24 Hours of Fun

Having only spent about US$30 between the two of us, Yale and I decided to have a little more fun during our second day in KL. Like the last few days, we had a late morning and left the hotel about 11:00 am. The first stop on our day of fun was Times Square, located in the Southeast corner of KL. I was impressed by the large mall (10 stories) they had there. If I remember correctly, it's one of the largest in the world (supposedly with 900 shops, a cinemas, indoor amusement park, etc.). Knowing that Yale isn't much into shopping, I kinda gazed around and started looking for Cosmo's Adventure Park (the indoor amusement park). Frommer's recommended this park too everybody, even though much of the place was geared towards small children. Like the bike ride, Yale was skeptical of having any fun at the park. The one ride I wanted to go one wasn't open when we arrived (doing routine maintenance/testing), so we decided to kill some time by walking around this part of town.

In the neighborhood, there were a few nice hotels (including the JW Marriott, The Ritz-Carlton, and the Westin Hotel). There appeared to be another shopping district about one street over. We wandered around looking at the shops and for a cheap massage parlor. The massage place that I originally wanted to go to was located about 30 minutes outside of town. They had fabulous rates, but I didn't feel like taking a taxi. We found a couple of places offering one-hour massages for ~US$20. We picked a place and decided to come back later in the afternoon—we wanted to relax after all the fun we were about to have.

Just a small side note...If you don't know, Malaysia is located in a tropical climate. It really does have rainforest (I'm sitting here on a train to Singapore going through the jungle). This time of year, the temperature is in the high 80's/low 90's with high humidity, which makes it feel close to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. To cool ourselves off, we stopped by the local 7-11 and grabbed slurpees (unlike the ones in Japan that don't have slurpees).

Yale had to buy a plane ticket to Sri Lanka, so while he did that, I killed some time in a store that supposedly had huge discounts on designer brands. The store was a disappointment; while it did have clothing that claimed to come from FCUK, Zara's, D&G, and more, the styles were so ugly! Needless to say, I didn't buy anything. Just a few minutes away is the city forest.

Since we didn't have time to travel outside KL, we thought this would be a good way to experience the Malaysian rainforest. After climbing a hill through the forest, we ran into the KL Tower—and a paved road—located smack dab in the middle of the forest. Rather than hiking through the whole park, we followed a paved road out of the park. I did find this cool vine that I swung on. We skipped over the bamboo forest and rope bring because it was clear over on the other side of the park.

Even though I may have been bitten by some insect in the park, I don't think I've contracted any exotic disease. We exited the park by some religious school, so I took that to mean that I'd be okay. After walking through some nasty and smelly streets, we got back on the main drag and returned to Times Square. By now, the ride I wanted to go on was open; it turned out to be short, but fun. Yale wanted to try out the bumper cars, so we gave that a shot. It was funny to see Yale giddy like a school boy. By the end of our time on the bumper cars, everybody was afraid of us. (Maybe it was because we were 10 years older than them and we were Westerners.) While the park was exciting, that excitement was short-lived; I was bored after about an hour. So, we took last ride on the roller coaster (this time on the front, so I could videotape it).

Times Square seriously has so much to do. You could spend your whole day there (we literally spent half our day in that building) and not get bored. Next to the amusement park, there was a 45-lane bowling alley. We checked the prices as realized that we could each bowl two games for only US$5! Here's me sporting my manly (rented—yes, a new pair) socks. Normally, I enjoy bowling. Today, I didn't so much because I sucked it up so badly. Honestly, I don't think I've bowled this badly since I was in elementary school. I was even worse than I am on the Wii. Feeling bummed about the bowling game, it was time to go get a massage.

When I think of the massage parlor, "Heaven on Earth" (from Rush Hour 2) comes to mind. Lots of beautiful ladies lined up just waiting to get their hands on you. What am I talking about? That wasn't the massage parlor we went to (although, a Google Search did bring up plenty of escort services). Mine happened to be some Chinese place that was cheap; no frills massage parlor. For all of you who are thinking that Malaysia is the place to get massages, I'd encourage you to think again. At least, don't go to a cheap place. It's not worth it. First, I got stuck with a man that didn't speak any English (so, I couldn't fully relax). Second, he must of that I was some super tough piece of muscle because he gave me the hardest massage of my life. Those Asians aren't joking when they say they give hard massages. By the end of it, he asked if I wanted a foot massage (cost extra), I was like "Heck, no! I don't want you to crush my feet." Yale was more fortunate than me. He had a lady and she wasn't able to give as hard of a massage (even though he said it was a little painful when she dug her elbow into his back—LOL).

Having sufficiently killed time, we headed back to Times Square to catch an evening flick (Next with Nicholas Cage and Jessica Biel). While the movie wasn't the greatest, it was nice to spend an evening out doing something different. To sum up, it was a long, fun day. It's not often that I go window shopping, bowling, get a massage, and go to a movie all in one day.