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Published: March 29th 2010
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After disembarking the aircraft we took a train and then a taxi to get to our hostel. We had been reading about how in Malaysia and Thailand it was customary to remove your shoes or sandals before entering temples and some hostels and hotels. So the irony here, is that we had been wearing sandals in the showers of all of the hostels that we had stayed in so far and now we were expected to walk around barefoot throughout the entire hostel. Including the bathroom. Another fun fact is that the bathroom was set up for time and space efficiency. What would normally be the space for a small shower, included a sink a shower and a toilet. This was very conducive for multi-tasking. Another difference is that the toilet was more of like a hole in the floor and toilet paper was replaced by a little shower head on the end of a hose. To flush the toilet, you had to pour a bucket of water into the hole in the floor, oh and don't forget that you are barefoot during this hole process and yes, it is as fun as it sounds.
The next morning we ventured
out and had our first Malaysian breakfast, it was so humbling to be in a country where we spoke nothing of their native language. However, we learned as fast as we could and we found a lot of similarities with the Spanish language. At least with the pronunciations. Breakfast consisted of flat bread with Indian dipping sauces and tea tarik (hot sweet milky tea). We then made our way towards Chinatown, hearing the buzz of the motorcycles and voices in Malaysian was exciting change.
Chinatown was bustling with vendors selling counterfeit shoes, sunglasses, clothing, etc. We were not the least bit tempted, nor did we want more weight to haul around but it was still a cool experience. We then made our way on foot to some of the flower gardens and bird parks. As we neared a cafeteria we noticed monkeys were all around us. They were everywhere and they seemed very used to having people around them.
After lunch we watched the monkeys for a while before walking through the orchid gardens. We then took a taxi to the Petronas Twin Towers. These immense structures seem as if they are a mirage, especially at night.. It
was really amazing. We ventured inside and walked around the shopping mall, then found a restaurant near by that had a nice view of the towers. After taking far too many photos we headed back to our hostel and turned in for the night. The next day we sat around the hostel talking with some of the hostel staff and other travelers. Unfortunately, Xiomara had caught a cold so we did not feel like venturing out much. That afternoon we walked to the train station which took us to a bus terminal where we boarded a bus from the airline that we purchased with. Now this all sounds very easy, but you must remember that most of the people we were dealing with spoke very little, if any English. So it was an adventure for sure! After reaching the airport, we found our departure gate and wandered around some of the stores and purchased a Thai language book. Which is full of helpful vocabulary and common phrases. It spells each one in English, then in Thai ( which looks like a mixture between Arabic and Japanese), then is spells it phonetically so that you can attempt to say the word
or phrase in Thai.
As we walked back to our gate they started boarding. But instead of getting directly on the airplane we passed through a corridor which lead you to the tarmac where several planes were. Now there were numbers that must have represented each boarding location, the only problem was that we had no idea which number our boarding location was. It was not written anywhere on our ticket stub and the guy that took our boarding pass just hurried us through to the tarmac and simply said, "Phuket, Thailand that way". So there we were amongst several people going in all different directions, most of which we discovered were heading in the wrong direction just like us! After lining up in the wrong line and having the flight attendant tell us, "Phuket, that way". We walked in the direction that she pointed which lead us to another intersection, but at least there was a guy with an airlines shirt that was able to tell us, "Phuket, that way." So we walked in the direction where he pointed just to see airplanes as far as the eye could see. Finally, we heard something different, in fact it
was the best thing that I had heard all day..... "Phuket this way." And the gentleman pointed up the stairs of the airplane. After finding our seats we sat back, relaxed and enjoyed the ride.
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jose
non-member comment
vaya ritu y rustin!!
Vaya ritu!!! Este da risa. jejeje. Ta bueno. La foto de las torres de noche se ve super prity. besitos!!