14 Jul Weekend in Malaysia
My week has been great. I decided to take a weekend trip to Malaysia, and besides, work is work….
Our intern coordinator at my host company flew to Beijing for business, so the person in charge was the director. Actually, it got more interesting then, and it was a lot more fast-paced, which is what we’re here for right? I’m learning a lot, and I think the working culture is very nice. It’s similar to the Silicon Valley; it’s casual without looking sloppy, and people work but with some leisure. I think I might want to come back here and work for a couple of years between my undergraduate and my masters, but then again, Hong Kong is a pretty small place.
Anyways, I woke up on Monday morning, and I don’t really know what got into me, but I was figured maybe I’ll go to Malaysia sometime while I’m here. I checked the ticket prices, and it turned out this weekend was the cheapest (by like 50 USD). Then I thought, well it’s a 3-day weekend, since Monday is the handover, and the boss will be in Beijing, so the office should be more relaxed. I buy the tickets (really impulsively), and then I realized all the logistics and freaked out for like 5 minutes. I have friends there, but I hadn’t indicated at all that I would be going, but I was sort of like, SURPRISE! And they were like, ehh why not? Then, they told me the tickets were cheap because of the haze coming from the Indonesian fires, and it turned out my boss was actually going to Beijing the following week. At least, the 3 day weekend part was right.
I booked a ticket to KL and then convinced my roommate to come along, so I would have some company. My mom booked a super chic hotel for us right in Sentral, and we flew at 9pm on Friday. We arrived at our hotel around 3 am and walked around for like a good 15 minutes with a group of like 10 Chinese people who happened to come from the same, really random village as my mom in China. So we arrive, check in, and sleep before waking up at 8 to visit the Batu Caves. We met my friends for lunch at Little Penang Restaurant in the Mid-Valley mega-mall, shopped around a little, and visited the main sights of KL. At night, we went to the Skybar, directly across from the Petronas tours, and it was really an amazing view.
The next day, I met up with my friends again, and they took us on a foodie tour of everything they eat in Malaysia… which is everything. I really had a food coma by the end, but they were really amazing experiences. For breakfast: friend Indo-Mee (instant noodle) and roti chanai. Lunch: curry fish, chicken, and fried bitter gourd in a banana leaf with no utensils. So we ate with our hands, since apparently you can feel the texture and better enjoy your food. It was very… authentic. Dinner: One of the friends’ mom invited us to their house for a potluck dinner with his family, which we went to and stuffed ourselves. But in between the meals, we went to visit the Federal Mosque (really cool), the Lake Gardens, Independence Square, and Sentul Park.
So not that anyone probably read this article, but there was an article published on Monday about how bad the LCCT airport in Malaysia is. Well, no disrespect or anything, but I can attest. But it’s a budget airline, and I got a good weekend out of it, so no complaints. Anyways, we get to the airport with maybe 1 ½ hours before boarding time. We check in, everything’s normal, and then we go through security. The thing is, there was a group of maybe 6 guys before us who really took their time. I mean really. But that wasn’t the issue. The issue was, literally all of their bags had suspicious objects in them, like these flashlights. They weren’t like the normal dinky-looking flashlights but like black steel batons that happened to have a lightbulb attached on the end.
Anyways, security took forever, and then we line up because boarding already started, and the gate was going to close in 10 minutes. We go up, and they’re like oh, you need to have your documents verified over there, so we run over, and the guy is like, Oh sorry, counter closed. So we yell a little and get our way and board. Then, after you go into the gate, you have to walk like a good 10 minutes outside before the plane, and Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh leave around the same time. So we’re walking for like 10 minutes when we start to get a little suspicious, so we look around and ask where everyone is going, and they’re like “oh Ho Chi Minh city”. So we sprint back the way we came from asking for Hong Kong, and they’re like ohhh no it’s farther down keep walking. SO we sprint back again, past Jakarta, past Ho Chi Minh, and onto the plane before the doors closed. And we were the last people on the plane.
In retrospect actually, it’s more our fault than the airport….
Anyways, that was my weekend. Updates from Macau next week!
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