Adventures in Guangzhou!

Arriving in Kuala Lumpur ("KL," in the hip vernacular), it felt like we had left civilization for a rundown, loud, dirty pigsty of a city. It was a bit of a ride awakening. Then again, I guess that's what happens when you get dropped off at the bus station (notoriously dirty areas in every city). Actually, I think I would have thought KL was dirty and disorganized no matter what--absolutely nothing can compare to the pristine streets of Singapore. I think I also had the thoughts in my head of all the Singaporeans who warned us, "KL is dangerous! Watch your pockets! It's very dirty! Don't hold hands unless you're married!" Again, very similar to Hong Kongers talking about the mainland.

Anyhow, we grabbed our stuff off the bus, I conveniently left the one souvenir I bought in Laos behind (a nice black and white drawing of Wat Xieng Thong that I will never see again ), and we marched off in search of our hostel. The place we stayed at was right near the bus station, which was convenient, and had an incredible common room with a big screen TV and couches, which was awesome, but was lacking a blanket, which was less awesome. We only managed to survive via Kelly's ingenuity, i.e. stealing one of the extra sheets hanging from the back stairs. It was pretty hot anyway so it wasn't a problem.

For dinner we found a cheap Indian place and chowed down once more on some curry goodness. From there we made our way to KL's chinatown, to see if there were any New Years festivities. It didn't appear there was anything organized, though there were a ton of people and we enjoyed the people watching quite a bit. Drinking a beer at an outdoor table by a restaurant, we reflected on all of the amazing things we had done so far, from elephants to cooking. As we were reminiscing, I thought I saw an old friend out of the corner of my eye--Jack Hagihara, former member of my singing group from college. What are the odds though?

Just in case, I shouted his name and got up to get a better look at him. The person did not respond and continued walking across the way so I didn't get a good look at him. "Oh well," I thought. However, the more I contemplated the possibility, the more real it seemed. Last I had heard he was in Taiwan, which means he would also be on vacation for Chinese spring festival. Hmmm. I decided it couldn't hurt to go ahead and email him from the internet cafe back at the hostel. Though I didn't have a cellphone with me, I could at least give him the info of where I was staying.

So I went ahead and did just that. As I walked upstairs to find Kelly in the common room, I hear a male voice say, "Ari? Ari?!?!" Sure enough--Jack Hagihara in the flesh. How's that for a small world? Unfortunately he was catching a bus to Singapore in an hour, but we did manage to catch up for a while and chat about Wesleyan and some of the old guys. It's great to see old friends anytime, but when you're traveling in the middle of a foreign city and you run across one unexpectedly, it's even better.

The next day we walked over to the KL tower in the "Golden Triangle" central business district in order to have the buffet lunch at the top. We took the elevator up about 280m and were immediately rewarded with the incredible sights of the city from the rotating restaurant, complete with an unparalleled view of the Petronas Towers. The Towers, currently the tallest building in the world, are spectacular. If any of you have seen the movie "Entrapment," it's the big building where the make the heist at the end. And yes, it looks just as cool in real life.

We stuffed ourselves silly and marveled at the city. From up where we were, you could see mountains in the distance, highrises, skyscrapers, stadiums, mosques, and everything in between. We both immediately changed our opinion about the city and decided that the bus station is probably the worst area around. From there we walked through the heat to the base of the Towers. About halfway there, three Pakistani guys randomly stopped us and asked if they could take a picture with us. We weren't quite sure what that was about but we were happy to oblige. I think they wanted a photo with an American girl but Kelly thinks they were just intrigued by caucasians. Who knows.

At the Towers, we immediately sought refuge in the air conditioning of the massive mall at the bottom. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised, but the mall had an incredible English book store, a pretty sweet Tower Records (no pun intended, but I was amused), a Dunkin' Donuts, a Famous Amos, and an A&W restaurant. Holy western products, batman! We hung out there for a while and then hopped on the light rail to Merdeka Square.

The square is a huge grassy area crowned by the tallest flagpole in the world, at somewhere around 100m meters high. It's a pretty big flag too. This was the location at which the Malaysian government declared independence in 1957. Across the street is the Malaysian supreme court, a magnificent building that combines colonial and moorish architecture. We decided to sit around on the grass for a while and day dream but we kept getting interrupted by groups of Asian tourists wanting to take pictures with us.

Now, this happens in China for sure, but I had never experienced so many in a single day! Again, we were flummoxed as to the reason (Kelly's non-black hair? Our Americanism? Simple white skin? Both of us wearing shorts? A caucasian couple?) but we rolled with it and joked around. I kept saying we should start going up to strangers and ask to take pictures with them, but Kelly nixed that idea.

After dinner at a Thai restaurant in the Central Market, we spent a bit of time in another Hindu temple. I am embarrassingly ignorant when it comes to Hindu religious practices, but we did manage to catch the end of what appeared to be some sort of evening ritual ceremony. The religious-studies major in me also wakes up at these moments and I feel like I should be there with a notebook furiously scribbling down all the interesting similarities and differences with the semitic religions and with other non-traditional forms of worship. When it comes to Hinduism, though, I can't quite get past the fact that Kali has got to be scariest god out there.