4 days in and i am nearly used to the heat (transalation: I have tried to stop wearing t- shirts .[they have all morphed into water shirts at this point.] Before i forget to write about it , my bags arrived in the hostel the night after I arrived (around 2.30 in the morning! I had to sign a form indicating they were my bags but at that time in the morning, i think i could have signed my life away and I wouldnt have noticed! ) ) come to think of it, when i was in London, the guys at the airport put my hand luggage through the detector twice. Maybe, i look like a dodgy character (or maybe they were wondering what I was doing with a blues harp) !
Anyway, the hostel is in a place just off Bukit Binrang .It's about a 10 minute walk (if you know where you are going!) from the petronas (twin) towers and the K.L tower. I went up the twin towers with a couple of the lads from the hostel (Dan and Simon) It set me back 50 RM but the views of the city were class.I would show you them but I kind of accidentally deleted them off the phone (d'oh!) Let's just say there are loads of buildings in every direction and clear skies as far as my eye can see (whi is maybe 50 meters)
I went for a sweet and sour chicken on the way back. The meals are quite cheap here , I ate the sweet and sour chicken with a drink for 19 RM (4RM=1euro) The whole place is FULL of restaurants so the choices of places to eat out of is unreal. If you get a chance, you should always try the ice tea over here (it tastes like iced tea (as apposed to lipto ice tes which just tastes of cold sugar)) really refreshing stuff and if you order it in a chinese restaurant, its really cheap.
I am also getting used to wearing the flippy floppies at this point. Although, my feet are sttruggling with the straps!
Casualty of the 'deadly flip flop' virus!
But don't worry! I will struggle on!
By the way, if i thought about it for more than a second, if i could go back and choose between sandles or flip flops, i reckon i might buy the sandles!!! I think I have 'soft feet' where the bit of skin between my main toe and 2nd toe (is the second toe called a foretoe??) is fairly raw!! Maybe I should get a pedicure.
Anyway,We went into one of the twin towers for breakfast at one point (a place called 'nasi karang' on the 3rd floor). A lot of the local people seemed to be crowding around this place so it seemed like a good place to try some grub! To be honest I am not sure what I ordered but it looked like a mixture of an omelette with a pancake and some mild curry sauce was added to the dish.The damage was 1 RM and it kept me going for quite a while!
Later that evening , The lads had a go at some nasi lemak ( the traditional meal) (nasi=rice) lemak = coconut milk.... I had a go at trying to eat some Durian .It's a fruit that is quite common in this part of the world .It kind of smells horrible and when you taste it, it has kind of a custardy texture.It is DEFINATELY an acquired taste! If you can eat more than a couple of bites when tasting it for the first time, come over and talk to me and i will buy you a pint!
Yesterday, I headed off with Wendy to have a look at a buddhist temple (May 5th is Wesak day , an important day for Buddhists) We went to see the Thean Hou temple which is located around 20 minutes from Butik Bintang.
The path of enlightenment from a Buddhist perspective
As words will not really do justice to the accompanying pics, I will just throw up a few photos with no introduction!
This is the noble 8 fold path written in Mandarin (I think)
This is the 'Make a Wish' tree behing the Buddha
The colours are something to behold. make sure to bring a fan though.I think I got some sunburn on my toes!
The altar
and action!!
Result!
I hear you wondering, where do the incense joss sticks go? well, since you asked here is a pic of said joss sticks
After having a look around the temple, there was more sightseeing to be attempted !!! there was a tortoise sanctuary on the same grounds and random chicken were to be seen running around (probably looking for the shade - just like me!)
Really exotic creatures are found here
Look at the eyes on that tortoise! I think he's trying to scare me (with success!)
So many Tortoises!!!
There is no such thing as a free meal!!! not quite, As this was Wesak eve , the people running the temple were giving away free food like the food above.But, we had to wash the dishes afterwards!!!! (fair deal!!)
OK,so after eating the free food and observing the Buddha, it was time to head to little India. I didn't know what to expect as I have never seen 'big India' in person but Little India seemed pretty cool to me!
Just like Mumbai (I guess!)
I bought something called coconut spread . I never thought it would go with bread but I tried it this morning and I didnt throw up....yay!!!!
Coconut spread....it looks like puke but it tastes yummy!
You take out bits and peel off the outer skin. in the centre , there is something that looks like a minute leaf, take that out also and you have a nut!!! tada!!!
After eating a couple of the lotus nuts, I had a go of some a lemon ,lime and sugar cane drink. It tasted odd but that was because i had never tasted this before (so no unnatural sweeteners then!) You were able to see the guys getting the juice from the sugar cane.. see pic below.
The juice appears at the back of the machine while the sugar cane is being crushed
This juice is then bottled with lemon and a lime and the result it the bottle below!
Okay so the next 3 photos are pictures of plants and i MIGHT have mixed them up, Forgive me if I have!!! I think the next 3 plants are as follows
sugar cane
Lemon grass
Enough about plants!!! After this trip through little India ,Wendy drove up to the national museum where we were able to observe a video documenting some tribes using the forest to survive (ie: stripping the bark for loin clothes, making tapioca meals- hunting , gathering) class documentary.
Within the museum, you could see various snippets of various tribes within Malaysia...
a raft that is used by the Tribes.
It is almost horizontal....I can't believe it doesn't sink!! It's 'slightly' differet to a currach!
The musical instruments that the tribes play look suspiciously like recorders!
here is a sample of musical instruments
The tribes can make some money by making faces from the bark of the tree and selling them on to whoever will buy them!
here is a sample of what they have made.
They also make full body sculptures, Here is an example of one. Wendy is the girl on the left!
Terimah Kasih Wendika!
So, I hear you ask, what have you learned so far!!!
In no particular order.....
* Lots of people over here can speak many languages. There is a huge Chinese population here so 2nd/3rd /4th generation chinese will still be able to speak there mother tongue even if they never go back to China.
* Lots of words are used in multiple languages...e.g: 'Jaya' is both the Malay and sanskritt word for success.
* Perspolis F.C are a huge football team in Tehran and they wear red shirts (This bit doesnt have to make sense , does it!) Iranian people (or the ones I have met) tend to have a slight beef with their government in that they are not really allowed to do anything. I was talking to 3 lads and they came over here to learn english (with no previous knowledge) 9 months ago. when I told them I was irish , they mentioned James Joyce. wow! some people can really pick up a language VERY quick!!!
* there is a tour created by 'the adventurures' that allows the participants (provided they can get funding) to drive from england through to outer mongolia. that starts soon enough (It's up on t'internet somewhere)
* you can go trekking from Nairobi to Capetown in either 31 or 49 day packages . The people who attempt this are either crazy\have a zest for life. i will go for the lstter one!
* An ethnic Malaysian can buy a house at a 'Bumi Putera' price which is a certain percentage below a non ethnic Malaysian. I guess its like governement grants for ethnic malaysians when they buy houses!
* A nissan bluebird will never be sold in China as the word 'bluebird' when translated into mandarin means 'penis'.
right , thats enough for know, ill just leave on a gratuitous shot of a red car....
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