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Published: July 28th 2010
What a change in scenery! Malaysia is nothing at all like india in any way.
For starters the trip from our hostel in kolkata to the airport and flight went seemlessly. Our flight was on time and the cabin was not full of screaming children. The flight was 4 hours and a bit bumpy the whole way but the turbulence was nothing compared to our original flight from NYC. We arrived at KL international around 11pm and were through customs in less than 30 minutes. they asked us zero questions and didn't even get us to declare any goods. It was so painless it could have been a ruse but it was not. We met a catalonian on our flight who is taking a similar route through peninsular malaysia, thailand, cambodia, vietnam and lao and chatted with him for most of the journey. He was super cool, as most young catalonians are, and we all crashed out in a corner of the airport where hundreds others slept to await the morning so we could bus to downtown KL. It makes a bit more sense than arriving at 2:30am and trying to find a guest house who is open.
All
our first impressions of KL are wonderful. It is an incredibly modern, pleasant, youthful and fun city. The population is only 1.5 million so compared to the clogged indian cities this is a fair reprieve. Transit here is so easy with a monorail, light rail, commuter rail and tons of buses. There is a distinct lack of stench everywhere, nowhere near as many homeless and beggars and the populace are friendly, smilimg and helpful. More than any of those factors the thing that stands out the most is that there are so many women around in public. One of the bad aspects of india is that there are simply too many men everywhere all the time sitting and staring or otherwise hastling people. Women are in the minority there as i believe the split is 60%/40% (men/women) so not only are there many more men, but women are definitely not encouraged to be outside for the most part. Here it is clearly a more equal society with many women holding professional positions and just around in public having fun in groups. This is something that you do not often see in india and it pleases us greatly. Its funny that
so many folks speak about how islam is so repressive towards women and i know there are instances of that but here it is clear that women hold a very comfortable place. Mind you this is their biggest and most modern city and the countryside is yet to be seen for us but for now it is nice.
We are staying in a hostel in chinatown which is in central KL. There are markets abound, tons of little food stalls selling every kind of cuisine, especially weird seafood!!!! (my fave) It is just nice to be in a modern city again and to not be stared at by crowds of gross men all day every day. It makes one want to hold your head down to avoid the stares but here it is quite respectful and when looking at many of the young locals it is clear that alternative culture has a strong hold here and thus seeing people pierced and tattooed is no new things to locals. We have spent3 nights here so far and are leaving tomorrow for the culinary colonial capital of Melaka... globally renowned for being tasty. We cannot wait! After melaka we are heading
Photo 5
taoist temple in china townto the east coast of the peninsula to mersing which is the main gateway to Tioman Island. We haven't been swimming for months and this is one of the cheaper and nicer islands around here.
When we were sitting in the airport we picked up a discarded newspaper and the first page had an article about an organic permaculture farm that is in the central highlands. They have veggies and goats and sheep and accept WWOOFers so we are going there for a week or more. It is run by a czech couple and jenna and i really miss farming and animals so we are quite excited plus it is elevated and sits in a cloud forest and from what i have read is quite serene. All in all things are well and we are very excited for what lay next.
Enough about us HOW ARE YOU? How is summer going? We would love to hear about it.. good or bad!
much love to you all
Brian and Jenna
(pictures soon)
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Dean
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Great Flower Photos
After you last blog, this one feels like a breath of fresh air. Sounds like a much more pleasant place to be. Love your flower photos! . . . catching up.