We're in Malaysia!!!

hello from kuala lumpur, malaysia! i'm blogging from the guesthouse we stayed in last night called number 8. i'm going to try to make this quick because we need to go to dinner soon!

let's go back to the night of jan. 1st. we packed up, ate a late dinner and ran around doing various things until 2am jan. 2nd. we donned layers and layers of our se asia clothes hoping they'd keep us warm enough to get up to the seoul/incheon airport in cold, cold korea lol i wore a dress, 3 tops, leggings, socks and sandals...i looked pretty ridiculous. jens looked normal because he just wore layers of shirts and khakis.

we ran out into the freezing weather and thankfully immediately got a taxi which took us to the bus terminal. once we arrived we were met by a handful of other foreigners we know who were also taking the late night bus lol

fortunately it was one of those nice, spacious limousine buses that are a little easier to sleep on...unfortunately i still didn't sleep well AT ALL :oP

when we arrived at the airport 4 hours later i had to drag myself off the bus in a dazed stupor. we got there so early check-in hadn't started yet so some of us went over to dunkin' donuts and had breakfast together.

then we checked in, got on the plane, and flew to kuala lumpur malaysia!!! i won't go into the flight that much. it was fine, had a meal and a half (second one being a gross sandwich), slept, read and landed.

the airport was nice but it took FOREVER to get our bags. i was worried they didn't make it lol once we finally got through we took this high speed train into the center of town. it was super fast! on the way most of the scenery was just miles and miles of palm trees! i had never ever seen that many even on tv or anything lol

we arrived at the train station, bought tickets for the over night train that we'd be taking the next night and then roamed around til we found the monorail. the train station was super busy, people everywhere, all different kinds of people, all languages being spoken, lots of stalls selling things, etc. it was a bit overwhelming.

so we took the monorail to the area of town where our guesthouse was. on the way we saw the famous petronas towers in the distance. they were really sparkly and pretty :o)

the area of town where our guesthouse is is super busy too! lots of shops, coffee houses, restaurants, other businesses and LOTS of massage/reflexology places. people stand outside those and try to lure you in lol since we just arrived we didn't need any kind of massage yet so we soldiered on and finally found out guesthouse after going through a couple back alleys lol

the guesthouse entrance and "lounge" area are cool and modern but our room left a little to be desired. it wasn't as nice as it seemed on the website but it was decent enough, just small. it just had a bed, a little table and a sink (no private bathroom, there was a shared one down the hall). one wall was a big glass sliding door and you just pull a curtain over it so it doesn't feel that private. we were just staying there one night anyway though so it wasn't too bad.

we dropped off our stuff and headed to dinner. we chose a place called paparich and they make these things called rotibuns which we also have in korea but this place also served awesome food! jens got these panfried flat noodles with shrimp, cockles, bean sprouts, etc. in a spicy peanut sauce. it was really good! i got this suuuuuper spicy beef and noodle stew type dish. it had onion, pineapple and mint in it. it was really tastey...just a bit too spicy lol for dessert we got a rotibun, coffee and chai (tea). it was all good but we were soooo full after!

on the way home we passed a fruit stall and bought a dragonfruit and some mangosteens! then we bought some snacks for the over night train we'd be taking the next night.

back at the hotel we just showered, packed, read and went to sleep!

Day 2

got up, had breakfast in the hotel which was just toast and our dragonfruit we bought the night before. surprisingly this one was bright fuchsia on the inside!!! usually they're white. it was reeeeally good Po:

after that we headed to the u.s. embassy because in all the commotion of getting ready for this trip we did not realize jens only had ONE more page in his passport and we have FIVE more countries to go to -some of which will give us full-page visas lol so we got a taxi over there and we had to go through this rigorous security check before finally getting where we needed to be! man are they paranoid lol

we thought it would be quite simple to get more pages because we looked up info online and it sounded like it'd be a breeze. well unfortunately jens got the uberjerk of all employees to help him lol this guy argued with jens for like 15mins. about the fact that his old signature on his passport looked like it said jan instead of jens and that his new signature doesn't look like his old one! lol he was like- did your name used to be jan and you just changed it to be closer to your cultural heritage?? lol i finally went over and said- hi i'm his wife. the guy asked me some stuff and i was just like- he has always had bad handwriting. he argued some more and i just said....why does it matter??? lol i think that got him and he gave up. after that it was a breeze. we waited a few mins. and this is passport was ready to go with 22 more pages in it! lol

ok gotta hurry and cut this short!

after we left the u.s. embassy we headed over to the colonial district and saw independence park, little india and chinatown. we had an awesome lunch on a banana leaf at this indian place, a mango orange slurpee from 7 eleven (lol because they don't have slurpees at the 7 elevens in korea), we looked at two chinese temples and a hindu temple that was under construction we roamed through a HUGE indoor market for a couple hours. we're definitely going to have to go back there and buy a few things when we go back through kuala lumpur.

in the late afternoon we just came back to the hotel, got beer, read and hung out in the hotel lounge. we ended up taking a nap and here i am writing!

now we have to go get dinner and then hop on the over night train up to alor setar, then a boat to langkawi island where we'll stay for 5 nights or so taking in the beach! :oD

until next time!