Just Renee and I - July 5th

Today was Renee and my 1st day on our own. Since the other girls had flown out the previous night, we had all day today to do whatever we pleased. To fill the day we decided to take a risk and go to a theme park on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. In order to get to Sunway Lagoon Theme Park we took the monorail to KL Sentral, a main hub for all trains, buses, and even some airlines. Once we reached here we had to buy a KTM Komuter train ticket and ride the local train for about 25 minutes. All the figuring things out and finding our way reminded me so much of my 1st time in Europe. And from the directions given to us by the owner of our hostel, it was supposed to only be a 5 or 10-minute walk from the train station to the actual park. Wrong. Way wrong. 30 minutes later and asking the locals twice how to get to Sunway, we arrived at the huge mall outside of the park. The two of us had to walk all the way through the Sunway Lagoon mall and then we finally made it to the ticket counter.
I apologize for a lack of pictures from this day-trip but we found out really soon that almost all of the rides at the park were water rides. I’m not going to lie; the park was a little cheesy. The one roller coaster we rode was electric and was similar to the Mine Ride at Cedar Point: tiny, slow, and incredibly little. It was really interesting to be at the park though. There were mostly Asian families there and many of them were wearing pants, long sleeves, and even their scarves despite the water rides. Needless to say Renee and I decided to wear our shorts and tops the majority of the time we were in the park. After we had ridden some of the water rides (similar to Splash Mountain) we headed down to the water park. Here there was a wave pool (not in operation), a few water slides, and a lazy river. We both laid in our tubes around the lazy river thankful for the cool water on the hot day. After that we spent the remainder of our time out on the fake beachfront lazing about in the sun, waiting for our clothes to dry out. Around 3pm we decided we’d had about enough and headed out. And instead of taking the train back to our hostel, we opted for a taxi. Despite some of the warnings we’d been given about the city’s taxi drivers, we took the chance and made it back safely! Plus, it was much faster and more direct. Score on both accounts.
Back at the hostel the both of us took short naps, showers, and then ventured out to an American dinner. What, we were missing American food okay? We decided on Hard Rock Café, just off from one of the monorail stations. Honestly, nachos and caesar salad were the best decisions I could have made. It really was wonderful to get a taste of home! We took our time at dinner, and even opted to taste a local beer (Carlsburg). Not bad if I do say so myself. From the restaurant we saw the Petronas Towers lit us just a few blocks away so we made an impromptu decision to see them up close. It was only about a 10-minute walk from the Bukit Nanas monorail station and being underneath these magnificent towers was breathtaking.

Renee and I thought it would be cool to go up in the towers and see the city at night; we got really sidetracked. Apparently, there is a massive mall underneath the towers and it was filled with designer stores and bustling with people. Needless to say we never made it up into the towers. At this point I made maybe the worst or best decision of the trip: we entered a shoe store with a huge "SALE" sign on the outside. Inside there were probably 50+ women scavenging for shoes. It was a jungle in there. Everything was on sale. I was in heaven.
After an hour of fighting off Asian women for the shoes I wanted, I ended up leaving with 3 pairs of shoes. Really, it could have been so much worse. I feel like I really showed some self-restrain in such a store. But from this experience I came to this comforting realization: Obsession with shoes is not only an American woman thing; this is a worldwide epidemic affecting all women. Nice to know. Leaving the mall I hung my head in shame (but smiled inwardly!) at my splurge and walked back to the monorail station. We got back to the hostel around 10:30pm and promptly went to bed. Shopping wears a girl out, ya know?