With my iced venti vanilla non-fat decaf latte next to me, I suddenly feel the inspiration to blog about my current adventures in Malaysia. Or rather the lack thereof. I've been here since Sunday afternoon, checked into the Shangrila (by the way the rooms in the Makati Shangrila are WAAAAYYYY better thatn my room now). Since I didn't have any ringgits with me I decided to scout the malls (there are 2 malls) near the hotel for the bank. I managed to find one after 30 minutes. The malls are about the size of Podium only there are so many tiangges cramped inside. Or maybe I am exagerrating about the size. But still I wandered around for 30 minutes before I found a bank. So having found the bank, I got money and started to walk back to the hotel. On my way back I passed 2 drunk men who greeted me with a very sleazy "Hi Miss". One of my friends said that I should just be glad that they think I'm a Miss. But no, those 2 men zapped out the adventuruous in me. From that day I was too scared to wander around by myself. And my current situation of not knowing anyone outside of those that I work with has made it even worse. It has been 4 days since that day. I have finally managed to get out of the hotel simply because I have gotten tired of room service. I ate at the local Sushi King, walked around and bought A's Nasi Goreng Paste and went to a local Starbucks to get my coffee. I figured if I don't see anything similar to the men that I bumped into last Sunday that I might be safe. I didn't bump into anyone. I had a wonderful experience eating sushi alone, watching the sushi train pass by me. I had a nice chat with the lady in the grocery when she was explaining to me the different types of nasi goreng paste. I giggled with the Starbucks Barista because it was his first day and he was having a hard time figuring out which is the vanilla syrup. But of course with the apprehension that was initially there, I was back in the hotel before dark. And now I am looking forward to the weekend. I'm looking forward to meeting more people. I'm looking forward to seeing more things and not being confined to the 4 corners of my hotel room. I can make it through this trip. I just know it.

DA GANDA blogged @ 3/16/2006 03:30:00 AM