Explorations through South East Asia: Malaysia

For a couple weeks in March and April, I had the opportunity to visit Thailand, Cambodia, and Malaysia (clicking the links will take you to previous posts). Due to my short stay in Malaysia, I only visited one city, Kuala Lumpur. Before moving to Japan, I’m not even sure I’d heard of Kuala Lumpur. Is it famous? I really couldn’t tell you. I’m pretty sure the only reason I learned about it was because it was cheapest to fly from there back to Japan. This is turning into more of a backhanded compliment than I intended. Anyways…the point is that for most of my life, I couldn’t tell you one thing about Malaysia. I didn’t know any of its cities, climate, location, or people. It existed just as well as the settings from the required books I didn’t read in high school – perhaps others knew all about it, but to me, it could be anything, or nothing. Though I now know that Malaysia is home to jungle beds, firefly rivers, and the largest flower in the world, the Rafflesia, I didn’t see any of these things when I visited. Kuala Lumpur, the location I stayed, is more closely related to Los Angeles than the Ferngully scenery you might expect. Unlike Thailand and Cambodia, Kuala Lumpur boasted huge shopping malls, monorails, $8 beers, and even a McDonalds adjacent to my hostel. Now, I realize that city attractions and sky scrapers are just fancy ways to disguise the real purpose of what we can really find within its borders – a community.

Usually when I write my blog posts, I just let out whatever is inside. I don’t do much editing because my thoughts just escape me and editing them feels like they turn into something else. But for some reason, as I write about Malaysia, I can’t seem to focus my attention. I’ve written and re-written this post several times and I still don’t know what I want to say. Perhaps it’s because I’m not sure I can.

What I experienced in Malaysia was one of the purest expressions of human kindness I’ve ever felt. It was like being at a rave, but better – it was real. Sometimes, people would just come up and start chatting with me, both women and men. At first I remember not knowing how to feel about this. Are they trying to steal from me? I’d read a lot before traveling to South East Asia that this happens sometimes. But after we’d part ways and I realized that nothing was taken, I couldn’t help but feel bad about ever doubting their sincerity. Websites can tell you a lot about safety and theft, but they can’t tell you what it feels like when every person you make eye contact with sends you a smile as you walk past them, or to have several groups of people see you with a map in hand and offer to show you the way. Websites, like this one, can explain facts, but they can’t explain human connections. It’s up to us to discover those for ourselves. So perhaps all I can say about Kuala Lumpur is that you should visit it. It may not have rainforest adventures or roaming wild animals, but it is home to some of the kindest people I’ve ever encountered. When I told a friend this, he asked if I took lots of pictures of people smiling. I realized I didn’t take even one. It made me sad for a moment that I didn’t capture the thing that meant most to me. But I guess beauty isn’t always meant to be captured – sometimes it’s just meant to breathe.

Camera: Nikon FM10, Nikon FM2

Film: Portra 160

en route.



Love the colors in that one.



Couldn't quite capture this dragonfly, but I still love this shot. Perhaps because I spent so long staring at this little creature. Its eyes were gigantic.





Jellyfish are so incredible and serene.



I've never seen a butterfly poop before, but as I was getting my camera ready to take a picture of this one, it's butt (the top end) flipped downward and starting pooping. It kind of made me like that butterfly more...it's beautiful and doesn't care about pooping in front of me.

This is at the Batu Caves.

This guy was standing at about a 70 degree angle, butt out as far as it would go, legs spread apart, and arms fully wrapped around the telescope. I admired his intensity.

Ostriches are strange and amazing.

I love birds.