Friday, July 14, 2006
KL, Malaysia
So I am back in Malaysia, one of my favourite countries in the world. Singapore was expensive, a bit staid and basically a money-oriented country. I was not upset to come back to Malaysia. The country has some very harsh laws. For example, oral sex is illegal unless you are going all the way (I guess that means if you get to third base, then you are legally obliged to go home!) and anal sex and pornography are illegal. It is a wealthy country, but it is also a nanny state.
On the way back to KL I had a very nice seat mate. He was a sixty five year old Malay gentleman named Bob. We talked the entire three hours that he was on the train. We talked about a lot of different things: Canada, Malaysia, religion, the Middle East, travelling. He told me that he has two wives (polygamy is apparently legal here) and about his religious views. He is definitely not an extremist. He told me that he wouldn't travel to the west because he feared being branded a terrorist. It is too bad that extremists create a situation where there isn't a true dialogue between people like him and reasonable people in the west. If they could only meet and talk we could probably avoid a lot of the calamities that are presently affecting the world and seem to be boiling over this week. We parted on good terms and exchanged email addresses and phone numbers. He has invited to come back to Malaysia to visit him and I hope to do so at some point.
Since arriving in KL I have been hanging out with my friend Alana, who was my roommate in South Korea. We went to see the Petronas Towers yesterday and today we went to the Bantu Caves, which are a Hindu shrine and went up the KL Tower, which is the fourth highest tower in the world. Tomorrow we are going to try to go up the Petronas Towers and take in some art exhibits. On Sunday, I travel on to Cambodia!
On the way back to KL I had a very nice seat mate. He was a sixty five year old Malay gentleman named Bob. We talked the entire three hours that he was on the train. We talked about a lot of different things: Canada, Malaysia, religion, the Middle East, travelling. He told me that he has two wives (polygamy is apparently legal here) and about his religious views. He is definitely not an extremist. He told me that he wouldn't travel to the west because he feared being branded a terrorist. It is too bad that extremists create a situation where there isn't a true dialogue between people like him and reasonable people in the west. If they could only meet and talk we could probably avoid a lot of the calamities that are presently affecting the world and seem to be boiling over this week. We parted on good terms and exchanged email addresses and phone numbers. He has invited to come back to Malaysia to visit him and I hope to do so at some point.
Since arriving in KL I have been hanging out with my friend Alana, who was my roommate in South Korea. We went to see the Petronas Towers yesterday and today we went to the Bantu Caves, which are a Hindu shrine and went up the KL Tower, which is the fourth highest tower in the world. Tomorrow we are going to try to go up the Petronas Towers and take in some art exhibits. On Sunday, I travel on to Cambodia!
