Wednesday, October 1, 2008: Kuala Lumpur Day 1
Asia Day 23
• Woke up hecka late today. I went to bed around 4am in the morning and got up around 11am or so. Baba's business associate (another one) picked us up from the hotel and took us to his company. Baba and his business associates (2 of them) talked business for about 2-3 hours, whilst I was journaling.
• Condition of my stomach wasn't good. Last night, I found out that codeine had the unfortunate side effect of making one not able to poo (fact was from a friend, but I noticed this in my daily rituals, as well). I actually took codeine on an empty stomach last night (before I feasted on McDonald's). This morning, when I woke up, it felt as though my stomach had been bleeding and my breath smelled like the codeine pill. Not enjoyable. I didn't eat breakfast today, so my stomach was hurting.
• Baba's business associates treated us to lunch. It was quite yummy - standard Malaysian fare, with minimal veggies. We had green beans, pork ribs, fish curry, rice, and chicken. The fish curry tasted almost like Thai food - I could somewhat taste the coconut milk. Had pink milky-flavored jelly for dessert. Oh, I saw a random faucet outside of the open air restaurant (I mean, it's not THAT random in the context of being near the restaurant...but people usually place faucets indoors).
• After eating the splendid lunch, Baba's business associate drove us everywhere to go sightseeing. Well, not everywhere. During the drive, I saw so many different cuisines and languages plastered over ads. Arabic, Malaysian, Chinese, Korean...these were all prevalent. Also saw a few mosques.
• Baba's business associate asked us if we wanted to go to an Indian temple. I asked him if it was Hinduism and he concurred. Thus, we went to the Batu Cave ("to the Batcave!"). Immediately after I got out of my car, I started to snap pictures of the sacred limestone mountains and Hindu statues. There was this HUGE golden Hindu god that was almost as tall as the mountain; next to that was a set of 272 steps leading to an open cave. I eagerly ran up the steps and waited for the older men (Baba and his business associate) to follow me. Inside the cave, there were many displays with Hindu statues and scenes, as well as souvenir shops. Going further, I found a few steps leading down to another set of Hindu scenes. I found a monkey (long-tailed macaque) eating a bag of fruit that someone had tossed it; it was sitting on the stair banister. As it was super-busy feasting, I had the chance to take pictures, but it wouldn't look at me. I made some distracting noises (eek, psst, tsk) to see if I could get it to look at me, and when it finally did, the monkey's expression looked like, "WTF?"
• After I snapped some good pictures of the monkey, I walked further and saw a larger group of monkeys with pink buttcheeks running rampant. There were younger ones that screeched because they were hungry. The monkeys kept playing with each other and climbing poles. I snapped pictures, but those monkeys were too fast for my camera. When I was tired of looking at these semi-wild monkeys, Baba, his business associate, and I headed back.
• When I got to the place with 272 stairs, my fear of heights started to kick in again. Baba told me to hold the stair banister, but I wouldn't, since
fear of germs > fear of heights. I went down the stairs slowly, due to my fear of heights. Then, I paused for a moment and saw a few monkeys standing on a distant stair banister on my right side. By this time, I had already walked down to the halfway point.
• There was a monkey making some screeching noises, and since I wasn't thinking, I also made some noises back at it (no, I wasn't harassing it!!). That wasn't a good choice, because I think that monkey was pissed. All of a sudden, the monkey quickly jumped to the banister next to ME and grabbed/scratched/bit me on my upper arm, next to the place where one would usually find a fob mark (erm, to be politically correct - polio vaccination site). I freaked out and my fight-or-flight response instantly kicked in. In no time, my fear of heights/germs were overridden by my fear of monkey attacks.
fear of heights < fear of germs < fear of more monkey attacks
I held the banister and ran down the last half of the stairs. I was temporarily not afraid of germs. I got to the place where Baba and his associate were standing and Baba was chuckling about my predicament. I looked back and the monkey was glaring at me (it didn't chase, thank the Hindu gods - or, were the Hindu gods punishing me today for not being Hindu??). My heart wouldn't stop beating and my face was flushed. Baba seemed amused, and in my heart, I was amused, but fear told me not to be entertained and to take care of the situation.
• Baba and his business associate told me not to worry about the bite/scratch marks. Upon detailed inspection, I had three different wounded areas. There were two minor scratchy looking marks (though they could have easily been bite marks). There was a third mark with a deeper protrusion (but it wasn't very deep - perhaps less than a millimeter at most. Oh, and as time wore on...I found out I got this hip bruise from kinda falling down once the monkey grabbed moi.
• We went inside the Kuala Lumpur Petronas Twin Towers, but we couldn't go up today, due to the new year's holiday. However, we did walk through the mall and get to the side with the small lake. It was quite nice.
• Baba and I returned to our hotel, where I obsessively researched diseases in monkeys (especially macaques); the more information I found, the more I became concerned for my well-being. Baba was sound asleep.
• Around 7pm, Baba's other business associate Sally and her husband invited us to dinner. We ate at this Chinese place. Had watermelon juice, Peking duck (modified Malaysian version), shark fin soup (pretty good - never had it before; 'tis full of shark fin, crab, and Chinese mushroom); pork-mushroom-lettuce wraps, rice, and some type of fish-tofu-mushroom curry. It was soo good. I became full quite fast and suffered profusely from food coma. I was falling asleep at the dinner table.
• After dinner, Sally promised to take me to get a shot (since I had whined a bit to Baba). We had to wait in the clinic area for maybe 1-2 hours. I got my heart rate measured. The doctor took a look at my wound and then recommended I get a tetanus shot (if I hadn't had one in 5 years, which I hadn't) and put some antibiotic cream on it. (Hrm, I was wondering whether he saw the mark very clearly, as he was sometimes cross-eyed.) I asked him about rabies and hepatitis B for monkeys and his general attitude was not worrisome at all, as my arm just had a simple scratch/wound that barely broke my skin. Well, I got a tetanus shot over there. Baba paid about 157 RM :/ and we spent a lot of time waiting >_< However, it brings me peace of mind to know that the matter is taken care of...but if you find out later I died, that means other people didn't do enough :P...I did everything I could personally do to make sure I was good and well ^^U...
• Sally's husband drove us a bit around Kuala Lumpur's tourism area, then dropped us off at the hotel. Baba waited another hour or so for the wife of one of his business associates to come pick up a package. Then, Baba and I went to walk in the streets for a bit.
• Baba wanted to buy some coconut milk, so I went off to a little flea-market-style vendor area and took a look around. Most of the vendors are Indian, with a few Chinese vendors. I looked at some of the wallets and they were made in Guangzhou, so I could probably get it supercheap there. Every time I passed an Indian vendor, they would greet me and say, "Hello Miss" or, for one of them, he asked me, "Where you do come?" I thought he asked me about the gum I was chewing. o.O
• I looked at another vendor's wallets and the vendor saw me and came around (after I had inspected two wallets and put one down). Er, I had NO money on me and I didn't really feel like buying anything, as I was really just LOOKING AROUND. The vendor started to talk to me (which reminded me of the Russell Peters sketch about haggling with the Chinese vendor, as well as the fact that Chinese and Indian people can't do business together - *chuckle*). Anyway, the vendor and I had the following convo:
Vendor: This usually costs 45.50, but I will give you the special price of 35.50.
Jingor: Oh, but I'm just looking...
Vendor: Yes, yes, I understand that you are just looking. How about 30?
Jingor: Er, I don't have money on me...my dad has it. Perhaps I can look around some more and get back to you.
Vendor: I know that you're just looking, but the other shops have already started to close down...
Jingor: Uhmmm...I can get this from where I'm from...
Vendor: Where are you from?
Jingor: China...
Vendor: This one is made in Korea - it's better quality.
Jingor: Err...
Vendor: 20. I'm giving you this good price because I am going to close shop.
Jingor: Err...I'll have to come back tomorrow. I have no money right now...sorry...
*Vendor gives Jingor a slightly dirty look*...
SIGH. LOL.
• Baba and I went home and then got ready for bed ^^.
...
Thursday, October 2, 2008: Kuala Lumpur Day 2
Asia Day 24
• Day of nyar-ness. I woke up after Baba got a call from his friend/business associate. We met up with them for lunch (ate tofu, yow-zah-gwai, and some other Malaysian food). I had little to no appetite, so I just ate a little bit...in actuality, I was a bit nauseous every time I put food into my mouth. I felt like if I ate much more, I would throw it all up...
• Afterwards, I was feeling a bit sickly, so I slept in their car whilst they drove to Genting, a casino up in the mountain. It was quite cloudy there. I was feeling dehydrated, so I asked for a bottle of water. My un-hungry symptoms did not go away. I was wondering why I felt nauseous...and I thought that either:
1) the monkey bite was causing this symptom
2) the pills I took for my cough hadn't been taken during the best time (i.e. before I ate my first meal and therefore disrupting the happiness of my stomach)
3) or it was all in my head.
Anyway, I drank some water and walked around, when I felt a sudden urge to faint. I was getting light-headed and panicking a bit, but then I asked to sit down. Immediately after finding a seat, I laid my head down for several minutes (on each side).
• Later, we (me, Baba, Baba's business associate and her husband) went up to the casino. They only allow access to kiddos 21 and up with VIP cards. It was interesting watching some of the games. Roulette. Blackjack. What the hell is baccarat?? Pai Gow was interesting to watch, but I didn't understand it. What was more interesting was how the dealers, after taking the chips, and spreading them for the patron to look at (making sure that the correct number of chips was given), the dealer would make a palms-up motion. It bothered me a little because it felt like there was an OCD-complex with these dealers...like they HAD to do it every time. However, I believe the practical reason for this is to show that the dealer didn't snip a few chips from the pile. Well, we left the casino and headed back to the hotel.
• I slept on the way back to the hotel. Baba and I went back to the room, rested up for a few minutes, then headed to a seafood restaurant. I wasn't feeling 'hungry' at this time, but I did feel a sharp mild pain in my stomach (are these hunger pangs??), though I didn't feel like I had an appetite. We went to this restaurant and ordered lots of peanuts as appetizers. Then, Baba also ordered one veggie dish (gai lan), pork ribs, and fish. The fish was really good - had really large bones and its flesh was supple and smooth. However, at this time, I was still not that hungry, so I tried to shove this food down my esophagus, knowing I might starve later...
• When we got out of the restaurant, it was raining. Baba and I waited under the roof for 10 or so minutes until the rain got less severe.
• Then, I did some more obsessive research on monkey bites. So...at this moment, I'm feeling a cloudy feeling in my head (is this what one calls "malaise"?). My bite area was red and it hurt today. There are no raised bumps or any severe signs. Later in the day, the red area around the "bite" mark (or scratch mark?) turned somewhat tan; perhaps what hurts is a bruise and not much else. I also had a feeling of numbness on my upper arm, but that went away temporarily...
• Well...only time will tell (whether a disease progresses or I go crazy). I stopped taking my codeine pill today because it hurt my stomach. I will probably not take any meds before I eat tomorrow...because it's annoying to have a hurting stomach.
...
Friday, October 3, 2008: Kuala Lumpur Day 3
Asia Day 25
• Breakfast with Baba and his two business associates (ah Dee and Sally) in the hotel. Then, we went back to the room temporarily. I went to the hotel and went online for a few minutes and then slept for two hours (lack of sleep and trying to cure my malaise-ia in Malaysia). Around 2pm, Baba called and had me come down.
• Delicious western-styled lunch in a bistro. I had fries, grilled chicken, salad, and two crepes with berries in them. Yummers.
• Went to Baba’s business associate’s company and chilled for awhile. I read some magazines and then went back to sleep…for an hour or two. I woke up for a few moments when I heard my dad talking about how "business stuff doesn't really interest me" (in the context of automobile business) and then I, in my half-asleep state, was like, "Yeah, you're right". Then, we headed out again…to eat more food -_-.
• Drove to another open-air establishment with delicious seafood specialties. Had oyster-omelet, authentic fried calamari (omgggg, YUM), fried and steamed crab, steamed fish, and a few other seafood dishes. Best meal in Malaysia, probably. However, my stomach felt full early on, so I ended up not eating so much. Tried a coconut juice & Guinness Beer concoction and drank some coconut juice. Even that was too much @_@.
• Afterwards, we went to take pictures in Kuala Lumpur’s Merdeka Square (Sally described it as the independence hall). Bright lights everywhere with a pretty fountain. Baba said his business associates knew how to “pauk lei geh mah pei” – hit your horse’s fart…kiss my ass?
• Went back to the hotel and rested. Went online and then slept around 12:30am…
• One insight: I now know what they mean by Moor architecture - the houses with such architecture have an arch-shaped window or doorway.
...
Saturday, October 4, 2008: Kuala Lumpur Morning & 广州
广州 Day 3
中国 Day 23
Asia Day 26
• Woke up around 5:30am to pack my stuff and prepare for trip back to Guangzhou. We got to the airport and checked in by 7:00. Made it to the gate once most people were on the plane. Slept on the plane for most of the time. Ate breakfast of chicken noodles, jelly dessert, and three pieces of fruit. Kept the pastry for later. I woke up a few times and saw this guy on my right who vaguely looked like Yishu, but much skinnier. I think there was once when someone smacked my face when it was oriented to the right side….they just walked by and whatever it was – their hand, shoulder, or big ass, somehow slapped me. One of the man-flight-attendants woke me up to tell me to put the sunshade up. I don’t really understand why they want to do that o_O…anyway, got to Guangzhou and Gu Jaung picked me and Baba up.
• Ate a hot-pot sort of lunch. Had noodles with beef and veggies, fish and beef meatballs, pieces of beef, corn, and some other veggies. It was good, but once again, I was full early on. I felt sick of eating meaty meatballs.
• Went to Baba’s company. Baba had lots of stuff to do. Internet connection wasn't working well at the company or at home :( I took another nap at Baba's company ^^U
• Lacking appetite again...sigh.
...
Sunday, October 5, 2008: 广州 Morning & 杭州
杭州 Day 21
中国 Day 24
Asia Day 27
• Got up at 8:30am and took care of some stuff, before I went back to sleep. Baba woke me up around 10am and I packed. We left for the airport. Baba bid me farewell, but didn't give me a hug (hmph!!) :'S. I had a can of Coke in my backpack, so I gave that back to Baba...haha.
• Waited for an hour, before the flight gates opened. Departed around 12:50 today. Ate lunch on airplane (crappiest airplane food I've had thus far). Airplane was really ghetto. Every 15-20 minutes, I would hear, "The airplane is experiencing some turbulence. Please go back to your seats and avoid using the lavatory until the seatbelt sign has been turned off." Hah, that's bull @_@. At least we landed safely :D
• This time, I was allll alone. I got back around 2pm and called Michael for guidance. Hah, some people were staring at me as I spoke in my perfect English o_o.
• Left with my luggage and went to the airport shuttle booking office. There, I bought a bus ticket for 20块; this would take me to the train station. Sat on the bus for about an hour, pondering about nothing. The guy next to me was reading some Chinese publication. La la laaa...
• Once I got to the train station, I took my luggage out and waited to hail a taxi. Why am I not pro at this? Well, it's my second time. It took about 8-10 minutes this time. I was rejected (*gasp*) a few times, since the place I asked to be taken to was probably really far away, or some cabbies were not very familiar with the street -_-. I should have said "文一路" instead of "保諔北路." When I finally got a cabbie, he asked me where that was, and then when I didn't reply right away, he was like, "Oh, you don't know either??" I then told him it was by 杭州电子科技大学 (that's a MOUTHFUL -_-) next to 文一路. I got to my destination and paid 25块. I was quite proud of myself for having traveled alone (well, I wasn't completely alone, thanks to Michael - he offered to talk to the bus lady, but I didn't need all this hand-holding :P).
• I unpacked a bit, when Baba called. I told him I took the bus to the train station, then got a taxi to go back home. Baba said, "Haha, gnaw geh gwai lwei sic haun cheen!" (My obedient girl knows how to save money.) Then, he chuckled some more. This is because (20+25)元 < 150元. (Prices for bus+taxi versus regular taxi, from the airport.)
• I went to do some housework. I admit it, I'm lazy :(...but I somewhat mopped the floors and scrubbed the sink...when I heard a knock on the door. My apartment complex mates invited me out to eat, so I went, even though I had no feeling of hunger in my stomach :/. I did not feel hungry, but I knew I had to eat -_-. We went to the restaurant in front of the school, where Patricia's 'bf' is. Ate with Jessica, Patricia, Jason, and Romain. Good meal.
• Around 7pm, I went up to Zicheng's with Patricia and Romain. We watched "Old Boy" (I heard about this film LONG, long ago...back in college); Zicheng said it was so satisfying, that it was like "eating a really good meal," that it has everything a movie should have. Agreed. It was amazing, but I kind of knew what to expect. Wish I didn't. Nonetheless, the plot was awesome and the cinematography (lighting, angles, shots, etc.) was soo good.
• Did homework, planned my lesson and then went to bed.
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