Malaysia - Where Is Maniam?

"Stop! Cyclists!" were the yells of a man behind me. 

However, I paid no attention to the man at my rear; my attention was spent rather on the graded hill Chris and I found ourselves on. No time for chit chat right now. Besides, the yeller probably just wants to sell us some if his home made whiskey, or talk about the weather, or (on not so rare occasions) have us try and marry his daughters.

It happens like this in Indonesia. We'll be on a climb when a local motors his/her cycle up along side us, oblivious to our sweat and effort. And in a complete inversion to the illustration of the moment they ask, like a casual hello on a Sunday afternoon, "Hello! What are you!?"

Yes, "what" am I? Good question. Is this guy asking a deep question, or do I have something on my face? 

Despite the philosophical trench of pondering the question introduced in me, the question's intention is actually "how", not "what." A mistranslated induced by context.

"Hey cyclists!!" Louder and closer this time. In any regard, we ignored him. 

But he persisted. Our meeting couldn't be helped now, he was close. I broke my concentration and turned my head to see who was demanding our attention. Who would have guessed (certainly not me) that it would be our riding and treking parter for the next three months - and a good friend. 

It's been almost a month now, since we last saw Steve Maniam in Kuala Lumpur. Where is he now? Follow his blog to find out: whereismaniam.blogspot.com/?m=1

The twin towers of Kuala Lumpur. It is possible for tourists to ride an elevator up to a public viewing space, but the space is only on the twenty second floor. So, why bother? See that bridge thing connecting the two towers half way up the first cylinder? That's it.

Kuala Lumpur, as a city, is not for me. They say its crowded, overpopulated, smelly, etc. the same old list of adjectives to describe the characteristic grime of any metropolis. Yet, Jakarta and NY subscribe to the list and I loved it there. And although Singapore was missing the dirty underbelly that I like to bask in, it was still OK. No, what ends up killing my desire to revisit KL (they shorten all the major cities down to two letters here. You kind of have to be in the know) is the physical lay out of it all. 

That is, walking and therefore even biking is a harassing frustration. Traversing the city was like trying to find your way out of a unwinable concrete maze. Took a walk, ended up on the freeway. Ok, maybe I took a wrong turn. Ride my bike, ended up on the freeway. Shoot. Eventually, making your way through all came down to either driving or taking public transportation. Sounds familiar Dodger fans? Ugh. When you can't even walk out of one neighborhood to the next without crossing an eight lane highway, your City Planer needs to go back to school. Grade school.

All said, we came to KL to see Steve not the City. We separated over a month ago back when we left Lake Toba because of visa expirations. Back in KL, we met him by the train station closest to his family house and Team Neapolitan was reunited; and it felt so good. 

Try walking across this. A moat, concrete walls, commuter stations. You'll get lost before you figure out where you need to go. And I'm not talking tourist SF kind of lost, I'm talking Arctic plain crash lost.

Train stations. We would have managed our sightseeing by bike...but like I said.

Ahhh, hell. KL can't be all that bad, they house the last Borders Books on the planet.

And this is Oscar. Probably the only huskie breed in Malaysia. Because of the warm climate, Oscar spent his days trying to get inside the house where the temperature is nice and cool on the cold tiles.

Steve's family also had a nasty little cat who loved pouncing on unsuspecting toes. 

...and she'll eat your toast if your not quick enough!!

What? What is there to do in KL you ask? Eat! Yeah, we'll, were good at that. What else ya got? Orchid garden? Ok, Im in.

That was some free fun, and worth a day. In all honesty, this day was one of my more productive days. Wanting to stay at home in a cool house, swapping stories with your ol' cycling mate, it was easy to stay Malay-zeed. It didn't help (or did it?) that the family has a home helper who cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner. All vegetarian of course but I have since long ago accustomed to the diet.

Don't worry, I still eat meat! 

A Ramadhan bazzar in KL on the first breaking of the fast. Lots of people, lots of food!

One of my new favorite dinners. Eggs, meat, veggies, flour; it's like a....well, nothing I've ever tried before. And it's delicious. 

One of the last times the three of us had was a great night at home. Ordered chicken sate, beer, homemade pita bread and hummus, and Wimbledon men's tennis championship match.  

The event got on at midnight and we were all but too prepared to stay up late to watch the match.

All of three months and some odd days did Steve cycle with us, in front of us. We had an awesome time Steve! Thanks for stopping us on that hill oh so long ago.