40th Stop: Tokyo, Japan

Forgot to take good pictures in Tokyo

At the beginning of the year, when this trip was still in the early stages of planning, I was a little disappointed because one of the translation industry’s biggest events, the American Translators Association Conference, was being held in the US, right before I had to be in Japan for the JCI World Congress :-(

While I was in Kuala Lumpur, Kristyna Marrero, Head of Sales for Wordfast, sent me an e-mail and asked if I could come to give them a hand at the Wordfast booth. Sure, why not! This meant, after just returning from France, leaving KL for Denver, Colorado, with a short stopover in Tokyo!

What luck! Tokyo had been dropped from the itinerary and now I had the chance, albeit short, to meet up with Ryan and Josh, two friends from high school who were living and working there as a headhunter and English teacher/musician respectively.

Congratulations to Josh who recently had a baby and to Ryan who just got married this past summer! Good luck with your newest album Josh and do keep us posted! Thanks Ryan for arranging the meeting and best of luck with your new family. Hope to see you guys again soon.

Next stop: Denver, Colorado!

Guess how old Josh and I are in this photo?

39th Stop: Kuala Lumpur, Part 2

Pool on the rooftop at Hemant's

Back to Kuala Lumpur, this time smack dab in the heart of the city. Hemant, from India, lives next to the Petronas towers and was hosting me. We met at his place and introduced ourselves. It didn’t take long for the occupation question to reach the surface. Hemant said, “You’re probably going to hate me if I tell you.”

“Of course not!” I replied.

Petronas Towers

Hemant works in the oil business. Hate you? I fly frequently and have a car, consuming my fair (anybody know what fair would be?) share of oil ever day. I should thank you! We can always be looking for solutions to ween us off our oil dependence, and it looks like the oil majors are the best placed to do so (check out cellulose based bio-fuels and who the biggest investors are).

We met Ankur, one of Hemant’s colleagues downstairs, grabbed a bite to eat, then went to Twenty-one, a trendy bar for hip youngsters like us ;-) Everyone seemed to know Hemant there; a mix of couch surfing friends and other friends of his. I met Liz who was organizing a fireflies outing on Friday and asked if I wanted to come along. Always say yes... Yes!

So excited after seeing all the fireflies

Fireflies Friday was upon us in no time. I met with Liz and Julian around 7:30 pm and we drove to a rendez-vous point with the rest of the group. Liz managed to get more than 20 people to join us! Twenty people, however, means at least 5 cars, a lot of wrong directions, mix-ups, tardies, and more... we didn’t get to the firefly park until 11 pm! Though it was closed, we managed to convince the night guard to call up the boat captain and take us out. Hooray!

Fireflies expedition

The theme of the night was light, so after dinner (about 2 am) we went to i-City. This is a recent development with thousands of artificial trees, statues, and more covered with colored lights. Great for photos and photos did we take. Liz even had two tripods with her for long exposure shots.

Late night dinner

Like gnomes in a city of lights

It was getting late, but the group still had energy so Vina invited us all back to her house for a swim. Mind you, it was nearly 4 in the morning by this time: traveling is not for the faint of hearted. I met a lot of really nice people that night and want to give a special thanks to Liz for organizing everything and to Vina for having us over early in the morning!

It took most of Saturday to recover from Friday night’s adventures. I had to recharge my batteries because tonight was Hemant’s belated birthday party celebration at a Bollywood disco downtown. Needless to say, another fun night with 20 or so people that also ended quite late. Thanks Hemant and all the other hipshakers who kept the dance floor thumping all night long!

Bollywood Cinema Party

The Bollywood magic wasn’t over; Hemant invited about 15 people over to his place to watch a movie on Sunday afternoon. Vina brought over samosas for everyone and Jasmin made chai tea as well as a few other specialties. Delicious, thanks! We watched Munna Bhai M.B.B.S., a great movie that got me all teary-eyed, at least six times.

When the movie ended, Jasmin asked if anyone wanted to go with her to go see a free jazz concert just outside of town. Only one person raised their hand: me! Off we went and met up with Atie, one of her friends. We listened to a couple of groups, then it got late so we headed home. On the way, Jasmin asked if I wanted to stop at her friend’s house, Dato’ Dale.

Dato' Dale, Jasmin, and John

Dato’ actually means “Sir” and is similar to the being knighted in England. Dato’ Dale is a very nice, gracious host, and a celebrity to boot! We arrived at 11 pm and sat on the terrace tasting different peanuts from Bali, Malaysia, and Java. We talked about Dato’ Dale’s experiences living in France (his father was the Malaysian ambassador at the time) and the USA. I also learned that Dale used to host a TV show and was a news anchorman. This partly explains why he has nearly 5,000 Facebook friends!

The three of us met up again for lunch the following day at an Indian banana-leaf restaurant. By coincidence, we ran into A Kadir Jasin, the editor-in-chief of a magazine publishing company, Berita Publishing Sdn Bhd. He keeps a blog, check it out: www.kadirjasin.blogspot.com

After lunch, I went to meet my new host, Ken, for my last night in KL. Ken and I had originally l planned to go to the water park at Sun Valley but unfortunately we didn’t have enough time. We just had time for dinner and conversation about the ten years or so that Ken spent in the USA. Now he teaches multimedia communications and marketing at a university in KL.

John and Ken

Ken is a really nice host and likes to make people feel at home. Naturally, he made a sausage, scrambled eggs, and baked bean breakfast. Ken was leaving that afternoon for Borneo and I would be heading out myself.

Atie the rock star

John singing in Malaysian (yeah right!)

Atie had initially invited me to a karaoke joint on Monday night but had to cancel so it was time to cash in the raincheck! Tuesday afternoon, we sang our hearts out until her lunch break was up, then I made my way back to the city for my last few hour in KLs.

I want to extend a big thanks to Hemant and Ken for their hospitality during my second stay in KL. I really had a fantastic time with you and everyone else I met. Another big thanks to Jasmin for letting me tag along to the jazz concert and for introducing me to her friends and to Liz for organizing the outing over the weekend! I’ll miss you KL and looking forward to my next visit already.

The sun never sets on the cool

Next stop: Tokyo, Japan

32nd Stop - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Whoa, careful there!

This would be my first time returning to Southeast Asia since I left Vietnam in 2005. I was excited since I had never been to Kuala Lumpur, or KL as everyone here calls it, or anywhere else in Malaysia for that matter. I was expecting a hot, humid mix of Thailand and Singapore and wasn’t let down.

I made it to my hosts’ place, Ang and Wenwen, by late morning and we had breakfast together in an Indian food stand next to their apartment. Ang recently graduated from the university and has started practicing law while Wenwen had just found a job as an accountant. Congrats to both of you! They had movie and mall plans that day and offered to take me along. Great!

JC Brian and JC John

As it so happens, I had been in contact with Brian Lee from JCI Malaysia who was helping organize a cut-athon in the Sunway Pyramid mall just outside of KL. Hair dresser students would be cutting people’s hair all day long for 10 RM (about €2.50) to raise scholarship money for underprivileged students. For those JC's who don't know Brian, you probably should. He's everywhere on Facebook but more importantly, a very active member of JCI Malaysia! Great meeting you JC Brian!

Wenwen's sister

We picked up Wenwen’s sister at the university, met JC Brian at Sunway and got a quick trim (just the back please!) at the cut-athon. Then we went to see the latest kung-fu movie, Legend of the Fist, a quasi-sequel to Bruce Lee’s legendary Fist of Fury. I assure you, it was action-packed, butt-kicking fun!

We stopped at the archery range in the mall to shoot some arrows (thanks JC Brian for the coupon!), then went to an outdoor food court for Chinese food and drinks. I think all of us were full but Ang insisted that we try the cheesy wedges at KFC since I couldn’t get them at KFC in the USA. Sure, why not!

Sunday was a relaxing day, a little more shopping, this time at the Mid Valley Mega Mall but before that, we celebrated Hari Raya. This is a muslim religious tradition where people invite you to their homes one day between the end of Ramadan and Eid to visit and celebrate with each other. I tagged along with Ang and Wenwen to one of their friend's homes. It was very nice to partake in this and learn more about Malaysian muslim traditions.

Ang and Wenwen

On Monday morning, I had big plans. I had just finished reading Richard Branson’s auto-biography and on the flight over, flipping through the in-flight magazine, I saw an advertisement for the Invest in Asia forum and guess who was going to be a guest speaker? That’s right, Sir Richard.

Entrance to the event was $1000, just the kind of money I didn’t have, but I figured maybe I could catch him on the way in or way out. Unfortunately for me, I had not set my watch right. By the time I arrived and asked where he was, someone told me he had already spoken and left. Rats!

Later that day I was changing hosts. I got my things together, said good-bye to Ang and Wenwen and then went to meet Amy. Amy recently returned from working in the Netherlands as a nanny. She used couchsurfing to discover Europe during her weekends off and the last month of her stay. Unfortunately, or fortunately, she caught a bad case of travel bugs and was already planning to leave in three weeks for New Zealand. She hopes to find a job and settle down there.

KL Menara towers view

I was reminded how difficult it can be for people to move about freely in this world and choose where they want to live and work. I hope that one day we get rid of all these borders and put an end to all these policies that hold us captive in our respective countries.

Amy and I went for dinner at an open-air food court with quite a unique way of serving food. There is an area about 200 square meters in size with tables in the middle and surrounded on all sides by small food stands. You go up to the any of the stands or even multiple stands, place your order, give them your table number and when they bring you your food, you pay.

One more day in KL, time to do some sight-seeing! First an early morning run in the park with Amy, and a mid-morning chat with Amy’s grandmother, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Afterwards, I went to the KL Menara Communications tower, one of the tallest in the world, to meet up with a couchsurfer named Zack who works there. Zack met me at the bottom and got me up to the top for free. Thanks! This is definitely worth checking out. It’s much better and higher than the view from the Petronas towers’ bridge. Plus, to get into the latter, you have to wait in line early in the morning to snag one of the 100 free tickets that only gets you halfway up to the bridge.

Two other surfers were there at the same time, and we chatted about our travels, where they were going next and so on. Zack then got us into the Malaysian village park so we could see what traditional homes look like and watch a dance concert. Thanks again Zack! Max, one of the couchsurfers, and I even got to dance!

Traditional Malaysian dance

Max and I took a bus to meet Amy at the Mid Valley Mega Mall to see the new Wall Street movie, but first stopped for lunch. It was right about this time that it suddenly dawned on me: my flight was tonight and not tomorrow night! I had kept looking at Wednesday on the paper and forgetting that it was Wednesday morning at 12:45 am. In other words, Tuesday night.

We still had time to catch the movie, grab dinner, get back to Amy’s before heading off to the airport. A big thanks to Amy and her nice family for hosting me for one night and to Ang and Wenwen for two nights. That’s three more bednets to protect a several children for the next 5 years!

Next stop: Casablanca?

No smoking unless you're on fire!

Reserved for marsupials and people with exploding stomachs.