Malaysia:Kuala Lumpur (KL) & Melaka

The first half of my time in Malaysia was spent in Kuala Lumpur with a little trip to Melaka. Malaysia has been so good to me so far!

I’m spending time in Malaysia before I head to NZ and it’s sooooo weird! I can’t even explain how it feels! It’s intense because life feels so normal. Everything about Kuala Lumur (KL) is so normal. I’m staying with a woman named Sharan who I met on Koh Lanta in Thailand. I only met her one day but she’s been so great and welcoming to me. She’s showed me all around and always makes sure that I’m okay.

Sharan and her boyfriend Richie live in a high rise apartment just outside the city of KL. The first day with Sharan was like living a day in the life of this woman. I woke up in my own room, with a nice big comfy bed that I love so much especially since I haven’t had a big comfy bed to myself in about 6 months. We went to the country club that she belongs to for breakfast, then went to her old house where her ex husband and daughter(Alysha) live. Her house is so big and nice it’s filled with old wooden furniture that belongs to her ex husband, and lots of pictures of her 10 year old daughter, Alysha. She showed me all around her house. One of her dogs had just passed away the day that I arrived but I spent a lot of time petting her other dog, Ginger, who is 14 years old and super sweet. I’ve been dog deprived. After this we went to work. Sharan is a doctor at a clinic. So while she saw her patients I sat in her brothers office (who’s also a doctor) editing little things on wrigley’s website/my page and pretending to be doctorly while the nurses and patients would come though ‘my office’ to get blood pressure measurements. After finishing work we headed back to the house to say hello to Alysha who was back home from school. We went to pick up Richie from work and headed to a bar called Rock Bottom for dinner. At the bar there was a live band and also some girls for something like a “Miss Rock Bottom” pageant. The girls were definitely funny to watch. Everywhere Sharan took me she points out the names of towns/suburbs that we go to and tells me all about everything. Life wish Sharan is so normal that I’m just constantly in shock by everything.

The next day Sharan worked all day so after getting my chest x ray done for New Zealand I went into the city center. From the area that I’m staying it only takes 10 minutes on the city train into the center. I like to wander when I’m alone. So I went to the KL patronas twin towers as they are iconic to KL. Then walked from the park to the backpacker district which also happens to be Chinatown. I wandered around for a while going to some typical Asian markets, then decided to go back to the apartment where I’m staying. By the time I got back it was pouring rain so I hid out in the mall before walking back up the hill to the apartment to rest. I noticed that it was mostly Indian and Malay men in the streets of the city and the women were mostly only in the malls. Life in KL seems so modern, western, and normal. KL seems to be all about businesses and malls. The city is nice because there’s free city buses and the train that goes all around and pretty easy to navigate. I love to walk everywhere so instead of using the public transport I just walked instead.

On the weekend Sharan, Alysha, and I took a trip to the town of Melaka. I love Melaka so much! The town is more quiet and relaxed, theres lots of little shops, museums, historical sites, a river running though it all, and in certain areas there’s lots of tourists. The town used to be an old trading port. This area has a lot of Dutch, Portuguese, English, and Chinese influence. There are so many Chinese people in this area. The main groups of people who live in Malaysia are the Malays, Indians, and Chinese so there’s lots of these people and foods everywhere we go. In these few days Sharan had me try a lot of Malaysian foods that I had never seen before! The first night we arrived, went to her favorite bar in town called Sid’s pub then wandered though the night market on Jonker Street then to the Hard Rock Cafe. We saw Chinese karaoke in the street and a traditional Chinese Ghost parade that night. We had no idea what was going on at first but it was really fun and unexpected. The market was pretty typical for Asian markets except the food was different. The next day we went to check out the cannons and the big ship which is actually a museum. We took a river cruise boat ride which was really lovely to be able to see all the houses along the river. It was great because it allowed me to see what Melaka was all about as opposed to the previos night. After the boat ride we all wandered around the historic red buildings, church, and the town. Alysha got a bit tired so I wandered though the town by myself before we headed back to KL. Walking around was so nice and peaceful. It feels very safe and everyone said hello to me as I walked alone probably because I’m so white and foreign. I found Sharan and Alysha back at Sids pub talking to the manager and an older American guy.

The Melaka day was also pretty funny because Alysha and I started out joking in the car about ghosts, and started making them out of pieces of cloth, then the first night we saw a Chinese ghost parade, I don’t remember what else was ghostly but they kept coming up! On the car ride back home Alysha and I entertained ourselves with more jokes, riddles, culture differences, games to play in the car, and more ghosts.

Malaysia is great so far thanks to Sharan 🙂

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