A Few Malaysian Stories: (Flashback)
One night our friends invited our team to come with them to the KLCC towers. I hadn’t been, so I was excited to see the famous twin towers and witness one of the city’s well known malls. We went as a group of nine, five of my teammates, two of the people who shared our “hostel” with us, our social butterfly friend, and me. We walked to the train station as it threatened to rain. We walked out of our block, across the road, and past the hindu temple with it’s vibrant colors, ornate architecture, and the twisting limbs of more statues than you can count. The path to the train station wound around the temple and past the temple cows who were chilling by the side of the road. We bought train passes which were little tokens exactly like poker chips and boarded the train on the first stop. It was empty and as it pulled away we saw the swirling clouds hanging over the city as the light faded. As we traveled I couldn’t help but be so excited to be hanging out with our local friends, we were a misfit group, and I loved it. We soon pulled to a stop in a station that overlooked a huge mosque. The lightrail was full as we exited and switched to the underground train. I discovered that I could actually reach the handles on the ceiling of the train and I was thrilled. As we were exiting the train station at our stop I was the last through the gate, and got caught up because I didn’t realize I had to insert my poker chip back into the machine for it to let me through. I almost got left behind. After that our hostel roommate linked arms with me and made sure I was always with the group, she was so sweet. The train station emptied into the basement of the KLCC mall. As we walked into the mall we were met by the usual onslaught of huge festive Christmas decorations. Apparently the malls have competitions. People were everywhere bustling in and out of the expensive flashy stores. I felt suddenly very out of place with my flowy pants and greasy hair. We exited the mall into a park with probably the biggest Christmas tree I have ever seen and a huge Las Vegas like fountain. I looked up and saw the lights reflecting off the rain drops in the night sky, if I tried really hard I could maybe imagine the rain to be snow. Maybe but not really because it was still the ultra humid mid eighty degree weather. We took pictures and goofed off with our friends as we walked around the fountain. Soon I stood on the other side of the fountain facing the lit towers and huge Christmas tree. We watched the fountain perform it’s show. The sprays of water were lit all different colors. In the background somewhere across the street the evening call to prayer continued on with a long recitation of something in Arabic. I asked my friend, the social butterfly one, the one who took us in and drove us everywhere, the one made who a lot of sweet memories with us, a lot of questions about Islam and the call to prayer. The raindrops pattered softly and pleasantly on our heads. He answered in his matter of fact way and told me about the rotations of prayer, how many are required, how many are recommended, and what people actually do. It was a great time, but it didn’t escape my notice how odd and mismatched it all seemed. Malaysia is just like that.
Our social butterfly booked a field for us to play ultimate frisbee. So on a Tuesday evening, I followed my teammates as we walked through the pouring rain in the direction of the train station. I was wearing shorts for the first time in weeks (But they still went to knees). We walked quickly and watched the onslaught of water create rivers out of roads and waterfalls out of steps. My sneakers soon were soaked as we ran up the stairs of the covered walking bridge over the road. The rain hit loudly on the metal roof. A couple watched, probably really confused, as we the five soaking white girls walked by and back out into the pouring rain. There was a crowd gathered for some kind of religious ceremony in the hindu temple and even more staring faces of people seeking shelter beneath the roofs of shrines. I was enjoying the downpour and found I didn’t really care that everything was soaked. I loved the adventure. We met the rest of group, our other teammates, our social butterfly friend, and two other frequent visitors of our hostel, next to the field which belonged to some kind of rec center. The rain lightened to more of a drizzle and we abandoned our shoes and rain jackets by a tree and ran carefree into the half flooded field of grass and mud. I loved the childlike abandonment to run through the muddy pools of water and have an absolute blast. We played an intense game of ultimate frisbee. I didn’t believe I could catch the frisbee at first but then to my shock and amazement I actually did catch it, and not just once but again and again. Our game ended at dusk with all of us covered head to toe in mud, scratches all over my feet, and a tie between our teams. We had the best time.
A few days before we left, I locked up “my” uniform shop and came down to the front office, as I did at the end of every day. On that particular day, we had the afternoon off for some reason, so I came down right before lunch. I found my teammate in her filing office finishing things up. Our local friend was waiting for her because they had agreed to have lunch, and they invited me along. She was a sweetheart and bought us lunch. We went to the Chinese lunch market, called Happy 126, and had delicious tea and yummy pork noodles. We talked and laughed for over an hour. Our friend checked her watch with a start. She told us she had to go because she had a dentist appointment. Then in the spur of the moment she invited us to come along. My teammate was like, “sure!” and though I was surprised I was like why not. So we went along. We walked to the train station, took a train, and then we took a grab (it’s like an uber) until we reached the dentist’s office. On the way there my teammate was saying she felt bad for dentists because no one likes going. After sitting in the waiting room for only a few minutes our friend’s dentist came out, and to our shock we knew her. It was another one of our friends! We couldn’t stop laughing as my teammate explained what she had just said, and besides what were the odds we would know the dentist?! “Why didn’t you tell us?” we asked our local friend. We thought we would be waiting a long time, but after fifteen minutes our two friends returned. Our dentist friend was done with work at that point, so she invited us over to her house for tea. Her apartment had a beautiful view of the city and it was a sweet sweet time. I couldn’t believe that all started with us tagging along to the dentist. What a fun and random adventure.
I miss you guys!
