The day started with a plan to try some Karaoke, but I found out Sunday is the busiest day of the week for that and all the rooms were full. However, there was a embarrassing small box with transparent walls and my friend had a coupon for it. First time seeing Karaoke in action.
Next we had to make our way to Sunway Pyramid to meet another friend who would take us to Port Klang. We walked over to a bus station and waited for a bus.
My wallet was stolen today.
There were signs posted on the walls of the bus station to beware of pickpockets, but there wasn’t much I could do. The bus came, I took my wallet out and got some money for the bus, put my wallet back in my front pocket. There was a big crowd of people surrounding the door trying to get on the bus. There was some pushing (used as a distraction) and that’s where some Indian guy took my wallet. I didn’t notice until I boarded the bus.
I got back off the bus again and looked in all the trash cans to see if the pickpockets took the cash out and threw away my wallet, but it was no where to be found. I think I lost at least $100 in Vietnamese Dong, Thai Bhat, Malaysian Ringit, and US Dollars. I also lost my Michigan Driver’s License, Oakland University ID, Hostelling International Membership card, and Beijing Bus/Subway card.
We came back to the station. My friend said a man tried to take her mobile phone at the same time, but she stopped him. We saw the pickpockets still standing around the station. And we saw a pattern of when a bus was boarding, they would make a move to the group of people. The police and bus employees must see the same thing, but I don’t know why they don’t do anything about it. There was nothing I could do about it. One reason they were successful was because I was wearing new pants, and new pants that did not have very deep pockets, which meant my wallet was sticking out a little bit, ripe for the picking.
We got on the bus and continued to Sunway Pyramid. Then we met the Malay friend and continued on to Port Klang. We saw a portion of the port leading out to sea and then we met even more people at a sea food restaurant and had dinner. We had shrimp, crab, fish, noodles, and coconut. After dinner we went back to Kuala Lumpur and to the police station where I filled out a report in case anyone turns in my wallet. They say that is extremely rare. But at least I tried. Today marks the first time in my trip I’ve had anything stolen from me.