the old-school guestbook archives
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caves and KL ~ October 12, 2002 - 12:02 a.m. finally getting back to a terminal... and about time, too-- I've got way too much to do for my third-grade-journaling gig. tonight I need to play catch up on the week... I'm in KL, Kuala Lumpur, and it's a trip and a half. funny how you cross an international border and the whole world changes. KL engages all my city instincts in a way that singapore never did. it's got that hungry energy about it, everyone sizing you up when you walk down the street, trying to figure out what they can get from you and how much. I got here after dark on thursday. it's really disorienting arriving in a new country after dark. luckily, the hostel brendan had told me about was just down the block and across the street from where the bus let me off. just walking down that street, though... especially with your pack on, you're a magnet. I just fended off the taxi drivers and the hostel touts (you need a room, place to stay, where you want to go? taxi?)-- waved them off, avoided eye contact and found my way to the hostel. which had no more dorm beds, but one more single room, which I decided to take-- 30 ringgits, which comes to something a bit less than 10 bucks. that got me a small, clean(!) room with a bunk bed-- the kind with a double size bed on the bottom-- a weird little nightstand, a towel, blanket, and roll of toilet paper. I keep forgetting to carry it with me down the hall to the bathroom. it's nice to have my own room. I thought about moving to a dorm bed this morning, but it's good to have the space, and if I could be sleeping for cheaper, it's still not much by US standards. and the place is clean and full of amenities. hot water in the shower-- quite a luxury in this part of the world-- on-site cafe, movie rentals, 24 hour internet cafe two floors down. KL is a 24 hour town. jam means hour in malay, so "24 jam" is everywhere. anything you need you can find, 24 hours a day. the energy on the street is pretty manic. when I'd droppped my stuff at my room, I asked the desk clerk about vegetarian food, and he sent me down the street to chinatown. I'd just turned on to the main drag there when I found brendan. after a really good dinner of garlic asparagus (fresh asparagus, lots of garlic), I headed out with brendan and stephen, another irish guy. we went to uninteresting bars with too-loud bad american pop music, but it was fun to hang with brendan again. he's a really sweet kid. (just a bit of a crush, just a bit). today he and I went to the batu caves-- giant caves up at the top of 274 stairs, full of hindu shrines and crawling with monkeys. we fed peanuts to the monkeys, bought from a little sari-ed woman, waving the bags and calling out "for the monkeys! peanuts for the monkeys!" after we wandered through the main cave, we took a guided tour through the "dark cave". just us two and our indian guide, jaya. very cool rock formations, pitch darkness and flashlights, giant cockroaches and interesting facts about bat guano. bats sqeaking and swooping overhead. very cool. back down at the base of the mountain, a tent was blaring bad 80's glam rock: ...it's the FINAL COUNTDOWN... very surreal. very KL. I'm staying in tonight, trying to get things done. brendan's gone out for beers in chinatown. he's taking off tomorrow. I'm staying one more day, doing the KL tour and checking out the petronas towers, the tallest buildings in the world. then I'm heading to taman nagara national park, the oldest rainforest in the world. I'll definitely be ready to decompress from all the crazy city energy by then. I'm ready now. I don't think my jaw's unclenched since I hit town. but now I have got to get some things done.
(((rings))) |