"Isn't travel scary?"
I can't count how many times I've been asked this question, or a variation of it. When I consider the implications (how can you leave everything you know behind, go to a land you've never been to before and assume everything will be all right?) then sure, I can understand why somebody would think travel might be terrifying. Leaving one's comfort zone can be a frightening, disorienting experience, and in some ways I'm a little envious of the people who are content to stay in the same place they were born for their entire lives. But honestly, of all the emotions I associate with travel, fear is not one of them.
I get restless if I stay still for too long. The ceaseless cycle of going to work, going home, doing the same tasks everyday with no end in sight devalues life for me. When I travel, I feel refreshed. I feel inspired. I love to go to new lands and watch people going about their routines. It may seem hypocritical to say I can't stand my own daily grind yet enjoy watching others do the same, but truly it's wonderful to me. Not because I view the world outside of my little corner as a massive zoo full of exotica to observe, but because I love to see that people everywhere are at their core no different from me. I find that travel is always an eye-opening experience, no matter which country I visit; the food might be different from what I'm used to, the religions and customs will be foreign to me, and of course I won't understand any of the local language, and yet wherever I go people are still people, and they all have a place to call home. Seeing that reminds me to be grateful that I do as well, and to appreciate all that I have.
Last week I had a five day weekend, thanks to the Children's Day holiday. It wasn't much time, but I definitely wasn't going to sit around my apartment for five days picking my nose. I wanted to go somewhere new, and Southeast Asia still has a lot to offer, so I scoured the usual ticket booking sites (I strongly recommend Kayak) before finding a relatively good deal for a plane flight to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia.
I didn't know much about Malaysia before I made my bookings, and I knew not a lot more when I boarded the plane to Kuala Lumpur (KL to the locals). Regardless I was excited to go: not only was I finally getting a chance to travel again, but I was going to be doing so with my girlfriend. We arrived in KL on Saturday afternoon and easily navigated public transportation to our accommodations in the Golden Triangle, an affluent area of KL full of the city's largest shopping malls, most glamorous hotels, and of course, the world famous twin Petronas Towers.
After we settled in there wasn't much time left in the day, so we walked ten minutes to the Petronas Towers, got some dinner in the massive Suria shopping complex located at the tower's base, and walked around a bit before calling it a night. For our second day, we explored the Golden Triangle in earnest, visiting almost every mall and touring a few parks along the way. We stopped by Pavilion, a new mall dealing in high-end luxury goods; Low Yat Plaza, KL's place to go for IT and electronics; and the behemoth Berjaya Times Square. Berjaya is an older mall and from the outside it doesn't look especially large, but inside the size is mind-boggling: there's enough room for a completely indoor theme park with a very decent roller coaster (which we rode twice).
Eventually, feeling drained from all of our walking and shopping, my girl and I went to find dinner in nearby Jalan Alor, a street famous in KL for serving some of the city's best street food. Though the aggressive nature of the food hawkers and the never-ending stream of beggars was a little off-putting, we succeeded in getting an excellent meal. We rounded out the evening with dirt cheap foot massages, just as a massive thunder storm dropped a torrent of rain on the city. We were going to have to get used to these sudden storms; it would not be the last time we'd get caught in the rain during our trip!
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