It's 2am on Sunday morning in Kuala Lumpur. I am at the guesthouse using the free Internet connection after going salsa dancing down the street for 3 hours. Yep, you read it right -- I went salsa dancing in Kuala Lumpur, two blocks away at the Federal Hotel's Salsa Havana bar/club, where a bunch of Malaysians were shaking their thing to an Italian DJ spinning salsa, cha cha, bachata and merengue. I danced with several Malaysian leads as well as an Italian, a Cuban and a guy from Cameroon. SO COOL! For my dancing friends, most people dance on 1 here, but I found two people who dance on 2. I had to start out telling everyone I'm on vacation ("holiday" as the Brits say), which is why I am dancing with bare feet. I debated whether I should bring dance shoes and clothes, and decided against it. Never again! I danced until I felt blisters on the ball of my right foot, from all the double spins I did on the wood floor and tile. There are some pretty good dancers here, and whole lot of enthusiasm! The On 2 Italian guy was the best dancer -- he jumped with glee when I told him I was from Chicago, and said "Oh, then you can dance on 2!"
Our guesthouse seems to be in the middle of party central, with throbbing dance music and people roaming the streets, but it's pretty quiet in the reception area where I'm sitting. I read in the Lonely Planet that KL is as safe as Tokyo. The worst that happens to most is that they get ripped off by street vendors or cab drivers. That made me feel pretty good about going out by myself, while Charissa and Bob packed for their 4am departure and Tiffer decided to spend some time with them.
The proprietor of this place, Hazdy, just told me he's shutting down soon so I have to make this quick. We decided to go on a day trip to Melakka, the colonial city once ruled by the Portuguese, Dutch then English. We hired a taxi driver for the day, Michael John, an Indian guy who is married to a Malaysian woman. The trip was 2 hours each way, which was nice to rest our feet after walking around the historical areas of Melakka. We had some Nonya food (unique to this area), and I have some picture to prove it! The food wasn't my favorite, but it was interesting to see the difference in cuisine only 2 hours away. We saw the oldest functioning Catholic church, Buddhist temple and Muslim mosques in the country.
Ok, I gotta go now, but I'll be sure to post more later!
