DAY FIFTEEN

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Another later start to the morning, but I knew I would have a later night so I planned accordingly. (Though I sure will miss just sleeping until my body is ready to get up!)

Another hot day in Malaysia, but I first headed out for some soup for lunch. Another delicious serving of Nasam Curry Laska. Hot, a bit spit spicy, and happily slurped.

I then took a train over towards the museum area. A few thoughts about Malaysian public transportation (in comparison to DC public transportation—because it is what I know). The stations and trains are cleaner. The rail service is more extensive it goes out quite far from the city center. That said the inter-city train system is just a bit odd. There are three different and separate systems. They were all built at different times by different companies, so sometimes you will get off at a station and then walk a few blocks to get on the different “type” of system—but technically at the same station stop. This led to a bit of extra walking on my part today—but it wasn’t too bad. Another thing about the trains here is that the commuter cars have “women only cars.” Yes, women only cars! There are attractive big pink signs on the side of the car and inside another sign with four pictures, a stick figure of a woman, a stick figure of a women with children, stick figures of a couple and a stick figure of a man—the latter two pictures have a big X over them. I rode in the ladies only car just for the heck of it and quite enjoyed myself. Kind of wish they had them in DC! There are no “men only cars.”

My first stop was the Lake Gardens area. I quick stop at the restroom—I don’t think I have mentioned, but it is very common to have to pay to use the bathroom here—usually not at restaurants or hotels, but any public place like a park area, tourist area, or bus/train station. It is usually about .30 Malaysian cents which is about 10 cents in USD terms. The funny thing is they then charge you for toilet paper. This is usually about 50 Malaysian cents. Talk about a bait and switch! I was warned about the toilet paper situation before I came, so brought Kleenexes with me.

Anyhow, after walking around a bit I went to the Malaysian History Museum. The museum had a section on pre-historic Malaysia, the ancient Malaysian people (some lived in caves—can you imagine), when Malaysia was a big trade route, the colonial era of Malaysia (when it was occupied by the Portuguese, then the Dutch, then the British, then the Japanese, then the British again). Finally they showed more modern Malaysian history. It was quite good.
After, I decided to head to the bird park which was touted as the largest covered bird park in the world. There are huge nets up and you can walk around the large contained area and see birds. When I got there I found out the bird park was going to be 48 Rinngits (over $15) and I just am not interested fifteen dollars worth in birds...so I decided to skip this one.

I then headed over to the shopping districts of Kuala Lumpur, Central Market and China Town. I was a bit disappointed with both. My first disappointment came with my Pineapple Guava juice. It was freshly made in front of my eyes and I decided to no to added sugar—but the combo just wasn’t that good. The Central Market is an indoor area like a mall with different vendor selling handmade goods. The prices seemed a little steep to me. Chinatown was very crowded, it mostly had knock off handbags, perfumes, wallets, clothes and movies. Oh well. I ended up heading over to the big malls near where I am staying and found some souvenirs.

I decided to end the day on a high note and head over to the same place I ate lunch—more soup! It is a bit uncharacteristic of me to go to the same place twice—I like trying new things—but that’s what sounded good.

After, I headed over to another nearby mall because I had heard about a trendy doughnut shop on the ground floor—J Co. Doughnuts. While I am not a doughnut lover, I am trendy. So I went. It was well worth the slight detour—the doughnut was divine. I had the Al Capone—a doughnut with white belgiam chocolate icing and Californian almonds (yes they were touted as Californian almonds—this at least the fifth time I have seen something advertised with California being the main selling point). Anyways a sweet ending to a Friday night.

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Photos

Map from history museum
Shows Malaysia as a major trade route

Trishaw
What people would use to transport people and goods. Person would stand in pull this contraption