...and I'm having a hard time adjusting. Been in Kuala Lumpur for a few days, been completely overwhelmed with the modernity and consumerism and traffic, it feels like an Asian NYC. I actually wrote a really whiney, stream of conciousness blog entry while using wireless at Starbucks the other day, about how I can't deal with using wireless at Starbucks at this point in my life, but (probably fortunately) it didn't get saved for some reason. So I've calmed down a bit and now I'm in a slightly better place emotionally...yesterday we took a bus to Kuala Selangor to see the famous synchronized fireflies of peninsular Malaysia, and we stayed in an A-frame in a nature park and got to go out on a rowboat at night and it was really really nice to get away from the big city; but it was still really touristy and not quite how I had romanticized it to be after first hearing about said fireflies on Radiolab (take a listen here and have your mind blown because Radiolab is the best!!! http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2005/02/18 ). Then it was back to KL, which at one point during our conjested bus ride into the city Michelle realized, "It's like Rockville Pike on steroids."
But we're planning our next escape, this time to Taman Negara about 4 hours away, the self-proclaimed oldest rainforest in the world, and according to the author of the book I'm reading now, "As long as there is wilderness, there is hope." Let's hope so...
All for now, I'll write more when we get back from the jungle in a few days, then it's off to Borneo for more wilderness.
