See the curtains hanging in the window In the evening on a Friday night

Hey! I haven't been blogging lately because I've been pretty lazy but I don't have much to catch you guys up on. A few days ago Heather and I went out to eat with our Aunty Pat who took us out to a Malaysian "cafe" which is basically an outdoor foodcourt. It's basically the cheapest yet most delicious food you can get in Malaysia. We has some delicious Char Kway Teow, which is fried rice noodles with egg veggies and shrimp and a veggie rice wrap. The food was soooo good but we seemed to be very distracted by the fact that our chop sticks were purple and green :D 

At the movies

After lunch Heather and  I went to see the Green Hornet which was quite exciting because I love to try popcorn in other countries. When you buy your tickets here in Malaysia you get to choose your seats ahead of time so nobody has to get trampled in a crowd of frantic people trying to get seats to see Borat, and yes I am speaking from experience! The movie was very good. I really liked it cause it was just as much a comedy as it was an action film. Another thing that was different at this movie theater  is that they served caramel popcorn as the main type of popcorn. They had salted popcorn but it didn't seem anyone ever ordered it.

At Starbucks

The next day was very easy going day. Heather and I just hung out at home skyping with friends then we headed out to the Starbucks to read up on Australia. Heather ordered tea and I ordered an Iced, Tall, Non-fat, Green Tea Latte. Very happy to be ordering and not serving! Reading about Australia got us sooo excited! we found some good Surf Schools and some great activities to do. Can't wait till we get there!!!

Ama making spring rolls

 The day after our restful day we decided we were ready for some more exciting adventures so decided to go see the national museum. As we were heading out to the museum we saw my Ama making some delicious vegetarian spring rolls. Fresh spring rolls are the best. The museum was sorta weird. I can't say I was very impressed by it. It all started with a very cool exhibit on the indigenous people of Malaysia complete with crazy tribal carvings and hand weaved backpacks. This was probably the most interesting section. Then we went into another exhibit on Malaysian clothing which was also pretty interesting. Neither of these sections were part of the actual museum as they were free. It's weird that the Free sections were the only ones worth going to.

So the museum was very very boring, I'm almost annoyed that I have to talk about it. It was really cheap to get in, 5RM=2.50CND for foreigners and 2RM=0.75CND for citizens. When you walk in they have a really odd Soccer display for the national team. The museum started with the early days so like rocks and stuff, then it went into something else but I don't remember cause it was so bad. After that there was colonial rule and finally "Malaysia Now". Basically the whole thing was centered around Muslim Malaysia and included nothing about Chinese or Indian history within the country which got my Aunty really upset and shit was just very boring. At the end we were suppose to go for a walk around the memorial park but it began to rain so we headed home instead. 

The next day we went out for Dim Sum in the morning. It was really good Dim Sum I thought. Dim Sum is sorta like a Chinese brunch tapas type thing where you get a lot of fried and steamed food in fours served in bamboo steamers. Servers walk around with huge trays with tons of food on them and you choose what you want when they walk by. Then as you eat they put all your finished dishes aside to add them all up at the end for your bill. Richmond Hill has been voted the best Dim Sum in the world but this place was pretty good. Later that day we obviously went to the shopping mall to do some shopping.

Giant Watermelon Juice

 and this time Heather and I actually bought stuff. This mall was cool cause it had a small market within it, where I bought a reusable waterproof camera which I'm hoping will make my travels in Australia that much more fun. Later that evening we went out for Satee which is a Malaysian dish of meat on a stick dipped into peanut sauce. It happens to be one of my favorite dishes but now that I'm a vegetarian I can no longer enjoy it so instead I order huge glasses of Watermelon juice that leave me nauseous. Satee does come with rice cubes which is basically rice mushed into a cube. They are special to Malaysia and I love them!!

 So at this point we are at Monday morning which is when my Swedish cousins arrived. 2 out of my 5 cousins from Sweden came, Sandra and Ben. I hadn't seen them since I last went to Sweden which was a good 4 years ago so you can imagine how excited I was to see them. We went over to their dad's, my uncle's, apartment and went swimming and tanning. Then we all headed out for some dinner.

Ben and Sandra "The Swedes" 

 So those were about 5 days in a nutshell, next I will be blogging about Malaka which is the most historical city in Malaysia so it will be slightly more exciting than this!

From Malaysia with Love

Karin

I'm just travelin', travelin', travelin', I'm just travelin' on

Batu Cave

Lord Murugan

So yesterday Heather and I had quite the day. My Aunty's friend, Pat, who I spoke about earlier was so kind to drive us around to a few sights. We began by going out for some Indian food for breakfast YUM! YUM! Then we headed over to Batu Cave which is a huge cave that also serves as a Hindu Shrine. There are 272 steps leading up to the cave and there is a 140 foot high statue of Lord Murugan (Hindu God) right in front of the cave. Last time I came to Batu Cave, which was 6 years ago, the Statue was only half completed and there were no buildings around and no souvenir vendors. This time was a little different. There were vendors everywhere not only selling souvenirs and Hindu statues, but toys and carpets and everything. The Cave use to be one of my favorite sights in
Malaysia and in the world but now I can confidently say that it has lost its

Death Monkeys

spiritual touch to consumerism, but still remains a fun place to visit. I was telling Heather about how last time I came to Batu Cave with my brother I got chased by a monkey so this time I decided to keep my distance from all of them which is hundreds. I walked up the stairs with confidence and making no eye contact with any of the monkeys. I was doing quite well until I got to the top. There were some Monkeys playing and some stupid Asian man, that I could kill, decided to play with them and get them excited. Then one of them spotted me from across the crowd of people and started to walk towards me. I began to tell myself to stay calm and not to run but then when I noticed he wouldn't stop approaching me and was getting faster I let out a great big scream and started to run. The monkey chased me until I went towards a bunch of people and grabbed on to some random lady. My legs were shaking and at that moment I wanted to die! I followed 5 Indian men down in hopes that if another monkey decided to chase me, that maybe they would protect me. The walk down was probably 15 minutes but to me it seemed like a life time as every time I saw a monkey time seemed to stand still. Besides the monkeys the cave was as beautiful as ever with many Hindu statues to see. When we got back down where there were no Monkeys (thank god) we walked around to all the stands. We saw two ladies giving Hanna tattoos which I never seem to be able to resist. 

Getting Hanna done

They were those beautiful hanna tattoos that Indian people get done on special occasions, not those horrible tribal ones that you see done at Canada's wonderland. After our hanna tattoos we met up with Pat again and sat down for some Coconut water. Coconut water has this very subtle sour flavor and it's sorta like a 2 in 1 snack because after you drink the water you get to eat the flesh. After our delicious Coconuts we headed over to the other side of town to see a very large Chinese temple called Thean Hou
Temple.

Thean Hou Templ

This is a primarily Taoist temple but in the center there was a Buddhist temple so I don't really know what it is.The temple is especially exciting to see right now because it is completely covered in Chinese lanterns for Chinese New Year. So beautiful. On the outside garden they had a display of all the statues for the 12 Animals of the year. This year is the year of the Rabbit which means if you were born in 1987 or January of 1988 then this is your year!!!!!! They say that the qualities of a rabbit are; Compassionate, Loving, Tactful, Well-Mannered, Hospitable, Caring, and Diplomatic. Pretty good. I am a Dragon which will be next year!!! How exciting! The temple also had a Tortoise Pond. I discovered that Tortoises are very boring and sorta gross looking.

Tortoise Pond

Rambutan

On the way home from the temple we stopped by a few fruit stands in hopes to find Mangosteen which is the most delicious fruit in the world!!! Unfortunately we did not find any but we did buy some mangoes and Dragon fruit. We also got to stop for some Tofu fa. Tofu fa is an Asian dessert which is soft tofu with sugar syrup on top. Heather was not the biggest fan but I thought this was actually the best Tofu fa I had ever tried. It was made with brown sugar which I had never had before. Normally I've eaten it with white sugar. After this we headed back home for rest and dinner as the day was very exhausting and at times frightening. So until tomorrow.

Finished product

Tofu fa 

 From Malaysia with love

Karin

Where that is no one can tell me, am I doomed to ever roam

Mommy and Daddy <3

Making Dumplings

So I shall begin this post by talking about yesterday. We didn't do anything very exciting yesterday. I began my morning by Skyping with my parents for the first time. It took them quite a long time to figure out how it works but once we got it going it was really nice to see their faces. After I spoke to my parents Heather and I got ready to go out to another huge mall. My Aunty's friend Pat came to pick us up and we made our way to South East Asia's biggest mall, "Mid Valley/Gardens Mall". The mall is basically split in two but connected through a few bridges. The Gradens Mall side is a very high end shopping mall, much like the one I spoke off in KLCC. Shops like LV, Burberry, and Gucci.The other side, the Mid Valley side is a more affordable and lower end shopping mall with tons and tons of stores, everything you could ever dream of buying could be bought in this mall. When we first got there we decided to go for lunch. We went to a mega cute Dim Sum restaurant. We ordered delicious dumplings, Heather got Sweet and Sour Soup and I ordered these better than life Fried Mango Shrimp rolls. Mango, Shrimp and custard filled sugary batter, I could eat a million and then a million more..

Dumplings

After lunch we did a little bit of shopping. Heather bought a fabulous floppy hat and I bought a pair of shoes. It was a very successful shopping day. By the end of shopping we were shocked to find out that we had spend almost 5 hours and had only made two purchases. I guess that's what travelling on a budget means. When we got back to my Ama's (grandmother) place we had some delicious dinner followed with a nice walk to Baskin Robbins. When we were walking and eating Ice Cream my Aunty Siew Eng told us a story about how my Grandmother and Grandfather met. So here is a short version. My grandfather owned a cafe shop and my grandmother and her friend went to eat there. My grandfather spotted my grandmother and began to talk to her. Afterwards he asked her friend, who frequented the shop, for my grandmother's name, and information??? did they have cell numbers or Facebook back then?? what would he ask for I wonder. Anyways, after following her, giving her rides home and insisting on taking her out she finally gave in. This all seems very Romantic but I'll let you know that at the time my Grandmother was 18 and my Grandfather was 38 and was already married. Sorta reminded me of the movie An Education, if you haven't seen it watch it! So eventually she became his second wife as in multiple wives. After the walk we returned home for some down time before falling fast asleep.

Grandma and Grandpa's Wedding

Grandma and Grandpa

From Malaysia With Love

Karin

I'm just a weary pilgrim trying to find what feels like home

 Today was Heather and my first day out in KL (Kuala Lumpur) so there is quite a bit to share. We began at the train station at Taman Jaya and we took the train all the way to KL Sentral. We were trying to get to Chinatown which we knew was one stop after but we though that maybe we could walk all the way there and see some cool
things along the way. Cool things we saw but at the expense of our poor feet. When we got out of the train station we found ourselves in Little India once again which I had no issues with. As we made our way to China

Sri Mariamman Temple

Town we I noticed the top of a Hindu Temple. Heather and I decided to go and check it out. As we were getting closer we noticed that there were hundreds of people crowded around. It turned out that there was some sort of Anniversary celebration that only happens every 12 years. Gosh weren't we lucky! As we made our way through the sea of beautiful Saris we were quite unsure of where we could go and of what we were walking into. We made our way to the back where a ritual parade type thing was making its way around the temple. As the men continued towards Heather and I, we started to get completely crushed by people. It was very hot but an amazing experience since I had never been to any sort of Hindu celebration.

After we left the Hindu temple we were back on our way to China Town. We walked for a little while until we noticed we had reached the National Mosque. I had been to Malaysia 5 times now and had never visited the Mosque. Expecting not to get in because of our sexy attire we decided to just get a little closer for some photos. When we got to the Mosque we saw that they were actually in visiting hours so we decided to take a gander. We had to remove our shoes and put on these huge purple cloaks with head coverings. I sorta felt like I was in a cult as there were us and numerous other tourists also walking around in these cloaks. We got to go into the Mosque and look into the big room where everyone prays and got a little lesson about Islam from a kind lady. 

National Mosque

After our visit to the Mosque we once again attempted to make our way to Chinatown. After asking several strangers, referring to a useless map and playing death by jaywalking we finally almost made it to Chinatown hehe. We had gotten to Central Market which is a huge indoor market (no fun) filled with souvenir shops BOO! Heather and I were too tired and too hot at this point to bother with any of it so we did a quick walk around and headed out to Chinatown. On our way to Chinatown I picked up my favorite, Sugar Cane Juice!!!!! Delicious!!!

Guarapo! (Spanish for Sugar Cane Juice)

Fried Banana

Jalan Petaling

Very soon after we finally made it to Chinatown!!! Chinatown is exactly as you would expect it except it has a market right in the middle of 100 vendors selling everything fake you could ever imagine. I wanted to buy sooooo much but stopped myself since I have no more space in my luggage for my flight to Australia. I did find the Marc Jacobs bag I wanted so I asked the lady who was selling them if she would still be there in 7 months, she assured me that she will still be there. On our way out of Chinatown I stopped by a Malay food vendor selling fried goodies. I asked what one of the delicious treats were and the lady told me fried bananas. I asked her for one but when she grabbed a plastic bag I told her I didn't need a bag since I was planning to just eat it on my way. The lady laughed at me and said something in Malay. I had not realized that I had just bought three of these banana things and they were burning hot. She probably thought I was stupid and she wasn't far off.

Masjid Jamak

We were on our way out of China town and now making our way to KL Tower. We walked to Masjid Jamak station that is landmarked by a great big ol' Mosque. BTW there are mosques at every corner of Malaysia which are all funded by the government... just saying. Anyways, we got on the train and took it one stop to the KL Tower. When we got there we found this really beautiful trail that took us all the way from the train station to the foot of the Tower. It was filled with death stairs but there was plenty of shade from all the trees. Along the way there were these amazing workout parks which obviously I just joked around about doing. When we got to the tower we decided that 40RM =10CND was too much to go up to the top and I figure it can't be that different from the CN tower so instead we just too the FREE shuttle back down and made our way to KLCC to call my Aunty Katherine. We hopped onto the train back home. That basically sums up our day. My feet now hurt like hell and I want to die but it's ok as tomorrow will be a day of rest but I'm not talking about Shabbat since it's Tuesday.

KL Tower

From Malaysia with Love

Karin

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