The Final Leg of our Amazing Race

TUESDAY, August 5:
In order to fit in 8 countries in 8 weeks, we have been constantly traveling, always on-the-go, and we keep finding ourselves in 'Amazing Race'-type situations. These last 5 days, full of adventures, is no different. At the end of the last post were in a pickle at the Singapore train station having missed our train, but we made the best of the 8 hour layover until the next train and relaxed at a nearby mall. We successfully updated the blog, had a great cup of coffee, spent the remainder of our Singapore dollars, and boarded our train extra early at 3pm. The 7 hour train arrived by 10:30pm in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

We no longer book guesthouses or hotels before arriving in a new city; now we just get off the bus/train, walk around for less than 30 minutes with our packs and bags, and find a decent guesthouse to stay the night. This time was no different, managing the streets of our new destination like pros, we quickly found a room for the night, dropped off our bags, and headed out into the Chinatown area to explore a little before crashing. Immediately we appreciated the incredibly clean streets of Singapore, but also looked forward to exploring all the KL had to offer. We found our first Nando's of the trip (for any of our OZ friends, you will know how excited we were after not seeing one for over a year now!!)... and since it was closed we walked a bit further near Little India and found a local place to rest our feet and eat a delicious dinner of roti, rice, and curry chicken. We were able to spot the Petronas Towers lighting up the sky on our walk, but saved that adventure for another night.

WEDNESDAY, August 6:
We woke up and got going by 8am to see as much of Kuala Lumpur as we could! We made a stop near our guesthouse in Chinatown for a fun local breakfast. Chris ate noodle soup and Jennifer had a coffee and dumpling.

Local Malay food, as we soon learned, is a combination of traditional local Malay dishes, Chinese food, and Indian food..., which means we pretty much love Malaysian food. After breakfast, we ventured across some rather busy intersection without traffic lights to visit the National Mosque.

The mosque has a gorgeous blue twelve-point star roof covering a detailed mosaic temple. We had to see it from the entrance ways, as non-Muslims are not allowed inside. We had to sport some pretty styling purple ropes to walk the premises though!
Next, we navigated back across the busy intersections and walked to ante mosque, Masjid Jamek. The temple was beautiful, decorated with traditional Muslim domes and open areas for prayer. We walked around the temple (again, because we weren't allowed inside) and while Chris was welcome in his t-shirt and shorts, Jennifer had to wear a robe and full head-covering. After our visit there, we headed into the Central Market where we browsed the little shops and picked up a couple postcards. At 12:30pm, we met Chris's good friend Sam, who we both met while studying abroad at UTS in Sydney. Since he now works downtown KL, he was able to meet us on his lunch break for a quick bite to eat! After a great reunion by the McDonald's, we walked into Little India and followed Sam to the upstairs room of a local place where we ordered us food in Malay. Anxious to find out what he had ordered us, he explained that we were going to eat a traditional Banana Leaf meal-- where they place a huge banana leaf in front of you as a plate and fill it with rice, curry, chopped cucumbers, and as assortment of other veggies and sauces. Then we chose four different meat dishes to share (a variety of chicken and prawn). It was great to have Sam there to help us discover the real local side of KL.
We walked with Sam back to his office and parted ways, agreeing to meet up again for dinner. We then continued exploring the city, heading over to the Golden Triangle where we wandered some of the huge Megamalls KL is infamous for. First we walked through Sangai Wang, then over to Times Square mall... both enormous. Times Square even had an indoor theme park!! A good bit of window shopping, and then headed back to Chinatown near our guesthouse and met up with Sam again at 8pm. We took the LRT train to the end of the line to Kelana Jaya, where Sam grew up. He then drove us to a nearby shopping center in his fun little suburb of KL (actually its own city). In this strip-mall type center, he explained to us that we were going to eat at a Mamak, which serves a mix of Malay, Indian and Chinese foods, and typically has card tables and plastic chairs set up on the street. This particular mamak was obviously the most popular around, as the tables spread out on the sidewalk for some 50 meters down the shopping center. Sam, once again, ordered our local food in Malay and we waited anxiously to see what came out of the kitchen! We each picked our favorite fruit (Jenn- mango, Chris- pineapple) and they created a slushy drink served in a mason jar. For dinner we ate these delicious cheese and garlic nan breads, prawn fried rice, and chicken Chinese noodle dish. All so filling and yummy! Next, Sam took us across the street to a fruit stand, selling durian. It is a local fruit. which Sam told us we had to try! We watched as they cut open the fragrant fruit and revealed the fruit inside. The only hesitation was that the fragrance wasn't exactly appetizing. In fact the durian is known for it's unpleasant pungent smell. Sam told us we would either love it or hate it... well, we didn't love it. It was kind of creamy, definitely flavorful, and a taste we won't forget for a while. Sam loves it though, so he ate the rest! haha. We had so much fun exploring Kelana Jaya with Sam- something we could have never conquered without him! Then we took the LRT back into KL and fell asleep quickly at the guesthouse.

THURSDAY, August 7:
We woke early again for our last non-travel day of our trip. Our nostalgia is kicking in, savoring every minute of exploration and constantly reminiscing about the incredible journey so far. We left the guesthouse by 8am and took the LRT to KLCC (city center) where we stood in a huge line to get free tickets to visit the bridge of the Petronas Towers. We finally made it to the front and chose to come back at 5pm to visit the bridge. As we walked outside, we strained our necks to admire the gorgeous twin towers. They are the tallest twin towers in the world, and the 3rd tallest building- sparing no detail, the Islamic-inspired buildings were gorgeous. We walked across the street and relaxed a while, staring at the towers. Then we continued to explore and headed to the Menara Tower, the 5th tallest tower in the world. From the top of the Menara KL you could overlook the entire city of Kuala Lumpur, including an impressive view of the Petronas Towers. We listened to our audio guides and took the tour around the tower seeing all parts of the city, and then headed back down the tower and walked to meet Sam for lunch. We took Sam to Nando's for a delicious Peri chicken lunch. It was so great to taste our favorite 'fast food' from Sydney :)So then, we walked to the Chinatown market and browsed the many stalls filled mainly with purses, watches and scarves. As we were wandering, the sky rumbled and it started to pour! The rain was so intense, forcing many market stalls to bundle up in plastic to protect their goods, and water would roll off the roofs, flooding the streets quickly. We took refuge in a nearby cafe and treated ourselves to bananas and ice cream. After realizing the rain wasn't letting up, we made the short trek through the showers to our hotel to change clothes for dinner... followed by braving the rain as we headed for the LRT station. We made it to the Petronas Towers just in time for our 5pm appointment to visit the tower bridge! First we were shown a 3D video about the towers, and then given official-looking passes to visit the bridge, and finally we were taken to the speedy elevator! We were so excited to explore the beautiful towers up close. Up on the 42nd floor, even through the rainy weather, the view was exceptional. After plenty of pictures we headed back down (we were only allowed on the bridge for 10 minutes) and we browsed the KLCC shopping. Sam met us there for dinner at Madam Kwan's to eat some great Malaysian food. Jennifer had Nazim Lamak (coconut rice) and chicken and Chris had the local noodle dish... both delicious! Next Sam took us to his favorite bar, with the best view of the Petronas Towers in the city. We thought the towers were impressive during the day, but all lit-up, they filled the sky with light, and radiated through the night. We went to the top floor of the nearby Traders hotel for a cocktail while enjoying an incredible view of the Petronas Towers. We thank Sam for the local advice and fun hangouts he took us to... they all exceeded our expectations and gave us such a wonderful impression of KL :)
We managed to catch the last LRT home around 11:30pm, packed up our bags, and went to sleep for just a few hours...

FRIDAY, August 8:
After our recent issues with oversleeping we were not taking chances today since we had a flight booked from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Shanghai, China for 8:00am! We had the reception of our hostel bang on our door at 3:30am (after just a couple hours of sleep) to ensure that we made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. We left by 4am, easily caught a taxi to the bus station and got on the 4:30am bus to the airport. It all went as smoothly as we could have hoped! I suppose we've become backpacking veterans by now... just in time to head back home! We arrived at the airport before 6am and piled into fairly unorganized lines as we finally found a counter with a piece of hand-written paper reading "Air Asia flight D7 2602"... very official. We checked our packs and proceeded to security check, where we luckily bypassed the carry-on luggage scale (because we a positive that our newest addition souvenir bag is heavier than 7kg). And we made our way into the mass waiting room for a little break before our flight boarded, saying our final goodbyes to Malaysia. Before we knew it though they were calling our flight number and we walked out to the Air Asia plane. Our entire concept of travel-time has completely changed... a 5-hour flight? air conditioning? no one sitting in the aisles? Piece of cake.We couldn't believe that after a short nap, and relaxing a bit we were already beginning to descend into Hangzhou, China. That's right, Hangzhou, not actually Shanghai, but 3 hours outside the city. We figured actually flying into the Shanghai airport would be too simple, and Air Asia likes to complicate things, so we flew to Hangzhou instead.

I was mind-boggling to imagine that we had just retraced our entire 8 weeks of traveling with a simple 5-hour flight. I mean, we have spent hours upon hours on buses, trains, tuk tuks, taxis, motos,... and it was all undone with a short plane ride. The realization that we were actually ending this adventure started to sink in. But, we were armed and ready with experience and ready to conquer the last 24 hours in China. Through all 8 countries, we both agree that China is by far the most difficult language barrier to overcome. But we soon realized that with all we had learned while traveling, communicating via hand signals and a minor Chinese vocabulary was a lot easier than we found it 8 weeks ago. In fact, we got off the plane, easily made our way through customs, found our bags waiting on us, and bought tickets for a bus leaving in 30 minutes with incredible ease. We smiled at the thought that we finally knew what we were doing. The bus arrived at a random bus station in Shanghai around 5:45pm after several intense police checkpoints (security is intense due to the Olympics starting, even though we are in Shanghai and not Beijing). With the help of a very nice local, we found the nearby metro station, and figured out the correct trains we needed to take to get to the hostel we first stayed at 8 weeks ago in Shanghai. As we arrived at the East Nanjing Road station, we found ourselves in a bizarre time warp.

With the anticipation of our homecoming on the back of both our minds, we had not considered how odd our arrival back in Shanghai, where it all began, would feel. It was a firsthand look at how much we had learned, how much we had change since the beginning of our journey. We emerged from the metro station on Nanjing Road, much like we had back in June, only this time we could see Shanghai with new eyes. On one hand seeing that same exact image we had seen upon first arriving; it was without a doubt the same metro station exit we had taken the first time. On the other hand, it was a city we both immediately recognized after exploring it for only 2 days, 8 weeks ago! We had discussed while on the train that we wish wee had a map because we were not confident that we could find the hostel (some 15-minute walk from the station) without guidance. But when we stepped on Nanjing Rd, we both knew exactly where to go.
Also bizarre was the change Shanghai went through. In 8 weeks China cleaned the streets, cut down on motorbikes, and clamped down on the selling on fake goods; the change was apparent. We arrived at Mingtown Hikers Hostel and greeted the same reception staff as before. They told us we would have to wait until 10pm to see if they had a vacancy, but if they didn't we could sleep on the sofas in the lobby. Another change we noticed in ourselves was not only the fact that we hadn't reserved a room before arriving, but that sleeping on the lobby sofas sounded appealing to both of us. So we left our bags at reception and headed out to explore the city on our last night in Asia.
We took the metro to French Concession, an area of town we had yet to visit. We wandered around and finally found a local restaurant with a TV playing the opening ceremony, so we entered in hops of having a fun last Chinese meal. The waitress translated the all-Chinese menu for us in broken English and we ordered chicken noodles, and dumplings. As we ate our meal (which wound up being chicken-blood pieces, which we removed...) the waitress stood next to our table the whole time, telling us about the Chinese officials shown on the TV and chatting with us in broken English. She even insisted that we take pictures with her... she was so fun!
After dinner we headed down the street in French Concession in search of another fun local hangout. All along the street there were random televisions with locals all stopped to watch the Olympics! So fun to see how much they loved it!
As we walked along we eventually walked past this deserted restaurant where we noticed a television upstairs, what looked like a few locals crowded around, and the bottom floor completely empty except for one lady. We walked in, and without a single word we communicated that we wanted a drink, she typed the price into the calculator, we agreed, and she led us upstairs! So simple! For the next 3 hours, we sat at this small table directly in front of this small television playing the Olympic opening ceremony. The small crowd that was there already was actually just the wait staff hanging out, but before too long there was this huge Chinese family that rushed in and filled the three tables surrounding us (we would have felt popular, but we're pretty sure they were interested in the television, not us). Without speaking to each other, we started getting to know that family, and as we cheered for the USA team entering the Birds Nest stadium, they realized where we were from. They soon loved us and we had so much fun with them! They were completely crowded around our table to watch the games, just like we were part of the family :)
After the ceremony, we unsuccessfully searched for a taxi home, but after a while we just decided to walk. It was a LONG way, so when a local on a moto offered us a ride, we obviously have become braver throughout our journey, because we agreed and hopped on! As Jenn took picture while riding in the middle (of course) he smiled for the camera- so funny! We returned to the hostel to be assigned a 6-share room, moved our stuff upstairs and went to sleep for our last night.

SATURDAY, August 9:
We woke up and left the hotel by 8:15am to fit in one last exploration before heading to the airport. We walked down Nanjing Road to People's Square for a visit to the Shanghai Museum, which we didn't get to fit in last time. We walked through the various exhibits after waiting in line for an hour. Great to see some ancient Chinese artifacts one last time-- really helped us appreciate for the final time how vastly different Asia is from the Americas, and remind us about their incredible history.
We then headed back to the hostel, stopping at some last minute souvenir stores, Olympic shops, and enjoying the local feel of the old Chinese couple dancing along the street. We then took just 20 minutes to completely stuff our packs with the recent purchases and everything we had accumulated over the 8-week journey. Then we checked out of the hotel by 12:20pm, and began the 15-minute walk in the extreme heat with all our stuff back to that East Nanjing Road metro stop. After going through security and changing trains a few times we arrived at Longyand Rd. station, where we first arrived 52 days ago without a clue! This time we knew of an alternative to the hour bus- the Maglev train! It is one-of-a-kind in the world... a levitated magnetic train. Just 8 minutes later we found ourselves at the airport!!! The train got up to 431 km/hr... if only trains like this existed throughout China we would have gotten around Asia a lot quicker! We loved the last adventure before our final plane journey. We final checked in for our flight, got through security and arrived at our gate with a couple hours to spare. Jennifer was able to find her friend from school, Ke, who was departing for America at the gate next door! It was great for them to catch up. Chris found the Olympics playing on a television in the terminal. By 3:30 we were boarding the plane, getting cozy in our first class seats once again :)
As we got comfy, we realized that our stewardess friend from before was once again abroad the flight! It was very full-circle to see her! The flight went smoothly, in fact even if we had been forced to sit in the aisle, or stuffed back in the luggage compartment we wouldn't have complained after everything we've been through. Any 15-hour trip seems so simple and easy; having a chair that folds into a bed was actually nicer than some of the hotels we stayed in. It was almost too easy- watch 3 movies, eat some great food, take a short nap, chat about our trip with the stewardess... and before we knew it we had landed in Chicago!
As we pulled up to the gate we were told that the US Customs' computer was down, and we weren't allowed off the flight. Jennifer was nervous because she had a close connection back to Atlanta, but 45 minutes later we were allowed off, only to realize her fight was delayed anyway. We used the time to divide up our souvenir bag... she was like our third traveler- she weighed as much as a person, well, not really, but filled to the brim, of course. As we got off the plane, we were soon separated out as "citizens" and forced to stand in line with all the people who actually spoke English and didn't have a fun accent... how boring! We knew immediately that the reverse culture shock was kicking in and our need for adventure was not going to be fulfilled.
But without any problems we waited in the domestic terminal, our connecting flights were delayed a couple hours, but in the end what is a couple hours of waiting in an air-conditioned terminal? We said our final good-bye as Jennifer headed to Atlanta and Chris returned to Tulsa.
Before we knew it we were back in our parents' arms and comfy at home, but filled with new perspectives and ideas about life. Stay tuned for a conclusion post and updates! Thanks for reading and caring, we love you all. Also- comments should now be easier to post, we changed some settings we didn't know existed. Thanks for everything :)