Wandering solo

So my first couple days in Malaysia consisted mostly of wandering the streets KL, writing, and eating the most unfamiliar food I could find. These are just random pictures I took during those first few days while I stayed at the YMCA hostel. I didn't take that many pictures at first because I hated looking like a tourist.

This is the National History Museum of Malaysia for which I ran across a freeway. It looks like a nice, big museum but they were doing construction inside. Damn.


A street in Little India. So many people here ride motorcycles...the craziest thing I saw was a guy cradling a baby in his lap while driving a motorcycle. Being in a car is actually not that scary, except people get away with a lot more here than in the States. My coworkers laugh at me for instinctively buckling my seat belt even though I'm in the backseat.


Some street shops in Little India. Every Friday they sell these stringed flowers for people to decorate statues at Hindu Temple, mainly for the Indian community.


Below is a photo of one of the huge malls in KL that sells every international brand you could think of. Hush Puppies, Forever 21, Gucci, GAP, Nike, Jusco, Carrefour, Le Sport, on and on. I get tired just by walking around in one of these because I end up spending hours in them to stay out of the heat outside. AND all pharmaceutical stores has all brands of bathroom product I use in the States, so I really didn't need to stock up on 6 months of everything but...Oh well.


This is one of the really nice parts of KL that is made for international tourists. Wander around the KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Center) and you'll only find Beamers, Porsches, and Ferrari's...and the fanciest bars and restaurants in the country. I went to a bar with my roommate and paid 32 ringgits for a screwdriver! Which only turns out to be 10 dollars but it's still crazy expensive for Malaysia. Considering that I usually pay 4 to 6 ringgits for most meals.



These are the famous Petronas Towers from below. The tallest towers in the world and the 3rd tallest buildings in the world. They sold out of tickets the day I tried to go up to the skybridge so I went later at night with my new roomie just to take photos. I figure I'll be forced to go when my family visit anyway, so eh.


First blog in a while! I've finally moved in and am mostly settled into my room so I should be writing more consistently.

Things I'm starting to get used to:
- Seeing women wear head scarves
- Being sweaty all day
- Eating fish heads more than once a month
- Public transport
- Getting lost
- Not speaking Bahasa Malaysia
- Eating with a spoon and a fork at the same time
- Addictive melodramatic Malaysian soap operas


Things I'm not yet getting used to:
- Seeing women wear full body hijabs walking a couple feet behind their husbands
- Bug bites
- Creepy men following me around train stations
- Everything stopping during times of Muslim prayer
- Showering twice a day
- Erased belly buttons on women in Western fashion magazines
Sidenote: When I first saw Fergie without a belly button, I just decided that it was either that she was indeed a robot afterall, or the editors made a mistake. THen I saw a whole bikini ad with 8 girls without belly buttons...just a smooth, uninterrupted stretch of skin on their stomachs. Weirrrd.
One more sidenote: Men's belly buttons AREN'T erased. ?!

I have more but it's getting dark outside and I must go eat some noodles.
Tomorrow, I finally move into the apartment and meet my roommate. I really hope he's a good guy.

Cheers.

Why jaywalk when you can run across freeways?

As I have learned from walking around KL, this city isn't very pedestrian friendly. This has made getting around a pretty wild and intense experience. Almost everyone here tells me I should get a cab to get around, but I've decided to always walk or use public transport because it'll let me experience in a more raw, intimate way (and it's cheaper...).

This morning as I looked outside my room at the hostel, I could clearly see the National Museum of Malaysia. I guessed it that it could have only been about a few blocks away so I decided to walk. It all seemed fine until I somehow ended up on a freeway. I wondered if I should stay on this course but I convinced myself that it was okay since there were signs that claimed that this was safe. SOoo, I kept going on...On the side of a four lane freeway, cars zooming past me a few feet away. However, I realized that I was fast approaching an end to the narrow path of safety on which I walked. I had to make a choice: Go back and give up, or cross to the other side where the museum stood so close, so mockingly...?
I decided to run for it. After I stood there for 10 minutes waiting, and thinking to myself how much of an idiot I am for attempting to do this, I made a run for it and made it out alive. I probably wouldn't have written about this at all if it weren't for this British woman who I ran into about a minute later who was trying to catch a cab on the same freeway. Apparently a local, the woman told me that it's not abnormal for people to run across freeways because there just aren't ways for pedestrians to get to certain places.

Maybe she was just as cooky as I am. Who knows. It just felt so good to have my extreme jaywalking experiencing be validated by a stranger.

It turned out that about 90% of the museum is under renovation so it was pretty lame. The only part I could see was the "Malaysia Today" wing which was a bunch of government propaganda about how great the 30 year regime was for the country. I always try to go to the National Museum of any country I visit because it gives me a good idea about how it sees and portrays itself. Anyways, I decided that I should probably eat so I went to the museum cafe. I didn't realize how hungry I was (I guess running across freeways gives you an appetite) so I got rice with cooked fish head, noodles, and a octopus/clam/squid dish.

After that, I was planning on going to see the bird park but it was so hot and humid outside I decided to go to THE BIGGEST MALL IN SOUTHEAST ASIA. 6 stories of capitalist, free market madness. Pretty much every brand you could think of from the States is at this mall. I walked around for 3 hours and I probably saw about 25% of it. The best part though, is that everything is SO CHEAP. Even designer clothes that would be $500 in the US is about $100 here. Anyways, I ended up just getting some hydrocortisone for all the bites I got last night (most likely bed bugs, not "mossies," I was told by the pharmacist) and some shampoo. Tonight, I'm gonna try to saran wrap the bed and wear clothes on every inch on my body.

For now, I'm going back to the hostel to read "Sophie's Choice" at the downstairs restaurant. Until next time...

Arrived in KL

Hello from Malaysia at last!

I'm at an internet cafe in the outskirts of KL and a half a block away from the hostel where I'm staying for a couple days. By next week I should be moved into the apartment where I will hopefully be for 6 months.

At the moment I'm very, very beat from the 18 hour flight so I'm just gonna bullet point the last 24 hours:

• Air India turned out to have a codeshare with Malaysia Airlines, which meant I pretty much flew with MA instead. (Some of you know how worried I was about flying with Air India because of the horrible reviews it got on this one website.)
• Met a really nice local from KL who gave me tips, hung out with me and let me use his cell phone so that I could meet up with the woman from SIS.
• Maria, one of the staff of SIS, seems really nice. I think it's a pretty good sign that I can make her laugh.
• It's hot and humid here but not nearly as bad as I was expecting it to be (maybe because it was 115 degrees in LA the day before I left)
• I'm already getting bitten by mosquitos
• Everyone here is so mixed so I don't feel like I stand out that much.

That's all for now. Sorry it's short but I really need to shower and get some sleep.

Til soon!

Sisters in Islam on Frontline

This last week has been such a busy mess.
I moved out of my house in Santa Cruz five days ago, turned 21 two days ago and am leaving for Malaysia in three.
There's no time to settle in, no time to live up my new "privileges," and no time to have second thoughts about what needs to get done.

And I've never been so nervous in my life. Whether I'm doing errands or seeing my friends, my stomach refuses to stop flipping over while I constantly daydream about Malaysia.
The humidity, the food, the people...EVERYTHING is a huge, intimidating question mark and I love it. I know that this isn't just a vacation, that it's what I've worked for three years being in GIIP and that this isn't going to be easy work, but I can't help but think of this as a break. One long, tireless, enlightening break.



On another note, Frontline did a piece on Sisters in Islam (SIS). Watching this makes me so excited to work with these amazing women:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/muslims/portraits/malaysia.html


Just counting down the days...

My first post!

I'm leaving for Malaysia in 4 days!! AhhhH!!