Good evening from Kuala Lumpur! That's what Selamat Petang means and there's no word for just helloooo if it's morning, night or noon. I've asked everywhere about a general saying and apparently the only way of saying an all round hello in Malay is: hello - as we say it. Hee.
There's so much here that's made me chuckle in delight and I've been
dying to tell you stuff but haven't had a mo until now - late Wednesday night/early Thurs.
The set-up of everything is that I'm spending until Saturday exploring Malaysia and then on Sunday I'm going through to Survivor until Wednesday.
What a place Malaysia is! I didn't know what to expect but each moment that's passed since I arrived on Tuesday has truly delivered something new.
My plane landed at 07h00 - it was a verry good trip 'cos I had no-one next to me so I was able to use all three chairs to snooze as much as possible to be zapping for the day ahead.
We landed, delivered all our goodies to our hotel that goes by the name Hotel Istana (it's right in the centre of Kuala Lumpur) and had the morning to settle ourselves in to unpack and hotfoot it around the surrounding area to acclimatise.
By we I mean myself, four other journalists from different SA publications and Randall Abrahams, who's come along as a guest of M-Net's, ha!
As you can imagine I had a good guffaw when I spotted him on the plane, immediately scootled to find out why he'd come along, told him I suspect it's 'cos he's judging Idols and asked who the other judges are.
He wouldn't confirm things but of course we can all naturally assume this is the reason. I've also been cunningly getting buddy buddy with him hoping to catch him off guard - he likes drinking beer a lot so I'm encouraging him to booze at every opportunity.
I unpacked my things as speedily as possible then hit the area surrounding the hotel and stopped by Resturant Bhadhusha for a coffee -
- and took this video to give you a sense of the atmosphere:
My best about the vid is that I told Muthu what I was up to and asked him to walk in front of the camera and improvise. He's a brilliant actor don't you think?
The flats above and next to Restaurant Bhadhusha:
There are very glam buildings right next door to ramshackled ones like this everywhere. There's no fancy part of town or poor parts but rather it's a mix of high glitz and rundown all moulded into one. There is a seedy part of town called Chowkit though where transvestites hang out and do business. It's right next to China Town - which I'll tell you about just now.
The other wow thing that I didn't realise before is how many different types of peeps live in Malaysia. With it being situated where it is the population's ultra diverse so it's made up of a mix of Malay, Chinese and Indian people with all sorts of others in between - like Koreans, Vietnamese and Portuguese.
This blend of all the cultures shows in everything - from the architecture to the zillions of colours in everything to diverse flavours in the food. I have no proper idea what I've been eating but every smidgen of it's been delicious, starting with Mee - which turned out to be a soup mix of vegetables type thing with a half boiled egg in it.
I had this with Randall and Nonhlakanipho Shinga (a journo for the Sunday weekly iLanga langestonto that's based in Durbs) at Times Square - which is a ten-storey shopping complex.
The hysterical thing is that Times Square is a stone's throw away from the Twin Towers - which are as their name suggests - two towers that look very similar to the US ones.
It's like the city's got bursts of trying to emulate New York all over the place, which creates such mishmash feeling. Also funny are the advertising sign boards - there are loads of them (espesh on the big highways) and they look like they were designed for 1960's biscuit tins.
After we finished our Mee, Randall went off to look at some mega bookstore and Nonhla and I decided to catch a Teksi to Chinatown which turned out to deliver us with an adventure we weren't expecting. It was pouring with rain so our taxi driver Shihad -
- suggested he take us around town to see some indoor shopping sights before China Town.
He dropped us off and waited for us at two different spots while he chatted away to the owners who he obviously knew well. At each of the places we got stickers attached to us which we found out means the shops are all part of Malaysia's 50 years of Independence celebrations, which is being celebrated right now.
This is a big reason Survivor's happening here and also why we're all here too 'cos apparently we'll be involved in a big display that's happening Saturday night called The Colours of Malaysia Festival.
I don't know whether we're going have to actually walk in the parade or just watch from the sidelines but Saturday's apparently very important - even the King of Malaysia will be there. Hehe.
The places Nonhla and I hit were:
A leather shop run by a seriously creepazoid dude who had the longest and most perfectly filed nails you've ever seen. As he showed off the leather items - which included things like stingray hide - it was impossible to concentrate on anything other than his eyepopping hands properly.
I SO wanted to take a pic to show you but as you can imagine it was impossible trying to find a reason without going into it.
Nonhla and I went investigated all the exorbitant handbags, wallets and shoes etc - pretending we had the cash to buy before making a hasty escape.
A chocolate shop called Beryl's Chocolate's (I know, the name makes no sense at all) that sells all sorts of chocolates mixed with fuits and sesame seeds. You can taste each one from little plastic containers which we pigged out on and almost went comatose after trying the darkest of dark dark dark dark chocolates. I honestly don't know how anyone could make it through a bag of them alive.
By the time we finished the rain had settled down and Shihad dropped us in China Town which was an experience like no other. Basically the area's as it suggests - a part of Kuala Lampur that's inhabited mostly by Chinese people and at the centre there's a big market that runs down a long street.
As we set out the wheeling and dealing that the store owners did terrifed me 'cos the moment you even glance at something the store holders are on top of you, literally putting things into your hands and packing them in shopping bags before you've even looked at them properly.
Then when you try to escape - they come running after you shouting out why you need to buy it, bargaining prices and lowering them to at least half of what you were bargaining for previousy. One person even grabbed me by my rucksack to try to stop me!
The groovy thing about it is that once you've walked about a third of the market you get to see exactly what their tactics are and can start playing them at their own game, which was excellent fun. I managed to barter down a pair of sunglasses from 90 ringets (about R180) to 30 (about R55).
After similar triumphs with a couple of things we all went for supper to a place called Saloma, which is a bombly musical theatre supper venue.
You have a meal and afterwards the Saloma dancers dance the night away on stage doing all sorts of traditional dances with a focus on ancient and modern Malaysian and Indian dances. (Notice the wild blue eyeshadow - all the chickipoos wear it here - including the Air Malaysian airhostesses.)
The place itself is named after a famous Malaysian dancer and actress from the '50's who's regarded as revolutionary for what she did for women's lib.
With Malaysia being a Muslim country she was one of the first chickipoos to take her veil off and step out as a strong independent woman, a trend that's now fully integrated in Malaysian society where women are treated equally in all aspects of life.
Once the Saloma dancers finished their performances they invited us up to learn some of the steps and dance with them, which I happily did. I lurve dancing and always have so it was very cool to be able to join in.
We then said our goodbyes exhausted and totally rejuvenated and headed back to our hotel where I zapped into bed for my very first Malasian sleeeeep, happily dreaming of the surprises coming next.
PS: I hope you tripped out on Heroes!