Diversity Break

I am afraid of public transportation.  There.  I said it.  Not the people or the drivers or even the reliability.  I am afraid of my inability to navigate a new system.  Some of this unwarranted fear has been alleviated after my recent trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

After a travel guardian helped me get a skybus ticket on the plane, I reviewed my notes ten more times before we touched down.  I actually felt pretty confident, even though I couldn't picture how anything was going to look or how it would happen.  After a long line of foreign passport holders, I crossed to the other side - the side of busy travelers eating, duty free-ing and finding their ways home.  After some wandering and a few questions, I found the skybuses and boarded one bound for the city.  A little after an hour later, I was in KL Sentral - the main station.  From there I needed to get on the LRT (light rail transit) to the stop nearest the guesthouse.  To my surprise, the LRT map looked very similar to my hometown transit in Chicago (the "L").  I was taking the red line and instead of a ticket, I was given a token.  A quick swipe of the token over a sensor got me through the gates and I'm glad I held onto it because I wouldn't have been let through the doors of my stop without sliding the token down a slot which corresponded with how much I paid.  Check!

I hate being the one at a corner staring at a map at night, so I hid myself behind a bush studying my surroundings.  After a few street crossings, I stood in front of the guesthouse shaking my head and smiling at how seamlessly all of that transportation went.  I felt like I leveled up in traveledom.  Such a contrast from my ridiculous first night in Vietnam.


The five days in KL went just the right speed.  They were slow in the way that allows moments to be savored and relief in remaining days to explore.  They were fast in the way that fun gobbles up a day in an instant.  The guesthouse seemed to be packed with attractive 20 and 30-somethings always ready to engage in conversation if you initiated anything.  I met two super nice American guys who I spent a day of activities with.
The first thing we did was trek through the Batu Caves, which were a staple in KL tourism.  I have to admit that I think Da Nang's Marble Mountains are more of an impressive outcropping of caves, but Batu had something that the Marble Mountains don't: cute, scampering...(hold on!)...scary, ravenous aggressive monkeys!

A good perch to bare teeth and hiss!

Giant statue of Murugan

The rest of the trip was spent eating (mostly Indian food mmm), exploring and experiencing.  I highly recommend the bird park if you ever find yourself in KL and aren't afraid of big flying things.  It contained so many strange and beautiful creatures walking and flying all around me.  One thing to note: peacocks sound like Kevin from Up (or maybe I should say Kevin sounds like Peacocks...but I like the first way better).

Discussing an intruder

Without sounding like a tour guide because I'd rather not, some of the things I really appreciated about Kuala Lumpur were the strongly represented and yet interlaced diversity of Malays, Chinese and Indian residents.  This bond made KL's art, food, religious sites and languages so interesting to explore.
This city wasn't without fault, however.  I have to admit, it wasn't one of my favorite cities.  It was pretty dirty in the busy areas I was in and those areas weren't very walkable, either.  Most sidewalks were narrow and this made getting anywhere a patience-testing ordeal, especially when umbrellas were involved.  One last thing I couldn't help but note: people didn't really smile, ever.  Maybe I've just gotten used to complete strangers in Vietnam smiling and saying "hello!" pretty often, but it was hard to ignore.

So needless to say, I enjoyed my five day break from what I've known for seven months, but I was happy to get back to Da Nang.  I didn't anticipate how great I'd feel walking out of our small airport and hailing my cab of choice.  I didn't even mind discovering that my bathroom window had been cracked open during the whole trip and there was about a ten-roach party in my room, waiting to be Raided.  Sigh, home sweet home.