Ouch ~~~ Couch!

One of these days, i'm getting lots of surprises and endless run of fun...

It was merely couples of days after i registered myself at Couch Surfing (CS) before i receive the request from Lorenzo, who wanted to be hosted. That's meeting up at Petaling street the same night (or same hour??) after i've got the email for a brief chat. He leave a box of suitcase with my that night, before he come back again to couch with me in a week's time.

Thanks and no thanks to his last minute kinda request, we are probably the fastest "couch surfing deal" ever made!!! :)

Lucky as he is, he come just in time during the festival breaks, namely Deepavali for the Hindu's and Hari Raya for the Malay's. I've got all the time to show him around, plus he gets to feel the real festival atmosphere by attending "open-house" dinner. And dinner at some Executive Club was an extra bonus, even for me!

Upon his arrival on 30th of October, Lorenzo surprise me by informing me that he actually don’t eat meat anymore! Apparently, such desire was long gone during his where year long stay in India. That include, alcohol, cigarettes, girls…Oh, maybe just meat, alcohol and cigarettes only, haha! Anyway we had a real good vegetarian dinner cross the street from my apartment, ate some “chicken” made out of flour, wheat, etc. The vegetable, though, are for real :p

Next morning, started off with heavy rain while we were trekking in the middle of the forest, with plenty of mosquitoes ladies accompany us. Ladies, just to make Lorenzo feel better! It was partly my fault that he crashes the trails with short pants and without insect repellent, my bad! For me, I can’t be bored if the tiny little devils bites me or not, and I hate the repellent smell, it kills the forest’s smell. You could have passed by a tree produces garlic smell (this case, Kulim) without knowing it. Worst, everyone else can’t smell it because of you!

Anyway, good thing is we get off the trails early, went back home to prepare the fantastic Italian-Spanish dish, Spaghetti with Tortilla. Never in my life that I will fry mix potatoes and eggs, it’s always eggs and onion, or add chilies if you want. The spaghetti was equally hard to cook for an oriental guy like me. But both dishes turns out pretty well, considering the totally different kitchen setup. Needless to say, five of us, including both my sisters and my mother, were glad to clear the dishes.

Then, we are on mission to meet up with fellow Malaysian couch surfer in Bukit Bintang, Zack and Reza. What a lovely couple! Initially Zack was the one who started off the couch thingy, her husband, Reza just joined her and they complete a memorable Europe trip (honeymoon? :p), I guess. They are kind enough to spend some time with us, while doing some pre-festival shopping. Some for their newly born baby, too. How sweet! Later on, we even get “vouched” by Zack, one of the parameter used by CS moderator to make sure that the fellow surfer are not merely ghost and shadow.

After saying hi and bye, we headed straight to Stephen’s house, where we will carpool with him to attend a dinner at Klang Executive Club. Lorenzo certainly likes it a lot! Even if he doesn’t know the 73 years old (or more?:p) birthday “boy” is father to SCI-Malaysia’s long time supporter, Tony Tang. I think Michael had more time to explain to Greg, fellow “World Traveler” from the states who even had time to bring a small birthday gift, how thoughtful! Funny thing is, while Greg is a “die-hard” vegetarian, Lorenzo is pretty flexible, it seems. He whack anything on the table plus little brandy (which drives him “high” a bit, I guess:p). Everything, except the shark’s fin, maybe his worse fear is attacked by sharks during his dive later in islands of Philippines, believe it or not! At the end Greg got his specially prepared vegetarian fried rice and some vegetables, which makes everyone happy!

On my way back from Stephen’s house, I was wondering where about for tomorrow, even if I’ve got our dinner fixed-up : Indian styled dinner! I wasn’t sure if we have time to do everything, in so little time. Bear in mind that Lorenzo is leaving on Wednesday afternoon, 2nd November.

One thing was sure, though. It was a perfect way to end the last day of October, year 2005!!!

Two Happy Butts(buddy)!