(I’d better make this quick, I just took more cough syrup, mmm)
Anyway, the last time I wrote about the trip I ended with the Saturday of the first weekend.
Sunday 11/9: Swam in the pool with Gene. Malaysia is not a big tourist destination for Americans. One of the craziest things about the trip was that whenever I’d see someone who (I hope you understand what I mean) looked like me (by which I mean, “a dumb looking white chick in capris”) 99% of the time they were German, Australian or British. So, every day at the pool I’d have to be careful to not look directly at all the vaguely creepy Euro-trashy dudes in their tiny little swimsuits. And their wives, who looked mostly like wet chihuahuas in their bikinis. My eyes!
Also: Went to another mall – 7 floors of shopping! WOW – with Gene. Had ice cream. We went back to that mall another night that week and saw the latest James Bond movie. This movie theater was hysterical – the concession stand featured “chicken balls” and “corn in a cup.” I did not try either, but I understand that “corn in a cup” is some sort of corn slushy with syrup. I have already taken an enormous amount of crap for not trying the corn in a cup. After the movie we went for dinner at a Turkish restaurant where Gene had lamb slices and I had lamb chops and it was super yummy. The restaurant’s marketing girl kept talking to us. She was friendly and informative and gave us a list of places to visit the “next” time we go to Malaysia.
Monday 11/10: Gene went back to work (hooray!), so I spent the day lounging by the pool and reading. I can’t say for sure, but I probably went to the Petronas Mall for more Gatorade and Coke Light. I think this was a “lunch by the pool” day. So awesome.
Tuesday 11/11: Mostly the same as 11/10, except I screwed up when I ordered my cheeseburger for lunch and forgot to tell them to NOT put a fried egg on top. Fried egg is to Malaysia what sun dried tomato is to America. It’s everywhere. Ick. Surprisingly, it wasn’t terrible.
Wednesday 11/12: Panic! Gene went to work late so I didn’t really get started until nearly noon. Sat by the pool to read (re-read Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella). Realized that time was drawing short so I’d better squeeze more fun out of my time.
Thursday 11/13: Resolved to do something of value, took a taxi (or, in Bahasa Malay: Teksi!) to the mall with the movie theater, Pavillion KL. Something amazing happened and I knew it was the place I was meant to go. Inside the mall, I go to look at the map (I mean, the place is 7 floors tall so the map is very necessary) and what do I see? A brochure for fish pedicures! YES really! A place that was right there in that mall. Hot Damn! (Even dumber it was twenty yards from the movie theater where we saw James Bond so I totally missed it). More about the fish pedicure later. For lunch, I decided that since I’d just paid to have fish eat me, I would pay to eat fish. Revenge is a dish best served on a bed of rice with miso soup on the side. Yum.
Friday 11/14: Woke up absurdly early to take a taxi to the airport with Gene and one of the Americans (who was flying back to the US via China, a flight I was glad to not take). Noticed that Malaysian taxi drivers are fucking nuts and have no regard for lanes on the highway. Got to the ticket counter to discover that our 8:30 to Langkawi Island was cancelled but that we’d been rescheduled on an 11:00 am flight. The bright side was that we were given coupons for free food. Both of us had had enough strange Malaysian breakfast chow, so we feasted – for free – on croissants covered in chocolate chips and microwaved. Surprisingly delicious.