Bangkok-Kuala Lumpur -- Day 5 -- La-körn!

I departed early from Asha Guest House and shared a cab ride with Dave, who was on his way to meet his dad in Israel. This time, the fare was only 120 Baht compared to my arrival (600 Baht). Good deal! Incidentally, there was a little bit of confusion whether I had to fly from the old airport or the new one. Fortunately, there was no change. Oh I forgot, while in Bangkok, my credit card had been rejected a couple of times "suspicious" pattern of usage. To sort it out, I purchased a telephone card for 200 Baht from the guest house and called the US customer support line. There was another 120 Baht left on the calling card, I exchanged the card for money with Darren. Good thing too, because it paid for my cab ride back to the airport.

After connecting at Hong Kong, I arrived around 6.30 pm in Kuala Lumpur (KL), where my buddy, Perng, picked me up. We used to work together in the Silicon Valley 5 years ago. He has since relocated to KL and had no plans of returning to the US. We reminisced about the hectic days before the NASDAQ and Silicon Valley meltdown in 2000. He had made reservations at Hotel Armada in Petaling Jaya, a Southwestern suburb of KL, very close to the light rail station of Asia Jaya. At 210 Malaysian ringgit (~58 USD), this was the most expensive accommodation on my trip. The hotel was good, but catered more to business travelers -- I wasn't here on business anyway.

Perng took me to a local Chinese Malaysian restaurant for dinner, where we had steamed white fish, fried rice and some soup. I enjoyed the dinner very much and cost approximately 100 MYR (~ 35 USD). To catch up with old times, he took me to a neighborhood bar, where he bought a bottle of Scotch whiskey. Most of the patrons were male and everyone was drinking hard liquor on a weekday -- probably a macho thing. What happens is, you buy a bottle of whiskey or whichever poison and they put your name on the bottle. On your next visit, you can get the same bottle and finish the rest of it. A few pretty women are employed by the bar to come to your table and make small talk. They continuously fill up your glass -- the motive being to have you drink as much as possible. The women are strictly for show -- no hanky panky. After a couple of hours, it was time to go; Perng had to work the next day. I tried to watch some TV, but got bored and slept a long time -- a welcome relief from the hectic activities.