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Published: August 29th 2017
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Geo: 2.74117, 101.719
Traveling and Asia: 2 of my greatest loves in life. One of the reasons I love traveling, and life for that matter, is that everyday I wake up knowing what I want to achieve during that day but having no idea about the new experiences I'll encounter, or the interesting people I'll meet, or the new things I'll learn during those 24 hours. A lot can be achieved in this time I feel!
Yesterday was certainly no exception. I'll start at the beginning...
When I realized that I would have to admit defeat in my fight with Air Asia to change my flights to the Philippines to rebuild schools, I got straight onto google and searched for youth volunteer organizations in Kuala Lumpur. Last week I received a reply from an organization working with teenagers in a deprived area of KL. I received confirmation the night before last that they needed an extra pair of hands yesterday afternoon. Perfect! Only problem was, I was still in the Cameron Highlands, a 4.5 hour bus ride from KL and it was too late to book a bus.
So next morning I wake up early and the hostel manages to book me onto
the 8.30am bus. Perfect I thought; I would arrive in KL in plenty of time to find a locker for my bag and figure out how to get to the centre. So 8:30am comes around and I'm standing by the hostel sign on the side of the road waiting for the bus. 8:40 comes, no bus. 8:50, ditto. I'm not too worried though; buses in Malaysia sometimes only leave when they're full, so I thought that maybe it was just waiting for other passengers. 9am comes and a woman pulls up in a car and says 'get in, I'm taking you to Kuala Lumpur'. Now I'm thinking 'eh? What? Who are you?' But she seems really urgent and keeps telling me so I get in the car and off we go. Turns out the bus left on time but forgot to pick me up. We were now playing a game of 'follow that bus!'. As she speeds around the mountain bends, we get caught up in a police motorcycle blockade, and then we finally saw the bus pass us in the opposite direction- it had come back to collect me! So we then played cat and mouse before it stopped
and some very angry people glared at me as I got on! Haha this journey was really interesting because for 2 hours we drove through the highlands. At the top of the highlands lived the local people with their strawberry farms and fairly nice houses. Lower down were the aboriginal people who lived in tin/corrugated iron houses and appeared to live hand to mouth.
That afternoon was one of my best experiences whilst traveling- I really enjoyed being around the kids and they were all so hard working, focused on what they were trying to achieve and just great fun. The organization I went along to is called Chow Kit Kita and 17 ( I think!) teenagers selected from over 70 applicants work together to produce a show in the local community. In previous years they've done a tour of the churches and mosques and this year is all about fashion and clothes. The kids are all very different- some are fairly wealthy, others aren't. There was one set of twins who had to leave school at 15 and find work in-order to help their parents and 11 siblings. These twins are really talented at street dancing- they were so good! They have a group who do performances for money sometimes. Another pair of sisters live an hour away from the centre and live in a hostel during the week as it's closer to their schools. I really think students in the UK have it so easy.
I spent the afternoon with some of these students helping them to make clothes from clothing they'd sourced from local 'bundle' shops (thrift shops). I say helping but really it was them telling me which way up to hold the clothing scissors (don't laugh!) and how to use a sewing machine. Apparently they get taught all this at school - I was too busy making potato kebabs at school. Not so useful I feel. Other students were putting together a drama play. The idea is that this show will include a fashion show, student performance and a photo mural with photos the kids took of people in the local area and should give people hope/ inspiration in the local community. It's a big commitment for the students- right now it's their summer holidays and they're expected to turn up everyday from 11am to 6 or 7pm. The students I spoke to though said that they loved it and they got a lot out of it. They're learning some great new skills. I really wish I could stay in KL longer and see how amazing the show is going to be.
At the end of the day the students put on some music and everyone was dancing. It was like being back at a school disco just much more spontaneous and fun. I then went with the twins and 2 of the adult coordinators for a walk around the local area to take photos. This was great because KL is not a place to walk in, as a lone western girl, after dark. After this we drove around the city, saw some really great areas, picked up my luggage so I didn't have to run back early, and then had dinner at the top of a hill overlooking KL and the Petronas towers. We went to some of the bundle shops and a night market which were really interesting because they only sold mens clothes. Apparently woman don't like to buy second hand clothes so there's not a market for it. I have no idea what the women do with all their old clothes though! The idea was that I would spend last night in the airport as I had to check in at 4:30 am this morning. But like last time I was supposed to airport sleep, it didn't happen. Instead, we did the much more fun thing, of sitting at an outside cafe drinking coffee and chatting/playing iPad games. One of the coordinators then drove me to the airport (about 40 minutes away) which I was incredibly grateful for- it was definitely a much more fun journey than taking the airport bus! It was really great to hang out with local people- I saw more of the city with them than I had in the time I spent wandering around KL before. They also taught me about Malay culture and how to speak a little Malay. I can only remember the word for 'naughty' though, so I don't think I'm going to be using it very often!
I'm now on the plane on the way to Brunei, having had no sleep and lots of coffee! Life is good.
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