Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Day 2: Tues March 24, 2012 Brent and I arrived in Kuala Lumpur around 1:30 in the afternoon. We were pretty lucky to have slept for a bit on the flight over and were ready to tackle the day. First, we decided to head to the train station to print out our train tickets to Singapore and stash our bags for the afternoon. Once all that was cleared we headed out on a self guided walking tour of the famous Chinatown. As what happens with most self guided tours in an unfamiliar city, we got lost. We ended up seeing most of the sights on the tour, but not in the exact order. We walked through their open market (full of American junk, seriously) and then headed over to an old Cricket field, Merdeka Square, which is also the location of Malaysia's independence from British rule. We also walked past quite a few mosques and temples and the city reminded me of a mix between Hydrabad in India and Bangkok in Thailand. KL is an incredible melting pot of cultures and religions...and yet surprisingly there were very few other "white" people (we are on the off season though). We ended up getting stuck in a thunderstorm though and got soaked through...Brent said it was our shower for the day. Whatever it was, it made us decide against seeing the Petronas Tower (which is actually what KL is famous for, but who cares about two huge man made towers anyway) and head back to Chinatown for some local hawker stall food. On our way we stumbled across a "fish spa" with "fish doctors" and became intrigued. The local custom is to have a mini spa pedicure with hundreds of tiny fish munching at your dead skin. Well the price was right so we decided to do as the locals do and get our feet wet...literally. It was a hilarious experience and while at first it tickled, after a few minutes you really got used to the experience. It made me wonder if my Dad could transform his koi pond into one of these fish spas...no more need for fish food, just plop your feet in the water and let the fish do the rest :) Maybe not...I think they were some special kind of fish...but it would still be fun. After the fish spa we found some amazing spicy sam mee noodles and washed it down with an ice cold beer. At this point it was getting later in the evening, it was still raining with thunder and lightening and Brent and I were exhausted. We decided to head back to the trani station and wait for our train to Singapore to arrive. Brent could barely keep his eyes open once we got to the station though and I have a good compilation of Brent sleeping (first standing up, then sitting up, then slouched over his bag). Once we got to our sleeper train Brent belly flopped onto the lower bunk and that was the last I heard from him until our arrival in Singapore :) It took us about 2 hrs to get to our hostel in Singapore but we have safely arrived, showered and are ready to explore the city. We are looking forward to a real bed tonight and maybe some quality sleeping in action tomorrow...although there is a lot to see in Singapore so we better get on our way! More to come. Love you all!