KP in KL

Well, the 20th of August marked our 100th day since we boarded the flight to KL! We’re making progress and adjusting still, as you may or may not have noticed from the past blog posts, and we’re realizing that KL is really where we will be living for the next 600 something days at least. This isn’t just a vacation! I’ve been staying busy turning the past 23 blog posts into a book through blurb.com which is coming together very nicely. This will be the last post for this book and I’ll have it printed since they only allow 160 pages. This post will make 155! Who knew I had that many words? If I was crazy I’d say this could very well rival my sister’s vocal abilities, but I’m not crazy. I’ve got nothing on her. So, once my book is printed it will be a hardback, with the dust jacket, layout, photos, and text by yours truly. If nothing else it will be fun to take a look at 20 years down the road. A KL yearbook so to speak. And at this rate, I’m going to have to start a savings account to pay for the dozens of volumes to follow because we all know the mishaps I get myself into are not over just because I’ve reached day 100. I’ve concluded the initiation is ongoing. So, for a 100 day summary and insight into a few things I may have left out, (in list form because I love to make a list for anything), here is my interpretation of the top 11 (10+1 for good measure) good, bad, and ugly of KL.

1.The Good: Swimming year round! I love the sunshine, and since I we don’t have a car for me to defrost in after it’s been baking in the heat with non-tinted windows like I’m used to, I lay out by the pool instead. And I can even do that in December!
The Bad: Sunshine=heat=sweating. All the time. The end
The Ugly: I have to dress like winter’s going to blow in any day with sleeves and shorts to my knees and turtlenecks practically. It’s a little difficult to enjoy the latest fashion trends this way. And while I’m complaining, there are a gazillion women wearing berkas everyday.

2.The Good: This place is animal friendly!
The Bad: The only animals I’ve seen around residences are wild cats, wild dogs, and nasty rats.
The Ugly: The rats like to cross the streets in groups, and if you’re lucky like Paul, you’ll catch a glimpse of a rat with a tail the diameter of a quarter that’s large enough to eat one of those wild cats.

3.The Good: They’ve not forgotten to indulge your sense of smell when submersing you into the culture. Sometimes that’s done by food like tasty Chinese dumplings.
The Bad: Lots of the time that food is durian, in which case your gag reflux is immediately triggered.
The Ugly: Most of the time it’s from smells coming through the gutter grates that are all over the sidewalks, in which case your gag reflux is immediately triggered again, unless you’ve been here 100 days and have learned to hold your breath before you cross over a gutter grate.

4.The Good: KL people work to live, not live to work. This is extremely convenient when needing a holiday since there are at least a few every month.
The Bad: Things move a lot slower, and sometimes you have to light a fire under their seat.
The Ugly: On occasion, they will move so slowly that your house floods. And then it floods again.

5.The Good: Local food is very inexpensive and pretty tasty.
The Bad: There’s a good chance you’ll end up with anchovies or guppies in your food.
The Ugly: 30 consecutive days of Chicken rice.

6.The Good: Sometimes public restrooms have western style toilets.
The Bad: Most of the time they have squatters.
The Ugly: Squatters, toilets, doesn’t make a difference. It always looks like someone took a bath while standing on the toilet. Good luck finding toilet paper.

7.The Good: KL is in the perfect location to travel anywhere in Asia Pac.
The Bad: Sometimes you go to the wrong place and happen to get sick on the trip.
The Ugly: Other times you plan a trip and then you find out there might be pirates or bombers.

8.The Good: It’s a multicultural city, where many languages are spoken.
The Bad: You make no attempt to learn the local language.
The Ugly: Instead, you decide to learn Spanish once you’ve left Houston.

9.The Good: Lots of things are smaller in Asia. People, appliances, beds, etc. This is ergonomically great for short people like me.
The Bad: I have to do lots of laundry because the washer is so small.
The Ugly: Paul sleeps diagonally in the bed squishing me to one corner because his feet hang off the end.

10.The Good: Taxis are all over the place honking and eager to pick you up.
The Bad: Sometimes they don’t know where they are going, so you have to give them directions.
The Ugly: Sometimes neither you nor the driver knows where you’re going, but the driver says they do know, so they drive you all around town and you’re an hour late to your destination.

11.The Good: People here are really nice and sometimes you’re blessed with wonderful neighbors.
The Bad: Or you’re given overbearing neighbors who think they live with you and won’t leave you alone.
The Ugly: Your neighbor turns out to be a money launderer.