Kuala Lumpur to Phnom Penh Plane Window
Heart of Darkness Club Shot
Typical Traffic Scene in Phnom Penh
Jason Conger Eating Tarantula
Kuala Lumpur
Photo Reflections: KL Hodgepodge Day and Night
Our final moments in KL involved a lot of walking. Endless, endless walking. It was difficult to understand the geography at first. When you’re visiting many places in multiple countries, where there are other barriers (like language), geography does not come easy. But in our adventuring, our semi-aimless wandering, we came upon some amazing images. It was a pretty smooth ending, which was intended, as we had to prepare for the looming tribulations of Cambodia.
Starbucks in Malaysia is just like Starbucks in America, except that there aren’t as many milk options.
Sound poetry?
A Jack and the Beanstalk-themed advertisement.
KFC is everywhere in Asia. More than McDonalds, it seems.
The following are of the Petronas Towers, which may be the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen.
Great bookstore section:
The epic mall in the Towers:
Phenomenal graffiti:
“Apple Spray.”
“No Durians.”
“Fat One.”
No words.
“Andrew the Giant has a Posse in KL.” Below: more scenes from Chinatown.
“Jason is Popular.” Below: a car that isn’t going anywhere.
Do not play kites on this train.
Next: Cambodia!
Photo Reflections: Daylight in KL, and the Batu Caves
As many who visit KL know, the Batu Caves, a huge historic Hindu center, is one of the top spots for tourists in the city. I was hesitant when we originally had the idea to go, since a lot of people/sources said “skip it” and a lot of people said “you have to go.” The main issue is the tourism: it’s so crowded that there’s little-to-no spirituality still within it. Which is fine. I’m used to touristy places. I’ve been to Disney in California, which is perhaps in the top ten “tourist” destinations in the world (after all the lovely European spots, of course, and Bangkok). But still, I was told that Batu was “disgusting.” And it is. It’s quite sad. From the introductory monkey antics, to the vendors you may or may not be hallucinating in the heat, to the stampede of people up and down the steps, which are littered with litter, there’s really hardly any charm in it. The swath of the grotesque holds its pinnacle when you actually come to the walls within the caves, which have been, quite literally, decimated by tourists tagging and scratching their names and every other possible thing you could imagine into Batu’s core. But, as you’ll see down below, there is a certain degree of beauty to it, right? I’ll leave that up to you. Also, it should be stated that getting to the actual caves involves a very steep 272 steps, which climbing feels quite challenging. You’ll see. Before the caves, though, you’ll see some delicious banana leaf Indian indulgence, and a few other quirky sights.
“Listen! Listen! Listen!”
If you look closely, you can see the mannequin busts in the windows, staring out like prisoners . . .
“SM House of Fashion.”
Kim and Jason:
Nick and Jason:
Nick eyeing everything before we all devour it with our hands and mouths:
The train to get to the caves is phenomenally comfortable. For Muslim reasons or otherwise, there is a car for ladies only:
Apparently kissing is indecent behavior:
At least lesbians are allowed.
Commence with the monkey bonanza:
The graffiti:
The above toys are indeed available for purchase within the Caves. Amazing.
Funky stairs:
Either a pigeon or another animal of the air flashes through interrupting my picture.
I’m not sure what Matza Clownz are, but they sound fantastic. Below: lots and lots of water bottles.
“No stick.”
Thanks go out to the Cave Management Group. Great work. Below: one of my favorite pictures.
Twitter reference? Fashion statement? You tell me. Below: more monkey business.
Unfortunately the Batu Caves Library was not open.
The BRC (Batu ___ Caves?) “Achieve” (which I think means “Archive”) was not open, per se, but had a table outside with some men selling tourist knick-knacks.
Jason and Kim, after our adventure into the heat and darkness:
Photo Reflections: Kuala Lumpur, Night 1
From the airport in Tioman to the rooftops in Kuala Lumpur, our transition from island life to urban mecca was outstanding. We used CouchSurfing to find a place to stay and ended up meeting many, many great people in KL because of this. Nick Chang, our host, introduced us to party culture and amazing food without any delay. Our adventure begins, below, with the “free” corn-flavored snack offered to us on the plane. I ate mine just to see how disgusting it was (imagine white bread with corn-flavored cream i the middle and you’ll be imagining what I put into my body). Jason did not eat it.
A word you don’t see every day:
This would be a great name for a play. Below: is it gum or something worse?
Below: an allusion to WW2?
Below: KL’s train platforms are filled with LCD screens playing advertisements. Everything is clean, too, just like in Singapore. The trains take longer to arrive, though.
Below: public transit in KL uses plastic tokens. Amazing… until you lose yours!
Wild night, wild cat:
As mentioned, Nick took us to this rooftop party which was a Francophone meetup/Couchsurfing meetup hybrid. The pictures don’t really show that much (outside of the beautiful skyline), but we met a lot of great local Malaysians and some not so great expats. Regardless, a raging time.
After the rooftop party, we experienced even more nightlife by way of the local club scene, and then had a late dinner (3AM) at an Indian restaurant near Havana Club. It was at this point we started realizing the limits of our bodies, and learned how to “sleep in” during vacation.
Next: exploring KL!
Bayon Bem Attempt #2
A couple old shots of me at Angkor Wat and an ancient library at the Bayon in Angkor Thom.
And a shot of me with a monkey friend outside the Batu Caves in Kuala Lumpur.
The View from the Room in Kuala Lumpur
In the Shadow of KL
Jason and myself arrived by plane to Phnom Penh at around 4pm last night, having gone through a whirlwind tour in Kuala Lumpur that left us speechless and exhausted. I’m still tingling from all of the activity beneath my window here in Cambodia, so it’s a bit hard to concentrate on the matter at hand: describing the final snapshots of our time in Malaysia.
We used Couchsurfing for the first time and met Nick Chang, a lovely host who lives off the orange line in the southern part of the city. We actually ran into him on the train platform headed to his place, the chances of which seem extremely slim. His apartment was on I believe the fourth floor of a huge complex that seemed quite intimidating at first but was actually cozy. It was our first experience being in a grittier space in an Asian metro, which we welcomed with open arms.
After arriving there, we got to go to a rooftop party on the 33rd floor of this building only one stop away on the subway, where we listened to electro and house spun live from some French deejays and met a bunch of people from around the world, including, oddly enough, a guy from Boston. The show was over at midnight and we convinced Nick, with some help with this French guy, Kim, also crashing at his place, to go out to the club. This is obviously not typical Greg Bem behavior, but I’m playing ethnographic poet here, and wanted to gain some insight into this side of city life. Oddly enough, Havana on Bukit Street was a center of American culture, despite minimal Americans being there. From Black Eyed Peas to Outkast, this place played more familiar hits than I had heard at a club since living in Philadelphia. Seeing 80s music videos play on the endless screens was the perfect extra touch.
This is where I start thinking about my favorite part of Malaysia… The food. In a quintessential Anthony Bordaine moment, we went out for food after the beats had ended and ate some delicious South Indian. The problem with reporting on all of this is that I’m writing from a tablet and can’t properly reference the countless delicious dishes we ordered.
Ah, to continue on about how awesome KL was… From the wonderful people to the wonderful architecture, the city is one I felt we didn’t have enough time in. It’s hot, it’s maddening and huge, but it’s cheap, enjoyable and diverse in culture, outlook, and vision. This post hardly does our time there justice… So I will have to come back and discuss it more, tonight or at a later date.
Today: the Killing Fields, Tuol Sleng, RUPP, Royal Palace
The View from the Room in Kuala Lumpur
Cambodian Life and Times of Greg Bem 