So I have been bouncing all over the past few weeks. I went from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore to Bali to Chiang Mai. My original plan was to live and work in Bali for two months, but I was there for three days and fucking hated it. It felt like a mix of Los Angeles 2.0 mixed with Tijuana on a huge island with Bangkok level traffic. It was fucking gross, overdeveloped, commercialized, totally stripped of its incredible culture and was so expensive. It was the traveling equivalent of my body rejecting an organ.
So I completely freaked out for about twelve hours, thought about what I really wanted to on this trip, and realized I want to be by the mountains for the second half of this trip. So I booked a last minute flight to Chiang Mai, am awaiting my Chinese Visa and will be traveling throughout China and Tibet for two months! More updates to come.
Asia Trip: Day 106 - Kuala Lumpur (4/30/19)
Daily Highlights:
Slept in until 10:30am and had toast at the hostel
Went to Chinatown
Found Gaijin at a used English bookstore - SO STOKED
Went to Merchants Lane for lunch
Serendipitously ran into some Malaysian Chinese who were training to become flight attendants and they invited me to have lunch with them
Practiced my Chinese and felt cool telling my story to them
BOOKED A LAST MINUTE TRAIN TO BATU CAVES
The train ride was splendid
THERE WERE SO MANY MONKEYS!
The stairs were incredibly gorgeous
The cave in the middle of the mountain is HUGE - like at least 120 ft tall and has two temples in it
Meditated in a smaller cave for about twenty minutes
It was absolutely divine
Listened to Grateful Dead the entire way back into the city
Went to Merchants Lane for dinner and read Gaijin
Feeling v content following my bliss
I really got to see and experience KL today. This city is so many things and is nothing at the same time. This city is extremely metropolitan; has Muslims, Hindus, Chinese, Indians and many more; all of the street food is either Chinese, Thai, Indian or a strange mix of western food. I learned that when Malaysians are growing up they have to learn English, Chinese and Malay. The architecture is a mix of cosmopolitan and old hutong style buildings. There is everything on the street here from Bentleys to bicycles. It’s hard to find or research uniquely Malaysian foods. It’s such a melting pot. You have Chinese Muslims serving hot white coffee, Indians who work at western style hostels, and middle easterns littered in between.
It’s such a trip to see a Chinese man, Indian man and a middle eastern man all hanging out and conversing in different languages. Also Chinatown is the run down artsy district, which is pretty cool.
I’m stoked for Singapore, I imagine it to be a bigger and richer KL. It will be wild to experience its strict rules.
The pictures above and below are from Merchants Lane Cafe, where had lunch with a group of Chinese flight attendants. Absolutely incredible spot.
I took so many pictures at Batu Caves it deserves it’s own post, will be putting it up soon.
.Asia Trip: Day 107 - Kuala Lumpur (5/1/19)
Daily Highlights:
Woke up early and went on a run
3 miles and felt great
Chilled at the hostel, editing pictures, and booked my bus to Singapore
I met Bob - a seventy year old man who does online stock trading now. He used to be in real estate, his wife died, his kids grew up, and he was in the Vietnam War. He absolutely loves Nha Trang. He’s such a great traveler, but a terrible tourist (self-proclaimed).
STARTED READING GAIJIN - LOVE IT!
Went solo to get Indian food
It was delicious and I read my book
Wandered around Petronas Tower for hours
OH - ALSO GOT A NEW MOLESKIN : )
