Samsara

In my next life, I will be a cat. But not just any cat, an alley cat. I'm talking An American Tale, where the cats run the streets like the mafia. My stomping grounds will be Kuala Lumpur, where I can patrol the winding streets of the old city, with it's classic maze of dirty back alleys and suffocatingly obnoxious crowds, fumes everywhere from the buses that choke the air and clowd the sky. Conversely, I could sneak into a futuristic, Epcot Center-style monorail and hightail into the new city, architecturally advanced and menacing with it's enormous skyscrapers and almost alien centerpiece, the Petronas Towers. I'd spend the day with suits and the nights with the street vendors, breathing the heat.
KL at first was appalling, especially after arriving just recently from Singapore. The bus station is near Chinatown on the older side of town, and our hostel room was an 8 by 10 cellblock, worse than a freshman dorm!, complete with concrete floors and a fan that spewed grime and dust. This west side of town has one jewel, Merdeka Square, where the British used to play cricket and now where Malaysians gather once a year to celebrate independence. Old movies are also apparently shown nightly on the massive television screen there, for wandering couples and vagabonds such as ourselves. We resolved immediately to stay only one night.
But the new side of the city redeemed KL for me. We painstakingly figured out a bus route to the Petronas Towers in an attempt to do the one touristy thing we knew existed, the sky bridge made famous in Entrapment with Sean Connery. Unfortunately, it's like the Washington Monument; tickets are free but sold out by 11am. It was 4pm. Imagine our utter disappointment. But then, a stroke of luck named Hanjj. It's amazing what you can accomplish just shooting the breeze with a worker at the towers: 2 tickets for the bridge. That made our day, and the view really was spectacular. We then wandered through the ten-story mall, all part of the KLCC complex built on a former horse track, and stopped for a movie as the rain kept us stranded. Million Dollar Baby, I highly recommend it.
The night only improved from there. We cabbed it to Golden Triangle, the trendy night-spot area of town with fancy restaurants, clubs, and overpriced hotels, but also hawker stalls and cheap food alternatives (more our style). We met some cute Japanese girls while taking pictures for eachother and drinking Tsingtao. But perhaps the best part of the night was walking into a street performance by accident in honor of the Formula One Grand Prix race that took place outside of KL earlier that day. There was blaring music, smoke and lights as a stream of Malaysian models showcased designer fashion outfits around Ferrari racing cars for passersby. Very cool.
So KL is a place that grew on me immediately, but we left this morning anyhow for Jerantut, gateway to the jungle of Taman Negara, where we will likely stay 2-3 nights. Just getting into the park requires a 3 hour boat ride upstream - don't worry mom, I know you're thinking Joseph Conrad but really this is probably like Disney World's It's a Small World, just more beautiful. I'm very excited for the canopy walk, one of the highest in the world over a deep gorge, and perhaps some night trekking. We'll do the touristy stuff tomorrow and then likely buy a guide for one more intense night.
I hope the jungle will be all it's cracked up to be, especially after sitting next to a park guide! on the bus ride here. I'm only scared of leeches...luckily it is the dry season. I also spoke at length with an older Malaysian man about the country, its politics and religion. The diversity of religion continues to amaze me here - a Chinese jungle guide talking with a Jew from America and a Muslim ethnic Malay, no problem. He noted that he and I are both descendants of Abraham, he from Hagar and I from Sarah. Malaysians here actually speak more English than Arabic! He joked that he lived here and never had been to Taman Negara; I responded that I grew up in Washington, D.C. and had never been inside the Capitol (I don't think he got it!). We also talked about Malaysian industries - rubber trees, rice, and oil, and new technologies to lessen reliance on petrol; and about daily life here - school, work, holiday, festivals. Sometimes an off-the-beaten-path bus ride with a detour in a town like Temerloh that takes an extra 3 hours turns out to be a good opportunity to meet the locals.
Alright then, see you in a few days.