Now, much to my disappointment, Kuala Lumpar is a metropolitan Malaysian capital city, not a small, hairy, tuneful tribe of creatures that live with a paedophilic chocolate-eating shut-in in a mysterious Victorian factory. For years I had been under the impression that, as an fighter pilot during WW2, Roald Dahl had somehow ended up in Malaysia and named his delightful creatures after an Anglicised mispronunciation of the place, but after some extensive research (Google), I discovered that he actually trained in Nairobi and Iraq, crash landed over Egypt, fought in Greece and was then evacuated back to Egypt. So not Kuala Lumpar at all. In fact, after reading this and pondering for some time on where on earth I'd got this connection from, I realised that it was in fact my Grandfather who had flown aeroplanes in Malaysia, had not crash landed anywhere to my knowledge, and had not been evacuated to North Africa. However, the link is understandable when you consider that my Grandfather did once own a sweet shop, has a beard reminiscent to those that appear in 'The Twits' and would probably be a chocolate-eating shut-in if my Grandmother wasn't around to beat him with a stick and make him leave the house and wash his cardigans. So the confusion is comprehensible, I hope.
This jaunt to KL (this is how all the cool kids refer to it) was in aid of a flying visit to Bridget Clay, since I can't get enough of her. I extended the offer to the impoverished De Tang Clan, but only Kermit was able to take me up on it for one reason or another: Risk or Death wouldn't worry herself with a trip that did not involve some ADRENALIN FUELLED ACTION, the Hare was busy running around in Thailand, because running around in Vietnam had stopped being fun, and everyone else had some other feeble excuse. My one travelling companion, Kermit would, of all people, be the first to inoffensively and frankly extol the virtues of my moronity, so I went to extra trouble to prove to her that I do not miss every flight that I book myself into, and that I was, in general, a responsible and thinking adult. Thus, I checked us in online, we got to the airport in time to have a Burger King and even had time to go back and re-check in when we were told at the security gate that our boarding passes were not, in fact, boarding passes, and that online check in saves a grand total of zero queuing time.
Much fun was had when we eventually got to KL. We saw Bridget Clay:
We saw enormous Buddha's and climbed some steps (because I love steps). In fact, steps have not made much of an appearance on this blog, which is a shame, because I have a complex and fascinating relationship with steps, that is all Lizzie's fault. Here are some steps that we climbed:
We saw phallic stalactites, and of course we took photos of them. I wanted a photo of me touching it, but both Kermit and Bridget Clay walked away when I suggested it in eager tones.
We saw the Petronas Towers from the Kuala Lumpar Tower - a double tourist whammy, I feel:
I look oddly smug and proud in this photo.
Emma: That's right, the Petronas Towers!
Bridget: Eep!
Kermit: Emph!
Then we shopped:
Wow.
And then we felt like this:
Kermit: Hmmmph.
Emma: Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmph.
So we went for a drink with this view (sorry for blur: night time setting on camera is never good):Then we ate curry, and in the morning we came home.
... trips where I keep hold of my passport, and hang out with people who don't want to jump into crashing, storming oceans are fun and all, but the blogs always end up being a little lacklustre. I'll try to do something Li Hi and dangerous at some point in the next few weeks to convince you that my life is more than just indulgent luxury and gallivanting from expat centre to expat centre.
Something that is quite Li Hi, is that I ran 14k in 1h44m the other day. I mean, that's quite impressive, but I'm getting to the point where I feel I now qualify as a fit, healthy, sporty person, and can therefore no longer boast about running 10k in 1h05m on a week day after a full day's work without sounding like a complete arse...
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