofficially, this city has the world’s most memorable cab drivers.

They had them all. Politicos spewing on about Hindu/Muslim racism, uber helpful guides, and the asshole who tried to make us think he was doing us a favor by driving us around. Like it wasn’t his job and we weren’t paying him.

But the BEST was the karaoke guy.

He had karaoke. In the car. Screen (with lyrics) was located on the inside of his passenger sun-visor-flap-thing. Microphone was plugged into the dash.

He expertly navigated traffic and carried a karaoke turn without skipping a beat.



As a pop culture blogger would say – AMAZEBALLS.

Even if he DID take us to the wrong museum. It was worth it.

We hit up the bird park, like I said. It rained, per usual. But I had fun, chased some birds, and fed a few. They scared me.



The icon of KL is (are?) the Petronas Towers, aka Petronas gasoline. Or petrol. You know.

They are the world’s largest twin towers. You can go to a little deck 30ish floors up and see a great view of the city. But you can’t go to the top, which is lame.

There’s a great little aquarium underneath though. Which is cool.

We did lots of animal things in this city, apparently.

I feel like this entry isn’t about the words. The videos are the true highlight.

So sorry if my verbal skills are impaired by the wine I've been sipping.

All in all, KL was a really, beautiful modern city with too much curry and a real Hindu/Muslim battle. Wish we had more time.

After a couple of nights we boarded ANOTHER night train – this time to Singapore. Where they speak English and lash people.

1 comment:

Meghan said...

KL is where my job at Steelcase went. Really.

-Palms