Kuala Lumpur, day 1

(October 13th, Friday) After a hard night out (especially for Kathleen) Ro and I rolled to the airport and headed out for Kuala Lumpur and a weekend in the city whose name means 'muddy estuary'. Later we were to be joined by Elisa, Kathleen, and Shamik, but the first day was largely on our own.

General thoughts about Kuala Lumpur: fascinating city, definitely an up-and-coming. English speaking ability of the locals is fairly strong (residual effects of British colonialism, as well as a sizable Indian population). The ethnic and religious breakdown of the city/country are crazy as well. Kuala Lumpur, like many larger malaysian cities, has a slight Chinese majority, with Malays close behind, and Indians bringing in the rear. The country as a whole of course, is more Malay, but I know for a fact that Chinese constitute something like 1/3 of the population.

This leads to some interestingness - there is no doubt that the populace is multicultural, but the individual communities are large enough that they do not have to assimilate into eachother. To complicate this dimension, there are reglious considerations as well - Muslim, Hindu, traditional Chinese, and some Christians (british colony, etc). In any case, if I had more time, I'd love to have explored more.


After arriving, Ro and I ran right into the travelers' bane - hustlers and conmen. We thought we were smart; we had printed out a guide about how not to get cheated getting a taxi to town. We were wrong. Despite holding that guide in that hands as we bartered, we found out later that despite figuring that paying a slight (20 nett~5.25 USD premium) over the usually 70nett ride was reasonable to keep things sheriff, that we were doubly cheated by our driver.

About 5 minutes into our ride (the city is about 1 hr from the airport) the 'luxury taxi' driver told us to get out and hop into the budget cabs on the side of the ride, telling us that everything had been paid for and arranged. We were creeped out at first since he stopped on the side of the road and starts conversing with 4 large men (apparently bartering off our contract). We were scared that the men would approach, beat the shit out of us, steal our passports, money, and then urinate on us for good measure.

Anyways, we took the budget cab into the city thinking that everything was ok. But when we got to the hotel and started to walk into its sliding doors, the budget taxi driver was like 'yo, pay me'. We got into an argument, but fortunately we had gotten a reciept at the booking service's desk. After getting pretty irritated, we decided not to dick over the budget taxi driver (apparently he'd paid the luxury taxi driver 30nett to take us into the city on the assurance that he'd be paid 80nett by us) and paid him his 80nett, deciding to take it up with the counter when we went back to the airport on sunday. (I'm happy to report that after making a ruckus, they gave us our money back, disavowed all knowledge of the dishonest activities of the luxury taxi driver they commissioned and promised to fire him)

After that headache, we met up with Boris and his friend Eugene. Boris and Ro know eachother from Beta at Penn. We went out for dinner in Bukit Bintang (something of a tourist district) and then to a bar.


The story gets good here. If you're interested... let me know. But its not meant for public consumption.



More to come on our next 2 days of exploration.


All in all, the trip was pretty slick.

Hiking to Tai Long Wan

(October 8th, Sun.)Rohit, Shamik, and I decided to take a trek out to the New territories and tackle the hike to Tai Long Wan. Having heard that its beach is pretty incredible, and looking for a small challenge for the afternoon, we grabbed some Thai lunch in Sai Kung proper and then flagged down a taxi to take us to Sai Wan Ting, which was the start off point.



The hike started off pretty gentle, with a nice view of the east bay and river with some small islands.



However, the pace picked up, and the tail end was a pretty steep climb and descent, up and down. In all, one way it was 1 hr directly to the beach, although there were a good number of sub-trails, and an alternate path back. Since we left in the afternoon, we decided not to take the subtrails, since they could be 1-2 hrs each way on their own.

A complete panorama of the initial hike, stitched together from 4 frames via Photoshop.


We found these curious looking little egg type things on the beach (which by the way, was pleasant, but the day was a little grungy, so we didn't play in the water). We figured they might be related to this little crunchy critter who was scurrying among them.



On the way back, we ran into this character:

I picked up a dead butterfly on the ground and threw it into the spider's web, and we watched our own pet Charlotte destroy it.


To wrap things up, we went back to Sai Kung to grab dinner. We had Indian food, which I'm quickly starting to appreciate much more. We also came upon this gem:



Yeah, we're juvenile.

From 2 weeks ago..

Continued from last week...

(Sept 26th, Tuesday) I'm not very good at getting pics with my paternal cousins... but here is my final maternal cousin. Frank Yu. Hong Kong is the first time we've run into eachother in a LONG time. After a bit of chatting at Hong Kong Brewery, and saying goodbye (he had to get up early the next day for a meeting) we headed to Dragon-I, a fairly posh looking night/social club up at the crest of LKF. A good time was had by all. Tuesday!


(Sept. 28th, Thurs) In commeration of a one ms. Ashley Chay being in town, we headed up to SoHo and went to the Peak Cafe. Food was a so-so international fusion (nothing out of this world), decent ambiance, prices acceptable for a SoHo location. After this we skated into a place called 'Bohemian Lounge', where we found a hookah and some live jazz. It was very good. I forsee this place becoming a more common haunt... especially on nights with live music. They played us some 'girl from ipanema' and 'summer samba' no problem. After this we skated around town. Hit up a too crowded bar called Yumla, and a nice little club called 'Pi' and D'Apartment. We ran into my roomate and his pals and took over the bar.

We drank way too much outside the 7-11 afterwards...

(Sept 29th, Friday) The weekend continued with another dinner out with Miss Chay, this time at Lumiere, a restaurant located in the IFC. The style of the place is Sichuan/S.American fusion. It was delicious. and it was tres expensive. Another live musician was there, and he was quite fabulous and extremely friendly. Hey guys.. if you ever need an entertainer for a bash back home, I got his card. He was just perpetually thrilled to be alive.


Cheers!

Despite its 100USD pricetag, the bottle of Veuve failed to impart a slight buzz, not even from drinking liquid gold.

Finally, Mr. Howard McCrary. Talented pianist, singer of American jazz and lounge classics, and even capable of Mandarin! Since our table of young'uns (we were the youngest in the restaurant by far, closet to us was a table of young bankers or something, everyone else was late 20's to 50's and rolling in the dough) was worshipful of him and rapt in attention, we got a few songs dedicated to us.

Earlier that Night, Ro and eye grabbed a few restaurant books. After Lumiere, we've dedicated ourselves to 'Hong Kong's Cheap Eats' :) It's been fun, and the cause of many other adventures.

(Oct 1st, National Day, Sunday) Hong Kong doesn't go as all out as Mainland China in their celebration of the great commie revolution, but there is one night of tremendous fireworks in Victoria Harbor. Going with Ro and Shamik to some of the cheap eateries on 'Hau Fook Street' in TST (just off Carnavaron), we happened to be in town when the booms started. We were unable to get primetime seats, but it still a pretty big deal.


A shot of Victoria Harbor on a normal night.


Till next time... I still got a week to catch up!

Last few days... and some shots from before then I want to remember

(SEPT 8th, 2006) The Groupshot from our trip to Macau. Macau itself is not something spectacular - yet. The casinos are somewhat on the small side, and an American is naturally inclined to compare its sights to Vegas... against which Macau cannot stand. However the city has recieved an infusion of dollars and investment lately, such as the opening of the Sands and Wynn casinos (these casinos have propelled the owner of the Sands into the top 5 richest americans). Maybe in a few years... it'll be everything a young playboy could dream of.


SEPT 22nd. We took a boat trip in Clear Water Bay after Mark hooked us up with some mainland chinese students. This shot is of me and Ruby (mark's girlfriend) The day was fun, we swam, went to a semi-privatebeach, and rode a 'banana boat' which was roped to a motor boat.... and fell in at high speeds many times. I ended up with quite a burn on my nose.. because I'm intense and don't believe in sunblock.

Lan Kwai Fong

Lan Kwai, or LKF as it is affectionately known to exchange students and expatriates, is Hong Kong Island's expat party district, consisting of a few streets of bars, clubs, and other assorted venues dedicated towards getting you drunk, entertaining you, and wiping out your days earnings within a few hours... or a few minutes.

this is Medina, a hookah bar located on an LKF side street. Early on in our LKF escapades, nights began or ended here. Good ambiance leads to pleasant moods and chill times... helped along by shisha smoke.

Its true, people are friendly in LKF! as long as you don't catch them on the belligerent end of a few drinks too many..



Some of the photos here are ripped from AshleyC and AmandaB.