I was fortunate to go to KL for a weekend with someone who really knows the area. I was a tourist, canoodled with locals and ate not nearly as much food as I wanted. Surprisingly, my stomach has its limits.
I'm just going to get it out of the way - KL also has its share of ridiculous malls. I did, however go into one of the cheaper malls which reminded me of Pacific Mall. It was here that I was tempted to buy a couple pieces of clothing, but the fact that we weren't allowed to try anything on led me to put the stuff down as quickly as I had picked it up. Darn it. I wish I had the 
talent of staring at clothing and guessing if it'll fit. The other thing that threw me off (because I'd never encountered it before) was the fact that all of the dresses would have been miniskirts on me, which isn't really my style. I suppose I am a giant by Asian female standards. Too bad, because there 
were some really cute pieces. Darn, darn, darn. In one of the of the nicer malls, there was a Club Monaco store. Knowing that I enjoy their style, my friend told me to go in to marvel at the prices. I think it was at least twice as much as it costs here in Canada. I couldn't believe it! I wonder if people over there think that it's a really chic brand and are willing to shell out the big bucks for the stuff.
I didn't get a picture of it, but the mall food courts are just as ridiculous as their shopping malls. The amount of choice was incredible, the portions were impressive, the presentation and everything was so much more involved than here in North America. I guess everything there is over the top.
The first night, we went to Petaling Street. This is what I was hoping to see in Singapore. I was energized by all of the people, the vendors calling out to you and the different kinds of things that they were selling. I've seen my fair share of counterfeit luxury
goods, but I'd never seen fake Tiffany stuff before. They even packaged them in light blue boxes. I had to laugh out loud. Another trend I noticed in Asia was polo shirts by Ralph Lauren. Not that polo shirts are anything new, but I'd never seen the ones with the gigantic logo on the front. I saw so many people wearing them (some fakes amongst them), that I had to ask what was going on. It was explained to me that these particular polos are popular because of the big logo, and well, these people love to flaunt their brand names. Designer malls, logos plastered all over their body...ahh, it's all coming together. I may love designer stuff, but it's not for the name that I love it, its for the style, detailing and quality. This is also where I bought some of the fruit that I sampled.
Our hotel room had a great view. We looked directly at the Kuala Lumpur City Centre, which was perfect for the giddy tourist in me. This is one well lit building. The CN Tower is better now than it was before the lights, but I'm sure that it could be improved upon. We giggled at the fact that there was a shuttle golf cart that took us from the hotel to the KLCC. We did take it a couple times when it was too hot outside, until we found that the doors of the air-conditioner convention centre were open and created a nice little pathway between where we needed to go.
On the ceiling of our room was this little sign telling us where Mecca was. I thought that was really neat. Not really surprising if you think about it, but it's not something that I'd ever seen before, so it made me stop for a second. I wonder if other cultures come to North America and get thrown off by finding a bible in their hotel room.
From atop the KL Tower, I could see the pollution and admire the skyline of the city. I didn't find these shots very interesting until I compared them to similar shots from Taipei 101 (coming up in a later post) and you can really see the different between cities. Let's just say, KL seems pretty grey and dingy.Outside the KL Tower was a small zoo which mainly had different reptile and amphibians. I had never seen a frog this fat before, so I had to snap
a shot. I would have been interested to see it move. All of the animals had placards stating the species name and where they naturally live. I got a little giggle seeing the raccoons in there. Native to North America. Nice. Another funny moment because over there, raccoons are foreign so it would be interesting to see them in captivity. I wonder which animals we have on display here they would think is so banal that they don't both putting them in zoos.
A couple shots of Merdeka Square. I learned something from this pit stop. Jersey material is really light and bouncy. Sometimes I like taking fun action shots...probably not the best when wearing jersey dresses. It was a good laugh.
Next stop was the Central Market where I went in ready to buy souvenirs and my special purchase of the country. By this point, I was disappointed that I couldn't find anything special in Singapore and vowed not to leave KL without something. Luckily I found what I wanted, engaged in a little bit of bargaining (I never really now how far I can push it, and let's be honest, with the attitude of wanting to buy something, you don't want to push too hard) and left a happy camper. I had kinda wanted to buy a batik sarong, but they turned out pricier than I had expected and instead got something else.So I try to experience different things when possible. I forget where I'd heard about this, but I never imagined having a chance to try it. My feet were pretty mangled up from wearing bad footwear during the trip, so I was worried about whether or not I'd be able to try it, but the lady told
me it would be fine. Actually, I think that was the least of my concerns. I was terrified about how it would feel having fish basically eat the skin off of my gross feet. Although they bear battle scars of many experiences that I've had in life and usually I'm proud of stuff like that, I'm actually quite embarrassed about the state of my feet. It's also very difficult for me to find footwear which fits and made my mangled feet look presentable. I've also been told that I'm picky, but that's just another opinion. Anyway, in Singapore, I'd seen quick a few different spas out and about and many of them advertised the fish thing. Here, the price seemed right, and I didn't really know when else I'd get a chance to go for it, so with great fear, I paid the steep price of 5 ringits (I jest) and braced myself for what was to come. I kid you not
when I say that it took me 5 minutes to put my feet entirely in the water. This first picture where the fish are blinded by the flash (oops) give you a sense of just how many fish there are. There were two tanks available for feet (there was one for hands too) and this one contained small fish about 4cm in length. Their nibbles were extremely ticklish, which I am not good at dealing with. It was so bad that I started shaking. A LOT. I kept dunking my toes in, and as soon as the fish would swarm, and they really did swarm, I had to pull my feet out. Finally, I started getting used to the sensation, although it did take a lot of effort for me to keep my mind off of what was going on. The passerbyers thought I
was a hoot to watch. For the last couple of minutes, I wanted to try the tank with the bigger fish (10cm). These fish felt more like they were scratching my feet. It was like you could feel their little teeth scraping the dead skin off of your feet. It took awhile for me to get used to them as well. They really pick at every part of your feet, even between your toes. It's funny to see the fish swarm to your feet when you first put them in, but once your feet are a little bit cleaner and especially if someone else puts their more dead skin covered feet into the tank, the fish loose interest in your feet and swarm to the new feet. Did it work? Well, my feet definitely looked a lot cleaner afterwards. My skin glowed and was a little smoother, but by the end of the day, they looked grubby again. That's what you get from wearing flip flops and walking for hours on end. It was a wild experience. One that I would not spend hundreds of dollar on, like they probably charge here in North America for fancy spa treatments, but if I go back, I'll probably try it again. Maybe I'll get used to it a little bit faster and get my full money's worth. Anyway, an experience I won't forget. So neat.
I know this will sound strange, but I got a real kick out of the pedestrian crossing signs. The little green man would walk as a nice leisurely pace when the light first changed to green. As the countdown got closer to zero, the green guy would speed up until by the end he was running as fast as his little pixelated legs would take him. Tee hee.
Some locals just hanging out.
The durian gets its own stall. I didn't see anyone buying any, and I wasn't ready to buy an entire fruit. I also figured that I wasn't allowed to take it into the hotel. Wow, just seeing these pictures makes me remember how they smelled...and tasted.
Around the corner from the durian vendor was a little street that has restaurant after restaurant. I don't even remember if any of them had indoor seating, but we definitely sat at a fold-away table and stools that encroached on the side of the street. By the end of our meal, I think the
seating area took over most of the street - I think it was a tight fit for a car to get through. The more people showed up, the more table and stools that appeared out of nowhere. It was neat. I liked how friendly and informal the atmosphere was. I was eating with locals, so I don't know if I would have had the same experience if I was there on my own, but I don't remember seeing any menus. There were stalls set up between the seating area and the building itself with signs describing foods such as noodles, satays, fried fish, veggies, etc. Plate after plate of really tasty food kept coming out and as each plate arrived,
we paid for it. No need to worry about tipping here, I suppose. Once you were done eating, you just took off. I got to eat some different kinds of foods. More noodles, along with real satay and gado gado. My fellow diners were careful not to order food that was too spicy for fear that I wouldn't be able to stand it. How nice. I can't understand how they eat such spicy food in that heat. I was proud to have tried everything including the spicy things, and I'd like to think that I can handle more spicy food than I could previously. The upsetting thing is that I really do enjoy the taste of spice, but my body disagrees.Lastly, at the airport, there was a Bulk Barn sort of store. It had gummy candies as well as different dried fruits. It also had free sampling. So,
curious me, decided to try all of the different things that I'd never seen or heard of before. I wasn't being greedy, I merely wanted to try some things that were different. It was a pretty store, probably mostly due to the fact that there were lots of people sampling stuff. I admit, I ate a couple gummies because I was hungry and wanted to remember the taste of cola, but for the most part, I really was just trying different things.
I suppose this needs a little explaining. When I was young, my mom used to get packaged of dried cuttlefish from Taiwan. I loved the stuff. I couldn't get enough of it. So this store had a whole room dedicated to this stuff. The room was not due to the popularity of the stuff, but to enclose its smell. Yes, there were signs telling you to keep the door closed and blah blah blah, but I marched right in and did my fair share of "sampling" inside. So tasty!
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