From Thailand to Malaysia

Phuket, well what can I say about our third Thai island visit? I'll start with, yet again, it was pretty- but it is way too built up and too big to really feel like you are in an island paradise. Phuket is interesting, but I think it is best left for the package tourists and the masses.  So now on to Malaysia...

Upon arrival at Kuala Lumpur Intl:

Immigration Officer(IO):  "Hello"

Ashley: "Um Hi"

IO: "It's very nice to meet you"

Ashley: "Um yes, I mean what?"

IO: "It's nice to meet you, you look lovely"

Ashley: "Um yes, I mean thanks"

IO: "Welcome to Malaysia"

Welcome to Malaysia indeed!

So we decided to take a little detour to Malaysia because we heard that you can easily obtain a much prized 60 day Indonesian Visa at the embassy in Kuala Lumpur.  So we did what we always do when we get to a new city, we mastered public transportation on in from the airport and then proceeded to immediately get lost while searching for a hostel. Two hostels and taxi rides later, we arrived in an area known as the Golden Triangle and found an actually proper place to stay, The Green Hut Guest House. The lady who ran the guest house might have been the nicest we've met so far. She answered all our questions thoroughly and when she didn't know the answer she had us come back, and sure enough, she had an answer. The Golden Triangle is next to both Chinatown and these amazingly huge mega-malls that hold every high-end name brand you can think of, not to mention a dozen or so KFC's and Starbucks, so much for homesickness!

Our first stop was the Indonesian Embassy, which ate up a huge part of our first morning in Malaysia. We dressed as well as we could, given that we barely have anything but swimsuits in our bags, and we were interviewed about our purpose for traveling in Indonesia and our length of stay. We left our passports their and were told to come back the next day- we thought we were golden! So that night we celebrated by hanging out in the only cool, and by cool I mean freezing, place we could find- the mall. So after wandering the ten floor building, which also has an amusement park, we settled on seeing the King's Speech. The movie theater was awesome, not to mention CHEAP- it cost us only 4$ each, and we haven't felt that cold since we left Seattle!

Our second day in KL we visited the KL tower which is a staggering 1/4 mile high. From that vantage point we scoped out some tents below and immediately went down and sought them out. To our good luck, each of these tents held a new and unique food! So, like usual, we had to sample most of them. The thing about Malaysian food is there really isn't "Malaysian" food- it's mainly either a variation of Indian or Chinese food- which is all good, although we've been avoiding the Chinese food, because there is only so much one wants to eat in a day. Anyways, KL is one of the worlds most multi-cultural city with huge Chinese, Indian, Malay, Christian, Muslim, and Buddhist populations living in seemingly perfect unity- The world could definitely learn something from KL.

 Inside the Times Square mall (10 floors with a movie theater and an amusement park).

Later at the Indonesian Embassy:

Brian could not get into the embassy, but Ashley could.

Ashley walks into the embassy to collect passports and visas.

Embassy worker to Ashley, "Sorry, but you have only been approved for a 30 day visa, would you like your money back?"

Ashley: "Shit!...yes!"

So we were denied....maybe it was Brian's white Thai fisherman pants that I forced him to wear (even though they are see through) or maybe it was my lack of clarity while talking to the interviewer...I guess we will never know... So we did what anyone disappointed would do- we bought some beer (well actually we bought SHANDI, a lemon-aid/beer combo in a can- it's AWESOME!) and we drank up and then plotted on how to make our trip to Malaysia worth it, despite utter failure in our purpose of going in the first place.

Here we come Melaka!