Kuala Lumpur

Written in Kuala Lumpur, 17Sep06:
...Then we headed for a 6-hour drive to Clark Air Base (which is now an airport), but it only took us 3 hours. After a lot of waiting and exhaustion, we flew to Kuala Lumpar where we took a taxi to our hotel after chatting with a friend Alecs and Reyna ran into at the airport. The hotel (Sheraton Imerial for any of you traveling this way) is incredible. We've got 2 corner rooms on the 21st floor - Bill's has a view of the Twin Towers (you'd recognize then as the buildings with the bridge across they were climbing around on in the movie Entrapment. From Wikipedia - "The Petronas Twin Towers were the world's tallest twin towers and second and third-tallest singular towers") and I've got a great view of KL Tower (like the Space Needle in Seattle, only much bigger - I believe the 6th largest structure in the world from what I heard). I've even got panoramic windows in the bathroom and shower! It's awesome!


The first night in, after a good nap, we headed out to the Thai Club, which is on a clubbing strip not far from the hotel. There was a live band (that played a lot of Black Eyed Peas) and good food and drinks and we hung out and danced a bit and watched the band and a friend Ludee came and met us with her boy Dave. I think we will visit them in a few days too. Had a great evening and headed home at 3a for some sleep.


The next day was the most chock-full day of my trip for sure! I woke up and threw on clothes and we headed for a local eatery for some quick and delicious grub and this drink of carrot juice and condensed milk that is surprisingly yummmmmy! Then off ot the Batu Caves which just have to be seen. Not only is it about 215 steps up, past a GIANT Buddha statue, not only are there HUGE caves with light streaming through a hole in the ceiling, but most importantly, there are hungry MONKEYS running around all up and down the steps! Bill bought some bananas for them at the top and after taking about 5 steps, a monkey slashed open the whole bag and grabbed bananas and fled! We ended up buying 3 more bags and hand feeding monkeys and playing with them. It was monkey heaven for me! And you all know how much I love monkeys!


After that we headed back to the hotel to try to swim. This didn't quite work. Only I had a suit, so we went on a 2 hour shopping trip. Hard to find a decent bikini in a Muslim country! I bought a shirt that I thought Michelle would get a kick out of, even though she'll probably never see it, and some new shorts. Then we stopped for more food and a gigantic thunder and rain storm hit. Like bright flashes, huge cracks and power going out in the restaurant. I was loving it, but Reyna definitely wasn't a fan of walking in the rain, and Alecs is afraid of thunder and lightning... I guess swimming was off then. I took a bath instead and we rested up for the evening a randomly grabbed a flyer for the night before...


So Heinekin is doing some worldwide party thing - I missed 2 Many DJs (my favorites) in Croatia while I was in Poland, and I had seriously considered Croatia instead during that time. Dammit! Anyway, turns out a few bands were playing AT KL Tower itself, including one of my favorites, GROOVE ARMADA! So off we went to the base wehre we took shuttles up to the tower. The setup was elaborate as hell with a lounge, stage area, and other goodies. I swear they bussed in a million Heinekin girls from tall, skinny, sexy Asian girl-land; it was ridiculous. I splurged and spent about $12 and did one of those reverse bungee things where they strapped me into a ball (after signing a lot of waivers) and shot me hundreds of feet in the air where I flipped around and bounced up and down. It was soooooo fun! I wanted to shoot video, but they wouldn't let me carry my camera, which I snuck in to the show in the first place...


After that wild ride, we hit the bathrooms, the lounge, and then the stage for the show! The set was fantastic, a lot of old school stuff. Then we headed out and I spotted a sign saying free admission to a hot club called Zouk with our wristbands for the afterparty! Off we headed and a great trancey DJ from Denmark was playing. After a few drinks and some dancing to the opening DJ we were having a great time at about 2a when Alecs taps me and points out... There's Groove Armada! They just came from their show and settled down next to us for a drink! We were getting tired and ready to leave at about 3a. I was just about to walk out and wanted to pause to ask Groove Armada about a song they had played that I heard at Zap club on Brighton Beach last month too, but suddenly a group of Malaysians ran past us to the back door and 10 seconds later filed back into the club.


Suddenly the lights come up and the music stops. What the hell?! We start walking out but the doors are blocked and we are corralled in. Turns out the police had just sealed the building and we were in our very first Malaysian DRUG RAID! The locals tried to bolt out the back, but got caught... We were separated, men and women, and eventually all the foreigners were grouped together. We got to slowly file out, during which time I'm standing and joking with Groove Armada - how surreal is that?! The locals not holding foreign passports had to stay for documenting and urine tests! We got out after a few questions from the police (to Bill, "Are you sure she's your Filipina wife?" and to me, "What is your occupation?") and we hit the street, completely tripped out!


A quick lambsteak meal later and another cab ride and we were back at the hotel at 4a. Tell me that isn't the craziest day ever!! Monkeys, caves, thunder storms, revers bungee jumping, random concert at huge landmark, afterparty, meet a favorite band (again, after Coachella), drug raid... wow!

Anyway, time to eat, check out the twin towers, go swimming and more. Hopefully more updates soon...