Never again will I travel over 24 hours solid without pain meds….until the next time I decide to visit another country like Malaysia. One wouldn’t know that I knew planned to do much of anything on my vacation judging by the first 24 hours I spent being lazy in a hotel room thanks to jet lag/not sleeping for 2 days. In fact, it took every ounce of energy down to my fingertips just to drag myself out of bed to the shower. The amazing view from my hotel window helped…that and not having had a shower for 3 days. I was quite glad that I met up with my friend Ben - Filipino expat living in Singapore. He took all the stress out of having to think whatsoever. After going through a mini-quarterlife crisis throughout my visit at home, I needed to let my mind relax.
I learned some things before even reaching the country. As I was on my way, I felt a bit unnerved. I was in the Korea airport and I thought....am I really doing this? Am I really going to this country by myself? Can I do this? For some reason, I didn't feel that way when I went to the Philippines and I'm still not sure to this day why but the idea of going to a mostly-Muslim country definitely freaked me out. As I boarded the plane, I saw my first fully-covered (to the eyes) Muslim woman and realized I was the only white person boarding the plane....and thought I was the only one who probably wasn't Malay and Muslim. I didn't even see any Koreans getting on the flight. Turns out I was wrong, as I was sitting next to a business man from Pakistan. He filled me in on how I can be rich. "Don't spend money you don't have!" he warns me. Evidently he's well off enough that he can pay off his credit card bill every month and never goes into debt. I was impressed. He was very kind and seemed to view himself as a wise man obligated to offer advice to me - a young solo-woman traveller. He looked a bit like my professor at Elon that taught the terrorism class - not at all meaning that as a racist comment. On the contrary, my professor was quite the humorous pacifist extremist. The way the man on the plane spoke, the way he looked and a few of his personality traits brought me back to the days of Mr. Zarzar's silly antics, when he'd dance around the room cracking jokes after having launched a controversial debate about how to handle terrorism in the middle east.
So all-in-all, my fear of entering the country was crushed thanks to my Zarzar look-alike. I learned that KL (Kuala Lumpur) is a fairly major business hub in SE Asia and was eventually informed that Malaysia is actually not considered a third world country....whoda thunk it? I also learned that not all Korean Air flights are as cool as the ones to and from the states...darn it. Oh yeah, and I learned that pain killers and wine WILL help you sleep on flights. At least something will!
SO my first 36 hours in the country were spent in my hotel room, to which only the view dragged me out....that and the shower AND AMAZING Thai food and an really cool bar.
The program's not letting me add pics right now....will add them into next entry!
