http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.394427810616447.90058.100001476944065&type=3
So here I am back in K.L for a couple of days! I have decided to head on to Thailand (The reason that I keep coming back to K.L is due to the fact that you can fly to quite a few destinations from here and it is asy to get the 30 day visa to enter Malaysia whereas in other Asian countries, it's not so straightforward (and they don't charge entrance and exit taxes at the airport here!)) Anyway, I decided to stay at the Serenity hotel (in Bukit Bintang) again as I have stayed there before and at a place called 'punjana' (I think) The atmosphere at the serenity hotel is always really good. In fact, I would say that it's probably the best hostel\hotel that I have stayed at during my trip as nearly everyone (the staff and the guests) seems to want to talk.
I landed back at the airport in K.L and followed the familiar drill at this stage... i.e: forget where to collect bags...fret....collect bags....forget the way out....take a detour to the toilet to get the thoughts together...walk in random direction until I am outside the building...Jump on bus.
Anyway, as Git in the bus I started talking to a guy who was just here for the day and then heading on to London for a 4 week holiday. He was telling me that he represented South Africa in water polo but had to give it up as the family moved to oz when he was 16 and the distances that he needed to travel to play for the new south wales team were too big to contemplate (He used to get up at 4 in the morning to train!) I asked him if he ever swam competitively and he said that he represented his state but did not make the national team.... I was going to tell him that I nearly made the Irish football team but that would have been a lie and I am a brutal lier!
He was telling me a story that happened to him when he was a lifeguard in Australia. He had to save a girl (She was around 22years old) that was drowning (co-incidentally ,she was Irish but that's not important , but I thought I'd throw that in anyway) and she was caught in a whirlpool. He swam out to her and as she tried to grab him , she kept clawing him in frustration.He told her , either to stop clawing or he would have to knock her out with a punch or they both might die...So, a word of warning, if you are struggling in the water and someone comes to save you,try to resist clawing them!
So, what to do during this stay in Kuala Lumpur?? hmmmm, I decided to have a quick look through the couchsurfing website and see if there was any activities happening . I noticed one guy posted up a request for people who were interested in a game of table tennis so I mailed him and put the thought in the back of my head for the day...
At one point during the day, I was filing out an oline form where it asked for my height and weight. I hadn't a clue if there
was a weighing scales in the hostel so I asked the guy at reception and he told me that there was none here but why
did I need it [In case you were wondering, it was an application form ].(He asked 'Was it for a dating website?' A dating website where they ask for your weight???? I am not sure if that would catch on! Will people give their real weight on a dating website. I would hazard a guess and say 'no'!)
I talked to a guy called Ronnie from the Philippines .He has been working in various far flung locations (Turks and Cacos islands
, Vietnam) for the past few years. (half the people I hve met at this stage seem to be from the Philippines. Does anybody stay in the country!!) I had a look at the stamps on his passport and I have to say ,there was a pretty varied selection of stamps to be found there!
I started talking to Jose from Argentina . He has been traveling for a couple of years. He is trying to improove his english. He was
telling me that he lived for the past 4 months in Jakarta. Now, From what I have seen of Jakarta ,that takes some guts!! His plan is to move on to Australia and work on a few farms for a few months. Sounds good to me. Actually. he mentioned that he heard of a place called hurlingham near Buenos Aires... The locals call the place 'hurling' and apparently they play hurling there!! don't believe me? check this link out on the web!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttjS-7828BY
while I was looking at the clip abov e.g: I saw another one with Che Guevara (you know, The guy that's on all the t-shirts (He did other stuff apart from merchandising t- shirts you know!!))
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBYUOOEHbJw&feature=related
I went for jog to butterfly park and back again (The Botany gardens (where the butterfly park is located) can be found close to Merdaka square and It's a nice place to jog , once you can avoid being hit by the traffic!). I nearly collapsed with heat exhaustion but made it (barely!) I think I feel a 10km road challenge needs to be attempted soon (I am not sure if I should try anything much longer than that baring in mind the state of me after the Amsterdam half marathon last year!) It's good to start the jogging again although , I am not sure how long my clothes will last due to the heat and my propensity to sweat (what seems like) half my body weight during a jog!
http://www.marathon-photos.com/scripts/event.py?event=Sports/NFNL/2011/Amsterdam%20Marathon&match=26223
I like jogging around various places a it keeps the weight off and the attitudes of people to me when jogging in various countries interests me sometimes! Here are just my observations about various peoples attitude towards me when I have jogged in their country (Well, That sounds like , 'their country' means that people own a country!!)
Israel - I started jogging when I stayed in Israel. The people over there tend to completely ignore the jogger as I think most people are used to keeping fit (You have to attend the army over there so i guess fitness is ingrained wothin you from an early age.) At that point in time, I was carrying a bit of weight and I remember a guy asking me at one point, 'why are you fat?' I wondered what he meant by that....as normally, at that point in time , people would never ask me the reason behind having extra weight!!! I decided to start jogging at that point!
Ireland - I usually jog in the phoenix park.Over there, most people tend to stare at you when you jog! I find that a bit fnny as there are many people out jogging. Also, I notice if I jog in the evening time, there always seem to be many women walking around the park and it seems like there seems to be an unofficial uniform to wear when walking around the park. Usually,it consists of a pink shirt!! (Note to self: sell pink shirts at the phoenix park and you will make a fortune!)
You will get a few people shouting some 'hilarious' quips from a car when jogging. This has only happened in Ireland and it's frustrating as I can't answer back as the car has already passed by the time I hear the quip!
England - Jogging here was cool as I jogged in quiet neighbourhoods. Some of the local teenage blokes would jog alongside me but that was only because they were trying to make the girls that they were talking to laugh at them!!!
Holland - I only jogged there for that half marathon and it was an experience! Actually, it was very enjoyable as there were live bands playing music all along the route and there were pacemakers who you could measure your pace against....class!
Philippines - I only jogged once while there (in a place called Pagudpud) and I used runners that are not really used for jogging. I was stopped a few times by the locals and asked , 'what are you doing?' so maybe I should change my style as it might look like I was running from something! (Actually, my style does look like I am on the verge of collapse all the time!!!)
Malaysia - K.L is a good place to jog (specifically the botany gardens) but it's tough as the weather is very hot out there. Also, I must remember that Coffee is a diuretic. I tried some before one of my jogs and during the jog, I had to make a quick pitstop in Burger king (Thanks for allowing me to use the toilets there guys!!!)
Thailand - I went for a couple of jogs at 'Hat Yai' and the locals were out in force willing me on!!! I was not sure wht they thought of it as I did not see many joggers there (but I have seen a fair few in Songkhla but they have the sense to jog as the sun goes down in the evening time!)
Anyway, after the jog , I decided to head to the city and buy some goggles as I lost the old ones...making that the 5 millionth thing I have lost/broken since I started this trip.
I took a train from KLCC (K.L CONVENTION CENTRE) to Meruli..[This was the location of the table tennis championship of the world* ] I had to change the train 3 times and after the 3rd train I realised that My hostel is VERY close to Meruli (aaarrrggghhh!!! ) It's only 2 stops away.
So, at Meruli ,I went into the local fish shop to look for directons. A chinese man brought me right up to the
security guards at the condo (Both of them were from Bangladesh, one of the guys was telling me that 500 Banladeshi's
went from there to Ireland a couple of months back. I would say that that would be a bit of a culture shock for those
lads! Anyway, we talked a bit about the 20-20 cricket and how Bangladeshs team is slowly becoming more competitive.
(Note to self: must watch more cricket ) They rang the guys who had organised the ping pong and they showed me around
the condo before the games began. The condo was class.They had a swimming pool there as well as a place for ping ping
and squash. I hope they take advantage of the facilities because they really are cool!!! They even have a library room
in the building!
Four guys showed up and they were all fairly handy. One of the lads (Alfred) had the chinese grip! (His bat had a
different shape that would compliment th way he held the bat.) I won a couple of games but I think that was due to
pity from the other players! But it was good craic so that was the main thing! Jeg was an interesting cat....Of indian
descent, he spent 5 years attending university in Kiev studying Russian despite not knowing a word of the language
before heading out there!! Still not as impressive as his table tennis skills though!
The guys were telling me that normally the couch surfers in kl organise climbing events.I am not sure if I would ever attend one of those but they also said that there was a pool party the day before. I must look out for those things in the future!
I came back to the hostel around 10pm and went out for some food and beer with Chriex (better known as chiqui (better spelt as chheky!)) ) ...Jey came along later (I met the two guys at the hostel the day before...They are both from the Philippines (I am still not fully convinced that Malysia is NOT the Philippines as I have met so many guys from there at this stage!!!!) ). The street food is really nice. I must stick to the street food in future!! (mmmmmm satay) They are trying out their luck in Singapore at the moment. Actually, Jey is a trained nurse - so if there are any nursing jobs going anywhere - give him a shout!!!!!! Chiqui qas telling me that she is one of 6 kids (I think!!) and she is the only one that is not married yet... You better get your skates on Chiqui (Only joking!!) If you guys are in Singapore for a while longer, I might come and visit if I end up travelling close to that region again!!
Actually, before we headed out for food, I remembered i left my phone charging all day.I was lucky it was not stolen....I did this back in Manila and the guys at the hostel took the phone and pretended not to know anything about
it util I could prove it was mine (which is fair enough). I have to remember not to leave my stuff lying around the
place or it will be nicked!
The next day, we decided to head for the aquarium at the K.L.C.C. Juan had booked out of the hostel on the previous day but as we were walking towards the K.L.C.C, he spotted us and tagged along (the more , the merrier!) The price to enter the aquarium was failry steep (45RM for a foreigner) so we ddecided to hang out at the food court for a while. After this, Chriex and Jey headed off to Merdeka square, Kim headed to Chinatown and I decided to kill time by doing my favorite leisure activity, eating copious amounts of food!! yum!!
Later that evening, I could any find any paper (to print my boarding pass for the flight to Hat Yai [Thailand] ) at the hostel so I had to find an internet cafe at 12.30 a.m .yikes!! I found one though and it only cost 4RM (around 1 euro). I was fairly tired from
walking around K.L all day and I had to get up around 6.20 the next morning to get ready for the plane journey.
I woke up at 6.45 20 minutes after alarm was supposed to go off ....eep!!! This was no hassle though as it doesn't take me long to 'fix' my hair. I grabbed a monorail with Chiqui and Jey (as they were heading back to Singapore around the same time )and then a bus to the airport. The airport at K.L is like a home to me at this stage as I have seen it a fair few times over the past few months!! If you ever go there, TAKE ADVANTAGE of the KFC allowing you to have free refills of soft drinks!! (but be careful as they do have a kick if you drink soft drinks consistently for 8 hours straight!!!)
*may not be true
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