my first leap

Coming back from the internet cafe, the loud hawking noise of Chinatown turned into dark, closed up streets and alleys; so closed up, the main road I took had been shut off so darkly that I didn’t want to wander through it alone. It was 2am. I know… So I walked around. I get strange looks but I walk tall pretending I live there and these are my streets. I’m lost. I jump into a 7-Eleven and ask the girl. I walk on. I see a rat. I dodge the rat but as I dodge, another 3 rats are shaken from their hiding places so they whizzed around me trying to dodge me; one zoomed under my right foot and I kind of stepped on it, gently, not hard enough for bone crunching but enough to feel it’s back. It’s funny how the tiny scream that escapes your mouth happens like 5 seconds after the event, like in a joke you didn’t get straight away. A few minutes later down the same creepy path, Seb the biggest rat ever, made my skin jump 10 metres by jumping out at me.

From the gutters to the Middle East – while President Bush calls for restraint from Israel, Seb explains the implications of what would happen if Israel bombs Syria and Iran gets involved. We may have to leave Malaysia for Singapore. With the majority in Malaysia being muslims and Islam the official religion, it could be an issue. News for us here consists of updates everyday from CNN – where every new item is considered major major.

While the world rumbles, we get a taste of Chinatown. The clothes stalls here are crazy, packed, loud, and messy. The stall owners have walkie talkies and are jamming at them every now and then like they were buying and selling stock on the stock market that’s about to crash. Later we found out that these walkie talkies keep them in business, they are warning systems for when police are around and they have to run with their counterfeit goods. Chinatown is great for food as well. There’s a Food Centre where you have a choice of foods and meet interesting people. One such person was this 81 year old Chinese Malay man who looked 50. As well as telling us his life story, he tells us the secret of looking young – no alcohol, exercise and early nights. I’m so glad we’re staying right here; here, the whole area is vibrant and alive all day and night in total contrast to being totally deserted in the early mornings when the rats come out to play. Rats, cockcroaches etc roaming the streets are the norm here.

The Petronas Twin Towers are quite magnificent. The tickets are free but it’s first come first serve. We did manage to get into the Aquaria in the basement. I’ve been to many but this was pretty amazing and worth seeing. Other touristy places we checked out are the Lake Garden (we had just missed the festival which ended the day before) and Batu Caves (go and see the many many cute monkeys, monkeys the size of your fist – one grabbed Seb’s plastic bottle and proceeded to peel it as if it were a banana – we don’t know what happened to that poor bottle).

We were on the way to see the Arab quarters but saw a mass of brightly coloured tents, lots of people having a party, a festival. We jumped off the metrobus and joined in. We had found ourselves mulling with locals at the Citrarasa Malaysia 2006 on Jalan Ampang. Here, we tried ‘otak otak’ (fish grilled in banana leaf) among wonderful delights. We finally managed to get to Bukit Bintang later to enjoy grilled fish and mussels at Restoran Meng Kee Grill Fish on Jalan Alor recommended by a friend. Every time we saw something strange but edible-looking in terms of food, we’d ask for it. At some stalls, there’d be these triangular shaped paper wrapping something. We found out it’s called lasi lemak bungkus – plain rice with spicy sauce, half a boiled egg, and something called sambal it seems. I like this kind of travelling trying a bit of everything. We ended up in the Jalan Ipoh area by jumping from one bus (Rapid KL) onto another bus going wherever, that was pretty cool, not knowing where you are and which way you’re going. We gathered that the Metrobuses will end up taking us back into the centre and it did. That’s the fun side. The I’m-not-sure-if-it-was-a-good-idea is when we had a foot and body reflexology massage at a place called Imperial Reflexology. The foot massage was soooo good. The body, well, when the girl told me to strip to my underwear, I said in Mandarin ‘buxi’ which means can’t be, no. So it was weird to be almost butt naked with a towel between you and someone’s fingers and have her rub oil all over you and especially weird when she’s massaging your butt. So I’m feeling weirded out. Seb must have went through some sort of trauma, he had a older guy massage him! They offered to put cups on our backs and suck at the blood – some sort of cupping? Well, it felt strange but okay. They said it is good for circulation. It was only when we got back to the hotel that we saw cup marks, 13 round cups of hard love-bite redness. We still have them and Seb thinks it’ll take 5-6 days before they disappear for good. Man! I guess experiences are experiences and that was an experience. That said, both of us were so light and feeling so relaxed after we could have flown back.

Keluar. (Exit)

***

Most of us are just about as happy as we make up our minds to be. – William Adams (explorer). English Merchant, Adventurer and Explorer, the first Englishman to visit Japan, 1564–1620

Tags: Travel

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