Return to Malaysia

A decade had past, but Kuala Lumpur was the same - clean, green and friendly. I could walk on sidewalks, look at women in shorts and not get run over when I crossed the street. Not to mention, it has the best cuisine in the world and has real Chinese food. It's a brilliant city.

After Jeremy and I enjoyed a celebratory beer and I was cheated on a pair of flip flops, we hit the food stalls where I would try out my long-dormant Chinese. First, pork noodles with a table of school children. Then, I had some curry puffs. Then, some other nameless thing that was delic. Then, peanut chicken kebabs. "What is this?" "Zxqwvoy!" "Sure, whatever, I'll take one - no, two." Food bliss this nation.

We met up with George who I had also not seen in ten years. George, too, looked the same. We got huo guo (hot pot), a favorite of ours from our days in Shanghai. George was last in China a couple years ago and said our old stomping ground had changed. The "barber shops" of prostitutes that lined the streets were gone, Shanghai Finance College had been redone, and the whole area was a neon storm. Nothing was left of our memories. It was weird. After our evening of boiling tofu and lamb in super spicy soup, the owner came our table to see who could have possibly drank all of their beer.

The next day, our Chinese cab driver took Jeremy and me to the airport. He asked if in America one could buy beer for a Muslim girl. "Of course. It's illegal here?" "Yes, it's not in America? What if her brother complains to the police?" I laughed pretty hard at the thought of a young Muslim man entering an American police station wanting an arrest warrant for a a guy buying his sister a beer. But, of course, sharia is sharia. Malaysia had a lot of similarities to the Middle East after all.

Jeremy, this insane French girl Nadia and I caught a flight to the charming city of Kuching on Borneo. By day, we saw some national parks looking for monkeys and toured the city looking for statues of cats (for which Kuching is named. By night we hit the bars. Every time I spoke Chinese, we got free drinks from someone, which got rather messy over time. Come to think of it, Nadia, with no Chinese and bad English got just as many free drinks as I did and was able to crash somebody's karaoke birthday party, so maybe my skills are worthless. Oh, and we ate. I just order blindly and get the best plates of mystery.

We flew to Koto Kimabalu where Jeremy and I decided to climb the tallest mountain in South East Asia. We were forced to hire a guide who simply walked behind us, but he did provide us with an idea of how fast he could get up and down the mountain. "Two hours up and one hour down" he said. It took us roughly seven hours up and three hours down. The sight of other climbers puking from the altitude was bit surreal, but overall it was a fantastic hike. Of course, it was painful and cold, but nothing too bad.

We relaxed on the beach today and plan on hitting Brunei tomorrow.