About Our Trip (Part 1)

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaack...

I am so tired... But I wanted to write down as much of the trip as I could remember while everything was still fresh in my mind.

DAY 1 - FRIDAY, 28 JANUARY

The mad rush...
Spent an INSANE day at the office, trying to settle as much as I could before we left for KL. (Which more or less meant I barely had the time to eat, pee or smoke.) We had to leave the office by 630 and run a few errands before our bus left at 7. I managed to finish up at 6 on the dot and had a quick cigarette with Jaime in the pantry before we left. Jas almost didn't make it. We called her at 645 screeching our heads off because she hadn't yet left and she arrived 10 minutes later huffing and puffing like a little steam engine. *grin*

The drag...
The bus ride was bloody tedious. For some reason, none of us could sleep. Jas and I were quite exhausted but our minds just refused to click off. Finally, 6 hours, 2 stopovers, 4 cigarettes and 8 kaya balls later, we arrived at Bukit Bintang. It was 1.30am by the time we reached the Dorsett and checked in, we were well pass the stage of being spaced out. Our initial plans to head out clubbing were temporarily shelved and we ended up having a late supper of porridge with 2 of Ha's friends instead.

The slumber...
The beds in the hotel were huuuuge for 1 person. Jas and I ended up watching "What A Girl Wants" and chatting till 430. Don't think our conversation was all that coherent towards the end. Heh... :P

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DAY 2 - SATURDAY, 29 JANUARY

The shopping frenzy...
Despite the severe lack of sleep, we were up and about in time to gobble down a substantial breakfast from the hotel's buffet and were hitting the shops by 11am. Haha... First stop? Mango at KL Plaza. Then we hit Lot 10, Sungei Wang and BB Plaza before trudging back to the hotel laden with bags to take a breather around 3pm. (I bought the prettiest pair of pink flowered slippers from Nose. Hee!) At 4, we set out again to conquer KLCC, but not before we had a disgustingly fattening dinner at Chilis. I got another 2 pairs of shoes... From Vinci this time! *sheepish grin*

The f#$%ed-up public transport...
You wouldn't believe how screwed the public transport system is in KL! I keep forgetting how good we have it in Singapore until I go away and come up against the sheer lack of planning and stupidity of the infrastracture elsewhere.

Due to the severe traffic congestion in the city, Jaime and I had decided that it'd be faster for us to take a train to Merdeka Stadium, where the Jay concert was being held. We left KLCC around 645, wanting to give ourselves plenty of time to reach the venue by 8. That's when everything started to go bananas... Let's see.
1) We had to buy 2 bottles of water to obtain the change we needed to buy our damn LRT tickets.
2) We ended up at this station called Dang Wangi where the stupid guy at the control booth didn't speak English and couldn't give us proper directions to the Monorail station we wanted to get to.
3) The Monorail station we finally managed to find wasn't the one we were looking for so we decided to just take a cab.
4) The taxi we hailed refused to take us to Mederka because the roads leading to it were too jammed.
5) The cabbie said it would be faster to take the Monorail, but told us to stop at a station that didn't exist on that rail line.

Thank god the woman at the Bukit Nanas (What sorta name is that anyway?!) Monorail station knew her stuff and we finally got to where we were suppose to be - Maharajalela (Phew... Talk about a mouthful!) - with 20 minutes to spare!

The lightbands...
We bought 10 lightbands before we went into the stadium, 2 of which proceeded to break and leak all over our hands, so J and I spent the hour before the concert trying to scrub the oily liquid off... Then at 840, the lights dimmed, the strains of "Yi Fu Zhi Ming" started playing and the curtain dropped...

The Incomparable Jay...
Omg. I don't even know where to start. It was so fantastic. It didn't matter that our seats were crappy, right at the side and we could barely see the stage because every chance we got, we ran and stood right in front. It was broiling hot and J and I were soon drenched in sweat (Some of which was definitely not our own, eeeew!) but god, it was worth it. Everything was worth it when Jay came to our side of the stadium and I got to see him stand 10 feet in front of me.

I can still remember the 2 songs he did that - "Jian Dan Ai" and "Kai Bu Liao Kou", towards at the end of the concert. He was wearing this long-sleeved yellow t-shirt, jeans and white beads. I sang and screamed and waved and yelled and danced around like I was on drugs. Probably looked like a mad woman but I really didn't care. The adrenalin rush was amazing... There's something different about having the concert out in the open, the atmosphere seemed so much more electric!

Jay did 3 encores. Almost got played out on the last one, since his last encore in Singapore was "Kai Bu Liao Kou" and "Qi Li Xiang". As a result, Jaime and I were on our way out when we heard the drummer start playing again. We ran like crazy back towards the stage and bounced around for another 5 minutes while he and Nan Quan Ma Ma did "Shuang Jie Gun", then it was really over.

My 1 regret? I didn't bring my digital camera. I didn't dare since we weren't sure whether they were allowed and I sure as hell didn't want to be stopped from going in. On the other hand, not taking any pictures meant I could really watch the concert and him, something I didn't do as much during his concert in Singapore last November.

The post-concert high...
The adrenalin rush we got lasted us all the way back to the hotel. We were still beaming from ear to ear after getting off at the wrong Monorail station and having to walk for half an hour. Hell, we even found Jaime almost stepping on an enormous dead rat with it's brains and guts spilled out on the street kinda funny, although we did indulge our girly sides and squeal about it for 15 minutes.

Man, there's still so much I wanna write but it's almost 1am and I've got to be up for work tomorrow. :( So... Tune in next time folks, for more exciting adventures of April's and her trip to KL! Heh... :)