As Lazy as it Gets
2nd December, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
You might think that with under a week left of travelling that we would be keen to cram in as much as possible. Certainly, there's that feeling that we should make the most of the time and our location, but the simple fact is that it can get very tiring. Everybody needs time out, and we had intended to do very little today. Manda's aunt was working while her uncle was attending the funeral of a distant relative who lived nearby. So, we had a bit of time to catch up on rest (no need to rush out of the house early in the morning) and then catch up on diary updates (I tell you, no matter how pleased I'll be in years to come that we made an effort to keep such a thorough record of our trip, I won't miss this aspect of the travels - the idea of going a week and not having to worry about getting a backlog of diary entries seems like an odd one right now!).
We managed to get some diary updates done but all too soon lunchtime arrived, as did uncle Gary back from the funeral, and we all headed out for a spot of Bak Kut Teh. This is a Chinese dish that comprises meat in a herbal soup. The way Gary described it, it would be an acquired taste and Manda might not be that keen (translation: Ian is definitely not gonna like it). I managed to suprise myself and everyone else, though, finding the soup to be very tasty indeed.
The Many Malls of Malaysia
After lunch, we moved along to another shopping centre. Now, don't get me wrong, we're not buying loads at all these shopping centres, but we are doing as the locals do - making the most of the cool, air-conditioned surrounds. Gary seems to alternate around a batch of different shopping centres to make use of the various coffee joints that offer wireless internet access (he doesn't even dial up at home now), and we did likewise. As ever, I had difficulties getting a signal on my powerbook while others had seemingly no problem. It's something to do with the metal casing that the laptop is made of, effectively turning it into a giant shield. Not the best design decision that Apple made (but I can forgive them for all the other right ones), but I was stuck with it. Realising that I wasn't having much luck where we were all sitting, I started pacing around the eatery we were in (a Delifrance) with the laptop open, looking to see where the signal was strongest. It turns out that the signal Gary was tapping into was from a branch of Coffee Bean opposite. Heck, I move a few yards in the wrong direction and the signal drops, while Gary can take a seat 15 metres away and still be surfing the net quite happily. So, I went and sat over at Coffee Bean!
One person who couldn't take a seat at Coffee Bean was Peter, whom we'd met a couple of evenings ago. We know this because he'd just phoned and was in the same shopping centre as us - the Mid Valley Megamall - in a branch of Starbucks waiting to meet someone. Even though we were but a few minutes' walk away, he couldn't pay us a visit because of politics - "It's a banned zone for me," he explained (the company he works for owns the Starbucks franchises, so he'd be patronising the competition ... and he didn't know who might see him there!). We took a wander over there briefly before his meeting turned up to say hello and to arrange another get-together. Peter was quite keen for us to meet his wife and kids, so Manda and I sat there and watched Gary and Peter discussing times, traffic routes, meeting points and all the other logistics required. Each of them knew their respective areas well (Gary's being Petaling Jaya, Peter's being Cheras), and were trying to work out where the overlaps in local knowledge lay. Within a few minutes they'd managed to work out 'A Plan'. I wondered quite how it would have been possible to organise by ourselves!
Going out for an Indian/Malaysian
With another evening's socialising organised, we headed off to pick up Manda's auntie, Anita, from her shop and then on to Gary's local drinking hole, a place called Nest. Suitably fortified with lagers, we continued on to a mamak food place. We had a great meal of nan bread, chunks of tandoori chicken and some local Indian/Malay specialities and interpretations (Indian noodles, for example), which was soon followed up with a few drinks at another bar called Titanic where we met one of Gary's drinking buddies. KK, as he was known, has spent 27 years living in the UK, so we all got chatting about places we all know (Gary had also studied in the UK).
Gary, Anita, Manda and Ian at 'Mosin', an Indian-style eatery somewhere
near Petaling Jaya, KL.
And there's the food. Yummy.
Lager, tandoori chicken and talking about football? Was I really in Malaysia? And what happened to our 'lazy' day?