New message ... my phone vibrates with an email from my mom. It's a prayer about the weather, you know, typhoons and such. So, I woke up to check the weather. Of course there are three hurricanes brewing in my travel regions ... oh joy. Finally, I fell back asleep only to wake up and start my day @ 4:30am. After getting ready, we (travel buddy, houseguest and I) head to the train station at 5:30am. Our limited express to KIX departs at 6:02am. Houseguest stays until later on on the 9th, we say our farewells at the Kusatsu Station. After the 2 hour train ride to the airport we head through security and are on our way. Cathay Pacific is not nearly as nice as EVA Airways, but, it will do. I slept most of the way. Finally, near the end of the flight we were fed. "All we have left is eel." Well, glad Skip wasn't on this flight. But, that was the first time I had eel and it was decent, but sweet. After I finished eating I looked to my left only to see a man eating the salt and pepper out of the packet - a tad suspect. We then arrive in Hong Kong. This airport is nice but its huge. You have to go up to go down, left to go right. Its a mess. NOW, I sit and wait for the next flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Oh, I think I've been in Japan too long. When I speak the first words that come out are in Japanese ... WOW!
We arrive to Kuala Lumpur and all is well. We found our way to the Express train and then got temporarily lost on our way to the monorail. Malaysia smells funny. :( After getting the monorail at Sentral KL Station we managed to get to the hostel. We walked past a lot of dirt, grime and grandaddy mobster suspect looking people, but, we found our way to the "modern looking" building. After settling into our hostel we decided to venture of and find dinner. Japanese Restaurant? No! Japanese Restaurant #2? No! Fine, lets eat at Outback... way to broaden my horizons. SMH. (shaking my head!) Anywho, we then headed back to the hostel, walked through a night marked and settled in for sleep after a very long day. Can I make it to the 17th with my travel buddy? Stay tuned.
Day 2: 10 August 2009 @ 9:00am
I had the best sleep of my life. Truly my mothers child, when away I sleepy fully clothed. So, I wake up in leggings, socks, and a tshirt. My travel buddy, well, doesnt amend to that rule. Anywho, I woke up to two voicemails and messages none of which I checked. I did, however, call my mom. I truly miss traveling with my family. They are the best travel buddies a girl could ask for. After speaking with domicile, L. Boogie and ROomie, I got showered and we relocated from Hostel #1 to Hostel #2. In getting to Hostel #2, Red Palm, I was instantly much happier. Sofie, the hostel owner and operator, was extremely friendly (thanks Bulani for the recommendation). We then, and when I say we I mean I, decided to go to the Batu Caves. Now, when I dressed today I wore a shirt flip flops and a tee ... I always seem to dress "appropriately" for my Asian adventures. So, the hostel gave us a map and boy was it an adventure. (Mom, thanks for all of these random road trips in which I was the navigator. It still comes in handy.) We made it to the random bus stop in which my travel buddy attempted to help navigate (without looking at the map or ever having been to Malaysia), luckily we (again meaning I) didn't follow those directions. After arriving to the bus station we waited for the buses for a while. Then a Malaysian man came around yelling "Batu Caves" so of course we boarded. When we arrived to the caves. There were two hundred seventy two steps that we had to climb, rabid screaming monkeys with unhealthily long tails, snakes, iguanas, roaches and (wait for it) roosters. Now, seeing all of this could be due to the wild mushrooms my travel buddy insisted I try. (ok, sorry mom, just kidding.) After finishing the cave tour travel buddy wanted a coconut. Some random man heard him say "oishi" (which means "this tastes good" in japanese) and was utterly confused as to why we were speaking japanese. He was a funny looking somewhat scary looking japanese man and started to talk to us. Mind you, he was sweating profusely and had a lady with him that was twice his height, half his age and four times more attractive. ConfuseD? More than! We then stumbled upon a vegetarian indian restaurant with a waiter from Bangladeshi, ourselves being British and American and living in Japan on a trip to Malaysia via China. Cultured? I think I am. Anywho, travel buddy had his cocount in hand so I asked if we could eat with it. He said sure and asked how many. He sat us and then brough over two more coconuts. I had just told travel buddy that I hate coconut, so travel buddy suffered and drank three liters of liquid laxative. Travel buddy then had to "poo" using a squatter and our map as toilet paper. Welcome to subpar adventures. We ate well and had good laughs with Rajm (our waiter). What will our next adventure be? Oh wait, we ate some food on banana leaves but we did use a fork and spoon, shame on us for breaking tradition. Now, on to the next adventure ...
After finishing at the Batu Caves we hopped on a bus and headed back to the hostel. After returning to the hostel a bit before running into a Dutch tourist. She invited us to dinner and we kindly accompanied her. We ate at a fancy noodle bar, ok it wasnt fancy at all. But, she wasnt too excited about it. It wasnt satisfying enough for her. She was quite interesting. She decided to go backpacking for a year. SHe is 9 months in, sounds grand. Though she turned me off when she asked what I wanted to do after Japan and I told her I wanted to go to grad school and she responded, "oh, trying to find yourself?" I was no longer interested in conversing. Anywho, she wasnt satsfied so we then ate at an indian spot. I had naan and it was amazing. After eating we headed back to the hostel and slept.
Day 3: August 11th 2009
Day 3 began early. I woke up at about 6:30 because travel buddy wanted to do something that needed to be done at 7am. Well travel buddy didnt wake up until 8 in which he came downstairs at 9 and then became slightly attitudinal when I said we missed out. But, it is what it is. Travel buddy then proceeded to ask me what our other options were. People will use their brains one day, right? Anywho, we then traveled to the KL tower. It was decent ... I liked the Seoul tower better. After the tower we ventured to the animal zone and the F1 simulator. *cricket* We then thought it would be a good idea to eat some fine Asian cuisine, what adventure will it be today? Hmmm Wendys? YAY! ((irony, there is no wendys where i love, i was shocked at how big the cup was, hence the picture in the album)) Then travel buddy went on an adventure to see something adventurous, I was so excited to go see the housing project (NOT!) so I stayed behind... sue me. I slept and slept and slept while he was away. When I woke up from my nap travel buddy was with Tim (the chinese man from Australia) having a chat. I was in the mood for some naan so I invited them to come along. Of course they came to dinner and it was great. Afterwards, Tim and Travel Buddy went for a walk in which they found a bar, got dunk and then went for massages. Oops, I missed that too.
Day 4 - 12 August 2009
Today, travel buddy wanted to see the Petronas Towers. We left the hostel at about 8 and reached the towers at about 8:30, they weren't letting anymore guests in. So, we walked, and walked, and walked. We finally decided on a destination "Titiwangas Lake." Though we followed the sings, we kept walking, and walking, and walking. We then reached a familiar city where we could take the monorail to this said lake. When we got off the monorail, we followed the directions of the woman at the station. Well, she directed us to ... THE HIGHWAY! What?! I'm convinced this lake does NOT exist. Sim we stopped at 7-eleven and got some liquid beverage before we walked back to the station. We thought it was a good idea to stop at Starbucks and grab something to drink. "Oh cool, this appears to be a mall, for sure they have a pharmacy." As I counted my TWENTY mosquito bites, all while praying I didnt get malaria, I decided to get some cream to "soothe and relieve." I applied the Moz Bite and it did not really work but it was ok. We then decided to head to eat because it was now around 1pm. We ended up eating at Nandos, I think thats in America, anywho, it was delicious!! We stayed there for a long while and "observed" the people. They were very rude to this little waiter. I felt bad for him. Moving on ... we headed back to the hostel contemplating what our next move would be. Since it was raining we decided to take the "Hop on Hop Off" bus tour which happened to be good. We met an Indian British family living in Dubai and were able to have great conversation with them. After heading back to the hostel we realized it was dinner time. So, we invited Benjamin along. Where di we decide to go? yet another indian restaurant. So Benjamin, where are you from? Well, I'm from Germany but my moms French and my dads Turkish, I went to school in London and I came from Thailand. Oh I understand... (this was the beginning of a very eventful evening). We had a table of 3 with 6 backgrounds ... it was hilarious. To back track, the INdian restaurant is the restaurant in which we bought our bus tickets. the same place we saw patricia again (the woman we ate dinner with the 2nd night in malaysia) and a girl from Finland. These people at this restaurant were so nice that we promised to come back. (play) We decided to have our meal and the do hookah. Now, I dont know how people smoke, I thought I was going to die from this stuff. Benjamin and travel buddy laughed at me, A LOT! But, it was quality entertainment. I was a party pooper again and decided to leave the party early. Benjamin and travel buddy then went to find a bar in which they were successful. They also found some hookers and returned as comedians. We had a great laugh that night - boy oh boy. Before sleeping they decided we would attempt the towers again the next day.
Day 5: 13 August 2009
((6am))
Travel Buddy, are you awake? Lets get ready to go. Ben, Ben get up. What time is it? 6:15. Ugh! Everyone was ready by 7 and two of the three of us were still drunk ... this will be great! We made our trek to the towers and got there at about 7:30. We got a 715 tour and had a blast. When we were getting our tickets the woman ahead asked how many in which responded three. She then asked where we were from ... *cricket* America? As the peanut gallery chimed in "I'm not American." Hmmmph. We go to the tour and of ocurse started trouble. Oh the laughs. We were chewing gum, that wasn't allowed. We were taking a video, probably wasn't allowed. They were drunk, Im sure that was prohibited. I'm glad we weren't in Singapore yet, we surely would have been arrested. Shame.
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