Belated Posts: Big Trouble in Little India

Photo 1: Not even throw the first drink at the Beattle Bar, KL
Photo 2: Mum learning "westside" In the Reggae Bar, KL
Photo 3: Me and Bob at the Reggae Bar in KL
Photo 4: Mum and I made our mark in the Reggae Bar, along with every other traveller
Photo 5: Me hugging the door when we finally got a room in Chinatown
Photo 6: The View of the chinatwon markets from the Beattles Bar

Although I am miles away from KL, Malaysia, I figured since I am uploading the photos a little late, recounting our tales from there can be a little late as well. As you can tell from the photos, in the couple of days we had in KL we certainly got around the city.

I must admit it was somewhat of a rocky start. After numerous hours in the air, being a little jet lagged sucked a little enthusiasm out of us both, but being our first day we pushed on. And then we got to little India. We had booked our room at the Garden City Hotel where we probably met the rudest Indian woman in our lives. Mum coined her as "full of self importance" which is a pretty accurate description. Now I find the silent battle of wills between mum and that woman extremely amusing- eye brow raising, stiff body language, the works. What was worse is that I had forgotten from previous experience that Indian men take a preference to me. So you can imagine the leering eyes that were in little India...

So there was a little drizzle that night but as you can imagine we were undeterred and set about exploring the city and that is were our holiday truely began. We saw the Petronis Towers which were brilliantly lit up and the KL Tower which is not as famous, but equally as lovely. After seeing as much as we could in the darkness of night we settled into a Indian restaurant were there was little English spoken, but the fresh naan was freaking amazing.

Our last night in KL is were we really came into our own. We arrived back from our brief sojourn in Singapore (which I will relate to you later) we decided to wing it and find our own hotel in Chinatown. It was a balmy night and we ended up dragging our bags around the Chinatown markets, fighting off market stall owners, tying to find a hotel. One man ended up taking us through the back of people's stalls, through places that were clearly marked no entry, to the Swiss Inn- But the wrong side. We ended up dragging everything through their restaurant, having to work out the series of lifts that went up two floors, down other floors and a maze of doors and steps to find the lobby which was on the same floor as the restaurant, the the other side of the building. You can imagine our jubilation when there was a room available and the staff were warm, funny and kind.

After ditching our bags in the room, we braved the markets again were I practiced my battering skills for the first time- and quite woefully. I remembered a friend of mine saying that if they put your purchase in a black bag you have been ripped off and it is a signal to other stall owners that you are an easy mark. So when I saw the wallet going into the black bag I high-tailed it out of there without buying a thing. The man was quite pissed off but hey- you can't win them all.

With all the excitement of the evening, mum and I decided it was time to do what Dad feared, we did some pub crawling. First was the Beatles bar which looked like a dark Opium Den, but the beer was cheap (well for first timers to Asia we thought it was) and there was a view of the markets and our next stop- The Reggae Bar. We loved it there so we decided to stay, sinking a few Tigers and having a great old laugh. I even taught mum how to do the "westside" hand gesture which was hilarious.

With the shopping we did the next day and all the adventures we had in the first three days of our holiday, KL was a great place to start our Asian adventure