Arrival in Malaysia

Fifteen hours on an airplane is a very long time. For me it was long enough to try out every possible comfortable position for napping, watch three movies, study Malay vocabulary, get to know the old man sitting next to me, and wax amusingly philosophical about the adventure I am beginning:

"On the second leg of my trip to Malaysia—NewYork to HongKong, a 15 hour affair—it begins to dawn on me that Malaysia is VERY FAR AWAY. Not just physically, although that would be enough in itself, but truly different—different history, flora and fauna, religions, languages, different looking people. Back in June, a bus passed by me on a street corner in Washington DC and in that moment I suddenly realized that life is LONG (if you are lucky)—long enough for things to happen that you never even imagined that you hadn’t imagined, long enough for completely unexpected hundred and eighty degree changes of heart and tortuous three-sixty homecomings. With a similar sense of gravity, the knowledge settling into my bones right now is that the world is WIDE: wide enough to encompass the utterly inconceivable. Right now I am flying over the eastern edge of the Gobi desert, as near as I can tell. Somewhere down there people live their whole lives. Fully human beings are born and learn what normal means and do everyday things and love and grieve and die. And to them anything other than living in the Gobi desert would seem foreign and beyond the pale. We are malleable creatures—shaped by everything we encounter—and I realize that I am entering a period when new hands will knead the playdough of my soul. Whatever lies ahead, I prefer this morphing and reshaping to lying untouched on the countertop so long that I become a dried out rubbery crust."

After a mad last few days of packing and logistical preparation in Raleigh, my arrival in Malaysia went very smoothly (despite my perilously short layover in Hong Kong). I was relieved to arrive in Kuala Lampur (KL) after over 24 hours of traveling and get some sleep. It is not even as hot here as it was in Raleigh when I left, though the sun is more intense. My taxi driver from the airport had a little stuffed turtle hanging from his windshield, which seemed like a welcoming omen. I am looking forward to leaving on Tuesday for Terengganu province where the real turtles await.

The picture is the view looking down from my hotel window. I love the palm trees!