Hello again audience!

Finally! I have some free time AND internet!
The past few days have been pretty hectic. So far we've gone to the "Golden Triangle" of KL's most upmarket shopping malls, hence the reason we bought NOTHING from them due to the crazy prices. Chinese New Year is in full swing and the decorations in all the malls are stunning. I'll see if I can show some pics, hang on:

A Chinese ocrhestra playing in one of the malls:

Please excuse the poor quality of some of the pics. My phone's camera ain't exactly the best.

There was this one dude in one of the malls dressed as a Chinese god or something and everyone went's photo crazy when they saw him. My dad included:

....Okay so my aunt just came in and brought me food while I'm typing this so I've taken the liberty to take some  pics of curry puffs:

and this amazing bun from Rotiboy which has a layer of cookiedough on top and cheese inside. May sound weird but OH SO TASTY.

Just finished eating them now...right, where was I before the food came? Oh right the malls and stuff...

So yeah we went to heaps of malls and my feet are still complaining about all the walking as I type. But the experience was still fun. Met an old friend I was looking for for ages, a nice frosty mug of A&W rootbeer:

 On the third day in KL we went to an undergound food court that was awesome. You felt like you've travelled into some mystical world, it was like a maze in there.

 I wished i took more photos but I was too busy getting lost :p  There was this coffee shop where they make your drinks in a unique way. The place was really nice too:

Later that night we reunited with my aunt and her family and went to an Indonesian Padang restaurant. Have more pics:

 As the days went on we went and visited all my major relatives as per CNY tradition. Ate food at Every. Single. House. So I basically had 2 lunches and 2 dinners in a single day as it is customary to eat at the house you visit on that day. Regardless of how freakin full you already are. 

We visited the house where my late great grandmother (whom we call Ahtai) used to live with my grand uncle and his family. I felt abit uncomfortable since I still have some anger at the way they treated my Ahtai. But thankfully the visit was a cordial affair. My granduncle had recently gotten a leg amputated due to diabetic complications and now uses a fake one. He looks so much older now, more frail and skinny. I noticed that despite the hustle and bustle in the house in this festive season, no one interacted with him much. He was just sorta left there on his own. I don't really believe in karma but his current state of being ignored by his own family is much like the way his family treated my great grandmother. Maybe if he had actually treated his own mother with some respect and love and encouraged his family to do the same...ah well let's just move on.

Here's a pic of his front yard where we ate:

Second pic is of an altar they had since they're Buddhists. Ironic no? Compassion and all that.

Oh before we went to my grand uncle's we visited to other  uncles' places. This one was where we had our second lunch:

And this one was where we had our first dinner, no food pics, just his apartment and the view they had from their balcony:

Suffice to say that night was one to remember, whether for good or bad I don't really know. Oh and as some of you know unmarried folks get little red packets of money from married folks during CNY, here was my loot by the end of the day:

Got about RM100+ which is pretty decent. Bought two nice shirts with that moolah.

Ok I think I better post this now as part 1 of my latest update. Part 2 coming soon!

Photos!

Hello once again folks. My apologies for the late updates. Been moving from one living quarters to another, most without internet.

As an apology, there be pics yo.

The pics above is the view from the first hotel my family and I were staying in. It was a really cool and fancy place. The A/C was set to snap freeze however, but other than than it was awesome.

This pic shows just how many levels there were in this fancy mall connected to our hotel. Loved the giant Chinese lanterns there. There were more floors below ground level too.

This was the bigass cherry blossom tree inside the mall. They were really getting into the Chinese New Year spirit over there.

After the initial night of shop browsing we slept for the night and in the morning had breakfast at this nice restaurant in the same mall. The people working there were very pleasant and hospitable. And the food was epic delicious.

My mum and I ordered Mee Goreng Kampung:

And dad ordered Nasi Lemak:

Each meal came with a choice of drink, we all chose Teh Tarik which is a special tea with condensed milk that is "stretched" until frothy:

Each of our meals cost RM 6.50 which is less than NZ$ 3.00!!! Cheap and SO DELICIOUS!

Later on we reunited with Aunty Hasna and her youngest son Hafiz (technically my uncle) for lunch at the same place. It's hard to describe everything so just look at the pics:

Ok that will be all from me for now. Will update again when I can.

See you then!

Delayed post.

20/01/12 Be advised this blog post was written a couple of days ago.

Once again I'm writing this offline as the internet price in this hotel is FREAKING EXPENSIVE.

I slept like a log last night at my Grand aunt's place.My parents on the pther hand were not as fortunate as me.

Dad woke me up at about 10am and we had breakfast of Nasi Lemak (Puteri should know what this is) and other goodies. 2 hours after that we had lunch. Suffice to say my stomach was close to bursting as we took the 30 minute ride on 2 different monorails to the hotel my grand aunt (she insists I call her aunty instead so I will refer to her as such for the rest of my blog) had booked us a night for. Berjaya hotel is fancy as hell, we got something called the Brooklyn Suite and it's huge. Did I mention the fact that the hotel is connected directly to a 10+ storey shopping mall?

Anyways we went to this mall and I mentioned to (Grand) Aunty Hasna that I was in the market for a smart phone. WIthin minutes she took us to another mall right accros the road that boasted to be Malaysia's largest IT shopping complex. They weren't lying.This place was about 6 storeys of pure tech nirvana. On the gorund floor they were having a huge sale on stuff and it was like a cross between a bazaar and an auctionhouse. People were swarming around the place like a school of phiranas around a carcass. The odd thing I noted was the large number of security guards scattered around this mall. They were dressed more like soldiers actually and a few were touting shotguns. I'm not sure if this is the norm for malls in KL but it unnerved me initially.

So the four of us (Me, mum, dad and aunty Hasna) went through all the levels looking at different phones. After hours of browsing I finally decided on a Samsung Galaxy Y which I bought along with a Malaysian sim card. After that was done we went to the basement floor where the foodcourt was and had yet more delicious food. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of said food, but I will hopefully remmeber to do so next time. Once dinner was finished we browsed for a little while longer before going back to the first mall where our hotel is. We passed by a pretzel stall with pretzels the size of my hand being freshly baked, so I couldn't resist going to buy a few. My aunt somehow knew my decision ahead of time as she was already waiting in the pretty long que for me and bought three pretzels for me and my parents, after that she said her goodbyes for the night and went home. As for the three of us, I decided to go back to the hotel to write this blog and mum & dad are now of shopping at the mall. I hope they bring back food as I'm feeling peckish again...

I'm safe folks.

Hey guys I’m typing this update offline as I have no internet at the moment.

Most importantly I’ve arrived in Kuala Lumpur safe and sound. 

The plane trip was a mixed bag of emotions. Takeoff was fun, as was the first 2 hours of the flight. The plane food was not the horrific sludge most people tell me. After 5 hours I lost all sensation in my arse and was hyped up on coffee and 7up. The numerous pockets of turbulence we encountered did not help with my mental hyperactivity. Throughout the whole flight there was this weird guy who either stood looking out the window near the center galley of the plane or just staring at everyone in the tail section of the plane (which my family and I were in.) Even when the "sit and fasten seatbelt" announcement and signs were displayed he'd completely ignore them. I swear he must be like some senile guy who accidentally wandered onto our plane. I watched two movies and a documentary, all of them were good. Tried to sleep but hey, it's economy class. There must have been like 10 crying babies within a 7 meter radius from us. 

As we finally landed in KL at 1.45 am NZ time we disembarked and I felt the existence of my butt for the first time in 5 hours. The airport was supposed to be airconditioned but it was still pretty darn hot. I found it cool that we had to ride on an automatic monorail from the disembarking sector of the airport to the main hub. We went through customs and baggage reclamation surprisingly easy. However when we walked into the pickup area where my grand-aunt was to meet and pick us up 7 soldiers in full combat gear packing assault rifles greeted us (and the rest of the emerging passengers) with cold stares. My first thought was, "They use M4 carbines in airport security huh?" which was followed by "Oh crap those things are REAL" and finally "COOL!" My grandaunt saw us and calmly waltzed past all 7 troops and gave us all a big hug. I dunno if it was the fact that a Malaysian Muslim woman with her traditional getup greeted us so warmly but they seemed to look upon us with a less chilling look after that. 

As we walked out of the terminal that was when we felt it. The heat. Sweet mercy the HEAT. It was like a punch in the nuts in terms of how I recoiled and gasped for air. You see, I was dressed in a pair of jeans, my boots and a long sleeved shirt; since in the plane it was freezing cold at times what with the AC on full blast. But then it was like, whadup 28 degrees C with full humidity? How you doin? I'm sweltering myself. 

By then it was 8:30pm local time and my grand aunt and uncle took us for a 35 minute ride to a food place and gave us the first taste of Malaysian hospitality, despite us being so full from the airplane food. So we stuffed our faces and then went to their place where I am now. We're gonna stay here the night before going somewhere else.

Sorry if this post is messy, feeling damn sleepy and tired, not to mention trying to rush this as it is pretty late.

More updates soon hopefully!

Leaving tomorrow!

I had a fantastic time last night with all who were involved. Thanks again :) Will bring the card with me as a good luck charm.

The final touches are nearly done regarding our packing. My carry-on luggage is filled with extra clothes and undies (you can NEVER have too many undies...and socks.), two pairs of footwear and my huge supply of meds. I'm kinda worried security is gonna be suspicious of the fact I have a miniature pharmacy in my bag. The family are going out for dinner and then I'll be off to my final Bible study class for a while. Gonna miss my Church friends heaps. Oh and my dog, hope grandad remembers to feed her...and our fish (how those critters are still alive I will never know.)

Odd to think that I will be travelling back in TIME as well on this trip.

I will update again once I'm in Kuala Lumpur.

Wish me a safe trip!

Test post.

Hello to all (if any) of you who are reading this blog!

I know I'm still in NZ for another 5 days but I thought I might as well start this thing up beforehand.
Just wanted to get the feel of this whole "blog" thing. Also, ignore the cheesy title, I'm tired and couldn't think of anything better.

Well most of my local matters have been sorted, only thing making me worry is my late application to studylink, hope it sorts itself out. Preferably while I'm still in the country. Oh and I should really pack soon.

I guess I'll tell you what this thing's gonna have as content...

Food. Mostly food. A majority of the updates and pictures I will (hopefully) post will be of the numerous exotic and ridiculously delicious food I am gonna stuff my face with. I may also post pics of anything else that may be of interest as well as the odd anecdote.

It feels almost surreal that I will be out of the country for six weeks starting Thursday after living 13 year on a land full of sheep...thank goodness I went to the 2009 Wellington trip to remind my body what it feels like to be on a plane with turbulence. Though a 45 minute flight ain't gonna compare to a 15 hour one with NO STOPOVERS. Darn I was hoping I'd at least stop by Brunei, all my other relatives who go to Malaysia stop by the tiny kingdom or Australia for a short while. But us? Heck no, Imma gonna be stuck in a metal tube with wings for most of the day. The change of weather as well as population density is going to be...interesting to say the least.

OK I better cut this short, it's only a test post after all.

Peace out.