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.

31st Stop - Bangalore, India

I had one more night in Bangalore before leaving for Kuala Lumpur. Naturally, I met up with Vijay, Bela, Deni, Chitra, and one of Vijay’s friends, Gopu, for dinner. We had Chinese food that night, and topped it all off at a nearby creamery with milkshakes and sundaes.

On Friday, Deni and I met Vijay and another friend of his, Sam, for lunch at a hole-in-the-wall we would have never found on our own. Sam is a professional photographer who studied and worked in London for several years before coming back to Bangalore to set up his own photo studio and production company.

We all set out to Sam’s photo studio after lunch and he gave us a tour. Then we went back to his place for tea and to check out his portfolio. If you appreciate photography, I highly recommend you check out some of fantastic photos on his site: www.yolkstudio.com

My flight that evening took off a little after midnight and I was sick of getting there in just the nick of time, so I left a good four hours early. Good plan. Earlier that afternoon, around 4 pm, I had said to Deni, “We’ve had some great weather in Bangalore the past couple weeks, I don’t recall it ever raining.” Smart, real smart.

When I got into my rickshaw at 7:45 PM, it started to rain snakes and monkeys. My initial plan to go to the bus station and take the airport bus was thwarted by massive flooding along the route. I had to think quick. Ok, driver, swing back, we go around, bring me as far north as possible and I’ll grab a cab. Despite the wet legs, a rickshaw is your best bet during Friday night rush hour in the rain. The maneuverability can easily save you an hour of traffic jams. We eventually made it north of the city, I got in my cab and even had a few minutes to spare.

Strangely, the cab driver must have assumed we wouldn’t have any problem making it there on time, so he stopped to get himself take-out! That’s a first! Got any other errands to run? Just double park, I'll wait in the car.

Good-bye India, good-bye to all the wonderful people I met in Mumbai, Bangalore, and Kerala. I look forward to seeing you all again very soon!

Next stop: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia!

Sorry, no pics! this one is from Varkala

30th Stop - Varkala, Kerala, India

I parted ways on Monday morning with Deni and Bela as they had to return to Bangalore and I was staying a few more days in Kerala. I got to the bus station about 15 minutes before the direct bus was scheduled to leave. It took me about 4 people to figure out where to find it. The last person I spoke to, a young man in his early 20’s, told me it would probably be late. Sure enough, a little over an hour later it pulled into the station. In the meantime, we struck up a conversation. Once we had covered all the usuals (country of origin, job, weather, where I’ve been in India, and favorite Bollywood movie), we started talking about girls.

He told me about the love of his life, an Irish girl he had met earlier this week, traveling through the country with a guitar, a genuine beatnik beauty, fair as a princess with a voice to put Sinead O’Connor to shame. I then surprised the hell out of him by saying, “Sure, I’ve met Paige too.” (Ran into her two nights ago with Alex from Fort Cochi, see previous post). His eyes literally popped out of his head. After several failed attempts to hear her play and sing, she left and he didn’t have a chance to say good-bye. I convinced him to write her a love letter that I could give to her in Varkala if I ran into her.

I had slightly changed my original plans which were to head into the mountains first to see some tea plantations. Tired of all the running around, a quaint beach town sounded like just the break I needed.

The bus dropped me off in the center of town and I started to walk towards the beach area. I figured I’d eventually grab a rickshaw to take me to the Skylark Guesthouse where I would meet Faith and her husband Sanjee who would be hosting me for a couple of nights. Then I spotted a post office and remembered that I needed stamps.

About 15 minutes later, I was back on the street and had just started negotiations with a rickshaw driver when a white woman approached to make sure I wasn’t getting ripped off. Then she looked at with a puzzled expression and said, “John?”

“Faith?” I replied. Faith wasn’t expecting me for another day or so. I explained how I had changed my plans and figured I would rent a room at her inn for the impromptu days I was there. “Ok, no problem!”

Faith is originally from Washington state in the USA and has been in India for a few years. She married a local man, Sanjee, from Varkala, and they are now running a guest house together. I really liked a couple of things Faith has up on her CS profile:

1. Get rid of the UN and have everyone join couchsurfing. It’s a surefire way to achieve world peace. I couldn’t agree with you more Faith.
2. Faith does not wear, nor own any socks. She lives in a tropical paradise, why bother?

As for Sanjee, he’s a trained chef and thus an excellent cook, but by no means megalomaniac. in fact, he’s rather laid back. He whipped up an delicious spicy red curry the first night I was there.

The next day, I went with Sanjee and two other guests, Tosh and Natasha (the puns and figures of speech were really fun: it's Tosh, not Tasha!) from Canada, on a day trip to a waterfall in the mountains. It was a wild day. Not the Canadians, they were tame; it was the two elephants, a snake, millipedes, and monkeys that kept us on our toes.

After a refreshing dip in the waterfall and gravity-induced aqua shoulder and neck massage, we went for lunch. What luck! It was a very special day in the region, a day to commemorate a deceased guru, so the village we passed through on our way to lunch was preparing a communal meal in the park. We joined about 50 others as the guests of honor for a spicy curry and rice dish, cooked on the spot in the biggest pots I’ve ever seen and served on a banana-leaf.

It was another one of those eat and run affairs, we were off before they had time to cook dessert. We cordially thanked them, snapped a few photos, and then went to an eco-tourism park to walk through a sculpture garden. A dense, sticky, storm haze oozed in by mid-afternoon and we got the feeling that rain wasn’t far behind. So we picked up the pace, got in the rick with Sanjee and headed back—in a torrential downpour.

The next days I hung out with another couchsurfer from Texas, Chris, who had studied art at Yale (sculpture) and was working on a museum project in Delhi for the past 5 months. He had pretty much finished up and was now taking some long-needed vacation before heading back to Austin.

Just a few last words on Varkala. I’ve never been to a place quite like it. You have to imagine standing on a 50 meter high cliff overlooking the ocean with a few scattered beaches below but hardly any beach at all. You are standing on a foot path that runs for a little under 2 km along the cliff’s edge and behind you are small restaurants, guest houses, and souvenir shops. Not too overbuilt, no cars, no noise... it’s just right.

Thanks again to Faith and Sanjee for hosting me a couple nights in Varkala. Drop in and stay at their guest house if you ever make it there. They really make you feel at home: they write your name on your door in chalk, let you use the kitchen to cook your own food, have a great collection of books and movies, and even play scrabble with you in the early evening.

Next stop: Bangalore!

29th Stop - Kerala, India

As we stepped out of terminal and walked towards the bus in the sweltering heat of tropical India, I couldn’t resist the fresh squeezed sugar cane juice stand—it’s been ages! The best fruit juice in the world, plus it’s healthy (I think). We took the bus into town and got off in in the outskirts of Ernakulum to meet up with Steve from www.CouchSurfing.org. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get in touch with him so we took another bus and rickshaw to the ferry terminal to cross over and spend the night at Fort Cochi.

Fort Cochi is an old trading post along the tea and spice routes. It was ruled by Indians, the Portugese, the British and probably a few more in-between. Now it is a sleepy fisherman town and tourist attraction. We checked into a hotel and then went out to a bar for drinks.

We had a late lunch so we skipped dinner altogether. After a few drinks, some other tourists started to show up. Mike, a former financial portfolio manager from Hawaii, recently left it all behind to teach in Thailand and would be traveling around India for a few weeks before the semester started promoting his new website www.powerkickinc.com. A Scottish girl from Glasgow who insisted that it was not a good idea for a girl to travel alone in India (especially in Delhi) after experiencing it first hand for the past few months. Apparently, she almost got gang raped in Delhi which explains the hard feelings. Then there was the Australian girl who was on a round-the-world trip and was traveling around India on a motorcycle. Cool.

Up early the next day, we hopped on a bus and rumbled on down to Alleppy, the gateway to Kerala’s famous backwaters. I was engrossed in my book, Losing my Virginity (Richard Branson’s autobiography) for most of the ride, looking up from time to time to take in the scenery. At one point, when we had almost reached our destination, I spotted a JCI banner with a picture of Roland Kweiman, this year’s world president, on it! Wow, JCI is truly everywhere, even in the most remote, “backwaters” places like Alleppy!

That afternoon, we checked in with Antony, our CouchSurfer host who owns a tourism business and resort: http://tourinalleppey.com/. We had a cup of coffee and then he sent us out on a relaxing canoe trip.

The backwaters gets its name from the 1,000 km of canals and rivers that intertwine in a dense tropical fruit tree paradise. Also a tourist photo-happy paradise (thanks by the way to Bela and Deni for all the photos!).

By the time we made it back to our residence, it was dark and we needed to make plans fast. Antony and his Finnish girlfriend decided to join us for dinner so we all went to a nice hotel for cocktails and Indian fare.

Rarely have I relied on guidebooks for my travels so far, but I do look into them from time to time, especially when one is readily available (thanks again Bela and Deni!). The Lonely Planet advised us not to miss out on a backwaters house boat tour, despite the fact that the price would be about 50 times more expensive than anything we’ll have done so far in India. Let me reiterate their advice: you have to do this if you go to Kerala, you won’t be disappointed!

We got on the houseboat around noon, put our things in our rooms and slipped into our houseboat attire: shades and bathing suits! Our captain took us to the middle of the lake first so we could cool off with a swim. Getting into the water wasn’t hard; swimming in the water on the other hand brought back memories of Indiana Jones trying to cross the river of man-eating crocodiles in the Temple of Doom. Our fears got the better of us, so we climbed back aboard for lunch!

The rest of the afternoon we tooled around the canals, listened to Bollywood music, read books, took pictures, and meditated. If you ever go to India, do make a stop in Kerala and tour the backwaters. Thanks to Bess and all the Indian friends who told me to come here! Thanks also to Antony who hosted me on Saturday night.

Next stop: Varkala, India!