Well Hang Me from the Petronas. (Just an expression!)


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Published: May 2nd 2007
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On happiness, which is nothing that you get from happy pizza, when Bekah and I were on our flight to Kuala Lumpur, our flight tickets bore the warning: “Trafficking of illegal drugs carries the death penalty.”
We learned more about it from our cab driver later. This is what he told us:
~ If anyone possesses over 14 grams of marijuana they are hanged. Foreigners are no exception. Two Australians had in their possession over 25 grams of marijuana and are currently in court. They will most likely be hanged.
~Malaysia is very strict with drug laws. Malaysia used to have a bad drug problem, but now it is much better. The government does not take mercy on any violators; even the minister’s son was hung for drugs.
~Most of the drugs are trafficked in from Thailand and Indonesia.
I thought it was odd that in one country you can easily, and free of charge, get your pizza, soup, or coffee topped with “happiness”, and then step into a neighboring country who would hang your neck if you carried it.

So, Bekah and I arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday. The city is huge, ultra-modern, new, and clean. They are reeeeally pushing tourism there with shopping, water parks, amusement parks…..
After checking in to the dorms at our hostel, we headed towards the Petronas Towers, the tallest twin towers in the world. On our way in, a few boys were staring at us and saying something to us, so I gave them a confused smile. One of them points to his friend and says, “He wants to take a picture with you.”
“Okay.” So I took a picture with him. They asked where we were from.
“The United States.”
The boy laughs and says, “Do you know where we are from?"
Before I could guess, "We are from Iraq.”
I quickly screamed at him “Stop terrorizing me!!!” and ran away.*

*(That last part, with me screaming, didn’t really happen.)

I asked them where to go to go to the top of the tower and we were pointed towards security. Before we made it to the desk, a couple of workers of the towers seemed to guess where we were going and told us to follow them. He said the last tour is at 7:00 pm (It was 6:50.) But, he said if we are really lucky we could join a tour if someone cancelled his or her reservation. Luck? Have!
We joined a tour right away and were taken to the top.
After leaving there, we went to the KL tower, the fourth largest tower in the world. And, it is the only tower with a jungle around it in the center of a city.
I’d have liked to spent a little more time in Malaysia. It is a very pretty city and with their push of tourism, a lot to see and do. We went to the KL tower, the twin towers, and Petaling Street, but didn’t have any time to go to the Batu Caves, amusement parks, rainforest treks, or beaches. Next time; now off to Phuket!

Kuala Lumpur airport is proud of being “one of the top five best airports. It was one of the most unorganized airports I’ve ever been in, but it’s okay, it adds character. Lines from 3 different flights went through the same gate. When we were through the gate they just yelled out “Phuket- gate 32A! Macao 40B!” We got on the plane and were reminded by the speaker head to check our tickets and make sure we were on the right flight. We could have easily gotten on a plane to Macao, if it wasn’t for our precious luggage, and our desire to see Phuket.



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