Day 95 – CS Meetup in KL

I finished my first leisurely reading book in probably over 10 years,
which is a big accomplishment in my mind. It took me over three months
to finish Pride and Prejudice, even though I had ample time throughout
my travels to do so. I think the free time in Myanmar and here in KL
helped elbow me forward in finishing the book. Hopefully this leads to
more reading... I downloaded Kite Runner on my kindle, since I'd heard
from many people that it was a good read.

I spent the majority of the day around Chinatown and KLCC again. It's
just so easy to find a place to sit and use the (free) internet or
read a book!

Later on, I joined a Couchsurfing Meetup around Bukit Bintang and we
had dinner and drinks. I met some locals there and we shared some of
our couchsurfing experiences and I got some advice on some of the
places I should visit while here, even though I'm running out of time!
I also got a little insight on the recent rally that occurred in the
city about a month ago, which lead to hundreds of people detained by
the police. The rally was to call for cleaner elections, but the
government never allowed the rally to occur in the first place because
they didn't issue a permit to the group responsible for holding the
rally. In Malaysia, any meetup with more than 5 people required a
permit (technically even if you and 5 of your friends go out for
dinner, for example). Once the rally occurred, the government blocked
many of the roads into the city center, and stopped the train and rail
lines into the city. They randomly arrested many people who were at
the scene of the rallies, even if they weren't participants. In the
end, both sides were wrong for what they did. One, the group didn't
obtain a permit, and two, police shouldn't have handled the even in
such a way because there wasn't a national security issue.

I wish I was there at the time it occurred! I might have even gotten
arrested, since I could pass for a Chinese Malaysian easily.

Hindu Temple near Petaling Street

Day 93 - Petaling Street, Chinatown

I spent the majority of the day wandering around Petaling Street where Chinatown is located and tried to find some of the tourist sights in the vicinity.

I had some delicious Hainan Chicken at one of the busy restaurants in Chinatown before heading to Central Market, an old building full of vendor kiosks and small boutiques selling many different Malaysian souvenirs. The building is over a hundred years old, having opened first in 1888.

The rains decidedly came at around 1PM, when the sunny clear skies quickly transformed to a bleak and murky environment. I was stuck at the LRT train station for about 45 minutes, waiting for the rains to stop before heading back out into the city to check out some more sights – including a train station, a textile museum, the Petronas Tower (again), and others that I would have known the names of had I had a guidebook with me.

For dinner, I met up with my host at a restaurant near the KLCC Mall. Other Muslims were also seated and ready to have their first meal after dusk. Everyone ordered their meals when they arrived, but only received their dinners at around 7:20pm. It was interesting to observe everyone waiting until the moment when it was deemed acceptable to begin eating. My host called his mom to ask if it was time yet, and she confirmed it. Since we were at a mall, we weren't able to hear the mosques outside, or listen or watch some type of media that would notify Muslims when it would be OK to eat. Although I cheated by eating and drinking during the day, it was great to be able to pseudo participate in the Muslim culture at dinnertime.

Day 92 - Back to Kuala Lumpur

The flight back to KL took about 2.5 hours, and there were a surprisingly good amount of Myanmar people aboard the flight. I was curious as to how or why they were traveling outside of the country, since their wardrobe made it appear that they were not going on business, but possibly for leisure. It was obvious that for many of them, this would be the first time they flew on an airplane. I sat next to a two Myanmar people and asked them what they were going to do in Kuala Lumpur. Unfortunately, they didn't speak English, so I tried to see if they were going to work there, tour the city, or maybe even fly to Singapore to work since I hear it's popular for Myanmar people to work there. They still didn't understand so I gave up.

Arrived in KL around midnight, and luckily, my couchsurfing host, U-Chop, was awake to have me over this early in the day, or else I would have had to sleep at the airport. I arrived at his place, and it immediately reminded me of home, with many IKEA furnishings throughout. It felt nice being in a home, instead of a hotel/guest house. We chatted a little when I arrived, and I learned that he, being Muslim, was celebrating Ramadan along with much of the KL population for the entire month, which meant fasting from dawn until dusk. He would later wake up around 6am to eat before the sun rose.

I wondered how the local restaurants would have been affected by such a holiday, but U-Chop said that business wasn't affected too much, as there were a great number of Chinese in the area who would still be customers during the day, and Malay Muslims being customers at night. This was later empirically resolved by my observation at a couple of the malls in the city, the great number of people who were crowded around all the restaurants including the McDonalds (where I just HAD to satisfy my Big Mac craving).

Spent the rest of the day sightseeing a little of Chinatown (Petaling Street), before the rains came. They usually come in the afternoon/evening, and when it rains here, it pours.

It was nice to come back to a highly developed, and clean city. I very much enjoyed the airconditioning everywhere and just sitting around at a mall, reading a book and people watching.

Malaysian Street Art