Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Stayed at Fortuna Hotel again, but this time met up with a good friend’s sister, Pek Chin, for a personal tour of the hidden gems of KL.
Back in Kuala Lumpur, we met up with Pek Chin, the older sister of our friend from Ottawa, Pek Lee. We met her and some of her friends over drinks and dinner, and got some great tips for our upcoming visits to Borneo and Thailand.
The next day, our personal tour guide, Pek, treated us to a fabulous market/street stall breakfast, where the food is the freshest and tastiest in all of KL. On plastic chairs, around plastic tables, on the edge of the fruit and vegetable market, we sipped yummy, malty milk tea, accompanied by sandwiches of coconut butter, from one vendor, followed by some pieces of Popiah (vegetable filled crepe, rolled like a burrito) and small bowl of Malaysian Laksa, from another vendor.
After getting us well plumped up, Pek took us to visit our first fortune teller. It was quite the experience… waiting on small plastic stools, behind 10 other people (mostly local Chinese), to meet a Thai Buddhist fortune teller. Even though neither of us believe in the supernatural, we both found ourselves feeling quite anxious. What if he really can see through us, and into the future? Other than common sense things like: “someone will try to steal your bag”, and superstitious things like “your house should face North”, he warned me to avoid the Tiger. I could take it to mean avoid people born in the year of the Tiger (i.e. me), but perhaps he’s referring to the popular Malaysian/Singaporean beer called Tiger, or perhaps he’s foreshadowing my upcoming visit to West Bengal, India, where I’ll be on a personal mission to spot a wild tiger. Grant has been having nightmares where I’m getting mauled by a tiger, so that prophecy is particularly eerie. That, along with his accurate listing of Asian countries that I’ll be visiting (China, Nepal, Thailand, India, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos, but avoid Indonesia). But then again, that’s probably a common travel route for white women who happen to visit a Thai Buddhist fortune teller in Malaysia.
That night, Grant and I couldn’t resist attending the opening night of BoneyM in Kuala Lumpur. BoneyM was a disco band from when we were we little ones, that made it big in Canada, Europe, and apparently Malaysia. But when we got to the theater, we were starting to think that maybe this was another band by the same name. Women were dressed in traditional Malay clothing, complete with head scarves. Men were all dressed up too. After an announcement in Bahasa Malay, the curtains opened,. and the crowd joined in with the national anthem. A few different singers took turns playing Malaysian and English folk songs. For some of the songs, a couple in Malaysian influenced disco garbs danced beautifully out front in a disco style. When a band of traditional Malay percussionists came on stage and started clapping and swaying their hands to the music, we really started laughing at our mistake. But that’s when finally, the curtains dropped, the stage started rotating, and the big BoneyM sign lit up. The earlier entertainment had just been the opening act, but it would have been worth it even just for the taste of Malaysian song and dance. BoneyM was entertaining, but it’s sad to see that only one person remains from the original group. It’s kind of weird watching a man in his thirties, trying to sing, and dancing around like a Chippendale, pretending to be the star of the show, while the 3 women had beautiful voices, and did a wonderful job of recreating the disco grove. The audience loved them. Malay, Indians, and Chinese, all jumping up and down dancing and singing at the top of their lungs.
Where we stayed
Hotel Fortuna – 87 Jalan Berangan, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
