The Land of Lah

Malaysia, while beautiful and full of culture, will be forever remembered by me for the plethora of Lahs, straws and bags. Lah is sort of a Malaysian catchphrase-- added after many sentences with little meaning. Or, in the case of one man who spent his days standing on the same corner, Lah was what he screamed endlessly all day. While I have always been a fan of a good straw, Malaysians take straw use to a whole new level. Buy a drink in a restaurant? Straw. On the street? Straw. Hot? Cold? Straw. Impossible to drink using a straw? Straw. Clearly this is because of santation purposes, but it still thought it was funny. However, what I still don't really understand are the use of bags. When I bought a soy milk drink in singapore I was given my cup in a plastic bag carrier, but Malaysians skip the cup altogether. Drinks are all put in a small plastic drinking bag, if there isn't a handle a rubber band is attached.

Source: Paper Planes

After my latest experiences with buses I was very pleased for the metro in Kuala Lumpur. I was even more pleased to find something that I lacked in Singapore-- friends. I spent my first day alone exploring and getting a bit lost. That night I invited my australian roommate to dinner. We went down the street to Petaling Market. We decided to share and I ordered shrimp and she got frog. Now that I have tried it twice, I can say it's not my favorite.

The next day with friends in tow we went back to Batu Caves. (If you ever go take the train-- it's cheap at about 60 cents and fast!) The pictures can speak for themselves--

but so can I.

There were three caves-- one filled with statues, the main one, and the dark cave. The first one didn't make all that much sense to us as we didn't know any of the stories.

 

With the second cave came the stairs.

 

On my way up, I of course made friends with an older man. He explained to me the significance of the caves and why so many people were dressed up. His village had come to honor the god and pay homage to the monkeys. The monkeys were a bit like wildly misbehaving toddlers on steroids. Cute in theory but rather scary. I thought they were cute until one lept on a young girl and tore the flowers from her hair for a snack.

Finally, we went to the dark cave with a guided tour. We got to see cave creatures and explore. The Austrialian and I both thought our guide was hilarious, and he appreciated someone laughing at his jokes.

(For obvious reasons there are no pictures.)

Before we left we got some lunch and some coconut milk. But it was not from a bag, it was straight out of the fruit. Delicious.

 

Planes, Trains, & Automobiles (but please no buses)

After my first two days of looking at flowers and going to arts festivals all day I decided to shake things up and just look at orchids all day. I ended up going to an impromptu meeting of "single foreign woman." That describes 90% of the people I saw at the botanical gardens. They were gorgeous and huge. Unfortunately it started to get very hot and I started to get a migraine while I was in the "healing garden" of all places. After lying down for a bit I realized I wasn't going to make it to the other two gardens I wanted to see, and needed to back to the hostel.

The hostel was about a 20-30 minute walk from the station and during that time I began to pour. It was raining so hard I quickly lost a contact. So with a hurting head, sight only in one eye and soaking wet I walked though the hospital complex to my hostel. The hilarious thing was that everytime I passed a doorway, and therefore a group or people, I would get all these friendly greetings. I felt a bit like a marathon runner on my journey with the crowd cheering me on... Not that I would know what that feels like. Since I was already half way through a shower and laundry by the time I got back, I decided to complete both of those activities and have a good sleep before my bus the next day.

 

The next day I finally found the desk only to have the guy look at me and say, "3." (My bus was suppose to be at noon.) "Bus broke down, come here at three." I had all of my stuff with me during the hottest part of the day, so during those 3.5 hours I wasn't going to get much done in the way of sightseeing. Luckily I channeled my inner Elli and tried the approach of "the worst they can say is no" asking if I could leave my stuff with him behind the desk. With a bit of convincing he was took my stuff from me and I got to sit outside a knockoff jewelry shop that had the door cracked open and read "Clan of the Cave Bear" while trying to drink the fresh squeezed sugarcane juice I bought. Sounds delicious, tastes revolting.

 

My main fear was the border crossing, but unsurprisingly it was a breeze going the other way. There weren't even stairs. Unfortunately, 20 minutes later the bus stopped and we had to wait an hour for another bus to come get us. For the second time in a few days I was concerned I wouldn't be able to get into my hostel as check in might be closed for the night. Malasian buses and I aren't on the best of terms... But hey, at least the new bus had psychedelic panda seats. (Sadly it was too dark for a picture!)

I had taken that bus because it was the only one that dropped me off really close to the hostel where I was staying. Unfortunately my bus driver decided not to go into the city. (Could you imagine that happening at home?) We dropped the first round of people off on the outskirts and went on this back street. The bus driver stopped, got out and talked to a man just sitting there on the median. The companion of this man came on the bus and got into an argument with another guy of the bus. After about 10 minutes of this the driver came back and started driving in the opposite direction of the city. He had a conversation in another language with some guys on the bus, gave them some cash and then had those guys tell us to get off the bus and get our stuff. The bus driver then drove away. It was bizarre.

Confused, the remaining 7 of us followed the two other guys into a train station and then were given a token to get on. The men said that the driver didn't want to take the time to go into the city, so instead he was just buying train tokens for all of us. Considering I paid about $20 for the bus (singapore prices) and he paid about 60 cents for my train ride (malaysian price) it made sense for him... Unfortunately it meant my carefully typed up directions from the bus station were no longer relevant. It was also almost 11 pm by this point.

I made it to Chinatown alright, but from there I got lost, KL might as well not name their street as they don't bother with street signs. I decided to take a taxi. I flagged one down and told him where I was going. Instead of having me get in he gave me walking directions. Begrudgingly, I started following those. I took a right and from beind me I heard a, "no go straight!" Before the taxi driver, who had been following me, drove away. After another 15 minutes I flagged another taxi, who once again gave me walking directions. Once again he followed behind me all the way to my destination. Rather strange, but nice all the same. I was not in the nicest part of KL, to put it lightly... something tells me the taxi drivers agreed with my assertion.