After about 2 months on Tioman we decided to make more constructive use of our time and travel a bit. One destination that we both thought would be of interest was the Cameron Highlands, an area known for massive tea plantations tucked into beautiful mountains. But first, we decided to go to Kuala Lumpur. A CITY! YEA! That meant current moooovies in English, on big screens, surround-sound, popcorn and air conditioning. That meant international haute cuisine. That also meant we could replace some of the few clothes we’ve been wearing for well over a year now.

I loved KL. It has the new and clean as well as the dirty and old. Modern architecture towers over defunct opium den-esque buildings. Super-fast efficiency collides with old world charm and the ideals of Islam, Hindi, Buddhism, and Christianity gracefully overlap to create a really beautiful and tolerant city. The only tauters were street masseuses who showed us pictures of themselves smiling as they gave pummeled unsuspecting models.

When we weren’t basking in air-conditioned movie theaters we took in the the Petronas Towers (tallest towers in the world), the KL Tower (5th tallest single tower in the world), the Batu Caves (an incredible hindu shrine), and spent a lot of time just wandering around like lost farang’s (white people). One thing that made me feel at home in KL is that no matter where I was in the city I could look for the towers to figure out where I was. I do have to admit, really I miss having two beautiful towers in my life from which to navigate.