Not a Typical Malaysian lah : Diary of a Traveller

India, where Personal Space lost in its Fog

I am in the queue to buy pre-paid taxi tickets in Mumbai Airport. The space between me and the person in front of me is about 1 foot. On the other hand, the gap between me and the person behind me is aboout 1 inch. Sometimes none at all. I can feel that he is pushing me to close the gap between me and the person in front of me.

I stand my ground. And his breathing on my neck makes the hair on my neck stand up. Not aroused, but rather very uncomfortable, unless he is John Abraham lol 😉(thank you Prabhu. I don’t have to Google 😁). I use my suitcase as a barrier between him and me. For a little space.

When the person in front of me is being served, I don’t move further but leave about 2-feet gap between us. The person behind me wants me to move closer to the person that’s buying the tickets now. I tell him I’m giving the man his personal space. Plus the process is not going to get any faster if I move closer to the person in front of me.

To explain to Indians about personal space, or the queue is not getting any faster by pushing the person in front of us is like trying to explain to Donald Trump that global warming is real, or weather & climate are not the same things. It’s going to be long and tedious.

Another time we are queuing up to buy tickets to enter a museum. Somebody comes in front of us. We tell him he has to queue up. Then he asks if we are in the queue. We say yes. He asks why we are too far behind the person that’s being served right now. We say it’s for personal space. To him, personal space means we are not in the queue.

That might be the answer to why all vehicles, especially taxis on Indian roads are dented, if not scratched. That’s another story……

Walk of Shame in Kuala Lumpur

Morphing myself into a night butterfly.
Pre-new year ended up in a moat-like water surrounding a building where the club I was supposed to go to was. Clipped wings, soaking wet, I took the walk-of-shame home. Phone dead & buried in a bowl of rice. 4 days later resurrected & it came alive.

Post-new year I went out for a 4-hour walk. Came home with pain in the muscle from hip down. Down with fever for the next 3 days.
.
Post-fever, I went out for a 3-hour walk again. Forgot to watch my steps & I wrecked my ankle at the beginning of a 3-hr walk. Painful walk home for the last half hour. Strapped ankle & bed-bound for a few days. But hey I managed to snap some photos

@ Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The Mystery of Lost & Found in Phnom Penh

Weren’t your shoes blue?, asks John. Black, I reply. It’s because I’m wearing black sneakers right now.
They were blue yesterday, John presses on.

You are confusing me, John. I check my shoes again. They fit me well. And comfy. And they are in dark colour. They must be mine. Only that they are not mine when I check the label. My sneakers have always been Sketchers but I’m wearing Nautica right now.

Somebody must’ve taken my shoes by mistake at the temple we went to earlier. Now it feels less comfy in Nautica than in Sketchers.

Or you took her shoes, John retorts. Oh fuck, not again. I’ve already lost two pairs of sneakers this year alone.

Last year I packed my sneakers together with my flip flops in a black plastic bag when packing before returning from Spain. I dumped the bag near the bin when I got home in KL. And I couldn’t find them when packing for India in February this year. They must’ve been incinerated by now. I loved those pair. So comfy for walking or running. So i bought another pair of Sketchers for our Indian trip. After 5 days in Mumbai we flew to Udaipur and found out that I left the week-old shoes in the hotel room in Mumbai. Double fuck. I didn’t buy a replacement pair. But when in Amritsar we passed by shoe shop. No need to guess here. I bought a pair of dark blue Sketchers.

Now they are gone, again. Third time within 6 months. The Nautica feels less and less comfy as time passes by.

But wait a minute. After two days of wearing somebody else’s less comfy shoes I wonder if the shoes mix up happened at the temple at all. It’s because I sweartogod I’m very sure I retrieved them at the exact same spot where I left them before entering the temple. May be it took place before the temple visit. The other possible place was the restaurant of the hotel that we are staying. The restaurant requires guests to take their foot wears off before entering their premises. And my hunch is right. There they are. I see the dark blue Sketchers on the rack, when we come out of the restaurant after our breakfast.

John & I wait by the shoe rack. The Black Nautica in my hands. And wait we do for whoever’s coming out of the restaurant to retrieve the shoes. People come in and out of the restaurant but nobody claims the Blue Sketchers. After about 20 minutes a lady comes out with a pair of flip flops in her hands.

Wow you carry your flip flops and not left them out here, I say. Yes, because my shoes were stolen two days ago, she replies. Wham bam!!! Are your shoes black? I ask. She says yes. Would these be yours? I ask and show her the Nautica. Yes they are, is a happy response from her. Yesssss…….., I exclaim. I can’t hide my excitement while profusely apologizing for “stealing” her shoes. Two strangers. Happy ending. The mystery of the lost (from my point) and stolen (from her point) shoes solved.

Diary of non-Typical Malaysian Traveller lah…

I am a Malaysian. I consider myself not a typical Malaysian. I go againts the flow.

When all are busy making money, I’m busy spending it – on travelling of course.

When everybody is busy getting married, making babies and grandbabies, I am busy being being single, telling them not to have babies or not to make many, how expensive babies are, how immoral it is to add more humans in this world will sure contribute to the destruction of the earth. What a Debbie Downer I am ha ha.

When everybody is busy posting photos of what they eat in the mornings, afternoons and evening, I am busy taking photos of places of where I am, posting the photos and telling those who post photos of food that what they eat cause global warming, world hunger, extinction of endangered species etc. I can’t help it. I am a Debbie Downer .

I also stay here a few weeks or months a year. Almond and olive farmhouse in the countryside of Catalonia, Spain.

When everybody else listens and reads from mainstream media (MSM) i.e. the usual shits like CNN, BBC, MSNBC, NYT, WaPo only, I am busy comparing MSM with independent, non corporate-sponsored news and jounalistic platforforms like teleSUR, Mintpress, The Grayzone, TheIntercept etc.

I care for the environment. I’m very worried about the climate change and the destruction of our ecosystem.

I am a democratic socialist. I am againts capitalism and the capitalists that always capitalizing and profiting on everything that cause so much destruction to planet earth.

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