KP in KL

(I've changed the layout for a new look with a more appropriate theme. Not sure if it's harder to read now. We'll give it a shot for a while.)

Ahh I've finally come up for air! 30+ hours and 35 pages later, the UNHCR publication is complete and going for the final print today. It's not exactly the way I pictured spending the King's birthday, but actually I don't even know how to picture spending the day on a King's birthday! That sounds so strange to me. So, instead of doing whatever you're supposed to do on Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin's birthday, I worked on the publication, which ended up being fine because Paul also had to work on his second Friday holiday this month. I'm hoping something great happens with the World Cup to cause the King to declare another public holiday. That's said to be a fairly common occurrence around here, and it's also said that the entire month of the world cup, things here in KL become rather unproductive. People get very into the game and everything slows down apparently. This is interesting news to me because compared to the US, things in KL already run at a rather slow pace.

And, speaking of slow pace, June 10th marks the 30th day of our stay here at the G City Hotel, and we've yet to get the apartment contract squared away. It seems the landlord sent the wrong contract to Paul's company, so they are having to start over on the negotiating stuff. I'm staying optimistic though in hopes that maybe we'll be able to move this Friday. After all, the staff here at the hotel are beginning to ask questions of myself, "Mrs. or Madame Paul Stern", and Paul, "Mr. Luis Stern", that basically boil down to, why in the world have we been living out of the hotel for a month.

Starting the weekend off right, we were passed by two obviously American, large, men riding their Harley Davidson's that were as suitably large. Something you don't see often here, since dirt bikes and mopeds are the norm, but it was a little reminder of the States. We realized Malaysia is hosting a big Harley convention of some sort this weekend, and have witnessed the dozens of Harleys drive by with the sound of their unmistakable exhaust echoing through the entire city at night. Not something KL is used to I get the feeling. Saturday and Sunday we took it pretty easy. Paul has been working a lot, so we just hung around town doing whatever suited our fancy,... or suited my fancy. We went to the restaurants at the Pavilion for something new Saturday at lunch time. It was here I was reminded of my husband's incredible passion for food. Not just any food, but Chicken Rice. As if eating Chicken Rice for lunch every day and often times for dinner too wasn't enough, we looked around the 20 something restaurants for something new and of course he gravitates to the chicken and rice which we had eaten for dinner only 16 hours before. Determined to get out of this Chicken Rice rut, I dramatically rocked my world by ordering Chicken Mee, or Chicken and Noodles. Though not too dramatic sounding, it was like I took the electric paddles to my pallet and shocked it back to life which for the past month has been suffering from Chicken Rice boredom with every meal.

At the Pavilion, we walked around to see what kind of good sales they were having. We've heard the month of June is the huge sale month for the entire year for all stores, and gloriously these rumors were proven true. There were enough people taking advantage of the sales and clothes flying as people dug through stacks that I was too overwhelmed in a few stores to make any purchases. But, I did come across a few items that were 70% off, so you better believed I snatched them up. Who knew a 70% off sale even existed? We also encountered lots of "Buy 2 Free 1" sales. Aside from the sales, the center of the mall was hosting the first annual Balloon Festival, where everything was made from balloons. Clowns were even running a hot air balloon ride for little kids, and of course there were people everywhere.

My sister made a comment to me that I probably look like the Asian people in the US who carry giant SLR cameras around like an extra appendage taking crazy pictures all over the place and getting on people's nerves. She is exactly right. I am always the person that has to stop the flow of traffic to get the picture, but at least it's only with my phone for now. And, what's great is there are just as many Asians here taking just as many pictures with just as many cameras as the US, and they are always trying to take those crazy pictures where they are holding up a building or jumping in the air. So, I'm not alone in my efforts to record the next two years of my life. So for that, here's another traffic stopping picture.


Sunday we made a good attempt to be at church on time, but the taxi driver didn't know where the intersection was we told him about. We took the long way around and got there a little late. Again, we started in the prayer closet because the place was so full, but were able to graduate to plastic chairs in the aisle after the children's lesson. Afterwards, we took a trip to the Aquarium, which is in the Petronas Towers.



I was in my own little watery world while we looked at all the fish, snakes, tarantulas, and any other scary and gross creature, but I realized Paul had enough after the first 5 minutes. Half of the aquarium tour is done by standing on a conveyor belt that takes you through a 5 foot wide tunnel with a clear sides and top, so it's as if you're moving through the water with the fish. But, 5 feet is not very wide, especially when you have the body heat from many many other people crammed in this tunnel with you, and a small case of claustrophobia that Paul seems to get when he's jammed in a room with a bunch of people. So, while I tried to get pictures on this moving conveyor belt, Paul was itching to get out, but couldn't until we reached the end of the tunnel. Now we can say we've been to the aquarium here, but probably won't go back until someone comes to visit and can overcome the claustrophobia that rides along the conveyor belt.

Can you see the excitement in his face?

A giant eel

shark belly above our head

nasty hairy tarantula and his soon-to-be dinner on the left

2 neon green snakes all tangled up




Aside from that, our weekend was less eventful than usual. There's not too much to report on, seeing that things are becoming somewhat habitual here in the hotel. During working hours, Paul works and I do whatever I do to stay busy, and then at 6:30 we take the LRT to the KLCC mall to eat dinner. To spice that LRT ride up, my latest small challenge to myself is to make the entire ride without holding onto anything. I say it's a good workout for my core muscles. It's almost as if you're on one of those half-sphere balancing things at the gym. Paul says I'm going to eat it. I'll let you know when I do.

Another thing about food here. We have yet to find a good Sushi place. They are few and far between, and the two places we have found were not good. Maybe we'll have to take a trip to Japan to find the good kind. Also, I never knew I would love Chili's. I mean, that restaurant is good, but not that good that I would crave it all the time! I think that's the permanent damage the Chicken Rice redundancy has done to me. We've been there 4 times this month already.

We found a gem of a grocery store yesterday. It's tucked away in the oldest shopping center in KL, which is just across the street from the hotel. It's small, but seems to have more choices than the other grocery stores we've been to. We stumbled on Carr's water crackers of all things, so of course we had to buy some. For those of you used to ingredients or directions of products written in English and Spanish, here's a change up. Not sure if you can make it out from the picture, but the words on the back of the box are written in Chinese and Malay. Try pronouncing any of those words! (the computer won't let me rotate these two pictures for some reason)

The latest news with Paul: he's got the car itch. Everyone keeps telling us that we will not make it a year without buying a car. Those are all the words he needs to find an excuse to buy a car. I talk him out of it daily, but we'll see how long this lasts. The only reason we would need one really would be for weekend trips, but even then we could rent a car or hire a taxi. And, I still refuse to even try to learn to drive here. In the US, I'd consider myself an accident waiting to happen. Here, I'd label myself code red catastrophe waiting to happen. So, I'm protesting driving here, and if I have to, I might even set up camp at the American Embassy with my flag waving to prove to Paul I will not be driving.

Also, for any of you who even have an inkling of a desire to come to Malaysia, maybe this will give you some additional encouragement to come. Air Asia is a low cost airline, which they say is an experience in itself, but safe nonetheless. We've looked up flights from here, and low cost is an understatement. You can fly from here to Bali for $45 US, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia islands, Hong Kong, India, and several other places from $29-$55 per person. So, any backpackers out there?... cough cough Sarah Jones...(she's the only one I know with the guts to backpack without a male accomplice across parts of Europe and stay in hostels the entire time) start planning your trip. This would be a great place to start a little vacation! Oh and of course Lisbeth, I am sure you would backpack the whole world if you had the time.

And to leave you with a little insight to the next blog: if all goes well hopefully I will be able to give you a complete tour of our new apartment, and we'll find out together whether or not the bathrooms and kitchens have electrical outlets. I've heard they don't, and it never crossed my mind that I would need to check for these things before moving in.

And one last picture from the weekend:



This is a picture of the little street where we ate Satay and Chinese food with Stephanie that I wrote about in a previous blog. This picture is of the other side where there are apartments on top, and restaurants on bottom, and instead of a taco truck it's a dumpling mobile. We found the street on our own by accident this weekend walking around.