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Sitting at KLIA waiting for our flight to depart to Beijing. Its 7.36pm and the board is telling us that its 'delayed', so unsure what time we will actually be leaving and what time we will be arriving in China. The guy at our hostel told us this morning that apparently a Christian prophet said the world was going to end tonight at 6pm in every country with earthquakes, but we seem to be doing ok so far and I haven't heard anything about NZ yet - so assume you guys are reading this!!
We arrived here at the airport after an hour's journey on an airconditioned bus, which is a luxury as it was pretty warm today!! We have both been a little bit crook these past few days (food related we are thinking with rumbling stomachs), and today was no exception. Yesterday was a slow day, nap in the afternoon and a few quiet beers in the evening with J&C, who we had to say goodbye to this afternoon. Had an epic week hanging out with them, they are great travelling buddies!!
Over the course of our week here in Malaysia we have seen a lot, eaten a lot and walked a lot! We visited the Petronas towers (used to be the 2 tallest buildings in the world) - Pretty amazing! We also went to Ampang to visit where Matt used to live when his family were over here about 15 years ago, we even got visitor passes and walked through the ISKL (International School of Kuala Lumpur) campus. More of a resort than a school, not sure how much education happened there with the rock climbing walls and popcorn machines…. We met some of the local monkeys (actual ones) on the side of the road near the school, ate Nasi Lemak (rice cooked in coconut milk/cream with a spicy sauce called sambal and small dried anchovy type fish) at the local food stall in Ampang, saw Naan corner where Matts family went for Tandoori and naan bread (roti naan) and went for a walk to Matt's old house. Apparently it has been completely changed and is now double the size it was (it must have been HUGE to begin with!)
We have been to China town to hunt for some bargains (Ray Ban and Dior sunnies for $10NZ each, labelled shirts and singlets for $7.50NZ and a handbag for $15NZ), went to the muslim mosque on a Friday (their religious day) and got kicked out for showing too much skin and not being muslum, and visited an amazing place called crab island (Pulau Ketam-about 30 min boat ride from Port Klang) and had………..you guessed it - crab (and prawns) for lunch!! It was the most delicious seafood I've ever had and blows crayfish right out of the water!! We hired bikes and biked around this little village basically built on posts (the ground is too muddy and the sea level changes too much to build on the ground so its kind of like a batch down the river - on stilts. Matt got his hair cut (it was about time), and for $22ringit, he got his hair cut, washed about 3 times with full on head massages, and then a back massage. I had to sit there and wait for about 45 minutes….seething with jealousy as it looked so good! No happy ending though, unfortunately for him. On our way back from Crab Island after the 30 min boat ride, we were both desperate to go to the bathroom and had about 10 mins before our train left back to KL (an hours journey so this was an urgent situation). We went in the direction we were pointed in, and as I was walking into what I thought was the toilet, all these people started screaming at me from the platform and wildy gesturing with their hands. I couldn't understand what they were saying, but eventually figured out that I had gone into the wrong building. I later found out that I had actually walked into a muslim prayer room (with shoes on - a big no no, and also with all my bare skin showing - a massive no no). This was definitely a moment when I felt like an ignorant tourist for disrespecting their religion - I wonder if there will be any curses on me now or a muslim god out for revenge??
As we are leaving tonight I've been doing a bit of reflecting on my time here and our first stop. A few observations I've made over the past few days are below as well as a couple of important learnings………
1) You have to pay to use a public toilet in Malaysia. It can range anywhere between 20 sen (cents) to RM1 (Ringit). It's a bit of a gamble as to whether you get a European toilet or the Asian squatting style. All I can say is you need to have good thigh muscles, and bring your own toilet paper!!!
2) Asian's love their spitting and hacking. For the past 5 days we have been woken up every morning (and usually a couple of times during the night) to hear the fellow guests at the backpackers hacking, hoiking (if that is a word), snorting, and spitting. It's pretty disturbing and earplugs are a necessity….
3) There is no concept of personal space or courtesy here! Although I love my haggling, guys selling pirated DVD's harassed me no end and I actually had to tell one of them to stop talking to me and to leave me alone….he followed me yelling about DVD's and wouldn't take no for an answer!!
4) KFC is not the same in Malaysia! I know its terrible as I don't even eat KFC at home, but after a few days of feeling sick we decided to have something familiar and got some KFC at the airport tonight. The burgers are ½ the size and not real chicken (the plastic variety only), the lettuce is soggy and non existent, and instead of fries you get a grand total of 5 potato wedges smothered in 2 types of melted cheese. Mmmmmm artery clogging…… Matt was definitely not impressed (especially as this was our 2nd dinner, the first one which was also here at the airport was crap too - ripped off twice!!)
5) Beer is probably the only thing that is expensive in Malaysia. The government has imposed some sort of tax on beer so it costs a lot more than spirits. I think this is in a bid to stop drinking and you never see any Malaysians drunk or drinking - its just us, the boozehag travellers!
6) Public transport in NZ is CRAP! And really expensive……just plain s***.
I have really enjoyed Malaysia, especially the fact that its so different to being back home. I've learnt a lot about the country and its funny how much you don't know until you actually arrive somewhere. Matt has been an amazing tour guide and I'm so glad we picked this as the first stop on our journey. Definitely would like to come back again one day!!
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