The American and the Pakistani
THIS IS THE MISSING POST FROM LAST FRIDAY.
CURRENT LOCATION: Kuala Lumpur
I figure it is time to catch you guys up on my travels. I haven’t
changed cities since I last posted. I am still in KL and still enjoying
my time. I have a 10am bus to Singapore tomorrow morning. I have fallen
into somewhat of a backpacker routine this last week. The hostel I am at
is very youth oriented and I have found most nights this week have been
spent playing poker, drinking Tiger beer and chatting about everything
from the origin of species to the Stanley Cup.
This time around it has been mostly a Canadian thing. For some reason
a pack of them have descended upon KL in a drunkardly fasion. It has
been great. The rooms we have are windowless so they are great for
hangovers but not very good for getting up early and being productive.
Over the last week I have been to my first mosque, been to the national
planetarium, shopped for bootleg shoes, shirts and watches, and been
inside the tallest twin towers on the planet. I met some street
musicians the first night here and met up with them again last night at
3am. They mixed concoctions out of plastic cups while singing and
playing guitar. I have come to the conclusion that the city that never
sleeps is a myth. It is not New York, it is right here in Kuala Lumpur.
One of them offered me an interview with a local bar to DJ.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any of my records with me and Shawn is down
in Singapore with his drum and bass. I am going to talk to him when I
get there about possibly sending a tape to a few clubs. It would be nice
just for the experience and a new city to add to the resume. I am
currently “retired” I guess you could say but the temptation to get back
into it is always there.
For the first time the entire trip I actually was convinced it was a
day of the week that it most definitely wasn’t. I love it here but I am
excited to get out. I am actually excited to get past Singapore as well.
I am going to have a blast but for the well being of my body and mind I
need some peace and quiet. There is an island off the east coast of
Malaysia called Pulau Tioman which is supposed to be one of the best
islands in the world. Unfortunately, I hear that with monsoon season
just ending that it isn’t that great right now. Second choice is P.
Langkawi in the north near the Thai border. I am not sure what the exact
plan is but that sounds pretty inviting. Most of the travelers I meet
have already been around South East Asia and are sort of ending their
trips in Malaysia and heading to Australia. I have to be one of the only
people in this hostel right now with no plans of going to Australia.
There hasn’t been a whole lot of excitement outside of the usual,
people getting together for a good time of drinking and partying but I
did have an interesting experience on a bus ride. On Wednesday I went
with 4 Irish (3 guys, 1 girl) out to the Batu Caves 7 miles or so
outside of the city center. It is a group of 3 caves that are made of
limestone and house several Hindu temples. The bus was pretty empty for
most of the trip but as we went through Little India a few men boarded
and sat in the back next to me. I was immediately poked in the side and
asked where I was from. He was a Pakistani man living in Malaysia for
work. He was very soft spoken but spoke a lot. Within a couple of
minutes of our conversation he asked me if I would join him at his home
for lunch. I politely declined and told him I had plans with my friends
that were on the bus. I was not surprised at his invitation as in most
muslim countries it is very common to be asked to come to someone’s home
for tea or for lunch. A few random small talk questions were thrown
around and then it got quite for awhile. While gazing out the bus window
at the old part of Kuala Lumpur I felt another poke in my side. I tried
ignoring it because the conversation was getting a little annoying. I
finally turn to him and he says, “I don’t like your president”. I hear
this a lot while traveling and I tend to just nod and smile look away
disinterested in conversation. I was not really in the mood to talk. He
continued on by telling me that our army is trained to kill muslims and
that the American people think that he is a terrorist. He finished his
statement by saying “Do you agree?”. I was still pretty polite at this
point and told him that isn’t true and well more than the majority would
disagree. The discomfort of the conversation grew because I wasn’t sure
of his intentions. He was extremely friendly and that put me off. He put
his arm over the seat behind me against the window and at a moment where
he felt most comfortable he padded me on the opposite shoulder and
called me his “friend”. This was Valentine’s Day mind you and this was
not the Valentine I had in mind. Luckily we were near the final stop so
he asked me if I had a cell phone that he could call. I told him I would
give him my email address but he doesn’t use a computer so I took his
phone number down. His final attempt at gaining my friendship was
handing me 10 Pakistani rupees which at the time I wasn’t sure its
worth. I now know it is only .16 cents and frankly, I’m offended. (I’m
joking) It was a very nice gesture even though I have no intentions of
calling. I have met a lot of locals on the road and given out my email a
few times and have corresponded a bit but I won’t be making any phone
calls. We got to the Batu Caves, stepped off the bus, and I was
immediately the butt of the jokes for the next 30 minuts with the Irish.
It seems they were all waiting for Ashton Kutcher to come running out
and were convinced I was being punked by this guy.
It was fun.
The Batu Caves were even better and not because of the temples or the
caves themselves but rather the hundreds of monkeys that inhabited the
area.
Here are some photos but go check out my FLICKR page because I
uploaded TONS recently. So many pictures of the skyscrapers so I hope
you don’t get sick of them.
Entrance to the Batu Caves
2 Macaques on the steps leading to the Batu Caves
Inside the National Mosque
Me on the sky bridge between the twin towers of Petronas
Tags: batu caves, kuala lumpur, malaysia, Malaysia & Singapore
Joey
So awesome you were in the towers, I remember reading about them when they were built, very symbolic yet modern structures.
So where are you of too next?