Malaysia truly Asia

But first rewind to last Thursday…
A movie theatre located in one of the most expensive malls in Bangkok has found the key to experience marketing (for my classmates: 1st module Service Society :D). They are not selling movies, they are selling an experience. ‘Madam I will guide you to the right room, let me take of your shoes and push this button so you can rest your legs. Do you wish to have a pillow and a blanket? Would you like something to drink and perhaps a small snack?’ Have you ever had someone saying all this to you when just going to the movies? It was just great, giant chairs where you could sleep in (in fact I bet they are a lot more comfortable than my bed in my apartment because that one is terribly hard), you’re neighbours meters away, there were only like 20 chairs in the whole room. At this point it doesn’t matter anymore what the movie is like, that’s pretty smart of them because Miami Vice was really not out of the ordinary. I was feeling like a royalty…which brings me to the grand finale of this evening.
Stepping out of the theatre a guy ran to us and was looking quite in panic, ‘step aside the princess is coming.’ ‘Huh, what, princess?’ The royal family is highly respected in Thailand. They are even on television every day. ‘What should we do, bow or use the Thai greeting’ (your hands against each other in front of your face), we decided to ask the guy. Before he could answer and while we we’re still in a heavy discussion on what to do she already walked in. I guess we did something in between, a half bow / Thai greeting with a smile of course.
Malaysia a melting pot of cultures, people, religions, food and faces. Wandering around the streets you hear all kinds of languages around you. Chinese, Arabic, Malay and Indian faces smile at you. One thing all these people have in common is friendliness. I’ve never been in a country where so many people approached me just to have a small talk and they didn’t even wanted to sell me anything. They we’re just interested. So even though I was travelling alone I didn’t feel lonely at all.
Kuala Lumpur: the shopping paradise. If you have a lot of money and you don’t know what to do with it (which certainly does not count for me though) go to Kuala Lumpur! The biggest malls of South-Easy Asia with all my favourite shops from different countries combined (Zara - The Netherlands, Topshop – UK, E-Base – China). For the people with a smaller budget (like me) they also have lots of markets. Unfortunately I only got the change to visit Kuala Lumpur. Work was waiting for me again on Monday. I would have loved to explore the country a bit more.
My next stop will be Ko Chang (tropical island in Thailand) and after that Hanoi the capital of Vietnam which I’m really looking forward to visit.