So far so good. I made it to Malaysia and even managed to catch a few hours sleep on the plane.
As soon as I left the airport I made my way to Batu Caves in the northern part of Kuala Lumpur. What an interesting city. Pictures of the skyline led me to believe that the city was huge. I also expected it to be much more like Thailand, more rugged. It's actually ultra techy and not quite what you might expect this region to look like, merely "developing". That is to say that modern sky rises are flanked by restaurants serving up banana leaf thalis.
The caves are now the site of a couple Hindu temples dedicated to one of Shiva's sons whose name I don't recall. It's the beginning of the pilgrimage season here and I was expecting to see some "masochistic" displays as the bible said would be taking place. I must have been too early.
The jetlag hit and so I returned to the hostel and made arrangements to visit Taman Negara, a "primary jungle over 130 million
years old". A 4 hour bus ride and 3 hr boat ride later I had reached the edge of the park. It looks like what one would imagine.
Some of you might like this. I found a guide taking a few people into the jungle on a short nighttime hike. As we walked along he pointed out some things here and there, including a huge scorpion which he then proceeded to prod with a stick he had, agitating it real well. While he had everyone's attention I decided to simulate a rabid tiger by throwing this nice sized log (which I had picked up earlier on the hike) back into the brush behind them. It scared the shit out of them all. That trick never gets old.
I think my favorite part of this journey was the village inhabited by nomadic Oran
g Asli, an indigenous tribe of Malaysia. Characteristic of my entire trip so far the people were very friendly and open. ...I've managed to accept the inevitability of tribes such as these encountering "modern" civilization and was paid many times over by learning how to build a fire out of next to nothing, make a dart gun, and poison arrows. Their method is so effective that monkeys fall from the tree three minutes after being hit. One dart will drop a monkey, but it takes four for a person. A member of the tribe demonstrated how the gun worked...he fired two shots and put them both in the head of a doll (within the surface area of about a dime, maybe smaller) 40 feet away.
Earlier in the day I was enjoying a discussion with one of the tour operators. Some of you may not be aware that Malaysia is an Islamic state...I'm not sure if this is formal or just an observation, I do know that hijabs (the head scarf that Muslim women often wear) are everywhere. Anyway, this guy thought that if the money dumped into the Iraq war had been spent on alternative fuel research there wouldn't have been such devastation (I think the worst is yet to come...). I thought this was a unique approach, maybe because I don't follow the news close enough. Have you guys heard this before? His solution does appear to assume the war is about oil, but isn't that more consistent than our administration's appeals to humanity?? I mean seriously.
This same dude hooked me up with some root he said would make my "apparatus" function like it did when I was 20; a natural viagra. If I get the courage to overcome my fear of inducing an actual problem, or if I get someone else to try it first, I'll report back.
Once back in KL I headed straight for my hostel room, where the man with flesh eating bacteria was hanging out. When he saw me he naturally began asking how the trip went. After chatting it up a bit with him I started for the room, and just then he extended his left, and only, fist of nubs. My nub etiquette is a bit rusty so, while trying my hardest not to show the pinnacle of fear that I was then experiencing, I shook "hands". What should I have done? Any ideas? I Immediately made for the restroom where I could scrub my hands like never before, but still had trouble sleeping that night...
Before leaving KL I wanted to visit a couple of notable Mosques, and of course make my way up the Petronas Towers. The towers are pretty cool. Keeping with much of the architectural trend of KL the towers exhibit some of the best contemporary Islamic flavors I've seen. The five tiers represent the five pillars of Islam. Anybody remember Qutb Minar? Believe it or not there is some resemblance.
Masjid Negara, one of the largest Mosques in the region, was beautiful but it was the conversation that I had with one of the staff that really made the trip. We spoke for hours about Islam. She said a number of things that you might find interesting. Like in a hadith (saying of the Prophet) the story of a man entering a Mosque and pissing on the floor is accompanied by the Prophet instructing his followers to not get angry but to instead just clean the mess because perhaps the guy just doesn't know what he's doing. Another thing she shared was how in Islam, and I question the universality of this interpretation, it is an honor for the woman if her husband takes a second, or more, wife. She explained that some men have stronger desires and that adultery was still sin, so if a man is inclined as such and can treat each wife equally then he can take more wives. It would be interesting to find such a family and speak with them one on one.
That said, I decided to set about enquiring as to how often such arrangements occur. All I did was ask the guy working the counter at the hostel. He looked at me like, "are you serious?", and replied that he knew many people who have more than one wife.
The next story worth sharing regards the shitbag who tried to force himself into my room as I slept. I was startled awake about midnight by my door about to be rattled off its hinges. At first I just yelled "hello?", and it stopped. But I was too shaken to just roll back over and go to sleep. Instead I got up, got dressed, set a couple of alarms, and waited with a full nalgeen bottle in hand, the only thing I had that could possibly function as a weapon. A bit later I hear some language I don't recognize outside my door and it seems like someone is trying a key on my door, or trying to pick the lock. This time I say, "You got the wrong room." in a voice meant to convey impending doom on those fools. The shit stopped and I was finally able to fall back asleep.
That morning I woke early and visited a Mosque somehow not even mentioned in my guidebook. It's a bit outside of town but nonetheless worth the trip. I believe it was built by the current Sultan of that particular state. For some reason I had assumed that the "Sultan" designation was no more.
On my way out of town I dropped by Malaysia's "new city" as I heard it referred to. The place is called Putrajaya and I think its basically the administrative center of Malaysia. It houses the brand new office of the Prime Minister, and another spectacular Mosque. The entire surrounding area was brand spanking new and is the most amazing development I have seen in a long time. Everything from the architecture to the landscaping was fantastic.
Let me conclude this section with a twisted story. I was talking to the other guy working at the hostel and referred to Nubs (in order to find out if his condition was contagious) by making a "slicing" motion on the upper part of my arm. Well, later, this other dude did the same thing when he wanted to tell me that Nubs could help me out with tickets or whatever. We got a laugh out of it...maybe you had to be there.
As soon as I left the airport I made my way to Batu Caves in the northern part of Kuala Lumpur. What an interesting city. Pictures of the skyline led me to believe that the city was huge. I also expected it to be much more like Thailand, more rugged. It's actually ultra techy and not quite what you might expect this region to look like, merely "developing". That is to say that modern sky rises are flanked by restaurants serving up banana leaf thalis.
The caves are now the site of a couple Hindu temples dedicated to one of Shiva's sons whose name I don't recall. It's the beginning of the pilgrimage season here and I was expecting to see some "masochistic" displays as the bible said would be taking place. I must have been too early.
The jetlag hit and so I returned to the hostel and made arrangements to visit Taman Negara, a "primary jungle over 130 million
years old". A 4 hour bus ride and 3 hr boat ride later I had reached the edge of the park. It looks like what one would imagine.Some of you might like this. I found a guide taking a few people into the jungle on a short nighttime hike. As we walked along he pointed out some things here and there, including a huge scorpion which he then proceeded to prod with a stick he had, agitating it real well. While he had everyone's attention I decided to simulate a rabid tiger by throwing this nice sized log (which I had picked up earlier on the hike) back into the brush behind them. It scared the shit out of them all. That trick never gets old.
I think my favorite part of this journey was the village inhabited by nomadic Oran
g Asli, an indigenous tribe of Malaysia. Characteristic of my entire trip so far the people were very friendly and open. ...I've managed to accept the inevitability of tribes such as these encountering "modern" civilization and was paid many times over by learning how to build a fire out of next to nothing, make a dart gun, and poison arrows. Their method is so effective that monkeys fall from the tree three minutes after being hit. One dart will drop a monkey, but it takes four for a person. A member of the tribe demonstrated how the gun worked...he fired two shots and put them both in the head of a doll (within the surface area of about a dime, maybe smaller) 40 feet away.Earlier in the day I was enjoying a discussion with one of the tour operators. Some of you may not be aware that Malaysia is an Islamic state...I'm not sure if this is formal or just an observation, I do know that hijabs (the head scarf that Muslim women often wear) are everywhere. Anyway, this guy thought that if the money dumped into the Iraq war had been spent on alternative fuel research there wouldn't have been such devastation (I think the worst is yet to come...). I thought this was a unique approach, maybe because I don't follow the news close enough. Have you guys heard this before? His solution does appear to assume the war is about oil, but isn't that more consistent than our administration's appeals to humanity?? I mean seriously.
This same dude hooked me up with some root he said would make my "apparatus" function like it did when I was 20; a natural viagra. If I get the courage to overcome my fear of inducing an actual problem, or if I get someone else to try it first, I'll report back.
Once back in KL I headed straight for my hostel room, where the man with flesh eating bacteria was hanging out. When he saw me he naturally began asking how the trip went. After chatting it up a bit with him I started for the room, and just then he extended his left, and only, fist of nubs. My nub etiquette is a bit rusty so, while trying my hardest not to show the pinnacle of fear that I was then experiencing, I shook "hands". What should I have done? Any ideas? I Immediately made for the restroom where I could scrub my hands like never before, but still had trouble sleeping that night...
Before leaving KL I wanted to visit a couple of notable Mosques, and of course make my way up the Petronas Towers. The towers are pretty cool. Keeping with much of the architectural trend of KL the towers exhibit some of the best contemporary Islamic flavors I've seen. The five tiers represent the five pillars of Islam. Anybody remember Qutb Minar? Believe it or not there is some resemblance.
Masjid Negara, one of the largest Mosques in the region, was beautiful but it was the conversation that I had with one of the staff that really made the trip. We spoke for hours about Islam. She said a number of things that you might find interesting. Like in a hadith (saying of the Prophet) the story of a man entering a Mosque and pissing on the floor is accompanied by the Prophet instructing his followers to not get angry but to instead just clean the mess because perhaps the guy just doesn't know what he's doing. Another thing she shared was how in Islam, and I question the universality of this interpretation, it is an honor for the woman if her husband takes a second, or more, wife. She explained that some men have stronger desires and that adultery was still sin, so if a man is inclined as such and can treat each wife equally then he can take more wives. It would be interesting to find such a family and speak with them one on one.
That said, I decided to set about enquiring as to how often such arrangements occur. All I did was ask the guy working the counter at the hostel. He looked at me like, "are you serious?", and replied that he knew many people who have more than one wife.
The next story worth sharing regards the shitbag who tried to force himself into my room as I slept. I was startled awake about midnight by my door about to be rattled off its hinges. At first I just yelled "hello?", and it stopped. But I was too shaken to just roll back over and go to sleep. Instead I got up, got dressed, set a couple of alarms, and waited with a full nalgeen bottle in hand, the only thing I had that could possibly function as a weapon. A bit later I hear some language I don't recognize outside my door and it seems like someone is trying a key on my door, or trying to pick the lock. This time I say, "You got the wrong room." in a voice meant to convey impending doom on those fools. The shit stopped and I was finally able to fall back asleep.
That morning I woke early and visited a Mosque somehow not even mentioned in my guidebook. It's a bit outside of town but nonetheless worth the trip. I believe it was built by the current Sultan of that particular state. For some reason I had assumed that the "Sultan" designation was no more.
On my way out of town I dropped by Malaysia's "new city" as I heard it referred to. The place is called Putrajaya and I think its basically the administrative center of Malaysia. It houses the brand new office of the Prime Minister, and another spectacular Mosque. The entire surrounding area was brand spanking new and is the most amazing development I have seen in a long time. Everything from the architecture to the landscaping was fantastic.
Let me conclude this section with a twisted story. I was talking to the other guy working at the hostel and referred to Nubs (in order to find out if his condition was contagious) by making a "slicing" motion on the upper part of my arm. Well, later, this other dude did the same thing when he wanted to tell me that Nubs could help me out with tickets or whatever. We got a laugh out of it...maybe you had to be there.
