Big Difference

Day 268
I was up early but I spent some time screwing around on the internet before getting my act together. My plan was to walk to the Patronas Towers and maybe go up them. The Patronas tower used to be the tallest building in the world. It has lost this title to Taipei (I think) or perhaps Dubai, but it is still a pretty cool looking building. You can see it from all over the city and I had used it as a reference point the day before when I was out.

The walk there only takes about 30 minutes, but goes through all sorts of different neighborhoods. I passed restaurants, street vendors, fast food joints and large apartment buildings. About half way there I passed some homes that were less houses and more shacks that looked like they would blow over in a strong breeze. There were chickens running around in the yards. It was hard to believe that this was so close to such a modern building. I also saw a chicken crossing the road.

I hadn't realized that the towers had a mall in them. It was still early enough for most of the stores to be closed and I wandered a bit checking it out. I felt bad though. The mall was full of super high end shops, Versace, Minolo, and Prada were among them. I kept thinking about how one purchase in those stores was probably more than the people who lived in those shacks made a month. It seemed really unfair. I didn't go in any of the shops as I usually would have done.

In the end I decided to not go up the towers, but instead I went to a movie. It was still early and I would be able to make it to the National Museum afterwards. My plans were foiled though, it was absolutely pouring when I went to leave. I, of course, am not smart enough to carry my umbrella with me, plus I had no no traction flip flops and I tend to fall a lot in them when it rains. I was stuck. For some time I wandered the levels, but that was boring. I though I would go to the book store and do some research on India. All the books were shrink wrapped though so I couldn't thumb through them. I ended up just buying a book and having a very long lunch to kill the time.

The rain didn't slow until 4pm and I could no longer go to the museum. Instead I simply walked back in the drizzle to my hostel. At least it was cool and dry there. That evening I met some Canadian girls and we headed out to a market for some street food. On the way we got a bit grossed out because there were cats chasing around rats. We decided to go the long way after that. I had rice and chicken for dinner. It was really quite good and at less than $2 with some fresh squeezed oj it was a steal.

I thought I would be up all night, but apparently walking around a mall does in fact tire one out. So I once again was asleep far earlier than I would have expected.