Three Cheers for Kuala Lumpur!

Our recent stop over in KL was completely unplanned. We were umming and arring over Vietnam or Laos but weren't too sure whether Bighead would be able to work properly in either (Cambodia had been difficult in this respect), besides, the lure of roti was too much to bare.

KL really impressed me this time round. The city seems to have cleaned up its act quite a lot and we certainly had no trouble finding things to do and food to eat (in fact we could have stayed another two weeks to explore more of the delights on offer!).

The population consists of mainly Muslims, with the remainder being Hindus or Buddhists. Gorgeous mosques and colourful Hindu and Buddhist temples can be seen all around the city.

The mish mash of architectural shapes and patterns is a feast for the eyes.
There are some really cool buildings and such a range of styles. Old, new, rounded, pointy, styly, garish, shiny, rough, clean, dirty, stunning, ugly... you name it.

My eyes were wide every time we traveled across the city. The small-town-New-Zealand in me must have been glaringly obvious (I mean like, even more than usual) as I couldn't help but point to every architectural delight I saw. I loved it!



Being a modern city there is also a large selection of shopping malls to choose from. Shopping malls that aim to be one stop shops. Mini cities. Internal towns. They have everything from food, clothing, and entertainment to furniture, crafts, and electronics.

There is one called Times Square, which along with its gazillion shops, it has an 18 theatre cinema and... wait for it... an indoor amusement park, complete with roller coaster! I still can't get over the size of it.And of course with the range of cuisines on offer, Malaysia scores quite highly on my foodometer. But that's next.

Busy Beavers

Besides loitering in air conditioned malls we've actually been quite busy. Most of our time has been taken up riding around the island in search of a more permanent abode. Stopping only to photograph a few things that have given us...

safety first...
giggles...
confusion...
and fat puppy (mmm... tasty deep fried vegetarian food - more on this later).

There's some pretty cool places to rent and the range is huge. We're looking for somewhere with a bit of jungle action, possibly a bit of a view and our fingers are crossed for a pool but we'll see. Kata/Karon area is still looking like our best option. There's some really cool little soi's (streets) that run up into the hills surrounding both townships. It's all fairly exciting as it's the first real step towards setting up a life here.

I have four major things on my list to start:

1. Get a house
2. Get a job
3. Begin language lessons
4. Make some friends!

I've made contact with a couple of schools and have organised to drop my CV in at the end of the week. I'd better dust it off and polish it up, it's been a while! There are really only three international schools on Phuket, maybe I'll have to start a new one! Anyone wanna help?

And then it rained...

Like I've never seen it before!

Something for everyone

I've reached the conclusion that this right here, is our favourite mall. Not too flashy, not too hip, not too ghetto, but just right.
The size is utterly mind boggling. There are another two central spaces just like this and an extra two floors you can't see! We managed to find just about everything we were looking for.

It's called the Pinklao Center, located just across the river from Banglampoo. We found it by accident last time we were in Bangkok and located it again today. It really does have everything you could ever ask for, including some great food stalls. It's popular with the locals too which is great (we only saw two other pinkies while we were there).

Shop til ya drop in Bangkok

Bighead and I have lost hours upon hours wandering through the massive malls of Bangkok. It could be very easy to spend a shit load of money here, as things do seem more affordable.

As we wander, my evil consumerist side begins to emerge, knocking at my brain and whispering in my ear. That could be handy. Such good value. What else could you get? Buy that. You've always wanted one of them. You definitely need that. Two for the price of one!

I've resisted so far. I know what I need and I'm sticking to it.

Be sure to shop with something specific in mind, it's far to easy to become distracted and loose your way. Take regular breaks, sit back basking in the air con, and order one of these! Don't judge it because it looks a little funny, it was the tastiest coconut shake Bighead has encountered.

After making our way slowly through four gigantic malls sitting side by side in Siam Square, we thought we'd seen them all.

One local style, market stall type place with a million escalators, one jawdroppingly lavish creation that was so posh it made me feel guilty just stepping inside, one so funky it bursts at the seams with trendy young Bangkokians (once again, leaving me feeling uneasy), and one so massive you need a segway to get around in (it even had 16 very well appointed movie theatres!)

Well, little did we know that we'd barely scratched the surface! In Siam Square area alone, there must be hundreds. Something for everyone! For those of you at home who love to shop (you know who you are), this is the place for you my friends!

Cure for homesickness

I took Bighead to the movies today. We went to see Wall-E, the choice was somewhat limited, but the film turned out to be quite well done and a bit of a laugh. A robot rom com! Nice. Anyway, guess how much the tickets cost?! NZ$1.55! or NZ$3.50 with popcorn and a drink. Stoked! The screen was sweet and the seats were really comfy.

We discovered a massive western-style mall attached to the cinema. It was kinda cool to walk around in a semi familiar environment.

Check out the parking lot.
Many motorbike.

We stopped by the night market on our way home to grab a bite to eat and discovered this little gem. A road side stall selling Martabak (deep fried roti) and Terang Bulan (hotcake type thing).

The dude making these was such a sweetheart, so smiley. You could tell he cared about the food he was making and seemed to be really popular with the locals. The sort of person you'd want to sit down and enjoy a cuppa with. His wife and daughter were with him too.

We ordered one chicken, egg and cheese martabek (NZ$1.50) and one chocolate and peanut terang bulan (NZ$1.20). They were both soooo tasty and so naughty I simply can't find enough superlatives to give it justice. Man the balinese sure know how to deep fry shit!










Chicken martabak and chocolate and peanut terang bulan. You have no idea just how good these are, especially the sweet one. Oh. My. God... yum.

We've been told we must try his banana and cheese terang bulan next time!