Hello Malaysia
Well, Kuala Lumpur is a pretty cool city. The first thing I noticed as soon as we stepped out of the airport was the massive McDonald's and Starbucks. Really weird seeing those again...
It's developed and there's lots of traffic. Lots of food everywhere and people running around the whole day, too. As developed and high rise it is, it's still a lot like the rest of SEA in that there are hawker stalls and street food and drinks in plastic bags, which is kind of cool.
Had a bit of an explore around the place and moved into a slightly better guesthouse down the road which is a bit more promising. We're not far from the Indian sector of town and so you get lots of curry restaurants and there's a Hindu temple at the corner. I don't know anything about the religion, but they offer a whole load of coconuts there and I've seen them smashing them on the floor. The other day, a man was chopping the coconuts open with a machete and threw the juice away and kept the shells. Huh?!
We've also made friends with this really nice lady at the local bus station. She runs a food stall there and she's really friendly and was giving us tips on how to get around and where to go etc. which was cool. Also, she introduced us to Teh Tarik - so yum! I love it! It's hot milky sweet tea and they 'pull' it by decanting it between two containers, back and forth. It 'pulls' the tea and makes it really frothy and creamy. It's seriously tasty! Had a meal there too and it all came to like 1.50 which is along the lines of the rest of SEA, so we were happy. Unfortunately, accommodation is seriously expensive. No more 1.50 a night rooms with lovely views for us...
So we booked our bus to Penang, but alack and alas, on our way to the bus stop, Phil tripped on a ledge and fell down it, breaking his right ankle and seriously spraining the left one. We had all our bags with us too and we were in a hurry to make it in time and that was that, then.
Poor Phil. He was in serious pain and then all these blokes came out of their houses to have a look at the white man lying on the floor with a big rucksack strapped to his back. They were grabbing him and trying to get him to stand up and I was stopping them, because Phil was knocked for six by that point and was trying to just breathe. I think your body goes into shock at what happenend and the last thing you want is people pulling you about.
Anyway, after a while, our guesthouse guy comes down the road, sees us and then with the help of this other chap, we got Phil back to the guesthouse we'd just left! Oh man. He couldn't walk one bit, so this guy carried him all the way - it was like in a movie when the bride gets carried over the threshold, though I don't think Phil felt very much like a bride at that point.
We then made our way to the hospital where we were shunted about from one department to another. They were very nice though and looked after us properly. They gave Phil a wheelchair and I was wheeling him about. Of course we did end up being a bit silly and raced it when no one was looking. heheheh.
First we saw a 'normal' doctor and she kind of poked him and said "You should have an x-ray." We were like 'Yeah, we know. That's what we came for.' So after that enlightenment, she sent us to the x-ray department where this nice lady was doing her thing on Phil's foot and we found out for sure that he had fractured it. Then, back to the 'normal' doctor, who said "You can see the Orthopaedic doctor, so you can have a cast if you want." Phil was like "Not sure I want one. What is the other option?" and she said "There isn't." So we were like "OK, so it's not about wanting one, really, isn't it. But rather we need one." After clearing that up, we went up to see the Orthopaedic doctor, who was this really lovely Chinese man.
He studied the x-rays and was really helpful and explained everything and told us he studied at the University of Edinburgh for his medical degree. Pretty cool, huh? So then he put Phil in a big fat blue fiberglass cast and sent us down to Physiotherapy.
Down we went and Phil got measured for crutches and taught how to walk with them, how to get up and sit down and manage with them in general. And that was it! The whole thing cost us a grand total of 80 quid; that's including the crutches. Not bad, huh? And hardly any waiting time!
Tried to get a cab back to our guesthouse, but no one was taking us, because they said it was too close! I was really cross and kept trying to stop cars to take us, but Phil ended up walking all the way back. By the time we made it, he was so exhausted and I was ready to drop, too. All I wanted to do was to make Phil comfy and then crawl into bed. So as I was getting everything sorted out in the room, the guy from the guesthouse grabs me. I was so shocked and creeped out and it was horrible, especially because he'd been really good with Phil and very helpful and it was such a breach of trust and everything.
I couldn't stay there after that and after settling Phil into the room, I went off in search of somewhere else to stay. It was the best idea anyway though, as that place was a bit of a bug pit (I had so many bites!) and access was really tough for Phil on the crutches as there were stairs everywhere. So I found this lovely hotel, called the Swiss Inn, smack in the middle of Chinatown and its market, which is cool. We have a lovely clean room, a phone (!), a telly and our own bathroom and a lift, so Phil get around - Hooray! And best of all, no sleazy guys!
It's developed and there's lots of traffic. Lots of food everywhere and people running around the whole day, too. As developed and high rise it is, it's still a lot like the rest of SEA in that there are hawker stalls and street food and drinks in plastic bags, which is kind of cool.
Had a bit of an explore around the place and moved into a slightly better guesthouse down the road which is a bit more promising. We're not far from the Indian sector of town and so you get lots of curry restaurants and there's a Hindu temple at the corner. I don't know anything about the religion, but they offer a whole load of coconuts there and I've seen them smashing them on the floor. The other day, a man was chopping the coconuts open with a machete and threw the juice away and kept the shells. Huh?!
We've also made friends with this really nice lady at the local bus station. She runs a food stall there and she's really friendly and was giving us tips on how to get around and where to go etc. which was cool. Also, she introduced us to Teh Tarik - so yum! I love it! It's hot milky sweet tea and they 'pull' it by decanting it between two containers, back and forth. It 'pulls' the tea and makes it really frothy and creamy. It's seriously tasty! Had a meal there too and it all came to like 1.50 which is along the lines of the rest of SEA, so we were happy. Unfortunately, accommodation is seriously expensive. No more 1.50 a night rooms with lovely views for us...
So we booked our bus to Penang, but alack and alas, on our way to the bus stop, Phil tripped on a ledge and fell down it, breaking his right ankle and seriously spraining the left one. We had all our bags with us too and we were in a hurry to make it in time and that was that, then.
Poor Phil. He was in serious pain and then all these blokes came out of their houses to have a look at the white man lying on the floor with a big rucksack strapped to his back. They were grabbing him and trying to get him to stand up and I was stopping them, because Phil was knocked for six by that point and was trying to just breathe. I think your body goes into shock at what happenend and the last thing you want is people pulling you about.
Anyway, after a while, our guesthouse guy comes down the road, sees us and then with the help of this other chap, we got Phil back to the guesthouse we'd just left! Oh man. He couldn't walk one bit, so this guy carried him all the way - it was like in a movie when the bride gets carried over the threshold, though I don't think Phil felt very much like a bride at that point.
We then made our way to the hospital where we were shunted about from one department to another. They were very nice though and looked after us properly. They gave Phil a wheelchair and I was wheeling him about. Of course we did end up being a bit silly and raced it when no one was looking. heheheh.
First we saw a 'normal' doctor and she kind of poked him and said "You should have an x-ray." We were like 'Yeah, we know. That's what we came for.' So after that enlightenment, she sent us to the x-ray department where this nice lady was doing her thing on Phil's foot and we found out for sure that he had fractured it. Then, back to the 'normal' doctor, who said "You can see the Orthopaedic doctor, so you can have a cast if you want." Phil was like "Not sure I want one. What is the other option?" and she said "There isn't." So we were like "OK, so it's not about wanting one, really, isn't it. But rather we need one." After clearing that up, we went up to see the Orthopaedic doctor, who was this really lovely Chinese man.
He studied the x-rays and was really helpful and explained everything and told us he studied at the University of Edinburgh for his medical degree. Pretty cool, huh? So then he put Phil in a big fat blue fiberglass cast and sent us down to Physiotherapy.
Down we went and Phil got measured for crutches and taught how to walk with them, how to get up and sit down and manage with them in general. And that was it! The whole thing cost us a grand total of 80 quid; that's including the crutches. Not bad, huh? And hardly any waiting time!
Tried to get a cab back to our guesthouse, but no one was taking us, because they said it was too close! I was really cross and kept trying to stop cars to take us, but Phil ended up walking all the way back. By the time we made it, he was so exhausted and I was ready to drop, too. All I wanted to do was to make Phil comfy and then crawl into bed. So as I was getting everything sorted out in the room, the guy from the guesthouse grabs me. I was so shocked and creeped out and it was horrible, especially because he'd been really good with Phil and very helpful and it was such a breach of trust and everything.
I couldn't stay there after that and after settling Phil into the room, I went off in search of somewhere else to stay. It was the best idea anyway though, as that place was a bit of a bug pit (I had so many bites!) and access was really tough for Phil on the crutches as there were stairs everywhere. So I found this lovely hotel, called the Swiss Inn, smack in the middle of Chinatown and its market, which is cool. We have a lovely clean room, a phone (!), a telly and our own bathroom and a lift, so Phil get around - Hooray! And best of all, no sleazy guys!
posted by Phil and Tanja @ 10:58 PM
<< Home