From Melbourne to Malaysia

Well. I'm sure by now you know that I loved melbourne. My last day there I spent in a super cool neighbourhood that rivals any neighbourhood I've been to in NYC. It was lined in vintage shops, local designers' boutiques, and cafes. I treated myself to a ring made by a local designer (it's the first thing I bought myself on this trip so I don't feel too guilty although currently the Australian dollar is stronger than the Canadian dollar which made it bloody expensive-eek). I Also went to the queen Victoria market for the last night of its summer night market (it will soon be autumn in Aus. Weird eh?) The market was fun. They had live music and beer and all the same crap that you see at any kind of market anywhere.

The one thing that I saw that was totally unique though were hand crocheted neck pieces. They were so beautiful. When I get access to a proper computer (I'm currently on my iPod) I will post pictures. They were the kinds of things that I could see a hip bride wear on her wedding day.
(If you think they're cool, check out her website: www.handyhookyarn.com)

The next morning was not the best as my alarm didn't go off and I woke up twenty minutes before I was due on a shuttle to the airport. It's a good thing I take no time to get ready or I would have been in real trouble!
The flight to kuala lumpur was bad. Now I know I may not have the best sense of geography but I really didn't think the flight was going to be so long. Almost 9 hours later I was in Malaysia and because I flew with one of those cheap airlines it was a nine hour flight with no movies and no food. Brutal.

The minute I stepped off the plane the heat and humidity hit me like a slap in the face. I knew I was back in south east Asia. I got on a ridiculous shuttle into the city and watched all the old fogie white tourists freak out about everything. It's funny how when you've done some travelling you take for granted that the chaos in this part of the world for the most part works out.

Kuala Lumpur is bonkers. It's like putting a city from Cambodia into Dubai. The contrast of money and development to the poverty and way of life for most people is quite astounding which makes it rather different from the other places I've been in south east Asia. There is a large Indian and Islamic influence here and a lot of rules. They also have some infrastructure, like they have their garbage collected and a public transit system.

Many other things are the same as the rest of SE Asia though: the smells-incense, fried food, garbage, the sounds-honking horns, voices asking you to buy things, and sights-traffic, people driving on the sidewalk, street vendors selling all sorts of food.As much as I loved New Zealand I really feel like I'm back in my element traveling here. Today I walked around and took in some of the sites. There is a jungle in the middle of the city here surrounded by sky scrapers.

I saw a monkey and a kitten cuddling together and KL has the highest set of twin towers in the world which are the headquarters for, surprise surprise, a huge oil company.

Tonight I went to china town to the night market and got tempted by all the cheap knock off items. Louis Vutton bags and Tiffany's bracelets all for about twenty bucks. It's funny that the more times you see something, even if it's really tacky, you start to think it's nice. Don't worry, I didn't buy anything (yet).

Tomorrow I am going outside the city to visit a place called the batu caves which also has a Hindu temple with 272 steps leading up to it. I'm probably going to melt. It's the kind of heat here that as soon as you get out of an ice cold shower you get hot again.