Day Three- Kuala Lumpur- Jungle Walk

Today was more or less an unsuccessful day for sightseeing, but turned out to be relaxing and entertaining.

We started off the day with a decision to eat like the locals and defer from the everyday western breakfast with eggs, bread, and jam and go for more of a local taste and see what they do to ease their night weary stomach hunger.

We first went to a local market where they served a local favorite, consisting of what seemed to be a flour based flattened almost crust rolled and filled with radishes, bamboo shoots, something else I don't know mixed with spices and "spicy" The rolls were served with a bland tasting soup broth with some cabbage mixed in. The meal was... adventurous, exciting and different, we sat with nothing but local Malay people who were sincere and spoke to us as much as they could.

Following two rolls, 1 bowl of soup, three dropped chop sticks and and a bowl of oysters and noodles, we decided ti was time to leave and move on to our first tourist venture for the day. We wanted to go to the 41st floor of the Petronas Towers to get a grand view of the city from the sky walk connecting the two.

Upon arrival to the towers we were met with an hour long line of people who though it would be a good idea to do the same this morning. After about 10 minutes of waiting, a nice Malay man came out and informed the last three-hundred people in line would not be able to go to the towers that day because the tickets were already gone. This was disappointing considering this was one thing in which was highly desired while visiting Kuala Lumpur. Disappointing yet was the fact we were leaving tomorrow and would not have another chance to do this so needless to say, we were upset with the situation but were eager not to let it break down our spirits.

After the upset, we moved on to our last preplanned adventure of the Kuala Lumpur visit, the canopy walk through the jungle in which we were to cross over highly elevated rope bridges which "amazing" views of the surrounding jungles.

We hopped on a quick train from the central station and ended up in a town called Kepong, about 30 minutes outside the main city. From there we haggled the price of a cab for about five minutes until we decided the cabbie would just use the meter instead of trying to rip off another tourist.

Upon arriving to the national rain forest, we were met with unexpected fees in which were only required to be paid by "foreigners" or what I would like to say tourists. It was a rip off, and made me mad, but like usual I paid the BS fees and was "allowed" through the gates of the rain forest. If you really want to know, the price for a "non foreigner" was 1 Malaysian Ringgit (about 30 cents) and for a foreigner was 5 Malaysian Ringgits (about $1.50) I know, I know, not expensive by any means, at least in western standards, but still, as Steph said, imagine if we in America made foreigners pay more for products or services just because we "know" they make more... Whatever.....

So, anyways, we were let out of the taxi at the front gates of the National Rain Forest and walked to the point of the canopy walk. The walk was through beautiful, thick, lush, GREEN jungle. The Jungle was filled with many types of palm trees, waterfalls, bamboo (I initially argued with Steph and told her they were water pipes... :P) and little lizards squirming around. It was amazing, and serene. The sounds of the jungle what you would expect from hearing it in movies, however, being their, the scents of the flowers, the heat from the sun and the cawing of the parrots maximized our senses. It was beautiful, there is no real way to describe this experience in words.

Upon arriving to the canopy walk location, we found the ticket office closed. Nearby, I found an operation hours poster which stated it had just closed down twenty minutes before our arrival. I couldn't believe it. We had missed two of our desired attractions in one day!!! I was hot, tired, sweaty, upset and ready to relax, and this was really unneeded.

Without looking at everything so negatively, we decided to take advantage of our situation and take a walk through some of the pre-trekked trails leading through the jungle! No luck today Shaun, we not only did survived the jungle without being attacked by a tiger, we didn't even see one... :P

After the jungle walking we hitch hiked a ride from a humble Hindi Indian Man and his small, flatbed truck. He spoke little English but we could sense his amazing hospitality through his actions. I have heard before that humans around the world will give everything just to help others, even if they themselves do not have anything. This was the case here, he was caring and willing to help us get a ride from the middle of no where, back to the train station.

From the train station we went straight to the newly built-ultra modern mall and watched the new release Salt in the extra modern theaters. It was relaxing and exactly what was needed to wrap this beautifully unsuccessful night up.

Day two Kuala Lumpur- Batu Caves

First I would like I would like to apologize prior to starting this post for not writing more, we have been moving quite a bit and did not have internet access for several days :(

As we continue on our journey, we have experienced many things since this last post. We have spent two additional days in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, enjoying and experiencing many of the sights and delicious food delights to be had.

Day 2 Kuala Lumpur.

Today we woke up late despite being exhausted, jet lagged and otherwise a complete time zone independent mess. We spent the first breakfast at the hostel, downtown Chinatown. To start a fantastic two slices of toast, topped with exquisite peanut butter with a delightfully taste bud indulging coffee, well, it wasn't luxury, nor fantastic but it was food and the place was clean. From there we planned our first sightseeing tour to the Batu Caves.

The Batu Caves comprised of 272 steps going sky high past a 43 meter tall statue of Golden Murugan?!! The caves were at the top of the stairs which contain numerous Hindi shrines inside where many Hindi people come to give offerings and pay tribute to the shrines. Upon arriving at the caves, we were greeted by many small wild monkey running within inches of our feet looking for an early morning snack.

As we began our ascent up the stairs, we noticed many of the other sightseers and religious people stopping several times for breaths on their way up. As we quietly mocked them and thought about how hard could it actually be, we QUICKLY found out the intensity of the small upwards journey. The stairs are high and the ascent steep, we stopped ourselves many times before finally reaching the summit. All the way up we had small monkeys and what seemed to be 1 FOOT long caterpillars climbing on all sides of us. Needless to say, Steph and I were staying as close to the middle as we could to potentially deflect any animal away.

At the top, we had a great view of the city (13 Kms away) and viewed many religious ceremonies taking place and people receiving the special red dot on their forehead, depicting they have prayed that day. The experience was unique, something in which I had not experienced prior to this time. The caves we hundreds of meters high, filled with bats, monkeys, tourists and vendors. All of which seemed to make create a perfect, almost surreal atmosphere.

Overall the experience was amazing, with the wild monkeys jumping over Stephs shoulder almost making her fall down the remainder of the 200 steps, to the new and confusing religious ceremonies, the site is something not to have been missed and will be recommended to future travelers.

I will be writing more as soon as I have a bit of time, I need to follow up with the past few days, some quick previews are:

Jungle Walk!
Bus to Singapore!
Night Safari!
Youth Olympics in Singapore!


Have fun and take care until then!

Frankfurt-Doha-Kuala Lumpur

Following 14 hours in the sky, one burnt hand, 2 hours of sleep, and a lost itinerary, Steph and I have finally made it into Kuala Lumpur.

Starting in the morning, Steph and I woke up at a reasonable hour to head off to the airport. When one of my generous co workers brought us to the airport, we shook hands, said our thanks and reminded us he will be seeing us soon on CNN, either in some hostage camp or wound up eaten by a Tiger...

The first flight was seamless and didn't even seem to phase either one of us airplane hating passengers. When we arrived in Qatar, we were quick to realize we were in fact, in the middle of the desert. Upon leaving the airplane, it felt like someone had opened the oven after baking cookies directly in our faces... It was HOT!!! The way Steph described it as someone with an oven open blowing a hair dryer directly onto us... bad.... So, after feeling all sweaty and in need of a good refreshment, we decided to freshen up in the bathrooms by brushing our teeth and cleaning our face. Again, we were quickly reminded we were in the middle of the desert when Steph almost burned her hand turning on the COLD water!!! The water tank must be directly in the sun, cause it was cookin!

Leaving Doha, it was already dark out and we had another 7 hour flight ahead of us. After eating a quick airplane meal and sucking back some water, Steph and I moved to the back of the airplane to grab the last remaining exit aisles so we could sleep with our bodies all stretched out... After dozing in and out for about two hours, I decided it was time to wake up and prepare for landing.... Three hours later combined with Stephs harmonious snoring we found ourselves touching down in Malaysia.

Flying into Malaysia reminded me of every Vietnam War era movie I had ever seen, DENSE jungle filled with palm and coconut trees. It was beautiful.

As we passed through customs with relative ease, we moved out side in order to find a way to get to the city. We were recommended both a taxi and the train both of which would have costed us around the same amount.. We decided on the train because we would rather spend our time on the public transportation than in some idealistic taxi ride with no meter guiding our unfamiliar, jet lagged minds.

Upon arriving to the city, we (I...) took the wrong direction on the subway which brought us on the other side of China Town, So we quickly ran back across in order to not have to pay again and made it back to where we needed to be.

The Travelers Guest house.

Our hostel, in the middle of China Town, surrounded by markets filled with illegal DVDS, endangered species for sale and street peddlers everywhere. We took a quick two hour walk through a market, haggled a bit, bought some incredibly hot curry rice which burned the heck out of my tongue and returned to the hostel.

We decided we would just lay on the bed for about 10-15 minutes and an hour later we woke to Stephs thoughtful alarm clock, she was thinking for both of us with not letting jet lag kick our butts.

We than gathered up some energy, cleaned up a bit and headed down to Kuala Lumpurs most known destination, the Petronas Towers, which are the tallest twin towers in the world. We got many beuatiful pictures of the surrounding areas and ate some very authentic Malaysian food in the high technology Mall, Pizza Hut....

We now made it back to the hostel, dirty, no showers, jet lagged all over the place and ready to pass out for as long as our biological clocks will allow.

Tomorrows plans, Batu Caves and more Market haggling!!!

Leave a comment and I will get back to you as soon as possible...

Backpack minus Idealism

Following numerous months of preparation, google searches, idea dismissal and you-tube spree's, I have finally decided on the location of my next culture gathering life mission (Journey).

Just after I spent the last few months watching the political and social unrest in a country I always imagined to be subtle, pacifistic, and harmonious, I realized there is nowhere left in the world where one could feel entirely at ease with their political and environmental surroundings.

I knew I wanted to get away and I knew it had to be soon.

Normally every year, I go back home, to my wonderful family and spend about two weeks with them, laughing, shopping, eating, sleeping, recovering from jet lag and preparing to get back to the hustle and bustle of everyday, work your ass off, life. Now, please do not misunderstand what I am saying, I love going home and being with my family, friends, and America, but there were a few variables in which pulled me from repeating this again...

1. Sarah. Sarah is my wonderful, extra intelligent, hard working younger sister. This past March, her and her boyfriend Tyler came to visit me here in Germany to spend time and view life on my side of the big lake. It was an incredible feeling to have members from MY FAMILY come here giving me a feeling of my two separate lives converging. The time made me realize what I have here is life, not some superficial, junction where I spend 6 years, go back to the states and start over again. What I have here is special, individual and self sustained. I have what I earned, and I am in control of where I will go, logically speaking.

So because of the fact I had members of my family visiting me here, this was one more added variable which allowed me to hold off on going back to Wisconsin this Summer.

2. Time Management: This one can be perceived as laziness and or a blatant lack of preparation, whichever it is defined as, it is my decision.

In the past, I was a soldier, and "bureaucratically" unable to take vacation when I wanted. When my leadership allowed me to, I was able to start the long, lengthy process of submitting my leave form packet. This process was frowned upon, because us Soldiers were all desperately needed on a day to day basis for various highly important missions, such as picking up cigarette butts, sweeping an outdoor driveway and preforming weekly maintenance checks on vehicles which never moved further than a few inches during inspections to confirm each truck was "dress right dress" against each other. Vehement importance is placed on these life supporting tasks.*

Soooooo, because of the fact I never really had much time to plan my trip in advance, it often led to a very high paced, "vacation" where I was expected to see everyone in the short 14 days
I was back home. This resulted in people being upset with me that I did not see them, others thinking they were not important enough for me to spend time and me being in a constant panic to please all.. ----- Stress at work, stress on vacation... CAN I PLEASE GET AWAY FROM IT!!!

For the most part, I usually made the best of it and didn't so much mind the ones who were upset and ignored the rest.

Being that I am now a civilian, I have been introduced to what most people (outside of Soldiers) know as life, full of what I am learning are independent decisions, endless possibilities and justice. Accountable, consequential justice, someone does something wrong, they are punished, and it doesn't happen again (THANK YOU RESPONSIBILITY AND PUNISHMENTS) With this newly established life comes individual freedom (what we as Soldiers "fight" for). I am now able to prepare IN ADVANCE, how and where my life is headed and when I would like time off. So with this, I have had several months to decide on my next travel location...

And now getting to where I was at the beginning of this long, drawn out story...

Steph and I have decided on a semi-spontaneous journey. The semi is for predetermination of location and possible activities, the spontaneous is for where we will be staying, how we will get there and what we will do. We made this decision based a little on environment and weather conditions, culture and hospitality (or what we though to be) and the desire to learn the unknown.

In T-2 days, we will embark (yes I just used embark) on a journey through Southeast Asia. We will be starting the backpacking route from Frankfurt am Main, International Airport leaving with a short layover in Doha Qatar. From Doha, we will be flying into Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where the actual foot journey will commence.

We plan on sightseeing, jungle trekking, beach laying, river rafting, eating local food from street vendors and attempting to immerse ourselves into the culture as much as possible. From here, we plan on making our way using public transportation, walking and other non conventional methods or vacation travel through Singapore and eventually up move up into Thailand.

I plan on attempting to keep everyone updated on current status and events while away.

If there are any questions, please do not hesitate to comment as I will be checking this as often as possible. Take Care and will talk to you soon!