Day 33: Lost in the Mall

I awake, jump in their shower, the heat is working, insert smile here, however the pressure is still non-existent, insert frown. I feel bad for Amy because she has long thick hair and I know it has to take her forever to wash it. 

I meet them downstairs and we take off to a friend's little girls birthday party. Yeah, on a Tuesday, starting at noon, while school is in and people are working. Strange, even for Malaysia. Also noteworthy, in Malaysia, any kind of event hosted at your home is a big deal. And when you invite one person, it is an open invite for them to bring friends. For example, Ryan and Amy had a birthday party for Jackson's 1st, and a single guy brought 6 of his friends to it, yeah 6. No such thing as being particular about your guest list, people are coming and bringing whoever they want with them  - it's expected in their culture, regardless of your finances. So we arrive at the flat,  which is in an area we would call "the projects", on the 16th floor of a building. A quarter of the buttons on the elevator panel are missing, some weird copper wire contraption streaks down the face of it, holding it together, outside pieces of concrete from the structure litter the place.  It definitely takes a level of faith in the Malays ability to build quality buildings in the 80's.    

When we find her flat, it's a small  and cold, 2 tiny bedrooms, a living room with no furniture other than a folding table, a few folding chairs, an outdated tv box, and A few bamboo mats on the floor for sitting. She is the mother of 5 little girls ranging from age 6 months to 9 years old. We walk in and she is still bathing the littlest one, no other guests are there. Turns out that in light of the size of her place, she has spaced out the timing of her guests, we are the first and only ones until two o'clock. She serves us some really d-lish chicken and noodles dish with red koolaide on the side. I finish my first plate only to find a second pushed on me. It's rude not to finish what is given, so I polish off the second helping and quickly dispose of my paper bowl before a 3rd helping could be allocated. I down some weird bland orange dessert topped with salty coconut shreds, all the time eyeing a delicious chocolate sprinkled cake. She can sense my angst and cuts the cake up, serving me the first slice. She does not bake her cakes, she actually steams them, leaving them moist and warm. This one was completed 4 hours before, yet still was warm and moist on the inside once cut. By far my favorite dessert to date on my trip. I pulled out my camera, took some shots of Jackson and her adorable daughters, and then we headed on our way. 

Ryan and Amy had a packed day of meetings and such, so I asked them to drop mr off at their local mall so I could catch a show and chill at a coffee shop. So at 2:00pm, they dropped me off at One Utama, the same mall I originally was dropped off by the bus from Singapore. To say this mall is a mammoth is an understatement. Orchard Road in Singapore is a number of malls connected together stretching for almost 2 miles. This mall was not that large, but close, and combines an original 4 story mall from the 90's with an additional 6 story mall from the last few years. It is connected above and below a major road via a skywalk and underground passageway,  resulting in 6 floors of shops galore, 2 theaters, multiple food courts, a minature rainforest with coy ponds, and a really confusing layout. 

I enter, and wander aimlessly, not being able to find a working digital directory. The touch screen just reads computer error ... Must be windows based. I decide to find my way around the old fashioned way, "permisio, movie theater?" I am directed to one on the top floor of the new mall and buy a ticket for the movie Legion at 9 Ringgits (less than $3usd). The theater was nice, though the aircon could of been kicked up a notch. The movie was fair, but not one I would recommend wasting your money on.  

After the show, they shove you out the doors behind the screen into concrete walled tunnels leading to sparse stairwells and steel double doors eventually landing you back into the mall. Kinda bizarre, but I'm sure it prevents people from popping into other movies. Now I'm curious about the rest of the mall and stumble upon this huge open oval balcony area decorated in Chinese red for the Chinese New Year. On the ground floor there stands a huge stage, large speakers, music blasting, and the featured guest of the stage is a 15 foot stuffed white feline waving his arm. Who are these people? 

I continue on, cross a long corridor of smaller shops and run into movie theater number two, in the older mall. The tickets were 2 Ringgits cheaper than the other theater, so I give it a go and head into Tooth Fairy. The aircon was better but the atmosphere was not. A couple have brought their infants into the show, more specifically, very unhappy infants. More than once the one child screamed for over a minute, yet the parents did nothing, no bottle, no pacifier, no exit into the hall, just ignored it. That's great for them, what about everyone else? Clearly not a concern. Thankfully it was a kids movie and an average one at that, so the distraction was not  something that detracted a whole lot.  

It finishes, its only 6:30, and Ryan was not picking me up till 9, so I have some time to kill. Walk a good 3 miles in that mall, eat some A&W cheesburgers and fries, and finllly find the directories are back online. Utama One mall also has free wifi, but it has a filter that does not allow facebook access, so Houston, we have a problem. Earlier Ryan had informed me that all Starbucks locations in Malaysia had free wifi, so yep, I was gonna visit te Bucks again. 

I look it up on the directory, but the map is difficult to read. It shows you "here we are" but not "you are here". It also shows two separate squares that are not linked with different letters infront of the numbered locations. If what I just said did not make any sense, welcome to my world. Does that mean they are different floors or different malls or different parts of parts of a smaller mall. I was near F323 and I needed to be at G53, which I figured meant either ground floor or the next level up. I went down a level to what I thought was G, it did not have a letter.  Hmm, maybe they go up in letters as you go up floors, I proceeded up a floor above the F, it was an S floor. What? So then I proceeded to ask a security guard, who then sends me up 2 floors and to the right ... Uh, theres a ton to my right, as far as the eye can see, and it looks like mayhem with no Bucks in sight. 30 minutes later I find one, one of the apparently 3 Sbucks in this mall. I told you it was big! I proudly spend my last 17 Ringgits on a frappacino, my goal, because I am not planning on hitting Malaysia again on my travels. 

9pm rolls up fairly quick and Ryan is waiting out front. Jump in and we wad home where Amy has just put down Jackson. For the next 4 hours we get into some pretty interesting conversations about theology, philosophy, and life. Some of it's catch up, some of it's about LA and ministry, some of it's just personal worldview, but all of it is amazing!

Alright, time to hit the hay, peace out, iPhone blogger.