MONKEY:STEEZ: day 2: accounts in kl, mah-lay-see-yah

DAY 2: 9am. briefing at u.s. ambassador jXXXX's house. she schools us on cultural do's and don'ts. don't point with your index finger. don't have the bottom of your foot face parallel to the person your are talking to. do always thank the u.s. embassy when speaking in front of a crowd. don't act like an arrogant american (she mentioned this indirectly.) terimah kasih (thank you.) always eat when food is offered to you. if you plan on entering a mosque, cover up. when catching a taxi, always make sure that it's metered. jXXXX emphasizes how malaysia is a very 'mixed culture.' ambassador jXXXX and her husband tell us their history of working for u.s. embassy. sounds like an interesting career choice. husband notices that i'm filming everything. he says, "we could use people with your media skill traits at the embassy." hmmm... i inquire more. husband says, "it's only a good profession for people who like to move around a lot." are you kidding me? i'm in! 11am off to central market. when bargaining don't be around white women (jXXXX says this indirectly.) "you won't be given the best price." malaysia has the best fake rolex's in asia. hmmmm. everything isss extremely cheap. 3.7 ringgets=$1 u.s. dollar. 12pm picked up by taxi. head back to kl airport to pick up zo, jo & gregory. 1pm zo, jo, gregory arrive. gregory and zo immediately bust out with the cameras interviewing jo on the spot as we head to the hotel. 2:30/3pmish arrive at the hotel to meet up with alexis and gina. zo, jo, & gregory settle in. i'm hungry. 5pm we head out to find something to eat. i'm starving. it begins to rain. it's raining hard. high humidity + monsoon rain + mia very hungry = not a good combination. 5:30pm find a place to eat- chinese/malaysian, yummy! zo scares the waitress as we enter the restaurant. we eat & eat. i'm sweating from the spicy seafood coconut soup, but i can't get enough of it. 7:30pm head back to hotel. 11pm zo, alexis and i are on a mission to find a strip club. the best answer we receive in our scavenger hunt "no strip clubs in kuala lumpur, try thailand." we end up in front of several clubs. zo does most of the talking as we try to "find one." 1pm we take a tip from a security guard who tells us where to try an area called bangsar. "taxi!!! metered??!" we end up in the bangsar area. we walk around, feel the area out & end up inside of castle. a lot of people, mostly young men. head to the bar. a fight almost breaks out, but someone stopped it in time. at the bar, i see people taking some weird kind of fizzie shot. "what'll you have?" "i'll have whatever they just had." the bartender poors tequila in a shot glass then poors clear (soda) POP into it. he picks up the glass and bangs it down on the bar. "go! go! go! go!" i down it before it fizzes up. "want another?" alexis makes her way towards the dj's. everything is extremely western- the music, the steelo. 2am we head to a corner store. "everything's hella multicultural" a consensus observation: you have the indians chillin with the malay chillin with the chinese...muslims aware of the hindus aware of the christians and concious of their traditions. an ice cream bar to cool us off. 3am we end up outside observing the 'after club' festvities and youth behavior. nothing extremely different except for the language. young people are young people. my observations of the women: they're all individuals, strong demeanors, & hella different. there's no way you can assume or generalize the women of malaysia. zo's observations (of the women): hella sexy even though all you can see is their eyes (sometimes), makes the women look so much more mysterious. 3:30am head back to the hotel.