Tuesday, November 2, 2010
5:00 pm
03:30 am Wake up
04:00 am Get taxi
04:15 am Arrive at airport, realizing there is virtually no traffic to be
concerned about this early in the morning
04:30 am Find International Departures and get in line
04:45 am "Next in line!" immigration officer takes passport, opens it and
hands it back the same motion, "Step out of line. Fill out form."
Oops!
04:45:30 am Restart Line
05:10 am Almost two hours early... wait at gate for boarding
07:15 am Take off
10:15 am Kuala Lupur!
Wasn't a bad start at all! I'm used to embarrassing myself now and going in circles has become common practice. I was surprised as the airport in KL appeared to be in the middle of beautiful nowhere (been a long time since I've had that feeling). I changed my baht into ringgit (looks even more like monopoly money) and crossed my fingers as the immigration officer decided whether or not to let me into his country (am I the only one who always feels like they won't?). From there on, it was pretty much smooth sailing. I got a ticket for the shuttle to Sentral (yes, that's how it's spelled) Station, the main terminal on their rail line. I thought the shuttle would be like 15, maybe 20 minutes. Instead, it was more like 45 minutes to an hour.
Some Australian girl had no choice but to sit next to me and really did not seem jazzed about it. I guess she was prejudice against beards. Can't really blame her though, I guess I do kind of look like a hobo now.
We arrived at Sentral Station. I was expecting something pretty straightforward and simple (like the BTS). I'm not going to post the picture, because it doesn't show what I saw. Imagine what Grand Central Station would look like if it was in Tokyo instead of New York. I thought I was in an airport. There were multiple rail lines and I was a little disoriented. The information lady kindly pointed me to the LRT (Light Rail Train?). Finally, it clicked that this one was KL's BTS.
The only thing I really, really wanted to see in the city was the Petronas Towers. They were featured in the movie Entrapment (Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones rob all the major banks in the world in one shot during Y2K... awesome movie). Until 2004, they were the tallest buildings in the world. I read online that I needed to take the LRT to KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Centre). I followed the directions and wound up in a mall.
I was trying to figure out which side I should exit to find the towers. I picked one at random and didn't see them when I got outside.
Then, I remembered the website said "look up". I turned around and realized that I had just been inside them!
I was too late to get a ticket to visit the bridge in between (first come, first serve), but I didn't really care. I just wanted to see them in person. I took pictures for a couple hours.
After that, I went to Starbucks to try and bum some free wi-fi to see if Pastor Doug had received the contact information for the pastor I was supposed to meet here (oh yeah, I have some work to do). Sure enough, he had addresses and phone numbers. The addresses were more complicated than in Bangkok and Google Maps wasn't helping much. I tried calling the pastor's cell phone and I got a recording saying his phone was unreachable. I called his office and they didn't know where he was. So I tried taxis. Two of them didn't know the address and one of them was willing to try and find it, but not willing to turn on his meter (GET OUT!). It was about 4:00 pm by this point and I was getting pretty tired (Malaysia is hotter than Thailand). Just when I was about to say "Screw it, I'm gonna go to a movie," I figured I'd try and call the pastor once more. Sure enough, I got him that time. He told me what LRT station to go to and that he would pick me up at 6:00. That brings us pretty much up to date. I figured I'd just go to the LRT stop right away and wait there (and now I have time to blog). So, we'll see what the next 20 hours have in store for me (current time is 5:48 pm, so the pastor should be here soon).
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
1:28 am
Wow! I'm so glad I got to go to the church and meet people! I had fun today, but it was terribly lonely. I waited about 20 minutes more and Pastor Petrik arrived along with his wife and son. They were having evangelistic meetings this week, so I just hung out (and grabbed a quick, much needed shower) before the program started. The church was in a beautiful area that had more of a suburb than an urban vibe. There were LOTS of trees and plants along with western-looking houses with red brick roofs. It was freaking beautiful as the sun went down.
I went inside and claimed a pew about 15 minutes before the meeting started. Now, I was already tired and I'm not a big socializer, so I'm used to keeping to myself while others mind their own business. However, I tend not to blend in so well, apparently anywhere in Asia. This worked in my favor this time, because about four or five people came over to meet me. I even had a new friend to sit with during the meeting! Afterwards, it seemed like everyone wanted to find out if I was coming back for the rest of the meetings. I sadly told them no, that I was actually leaving early in the morning. I got the footage I needed of Pastor Petrik and he arranged for me to spend the night at a church member's house. I told them when my flight was leaving in the morning and we decided it would be safest if I camped out at the airport. So that's where I am right now. Apparently, about two or three hundred other people had the same idea as me. I can't even find a good wall to lay down by. I've claimed a table at McDonald's while I wait and scout other potential sleep zones. People are really creative here. I'd take pictures, but I'm sure I look creepy enough already.
SIDE NOTE:
KL is pretty cool, but I'm already finding myself homesick for Thailand. I was shocked when I got here and thought, "Where are all the Thai people?" The language uses Latin-based letters, but I didn't realize it wasn't English because I'm so used to anything with familiar characters being in English. I stared at lots of signs for a long time, trying to decipher what I assumed was horrible spelling.
