Going past forests and mile after mile of plantation is almost hypnotic and I feel my presence here is being more and more cemented. It’s not just a matter of seeing beautiful of interesting sights – a country is made up of the mundane, the ordinary, the boring even. The commonplace. That is just as important to me as the unique and stunning aspects…I really like sitting in a coach, tired, barefoot, wrapped in a pashmina, the Teenager bored and watching a film, none of us taking notice of the scenery. This is really being here as opposed to being a tourist.
The above was written on the coach between Penang and KL. Yes, it was boring and yes, we had missed a day of being on the beach because we opted for coach travel, but here we were doing what Malaysians do, taking the cheap option to travel halfway down the country. Cheap it might have been (very cheap by UK standards) but it was the most comfortable coach I have ever been on, with reclining seats, power points, pillows and blankets and a huge choice of in-flight entertainment. The only downside to taking the coach as opposed to flying, in my experience, is how long it takes.
Arriving in KL was odd. It was dark and familiar in its unfamiliarity. By that I mean that the city was completely foreign to me when I first arrived, and it was a strange experience standing on ground I had stood on many times before but recognising nothing. This time, I recognised the city from my latest visit but it was still the new, strange place in its outward appearance.
I had a big ‘ask for what you want’ experience. I needed to check in online for our flight from Singapore to London in two days’ time. The only way I could do this would be via the Business Centre in the hotel and it was closed for the evening, and we would be leaving very early next morning. So I asked if they would open it especially for me. At first they said no. But clearly they wanted to help so eventually they agreed. Someone came and sat with us, I checked in and it only took a few minutes. As a life-long nervous flyer, I always like to be as near to the front of the plane as possible and this way I managed to get seats near to the front of Economy.
We visited the Petronas Towers again to spend time in the large book store we had found before. It was satisfying to know our way around the streets. Again, we were acting and experiencing the place like locals. This wasn’t tourism – we had been there before – this was us wanting to go to the bookshop that just happened to be in one of the tallest buildings in the world that just happened to be round the corner from our hotel. Ordinary. Mundane.
Then it was an early night as we had to set the alarm for 4am and order a taxi for 4.45. The coach was leaving very early (ok, another reason for taking the plane!) and we had to add on extra time as lots of roads in the city were closed for a motorcycle race. Luckily the taxi driver who picked us up knew how to circumvent the problem, although I had already memorised which streets we needed to use in case of problems. Then another wait with our bags before the long drive down the country, out of Malaysia, across the bridge and into Singapore.
