Kuala Lumpur: Finally it happened: Instead of hopping on an airplane to Frankfurt around midnight, I went into town and am now residing in the Bodhi Lodge in KL (Kuala Lumpur). My single bedroom is only about 5.3m² in size and furnished with a thin mattress, two pillows on the floor, a small IKEA bedside table, a curtain in front of a small window and two banners showing traditional houses covered in snow – very funny to see that in a country with tropical climate. The free wifi internet connection is reliable and the speed is sufficient. The aircon works quietly, the hostel is clean, the atmosphere friendly and relaxed – so I am fine with my spartan budget-economic accommodation.
KL reminds me of Bangkok, probably because they share a similar sky train concept. The train runs above a main road on a concrete construction, raised on pillars, appx. 7-8 metres in height. The air pollution in KL is not as bad as in Bangkok and everything looks cleaner. The architecture, often designed to look fancy and eye-candy-ish, is more comparable with Singapore. The price level is in between Thailand and Singapore and so is the climate: not as humid as Singapore but more humid than Thailand; greener than Bangkok, maybe as green as Singapore in terms of plant density along roads. This impression is completely based on my personal experience and will not bear a scientific examination. 😉
Visa trouble: After a short 3.5 hour nap at night-time, I had to start my first full day in KL with the task to gain a non-immigrant visa with a work permit. …right after breakfast! – I decided to try Roti Banana (pancake filled with banana) in an Indian restaurant only 80metres away from my hostel. The very helpful owner of the bodhi lodge, apparently a family run business, had advised me to give this vegan dish a shot. I loved it and had another two Roti Banana for dinner this evening. After breakfast, I faced a horrible surprise: The battery charger of my network had stopped working. Of course, the battery status was already critical so I had to shut my netbook down immediately. I tried different suitable adapters to fit my German plug into the Malaysian power socket. The idea was to exclude the possibility that only a lack of connection was the problem. Nothing worked. It seemed that a damaged power socket had killed my battery charger. To replace it part became immediately my priority no.1 since I depend on my netbook in so many ways.
I was also in need of some passport photos for my visa to be. On my way to the embassy, I stopped at a shopping centre to print out the photos I had stored on a USB stick. The two old fellows in the shop asked what the photos would be for. When I mentioned Thailand, they pointed out that official passport photos require a blue background. This is about to change but so far this is the law. For 15 Ringgits (about € 3.75 / AUD $4.50) I got eight cute little Sperling faces on photo paper. The same shopping mall housed several computer shops and one had already opened before 10am. I was lucky that a new charger with different interchangeable plugs had arrived recently. For a fair price of 85 Ringgits (roughly 20.00 € / AUD $25.50) my netbook could be resurrected and brought back to healthy battery life.
The Thai embassy recalled memories from the time when I waited for hours in a job center in Berlin-Neukölln. Nearly hundred people sat and stayed squashed in the waiting zone, staring on a LED display, showing the numbers which were about to be served next. The first 30 minutes I hang about outside in a big roofed bus stop-like waiting zone. It was bloody hot even in the shade, so I changed to the air-conditioned waiting area inside again. After 60 minutes I got the chance to hand over my thick stack of documents, which probably was terrifying and annoying for the service personnel to look through. Therefore they let me persevere in the premise until the end of their visa application hours – just to tell me that I would need a letter from the Thai Ministry of Labour.
The application for that letter has to be done in Thailand and takes up to one week. GREAT! I contacted John and in the afternoon he told me that I better come back to CM asap with a tourist visa and that we could try the whole procedure again in some weeks. Honestly, I would have been surprised if everything had gone smoothly. Still, to fly to KL and back to Thailand, only to get this information, is rather frustrating. I am glad that John generously offered to cover my travel expenses, so this trip is at least no financial disaster. Anyway, I spend the afternoon by walking to the famous Petronas Towers to take pictures, to hunt some veggies for lunch and to breath in the spirit of KL. I didn’t expect to find a lovely park behind the Petronas Towers, and the biggest playground area I have ever seen. There are ponds and pools for kids to play in, as well as a small lake with lots of fountains executing an appealing choreography by splashing water in different heights and angles in perfect functional interaction.
I bought sushi maki rolls with cucumber and a delicious fresh fruit juice in KL’s arguably most expensive supermarket, located in the basement of the shopping mall, right in between the Petronas Towers. Compared to Australian prices it was still very affordable. In the meantime it had started to rain heavily. That delayed my return to the hostel.
I Love Magic: When I arrived at my desired destination, Bangsar train station – only 200 metres distant to the Bodhi Lodge, I spotted a boost with the name “I love Magic”. Unsurprisingly the three girls working there sold magic articles. On first sight it looked like they offered all the cheap tricks you get in the magic kits which you can buy in toy shops. And in review I have to admit – they mainly do. Anyway: magic is mostly not about how sophisticated or advanced an illusion is. The magician’s ability to weave a story around the trick, his/her charisma and the level of entertainment is decisive. These things are the key to make sure that the audience has a good time. I had already passed by when one of the girls cat-called at me and requested me to come back. A cute and very enthusiastic girl, namely Joanna, performed more than a half hour magic tricks for me. I have to admit: She did a very well job and left me more than once puzzled. Although I had seen some of the tricks before, I couldn’t figure out when and how she made the “cheating” moves. I felt set back in time when I was a kid. At that time, I endlessly enjoyed to wonder about the illusions of magicians who visited my kindergarten and school. I love it when people are passionate about what they do and Joanna seemed to enjoy performing magic very much. We chatted a while – of course she asked where I am from, what I am doing – all the standard stuff. I responded and asked the same in return. How bizarre! She actually had studied architecture, too, but was doing magic instead for five years already.
I can’t count the people anymore telling me that they were working in an entirely divergent branch compared to their original profession. Sometimes, I thought that it was a waste of their skills and of the time they had spent to gain their certificates or degrees. After years and years of studying, they ended up with something they could have done completely without any previous knowledge. But now I see that most of the time these people enjoy what they do. And that’s essential – the only thing that really matters! It encourages me to envision myself to be a photographer, an inventor of machines, a composer, an author and film maker, anytime in the future. The limit is my imagination. 😉
Ultimately I bought two tricks for lots of Malaysian Ringgits, which I normally had spent to pay my visa. Not only I was buying them to know about the trick and to get the magic article but also to credit Joanna’s performance. After the visa disaster and the broken battery charger, this unexpected happening made my day and lifted up my mood. Now I can’t wait to create a short routine, consisting of a bunch of tricks, and to present magic tricks to random people. A deck of cards, a ring, a chain and some more light articles are easy to keep in my backpack which I wear everywhere like a second skin. I really like the tought to become a hobby magician again, after abandoning this business for more than 20 years. When I was around 12, I regularly visited a magic shop and spend several hundred Deutsche Mark to buy all kinds of tricks but had only one public gig before my time was more and more consumed by other activities. I hope I will dive again deep into the world of manipulation, deception and illusions. It is so nice to see people enjoying things which they can’t explain with their ratio – and magic tricks are one relatively simple way to provide this wonderful experience.
Fun in Chiang Mai: It has been two and a half week ago when I cycled with Sakeenah to the Ringping Supermarket. On our way back, we decided to stop for a short photo session at the south-west corner of the walled city. Although it was very sunny and hot, we extended this spontaneous event to get more than just the usual snapshots. I jumped for at least 30 times and tried to instruct Sakeenah how not to cut off my head, leg or arm on the pictures she took . At the end it was exhausting work, but still with lots of fun involved, especially when we checked out the pictures we had shot and had to laugh about hilariously terrible facial expressions and awkward poses. Out of several hundred pictures, I picked my top ten for this blog entry. Many thanks to Sakeenah for being so patient. The perfectionist in me hoped that she get the shots exactly as imagined, so I did particular jumps over and over again until Sakeenah had nailed the shot and result lived up to my expectations.
The other pictures in the gallery show various places and animals in and around Chiang Mai; for example an enchanted garden close to the Chiang Mai Gate, full of beautiful terracotta statues, some of them broken or in the process of decay. The photograph with the sun light breaking through the crowns of the trees is my current desktop picture because I like it so much. 🙂
As teaser, I will already announce the topics I’d like to talk about next time: The awesome day trip to the Elephant Nature Park and the 3-day bamboo workshop near Mae Rim.
Have a great day everybody!
Chris