KL - A Haven for Vegetarians and so much more

Our time in Kuala Lumpur is coming to an end. Tomorrow we are off to Singapore for a quite visit.

I have to say that we have both thoroughly enjoyed our stay. Despite the rain, which has started to appear daily as this area of the world gets closer to its yearly monsoon season, we have taken in a good part of the sights on offer. Yesterday, we started the morning off with a few laps around the rubber track located in the city centre. A popular spot for those who work in the offices around to walk or jog in order to get their minds of the stress of work, as well as for children to play, we were pleasantly surprised to find such a lovely place right in the shadow of the Petrona Towers.

We enjoyed a tasty Chinese meal of chicken with spicy noodles and shrimp wanton for lunch, then headed to the historic quarter of the city to visit the museums. The Malaysia Police Museum, the Planetarium, the National Museum are all located quite close, which worked well for us seeing as the rain began to pore as we were walking over. All were dead quite, not only because all the kids were in school, but also possibly due to the fact that we later found out that there was a national election taking place (no TV in our room, so we loose track of what is going on in the world).
Thoroughly good afternoon, although the all of the walking caused both of our feet to swell as we enjoyed a couple of pints at Finnegan's Irish Pub (our first since the detox began) and watch the Seven's Rugby taking place in Hong Kong.

Now, since we were suppose to introduce certain foods such as grains and meat back into our diet slowly after not eating for so long, we had to try and search for vegetarian options. KL's amazing array of different cuisines and restaurants has made this very easy. Our first day in the city we discovered Wood's Macrobiotic Organic Restaurant (http://www.macrobiotics-malaysia.com/) just down the street from our hotel. We have been back every day for either lunch or dinner for their absolutely fabulous vegan food prepared fresh when ordered. Every dish we have had has tasted wonderful, so much so that it is hard to believe it's also some of the best food for our body. We'll be picking up the cookbook on sale before we leave.

In addition, there are a large number of Indian restaurants serving all vegetarian menus, including, Lakshmi Vilas, the one that I spoke about in my last post. Today at lunch we tried another, Sangeetha. Still full two hours later, I have to say my plate of mixed curried rices, pickles, spicy chick pea curry and mango lassi was a bit too much, but well worth stuffing myself to enjoy.

Another place to mention is Peter Hoe's (http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/09/02/travel/02foraging.html) somewhat hidden boutique and cafe. For batik prints, clothing, home design and much more, including divine looking deserts, which we avoided (Tom did enjoy a coffee and the great ambiance, while a shopped though) this is a great place to spend some time relaxing or perusing.

With all of this delicious food around, Tom has yet to miss eating meat, but he assures me, a steak for dinner is in his near future.

KL feels like Home

Arrived in Kuala Lumpur a couple days ago. Let's just say, the recommendation given to us to eat only live, so un-cooked food, for three days, didn't last long in this place.

We're staying in the Golden Triangle, so the ritzy area of the city, but our place is far from that, but it works for us. Went for our first run of the new travel plan that includes excise and all is starting out well. Spent the day yesterday in and around the Central Market, an old market converted to serve the modern day tourist. The entire city, in fact is very modern in comparison to others in the region; however, it does maintain it's old world, and especially colonial charm. We've both agreed that it would be a great place to live.

Malls with more than you can get at home, delectable food and culture make a great city.

Today we queued with the touring masses in order to take a look at the city from above, 170m up on bridge between the Petronas Towers. After that we enjoyed a gorgeous banana leaf vegetarian curry, which set us back about the equivalent of two pounds fifty. Basically, they just bring out a banana leaf and pile it high with an assortment of curries, chutneys, papadams and rice = awesome.

Now...it's raining, so most likely off to the movies we go!

Hurrah! We can EAT again!

Well it was tough, and at times quite emotional, but we made it to day eight and FOOD! Now, are we happy we did this, sure. Did we loose weight, yes, Tom has lost a total of about 25lbs since we arrived in Rawai. Will we do this fasting thing again, um no probably never.

It was an intersting experience, one which you could probably never handle doing at home. We met a people from around the world detoxing for a wide range of reasons, so that made the stay at Atsumi far better, because it would have been a bit boring otherwise.

All in all, we have both agreed that we are going to try and take with us the need to stay healthy and fit while we continue on in our journey. That means some running is going to have to happy while we continue our way through South-East Asia and back to Europe.

Happily we are off to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow. I am sure once we get to the airport we'll be a bit sad seeing as we have been on the Adaman Coast for six weeks and we are now recognized by many of those who call Rawai Beach their home. All that said, we are excited to get back on the road again.

Day Three of Detox

Finally I am feeling up to siting at the computer and using my brain a bit. On Monday we arrived at Atsumi (http://www.atsumihealing.com/) to start our seven day detox. This process includes fasting, daily colemas, herbal remedies, yoga, steam baths and a lot of general chilling out.

The surroundings are gorgeous, so that helps because we've been relaxing here to avoid temptation from the outside world.

The first two days I could not get the though of food (not that I was hungry due to the benzonite and psyllium shakes we have to take three times a day) out of my achy head, but now the pain has subsided and I am feeling alright. Tom on the other hand had a better day yesterday, while I complained a lot. He really does need this relaxation though due to his cracked ribs.

I'll be sure to update you all on our full experience here over the next few days.

Around Phuket

1. Fight night at Bangala Stadium
2. Our abode, with a new best friend hiding under the bench
3. Rawai Beach
4. Our rental car...aka The Pope Mobile due to it's huge windows in the back
5. Exploring Temples

Last Week of Muay Thai

Although it feels like only a week, we have been in Thailand a month now and will be completing four weeks of muay thai training on Sunday. It hasn't been easy, and there have been times where we just could not be bothered to wake up at 6:30am in order to sweat buckets and possibly pick up a few bruises (in Tom's case a couple of cracked ribs), but it is really nice to be back in shape. Now all we have to do is maintain the feeling of being fit and healthy again.

Tonight we'll be attending out second fight night. Two weeks ago we headed down to the makeshift Bangala Stadium in Patong (the actual stadium on the crazy street of Bangala is in need of some renovations) in order to see four fighters from Rawai take on their opponents.

The night ended well with wins for two Irish guys and one of our trainers. The only loss was a young boy who although we all thought he deserved the win, ended up losing by points.

This evening's competition is taking place right outside of our gym. They have set up a ring under the coconut trees and a number of fights will take place with the money going to a local charity.

Difficulties with the computers (yet again) have caused problems uploading photos. I do promise some soon.