Last week I got back from Malaysia with my nephew and I put all my vacation pictures on Flickr. There are also some pics from my layover in Seoul. In some pictures you’ll see my new girlfriend, who’s name is Julie.

Went out for a ride and can you believe I stopped when the road was getting rough? If it was sunny I might have had more motivation to ascend. There’s also a [ MAP ] of the journey there.

It’s melted already, but at least I took a picture hahaha.

For some reason I thought my trip back would have me visiting Korea, but instead I toured this little town in Japan near Tokyo. I’ve been here before, but it was nice to tour again.

Shopping in KL is large scale. You don’t have to go more than a few blocks to find yourself in a shopping mall or shopping district. The Petronas (Twin) Towers for instance is simply huge, I was amazed the first time I went inside. Times Square has fewer stores, but what amazed me was the number of floors, there are 12 floors total if you count the bargain basement. Also, there is a theme park inside with a rollercoaster which weaves throughout it (photo is also on Flickr).

A kid and a middle-aged guy struck up a conversation with me on the street. They told me their cousin was going to America and they wanted me to meet her and help her get to know the culture. I chatted with her on his phone, things didn’t seem too suspicious at first but tourist scams usually start with a premise like this, right? And I’ve been invited into stranger’s houses before, but never after a 5 minute conversation on the street. They hailed a taxi and we headed toward their house. I was thinking to myself this was probably the dumbest thing I’ve done, at least this month, so I paid close attention to where we were going and constantly made sure we weren’t going far. The cab driver didn’t seem involved, and I did have him give me his card within a few blocks of getting in.

Now as it happened I only had 150 ringgets in my wallet and my cellphone, my valuables were in the safe at the hotel. So I wasn’t concerned about losing money or my passport, just making sure I had an exit route.

The neighborhood was decent, I got invited in and met the family. We ate dinner and had tea. Well, I didn’t drink the tea, and I only ate out of the same dishes they ate out of. Really they were so insistent that I drink the tea that I was thinking it was poisoned or something. I ended up carrying the cup with me from table to table pretending it was too hot to drink.

How do you tell people that it’s great that they are being very nice and accommodating but you don’t have any reason to trust them yet?

During the conversation there were some small points brought up about a mother that needed an operation, but I didn’t make much of it until later.

So here’s where the scam starts: An elderly guy who was there when I arrived at the house wanted me to learn how to cheat at gambling, playing a variation of blackjack. Since this was all on friendly terms I was going along with it, and no money was part of it at this point. It was like he was showing me some interesting tricks as conversation. Apparently the guy knows some tricks with majhong but it didn’t take much convincing that I haven’t a clue about that game.

Oh but now he said that someone was coming over to visit, and this guy had won $40K in Vegas and was throwing around money. And to make matters worse, he was bisexual, so apparently he really needed to be cheated out of his money. And he’s already late, he was supposed to be here 3 minutes ago.

Ok so now I’m sure this is a scam and am trying to get out of this gracefully. When I said I wasn’t going to use my money, he said he would front the money and pulled out two $100 USD bills (why would Malaysians carry USD). When I said I would get nervous and screw up the cheating, he said his sister (who was next to us) would play. I then said my conscience would get to me and he used the sad sick mother story as well as trying to convince me that this guy would probably give them the money but hold it over them.

At this point we basically parted at the front door saying “Hey that was great, lets do it again some time!” and the two women gave me a ride to the train station. They continued the sad sick mother story which probably means I convinced them that I still didn’t know it was a tourist scam.

I’ve considered calling the police but there really isn’t much to go on. I wouldn’t be able to pinpoint the house, the taxi driver is unlikely to remember, and there was no scam, I stopped it too soon. I don’t even know how it was supposed to finish, dammit I’m sooo curious.

So the score here is Me: 2.60 ringget train ride, a sip of cold tea, mediocre Malaysian home cooked meal, a little excitement on my trip. Them: 10 ringget cab fare and a couple hours wasted.

At one point earlier I gave the guy my card, which means he could be reading this, or maybe calling me later with different ideas ….

While setting the clock in the camera, I took this photo. My internet connection is slow, my laptop is slow, but I’m settled into my hotel room already. Tomorrow I’ll be taking more photos and will upload them to Flickr.