Temple Tours & Platinum Mall

Waking up early when on holiday, urghhhh. Even so the alarm bells were ringing and we had a day to get on with. The tour we booked with the travel company at the airport was meant to be picking us up at around 9am so we felt it was in our best interests to be down and having breakfast by 8am, yay.

The continental buffet breakfast wasn't exactly varied but you could have as much as you wanted and we appeared to be the only people there, so the less the better! Settling down to munching we were approached by the guy who took us out on our tours yesterday, he had brought us some Thai satay sticks to have with our breakfast, all free and all delicious. Everything started to seem too good to be true, and we were about to find that out with the tour. I am going to say now that the tour was by no means bad it just felt incredibly rushed and this was topped off when our guide told us to meet us back at the car for a certain time, and she smiled as she said that if we were late they weren't waiting, bitch!

Well back to the start. We were picked up late by 15mins from the hotel but at least we were in a nice air conditioned car. As we pulled out from the hotel our guide turned round and proceeded to talk to us in clear english giving us some information as we went on our way to our first temple situated in the touristy centre of Bangkok. It was during this exchange that we realised we were conned leaving the airport, not by the travel agent, but by the trains! We paid 300 Baht (about £6) for 2 people return, but we discovered that there was an alternative to the express train for a total of 180 Baht; the discriminating factor between the 2 lines? The express got you to the airport an extra 15mins early, whoop de freaking doo!

Well as I was reeling from the robbery we approached our first temple, Wat Traimit. To the uninitiated the word wat means temple in Thai and is uttered about as commonly as the word 'the' as they have so many of the things throughout the country. The sun was baking and I could feel my skin protesting beneath my shirt, let alone the exposed stuff! The temple itself was pretty impressive and swarming with tourists, the main reason this seemingly average looking buddha got its own place was the fact it was constructed from solid gold. Apparently at the time of some invasion the buddha was covered in plaster to avoid robbers and subsequently misplaced amongst all the others, whoops... When they found out to due to some spectacularly careless removal men they decided an upgrade of temple was in order.

Leaving the place we kind of felt we were going to get a little shafted on this tour as it didn't seem all THAT impressive, this was swiftly bludgeoned when we saw the next temple; Wat Pho. Wat Pho houses the sleeping buddha, a gigantic reclining buddha coated in gold as opposed to solid gold construction, which would have definitely have bankrupt someone. In addition to its large stature there was some metal pots that give you luck if you drop a coin into each of the 100 or so; nice idea in theory but it kind of shatters the peacefulness of the place when you feel like a collection of small woodland creatures is performing their own rendition of 'Stomp' somewhere within the building.

As we left, boarding our own private tour car, we were offered to go and see the optional third temple. Apparently the fat Americans this woman was used to taking around usually couldn't be assed with completing the whole tour so used to skip the marble temple; over my dead plums were we going to miss out on something which we f**king paid for!

When we arrived the temple (Wat Bowonniwetwihan) really didn't seem like much, the only thing it had going for it was it was very white on account of all the marble, something that spoke to me (being part albino and all). We sauntered around for a while before begrudgingly returning to the car.

At this stage we were expecting to be dropped off because when we first boarded the car we told them that we wanted to be dropped at platinum mall, but apparently we needed to go round all of the sponsored facilities. We were kindly treated, at no rush (a first for the day), to two jewellery stores and a suit makers. Later when we made it home we found the suit makers were as bad as suit makers could get in Bangkok with many falling apart months after completion. So all in all, the temples were nice but those taking us around were money grubbing to an extreme.

Stepping from the car we moved across to Platinum Mall for some retail therapy but found the place to be quite expensive due to it being a retail outlet, so unless we were planning on buying in bulk we weren't going to see any savings; seeing as Lena and I didn't often have clothes that overlapped it was unlikely we were going to find any real deals. The main purchase of the day was some 3D manicured nails that Lena bought. They looked really nice but moved her hands from dextrous to art exhibit for most of the day :).

When in Platinum Mall we stumbled across another intriguing thing about Thai Culture; the food court. Now I am not one for much on Thai history but unless there was some massive change shortage among food suppliers there could be no other reason why you had to get a prepaid card before buying ANYTHING! Sure it makes things easier if the place were heaving, but at all other times its a nuisance, like when we were there...

Leaving the mall we made our prayers to our respective gods and attempted to cross the street to get to the Platinum Market. Haggling was well and truly on now! Purchases were made left and right, the nature of these cannot be revealed right now as I don't wan't to spoil the surprise for anyone who is on the receiving end of one of them :).

With shopping done we went for some relaxation therapy before retreating to our hotel fortress for the evening. Now, finding a massage parlour of any quality at the lower end of the price category in Bangkok is akin to closing your eyes and throwing a dart at a board... in the next room. As we walked down a side street on our way toward some sort of station we were inundated by countless places, deciding one was as good as another we trudged in. The next hour of foot and shoulder massage was passable but more painful than enjoyable, but this may have been down to the distance covered during the day.

We walked, bleary eyed into the darkness and found our way, somehow, to the MRT (railway station); ignoring any taxi driver who was offering to "help" us to get to our destination. Once within the safety of the train the journey was uneventful and the walk home proved quite easy.

Having made it back with time to spare before bed we headed back the way we came, after refreshing ourselves of course. Dinner was served to us around the corner from a 7-Eleven and was amazingly delicious. It could have been a lack of food and water all day or that those Thai people sure knew how to cook a mean Pad Thai; either way we were happy!

In addition to the Pad Thai we had some sour sausages which proved to taste truly awful, we weren't quite sure if they weren't just off. The whole thing soured us (HA!) to the whole idea of street food which was sweetened with the thoroughly pleasant experience mere moments later. Once our stomachs were filled we came across a stall selling crickets but we were sadly too chicken to try them.

That night we slept soundly till being woken up around 7am the next morning...

Ladyboys & Ping pong balls; Typical Bangkok!

I feel I have been spoilt with airports in my life, not airlines. I soon realised on the flight over to KL from London that I was missing out on a world of middle class flying, the days of being treated like cattle in the sky were OVER...at least until today that is. We were flying the eastern equivalent of EasyJet known as AirAsia. I feel I have taken a tangent from my original point; I have been spoilt by airports.

Now I am not going to claim I am well travelled, far from it (have I mentioned this is my first time outside the EU), but I have seen my fair share of airports domestically. There is always something about airports that fills me with joy, it's that sense of excitement about what lies ahead. I know all the food is overpriced and I can't even get a can of coke past airport security but it still manages to seem enjoyable; this brings me to LCCT, the low cost terminal of KL. The nerdy brother to the cool and suave KL International Airport.

To say I dislike LCCT is putting it a bit mildly. To any casual observer there may be no reason for such unfair treatment of an innocent airport but there is. My reasoning is twofold: having to have a baggage scan PRIOR to CHECKING-IN the bag and having no toilets beyond the security check. OOh I thought of another; having to walk across the tarmac to GET to the freaking plane. Rant over.

We boarded the plane to Bangkok feeling rather sleepy, having had to be up early to catch the bus to the terminal. The arrival was a 2 step process: Lena's dad dropping us at the bus stop at 7.30am; the second step was the 1 hour bus journey to the airport. Sadly once we were there we had a long wait on our hands as our airplane didn't depart until 1pm. To try and keep ourselves conscious while we waited for the plane. This involved a McDonald's breakfast and some McDonald's ice cream dispensed from a small kiosk set-up on the edge of the fast food restaurant. For RM1 we got a small whippy cone which was really appreciated in the heat, Lena got a slightly more expensive version called a 'chocotop' which involved dipping the ice cream cone into liquid chocolate and letting the temperature of the ice cream solidify it on the surface of the ice cream.

After boarding we found the flight went quite quickly as we spent the entire time sleeping, waking only when we came into land. As the cabin depresurised and we disembarked I was struck by the lack of humidity and slightly reduced temperature; it seemed as though the weather here would be far more mild than I anticipated, fantastic!

The airport on the other end of the journey was more accustomed to what I was expecting and I was relieved to find collecting baggage a breeze, if only because queuing at immigration took so long...

Once our bags were gathered and we had our bearings we had the task of figuring out how to get to the hotel. We decided on the cheap option of taking the train coupled with a short walk to our hotel. On our way out we asked for some directions at a tourist centre and found ourselves walking out with a half price city and temple tour for the following day, we were off to a good start! With our spirits rising high we made our way to the train station and booked an express train to our stop buying return tickets that we would need at the end of the week to quickly drop us off back at the airport.

Our trip into the city gave us a chance to admire the scenery and the very fitting temples that dotted the landscape. A brief 15 minutes later we found ourselves at the end of the line looking for our next connecting subway to take us to Sukhumvit road where we would trek on foot to our hotel. As we exited a kind man showed us the way to the station where we found there was an airport scanner for us and our bags, upon setting it off we had to open them up to confirm to the poor overwhelmed guard we were not harbouring any illicit device. Feeling slightly shaken by that little transgression with the law (apparently deodorant is highly dangerous to the Bangkok subway system; who knew!) we were once again on our way. The subway wasn't nearly as nice as the previous (and shiny, don't forget shiny) train journey we had taken. Lena, being all Asian looking was fitting in nicely whereas I was sticking out like a sore thumb but thankfully I had gotten used to all the glances by now.

Departing at Sukhumvit was an easier affair although getting our bearings was proving to be much harder. After wandering the streets trying to find our bearings we got a friendly Aussie to point us in the right direction. When we eventually gave up and flagged a taxi it was much to our chagrin to find out we were no more than a street away from our intended destination. Oh well.

Getting inside the place looked a little run down but we were to expect that from what reviews had said, considering the price we got on the room it was an acceptable price to pay. Once checked in we made our way up to the room, it...was...massive. Put any room we had in Cambridge to shame and I think it probably cost less per night and it had breakfast included too! Deciding we had had far too much time with our room we headed downstairs to start crossing some of our items off our list: ladyboy show and ping-pong show. Bang! One night of debauchery in Bangkok. The tour guide that operated out of the lobby was really friendly and gave us competitive pricing along with private drive there and back, we were off to a good start with this holiday malarky.

When we got to the ladyboy show it was packed with lots of tourists just as curious as we were to see these ladyboys in the flesh. Now correct me if I'm wrong but when attending a ladyboy show you are going in expecting every one of the 'women' to be ladyboys, this was a concept Lena was having trouble with. Apparently she interpreted the ladyboy show more as a game of 'find the pickle', with every new 'woman' on stage Lena explained 'she can't be a man!' as if the makers of the show were trying to get you to pick the ladyboy out of a lineup. Was quite cute really :).

Between venues our driver kindly took us for some food, the last food we ate was the McDonald's at the airport and that was a looooonnnngggg time ago. He took us to a small street shop and to our surprise, bought us dinner. Mind you this wasn't michelin star quality but it was still an unbelievable gesture I wouldn't have expected from anyone, much less our tour guide.

After the show and our complimentary Pepsi (yay) we moved onto the ping-pong show. Now when we asked for this the guy behind the desk said he could take us somewhere but it wasn't going to be on the list of tours, rather a more private, wink wink affair. When we turned up the place was distinctly less touristy than the last place, some might say sleazy. The appearance some places generate I suppose, but when your clientele are drawn to you so they can watch women do unrealistic things with their vaginas I don't think decor factors into things much. We paid and realised that in order to do everything we wanted we were going to need to change a few more ringgit. Now we were led to believe we were just going to be watching some mildly older women do things with their nether regions, imagine our surprise when we walked in on some acrobatic sex show. Thinking we had made a mistake we were about to head to the door until we realised that it was the finale of the show and we were just about to catch the next loop. What followed was the most bizarre lineup of women doing things you could only imagine or conjure up in your worst nightmare, depending on your sensibilities and sexual preference I suppose.

We left feeling rather dirty and were glad once we were back in a locked car heading in the opposite direction. Quite a first day.

Bangkok's Waiting!

Sadly not much of interest happened today unless you are some fanatical packing enthusiast in which case, enjoy!

Packing.

As we were planning on shopping and making the most of the loose hand luggage rules in effect we only paid for a single piece of check-in luggage with the return trip hand luggage packed inside. Apparently there was some ruling which meant we could get onto the plane with a laptop bag and hand luggage. Jackpot. Having only been travelling in the EU and never being one who tries to game the system I was apparently missing out on a whole world of additional luggage, I was practically salivating at the exploitation I was going to inflict on Air Asia, MWAHAhahahahaha!

I am way too excited about packing.

Bird Sanctuary & Fireflies

Another weekend day, meaning we were going to be out and about. First stop the seksyen 17 market for some breakfast. As I was about to hop into the car there was the startling revelation: we were walking. Now I may have mentioned that it is hot here and to be fair it wasn't 10am yet so the heat hadn't quite reached egg cooking on the side of the road temp yet, but to me it didn't feel a million miles off.

From where we were it wasn't more than a 5 minute walk to get there, as far as I was concerned it may as well have been on the other side of the city. The heat was getting to me fast and I was jumping between spots of shade like some kind of vampire. It was just the same when I managed to make it to the market, thank merciful heaven for parasols! As I wandered I was struck by the variety, and even more struck by my ability to screen the things I did and didn't want; I felt a milestone had been reached. At the beginning of the holiday I strolled the stalls looking vaguely at the food offered to me having little idea about any of it; now I had a growing database of dishes and vocabulary that would get me by in the wild open expanse that was the market place (to anyone interested I read that last bit in the voice of David Attenborough).

The breakfast cultivated at the market consisted of: Char Siew Pau, one of my favourite dishes here although many consider it a basic item more akin to toast; Nasi Lemak, one of my favourite breakfast dishes, served with a wonderful piece of rendang chicken; Pork pau, it may shock you to learn that those buns come filled with something other than char siew, and they still manage to kick ass; lastly, peanut and sugar pancake, not as good as the first one I ever had something about it just doesn't live up, I blame a lack of sugar.

With breakfast over we were stumped for things to do and ended lazing around the house for a while before the idea of the bird sanctuary was tossed into the air. Its amazing how things you never really consider doing at home suddenly gain traction when placed on foreign soil, oh well! To be honest I think Lena's dad wanted us out of the house for a bit, but I digress :).

With an eventful drive there, we were navigating on some mumbled and vague directions, we made it to the park. Now the one thing that makes this sanctuary stand out is that it is the world's largest open air sanctuary with massive nets suspended over the whole thing; it was visible from KL Tower it was that large. Once inside our first section had vibrant coloured birds fluttering around our heads a few inches from our faces, it was quite fun. After we moved from this section I thought we would get more of the same but ended up finding the truly exotic birds were in cages although looking at their beaks and general demeanour its hard not to support caging them, couple that with a child's enthusiasm to charge headlong at anything shiny and your bound to end up with injuries.

As we strolled around the grounds I found myself getting oddly accustomed to the heat, it may have been that it was a little cooler than usual with a slight threat of rain. Soon after this revelation we stumbled across a little photo taking opportunity with a collection of colourful exotic birds, for a scant RM10 we could take a whole collection of photos with a lot of birds. As we were taking the photos one of the birds spotted the beaded bracelet I got from one of the temples and every time he thought the keepers weren't watching he would try and eat the beads and was getting more and more frustrated as the band pinged them out of his mouth.

Further into the park we stumbled across a chick hatchery with some freshly hatched chicks trying to walk and move, it was so sweet to see, especially since they were less than a few hours old and were noticeably tired. In addition to having the eggs there were also a collection of much fluffier chicks and ducklings to play with, and play I did! I can't remember seeing so many since I was young and it was so fun to relive memories of old, I was kind of amazed at how light they were, it appears as though the fluff makes up a large proportion of their size :).

When we found our way home, an apparently simpler task, we sat down to some good home cooking. Fried chicken was on the menu and it was gorgeous, almost an equal to a certain colonel people are in a flap over...

Once dinner was done and dusted it was time for the evenings activity: fireflies. I've only every seen them in movies, more specifically romantic ones but sadly Lena wasn't able to get us there by ourselves so we were chaperoned by Lena's dad. The trip there was quite long and coupled with it being dark I was starting to feel relieved that I didn't have to help navigate. When we got there we paid our admission threw on some life jackets and waited for our turn in the boats. When I caught first glimpse of one I seriously didn't think it would stay above water, it looked like a row boat if the rower wasn't interesting in rowing from a seated position. Matters weren't made any easier when the thing looked like it had been constructed from leftover pieces of wood. As we set off I was reassured by the life jacket sitting on my shoulders as I felt it may be needed at any second.

As we moved off into the dark I didn't notice any lights and was beginning to wonder if I had just walked into a very well executed scam: give me your money or you go overboard, you know that kind of thing. No sooner as I was groping around trying to find a weapon, I saw it. The bushes were beginning to shimmer, again my bullshit alarm was going off, 'well they have clearly strung out some christmas lights in those trees'. It took a while for that feeling to disappear, it was only once we got close enough and I saw the creatures glowing asses that I genuinely believed I was watching fireflies. The flies were very beautiful and we got close enough for Lena to grab one, we had to do it quickly so no-one else could see as they didn't want tourists to start manhandling them too often. They gave off quite a bit of heat from their asses, Lena was able to notice the heat quite quickly. As quickly as the tour began it was over, with us standing on the jetty watching another family take the plunge.

As we trekked back to the car we stopped off in a shop just as they were closing up shop and came across PvZ plushies! Debating which one of our favourite characters was going to make it back with us we decided on the workhorse of the game: the peashooter. Cheap, reliable and iconic. A no-brainer really...

War Memorial & Massage

Another weekend was rolling around and so culture was the name of the game with a late morning visit to the war memorial commemorating all those who had fought for Malaysia over the course of the two world wars and during the 'emergency' that happened with the emergence of communism. The monument was massive expanse with statues strategically placed but one thing struck me more than anything else, the lack of cover. Whilst I would have liked to pay more attention to certain areas I found myself ducking and weaving in and out of shade as the heat was unforgiving in the late morning sun.

Once we had a look around and paid our respects we went to lunch at the place in seksyen 17 that serves the best char siew on the planet. In addition to the char siew we also had some roast chicken and vegetables to balance out the protein overload we were introducing into our systems, also it didn't help that the guy serving kind of forced it on us. This waiter must surely have been family because there is no other reason why he is allowed to get away with so much and the food is good enough that it excuses his assholishness (for the most part). The place sells out of everything by midday leaving the owner to go home, and he isn't doing too badly as he rocks up on a brand new BMW motorbike daily.

With lunch over it was decided that the best way to relax would be a nice relaxing massage with a friend of Lena's dad who would talk to Lena about how to properly use her new camera. The place was really nice and quite expansive but due to some new taxation laws it meant that most of the masseuses weren't in the country leaving it quite empty with the 3 of us (Lena, James and myself) taking up 75% of the workforce.

The massage was a 1 hour foot massage sitting in these incredibly comfortable chairs, the real challenge was not falling asleep! Now the main reason for coming to the massage parlour was to discuss the camera while getting a massage, in the waiting room this was the case, but as soon as we sat down the other 2 were asleep within minutes leaving me to battle with my conscious and watch some truly bizarre Malaysian show that was playing in the background.

After the relaxing massage we went for dinner where the camera discussion continued, no chance of falling asleep here! The place was called Win Soon and it specialised in a dish I hadn't tried, and for good reason, fish head soup. To say I was apprehensive was an understatement. Imagine my surprise when no such head arrived, apparently you are quite lucky to get actual fish heads as they are the best part, but I was in no arguing mood. The fish pieces I had still had some small bones but they were a small price to pay for not looking my food in the face. The dish itself was really rather nice and would be something you would get foreigners if you dropped the fish head part...

Well after this we went off for the delicacy of Durians for dinner, James loved them. Shit. Having tried them recently and finding the taste and texture to be something akin to rotting meat I had no intention of going anywhere near one again. Thankfully when we got there we ate them outside, the worlds best ventilation and to top it off I had myself a couple of mangoes, hallelujah!

Petronas Towers & Drinks with Lingish

Well after the tragedy of getting turned away a few days ago Lena and I came back with tickets in hand ready to take a tour. The tour would throw us out at the viewing bridge followed by a trip to the highest level of the tower to look down on the world below us.

Again we were dropped off at the Petronas Towers at unreasonably early time in the morning (8am) meaning we head around 3 hours to kill before we went in to our 11am session. We started off at one of the more reasonably overpriced places, sitting down to a breakfast of Nasi Lemak, comprised of: a piece of rendang spiced chicken, boiled egg, rice, roasted peanuts, and some spicy sauce. When read out in that order the meal may seem like a mess but it is sooooooo good once you've tried some, and once you have tried the best you are saddened to return to mediocrity. Unfortunately todays serving was nice but not mind blowing, that definition is reserved for the Nasi Lemak in Seksyen 17 market.

After the breakfast we aimlessly strolled the mall until it was time to take our tour. As the time approached we found ourselves at something resembling airport security, which makes sense considering we would be hurled at great speed upwards. As the tour got underway we were led into a little foyer giving us information on the towers history and general statistics, thank god for everything being in English otherwise this pause would have been most excruciating. Shortly after the demo finished we were ushered into what appeared to be an industrial service elevator, then at the speed of...something very fast we were on our way.

The observation bridge wasn't nearly as grand as I felt it should have been. The layout reminded me of an office floor about to be fitted for new tenants, not looking in need of refurbishment but just seeming to exist. With the banality of the interior I was relieved to find the exterior views much more satisfying but sadly the lighting made photography somewhat troubling. Although thankfully there was a kindly man who showed us how to use our semi-pro camera whilst touting a much smaller version, slightly embarrassed but very gratefully we took pictures left right and centre before being hurried to the next stop: the top floor.

Now HERE is where the vertigo set in. After going up the same lift we moved to a secondary lift where we were carried the last few floors, which felt a bit unnecessary. To top it off the transition was conducted with uniformed guards on either side, hardly the picture of efficiency. When getting to the top if I thought the views were good before these were stellar, and when I got close to the edge to look down I got the distinct feeling that I was swaying (that would be the vertigo) and had to move back. I did feel slightly uneasy when I got too close but persevered (how often would I be here!).

With the tour over within the hour we found ourselves back at the bottom by midday and wondering what to do, with the shopping trip fresh in my mind we decided to go back to seksyen 17, which we did using the KL train system, a first for me! The trains were clean and air conditioned which is all I could ask of them to be honest and it was nice to get a different view of KL for a change. To top it off when we got near to home we hopped into a taxi which took us (what I thought was quite a long distance) for RM7 which is around £1.40. Although the taxi did chug a bit when positioned on an incline, most likely due to driving a Proton, the national car.

Well no sooner had we gotten through the door we were planning the afternoons activities. With Lena only coming back once a year she tries to see everyone she can and there was another person to meet, a guy no less! Lingish rocked up and we went to a White Coffee Shop in seksyen 17 where I sampled a wonderful Ribena and Longan Ice Drink followed by a green apple ice drink. Chatting went on for a bit then our goodbyes were said.

Once again no sooner had we arrived we were off for dinner, at seksyen 17. We decided to try a new place we hadn't been before to try Bak Kut Teh which roughly translated means pork bone tea. It was definitely an interesting experience but I don't see myself repeating it willingly, too many nicer things around town :)

Deja Vu with Gen & Seraphyn

With the images of 1 Utama freshly dancing in my head it was time to...go straight back there. Having just been with a friend of Lena's we went straight back to visit an old music teacher who had recently had a baby.

Having gone with a western themed place yesterday we travelled across the world for an eastern themed menu, thats right, sushi! The place was a popular destination called Sushi Zenmai, it was very nicely laid out and the food looked fantastic, now bring on Gen!

Lena disappeared briefly to go...somewhere, leaving me in the queue (yeah the place is popular enough that people have to queue to get in) when a woman with a baby in a stroller rocks up behind me. I'm now in a dilema, do I: A, turn round and introduce myself potentially making myself look like a MASSIVE pervert if it isn't Gen; B, ignore the situation and pretend that I didn't notice her and look like an inconsiderate idiot if it was Gen; or C, smile and hope she understands and introduces herself. I went for C, I mean how many other giant white guys could there be in 1 Utama. Thankfully she took the hint, although if she hadn't then it would have been beyond creepy.

Lunch was great with much of the sushi tasting delicious, it rekindled my love of soft shell crab. The main delight of lunch was little Seraphyn who found my watch quite intriguing several times during the course of lunch. To top off her cuteness she was just on the cusp of forming words so she had a stream of nonsense that just made her all the cuter :). Also she was very well behaved, quietly sitting and watching us eat, only crying out when she wanted her mums attention. Another game she enjoy was 'get Jack to pick up my plush book', no sooner had I turned my back she was dropping it again; towards the end I got good, predicting it and catching it mid fall.

A crowning achievement; I outsmarted a baby...

After lunch and conversation we headed out into the mall for a slightly longer search with Lena visiting Baskin Robins for some Green Tea ice cream. A recurring theme was emerging with this Green Tea thing and I felt it wasn't likely to stop before heading home, it's not likely your going to have people trampled under foot in the UK to get their hands on some green tea ice cream.