Malaysia

Hey guys!

Guess what? We're still alive.

I'm sitting in a starbucks in a mall in Kuala Lumpur. Evan and Alaina are upstairs in the indoor amusement park, probably on a roller coaster this very moment.

As you know we have had limited internet, so I'll post right now my pictures from our time in Penang and Kuala Lumpur. There aren't very many because (1) there wasn't really that much to take a picture of in Penang and (2) most of the time I was a little too concerned about our safety to be waving the camera around. The people there were all a little creepy and in your face.

Anyway, here's a little recap: most of our time in Penang was spent sitting by the pool and eating. We mostly stayed by our hotel but took cabs into town to go eat. We had a mixture of malay, indian, and western food. One dinner was at the very classy Eastern & Oriental Hotel, where we got a brilliant multi-course dinner including amuse-bouche, salad, soup, palate cleanser, main, dessert, and tea &chocolates for an absolute steal compared to what it would cost at home. The other meals we tried more local places including an open-air indian restaurant that had amazing naan. The pool was very nice and we played cards and relaxed.

But whenever we left the hotel grounds, things were strange. Random horse on the beach, creepy cab drivers trying to advertise their 'day tours'... everything kind of seemed like a tourist trap. One really cool thing we did was go to a 'fish spa' where you put your feet in a pool with special fish that nibble all the dead skin off you! Tickles like crazy.


We went for a nightcap at the hard rock cafe which was near our hotel, and I pretended to play the drums.

Right. So on to Kuala Lumpur. We had a cab drive us to the little old broken-down train station outside Penang and boarded our overnight train. This is our first class cabin!



We got to our hostel about 5am and wend back to bed. We woke up and started exploring the city. Compared to Taipei (and Tokyo even more so) Kuala Lumpur is pretty dirty. There's trash in the streets and sketchy characters around, but it does feel safer than Penang. The people are a little less nice than in the other cities, although I'm not sure if that's partly because they speak a lot of English here and we understand them better. The taxi drivers honk and try to lure us into their cabs everywhere we go. Most of them refuse to use the meter and you have to haggle a price. Also, it's pretty unbearably hot during the day, and very humid. On the other hand, there are aspects of the city that feel very modern, well-planned, and pleasant. There are a lot of green patches around the city, including the lake gardens, a big park area where we visited the orchid garden. There are mega-malls with everything you could want - activities, all the designer shops, restaurants, etc. There is a Starbucks every 5 feet. There are cool looking buildings around, and a monorail system!

Note to parents: we are being safe. I promise. Do not worry. Yes, I'm sure.

The monorail:

Chinatown (eating lychee)
Flower stall in Chinatown

Some pics from the orchid garden



The KL Tower was the tallest before they built the Petronas towers.
Petronas towers (big mall underneath, of course)
Motorcade into the King's palace because it's a national holiday for his birthday celebration (the king's role is mostly symbolic)
We had high tea at the top of the KL tower today, as it was a more cost-effective way to see the view. It was a very nice view.





-K