It's the map's fault!

Last week we decided to visit the bird park in Kuala Lumpur. It wasn't to far from where we were at so we thought we would just walk. We let one of the kids have the map and navigate us there.
What we thought would be a 15 walk turned into 45 minutes. I felt like we were one of those family circus comics. You know the kind where they show the little boy going from point A to point B and he goes through, around, and over everything on the way. We went through a train station, across several streets, under pedestrian walkways and almost clear around the outside of the  birdpark looking for the entrance. But in the defense of the child who was leading us, I don't think any of the rest of us could have done any better. I have learned that not all maps are created equal. Our map showed a street we wanted to take, but when we actually got to the street it was an elevated street with no access from our level. Also we have found that streets have many different names and most streets aren't even marked with street signs.

We finally made it to the bird park and really enjoyed our visit there. When we were done we were all very willing to take a taxi back to our hotel since it was 97 degrees with high humidity!

I would like to say that next time we will take a more direct route to wherever we are going.

But just a few days later in another town, Joe and I got completely turned around while attempting to find a store.  We had what looked like a good map and it looked pretty easy and close.  After walking for quite some time it started raining.  We stood under a big tree during the hard rain and then shared one small umbrella as we continued our search.  We finally found the store in the opposite end of town from where we thought we needed to be and it really was quite close to our hotel. We just took the very long route to get there!  I am once again blaming the map that seemed to be missing some key streets and details.  At least it makes be feel better than admitting that maybe we are a little challenged at reading maps!

Jenna

Joe

Seth

Sam