Joel-hor Bahru, Hawaiian Shirts and Haggling

Welcome to Kuala Lumpur! The Hawaii of Malaysia!

Or so it appears to be as I sit here typing this in a bright orange Hawaiian shirt in the cafe of the YMCA we are staying at. I'll get onto why I am in such a shirt in a moment but let me get you up to speed first.

So at the end of the last blog, we were about to start our second and final performance in Johor Bahru. Or as it shall now be known Joel-hor Bahru. This is due to Joel's 'overwhelming popularity' with the local children. You see, after our first show and the whole SSIFC appeared, old Joely Wet Eggs decided that he wanted in on the adoration. So after the show on Wednesday night, Joel tried to get the children to have photos taken with him. They were not as keen. Eventually, Joel ended up chasing down the children and trying to wrestle them into submission. OK, I am perhaps over stating the facts but none the less Joel seemed to feel that whenever we return to JB it will be renamed 'Joel-hor Bahru' in his honour and the palace will be waiting for him should he wish to stay.

Anyway, we had a good final night in JB before flying out to Kuala Lumpur Thursday lunchtime. A quick point to any budding architects though, when designing a urinal, don't make it look like a water feature. Or vise-versa. I'm still not entirely sure what it was. Just visit the male toilets in JB airport and you will see what I mean.

A coach dropped us off at a YMCA where we shall be staying for the remainder of the tour. It is not as lavish as the Straits View hotel but it is perfectly comfortable. Once again I am sharing with Joel and John King. This time, Joel was detirmined to get the best bed, so me and John let him pick. Much to his annoyance, all three beds were of equal quality so he picked the one with the best view of the TV. We later discovered that the TV doesn't work. :)

Once we had dropped of our belongings we headed to where we will be performing the final two shows, the Temple of Fine Arts, KL. This facility is much less rustic than the JB branch. It is an incredible building that has the capacity to facilitate many different dance and music lessons. We all had dinner in a restraunt on the bottom floor, which led to this excellent joke from myself.

Me: Hey! This yellow sauce is writing a message to me!
Katrina: What?
Me: Oh! It's writing a book. It's called 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.'
Katrina: Huh?
Me: It must be Rohl Dhall.

*APPLAUSE*

Thank you. Thank you. OK settle down. So today we went to the markets in Chinatown and I discovered a new talent, haggling. This is what I found works:

1.) Identify the item you want and think of how much it would cost back at home.
2.) Look in the general area the item of interest is. The shopkeep will see you and engage in conversation.
3.) Be as polite and friendly as you can. Ask how much the item in question costs. EG: How much are your football jerseys?
4.) Listen to how much it costs. EG: 45RM (RM is the symbol for Malaysian Ringet)
5.) Make this noise whilst appearing to think about it: Errrrrmmmmm.....
6.) The shopkeep will make a revised offer. EG: 35RM. Just for you

If you are happy with this, accept. If not...

7.) Pretend you have a better offer. EG: I don't know. There's a guy selling one down there for 25RM.
8.) Wait for counter-offer. If they match or better the 'other guy' accept the price. If not...
9.) Walk away, saying you will take the 'other guys' offer. Remember, you have the money therefore you have the power. One of two things will happen:

9a.) You don't get the item. Big deal, in markets like this, there are at least ten other stalls selling the same thing. Or...
9b.) The shopkeep will yell to you an improved offer. EG: 20RM. Accept.

Congratulations! You have successfully haggled!

So we are about to go to the temple to have a rehearsal ahead of the two shows this Sunday with myself, Scott, Jason and Mud ready to show off our new Hawaiian shirts. Oh yeah! There may be one final blog before we return on Tuesday. If not, there will be one that sums up the rest of the trip available by Wednesday. Thank you for following our adventures and I'll speak to you all next week.

Yours,
Stephen