On Saturday the 6th, the members of the “KL Rikuryo Kai” (the alumni association of Osaka Prefectural Kitano High School is so called after the school’s hexagonal emblem) had yet another gathering and this time it was fine Thai dinner. Man, we get together rather a lot. And we drink a lot, too. Each of us drank almost a bottle of wine each, I guess. A bit too much in the middle of Ramadan, you know.

Unlike myself, who is a pure local hired, the other members of the group are all on elegant (semi-)retired MM2H visas or are stationed overseas by big foreign or Japanese companies with lots of allowances, they tend to eat out at expensive gourmet restaurants. Since I live in Subang Jaya, which is a bit far from KL, I tend to eat out at reasonably priced places around the area the locals would go. There are a lot of “B-grade soul food” that are cheap and tasty in its own way, so I am usually distant from “gourmet” food. So I always look forward to this good opportunity of the Japanese gathering.

Since I don’t even drive a car (even when I lived in the US…I don’t have a driver’s license to begin with), I use a lot of ride sharing/e-hailing here in Malaysia, which is very well developed here, to get to my destinations. It is really convenient and I have used it more than 1300 times in the last 2 and a half years (I wish Grab and Air Asia would give me some kind of award). Still, I like trains, so I try using that as much as possible around KL where the train network is well developed. This time I took the monorail for the first time from KL Sentral. It was very clean and comfortable, and it was a good sightseeing trip along the way as it passed through tourist spots.

6日（土）は、「KL六稜会」（大阪府立北野高校の同窓会を、六角の校章にちなんでこう呼びます）のメンツで高級タイ料理を食べてきました。それにしても、よく集まってるなぁ。そして、よく飲んでる。今回も1人ほぼ1本ワイン飲んでました。…ラマダーンの真っ最中なのに。

私のようなバリバリ現地採用の人間と異なり、他の皆さんは優雅な（セミ）リタイア後のMM2Hビザの滞在や、外資系や日本企業の海外駐在というこれまた手当もしっかりつく優雅なステータスのため、外食といえば値段が張りがちなグルメ店に行かれます。私はそもそもKLから少し離れたSubang Jayaに住むため、外食もその周囲の手ごろなローカルな場所ばかり。安くてそれなりに美味い「B級ソウルフード」が多く、「グルメ」とは距離がある。なので、この集まりはよい機会なので楽しみにしてます。

私は車にも乗らないため（米国在住のときも…そもそも車の運転免許は不所持）、こちらではやたらと発達しているride sharing/e-hailingを多用して目的地へ行きます。本当に便利で、この2年半で1300回以上使っている（GrabとAir Asiaには表彰して欲しい）。それでも、電車が好きなので、電車網が発達しているKL周辺ではできるだけ使います。今回は初めてKL Sentralからモノレールに乗りました。とても綺麗で快適で、賑やかなところを通るので、道中よい観光にもなりました。