Isn't it funny how small, seemingly insignificant moments can stick with you forever? I think my memory of Malaysia can best be summed up by such a moment. Last night in the rain, with the dark all around me, looking across the street at a table showered with light and two beautiful blonds in cocktail dresses laughing with each other. I must have stood there for ages looking, just a beautiful moment seared into my brain.
Kuala Lumpur is like that moment in many ways. Its a dark, wet city, with litter and noxious odors rising up from exposed sewage drains. Its a nightmare of a city for walking, with sidewalks that end for no particular reason, made out of tiles that have an annoying propensity for promoting falls at the slightest wetness. Very few crosswalks means that your life is quite literally at stake every time you cross one of its many 6 lane intersections. But just as you are about to write the city off, there in the dark rises the glimmer of the Petronas twin towers, like the two blonds, standing out beautifully against the contrasting black all around it.
Its quite a departure from my little beach heaven. I ended up staying in Puala Pangkor for four days in total and it was as lazy and uneventful as predicted. I took up swimming in the mornings, napping in the afternoons, and then walking around taking pictures as the sun fell. Its a bit deceiving, the peace. So much in fact that as I turned the corner one evening, I was faced with a wild pig snorting angrily at me.
Wild pigs living in a jungle, right out of the heart of darkness. He (in my mind, it was a he) stood up to my knee height and after a bit of me standing perfectly absolutely resolutely stone like still, tucked in his tail and marched back into the jungle. It was certainly the last thing I had expected to come across in my little paradise. During the week I had encountered many more monkeys, toucans, and a countless array of kittens and cats prowling the premises. But a killer pig?! Would never have thought about it - and here I left my hunting spear at home.
Back now in Kuala Lumpur, I'm still a bit of sensory overload, with killer cars taking the place of pigs. So I was happy last night to run into a UK'r staying at my hostel last night. Together, we decided to go out and hit a few bars in the Golden Triangle neighborhood. Things here in Malaysia are quite cheap, however the taxes the government issues on beer is outrageous - to the point where it actually costs me more in New York City to drink than it does in Kuala Lumpur. Still, I had been a bit socially starved so the cost was worth it.
My original plan was to spend a couple months traveling through Malaysia, but recently something came up and on Friday I will be flying into Bangkok, Thailand. The "something" actually first came up a year ago. After the company announcement of my departure, I received many calls wishing me well in the coming year. One of these calls came from my friend, Fred. Every year, Fred and his church travel to Udon Thani, Thailand and work for a week at an orphanage there in the city. He invited me to join them if I was in this part of the world in March and even hinted at the possibility of my staying on at the orphanage after he leaves to teach English. I didn't put much thought into it at the time, but last month I received another email from Fred asking me if I was still interested.
So, after a bit of thought I decided to do it. Strange world, no? I'll be in Bangkok for a few days before taking the flight out to Udon Thani, but will spend the better part of the next month or so there. The travel plan, such as it is, is to fly out of Thani on the weekends to explore various parts of Thailand. I'm a bit nervous - terrified, actually - but think that this will be a good experience for me.
I'll be interested to hear/read your stories about your experiences at the orphanage. Ironically, the sis' fiance flies out tomorrow to Haiti, leading a group through his ministry program that's helping out with an orphanage there. Different cultures, different parts of the world, but with similar goals.
Posted by: Sara | March 20, 2008 at 20:49