klang valley

if temperatures keep soaring like this, i might as well melt away. weight loss (as pledged to edzie) is on target. have lost the 1kg i had gained in Kuala Lumpur. not quite sure if the 1kg loss is considered weight loss seeing how i am still at the pre-KL weight i pledged to lose before i went to KL.

had a fantastic time in KL although ravi was on site most of the time. his exhibition site was such a dreary area that i recoiled when i visited him. but the boat ride (tourist shit) was pretty nice. pictures will be up soon by procrastinating little me.

edzie and matchap succeeded in feeding and overfeeding me. by the time i was on the train to the airport, i was bursting out of my shirt. not a pretty sight, and i had strange middle eastern men staring at me. then i realised that one button, strategically at my chest, had conveniently popped open.

nice.

first night. immigration is unbelievable. if we thought taking the flight would have been a fast alternative, we were dead wrong. an hour before flight takeoff in singapore, 45 minutes in plane, 15 minutes on train to immigration checkpoint, half an hour at checkpoint, one hour in cab to the city centre. an hour shy of a sin-kul bus ride that would have cost me 1/3 of the plane ticket. at first i could not understand why there were belts for queues at the immigration checkpoint when there were so few passengers. then i realised. the immigration process was so slow that the queue simply built up. didn't help that i made the mistake of switching the filled out arrival form with the blank one and actually handed the immigration officer the blank one. that wasted another fifteen minutes as a family came through after my turn and i had to wait for all 6 passports to check out. nice.

then came the longest taxi ride of my life with a cabbie from hell. he sped down the expressway at 140km/h. i was too tired to worry. then we were stuck in friday night jam near the hotel. arrived at the hotel and realised we had not travelled too far from singapore. half the occupants were singaporeans. you know they are singaporeans. children running through the lobby with high pitched sirens that inconsiderate parents are oblivious to, loud singlish echoing off the walls, teenage girls in mini skirts dragging their flats around and senile grandparents shouting dialects at the top of their lungs.

and then there was the hotel room. have to be honest, i was disappointed, but i didn't make a sound, didn't complain. there was a toilet (not too clean), there was a bed (missing a blanket) with sheets that came out too easily and the walls were stained with tens of luggages scraped past. an hour later, ravi complained, but i didn't mind - as long as the air-con works. that night, we had the famous Madam Kwan's nasi lemak at Midvalley Megamall that edsie and matchap introduced us to in KLCC, and slept our exhaustion away soundly.

second day. when ravi and i are asleep, we do not wake up. period. lover's cuddle. you hug, you attempt to wake up, you sink back into the pillows, and two hours fly by. ravi was late for work the first day and i missed the hotel breakfast. but it didn't matter much, was going to meet edsie and matchap for breakfast.

i was super asscited. edsie had raved so much about the duck confit at Delicious by Ms Reads and the nasi padang at Bangsar, i couldn't care less about missing the hotel breakfast which was probably "Continental Breakfast and Local Delights" anyway. it's the same in almost every hotel in KL. bad "american" breakfast and nasi lemak. always. donned a halter top and white pants, hoping that white would shield off as much cruel KL sunlight as possible. my hair raised the temperature around my neck and shoulders by two whole degrees. i wish i had brought ravi's company's Family Day battery-powered portable fan. that would have been very takglam though. translucent blue cheap plastic portable fan tak kena dengan baju i.

and then there was the nasi padang. ooooh. sedapnya! matchap introduced me to the fish eggs lemak gulai but not having eaten a lot of fish eggs as a child, i declined. it's an acquired taste, like sashimi. then we went off to Delicious by Ms Reads. the chocolate cake and bread pudding was droolicious. it's no wonder that my network password at the office are always names of food or ice-cream brands.

unfortunately, edsie had to go back to work, hardworking scientist she is, and matchap was kind enough to accompany me around KL which is Strangeland to me. i should not say this, sssh, but Imbi is a funky place with great bootleg DVDs and Photoshop for Mac programs that work perfectly. it reminded me of Sim Lim before the shops cleared out most of their bootleg stuff. don't tell me piracy kills creativity. i ain't gonna pay USD400 for a program when i'm no pro photographer. Sungei Wang reminded me a little bit of Far East back in Singapore. floors and floors of shops with amazing stuff, mostly unique clothes that fit small chinese girls/small malay girls/small indian girls. enough said, i went away with only a hotdog in my stomach. a girl in a shop recommended a blouse to me, "dis un? dis un can stwetch one." er ... thank you, honey, but i ain't gonna buy something just cos it bluddy fits me.

the torture of the day was watching Senario XX with matchap. i am no malay movie fan (except P. Ramlee, who isn't a fan?!) but i appreciate a good movie anytime. even if it's malay. i've seen senario episodes and tv and they mostly left me with rolling eyes. mine. my rolling eyes. senario - you either hate it or you love it. i hated it. but i thought, what the heck, just watch it.

for half an hour, i just could not laugh. i froze over. i laughed whenever matchap laughed cos it was so funny. he really digged it. after i got over my high-and-mightiness, i actually laughed at some parts. i mean, how realistic can one be when the movie is about an alien landing in some kampung with an overzealous indonesian immigrant bomoh?

Apa ka, he?

went back to the hotel and fell asleep. am no shopper. walking around malls tire me out. am an eater. explains why i've put on 10kg since my 22nd birthday. if i can put on 10kg in a year, i sure as hell better lose it in one year. am not going to be a dumpling at my wedding. or a siao long bao as a male colleague once called me affectionately.

dinner saw us at Madam Kwan's again with ravi's dad. this time, i had nasi bojari. am/was/always will be, a pig.

third day. again, we could not wake up. but this time, we could have breakfast at the hotel. rushed to Sungei Wang to get my airticket back then went to Midvalley Megamall to shop around. bought lots and lots and lots of socks. thought i saw a familiar face, am quite sure i knew her, but walked past her in Vincci anyway. then i went to tacky little Mines. i could not believe i had to pay 20sen to enter a toilet that was so gross. was i paying 20sen to be grateful for other malls' cleanliness? ravi made me come down to Mines for the boat ride through the mall and out into the artificial lake - an abandoned tin mine now filled with water. a resort has been built at the brink of this lake.

then off to the out-laws. i've grown to love ravi's family. i'm such an emotional pussycat. and a pig. you just have to feed me, and i'll love you. had to force food down my throat there since i was still full from delifrance barely 90 minutes before that. then we sat in the living room, just talking. like families usually do. as we got up to leave and meet edsie, mike and matchap at bangsar, suresh, ravi's brother, surprised me with a birthday cake although my birthday was two weeks before that.

that was unbelievably schweet. did not know how to feel when ravi's mother took a slice of cake with her hand and fed me.

by the time we got to bangsar, i was about to pass out from overfeeding. ravi ran off to buy more bootleg Jesus DVDs. i swear ravi's a closet christian. needless to say, we hit the sack the moment we went back to the hotel.

KL, our friends and family have been good to us.

but little did i know that our friends had more in store for us. more food in store for me.

fourth day. hotel breakfast disappointed me again. soggy cold cuts, missing butter (again) and chalky mee goreng put me off. packed my bags, felt slightly depressed as ravi wasn't around and promptly waited at the lobby for edsie and matchap. this time, we had the famous duck confit. i wish i was hungrier. but i was full from bad hotel breakfast so i gulped everything down instead of savouring it slowly as i usually would. i didn't want my friends to waste money on me - i'll finish the food. duck confit was great. at first i wondered how i finished it.

nevermind that. i finished it. and half the scones, and half the chocolate cake.

then at KLCC, the nougat milkshake.

on the KLIA Ekspres to the airport, i was hoping SQ would not serve snacks on the flight. 28 minutes later at the airport, i realised there was nothing to do but eat or shop. i could not sit down and read as my buttons were popping. so i shopped. i shopped for food to eat. i chocolate shopped.

it's no wonder that they say the taurus is indulgent and loves her food.

i already miss KL sans conniving/cheating bastard cabbies. i already miss edsie and matchap.

too bad i wasn't able to mishandle george this time around!

ok, edsie, i'll get my driving licence, we'll talk of a car, then we'll see you guys more often and come back to singapore with more scratches on the car :)