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Tired, hurried and lacking enough limbs for our ever expanding luggage, there’s also a feeling of excitement as we take a morning rush hour subway train from KLCC across the city to Sentral. That’s because we’re at the precipice of a transforming moment on this trip, as company, emphasis and continents are about to shift – and all in a very condensed period of time.
The Visit Malaysia in 2008 campaign maybe wasn’t working in the way that had been intended. I’d now received seven Malaysian passport stamps in the space of just two weeks – all probably from the same, now greying immigration officer despondently asking herself “What is so wrong with my country that he always want to leave again within a few hours of arriving?”.
Tiger Airways kindly kept their end of the bargain and delivered us safely the Kuala Lumpur Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) – a smaller, out of the way, less handsome version of the plush, award winning KLIA. For me, it was the second time in Malaysia in 8 days, and for Craig – the first time in 8 years. We’d only be stopping for one night in KL. Cambodia awaited us tomorrow.
Navigating from one point on the globe to another sparks quiet satisfaction, but the journey itself kindles a series of other odd side effects, too. You feel in a condition of eternal transit – as if you belong no where but the mid reaches of the atmosphere with ambient music droning quietly into your semi-receptible, often half-deaf ears. As if the destination always alludes you.
Never one to pass up the chance of visiting a new country, we left Singapore for the day and entered Malaysia. What we found was noise, intrigue, colour, and an altogether less comfortable environment than the one we’d just come from. Our first stop, Johor Bahru, was like Singapore’s messy, boisterous younger Brother. My lasting image of it is that of motorbikes and shoddy flats.
