Out of the Highlands and back into the fryer.

Activity in the Highlands quickly ground to a halt in the face of continuous rain... And here I was thinking that the monsoon was East coast. After Claudia pointed out that she wouldnt be able to haul me back onto the path should I fall, already quite aware that I am a horrible trekker and just imagining what the rain was doing to the jungle paths....we decided to stay indoors.

So instead of lots of jungle walks we ended up watching lots of movies. Eventually it got to the point where a productive day meant coming down from the guesthouse on the hill to eat lunch in town or taking the bus back to the Strawberry farm to buy ice cream. That ice cream was so good we had 2 bowls. Hey... had to make the trip worth it. The Father's Guest House Vid Fest was long out of control, but when it got to the point where we'd seen all the good movies we knew we had to go.

So on Saturday Claudia and I boarded a thankfully roach-free bus bound for Kuala Lumpur, KL, the bustling capital city of Malaysia. After waiting several days for the weather to clear wouldnt you know that as we get on the bus the sky is blue and the sun is shining. Typical!

Kuala Lumpur, KL, is HOT and humid and it wasnt 60 seconds before I was working up a sweat... which was distressing considering I didn't have any clean clothes left. We ventured into China town and checked into the dorm at The Backpackers Travellers Inn on the glowing recommendation of some chick we met in the highlands. It was anything but glowing. Not really terrible, but it in no way lived up to the hype. We saw the chick later that night in the rooftop bar and thankfully, for her sake, decided not to beat her up. We moved on Sunday to the Pudu hostel which is atleast a step up if only for the 24-hour aircon.

Most of Saturday and Sunday was spent in the mall. I now fully appreciate the asian passion for shopping malls.... its just too bloody hot to be doing anything outdoors. KL is an IT shop-a-holic's mecca. There are huge malls devoted almost entirely to computers, mobile phones, jumbo tvs, and practically every other electronic device imaginable... Your brain is running rampant dividing everything by 3.8 to get from malaysian ringgits to US dollars... and your wallet is twitching and your Visa is crying out to you. Kathhhhhyyyyy..... kathhhhhhyyyy.

On Monday we decided to change up the mall routine a bit and so we headed to Menara Kuala Lumpur.. or KL Tower. Its one of the tallest communications towers in the world (maybe 4th largest?). We dished out a whole 15 ringgits (we also really like saying ringgits!) to go up the tower and take the audio tour of the city. From the top you had a pretty stellar view of the whole city and could see everything from the Petronas Twin Towers to the National Mosque. After coming back down to ground level we ducked into Modesto's, which was a classy-looking Italian restaurant near the tower. The pizza was a dissappointment with paper-thin crust and hardly any sauce. However, our late lunch was atleast amusing if only for the trashy American rap playing in the swanky Italian restaurant in the capital of a conservative Muslim country. Ludacris? Ludacrist.
That night we met up with some BnAers, David and Kris, for some excellent Chinese food while they regaled us with there tales of speedboats on the Mekong, cruises on the Nile and guerillas in the midst... and I was reminded of how green I still am.

Tuesday we met up with still more BnAers (is there a convention in KL?): Leticia (I know I have prolly spelled that wrongly), who is working here for a year, and Angeline who lives nearby. We learned how to get around on the light rail and then we all went out to a small fishing village on stilts on Pulau Ketam.. or Crab Island. I particularly enjoyed the ferry, not just for its airconditioned goodness, but for the WWE that was playing on the TV. Gotta be proud of our exported American entertainment. But, it would have been MUCH better if the Rock had been on! :) It was a small island and didnt take long to explore, so we just had some more good chinese food before heading back to the mainland. I'm getting spoiled... how I am ever going to go back to Thailand?

Then Angeline took us to her house and stuff us with unhealthy snacks, before taking us to revel in another mall. I bought something called "head polish". I'd never heard of the stuff before. It looks an awful lot like car wax! but Claudia vows it is good for taming frizzy hair... so I had to give it a shot. It was actually somewhat effective.

Which finally brings us up to today... which was quite productive. We got up super early... like 730ish. Back to the cheap roti place across the street so we can save our ringgits. We first make a quick tour of Masjid Jamek, a local Mosque. I put on pants and my long-sleeves to be somewhat properly-attired. I forgot my sarong so couldn't cover my head, I hope no one noticed. Ooops! Anyway, from there we got back on the light rail (I'm practically a pro now!) and went out to the Petronas Twin towers. Tickets up to the Skybridge that connect the two towers at about the 70th floor were free!! Alright! The Skybridge is really cool b/c you are up wicked high and you still feel like you are in a building, but there isnt any building underneath you. Claudia said she could feel the place swaying in the wind, but I didn't notice. We capped our site-seeing at the Museum of Islamic Art, which had some out -of-this-world hand-illuminated Qu'rans. Footsore we took a "teksi" (one of the the many Malay words I've learned... I'm almost half literate!) back to the hostel to shower up before going back out to dinner with Angeline and Leticia. We ended up having a "banana leaf" meal. Remember those days when you were little and your parents admonished you to "use your fork!" and "don't eat with your hands!"... with the banana leaf you actually get funnier looks if you try to use utensils! You are supposed to eat w/ your hands (or more correctly your right hand, since the left is supposed to be a substitute for TP) and those of us used to utensils end up making a huge mess, b/c we've been many years out of practice.

Tomorrow I am going to the Batu Caves out in Selangor for the Hindu festival of Thaipusam. It should be quite a site... though not for the squeamish.