Umper Lumpur

We got off the island last weekend, which was very exciting, and this time we even went to another country, which was even more exciting. But not that exciting, we went to Kuala Lumpur. Emma was even less excited when I told her that No, it isn't the place that Umper Lumpers come from. The hosties aboard our Japanese Air Lines flight barely had time to put away their life jackets and whistles.
The convenience of flying to KL is brought into question when a 30 minute flight takes you 5 hours door to door after check in times and transport and crap. Doesn't help when the KL airport is actually in Singapore. Well at least it felt like it was, the cab ride was at least an hour from airport to hotel. The cheerful lady at the luxury bus desk at our mediocre hotel told me it was 5 hours from Singapore on a bus to hotel door.
KL was fun for a couple of days, we went to catch up with and work mate who was on his way to India. The first thing Reidy noticed was the smell, and try as I might I just couldn't convince her it was the sewerage and not me. The second was the next day when we saw hills around the outskirts. It's a bit weird when you live in very flat place and you get excited about seeing earth bosoms in a city, but that's what happens.
The highlight of what was otherwise a pretty ordinary 3-hour "Country Tour" was the world's biggest pewter tankard at the Royal pewter factory, no it wasn't; Batu Caves was. This is a Hindu shrine in a cave (weird that) at the top of a 272 step climb. We didn't notice the climb because we were too busy being intimidated by the resident monkeys, I don't like monkeys in the wild they're just a little too sneaky and sure of themselves for my liking. The caves were pretty cool if a bit stinky but this time I couldn't blame it on the sewage. There was bit of stuff going on there, but it was pretty well deserted. Nothing like the festival of Thaipusam where 1.5 million people flock there over 3 days to either watch or participate in honouring the Hindu god Subramanian.
Celebrating the occasion is up to the individual from offering up to bread and milk to sticking steel skewers through various part of the body. Apparenently the skewering doesn't hurt due to the trance like state you are in, but I would be quite content with offering up a saucer of milk and loaf of bread. It is also celebrated in Singapore but I would imagine it would be with a little less vigour, still I'm looking forward to checking that out next year.
Malaysia must be the pre-release movie capital of the world, how else could they could have such a wide range of current movies already on DVD, and so cheap as well. If you were to buy them, and I'm not saying we did, they would even deliver them to your table while your eating, which shits all over Video Ezy as a service.
The first time I checked our flight home was at the airport after the JAL check in lady said we didn't have a booking. Aha I thought, bullshit I thought, I have it here on my itinerary I said, and just to prove it waived it in her face. Emma took in a deep breath in order to give them a good serve, but had to downgrade it to an enormous sigh when we were told that while indeed it represents a confirmed booking, it was for next Tuesday. I thought I did well to escape the wrath of Reidy, but the check in lady was treating me with some contempt.
She did manage to get us on the flight, I'm not sure what the Malaysian for Arseclown is but I'm pretty sure that's what she said to her colleague, because she too started treating us with the same contempt. Our 30-minute flight home took 2 hours due to some issues with passengers being on the wrong plane, the only thing is they didn't know who and fortunately it wasn't us. So this meant 4 attempts at counting every passenger before they eventually worked out they could cross names off a list, sure enough 5 people were on the wrong flight and had to get off. How the hell did that happen? But I did manage to watch a 90 minute movie on a 30 minute flight, I think we'll get the bus next itme.