Postcard from Malaysia Two
Shit you don't need for prices you can totally afford.
"This seems like a legit operation"
I found alllllll the bootlegs.
Long enough to get hungry...
36 hours in and still no food poisoning! Today is looking good! After a shameful meal of yesterday's abandoned, instant coffee with powdered creamer (yep, served room temp) paired off with a piece of nan from dinner yesterday I didn't finish, I was ready to face the day! Walked the mile and a half to Central Market and spent an hour or so looking around. Okay, here is another mental road block I need to get over. So I saw a bag I liked. The price was fair, 25 RM, but since I knew I was in a touristy area I knew I was getting ripped off so I would never be able to enjoy the damned thing. Why can't I treat buying things for a "high price" the same way I treat donating money to NPR? It's not the mug you are paying for. You are supporting something and they are giving you a present. If I could just get a hawker to acknowledge this relationship, if waste a lot more money. And, yes, this makes me a pretty shitty person for multiple reasons.
Anyway, I didn't buy anything save for some rose lychee tea (6.20 RM)and some putu bambu (4 RM, rice and tapioca flour mixed with coconut and cane sugar). I need to find a place I can scarf the rest of that pretty soon here. I did end up wandering aimlessly about, heading vaguely toward the Twin Towers, but I suddenly suspected I was heading toward a You Don't Belong Here area and wandered in a different direction... Which happened to be Chinatown. Found a dude in a stairwell who made keys and got a spare apartment key made for 1/6 what it was gonna cost me in Japan. Told the guy I would come back and get two more made if this one worked in passing. Made up a whole B.S. story about just moving here for work at a private Christian school and my apartment only being one station away from the area. Why do I lie to strangers so frequently?
Turning the corner again brought me face-first into Jalan Petaling, the big photo opp in Chinatown. Walked the area and touched the things but... I just can't buy anything! My bag is, again, overweight and I don't wanna waste money on stuff.
Now it's 2:30 and I am chilling, well, not melting at least, in a Hindu temple. Marble and granite are nice stones to surround yourself with when it is yeast-infection-covered-testicles hot. Plus, it's a Hindu temple so you have the perfect cover for taking off your shoes and socks. Ahhhhhh... Let them toes breathe!
I disrespect all religions equally, I think. I'm not prejudiced to one more than another.
Ha ha ha... Again, I wrote all this on my iPhone. One little keystroke at a time. How long have I been here???
Apparently long enough to wonder how offensive it would be to be one of the Hindu goddesses for Halloween. But, this chick has a giant butt and massive thighs, like me, a pretty good dip in the waist, chubby arms, no neck, very pronounced forehead wrinkles, defined eyebrows, and seems to like birds. She also has long fingers and better lips (as in she has some. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for the food-opening I have for a mouth). Ah well. Can't win 'em all.
I've also been here long enough to start guessing which Hindu pose the tourists will do as they take photos. I wonder if they pretend to be crucified when they visit a church?
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