The home stretch

KL.  Again

Due to a 30 day visa limit, I had to leave Indonesia at the end of November.  After a lot of time researching and pondering my options, I bought a ticket home out of bangkok.  I had 10 days to kill between leaving Indonesia and flying from bangkok, I caught a cheap flight to Kuala Lumpur and figured on making my way slowly north.  This would give me time to A) eat some awesome food B) visit some jungles and do some hiking and C) spend a few days at the beach before returning to rainy, cold Seattle.

Let's start in KL.  I'll try to keep it short.  Arrived at 1am and wandered around the area near the train station looking for a hotel.  I'd planned on using the free WiFi in the Bali airport to come up with a plan, but a delayed flight from Lombok meant that I arrived at the airport 42 minutes before my flight left, leaving no time for research.  It did give me the opportunity to finally be the guy running through the airport with that look of desperation on his face.  Luckily, the streets are fairly busy at 1am in little India, and I didn't feel at all uncomfortable walking around lost with all my gear.  I finally found a decent looking hotel, and since it was thanksgiving, I treated myself to a huge pigout meal across the street at one of the many buzzing restaurants.  $5 for far more roti canai, curry, and pulled tea than any one man should eat.  Wow I'm going to miss roti when I'm back in the states.

Dress shopping

I blame Malaysia for my growing obesity

After spending so long in Indonesia, I forgot that in Malaysia I don't get the rockstar treatment.  In KL I'm no big deal, and in smaller towns people are usually too polite and shy to strike up a conversation.  I also forgot how comfortable Malaysia is compared to Indonesia.  In my younger days, I probably would have preferred cheaper, rougher Indonesia, but cramped 4-hour long bus rides over winding, potholed roads just don't give me that same thrill anymore.  Also, since I'm incredibly rich, I can afford to spend $2 on a meal in Malaysia instead of $1.20 in Indonesia.  I spent a day walking, and found some super interesting looking houses/apartments in a back alley above the Chow Kit market.  It didn't seem appropriate to just ask someone to let me in, but as I was peering in some dark doorways, a man inside motioned me in.  My excitement was a bit premature, as it turned out to just be a creepy back entrance to the market.  The guy tried hard to sell me a 15kg bag of rice, and when I finally convinced him that it wasn't gonna happen, he moved on to the clip on hair extensions that were directly across the aisle from the rice.  Probably more applicable to my current situation than the rice, but sorry...still no.

I wanted to peek into these apartments

This is what I found instead...

Though it's only 10% Christian here in Malaysia, the
malls were decked out and pumped full of Xmas pop music.
I thought I was going to shoot someone.

From KL, I hopped a bus to Jerantut, which is the entry point for Taman Negara, and famous jungle park.  The small town of Jerantut was quiet, surprisingly pretty, and cheap.  I got a room for under $5, and spent the evening watching a japanese challenge show, Unbeatable Banzuke, with the old lady who ran the place.  I got a lot of insight into the racial tensions that plague Malaysia (most Malaysians haven't been shy about expressing a strong dislike of the Chinese).  I'm not in any kind of position to take sides, but the racial and religious issues in this region are interesting to me.  Another topic I'm nearly clueless on is the tension between Muslims and non-muslims, but I feel like I have a much better understanding than I ever could have had without visiting this region.  For the record, I'm in full support of the headscarves.

A fried chicken is a happy chicken.

Wow...just got really off topic.  When I arrived in jerantut, it was pouring rain, and didn't stop the entire 36 hours I spent there.  I met a group in the bus station who had just tried to brave the rain in taman negara, and had been thoroughly soaked for 3 days.  They looked absolutely miserable.  Though weather is hard to predict around here, the news said at least 5 more days of rain, so I decided to bag the trip in the park.  Even if I had a momentary break in the rain, it draws the leeches out in force, and leeches here are about the most terrible things ever.  They're not confined to water, like a respectable leech should be, but crawl across the ground to bite you.  And they wait on trees.  And they can somehow get through the fabric of your shoes and socks.  I was a little bummed about my last chance for some jungle trekking, but picking off leeches in a poorly constructed jungle hut while rain drips through the roof just didn't do it for me.