Monday, February 28, 2011

The Muslim Salah, Thunder Storms, and Fish that Clean your Feet.

O.K. So Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  Great city.  Relatively clean and efficient for a city in South East Asia.  They even have the beginnings of a public rail system.  Kind of slow but much better than anything they have in Vietnam of Cambodia.  The weather is either hot or muggy, although  most of the time it's hot and muggy.  I've never been to a muslim country before so there were some things I wasn't used to.  For instance, the Burqa (the full covering that some of the women wear) and the Salah (muslim prayer).  It took some getting used to but after a while I found the Salah, to be rather soothing.  I think they broadcast the prayer over load speakers or something like that because that rhythmic ethereal prayer can be heard all over the city several times a day.  The one thing that I found refreshing about KL is that the people are used to tourists so they don't stress you too much about buying their wares.  It's not like Vietnam where everybody is super agressive and they shove all manner of trinkets and products into your face. 

Me and the wife finally made our way down to China Town.  And as expected, China Town was super dirty and gritty.  Streets full of hawkers trying to sale knock offs.  I was looking at a back pack for 200 ringot and thought it was too expensive, so I started to walk away and the guy was like "65!".  From 200 to 65?! seriously?  Anyways, the food there was fantastic.  Man chinese food in America has nothing on the stuff here.  We sat down at a street side stall for a bowl of hot spicy egg noodles with tiny anchovies and fish balls.  Man that stuff was good.  About half way through our meal a storm rolled in.  And when I say storm, I mean a torrential down fall complete with blinding flashes of lightning and deafening cracks of thunder.  So in a couple of hours, when the rain died down a little and the thunder and lightning had moved on, we made a break for the train station.  By the time we made it home we were soaked through and through.  It was a good day though.  It was actually pretty fun getting running through the rain with the wifey.

The next day we decided to relax and came across this shop that offered a strange sort of foot massage.  30 Ringots to dip your feet in a tank full of tiny fish, about the size of a gold fish but longer, that eat all the dead skin and loose particles off your feet!  How cool is that!  It was pretty ticklish and you can feel their mouth parts working on your skin but after wards my feet felt as clean as they've ever been.  Well, now its time to say good bye to Malaysia and hello to Singapore!  pictures to follow. 

6 comments:

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  2. Every post I read, my mouth is watering. I remember when I visited the Philippines there was a nearby church literally walking distance to the house we were staying at, and they announced the Sunday mass over a loud speaker. It sounds nice to be in a place that continually supply you with spiritual prayers. It's a constant reminder, which I think is good. It nourishes your soul. Wow really 200 to $65, that's a huge leap! How is the washing and the clothes situation for you guys? I wonder with such little that you've packed. I've seen the fish that eat the dead skin off your feet only in t.v. I'm so curious to give that a try. Sounds like a fun time with the wifey. Regards, safe travels. Looking forward to more posts.

    Lor

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  3. Hot spicy egg noodles... oh man. And I haven't had real Chinese food in like 6 months.

    I like the call to prayer too... it's kinda nice. Except for the one at 5AM.

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  4. Andy- 5AM, goodness a bit too early for my liking!

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  5. Hey guys, we just finished our trek in Nepal so we were out of contact with the world for quite a bit. but now we're back. lots of pictures to posts to upload. Hey lorna, nice to see you following us. The washing clothes thing is fine. we just used a coin op in singapore and hand washed our clothes in the river and sinks and stuff in nepal. will be posting soon. see ya later. Andy? hows things bro?

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