Kuala Lumpur

Little unknown fact about Kuala Lumpur....it's actually a very scary place to go!

Things that scared Erika:
mysterious unknown small animal in the forest, dead spiders and large live insects within cases, and butterflies

Things that scared Melissa:
monkeys, groups of them together

Things that scared Les:
the Sun. Still. And Amusement Park spinny rides

It also is a very dangerous place!

Things that hurt Erika: her bed post, her suitcase, a small post sticking out of the sidewalk (got her twice at once: toe and knee) and another piece of sidewalk

Things that hurt Melissa: tablechair to the pinky toe

Things that hurt Les: the Sun. Still.

Keep in mind that we were touring Kuala Lumpur and have stayed within city limits.
We are not out in the jungle, we aren't on an adventure trip, nope...we are just walking around the city. And getting wrecked! My feet were not pleasant before this trip and oh man...they have gotten even rougher! hahhaha

The first day in KL, we hit as much as we possibly could: the Petronas Twin Towers, Menara KL, Petaling Street (Chinatown on crack), Central Market, Little India (mini clustered electronic stores everywhere) and the Lake Gardens Butterfly Park.

The buildings here are awesome. Everyone is competing to the be the tallest "something".
Here they win for the Petronas Twin Towers. It is a masterpiece and really incredible engineering. We didn't end up being able to go in the Sky Bridge (the piece that connects as a walkway at the 41st floor) but we did the next day. We did go up the Menara KL (think the Seattle NeedlePoint Tower) and see the entire city from above. They had a bad ass self tour headset/video that you used for each look out window that explained history, gave a closer look to the outside/inside of the place and gave you a great rundown of the city. One of the best I've ever experienced.

From there, we walked down to get to the Jetlong Trail which is a mini nature trail that takes you into the forest to check out some tress and stuff. This begun our monkey encounters.
We saw a bunch of them playing and fighting and being silly so we took LOADS of pictures of them. We continued our walk and thus began our "jungle" experience and my first fright of the day. We were walking through tree after tree and I was already over this as bug upon bug and spider web after spider web had been passed. Don't know if y'all are aware of this but me no likey de spiders. So as we walked on my mind took a little imagination tour itself. Then suddenly to the left and down the hill, we heard and saw this bustle tear down the hill through the brush. It coulda been a large rat, monkey or gremlin, who knows. All I know is that I was OVER this walk. hahah But we continued walking looking at trees and spider webs. Boo.
I was ahead of Melissa and Les because frankly, I didn't care to read and look at things anymore, when all of sudden to my immediate left another bustle and close encounter with that gremlin happened about 2 ft from me. An out of body experience occured and a small (okay, quite loud) squeak/scream/squak come escaped my lips. Oops.

Les came over to see what was up and started laughing and asked if I was okay.
I said yup and my bad. :)
However, I was walking now 20 yards ahead of them and headed OUT of this place.
They stayed behind me and just kept cracking up about my speed and determination to peace out.

We finally got out of that dang jungle and were headed back up to civilization when we came across the monkeys again. They were on both sides of us and we had a great time taking pictures of them, especially the babies in the trees. Melissa got really close up to the babies and were taking great shots of them. Les and I were further back just watching. What we got to see if Melissa turned to the babies, while Mom, Dad or Uncle came down the other hill and get on the same path as us. We were like "Oh hey, Mel...you got a bit of company"
She turns to look at the older monkeys and starts taking pictures, then (And I WISH I had my camera on video-mode) a younger monkey jumps on a branch and swings right over her head. Melissa is now OVER these monkeys and the larger monkeys are ready for us to leave.
She starts heading over to us saying "I don't like these monkeys anymore. I think I'm done being around any of them anymore" and takes off down the stairs. This time Les and I are laughing. It's been quite the amazing forest experience for us.

We then headed to Petaling Street and the Central Market where everything is for sale and everything can be bargined. It's stimulation overload though. SO MUCH STUFF EVERYWHERE. We were starving by this time and decided to take a break, eat, and then go find the Lake Gardens because it had a closing time. Shopping here does not.

We headed to the Lake Gardens and after many uncrossable streets, turnarounds and guesses; we found the entrance way. We walked up and yay, we were at the Butterfly Park. Les and Melissa had been talking about this park for a long time and really really wanted to be sure to see this. I was less excited because to me, a bug is a bug. Prettied up or not, it's a bug and can get lost in your hair (personal experience), ears, mouth or suck onto you. So while butterflies are very pretty when they are by theirselves in the open nature; the idea of being in an enclosed arena with many well camoflauged and divebombers (about 6000 types they said) didn't exactly bring the 'joys' to me. hahaah
But I was excited because I knew they were very stoked and couldn't wait
It was a very pretty area and they were having fun discovering new ones, hidden ones, LARGE ones, pretty ones, etc. Once everyone had their fill, we were headed to the exit, me leading the way.

I opened the door to what I thought was the exit and instead found cases upon cases of bugs.
I did my best to not focus my eyes on any one of them since spiders could lurkbehind any one of those glass plated boxes. I backed up and turned for the door. My mistake. Behind the door was a huge mounted case of different spiders: large, larger, largest and hairiest. I caught a glance and then ducked my head and diverted my eyes and jumped for the door. Melissa and Les were staring at me like "What?" and I calmly told them what was up and that I needed to get out of there ASAP. I said I needed to find the exit from there but couldn't look up for the signs. Les said he would lead me. I very nicely said "I'm super serious so please don't joke or try to scare me". Les was fantastic and led me out. What I wish there were pictures of was that sight. I was bent over as if I had a horrific stoop in my back with eyes covering my peripheral vision and kept my eyes on my toes. Les stood in front of me and led me by the hand up some stairs, around corners and halls and kept saying "don't look up, don't look up". I'm sure we were a sight to see. hahahah

So that was Scare # 2 for me.

Les and Melissa came out 15 minutes later with reports of live large scorpions in a tank (about 20 of them), foot long milipedes and crazy huge bugs. Oddly enough, the only spiders that were in the "Insect Park" (Trap of Death, as I called it) were the ones mounted on the wall that I saw. The other bugs, I coulda dealt with, maybe. But their descriptions of the rest of the exhibit pretty much sounded like Bugs on Crack. Much like the Ninja Turtles movie where ooze gets on animals and makes them large and mean. Or the Jose Cansecos of the bug world.
I think we can all agree that we could do in a world without Jose Canseco.

Alright, time's up.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of KL!