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!