I have finally left Thailand after a wonderful 2 and a bit months and am chilling out in Kuala Lumpur for as long as it takes to get an Indian Visa, and am ultimately on my way to Singapore for my darling wee Eva's first birthday. I have booked to fly to Mumbai to have Xmas with Michaela and Kishore, and of course dear wee Nikita's first birthday also. In the middle of the night I suddenly remembered that I need a visa to do that. So, no Indian High Commission in Chiang Mai, don't want to go back to Bangkok, and don't want to waste my precious Singapore time, so I thought, KL, a few weeks in Malaysia, a chance to visit another Asian country that wasn't on my original plan - plans are made to be changed! So here I am, and will remain till visa is finalised, and then head off to some gorgeous Malaysian islands for another dose of Beach!
I spent the day yesterday tearing around KL in a teksi (dont you love that word - obvious what it means!)first right across town to Indian High Comm, only to find that visa centre is in town, not at HC. So eventually found it, filled out the forms, waited for my number to be called, and now have to track a number online which will tell me when it has been granted. I had booked into a little more luxurious hotel than I am used to, and had 3 days of the crispest whitest sheets and the most comfortable bed ever! However when I realised this was going to be a waiting game, I couldn't justify the expense especially as wifi was NZ$14 per day on top of nightly rate way above anything I've paid since hitting Asia. So today moved to a wee windowless but well airconned room, on the 5th floor of a bit of a seedy dive in Chinatown. Actually I quite like it, seedy and intrepid! The bed is comfortable enough, but the sheets are definitely not crisp, and only slightly resembling white! Never mind I've certainly been in worse! I went for a bit of an explore today, Chinatown is the Khaosan Rd of KL. Lots of touts, stalls, markets, cafes, restaurants, people of every different culture, dirty, noisy, streets crowded, people yelling here madam, looking looking, you want watch, you want bag, what you want, I got, come and looking! I LOVE it! And then once it started getting dark, the street is completely closed off and night market set up, about 3 extra rows of stalls in street, you can hardly move, let alone hear yourself think, and its hot and it smells rather strong, and people are pushing and still yelling, and I'm back in my room after finding somewhere to eat that was airconned. Not an easy task. My next challenge is to eat street food, I'm nervous of it, but it is sooo cheap, and lots of people eat it and don't collapse so it must be ok. One thing at a time......
