Day 24: Saving is her hobby

23.07.2016

A wonderful night with too little sleep and a delightful soundtrack reminiscent of 90s melodramas is followed by an even more wonderful morning. Rested and relaxed, we don't really know where to go or what to do with this day, except we're very sure we don't want to spend another night at the Little India Hostel.

Our first stop takes us to the cozy, totally touristy, and therefore heavily overpriced hipster street from yesterday evening. We visit the rightmost of the establishments this time (no idea what it's called) and make ourselves comfortable there. Gudi orders breakfast, I try once again with a light diet day as my digestive problems are still rather explosive in nature. Maybe I should stick to these light diet days for at least one day, or even 2 or 3. Well, for not eating anything, I have to admit that I'm spreading out quite a bit. I'm also not just mooching off the electricity but also the Wi-Fi and toilet. Obviously, no one in the mini-restaurant seems to care. After a few hours of desperately trying to solve internet mysteries like "What should I get Gudi for her birthday?" or "Where should we go surfing in Sumatra?", I'm frustrated and allow Gudi, who doesn't have a laptop with her and is visibly getting bored, to go for a walk. We end up - oh wonders, oh wonders - back at the shopping center. This can probably be best explained by the great air conditioning there.

By the way, as those who know me know why I'm writing again, I managed to break my phone screen. As the rumor has it, there should be one or two options to get smartphones in Asia, which is why I'm keeping my eyes open at the shopping center. I have to admit, I could even blindfold myself and walk straight into 5 smartphone stalls. I've never seen so many phone stands side by side. With the number of smartphones lying around here, you could probably supply a whole continent. Reluctantly, I also buy one of those lovely, cheap Asian iPhone wannabes called VeVo and spend a proud 600 RM - Reichsmark..uh Malaysian Ringgit.. anyhow, 150 Euros for it. Since we're already there, we also get bus tickets to Kuala Lumpur - the cool kids only call it K.L., by the way, I overheard it from other backpackers at the bus stop and I'll start saying it from now on, maybe to someday be personally accepted into the select group of traveling backpack carriers. Since Gudi, as she herself admits, doesn't want to spend any money and emphasizes that saving is her hobby, we try another trick and book the last bus, which only leaves at 01:00. Gudi hopes to save the incredible sum of 8€ because we have to spend one less night in the hotel. So far so good, unfortunately Uncle Scrooge forgets that we will inevitably have to spend time at a restaurant until the bus leaves – which also costs money.

It should be mentioned here that my dear friend is truly the epitome of what one imagines as a penny pincher. This means that not only is every corner watched, but also fraction-of-a-cent amounts like when buying water are calculated and documented to the smallest detail. Thank goodness we have something like a shared travel fund and I'm really doing everything I can to adjust the total expenses a little higher.

Well, in any case, after our shopping tour we stroll back to our regular place, both eat something - a mistake J - and kill a few more hours. After a short walk to the beach, which shows us how Muslims spend their Saturday evening - a funny spectacle - we end up back at our breakfast table. The employees are now somewhat bewildered by us, as we spend a total of about 8-9 hours in this place on this day, but no one says anything.

After what feels like an eternity, we can finally board our bus and I fall asleep immediately, dog-tired.