Back to KL

At 6am the next morning we caught the bus to KL, which took nearly 6 hours. We had lunch in Nandos then Jane took me to the National Museum of Malaysia. The entrance fee was higher for foreigners, which seemed unfair, but it was still only £1. The exterior was beautiful and highly decorated. Inside I learnt a lot about Malaysian history, which is of course up to a certain point very similar to ours (cavemen etc.) but there was also an exhibit on the British colonisation of Malaysia, and how it was under our rule. Truly something to be ashamed of, that our people believed our culture was superior and that they had the right to claim land in such a way. The Malaysia Ethnology Museum next door was also fascinating, with lots of clothes and accessories typically and traditionally worn by a variety of ethnic groups. Malaysia has three distinct ethnicities, which are Chinese, Indian and Malay. I bought a postcard of the KL evening skyline to send to my mum. In between the two museums were exotic birds on stands and you could pay 10 Malaysian Ringgits (£2) to have your photo taken with them.

Then we visited an Indian handicraft and clothing market where I bought some pashmina scarfs. I enjoyed haggling with the vendors. At the KL shopping mall we visited J.Co Donuts which sold a huge selection of both sweet and savoury donuts, labelled with amusing descriptions. My favourite was “Avocado Dicaprio: The most eligible bachelor only at J.Co. My heart will go on and on after a bite of this delightful avocado and chocolate crunch”. In the evening we went to Skybar, on the very top floor of an executive looking building in central KL and had cocktails. In the day it is a swimming pool. The DJ played some excellent classic Western tunes like 'Build Me Up Buttercup' by The Foundations. The view was spectacular, and it felt like the perfect end to my 5 day Malaysia adventure.

Penang, Malaysia

We arrived in Penang at 5am and promptly went for breakfast, where there was purple dim sum! That was the only thing that was amusing me though. With very little sleep, I was exhausted and irritable. We drove to Jane's house. My mind was blown. She lives on top of a huge hill -slash- mountain, which is covered in tropical rainforest. The drive up the narrow, sharpely twisting and turning mud path was nerve wracking, but so cool! Everytime we made the turning onto her road, it was like we left the mundanity of civilisation behind with the concrete. Pure escapism. Jane's family own a substantial amount of the land, and profit from picking and selling the fruit from the trees, mostly durian, which is okay to taste, but smells like socks and drains, and all manner of other horrible things mixed together when you crack it open. They keep four dogs and a white rabbit (randomly enough its a long haired one). The shower, like many showers in Asia I have encountered, is a glorified garden tap. One evening I showered with a green lizard chilling on the wall in one corner and a giant moth the size of my hand in the other. Coming to Penang also meant I got the opportunity to meet Jane's son, Ken, who is eight years old. After the hardest night's sleep I've ever had, I woke up refreshed. I was buzzing, I was in the rainforest! Down the hill there is a resort where people likely spend a lot of money to stay and relax, and I was staying at the top of the mountain, for free, based on the random chance incident that I met Jane in a hostel in Xi'an and she was kind enough to invite me to stay. Life is amazing sometimes. Jane, Ken and I headed to a waterpark, accompanied by a girl my age with mental health difficulties of some kind. Ashamedly I have to say I found her annoying because she kept touching me, and I had to hold my patiences with her. Later we went to see Captain America at the cinema in the shopping mall. The undisputed highlight of the day though was my visit to Orangutan Island, a conservation park for orangutans. The babies were so human and unbelievably cute. In fact, you have to believe it, because I have pictures hehe~

The next day was Sunday. Jane cooked a quick brunch and then Ken and I power walked up to the very top of the mountain where there was a Buddhist temple. Many people were gathered there and they were friendly towards me. At a table sat a monk in an orange robe, eating. The table was overladen with home cooked dishes. It smelt delicious. I asked a lady and she told me that when the monk had eaten his fill, they were free to enjoy the food too. Then Jane drove Ken and I to the mall again and left us there while she went to bible study at church. We visited a very novel eatery first, 'T-Bowl' which was bathroom themed. There were showers on the walls, the seats were toilets and the tables made of sinks and baths. The food didnt escape the theme either. We ate chocolate ice cream in the shape of a comedy turd from a bowl shaped like a bidet. Brilliant.

Ken was keen to go to Toys R Us, so I left him there while I browsed some shops nearby. I bought a Zara cardigan from a factory outlet store. It was perfect condition apart from the label was ripped. I wanted something warmer to wear in case we went on another fiercely air conditioned coach! Jane picked us up again and we headed to an outdoor War Museum, which is also available as a paintballing course. To be honest I think it was mostly suited to that. Walking around was creepy, and they hid mannequins in dark corners to scare you. The whole experience was rather surreal. As I wandered round a beautiful piece of woodland visiting a collection of different war ephemera, such as gun turrets, an example trench, replica gallows, rooms of photographs, it felt at times silly, and at others, touching. We bought food at a Ramadan bazaar. Jane insisted I covered myself up and I felt so uncomfortable. It made me feel even more that the women of Islam who are required to wear such full clothing even in hot weather are impeded in their basic right for comfort. On the way home we stopped at the site of a Hungry Ghosts festival. August is Hungry Ghosts Month in Asia, when traditionally people believe that ghosts roam the earth freely looking for people to eat. To appease them they burn money and offerings. There was a big tent full of tables of food, an ashy pit with remnants of notes in it, and a stage, where people were busily preparing for a concert of some kind. Just down the road we visited the beach and took photographs of the beautiful sunset. The sky glowed wildly with orange and gold colours and green water reflected them, making them dance with its movement. It didn't look real, even standing and looking at it in front of you. It was as though the whole sky was aflame. Later it transformed into a deep violet purple. Easily one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

Malacca, Malaysia

The next day we decided to travel to Malacca. We ate brunch in Chinatown and bought fruit from a stall, pineapple, mango and two types of melon which came in plastic bags and with cocktail sticks to eat it with. Riding on the motorbike behind Jane was terrifying at first, but after a while a lot of fun, especially going round corners. There's a little speed freak in me somewhere. Jane said she would teach me how to drive it if we had time, but we never did which was a shame. I think I'd make an excellent biker chick! Haha~

We left the bike in a multistorey car park and caught a train, took a coach (where I watched Black Swan, one of the darkest and sexiest films I've seen in a while), and another bus to central Malacca. Jane took me to her favourite cafe, which serves a plethora of different coffees. She had a Malacca coffee and a Penang coffee (her hometown) and Baked Lemon cheesecake. I had a kiwi and yogurt smoothie (amazing) and White Chocolate cheesecake (equally amazing). The décor reminded me of many of the hostels I stayed in during my last trip to China, where the walls are always covered in colourful murals, humorous signs, and a quirky collection of postcards. After that, I went exploring on my own and found streets and streets of shops and stalls, with housing piled on top of course, and a street containing three or four different places of worship. For lunch I ate Dim Sum, kind of like Chinese vol au vents, six pieces for 30 pence. At twilight, we went on a riverboat trip. In the river, we saw a crocodile! The rainbow lights were dazzling and the wind in my face from the boat's movement cut through the heat. We took the night bus to Penang, where the seats recline and you can go to sleep in one city and wake up in another, which is ideal when the view is nothing but street lights and palm trees. The air conditioning was too cold though, it was like trying to sleep in a fridge. I dozed, waking up in nameless, dripping, brightly lit cities, one after the other.

In Kuala Lumpur

Jane and I have a lot in common in terms of our beliefs and outlook on the world. Yesterday she high fived me four times because she agreed with what I was saying. Things like the world should be run on love and not money, that positivity should be a much more valued force than negativity etc. We talked about helping people, sharing experiences. However, Jane's Christian beliefs are not something I affiliate myself with, although I can see how she is driven by her belief in God to help people by showing them a way of living and thinking about the world that has worked for her, and she believes will bring peace to troubled people. Personally I'd rather tap into that person's autonomy and empower them to do what’s right for themselves. Whether or not that fitted with the contents of the Bible would be irrelevant. I remind myself it is important to remember that everyone is different, not only in how they reach out to the people around them, but equally, in their hour of need, how they wish to be reached out to.

My body clock is confused by the time difference, especially since they are seven hours ahead here and in China, I will have to get used to operating half a day later than before. For example, I was awake in the middle of the night because at 2am here, it was only 7pm in my body and mind. It was a long wait until 7am, believe me lol.