adios

So long. See you later. Peace. It's been real. Catch you on the flipside. Later, gator. Auf viedersein. Chuz. Hasta luego. Hasta pasta. Ciao. Sayonarra, saying GOODBYE!

Kuala Lumpur, take 2

Back in KL, as they say (and so miss out on saying "Kuala Lumpur"!). I'm staying with a girl I met on a trip in Kota Kinabalu--she's a magistrate and so so so so sweet. I was thinking yesterday morning as I got out of a nice bed in a clean, empty, quiet room and walked over barefoot without fear to the showers, then helped myself to some yogurt out of the fridge--hospitality is one of the top human experiences. I mean, aside from all the amenities, it's just amazing to me that after a few hours, this girl was all "Come to my house!" and meant it! Then there's trust--she must really trust me. And of course, I trust her. How many times do you get to see trust in the flesh, so to speak? It makes you feel really good about people.

KL is definitely my favorite city. There's so much transportation here I could get from one end of town to the other in probably 15 minutes if I really tried. Three local rail lines, commuter rail, buses, etc. etc. It's got a lot of highways, so it's not THAT pedestrian friendly, but after:
--every city in Borneo
--most of the cities in Java
--all of larger towns in India
it's a cakewalk. And there's more food here than just rice and noodles, though they still dominate...I'm getting rather tired of rice and noodles. I will never complain about pizza three days in a row again (did I really complain about that?).

One major site around here is the Batu Caves, which are maybe 10 minutes by car from where I'm staying. We drove out to see them last night and once again, it was little South India! It's really funny that the one place I went, Tamil Nadu, happens to have immigrants all over Malaysia. There were lots of colorful temples built into the sides of the cave, and some tableaux-type displays of Tamil people or maybe gods and goddesses pulling donkeys and things--sort of like a miniature Tamil amusement park. It also has 272 steps and many mischievious monkeys.

So long!

NIAH CAVES

Now, I know I tend to hyperbole, but if I could choose one place to go to out of all the places I've been, Niah Caves would be it. It's a national park in Sarawak near the aforementioned Miri. Miri's a hole (thank goodness for the Americans--someone to gripe with) but man, I would fly back there in a heartbeat to go see the caves again.

I walked down the plankwalk to the cave--a good hour's walk!--and then through the caves another hour to get to the painted one. I was behind a noisy crowd for most of it, until the ringleader of that posse freaked out and they all turned around! So there I was, solo traveler, feeling very brave, and totally not freaking out in the gigantic pitch black cave. I made it. I met another girl coming out later on and I thought, "Yeah, you were in there, too, huh?" But it was worth it. The cave paintings are from 2000 "BP" (Before Present) and they are amazing, swirly red men and women on boats to the afterlife doing a crazy dance with some wild hair and spirals. I don't know what the spirals mean but they're in the local tribe tattoos, too. And that's why the Niah Caves are so amazing. The people who were there 2000 years ago--their great great great grandkids are still living there today. I saw some men collecting guano, two houses, and lots of ladders for collecting the birds' nests they used for soup (blech). But wait, it gets even crazier, because some archaeologists found a skull that is 40,000 years old. And evidence for habitation for ALL of the years in between! Meaning that the people who hang out there today, they've been living there for 42,000 years! In a manner of speaking. I'm not even sure what continent my ancestors were on 1000 years ago!

Now I'm back in KL--the last leg! If you don't hear from me, it's because I'm napping.

Sarawak

I flew to Miri in Sarawak--the southern Malaysian state in Borneo. So far so good, but I left half my clothes in Sepilok! In a hostel I don't care to return to, thank you very much. I had my first shower in three days just now. And then I met six--count 'em, SIX--Americans! This doubles the American count. We States-ers suck at globetrotting, at least in Asia. I've met six times as many Danes, Dutch, and Swiss. So I can't tell you how spectacular it was to hear New Jersey jokes, or rather the suppression of New Jersey jokes when I told these guys where I was from.

I'm starting off in Miri. My intention was to stay a quick four days all in one place, but the hostel-runner is a bit eccentric (when I asked for four nights she said, "Let me see." I'm not really sure what she's waiting for, seeing as I'm offering to fill a bed for her...) and I heard there's a nice beach about 3 hours away with cheap accomodation and a barbecue area. That sounds like a nice way to round up a trip. Miri is an "oil town" and quite rich from what I've seen. The town bus was air-conditioned and there were honest-to-God developments outside of the airport. Most of the cars were shiny and big--none of these "Protons" I've been seeing all over the place (do we even have that car in the US?). No more stares for my whiteness (though maybe it's my tan...ha! ha!) and slightly pricey dorm beds. Yep, they're relatively rollin' in Miri.

Sepilok, where I left at o'dark thirty this morning, was pretty cool aside from the shower situation. The orangutans were awesome. You can't believe how human-like they are (actually "orang" means "people"--all the tribes in Borneo have names with Orang in them). I felt priveledged to see such a creature. This is one of the two or three places you can, and they're very shy. They came up to a feeding platform which was right on the edge of the jungle. The point is to convince them bit by bit to move away from the rehabilitation center. The organization was completely Malaysian-run, which was surprising to me and pretty cool.

The Lonely Planet and everyone who visits (it seems) talks smack about how the Borneo jungle is being replaced by palm oil plantations. This is another thing I'm ambivalent about. I think it should be a bit harder for Westerners to condemn a country for making money off the land. I mean, surely once the States were a lush forest, too. But today as I flew over Borneo, I could see that the plantations really did take a chunk out of the rainforest. So all I can say now the solution is more complicated than something like "save the rainforest" (my guess is it will likely only work out when the money is favorable to saving rainforests--like if all of you all went to visit it! But then we have other problems, right?). See the world. Become ambivalent. I should make t-shirts.

Borneo

I was doing you a favor not updating in Kota Kinabalu, the jumping-off point in Sabah, a.k.a. North Borneo. You really are here for the nature, because there ain't much else. KK is near Mount Kinabalu national park, which I took a litte driving tour through. That was the first real dud of a guide I got--all he did was drive us to places, then bought himself an ice cream. I didn't even get to walk around the park, which was a bummer! I decided not to climb this mountain because 1. it's outrageously expensive, especially when you're used to paying nothing, and 2. I'm really tired. Every time I've climbed a mountain so far I've needed a week on the beach to recover, and it's coming up on the end here.

I went to the Nature Lodge on the Kinabantangan River next. We saw orangutans in the wild (!), lots of probiscus monkeys (big noses), long-tailed macaques (not birds but monkeys), and hornbills (like the bird from the Lion King). We took a little jungle trek, too. I'm ambivalent about this experience because as close to nature as we were, the jungle was very trekked-in and our guides were a bit ruthless with the machetes. It was just bad practices, and I suppose they'll have to right them eventually or else it'll be the Mud Pit Lodge. But I did get a leech! We saw a cool-looking frog and some birds roosting at night, too.

The people I've met here are definitely cool. I've gotten on the tourist track because there really isn't any other option, but the tourists are all here to dive or trek, so they're awesome. I also managed to leave my converter in KK and get it back in Semporna. It's a small world in Borneo.

Semporna, where I am now, has even less going for it than KK, which at least had a museum. Everyone is here to dive off Sipadan, one of the top ten diving sites. Since I can't scuba (yet) I snorkeled off one of the other islands, Mabul, where I saw two turtles! This is really lucky, especially for snorkelers. I literally jumped off the side of the boat, turned around, and there he was! I followed the big old guy swimming for awhile, then went around seeing the coral and everything, then saw someone pointing and there was another one! The second guy was so old he had barnacles on his back. The turtles look like they're flying, they just bat their little flippers slowly and turn every once in awhile to follow the current. It got me excited to try diving. It's hard to imagine all the stuff going around living down there.

Tonight I catch a bus back up to Sandakan tonight to see the orangutan rehab center (they save baby orangutans! Could there be anything cuter?) and then it's onto the next stop...which I'll figure out there. Only 13 days left in this epic journey!

Penang

I finally emerged from that hostel after a long parade of characters. My snot still looks like an alien life form but I feeeeeel GREAT! I took a few pictures in KL of the Petronas Towers (Petronas is like the Malaysian Exxon), and many many more of the monorail. If I hadn't been so ready to get somewhere (anywhere!) new, I would have ridden around on it for a day. But as it was I hopped on a bus to Penang.

I know I've mentioned buses once or twice, and I think I said something about Indonesia having the best buses in Southeast Asia, but that was back when I thought that Greyhound was more or less the standard. Not true. In fact, there are buses that have seats the size of armchairs. They're run by Konsortium in Malaysia. It's like the transportation gods are trying to make up for that hellish ride to Kanyakumari (still not there yet).

Anyway, I landed on the little island of Pulau Penang yesterday evening. Before I left home one of my world-traveling friends said "Penang is awesome." I remember reading about it in the Times Magazine (maybe?) and it sounded like a gem. What a place! I'm glad I didn't decide to skip it. Penang is (I think) the whole pulau, and George Town what everyone means when they say "Penang." My bus stopped outside of George Town and it was a bit of a hassle getting here, and I only got on the bus at all thanks to some kind students at USM. (I don't know what it stands for, University...Malaysia...) On the bus ride, I saw a Hindu temple, which was unexpected in this Muslim nation, and what I thought was Tamil writing! THEN, something momentous happened: the Lonely Planet was wrong. I kid you not. We call it "The Book" out here, and if you can't trust the Book, then what can you? For your reference, 100 Cintra Street is not a hostel. It's a souvenir shop, and it closes before 6. I found alternative accomodation at 75 Lodge. They're sponsoring this evening's update, so I can't complain.

Ok, back to the Tamil script. It turns out it was Tamil and that there's a really big population of South Indians from Tamil Nadu here. There's also a lot of Indonesians, though it seems most of them are from Sumatra and not Java, but I've seen a lot of batik fabric. The other populations are Malay and Chinese, mostly, though there are many others, and plenty of mixed. Like I saw a Chinese-looking man who did the Indian head-tock and spoke English with an Indian accent. The Babas and Nonyas, who are Malay-Chinese men and women, wear batik. I found out all this stuff in the Penang Museum, which gets five stars.

There are lots of other cool things about Penang. You can walk around it easily. It's a little like Pondicherry that way, and there are lots of old colonial buildings, too. Of course, since Pondicherry is in India, it's louder and scarier than Penang, which is kind of strangely silent. For all the stuff that's here to see, not to mention eat, there aren't tons of tourists. I guess it hasn't been "discovered" yet even though it's a World Heritage Town.

The food is just totally crazy. It makes me curious to see the Phillippines, which is the only other place I can think of that's such a mix. I ate rojak--fruits and vegetables covered in hot sweet sauce and peanuts. I also stopped in Little India for some nassi kandar, in a shop that said they had the best nassi kandar. I'm not sure which part was the kandar (nassi is rice), but I'm pretty sure they were right. After my first bite, I thought, WOW. The food in Indonesia AND Malaysia sucks compared to India. I had forgotten. India was delicious, if trying.

Oh, and then there's religion! I actually decided to venture into a mosque today. The men at the door waved me in. I was reading the rules on the signboard and I told them I thought I was impure. They told me it was ok, so who was I to argue? The younger guy actually gave me a really good tour, it was like being shown around the meetinghouse by a gung-ho Quaker. I liked it but I think I was a little obnoxious. I've been finding that I have real antipathy towards Muslim nations in some kind of moral way that I didn't have in the also-very-conservative India. It's interesting--I'm more than happy to cover my legs in Bangalore but out here I want to flaunt them. I think America maybe has brainwashed us a little. But then again...well, this could go on for ages, couldn't it?

There's so much more to say--the guy who founded this place is a fascinating character, and there's a lot of Chinese temples, and even a Burmese one an hour or so out of town--but this has gone on long enough and it's time for rojak, round two. Tomorrow I fly to Borneo.

KL

I got into KL around 1:30 this afternoon, feeling a bit woozy from what I thought was a retreating sinus infection. When I stood up I found out it was very much in full force. Luckily Kuala Lumpur is a pleasant city. If I had to compare to somewhere, it'd be Philadelphia, only with a few upgrades--a quality monorail, for instance. It's a bit gritty but it's got lots of character, and compared to Singapore it's cheap-cheap-cheap. There're some sights to see but they'll have to wait while I rest in the lovely Bedz KL.

I went to the pharmacy here and found the medicine counter. The pharmacist's name was Alycia, a good sign, I thought, and she was a middle-aged Chinese woman. I was glad; motherly types usually help me out. I asked her if I could buy an antibiotic. She said no. I wasn't surprised, but I'd figured it was worth a shot because I've heard they sell Valium and some kind of speed over the counter here. I explained to her that my head was in a vice, I couldn't move, my snot would probably kill small animals, etc., did she have any medicine that would help? She pointed to the (extremely lame) decongestant I've been taking. I told her I was taking the stronger 12-hour one. She said to me, and I quote, "Then I think you should not take any more medicine. Your body needs to fight it." Followed by the most patronizing smile I have every received in my life. I'm pretty sure the last time someone gave me that smile I was in the second grade. It said"you silly Americans, always wanting to fix things with drugs." Let me tell you, if I had bought the blowgun they tried to sell me in Java, I would have pulled it out right then. She dishonors my name. But all I could do was smile back pleasantly, borderline patronizingly, and ask if there was a clinic nearby. And quite obviously against her better judgment she gave me a little slip of paper with a map to the clinic, which was lucky for me very nearby, because the pharmacist didn't really understand this, but IT HURT TO WALK.

I was a little nervous before I got to the clinic that it would be a rancid and evil place, and when I got there and saw that it wasn't, I was worried they would charge me an arm and a leg to see the doctor. But they didn't--for the same amount I pay as a co-pay at home, I got a consulation and a week's worth of antibiotic. And so now I'm hanging out in the hostel and sleeping this nasty business off.