My KL Re-visit

Guess it's time to update about my trip to Malaysia.

A lot of people asked why I went down to KL for only one night and why alone. My answer lies on one keyword, i.e. 'AYF'.

"AYF" or "Asian Youth Fellowship" Program is a fellowship granted to candidates of Southeast Asian countries, as well as, Bangladesh. Each year 18 students from these countries gathered in AYF language center down in KL for a 13-month Japanese Language preparatory course prior to entering Japanese Universities for upper education as Monbukagakusho Scholars. I'm one of those lucky people to be enrolled in the program in 2003 as a member of AYF 8th Batch. Really don't wanna get too far on the details of the program, but one common question I constantly has been asked was 'why Malaysia?'. The simple answer was that the program ran by the same organization prior to AYF program focused primarily on Muslim countries in SEA. At that time, they selected Malaysia to host the language center. That's why even when the program was fully converted into AYF, we still sticked to the language center in KL.

Now that there have been some problems in keeping the organization in Malaysia, the final decision was to abolish our school and move the whole program to the Japan Foundation (one of our sponsors)'s language center in Ringu area near Kansai Int'l airport. This means that the currently studying AYF students in our center in KL (at that time) were the last group of AYF students in Malaysia. So we decided to fly down to attend their graduation ceremony and, at the same time, closing ceremony of our program. I didn't need anyone to guide me around KL since it was, roughly speaking, my base for a whole year. Plus, my AYF family was waiting for me down there. LoL

I reached KL on the same flight as Fujimoto-san, our AYF coordinator, in the early afternoon of the 10th of March which was Friday. We all knew how hard it was to hale a cab on friday afternoon when the Muslims take a break for their main praying. Despite that, I never learned to remember that harsh feeling waiting for no cab! -"- It took me a while to finally get to AYF office, our school.


The first thing I did was to go to the Chinese Veggie store down the first floor of Wisma Perdana to grab quick (and cheap) lunch. This was our usual lunch when we were too lazy to walk somewhere for meals during our lunch break. ^^ (Believe it or not, it tastes much better than it looks!)

Then, a short tour around our tiny little school.


our cozy little school

A view of SPB Towers, our apartment, from school

the problematic taxi!

Then, I hiked up SPB Towers from school. Yes.. yes.. I WALKED there!! (We usually cheated catching a cab though.. hee hee). AYF students know well how tiring it is to walk up SPB towers. The slope was really something! When I reached half-way, I was thinking "did I make a right decision. Gosh.. I'm sweating like a pig!" haha. But well... it was definitely something I won't get to do ever again in life, so it wasn't totally a bad idea afterall.

SPB Towers:
you know what?
I never recognized there was such sign when I lived there! ?!?!
my room
my sweet bedsheet's still there!

Then, I took a chance going to Mid Valley Megamall with Vutha, my Cambodian batchmate for a quick shopping. The big bonus for today was this thing below....

Original Rotiboy!

It's a big fad in Bangkok now. If you happen to be in Siam Square or Silom, you will be amazed by how long the queues are for these little buns. I never even slightly thought of getting in line to try it in Bangkok. It's a total waste of time (I think...) So, I rode on this chance being in KL trying the original Rotiboy with absolutely no Queue!!! LoL

Then... off to Graduation ceremony at Eastin hotel.

group performance by the 10th batch AYFers
audience

My batchmates: Vutha from Cambodia and Rizka from Indonesia.
Tagged along by Yessi, our 8th batch senpai who turned into our in-laws. ^^

Iizuka sensei, my crazy teacher! (why did you have to bite me?!?)

I spent a night at SPB Towers with my thai kohai. Then, spent the next day wandering around the city - mostly shopping places. My favourite shoe store in Suria KLCC has turned into an undergarment store!!! -"- Later on, I caught up with Chuan Dyi, my Malaysian friend, who took me to One-Utama (another shopping mall) for a quick snack before he and his wife sent me off at the airport to meet up with Kim and uncle. Kim is my mom's friend's friend who was VERY kind to me during my stay in KL. I'm so glad to reunite with her again even during my super duper short visit there. If you happen to read my blog, please take good care of yourself. We'll surely meet again!

Chuan Dyi and his wife

My lovely Kim and Uncle

Full album, please jump to my 'Malaysia:KL' flickr album