Kuala Lumpur

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Well where to start... We had a fantastic time this past weekend in the capital city KL. The city has a population of around 1.5 million with the main ethnicities being Malaysian, Indian and Chinese. After a very long bus ride we arrived late Thursday night and were greeted by Meredith's friend where we stayed for the weekend. We were very fortunate for their hospitality and they did a great job hosting us. During the day Friday Meredith and I went shopping at a huge mall called Pyramid (http://www.sunwaypyramid.com/) with four levels and a skating rink. We bought a few necessities that we needed as well as outfits to go out that night! Budget shopping saw us hit up Forever 21 although if I had more time and room in my bag I could have went crazy there with all the stores. After being in the sun a lot, our hair was pretty haggard too so we also got haircuts. For $20 I had my hair cut by a professional senior stylist, which I thought was pretty awesome. We found it strange that they shampooed our hair in our chairs when it was still dry, but I was impressed all in all.

That night we went out to Zouk, apparently the most popular night club in KL (http://www.zoukclub.com.my/). There was three separate rooms with different themes and music (house, top 40). We danced and had a great time. Mere and I got in free as tourists ("So, you're a tourist?" made us feel super cool). It reminded me a lot of Vegas inside! Mere and I were drinking jugs - felt like I was 19 at the Drink again with vodka specials. It ended up being a really late night so unfortunately Saturday day was a bit of a writeoff.

Saturday night we made a trip to the Genting Highlands to the hotels and casinos (about 45 min drive). This was a neat experience as it was like a mini Vegas, Malaysian style, except with a focus moreso on gambling and not clubs and partying. The casino was packed with Chinese tourists who took gambling very seriously, so evidently I did not play. Meredith tried out roulette and doubled her winnings but the guys lost out when they tried. People were allowed to smoke inside which I am not used to so that was a bit different. Nobody had free drinks (or drinks at all...) like they do in Vegas. The games we watched were baccarat, some kind of three card poker, blackjack (but they called it pontoon) and roulette. Some gamblers were so serious they would play four tables at a time!

Some other random things we learnt while in KL: - Gas is about $0.63/L in Malaysia right now

- Drinks are about the same price but food is cheaper ($5-6 for a meal usually).

- Restaurants will bring out your food as soon as its ready. So there have been many times when Meredith would finish her meal or vv before the other's meal even came. Clearly as a server this drives me crazy.

- Recently Indonesia burned their forests and the smoke drifted to Malaysia. Hasn't happened since 1997 but people had to stay indoors and wear masks.

- People drive on the "wrong" side of the road here. They also drive very aggressively and use their horns constantly to let other drivers know they are there (rather than out of anger like road ragers in Canada).

- Lots of people in KL speak English. Lots of people tried to rip us off as tourists too. We had some issues getting back into the condo complex one day when our friend was at work and they made us pay a 100 ringgit "fine" (~$33) although there was no write up or anything so clearly the security guard pocketed the cash.

The next part of trip is to the Cameron Highlands, known for its tea plantations, hiking and nature!

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