So, about those plans… I ended up sleeping my way straight through Saturday day and didn’t wake up until Saturday night…yep, just like that, the daylight hours eclipsed into darkness. I was exhausted. The good news is I did hang out in downtown KL amongst the hip-hop, happening night life scene. And it was raining a bit, but when it comes to rain, there’s nothing a Neve Black hat can’t cure:

Oh, and for dinner that night, I slipped out of the rain and into a little place that had tempted me with the smell of garlic, which in my opinion is an aphrodisiac. I followed my lust for food to a Middle Eastern place and I discovered a brand new favorite: creamy and scrumptious hummus mixed with eggplant, garlic, drizzled with tahinni - all served with fresh, hot flat bread. Sorry, I gobbled this up so fast it was gone daddy gone before I could snap a picture and share with you.

Kuala Lumpur City Center, the city that never sleeps, gets a new Neve Black name…

The city buzzes with music, traffic, lights, vendors, restaurants, clubs and gobs of people all quickly on their way to eat, drink and yes, be Malay-merry. As if the area isn’t already chock-full with things to do and see, the FIFA World Cup series is going on too – and you can’t help but get caught up in the fever. It’s been very exciting to sit and watch some of the games being played amongst a plethora of cultures. I love being exposed to all the various types of people; all intermingling together as they watch one country beat the shit out of another country… and in my not-asked-for opinion, doing it the right way, on the playing field.

The best way to describe downtown KL for me was imagining that I was in London, because the geographic size of both cities was very similar to me, as well as the right-sided driving, the European street design, to include round-abouts and yes, even the architecture was English cottage-esque. Oh, and as mentioned, the huge multi-cultural element that I found in both places is very similar also, however I don’t recall seeing nearly as many monks in London (okay, I never saw any in London) as I’ve seen in KL. The obvious glaring difference between the two cities is the weather – London is always cold, gray and drizzly, whereas KL is balmy and tropical, with the occassional monkey jumping about. Replace the English Channel with the Indian Ocean; add a few palm trees, and other lush, green foliage types and Voila! You’ve stepped into what I now refer to as…can I get a drum roll, please…? Malay-don.

Later that night, I ended up at an interesting nightclub called Skybar. Skybar sits high above the city’s skyline; with floor to ceiling windows – and curiously, a large lap pool that runs down the middle of the club. Don’t ask me why there’s a lap pool in a club, and the first thing I thought was, holy crap, that’s gotta be a liability…no, I didn’t go for a dip and I didn’t see anyone else swimming laps either.  If you’re lucky to find an open seat, you step down from the teak floor and into the cushioned window seats and take in the phenomenal panoramic views of the city – Twin Towers at night shown below.

The DJ spins loud, techno music, and I scratch my head with more curiosity, because instead of everyone dancing with their bad selves, they attempt to have intimate conversations amidst the peaceful views and the loud thumping music. So, like a good batgirl, I ordered a Tiger and try and blend in. No snickering please.

Oh. My. Got! Look the sun! I’m melting, melting, melting….

It’s Sunday MORNING, batgirl, rise and fucking shine, you pale skinned, creature of the KL night! I’m headed off to eat breakfast and drink coffee, instead of drinking my normal KL mainstay, breakfast with a Tiger beer, before heading back downtown today. The plan is to see the world famous Petronas Towers; and walk across the bridge that ties the two together. I’m also going to do a little more shopping. Oh, and by the way, I haven’t really touched on how absolutely ridiculous the shopping is here.

The cost of a Kuala Lumpur ringet compared to the U.S. dollar equates to about 70% more buying power. And there are more malls here to spend your hard-earned money on than I’ve ever seen in my life.

There’s nighttime street shopping:

Indoor malls with so many floors, you wouldn’t get through all of them in a lifetime, and middle malls, which are somewhere between the street vendors and the gigantimus multi-storied malls that have roller-coasters inside (not kidding):

And if that’s not enough, I went to Little India, and visited China Town too and none of these places are really very small townish at all.

China Town:

Litte India:

Suffice to say, Malay-dons love their shopping. I’ve never seen so many shoppers shopping all the time. I wonder if people do so much shopping because the malls are filled with the cool ambrosia of air-con. It’s fucking hot down here – hot and humid is Malaysian heat. I’m personally not much of a shopper, so for me, just watching everyone shopping is exhausting for me. I’m the girl with her trusted note pad, off to the side, jotting down notes, or asking lots of questions as to what, why, who and where? And then, there’s always more food to be eaten…beer to be drank…hey, it’s hot, what do you want from me?