I have to apologize to those who read my Thailand blog that this one isn't nearly as fun. I've been so rushed at my blog sessions that it's just not the same. I now have nearly an hour to blog, as Tiffer and I are in an internet cafe in Kota Kinabalu, our landing point on the island of Borneo.
After 3 hours of salsa dancing and a 1" diameter blood blister on the ball of my right foot, I only slept about 4 hours total. Charissa and Bob got up at about 4am to gather their belongings before heading out to the airport, to hit Singapore and Seoul before heading home to NW Indiana. There were some tense moments between Bob and Tiffer the day before in Melakka, but things got talked out and sorted before the young couple packed and went to sleep. I was out dancing while alot of this was going on, letting them work out their family dynamics. There's always drama when disparate personalities have to spend a ton of time together, coupled with intense heat and humidity, undiscipherable maps and constantly getting lost. Ah, the joys of travel. As much as I enjoy the company of interesting companions, I do sometimes miss being alone to do whatever I want.
Surprisingly, Tiffer and I got up early (with only about 4-5 hours of sleep) and were ready to walk through the Lake Gardens area of KL. We got on the monorail (very clean, very efficient, air conditioned!) and headed over to Chinatown, walked through (and got lost) looking for the main hawker center (i.e. makeshift outdoor food court) in Little India. The streets wind and switch names a bunch of times, and this grid-city accustomed neophyte was getting lost left and right, sweating to death and gingerly walking on that blood blister on my right foot. I gave Tiffer the maps and put him in charge (ha!). We asked three people for directions, and though everyone was earnest and friendly, they gave three totally different directions. One was very specifically incorrect, telling us to look for a clock tower and the hawker center is RIGHT THERE. Well, we found it on accident, and there was no clock tower to be seen. I've found that in Asia, people don't want to seem unhelpful... so even though they don't understand what you said/don't know, they want to give you AN ANSWER. Even if it's not the right one. Either that, or they're saying "go over there, away from me."
Well Tiffer was NOT impressed with the hawker center. You've been to Chinatowns before -- people are stacked on top of each other, merchandise spilling out to the streets. Well, this is alot like that, but with food. Little India is far more organized than Chinatown, but their food stalls were... um, very dirty looking. People were eating on plastic tables and chairs with their hands (which is the proper way to eat Indian food) but everything looked exotic but icky. We just weren't feeling that hungry either, so we kept walking. All that roaming around and when we finally found it, we were thinking, "not so much." We went around the corner and saw a guy pulling off some dough and rolling it into baseball-sized balls and rolling it out with a rolling pin, slapping the disk between his hands (like the pizza man) and laying the flattened disk on a little pillow-like cushion and placing it into a piping hot stone drum can. If you're an Indian food fan, you know that we were witnessing the making of naan. Tiffer's face lit up, and we sat down for some freshly baked naan with some chicken curry. Yes, that's what we were going to have for breakfast. Oh and this naan was heavenly! Perfectly round, piping hot, so soft and chewy in the thick parts and crispy in the bubbled parts that were singed by the clay oven. I think I'll be dreaming about this naan for years to come. And the curry sauce in the old dingy plastic bowls looked so ho-hum, but were so OH MY GOD delicious. I wanted to lick the bowl! We also picked up some mystery drinks from another stall. I had the red drink, which turned out to be watermelon juice; Tiffer got the juice version of cendol, which is a Melakkan specialty similar to shave ice with red bean, green noodles, coconut milk and syrup. As Lonely Planet said, looks gross, but the ones we had in Melakka were pretty delicious. The hawker center one, not so much. This happens -- it's all chance when it comes to grabbing food off the street, and it's part of the joy of it. Good thing it was only 2RM, which come to be about 70 cents.
Because this isn't a food blog, I will share that we had a nice meandering walk over to the Lake Garden district after our happy meal in Little India. The Lake Gardens district is where the British went to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city (and per LP, where they went to get away from non-whites) to enjoy nature. The grounds are on sloping hills and have gorgeous vegetation -- birds of paradise and other tropical plants ring rugby fields, butterfly and orchid gardens, a deer park, an aviary, the police museum and the glorious Islamic Art Museum. For those of you who know me well, I LOVE museums. I would normally spend 2-3 hours in something like this, but Tiffer is not a big fan. Nature was working in my favor, as it was the first day in KL that we got rain. It started out as a drizzle, but it eventually turned into a downpour, so we ran from one gazebo to another when it let up here and there. At the first gazebo, we shared the shelter with two police officers patrolling the grounds on motor bikes. One of them had Careless Whisper by Wham! as his ring tone, which he let ring and ring, maybe because he loves the song. It's a great song, and I sang along with George Michael while resting on my back on the big bench as the rain came down, delivering a fresh breeze and the calming sounds of rain hitting the leaves.
We saw some tiny deer (looked like deer faces on rats with long legs) and a bunch of bigger deer hanging out with a bunch of chickens. Don't ask, that's how they hang in Malaysia. We had to skip the butterflies, orchids and birds because the rain was coming down again, which is why I was able to convince Tiffer to spend some time in the museum. We were pretty drenched with sweat and I had to pee (as usual), but when we walked into the impressive Islamic Arts Museum, we were hit by sub-zero air conditioning. Immediately, we got goose bumps and felt cold and damp in the massive marble building. Oh and what gorgeous art the Islamic faith has brought to this world! They love water motifs (fountains!), domes, metal cutout urns and lanterns, and in the modern era, big windows. There were illuminated books with gorgeous arabic script, gold leaf pages and leather covers. It was particularly interesting to see Chinese Muslim documents and wall decorations, which look strangely familiar to me, but with scrollier writing than the Chinese script. They had an impressive display of major mosques (masjids) from around the world, in miniature but with all the details and colors of the originals. The Chinese and Thai ones were particularly interesting to me, because the architecture looks so Buddhist. One of the masjids we saw in Melakka were very much that way, without the big onion shaped domes that I usually think of on mosques. We walked around for about an hour, then headed out when the rain was letting up to get back to the guesthouse.
I have to confess that one of the things I've enjoyed most in KL is a brand new mega shopping center called the Pavilion, just 2 blocks from our guesthouse. There are a bunch of luxury shops there like Chanel, Prada, Bulgari, Coach, Club Monaco, etc. but what we love love love is the amazing food court in the basement. Yes, it's a shopping mall food court, but the cuisine is more like the food court in the Nordstrom mall in San Francisco. Every cuisine you can imagine is represented here -- Malay, Indian, Hokkien, Shanghaiese, Japanese, Vienamese, and Tony Roma's ribs and chicken. Tiffer is crazy about a little place called Toast Box, where they toast thick slices of delicious white bread and top it off with kaya spread (coconut jam) and cut it up into 9 tiny pieces for you to eat with a fancy toothpick. The iced coffee there is DIVINE (another fantasy food item for the next few months) and I'm craving one right now. We had a few meals there during our 3 days in KL, and I tried many different cuisines, but my favorites were what we had yesterday. We got 6 chicken satays which had the most amazingly fragrant peanut sauce, which we ordered and went to pick up 10 minutes later; I also had some pan mee soup (fettucine like flat noodles in a delicous broth mixed with green veggies, dried shrimp and who knows what else), which was out of this world. Most items in the cafeteria-style restaurants are about $2-$3 each, but there are fancier sit-down restaurants as well. Beverages are sold at a separate storefront, and there are dessert-themed counters and bakeries. We also enjoyed a gourmet donut shop, where I secretly took pictures (Tiffer got shooed away when he got busted taking some shots). Tiffer wants to open a shop just like this in the US and I think it would do well. Some flavors included tiramisu, oreo, almond white chocolate crunch... and there were some savory flavors like tomato basil. Very cute, very fancy, very delicious!
I keep digressing and talking about food. After an early dinner, we went back to Paradiso Bed and Breakfast where we picked up our bags and said goodbye to Hazdy, my favorite Malaysian so far. I will miss him! If any of you ever got to KL, you have to stay at his place, opened in April 2008 and run like clockwork by Hazdy who only sleeps 3 hours a night.
Now that Tiffer and I got our flights to Sandakan booked for tomorrow, we have to find another hostel to stay in Kota Kinabalu tonight. This place is known for the Night Market featuring Filipino grilled seafood specialties. You know where we'll be eating tonight!
asami
