KP in KL

Paul and I went back to central market down by China Town to see what little decorative goodies I could find. On the way, we found an art supply store which could have possibly been the highlight of my week, since we've yet to find one anywhere else. They even build stretchers for canvases! So, it's going to be my one stop art supply shop when we finally get settled in.

In central market we did the usual, eat Chicken Rice for breakfast/lunch, and then realized we only saw half of the stores the last trip we made there. After wondering through the stores full of Batik, bronze Buddhas, wooden bowls, scarves, silk Chinese dresses, and hundreds of other items, Paul found what he'd been looking for since we moved here. Right in front of us at the dead end of a hallway was an above ground pool, with chairs all around it. An older British man had his feet stuck in the pool chuckling away, and when we looked over the edge into the pool we realized there were hundreds or thousands of small fish in the pool munching on this man's feet.

The man just laughed and laughed saying it tickled and that we had to try it. When I say the fish were small, they were small in comparison to a 10 pound bass, but definitely too big to swim with the minnows in my 2nd grade science fish tank, which made anyone who stuck their feet in that pool crazy if you ask me. Paul has been looking forward to having fish eat away at his feet ever since Stephanie told me I should try it sometime. He very eagerly payed the man 5 Ringit to feed the fish the dirt and who knows what else growing off the bottom of his feet for 10 minutes. There was absolutely no way I was sticking my feet in a pool with the intention of letting fish cling to them with their mouths, so I sat and watched, took pictures, and was grossed out the entire time. Paul sat through his stint of laughing, and then an Australian man sat down next to him, stuck his feet in, and they started chuckling together. So, there sat the three men, British, Australian, and American, all bouncing in their seats laughing while fish had a feeding frenzy on their feet. Every time a new set of feet went in it was like feeding time and the fish would migrate immediately to the new set of toes. Two Asian girls sat down and started squealing a very high pitched squeal and caused quite a commotion. I'm sure my reaction would have been somewhere along those lines.

Maybe this is nothing new to many of you, but I still think it's one of the weirdest things ever and have chosen to stick to the traditional pedicure in the nail salon.

Once Paul decided his feet were eaten clean, we walked a ways to a store that sells hand carved wooden decorative items like elephants and giraffes of all sizes, and "foot stools" in this instance.

There were some beautiful items, but the most interesting part was that we happened to be the lucky customers to be the recipients of the store owner's 5,000 word quota for the day. Maybe we looked like the most friendly people, or maybe others had walked out, but we got an earful from this Chinese woman with her big CZ hoop earrings and her Bebe black t-shirt and heels. She informed us that there are ghosts that walk the earth for 49 days. And told us the phrase to say if the hair on the back of our neck ever stands up. Umi umi go ba something,... or something like that. Apparently that makes the ghost "woosh!" right off of you. And she claimed to see ghosts in her security camera that is linked to the whole mall. In addition we were told about some alcoholic drink that is from the Ebu tribe in East Malaysia that will make you fall over after one shot. She just kept talking and talking, and I'm still wondering what in the world we said to trigger these topics in her mind. But, she talked the whole time and as we walked out she ended it with "You love Malaysia. Everyone make you feel so warm! Watch your purse!" And we walked back to the LRT station wondering how in the world that woman could say so many words in such a short amount of time. We've run into some very interesting characters here in KL. I wonder what they think about me?

For a change up, we went to a nice Italian restaurant for dinner. It was truly Italian and was absolutely delicious. We arrived around 7:00 only to realize that was way too early for the dinner crowd. All of the reservations were made for 8:30 or after. So Paul and I enjoyed the restaurant all to ourselves at a little table in the corner. The tall Italian Chef and owner began to pop his head out when things started getting busier by the end of our meal, and then started acting like I would picture any true Italian. He began getting down to business, barking orders very loudly right in the middle of the dining area and he became our entertainment for the night. "Change that music right now!" he said in his Italian accent as he uncovered some aging cheese from the straw it was wrapped in right by our table. He shook the straw out onto the floor, in the middle of the dining area again mind you, and then abruptly stuck the entire wheel of cheese in my face and said, "Smell it! It's fresh goat's cheese, very nice!" So I smelled it and really all I smelled was straw, but I smiled and tried to act like I knew what was going on. He told us he would let us try it and then scrambled across the room barking other orders at people and stormed into the kitchen. We didn't see him for some time, but after we had finished eating the chef brought us a plate of the goat cheese and another cheese mixture saying, "I'm true to my word. You try." It was actually very tasty, and probably could have been a dessert as it was for us. When we left the restaurant the Chef jumped out of the hostess's chair and very loudly thanked us for coming two dozen times and nearly shook our arms off of our bodies. The food was much better than Chicken Rice, and to have free entertainment knocked that one out of the park. That dinner place was a success in my mind.

Exciting news: we finally got our visas today! It sure took a long time, but now that we have them I guess we will officially be expats here in KL for two years! And for our nightly entertainment here in the hotel, they've set up a big screen and projector to play every world cup game on weekdays in the lobby. If only I knew the first thing about soccer...

And lastly, I'll leave you with a few images from the grocery store where we realized we will never need to worry about a shortage of soy sauce, chili sauce, or fresh squid.