KL sucks! I’d have to read back to what my impressions were of our Penang visa run, but it might have been that we were so grateful to get out of the minivan that anything would have done. KL is dirty and expensive.
This morning we went to the Thai Embassy. There are warning notices at every window, heeding against trying to get tourist visas for the purposes of work. While it’s a little nerve-wrecking, if the system is stupid they made it thus and thus they should fix it. We handed in our passports without the lady saying so much as boo to us. Pick-up tomorrow between ½ two and ½ four.
Cian had asked us if we’d mind picking up a hard-drive for him he’d had recovered and the hard-drive guy met us back at the guesthouse at 12:30 as arranged by Cian. We just had time between the embassy and the meeting to grab a quick lunch of acceptable Indian curry and excellent chicken tandoori, all accompanied by a plain lassi (yum) and some garlic naan (double yum).
Dinner last night – we walked around looking for Indian food, but in this neighbourhood the streets are lined with Moroccan/Lebanese/Iranian restaurants. We indulged in some lovely Tagine, Pastilla and Moroccan salad. As we were looking at the menu, Ryan is pointing at various dishes that he’s had that I’ve made for him. He likes Moroccan food. And for dessert? Very expensive Haagen Dazs.
We shopped all afternoon and were extremely disappointed. The tech stuff – not as cheap as Thailand. I was looking for a little point and shoot camera that I can use in my day-to-day underwater adventures and haven’t found anything. Ryan thinks I should hold out for the Canon G10, but that’s a lot of money and he doesn’t seem very keen on going halfsies, even though he wants it more than I do. I just want something small and compact. We went to the tech mall we’d been told about, expecting tons of choices in cameras with underwater housings and I’d done my research and had narrowed myself down to 3 options. None available really and next to impossible to find underwater housings.
Also in desperate need of bathing suits and have found nothing reasonably priced. So at a loss there!
At the end of the day, my gimp foot is killing me and now it’s moved up to my knee from walking funny AND I have nothing to show for it!
Tonight’s dinner ended up at Outback Steakhouse. Here’s how…a restaurant by the name of “The Ship” had been recommended to us by Cian for steaks and ribs. Ryan really wanted steak, and quite frankly the thought of a good ribeye was appealing to me. We’d spotted The Ship as we were walking around yesterday. Inside was quite nice – saloon-y steakhouse décor. We were seated and given menus. We started perusing. Suddenly Ryan says (sarcastically), “Score, they have sharkfin soup.” I said, “I’m sorry, we have to leave, I can’t eat here.” We left. And it’s exactly what I told the host on our way out, omitting the “sorry” part and adding “you have sharkfin soup.” That was completely offensive to me.
As we’re walking down the street to Outback, I pondered the somewhat hypocritical “you’ll eat a cow, but you won’t eat a shark.” Ryan’s view on it is quite simple: we breed cows for food. As much as that is completely unappealing to me as well (and I must say that I’m enjoying cow less and less), he’s right. Sharks on the other hand are fished out of the ocean to near depletion just for their fins, their fins are cut off and they’re tossed back in to drown. Following Ryan’s train of thought, we can’t grow new sharks. They don’t even have the decency to use the entire animal for food. I can’t get with a culture that thinks it’s okay. It’s my biggest gripe against Asia as a whole.
Outback was alright. Just can’t muster up the taste for meat I guess. Ryan really enjoyed it. But dessert was the bomb - Thunder from Down Under (not men in g-strings, but hot chocolate brownie topped with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream, topped with a scoop of Chantilly cream, all drizzled in chocolate sauce and chocolate shavings – so much better than men in g-strings!). I had to say Chantilly Cream because we wiki’ed Chantilly today and I explained to Ryan that in France, whipped cream is called “crème Chantilly.” We wiki’ed “Chantilly” after wiki’ing “A View to a Kill,” which I’m currently watching.
Tomorrow we pick up our passports and go back to Phuket where hopefully we’ll meet Chris. He was supposed to land tonight. Haven’t heard news from him since he last updated his facebook status from Bangkok six hours ago. I'm a little worried - I hope he found his way okay.
I don’t want to sound all negative-like, so let me pull some positive out of the experience. Always interesting seeing different places. Ryan got to ride the metro for the first time. The Petronas Towers are stunning, especially at night when they’re all lit up. Great new food experiences. Now I can say that’s I’ve walked out of a restaurant, which I’d honestly never done before. Increasingly, I'm learning that I am not a city girl. If I once was, I ain't no more!
But the best is spending time with Ryan where we actually get to talk and laugh and have leisurely time. We don’t see each other all that much on the island and we don’t’ spend enough good quality time together and when we do, we’re generally knackered. We have mostly late night conversations before falling asleep when, generally, one of us is already half asleep. So it’s good to catch up a bit (even if right now, he’s got his headphones on as I’m screaming at him to be social). Ah young love!
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