KL me now

So I'm currently in Kuala Lampur aka KL.

After much cursing, paranoia that I'd left something, embarassment over the fact that for once my parents were acting all parenty in the airport at me (DON'T TALK TO STRANGERS! DON'T LOSE YOUR WALLET!), and far too much time spent in LAX, I made it here in one piece.

My flight in total was over 21 hours. I'm not sure how I made it here sane, especially considering I was surrounded by no less than SIX missionaries from some sort of American bible school. They played "fun games" on the plane to idle away the hours. Their idea of a game was taking any object in the plane and making a sermon up about it. they started the game off with the metaphor of "needing t o refuel your plane".

By the 20th sermon, even though I'd missed a lot of sermons this year in Saskatoon, I was fully sermoned out. Amen.

Currently, I'm in the crumbiest internet cafe in Malaysia. The keybaord is completely worn away and the only letters visible are the F1, F2, F13, etc. buttons. The rest of the keyboard has been worn away and replaced with black gunge as if this thing's been through a fire or two and - OH MY GAWD A COCKROACH JUST CRAWLED OUT BESIDE THE 'TAB' BUTTON! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! OH gosh it's goign for the mouse! EEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

Right, wher was I?

Oh yes. We are staying in KL for a few days until we get over our jetlag and transfer to Mumbai.

The air was a murky, humid grey as we landed and everywhere as far as teh eye could see was palm trees and jungle. The airport itself was the most modern and pretty airport I've seen and I was all taken with the cool plants and gorgeous stewardesses of the Malaysian Airlines.

So we made it into the main terminal after surviving customs and immigration . . . and I was congratulating myself on making it down in one piece. Nothing untoward had happened, nothing awful. I was here and this was teh start of my summer adventures. Who knew what the summer was going to bring?

And that's when I noticed my passport was missing.

I checked everywhere. I checked my purse, my bags, everyone else's bags, the security guards. EVERYTHING.

I had just made it safely to SE Asia and within 5 minutes, I'd lost my passport.

Classy.

Well, I'm happy to say that what seemed like ten years later, but was in reality two hours, I got my passport back. I guess I'd dropped it in the customs area. In that two hours, I got to know the KL airport security oficers and police officers real well. As I was leaving, they waved at me. sigh. One of them even gave me candy cus I was so upset. I guess I make a better damsel in distress than I thought.

So aside from the passport incident, KL has been treating us kindly. We checked into a hostel that makes me thankful for my apartment back in the 'toon. After we'd dropped off our bags, we did a grand tour of KL downtown and Chinatown through their funky night markets and malls.

Seeing as it's not really tourist season here, the three white gils I am with stood out like sore thumbs. Being an oriental with the three whiteys made me infinitely more interesting thoguh. Every where we have been so far it's all, "HELLO HELLO HELLO! YOU GIRLS BUY THIS! HELLO HELLO HELLo- WHOA! CHINESE GIRL!"

And then they'd run after me in the streets going "CHINESE? VIETNAMESE? JAPANESE?"

Irritating as heck. Then they'd always turn to the three whities and be like "So where are you girls from?"
"Canada"
then whoever was asking them would turn to me and be like "ANd you? where you from?"
"Canada"
"Oh. . ."

and they'd look all confused, bless their hearts. I don't mind. I guess a few years in Saskatoon has prepared me for this.

Then there was the rain. It was pouring out there and I got drenched to the bone. I was wearing flip flops and goodness knows what kind of crud was in those puddles I accidentally stepped in. All I know is that my feet were slimy afterwards. We ran through the streeets of downtoan KL in the pouring rain and eventually snuggledu p to this one satay stand where this old man had a mini fire goin and was grilling the yummiest smelling satay sticks EVER. we ordered a huge bunch of the chicken and beef satay sticks (seriously, the best ever!!!!!) and then were shown to this table where this poor local guy was already sitting. We sat down at the table what with the stand-owner's persistent gestures and the poor local guy was just stunned as to what to dow ith three whities and a chinese girl who seemingly knew no chinese.

Afterwards, we trudged home int eh rain, dodging crazy drivers and trying not to salivate at all the late-night food carts from which the most heavenly scents were wafting.

OMG! THE COCKROACH IS BACK! I GOTTA GO! THIS IS SICK! AAAAAAAAAAH!

-Vivian

PS: I'm promised roti and laksa tomorrow morning. And I thoguht I was goign to lose weight on this trip . . .
PPS: EEK! NOW THERE'S TWO COCKROACHES! AAAAAAAAAAAH!