Back in Malaysia... But where's the Water?

It seems that no matter what Ayu and I do, fate always has a way of bringing us back to Malaysia. The amount of time spent away from Malaysia usually dictates the way I feel the first time I realize where I am - this time the feeling was frustration, and the object of my frustration was water (or the lack thereof).

Water is an addiction for Ayu and I. At any given time we are very likely to be carrying 32 oz. (or about 1 liter) around with us. We have a Nalgene bottle made out of #2 plastic (not the kind that leeches Bisphenol-A into the liquid and could potentially give you cancer) that we take everywhere. I suspect it won't be long until Ayu gives it a name. While living in the US, this water bottle was constantly full. Even when travelling, we make sure it stays topped up. The trip here was no exception.

While on the plane from Chicago to Tokyo it was constantly filled up by the best flight attendant in the world. While in Tokyo briefly, a public water fountain contributed to our cause, on the flight to Singapore I had to "steal" water because the flight attendants were quite mean (so it was full then too), and while in Singapore it was still full thanks to plenty of drinking fountains (even though some were out of order - see below).
However this could not last forever....

To get from Singapore to Malaysia we took the Aeroline bus. If you are unaware, Aeroline is really the only way to go when it comes to long distance bus rides in Malaysia. They have the best seats, the best service, food served on the bus, a bathroom (for light use only), flat screen TV's with movies playing, and even a lounge on the lower deck. Aeroline gives each passenger a bottle of water when you board, so Ayu and my thirst was still well-quenched (and our bottle happily full).
Once we got off the bus in KL for our layover between buses, I was for the first time aware of where I was as I realized suddenly that I was out of water! I searched high and low in the hotel (which has the bus station attached to it) with no luck. Not one water fountain! A woman who noticed me looking all around asked me if she could help me, to which I inquired about the water fountain location(s) and she said there aren't any. All of a sudden it dawns on me - I had forgotten that in most parts of Asia they don't trust tap water (even though I've heard its just fine). Tap water in the bathroom was out of the question for this reason, and since Aeroline had no place for us to leave our luggage, we entrusted it to a fellow Penangite who was waiting for his bus as well and went off in search of mineral water. We eventually found it and had lunch, and everything was dandy, but I'll never make that mistake again. Its hard to describe how much Ayu and I believe we NEED water, but if you can imagine it then you can also probably imagine how much I was stressing out when we didn't have any.

After this we took our next bus to Penang (the island Ayu is from), and had a nice day and a half there full of good eats and old friends. We also explored Fort Cornwallis. One of the more famous sites in Penang as it was a British outpost for many years. The items in quotations are copied verbatim off the website.
"Fort Cornwallis is situated at the spot where Captain Francis Light was supposed to have landed in 1786. Originally a wooden structure, the fort was rebuilt between 1808 and 1810 with convict labour. It was named after Charles Marquis Cornwallis, a distinguished Governor General of India, and designed to protect the harbour from possible French attacks."

Below, Ayu and I are re-enacting the French (me) trying to invade the British (Ayu).
"Today, much of the old fort remains, but its precincts have been converted into a public park and an open air theater. It is still guarded by old cannons, which were retrieved by the British from pirates who had captured them from the Johore Sultanate."

I caught this picture of a mom and her daughter swinging from a tree swing in the courtyard.
And here are some of the old cannons that are still in place.

"The most famous of the cannons is Seri Rambai, which dates back to 1613. Local beliefs have it that childless women can become fertile by placing flowers in the barrel of the cannon and offering special prayers."

Here's Ayu, Claire, and Ween with the Seri Rambai. Unfortunately, they forgot their flowers.

I spotted a sign that made me nervous. But then I laughed pretty hard when I found what docile creatures it was referring to...

By far the funniest part of the Fort was seeing how they cope with the fact that the British have left - By trying to re-create them as best as possible - With an Indian guy and a wooden barrel.

Two days ago we arrived in KL with 4 backpacks (two big, two small) and two duffel bags. Which basically encompasses all the gear we intend to take with us to Denmark next month. No single piece is particularly heavy, but all strapped up, its a considerable load. Ayu and I moved all of this first to the LRT station (the inner-city commuter train), then to KLCC (where the twin towers are located) to have lunch with Ayu's sister, next to the Danish embassy (to get Ayu's visa - until they told us we have to go to the Swedish embassy to apply - which was now closed), and finally to Ayu's cousins apartment where we crashed for the night. By that time, our backs were nearly broke and we spent the next 14 hours or so sleeping.

Yesterday was spent finding a hostel downtown, meeting up with friends, and escaping the flash floods that frequently plague the city of Kuala Lumpur. Actually, flood is not the right word because the drainage system is amazing. But it was as if the skies had opened up and let loose everything they had stored up. Luckily, we were in a mall at the time, so Ayu and I hid in a theater and watched the new James Bond movie - Quantum of Solace (It was rubbish by the way). Which brings me to today, where we got some much needed excercise walking all about KL, and eating our way through the world's fish supply at a sushi buffet. Pretty Crazy. The late update is due to dodgey internet conections that have kept me from uploading pictures - and I didn't want to tell the stories without them. More later... Love and Kisses...