2 Countries and Counting

So it is almost one week and we have found ourselves in BEAUTIFUL Malaysia. We did the big city life of Bangkok and didn't really like it. TOO MANY TOURISTS. That's funny because all summer long we have to work on the receiving end and now that we are on the other side we look at the way other tourists behave and fill with disgust.
To move things on a more proper view I will try to move chronological, if my memory serves.
We survived a 26 hour flight, (not as bad as the 31 hour I took to Africa) I blame the personal TVs, who would have thought economy class was so special? 4 movies later we were in Soul Korea and then Bangkok, Thailand. We saw some white people that looked lost and took a cab together to T. Khoe San Rd. which is where the party is at, it was 1:00am and the crowd was just getting started, loud music, side-street food and everyone was drinking. We felt like it was Mari Gras and we were on Bourbon St. We ran into another group of Canadians that we met in Soul and they seemed as dazed. Kelsey and I walked the full street once and decided we were ready to sleep. We followed the book and found a gem called the New Siam Inn. For $10 a night we got a double bed, fan and shared the bathroom with the rest of the floor so we could not complain.
The next day we walked around, tried some wired fruit (the lady said it was mango but I think not), and saw the more dirtier side of Bangkok.

We decided to move to a Hostel that was recommended by a friend called the Shanti Lodge, we came to find that it really was a Shanti, the bed was a rock and the walls were made of bamboo paper so when anyone in the house moved we all heard. The showers were downstairs, and the toilet, so when I had to go the bathroom @ 2:00am everyone in the house heard it. Between the jet lag and heat we slept most of the first day.
The next day we decided to go Downtown to the Mall (I thinking that it would be small or poor was shocked), the Siam Center. To put it this way, think of the most elaborate mall in, lets say Vegas, then add 10 x bigger and 10 x more elaborate. I have never seen anything like this in my life. We plan to go back and get pictures at the end because it would take up a full role just on one of the 10 floors. Not only did it have 10 floors they were the lenght of 3 football fields. The top floor had a huge convention ballroom, 2 Imax screens, 16 movie screens, 3D screen, bowling ally and a large Karaoke bar. All the stores located in the mall were AX, Channel, Boss, Lacoste, Gucci, and any other HIGH-end store you can think of. Oh and I can't forget the electronics stores, anything and everything. And last but not least Asia largest Aquarium in the basement. (More pictures when I return home)
Then the MBK mall across the street. Can you say black market. Anything and everything. I bet if I tried hard I could find a new Kidney. Movies, Music, Designer clothes, Electronics, I even found a Canada Goose parka that I bought for Alaska Excursions for $575 wholesale, selling at $100 and that was before I bartered. I will definitely be back there before Christmas. (send us a list and wire lots of money!)

After all that we decided we have had enough of the big city and decide to head south to Malaysia. I told Kelsey that it would be worth paying for the flight just to get here faster, so we flew to Kuala Lumpur and found the people to be a little more laid back, at least outside of Chinatown; That's another thing, no wonder there are 5 billion Chinese, every major city has a
Chinatown to house them.









The first day there we went to the Batu Caves just outside town, WOW. It is a Hindu worshiping sight where they still practice Mastication and gather for worship. The cave is up 243 stairs and has a 130ft statue that guards the enterance. With the heat it was pretty intense. Once we got to the top of the stairs we then entered a chamber that had a 300ft ceiling and is 100 yds long only to have more stairs at the end into another open sky chamber.

With bats and monkey's I couldn't have asked for a better excursion.
PS the Monkey's were very mean and warnings are placed everywhere that they bite.


The next morning we went to the Downtown of Kuala Lumpur and went to the world famous Petronas Tower's (yes the ones in Entrapment). We had to wait in a line of over 200 people for tickets but it was ok because they were free. They only let guest go to the 41st floor of the sky bridge but that was enough to get your ears to pop twice. Beautiful views all around.

After we took a 2 hour bus ride south to Malaka (a cute little historical dutch town) Still no beach but the City has so much personality it doesn't need it.






We took a rickshaw ride that was lit-up and playing music, decorated with silk flowers it was quite romantic.













Even Chinatown was smooth, No one haggling and you could even walk without bumping into everyone and everything. We liked it so much we decide to stay one more day.