XC 1X2

 An early wake up for a long travel move. Five hours of bussing to KL, too much time to kill, then a ten hour flight to Sydney. The first thing I discovered is that I’ve lost my eye mask. I picked up a nice one back in Chicago from Target. Big, adjustable, and more generous padding than a Victoria’s Secret push up. I’ll miss it. The ride goes easy enough and I even have an empty seat next to me for much of it. I took the liberty of making a stop at a convenience store last night for snacks and my sambal egg onigiri breakfast is filling a hole. Back in KL I dumped my bag at luggage storage and went off to get a roll of film developed. This lab is incredible. For four bucks they’ll process, scan, and email me the results and get it all done in under two hours. A gift after the lab in Delhi which still hasn’t gotten back to me after over a week and charging me double. To kill the development time I grab a bowl of noodles and another teh tarik. I didn’t sleep much last night and every ...

 One thing I may never understand about this country is the napkins. Sit down for a meal and more likely than not, you won’t find any napkins on the table. If you ask, you’ll be handed a box of tissues to clean your hands with. They don’t absorb much of anything and they’re far too fragile to scrub oils out of your mitts. Today will be relaxing. Lots of doing nothing, reading, and drinking tea. Theres a night market but until then I’m just flipping pages, daydreaming, and preparing for tomorrow’s travel day. Right now it’s about four thirty and the most eventful thing I’ve done is laundry. It isn’t even strictly needed but it will be cheaper here than in Australia and it’ll save me a load out there. Laundromat, apartments, farm As luck would have it, the afternoon rain started right when my dry cycle finished. This meant I got to enjoy the exercise of riding as much like a Grab driver as possible. The local delivery guys don wait for nobody and in the rain with clean laundry and no...

 The backpackers here say the thing to do is hiking. I set off for a trailhead and some breakfast. Malaysia has a fun nonalcoholic drink culture unlike any other place I’ve seen. Just about every place you go has a page or two of drink options listed. Granted, some of these are redundant such as listing coffee and coffee with sugar as two separate drinks. Still, the list is long. Motorcycling on the left is turning out to be easier than I thought. Figuring the instinct to ride American started out tough and got easy. With a motorcycle specifically, I found myself second guessing my lane position a lot. Lots of little motos on the wrong side here. Just enough to make you doubt yourself. I got to the trailhead and checked online after to see what I was in for. Three hours of crawling up a mountain though the jungle. Hmmmm, that’s not what I want right now. I guess it was my mistake to take a trail recommendation from a German backpacker. They’re notorious for calling a few dozen kilo...

 When the British set up this resort town they brought their tea habits with them. There are two old plantations they started still operating today. Some of the original Nissin Huts brought up are still around, keeping the production dry. Since I’d be motorcycling some ways, I figured I’d start my day with a cuppa cawfee. There’s a local specialty, white coffee. It’s a light roasted bean served like a cappuccino with lots of milk and sugar. Now I’m buzzing and so is the bike. We’re at altitude but blissfully this machine is well maintained and happy to hit the road. It’s a 30 minute zip from my hotel to the plantation and the views are fantastic. Thick jungle, huge trees, serene farms. The humidity makes the surrounding area quite lush and helpfully, takes the wrinkles out of my shirt.  Can you tell I’m caffinated? The plantation is huge and has a comparatively small visitor’s area. A cafe that serves their own, a shop, a factory tour, and a short hike with a view. I start wit...

 KL is an expensive city, I think part of that is psychological. How am I supposed to take the currency seriously when it’s called Ringgit? That’ll be 100 Ringgit sir. Sure, that doesn’t spoil so bad. How much could a Ringgit hurt? This place is like Vegas, designed to pull as much money from the visitor’s wallet as possible. I’m also getting tired of the “I am the main character” photo culture. I’ve seen people stand in the street, block sidewalks, and almost get their kid run over in a quest for a perfect shot. They’re always surprised when four cylinders of reality come roaring for their abdomens. Idiots. Get the fuck out of the right of way if you want something for your socials. I have about an hour and forty-five minutes to kill between checking out of my hotel and my bus departure for Cameron Highlands. Since I’m in KL and hungry, grabbing a bagel on the way to the bus terminal should take all of that time. Predictably, after breakfast I get to the bus terminal five minutes ...

 Now that it’s Monday, I’m doing another side quest. Since I’m in a place where it’ll be cheaper to handle than it would be in the US, I’m off to see if I can get my camera repaired. There’s a promising spot that seems to specialize in film cameras not far outside of the city center. Predictably, it’s in a shopping mall. New country new address format, I’m wandering around this place for what feels like an eternity trying to figure out where I’m supposed to be. Eventually I find it. The head honcho is out to lunch. Fine by me, I’m hungry too and the man still working has a good lunch recommendation.  The new kills the old Vegetarian Chinese food. What a change of pace from standard Malay fare. The meat here has been delicious but I’m happy to skip it for a bit. One of the staffers is intrigued to see someone so pale so far away from the main tourist zone and sits down with me. We talk about our travels. He’s a hairdresser by trade and spent years wandering the earth cutting ha...

 Clean sheets, sleeping in, silence on the 33rd floor. Fast internet, a shower that heats up faster than I can get in. These are a few of my favorite things. It’s not lunch and I’m not hungry so I figured I should start my day by pulling cash. 500 ringgit oughta do it. The machine spits a pile of 20s into my hand. I’m so tired of these countries not owning their inflation. At least the Uzbeks have useful currency. I bought a soda on my way out of the 7/11 with the cash machine. I left the half ringgit piece outside on a trash can. I’m just not interested. Everything is a mall I abandoned the Joseph Conrad novel I bought for being written in an insufferable style so I was due for a book adventure. I walked from my hotel to a nearby mall to see what I folks find. Everything is a mall here. Between the humidity and the wealth, the entirety of KLCC has been pushed indoors where the air is cool and dry. I can’t blame the locals for that. I haven’t felt humidity like this for some time, ...