We Can't Believe We Ate The Whole Fish!

The curtains blocked out all sunlight and because we had been staying up so late, we had been sleeping in, so we set the alarm for 8:30 am. It was morning in KL, but it was Monday night in New Orleans and we had planned to watch, or listen to, Monday Night Football (Saints v Atlanta). We were able to get online and listen to Jim Henderson on WWL, but as soon as the game came on, Jim was gone and replaced by another broadcast. Without another way to see the game, we put our netbook on a chair between our single beds and called Gina's mom via Skype. She put her laptop on a TV tray in front of the TV and we watched the 3 hour game in this way. The picture wasn't spectacular, and exact yardage was difficult to discern, but she provided the commentary. Fortunately, the internet connection held up well and we were only disconnected a handful of times. It was fun to watch the game with her and cheer for our beloved Saints together. Most of all, it was fantastic that they beat Atlanta in a critical division game.

We had been grouchy about being stuck in KL for 2 more days, but the game lifted our spirits, so we headed off to the KL Tower, which resembles the Seattle Space Needle. We exited at the correct metro stop, but then walked in circles, with several other tourists, looking for the tower. One would think it was be easy to see since it, and the Petronas Towers, dominate the skyline, but it sits up on a hill, surrounded by rainforest, and our vision was blocked by the trees. We were very thankful that a shuttle bus ran from the bottom of the hill to the tower. Once we reached the top, it was not possible to purchase a ticket only to go to the top of the tower; only package deals were offered and we were not interested in touring the zoo or riding donkeys in a circle. Also, the clouds had moved in, were growing dark and would likely block out any real views of the city.

G- Forget it. I don't to pay that much money to go up on such a cloudy day.

P- I agree. It looks like it's about to rain.

The shuttle returned us to the bottom of the hill where we spotted a TGI Friday's. It's amazing where you'll eat when you're far away from home and your options are limited. We never eat at chain restaurants at home. We were greeted by our waiter, Mr. Personality Plus, and ordered 2 beers.

Waiter – Ready to order?

P- Yes. We'll share the nachos. What comes on them?

Waiter – You have 2 orders?

G- Just 1.

Waiter – It's only 4.

G- 4 what?

Waiter – Chips.

P- The nacho plate is only 4 chips? How big are they?

Waiter – Like chips.

Phyl and I looked at each other, confused, and back at him.

P- Ok. In America the nachos are a big pile of chips with cheese, beans, and maybe sour cream, peppers, chicken on top.

Waiter – Yes?!  No. Here just 4 chips.

G- Ok, then no nachos for us. Give us the cheese dip. Does it come with a basket of chips or only 4?

Waiter – (laughs) No, a basket of chips.

While we ate our chips and cheese dip, which was very yummy, but too small a portion, we cut up with the waiter. He asked how we liked Malaysia. We told him that we liked Malaysia, but weren't loving KL. We told him about our experience with the taxi driver throwing firecrackers at us and how all of our experiences with cab driver were bad ones. He said that everyone thinks the taxi drivers are terrible. We talked about silly things people think about other countries. He guessed that there were Americans who thought people in Malaysia still lived in little huts and farmed. We learned that his vision of Native Americans resembled those of old western movies. We told him that we were surprised that Taylor Swift was being played everywhere.

Later we discussed the over the top Christmas decorations in a country that is primarily Muslim. He said that the Prime Minister had a program to encourage all Malaysians to feel as one and to support and respect each other regardless of their religious differences. (This will be difficult as long as his country contains people like the ticket taker & the fire cracker throwing taxi driver.)  He said that he was Muslim, but went to his friends' homes and enjoyed their Christmas celebration. Conversely, his Christian friends would celebrate Ramadan with him. We asked him if he knew why Christmas music was still being played and told him that in America it ends at midnight Christmas Day. He said that all holidays and festivals were celebrated for 3 days so the Christmas music should end today.

Before returning to the metro we stopped in the bathroom. It was very clean and most of the toilets were western, but there was no toilet paper in the stalls.

P- Look. The toilet paper dispenser is mounted on the wall by the bathroom door.

G- I have seen that before. How are you supposed to know exactly how much paper you'll need before you even go in?

P- I don’t' know.

G- God forbid you go in thinking you just have to pee and instead you also poo.

P- That would be bad. I guess you'd have to beg someone to hand you more toilet paper.

G- Or spray your ass with the hose. Neither option sounds good to me. Ha! This makes me think of the Seinfeld episode when Elaine goes into the stall and there is no toilet paper, so she has to ask the woman next to her for some and that woman refuses. Do you remember that episode?

P- No, I do not recall that one, but if Elaine would have had a hose, she could have just sprayed her ass.
Maybe that hose thing is not so bad after all.

G- The thing that confuses me is that if you spray your nether regions with water, you still have to dry them before you pull up your pants or it'll look like you pissed yourself. So why not just wipe in the first place and forget the hose entirely?

P- I can't answer your questions, because I'm not a hoser, I'm a wiper.

We returned to our hotel and relaxed for a few hours, then went back out for dinner. Our intended destination was the curb side restaurant we had eaten at a few nights earlier, but when we arrived, it was closed. After a short debate, we decided to eat at the place next door. It was starting to rain again and this place actually had inside seating.

G- I'm not sure if I prefer to eat inside or on the curb. The insides of these places look so dingy. They need a good scrubbing from top to bottom, a paint job, and new plastic furniture. I'm a fan of hole-in-the-wall restaurants, but blech!

P- It would be better if they were darker. They should ditch the florescent lighting. I don't want to see this place when I'm eating.

The first night we ate in Chinatown we watched a family devour a whole fish, head on, of course. We have always been freaked out about eating a fish with it's head on, and are not fans of eating around the bones. We eat filets. Period. But we're trying to branch out, so we planned to eat a whole fish while it watched us. As we told the waitress what we wanted, the man at the next table turned to look at us and smiled with a quizzical look. “Yep! We're white girls and we just ordered the whole fish. But we're not your ordinary white girls, we grew up in N'awlins, so we eat all kinds of freaky shit!! As Gawd is our witness, after tonight, we're no longer gonna be afraid of the whole, headed fish.”

One thing we neglected to consider is that it would be difficult to eat a whole fish with chop sticks, and since we had just walked down from the hotel, I didn't have the backpack or our sporks. We had no choice but to do it the Chinese way.............we pulled the meat off the fish with our fingers. Yes, we Purelled first. The skin was crispy and had a spicy seasoning. We chewed carefully so as to avoid impailing bones into the roofs of our mouths, but we ate ravinously. The fish was divine!! Of course we also had rice, what else?

Napkins are as uncommon in Asia as snow in hell. If you are given a napkin, it is usually more of a tissue than a papertowel. They come in little boxes and you pull them out just like a Puff. With the same texture as a tissue, they're pretty much worthless for wiping anything substantive off your hands. I had long ago instituted a no papertowel rule in our house and we'd been using cloth napkins for years, both to do our part to save the environment, and because cloth napkins are nice and easy to drop into the washing machine. This tissue as a napkin, when you could get it thing, was killing me. I digress....... after eating our fish with our fingers, I looked around for a tissue box and saw none.

G- What in the hell to people wipe their hands on?

P- At least the last place gave us tissues.

I made a hand wiping gesture to the waitress and she went behind the counter and dug around. After an extensive archiological expedition, she brough over a little packet of Kleenex. I think we were going to have to purchase the packet. “Nevermind, thank you.” If we had used Kleenex to clean our hands, not only would we have sticky fish on our fingers, we'd have Kleenex stuck to them too. We decided to just pour some of our water over our fingers and shake them off. We'd just have to be careful not to touch anything until we got back to the hotel and washed them with soap and water. The meal was excellent and we trudged back up the hill to take a hot shower and see if we could find anything, in English, on TV.