A New Week in Klang & Kuala Lumpur

The weekend have come and gone so quickly... and I finally have a quick minute or so to post some more updates...

Food that I have accomplished eating: nasi lemak (I think I have eaten it for like 5-6 times in these few days), mee-hun-ker, char-kuey-tiau, cendol, satay, curry mee, mee shua, char keh, pohpiah, niau-chu-hun, wah-tan-hor, peh-ker, chee-cheong-fun, karipap, A LOT of Chinese meal and homecook meal, and numerous drinks... on the agenda this week are mee rebus, chicken rice, mamak, and whatever-else that I can think of (with the assistance of my parents, siblings, and friends)... trust me when I say that everyone is taking me on food trips every hour of the day (and night)

Sunday... went to church and met up with a lot of friends that I grew up with... it was great to be back home, "where everybody knows your name"... you know how that feels... nothing to exciting... like my typical sunday for years before I left for theUS... here's a picture of me and my family... (fyi:I look exceptionally taller... because I stood on the steps... ) oh... also got some time in to catch up with numerous friends that I grew up with... it sure feels different when you haven't seen friends for years, but somehow you reconnect easily because of the bonds that have been built years before... "for old times' sake"... and of course, a lot of food... which I have listed above...

Monday & Tuesday... head down to Kuala Lumpur, the Capital of Malaysia (which is a 30-45 minutes drive from Klang - my hometown) for a day as a tourist... went by several tourist hotspots... including the KL Tower (which is on the left... not to be mistaken for the KLCC Petronas Twin Towers... which I do not have a picture of since it was raining)... went by Bintang Walk & Sungei Wang area... which is a big place to shop for designer labels and all those... including the picture on the right, StarHill - an upscale trendy mall where everything is at least RM1000 (which is around USD280)...

Other than that, visited a bunch of other places that follows:
- Central Market (right picture) - a touristy souvenir, arts and crafts, and Malaysian market... great bargain one-stop for all souvenirs and gifts..
- Dataran Merdeka (Independence Square - left picture)... where the tallest flagpole in all South East Asia... I basically took a long walk through the city... using all the tall buildings as my place markers... it's awesome to live in a city with VERY tall buildings...
- Sultan Abdul Samad Building (left) - historical buildings which are now the Federal Court building where all the high-level and significant court cases are heard...
- Masjid Jamek (right) - the National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur... it is right beside the two rivers that gave birth to "Kuala Lumpur" as a city... (note that Kuala Lumpur means Muddy River Delta) and it is form by two rivers: Klang River and Gombak River... you can see one of the rivers here (second pic on the right)... yes, it is dirty and muddy just like it is supposed to be...

Other than all the sightseeing... I did a lot of shopping since everything is like cheap here... USD1.00 = RM3.70... so, basically everything is a quarter of the price to me... it was fun and exhausting... so, today (Wednesday), I am home, relaxing and chilling, getting a well-needed haircut and meeting up with friends... an overall calm and easygoing day... oh, I'll be leaving for Pulau Redang, off the eastern coast of Peninsular Malaysia... the island is close to where the first Survivor was based at... it's a isolated and protected island... will be doing a lot of water activities... more stories and pictures to come then...With that... I leave you with a picture of a rainy day in the developed skyline of Kuala Lumpur...

Singapore Airlines & Day 1 in Malaysia

Spent the entire Wednesday packing all my clothes (summer clothes for Malaysia, winter clothes for Australia) into ONE (yes, amazingly) suitcase... had my last meal at Nation's in Berkeley with the roommate, and then Dave drove me to SFO. As usual, since I'm taking SIA (Singapore Airlines), the flight is full off Asian people (East Asian - Chinese predominantly and Indian Asian). I got aisle seats, which are great for me since I hate bugging people to get up for me to go to the restroom or whatever else I need to do. Throughout the flight (18 hours to Hong Kong, 3 hours to Singapore, 1 hour to Malaysia), I watched like 6-7 movies (new releases predominantly like failure to launch, underworld revolution, matchpoint, etc.), and listen to some of my favorite CDs via on-demand movies and on-demand music... which is an awesome amenities onboard SIA ECONOMY class... I truly encourage everyone to fly SIA mainly for such perks... we have on-demand tv shows, on-demand video games, and wireless internet connection as well. Great airline, with hot flight attendants, delicious food, and great perks... what is there not to love it! However, thanks to that, I hardly had ANY shut-eye on any leg of my flight... just random dozing off every now and then including some 5-10 minutes unaccounted for in each movie or so. As such, upon arrival in KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport), I begin my first 24 hours in Malaysia very tired, both physically and mentally!

Just spent the first 24 hours in Malaysia doing the following:
- Went straight to Malaysian Immigration Department to get my passport renewed. Took like 1.5 hours and I am ready to collect my passport on Monday (to get visa for Australia...)
- Came home and had some great Chinese food, spending time with my family since all five of us haven't had a meal together since December last year when everyone was in California
- I crashed out right after that on a sofa... which later ended up on the bed. However, I was awoken about an hour or so later due to the fact that the power went out. Yes, shitty indeed... especially since this has not happened here for a long long time... and it only affected the block that we were in. Tried to stay up to avoid mosquito bites to no avail, so I have some swollen bites on my legs. Power came back on and I crashed out cold again till this morning.
- Went for brunch with my family, had some great chee-cheong-fun and nasi lemak. I truly miss the food here, and thus begin my parents inquiry of what I want to eat every 5-10 minutes... which is awesome but also making me feel hella fatty!
- Got my dental work done... one tiny cavity and now, just chilling back home before going to visit some friends tonight!

I will try to post some pictures tomorrow and more exciting news and stories I hope! Hope everyone is not missing me too much... I know Berkeley and San Francisco must be feeling very lost without its very own Special K. Miss you all too!

On a side note, I decided to include this picture (on the right) that somehow made it to our intranet website this week... I got a lot of shit when this picture was put up, but I have to say that I truly look hard at work in the picture!

Note: For those of you who are wondering why is the blog named, " Special K to the Rescue"... Special K is one of my numerous nickname at work and it is the most commonly and widely used one. Why Special K? Go ask some Green Dotters... they can tell you why...

Safe and sound in Malaysia...

Yes, I arrived safe and sound in Kuala Lumpur and now, I'm back in my hometown of Klang... more update to come later tonight!