My Malaysian Holiday! Part 1

Well goodness, where to begin?  It's hard to believe that I was only absent from Hong Kong for three and a half days because Camille had enough experiences and stories in Malaysia to fill up three weeks worth of traveling!   But wow, what an adventure - the trip was rejuvenating, exhilarating, stressful, awe-inspiring,profound, hilarious, and incredibly thought-provoking - not bad for a little impromptu three-day jaunt! 

So I'll start from the very beginning (a very good place to start)

I've already alluded to our trials and tribulations trying to purchase tickets for this trip, but it appeared that all would be well once the tickets were finally bought.  However, at the airport Wednesday morning, we had to clear one last hurdle before getting on the plane.  Because of the debacle with credit cards caused by Air Asia, Camille was detained at the gate and had to wait about 20-30 minutes - enough for both of us to start to despair that we would never, ever, ever get to KL.  BUT!  We finally were cleared and jumped onto the plane and off we went.  Once we arrived in KL, we checked into our (surprisingly clean and very secure) $8-a-night hostel, and we wasted no time getting started on our to-do list.  After a delicious lunch at a Chinese food stall, we decided to venture to the renowned KL Bird Park.  

Given the directions by our hostel owner, we set out expecting an easy, if hot, walk.  Yet after we got off the monorail, we were in for a bit of a surprise: the "street" that we needed to walk down to get to the park was in fact a crazily busy highway overpass with scant sidewalk space for pedestrians.  A kind man informed us that this was the best way, as it was preferable to walking beneath the bridge, an area which was "not advisable" for two girls to go.  Uh-oh.  So we began the walk, gripping onto the railing by the sidewalk for dear life, as the speeding motorists honked their horns and shouted greetings at us.  Again, in these situations, all you can do is laugh.  After a few perilous street crossings (one of which took ten minutes to find an opening in traffic, and only then it was to sprint across the road, narrowly avoiding the hugely annoying motorbikes whizzing past), we finally made it to the park - or something that at least resembles green space.  It turns out, this was just not the day meant for the Bird Park.  We arrived at the gates of another park (the Butterfly Park) only 40 minutes before their closing time, but we decided it was still worth a look, if only so that our highway walk was not in vain.  It was actually quite lovely, as we walked in and were greeted by hundreds of butterflies flitting about.

After the park, we continued to walk around various famous areas around KL, from Merdeka (Independence) Square, which hosts one of the world's tallest flagpoles, to Little India to Chinatown.  Little India was a delight, as we had food from the street vendors again, which, unfortunately, I was not able to finish (or even eat much of) my meal because it was *so* *so* spicy!  But it was very delicious!  I then went shopping, and bargained with a shopkeeper for two spangled saris for my two girls Avery and Ayden!  Which will hopefully get in the mail soon :)  Chinatown was also an adventure, essentially jam-packed with loads of vendors all selling the same thing: DVDs, LeBron jerseys, sunglasses, and fake purses.  Unfortunately I did not partake in the shopping here.  Instead of buying Malaysia's Chinatown goods, I'll just go straight to the source and buy all the Chinese goods, you know, while I live in China.  

At the end of the day, Camille and I were exhausted from our previous sleepless night, the miles of walking, and the endless string of catcalls and wolf whistles, so we decided to call it a night early.  We went back to the hostel and chilled on the rooftop deck for awhile, discussing the idea of travel vs. vacation and American exceptionalism.  We called it an early night, as we had a jam-packed day planned for Thursday!

And with that, I'm calling it a night now, as it is 2:18 am, but I'll be back with more stories soon!  Check out the video of the monkeys below!

xoxo