After three fantastic years at the University of Lethbridge, I am off again to travel the world...

Well...we have finally arrived here in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia after a very long flight.  We didn't depart Calgary until 10.30 at night and fortunately I had had a fabulous day just relaxing and hanging out in Calgary.  Despite this, I was extremely tired in Vancouver and so Candace and I decided to sneak off for a quick nap on some side benches where we both fell fast asleep.  We were awoken by our very 'perterbed' classmates and then we heard our names being paged throughout the airport...oops...

The flights were long and as we got closer, we got more and more excited.  We had a quick stopover in Hong Kong and were then off again.  Finally we landed in Malaysia and were immediately struck by the heavy, thick, sticky humid air.  It was actually at the airport where I had my first reminder that things were not going to be the same as in Canada.  I had to go to the bathroom...oddly enough, I had a choice:  the traditional hole-in-the ground where you squat and hold onto side rails OR a somewhat more western style toilet.  I chose the more traditional type, although this may have been a mistake in hindsight.  The toilet was western in the sense that it was a bowl that you sit on, however it was very square...with a very large hole.  I chose to squat rather than sit.  I then realized that there was also no way to flush, however I did notice a hose with a sprayer on the end and a large tap.  So I decided to experiment and unfortuntely it was not a good attempt...I will leave the rest of the story to the imagination...

We finally arrived at our hotel rooms at the Menara Wesley (a local monastary) where we are not allowed to drink, smoke or eat or dorian (which is a local, very smelly fruit...apparently it tastes like heaven and smells like hell).  The rooms are decent however the logisitics will take some getting used to.  For example, in order to enable the electricity, we must insert a large plastic key into a slot.  Once this has been turned on, we can then start our air conditioning.  Our entire bathroom is also one large shower room so the toilet, floor, door and all gets wet when we shower.  You must also flip a switch several minutes before shower in order to get hot water.  I am also still getting used to the sight of the small container of rat poison just underneath our desk.  

After getting settled in, we were off exploring the city...first stop, Chinatown which is right down the street.  As suspected, the sights, the sounds and the smells were overwhelming.  Some of the more eye-opening sights included:  rats that ran out in front of us and down the gutter as we walked home from the bar last night (total rat count to date is 3), several scrawny cats with no tails, lots of gigantic cockroaches (already too many to count) and a local fish/meat market.  It was here that we trudged through fishy water down the narrow dirt alley and were splattered with the spray of meat as one man ferouciously butchered and chopped some type of animal on a round tree trunk.  We saw half a pig head, complete with the large piggy ear still attached, an array of random fish, large squid and octopus, and a pig leg complete with the hoof still attached...all dangling from a wooden stall. 

Some of the most evasive sounds included:  the local vendors asking "you want to buy porn? you want to buy porn?", cars honking everywhere, buzzing moterbikes as they cruize down the streets (and sidewalks!) only narrowly pedestrians, the waling drones of Muslim music signifying prayer times, and lots of creepy men saying "beautiful girl", "beautiful girl" as we walk by.

The mixture of smells was dizzying with the most pungent being raw fish, roasting chestnuts, foul sewers, fabulous curries, the stench of piled-up garbage, fresh flowers, sweat and B.O.  ....all of these smells wafting one after the other as you walk down the streets and the markets.

So, I suspect that our first street vendor experience was as authentic as they come.  Myself and three other students began chatting with a male street vendor.  We were quickly 'poached', however, by another friendlier lady who obviously wanted to make the sale more than he did.  So, she led us down the back alley and pulled up four plastic stools and there we sat under a rusty tin roof at a plastic table waiting to see what delicacies she would serve.  There were no menus; she simply asked if we wanted rice or noodles and  then whether we wanted chicken or pork.  She served us some fabulous food on...you guessed it, plastic plates and bowls.  She offered us some sort of soup with dumplings in them and when we didn't understand what they were, she simply popped back behind her buckets and pulled out several raw tortellini-like things with her not-so-clean hands and showed us so we could see for ourselves.  As we ate our very delicious food, she squatted next to us washing more dishes with her hands in large buckets of water.  When the common late afternoon downpour came, she offered us newspapers to cover our heads when we left.  Our entire meal came to 5RM or about $1.50...what a bargain. 

Our first afternoon here in Kuala Lumpur was exhausting.  Everyone decided to go out after dinner however I took the chance to get some much needed sleep and I slept from about 6.30 pm right through the night until 9.00 am the next morning. 

 

Posted by: deannaketcheson at 11:02 | link | comments (11)