Apa Khabar?

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

I was excited to depart Singapore this afternoon and head into KL for many reasons. First off, I couldn't wait to see the world's largest port and all the cargo ships in the Singapore harbor. What can I say? I'm a geek for the mechanics of the world. Secondly, crossing over from one country to another is like starting all over again. The excitement of the unknown and the anticipation of new sensory experiences parallels equal doses of fear, nervousness and anxiety. It is impossible to even slightly believe that I know what will happen.

Although KL and Singapore are a mere 40 minute plane ride from one another, I recognize that time has nothing to do with distance the moment I land - for this is a far different world then the one I just came from. Bahasa Malay is the main language and it shows. Very few of the important looking signs are written in English so when the plane lands I do what any smart, uncertain traveler does: I follow the crowd. After a healthy amount of walking on the tarmac we make it into the building and head to Immigration. It is a mass of people in 18 "lines" but there is no way of telling where one ends and the next begins. Thankful that there is no sense to be made of the situation, I tack myself onto the crowd and shuffle forward with the rest.

Eventually I make it through Immigration and somehow determine that to hail a taxi I have to prepay inside and then queue in the center stripe of multiple lanes of traffic. My taxi driver has never heard of my hotel, nor the street it is on, but he is as adventurous as I so we are off. He spends the first 30 minutes of the ride entering and re-entering the hotel and street names into his GPS, while dodging motorcycles, pointing out the streaks of Ferraris' and Lotus' flying by and talking with me about everything I need to eat while I'm here - we are instant friends.

We still haven't located the hotel on the GPS, but we know it is near Masjid Jamek, so we head in that direction and when we get close we just slow down, hold up traffic and stick our heads out the windows to look. I spot the name of the hotel way up on a nearby building but neither of us can determine how to get to it by taxi, so we call it good enough and I get out in the middle of a thriving outdoor market. I've got one eye on the hotel building I'm aiming for and every other sense engulfed in the cacophony of colors and sounds surrounding me. I walk one full circle through the market and around the building, but there doesn't appear to be any way in. The hotel is an island with the market its moat.

But there is always a way. So I look closer and start to see that every so often there are slim passages between the vendors and because this is Asia and personal space is a foreign idea, I walk right on through and arrive at the front door of my hotel. This is exciting and disappointing all at once. I found it and it seems way more 2nd rate then my little hostel in Sinagpore, but I'm not settling into any grand conclusions just yet.

To make a long story short: there has been a mistake with my booking, but I can still get a room, the safe deposit box and air conditioning don't seem to work and the room is dingy with an alley view. KL is a cheap city. It is noisy and dirty and dusty and crowded. But after settling in for a bit I notice the muezzin calling the Muslims to prayer (LOVE IT!) and I look out the window. In the darkening sky all I can clearly see are the sparkling Petrona Towers and the KL Tower shimmering in the near distance. The Mosque is right outside my window and I, a woman, a Western woman, can watch the men praying right from my bedroom window.