sunburns, jellyfish and mozzies: a weekend getaway to malaysia (part 1)

i know what you're thinking: wait, whatever happened to cambodia? well, it's amazing. the people are lovely, i'm learning so so much at the hospital and the town feels like home. but all that will have to wait just a little bit longer.

my visa ran out two wednesdays ago. sure, the hospital could have renewed it for a small fee. but a short trip out of the country seemed like a much more interesting method for visa renewal. i settled on kuala lumpur, malaysia (mainly because the flight was cheap). somehow, i managed to convince a coworker to join me. meet sallie, an icu nurse from australia. she's working at ahc for six months before embarking on a trek around south america. she has two children, both older than me. she only wears purple.

having reserved plane tickets but little else, we headed to the siem reap airport in mr. ron's tuk tuk. if i had told you about mr. ron the ivy 2 tuk tuk driver who had stolen my bike to send a friend to the market and returned it broken, you would understand why i was cranky about letting him drive us. but i didn't, so we'll leave that for another day.

after a turbulent plane ride and the longest airport shuttle journey in the whole world (why did they build the airport so far from the city?), we were in kuala lumpur. our first day was taken up entirely in transit, despite the fact that we had left early in the morning. we spent the night strolling through china town and discovering that we had left the concept personal space back in cambodia.

the chinatown night market was overflowing with smells and lights and people. hawkers grabbed our arms and blocked our path, seducing us with pirated dvds, reams of silk, watches, fake handbags...

the next day was a blur of sights. our first stop was masjid jamek, i think the first mosque i have ever seen. we wore robes and headscarves and wandered nervously about, desperately hoping that we wouldn't offend the worshippers. the building itself was austere, the grounds were peppered with palm trees in beds shaped like eight-pointed stars. sallie, who has traveled all through the middle east, was able to explain a bit about the symbols and practices. i was surprised by its simplicity but very glad to have made the detour.

we hopped on board a real train (!) and made our way to the city center. the petronus towers, the largest towers in the world until 2004, were supposed to be right in front of us, but we just couldn't find them... after a few moments, we noticed the gaggle of tourists gazing in awe up at a building as we craned our necks to see around it. a bit flustered and mumbling about how it was only that we couldn't see the other one, we walked around the base and finally admitted that it really was quite tall. the best part? the base is a gigantic shopping mall! i would not have thought that i would have any interest in western shops while traveling in malaysia, but after a month and a half of squat toilets, banana republic and auntie anne's pretzels were fabulously extravagant.

next we took an hour long hike in an effort to travel what appeared to be just a few blocks (tourist maps rock) and literally climbed up to the base of the KL tower, the third largest telecommunications building in the world. the view was lovely, as we hadn't been able to get tickets to go up in the petronus towers, though the free audio tour was over the top and we were mobbed by a pack of malaysian school children. we escaped to the nature walk below and were eaten alive by the mozzies. it was a beautful walk, though, and neither of us could believe that we were in the middle of a city as the trees were so thick around us.

although we had had quite enough with nature, we hopped on a train for the lake gardens, malaysia's (not so) central park. as it was growing late, we focused our energies on the bird sanctuary. i do like birds, but perhaps not that much, and i have never seen so many of them in one place in my life. there were peacocks wandering around the footpaths and little brown birds that spoke the most articulate malay and toucans and really annoying chirpy things that hung upside down on the ceiling and pooped on us as we walked through. we were both exhausted from our adventures but determined to see the waterfall. it was off for the evening. we got a taxi back to town.

we were both really excited about little india and the night market. most of sallie's clothes are indian style and i was hankering for some food! when we got there, however, all they sold, in the entire night market, was head scarves and stupid plastic toys that played it's a small world over and over again. we spent more time looking for a place to eat than in the stalls! and then we couldn't find a bathroom and it was getting late and we were getting cranky. perhaps it was just the culture shock of spending a whole day in a city?

we were both ready to be off the next morning, sallie eager to escape le village, our charming hell hole of a hostel and me excited about beaches and sunshine! we hopped on a plane and in a very turbulent hour, we were in penang.