Well, it's now
and I have yet to sleep for any significant length of time yet. This happens sometimes before I'm about to take a big flight it seems like. Not sure if I'm anxious or what. Part of it is probably due to the fact that I was pretty hyped up earlier. There were 2 New Zealanders staying at Mahesh's place last night; well, they actually stayed last night too but I had already fallen asleep by the time they got here. Anywho, I've always had a real affinity for Kiwis for some reason, and these two girls proved to be no different, thankfully. 2 Kiwi women and 1 Indian man makes for one thrilled American, I can assure you of that. We had such a lovely evening talking.
Mahesh and I went out to dinner because the two girls had already eaten by the time they got back. I had a great meal of pizza; yes, I know you're supposed to eat local but I already had on Sunday night so I fulfilled my cross cultural duty. Plus the first place he picked didn't serve anything vegetarian so we had to go to the next place. It was a great little personal pan pizza basically and I also had some Naan bread togo with it. It actually had a curry sauce with it but I just liked it plain because it had a lot of butter and garlic on it so I felt the curry kind of took away from it really.
While we were eating, we heard some karoake in the distance so afterwards we went to inspect. We asked how late they'd be open and they said 1am so we said we'd ask the girls if they wanted to go. As we were leaving one of the waitresses grabbed my arm and said we just needed to ask if she was going to be there. I smiled politely back and then quickly checked for my wallet afterwards as I'm prone to do if any local is overtly friendly right away. Call it a habit to be sure but I think it's a pretty good one to have; or maybe I've just seen too many Hollywood films.
Yesterday, I had a fantastic tiime exporing the streets of KL. I took a hop on hop off bus which is honestly sometimes one of the best ways to see a city. Especially if you're just going to be there for a day. I did quite a bit of shopping so that was fun. I won't be so thrilled when I check my bank account tomorrow I'm sure but hey; what's vacation without a little shopping, right?
One thing I had seriously had my eye on for 6 months and when I saw a good price I jumped at it. My little price currency conversion app has proved to be one of my better apps I must say. It let's me know instantly what the amount of US dollars something is from a different currency. If you connect to the internet once in a 24 hour period it'll give you that current rate even when you're not connected which is a huge help.
And of course, KL had a tower with a rotating restaurant. Now, I happen to be a huge fan/sucker for those things so I of course had to go check it out. It rotated once every hour and had a great view of the city from 316 meters high. I simply love those things and almost insist on going anytime there is one in town. I hope I never lose the ability to be wowed like being in one of those restaurants always has the ability to provide that within me.
I'm hoping later this morning that the airport will have a patch for my backpack. I looked all over the Chinese market for one but simply couldn't find one. Of all the places to not have one, right? I did finally find a patch of the Myanmar flag. I'm excited to have my mom sew it on my backpack. What? Doesn't your mom sew your patches on your backpack, no? Guess mine just loves me more than your's.
I've always enjoyed a good market. There's nothing like a good haggle. You do need to be careful though. When you pick something up, you're generally supposed to buy it so be careful what you touch. I got a few things at the market, one of which was something I felt like was a particularly good buy.
I also got some things at the mall. I didn't buy too many things, only a few really, but they were fairly big ticket items. Don't worry, one of them was for my girlfriend so I'm not solely selfish, right?
When I first got here, my couchsurfer host informed me to get a taxi coupon at the counter. So what did I do? The typical stupid tourist thing and follow the first taxi driver to his taxi who happens to come up and get me straight away. Needless to say he ended up ripping me off big time. I would've fought him on it, but as I told the Kiwis last night he was as big as an All Black and I wasn't about to get into a fight over money with the guy. My host and I laughed when I arrived that he probably took the rest of the day off and had a great time at the local bar or something. Nothing a nap couldn't fix, that's for sure. After I awoke from my short nap, I jokingly informed my host that it would make a good chapter in the movie that someone will make about my life someday.
All in all, KL has been a great experience. My host preordered me a taxi for tomorrow, well later today technically at a fixed rate so that's taken care of thankfully. Later today it's off to Constantinople, I mean Istanbul, and I get to see some friends I made last year as well as one from a long time ago whom I met on my first internship to Kenya in 2006. He's a great guy and I look forward to reconnecting with him as it has been 7 years since we last spoke. Time flies when you're having fun, right?
I almost forgot to tell you about the nice people who I met when I got to my first train station of the day! And since it's currently 10 after 5 in the morning and I still can't sleep, allow me to indulge you. Being the stupid tourist that I am, I either attract crooks like the taxi driver or nice people like I was fortunate enough to attract at the train station.
When I first got there, the guy behind me was cussing because he was going to miss his train. I gladly let him in front of me because I didn't know where I was going and knew it would take a minute for me to get it sorted at the desk. As I approached the gate, I asked an official looking person if this was the way to KL Sentral where I was supposed to be going. A nice young lady asked me where I was going and I informed her. She said she would take me and naturally we struck up a lovely conversation.
Pretty soon, the guy who I had let in front of me in line came over to thank me and I said I was sorry that it hadn't resulted in him making his train. He assured me it was quite alright and proceeded to join our conversation. Needless to say, we three had a wonderful train ride together, much to the chagrin of the other passengers it appeared from their grimaced faces.
I don't know why more people talk on trains; it's not like you're going anywhere soon and you have a captive audience. I will admit I can be the guy who plugs in to his music and doesn't want to be bothered just like the next person but generally speaking I like a good conversation with a random stranger. I think that must just be how I'm wired or something.
When I was relaying this story to the Kiwis earlier I casually mentioned that we were the loudest people on the train by a long shot. One of the Kiwis shot back, "Nah, ya don't say mate!" We all had a pretty good laugh about that. Apparently I have a very difficult time hiding my personality, who knew?!
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