Malaysia: One Month in Retrospect (Part one)

One month ago from today I left from Minneapolis and traveled to where I am living now: Penang, Malaysia. I’ve done an absolute horrible job with writing this blog. I kept my own hand written journal with an account of daily experiences and thoughts. I figured that if I hadn’t updated this in over a month, there is no point in having one. So, I present to you now…

Malaysia: One Month in Retrospect (Part one)

I’ll be honest. When I first arrived here my thoughts were: “How the hell am I going to live here for one year?” After living in Italy and my traveling around Europe, I naively assume I was immune to culture shock. If you have never had culture shock before, come to Asia.

My flight left at 3:20 PM CST. It was slated to last 11 hours. Previously, the longest flight I had been on was seven hours to Amsterdam from Minneapolis. I sat next to a guy from Chicago who was on his way to the Philippines for vacation. He worked for UPS but said he was thinking of extending his vacation from two weeks to three months. We talked about nightlife in our respective cities and smoking bans around the country. Eventually our interaction devolved into asking one another how many hours were left.

After eating dinner, breakfast, a snack, drinking four cokes, a ginger ale (for Dad), watching House for Dogs, He’s Just Not That Into You, which by the way is a surprisingly quality film for those who haven’t scene it, watching six episodes of Season 8 Seinfeld, and having my second dinner being served to me, I thought to myself: “Holy hell this flight is long.”

My first port of arrival in Asia was Japan at the Tokyo Narita Airport. The airport is carpeted mute gray. I know that in general colors don’t get any muter than gray, but the floor leaked dullness. The walls are white. It felt more like a trip to the dentist than arriving in a big, international airport. There wasn’t much excitement except my calculation that a Big Mac cost the equivalent of about $9 and the sign outside of the security checkpoint that read: “Please put shampoo in baggie to deter acts of aggression and other terrorist violence.” I actually got a pretty big kick out of that sign.

While waiting to board my flight to Singapore, I struck up a conversation with a guy from Houston. He was on his way to Singapore for some sort of business dealings. I listened a bit here and there. He worked in construction and he thought it wasn’t worth learning Chinese because “ma” can mean four different things depending on how you pronounce it. He was appalled by the idea that you could accidentally introduce your mother as a horse, or something like that. I told him I liked to play golf and that’s what we talked about until we boarded. We sat on opposite sides of the plane so we said our farewells.

The flight to Singapore wasn’t too bad. I didn’t sleep at all on the flight to Tokyo so I slept most of the way. Looking back, I find it peculiar that I ate the salmon that was served with my dinner. I never eat fish, ever. Why start then? On a plane? I was risking getting sick and committing what I view should be added to the seven dead sins: number two on a plane.

Finally I landed in Singapore. I had been traveling for 23 hours. The local time was 1:00 AM; Minneapolis time was 12:00 PM. I had made arrangements to stay in the hotel in the airport for six hours. I ended up putting my bags in my room and hanging out at the 24 hour Starbucks down the hall from my room. I got maybe 4 hours of sleep.

If you’re ever looking for an airport to take up residence in, Singapore Changi is the place. Three terminals, a butterfly and a bamboo garden, a free movie theatre, free video game center, shops galore, free WiFi, and most importantly a Burger King. Changi was my romping ground for ten glorious hours I won’t soon forget. I had planned to take the free tour the government offers if your layover is more than five hours, but some technicality had me clearing customs twice and they weren’t happy with that, so, I hung out in the airport.

My flight was slated to leave for Kuala Lumpur at 4:10 PM, but 15 minutes before boarding began the departure time magically changed to 5:30 PM. Oh AirAsia how your cheap fares woo me and bizarre operations exasperate me.

I felt like Indiana Jones getting out of the plane in Kuala Lumpur. We got off the flight by going down steps and onto the tarmac. I set foot on the exotic land where I would be spending the next year of my life, and looked up at the sun that felt like it was trying to set me aflame. Holy hell Malaysia is hot. That’s what I thought then, and that’s what I am thinking right this second as I write this.

My Mother’s dear friend Sharon’s sister-in-law Cindy arranged to have a driver pick me up from the airport and bring me to KLCC where my hotel was. Without any of their help I would’ve been lost in the absurd heat that bakes Kuala Lumpur International Airport. I cannot thank them enough. Also, Cindy and her friends took me out to dinner which was great considering I hadn’t really had any formidable human interaction (sorry UPS guy and guy from Houston), except for maybe the Starbucks barista working at 4 AM in Singapore’s airport, They brought me to this great restaurant in this really cool mall. I tried a local drink called “Black Jelly” which was something I had never tasted and will have to try again. But for a shout out, thank you Mom, Sharon, and Cindy for helping me ease into the chaotic city that is Kuala Lumpur.

I spent two days in Kuala Lumpur. In this time I saw the Petronas Towers, walked over to the US embassy, learned that it is impossible to walk in KL and keep a dry shirt, and met up with Panu. Panu is another exchange student studying at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM, my university here) and we had arranged to meet up beforehand. He is from Finland. We were instant friends and we now room together in an apartment with a French girl named Morgane who is also studying at USM.

Panu and I took a bus from KL to Penang. The landscape of Malaysia consists of high hills covered with trees. Mountains and mountains of trees make up inland Malaysia, but it’s like a rain forest. It is so lush and so green. The thickness of the vegetation is incomparable to that back in Minnesota.

Panu and I arrived in Penang five hours after departing from KL. Here I was, finally on the island I had only seen in pictures and pointed to on maps. It was here that I would soon start to experience a world so foreign and so different than my own. The challenges immediately began to mount.

I’ll post the rest in the coming days.