Sat - hashing

New Pavillion shopping centre (L) and Chinatown (R)

Luckily I found someone to explore with on Friday night - in factI borrowed someone else's Dad who was visiting from Perth! That's the sort of thing that I love about travelling alone - it's do or die (do=ask a 60 year old complete stranger out for dinner) or die (watch Frontline re-runs alone in the apartment and think "poor lonely me!"). We meandered down Bukit Bintang St (ginormous shopping centres, electronics shops HEAVEN and pushy reflexologogists galore), ate some good Thai, swilled down some Singha beer and then taxiied to Chinatown (Petaling St) where I resisted the overwhelming urge to buy lots of Calvin Klein t-shirts. Who would have thought that the first item of clothing I would buy here would be a woolly cardigan thing (for the fffffffreeeeeeezing office!).

The whole taxiing experience is quite fun, and I'm starting to understand why some of the drivers are so inclined to drive badly and try to rip you off, after seeing the "Client's Charter" which is posted up on the walls on most taxis. Here are the guiding principles of taxi-driving in KL:

1) Give priority to passengers

2) Be courteous

3) Be decently dressed

4) Honest and trustworthy

5) Drive with care

Now I dunno about you, but I'd quite like to see #4 and #5 bumped up the priority list a bit. I mean, I'd much rather be driven around safety by a rude, naked taxi driver with the meter on. Actually, would I really prefer that? Who can blame them for trying to squeeze a few extra Ringgit out of expats who will surely not miss them? And in a city with this many traffic jams, if you don't drive aggressively, you'll never get anywhere!

I managed to get an awesome sleep-in today by whacking up the "do not disturb" sign. I've decided that a serviced apartment is going to suit me pretty well, thank you very much. It shames me into being tidy but saves me those annoying little jobs like bin-emptying and doing dishes. Yes I am getting my dishes done for me every day. I can tell that I'm falling back into expat-slobdom quite easily because it's already seeming like quite a struggle to put the dry dishes away myself (the staff leave that job for me, darn it!). I've starting sleeping through the hotel breakfasts too. I've decided sleep is worth more than chilled starfruit juice...

I went out the Petaling Hash House Harriers again today and enjoyed it even more today (I'm still a leach virgin too!). Met a lovely English couple who bravely tried their 2nd hash after an awful first time experience a few weeks ago, when it poured the whole time, they got covered in leaches and didn't get back to the beer van until it was pitch black. The hash course was quite close to KL city and I guess the reason they haven't developed this land is because of how bloody hilly it is - seriously hard work! We met some locals who live in the forest and collect rubber from the trees - I felt a bit blind hiking right past their homes (huts) but they were very smiley and friendly (and even helped us out with directions!). Luckily this is not a very conservative Muslim country. We parked on the side of a bridge for the duration of the hash. Afterwards we shower and change from the boot of the car (the shower pump plugs into the cigarette lighter!) so any prudish drivers-by might be horrified! The hashers themselves are a very baudy lot - it must be bad for a female engineer to notice!). We went out for Chinese dinner afterwards which was good fun. I could be imagining it (Honeymoon period) but even Chinese food tastes better here?

At the on-on (after-party) at Chinese resto. Oh yeh and we saw the 7-week old puppies...awwww!