Saturday:
Crazy ride through KL
Friends on the street love the trike
Lots of eating
Touring KL markets at night...omg all that STUFF
Scary Alley - eatery in back alley
Sunday:
Wet market
Wide noodle soup and great coffee...kopi C
Brothers house warming
Tea, rice, salt to scare the spirits away
Out to eat...banquet
Home for nap
Out to eat
Monday:
Roti breakfast and ginger tea
Batu caves
Baby ceremony
Shopping mall
Climbing gym
Fireflies
Late night eating black noodles
Okay, above are my notes of the three days we stayed at "Mama Ching's" in a suburb of Kuala Lumpur. We got hooked up with her daughter in Singapore through a friend of Sylvia's back in Portland. Then Ching said we should stay with her mother when we get to Kuala Lumpur. So after our couple of nights staying in downtown KL, Saturday we mapped a route out to Petaling Jaya and "Mama Ching's". I seem to be able to negotiate the cities pretty well so I usually lead. This day was a nightmare for me. Strange cities are hard to drive...imagine cycling through one. WIth no GPS! I was trying to us Google Maps on my old iPhone which we put a Malaysian SIM card in...but the blue dot wouldn't update...the streets turned when the map said they would be straight...then there were dead ends where the map showed the roads continuing. I had to keep stopping and checking and pedaling and stopping and checking and turning around and cutting across 3 lanes to turn right (they drive on the left here)...so confusing, so frustrating, so stressful, so exhausting. At one point we fed onto a highway going the exactly opposite direction from where I wanted to head. And you know how long highways can go before you can get off! We couldn't get on. We had to stop. But do we go the wrong way back up the entrance lane? We pulled into the exit lane of a mall that also fed onto this highway to stop and think this through. We didn't want to go into the parking garage, although I was considering it. Someone stopped to say that there was an upper level road that crossed over this highway intersection and would help us. So we biked against the traffic, up and over. Unbelievable! (Yesterday I showed Mama Ching our route when she was trying to get over this same highway intersection...and she lives 1 km from this place:))
After we landed and showered, the eating began...and we ate...and we ate...and we ate...for all three days. We probably gained 5 pounds but the food was wonderful! We learned more about Chinese and Malaysian food to equip us for the rest of our journey. And I took lots of notes: writing down new words and new dishes.
We ate that afternoon at a local shop renowned for its nasi lemak (coconut rice with chili sauce and peanuts), then later we went into KL to Little India to "Scary Alley Restaurant"...our name for the place. After parking we walked down back alleys to an eatery that was in the alley. You had to know about this place because you wouldn't just pass it by. Delicious! We just let Mama Ching order for us. She got good at ordering our vegetarian delights. We may have convinced her to convert, but not likely:)
The next day it was off to the Wet Market, so called because it's in the open air...well, really under a bunch of umbrellas. We learned a whole lot of veggies we never knew before, saw fresh fish, and chickens being chopped. These markets are just amazing and the smells so rich and real. Afterwards it was time for breakfast nearby. Pan Mee. This is a soup with wide noodles cooked fresh right there! And good coffee!
(Above is Gramma Ching...and Auntie Chings!)
Next we went to her brother's house warming. Red ribbon over the front door. A fire (from a portable burner) to chase away evil spirits as well as spreading rice, tea, and salt around to help get rid of spirits too. We toured the new, very modern house: 5 bedrooms on three floors! We ate small treats of various Chinese types and I can't remember what anything was so I can't tell you about it. Small cubed rice thingies in bright colors of blue and green. Then someone announces we're all going out to eat...again. But S and I are still full from breakfast and our snack:). We look at each other and smile: of course, lets go eat!
That evening after a nap, or an attempt to nap (had an espresso beforehand, so no napping for me), Mama Ching took us to another favorite spot for some more special food. This place was packed! Open air eateries are the best. S and I have a new rule: No Doors! If the restaurant has doors we pay 3x and for a lot less food! So no more restaurant with doors for us!!!
Ok, now I'm up to Monday.
Days later I'm back to writing. It's Friday that I'm writing this, but I'll try and fill in the week. We're staying over in a small town smack in the middle of Malaysia on our way to Ipoh, a town just outside the Cameron Highlands. We're planning on staying there a couple of days and taking a bus trip up into the Highlands - don't forget the dramamine, BagLady:)
Ok now to this week. Monday was a big touring day with Mama Ching driving us all over the place. First we went to breakfast, of course. Then to the Batu Caves. This is a Hindu temple built inside these massive caves...MASSIVE! 50 ft high or more up to the top and the openings. There is a gold statue outside that is one of the largest Hindu statues in the world. Then climb 272 steps up to the entrance. And while we were there, there was a ceremony that recognizes a child's first year going on. The babies have their hair shaved as an offering. Quite impressive! Living in the caves were chickens, roosters, and monkeys...living off the food offerings that have been made there.
Then off to the mall to run some errands and, of course, eat again...this time Penang style. We had hoped to get a nap in today before heading north to see the fireflies, but the errands at the mall ate up that time. The malls in KL are everywhere and they are enormous and gorgeous! KL is one of the top 5 shopping cities in the world...and I see why! If it ain't here, they don't make it! Well, except for my style of hiking clothing...couldn't find that anywhere. Guess they aren't hikers in Malaysia!
The drive up to the fireflies was most interesting because the roads here are very confusing. Sylvia was navigating from the backseat (I have motion sickness so she let me ride up front all the time, thank you, Sylvia!). Her Google Nexus tablet has been a lifesaver for its GPS maps. It's saved us time and time again!
The fireflies are famous here because they gather and live on this river's banks in a special tree, eating its leaves. There is no construction or destruction allowed in the area to protect the fireflies. And what a wonder it was. We got on this small, quiet boat and floated down the river seeing faint twinkling in the bushes. So tiny, so many! Like the tiniest Christmas lights filling just some of the bushes and not others. I loved the quiet on the river - no talking allowed - and the sounds coming from the bushes, and the twinkling lights. Like nothing I've ever seen! And something that can't be photographed, at least with our cameras. Maybe that makes it even more special.
Long drive home. Went past a special mosque that was quite beautiful, especially all lit up at night.
Getting late, like nearing 11pm, but Mama Ching insisted that we had to go...EAT, of course! Black noodles. Ok! And they were delicious. Hokkien Noodles. Yum! So much fun! This woman has amazing energy! Ran us ragged! But we wouldn't have changed a thing!
The next day after a before breakfast snack of fruit and coffee, we wandered to a local restaurant for our last meal with Mama Ching. Then getting the bikes our of her living room, pumped up, greased up, and road ready...we finally headed out about noon. We changed our plans because we were getting a late start.
On the map, the route looked simple: up 11, catch 54 east, then route 1 to Rawang. How hard can it be? Silly us! These are major thoroughfares with multiple lanes feeding into multiple lanes...and routes splitting up the middle and we need to be on the far side. Yikes! At one point we were literally bike up the middle of a 4 lane highway because we needed to go to the right (left hand driving)...OMG! What are we doing??? Is this safe? I don't think so! Just follow Sylvia! And for whatever reason, the traffic quieted down just then and we made it easily...UNBELIEVABLE!
Communication between the trikes is difficult and sometimes we get a ways apart. Poor Sylvia, who's much more detail oriented and observant than I am (thank goodness!) saw our highway 54 on a sign going right, but I was pedaling on straight, following 11. I knew we had to stay on 11 for quite a ways, so I wasn't looking for 54, just trying to be sure we stayed on 11 when the roads went in every direction. So she's panicking that we're missing our turn (as she should) and trying to get me to stop, calling my name, but I can't hear her over the traffic (deaf in one ear doesn't help things). She finally blows her whistle, I stop, and she catches up. Bit of scare for her, but we decide to continue on and hope I haven't screwed things up. Crazy biking conditions, unable to communicate, noisy roads, stressful to say the least! But we managed to eventually find our way out of KL and into Rawang. Whew!
SItting in our hotel room later, Sylvia says something about the hardness of the beds (they are quite firm over here) and I realize that I've left my Thermarest back at Mama Ching's under the sheet where I put it. Darn! What to do? Email her? Facebook her? (We got her on FB just before we left:)) Sylvia says...Skype call her! So I do. And she offers to drive up that evening and bring it to me! Are you kidding? More driving for Mama Ching? Poor woman! Ok...dinner's on me! Beer too! Besides, we missed her!!!! Missed eating with her!!!! So, the dear sweet woman, did just that. Thank you Mama Ching for everything you did for us: the wonderful place to stay the nights with separate bedrooms...the food, all the different kinds and places, we learned so much...the laughs...your energy! Please meet us in Beijing next year!!!
Okay, I've caught up on all the excitement of our visit to KL, Mama Ching's and getting out of town. We are heading up the middle of Malaysia now, a bit inland, to visit Ipoh. I hope y'all are checking your maps, following along:) Sylvia researched stops along the way based on whether or not they had hotels, figuring on roughly 35 miles a day...it's hot here...we're old ladies...we have other things we like to do as well as bike...like EAT!...and drink iced fruit drinks!...and sit in air conditioning (or like they say here "air con"). But plans don't always work out. Some days we have to quit early because one or the other of us is not feeling so good. And some days we have to go an extra 10 miles because a town we thought had a hotel, does not. That was yesterday. Luckily we left early because we knew it was going to be a long day...but it was longer than we planned. That's ok, when the hotel we find is NICE: large lobby for our trikes; clean, decent rooms; top sheets on the beds (don't laugh, they don't all have that!); and wifi!!!
Not really,
BagLady
More pictures are posted at:
https://picasaweb.google.com/104890875270597877610
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