Well, I finally figured out how to get photos up on here, which I'm sure comes as a huge relief for those of you who like pictures and hate words. Oh, who like words but prefer them intermingled with images to look at. I've been running into all kinds of issues with blogging solely via Squarespace's app, which has been one of the reasons for the delay in having more imagery on here (the other reason: laziness). Anyhoo!

I took the bus from Malacca to Kuala Lumpur on Monday on the oldest, creakiest bus I've ever been on (and I've been on some old, creaky buses in Romania and Hungary, so that's saying something). Thankfully, the bus held together for the four-hour journey. We pulled into the southern bus station, which is quite a distance from the city center of Kuala Lumpur and looks like it was lifted from the sketches for a sci-fi film's space station. It was a mammoth, brand-new structure of glass and metal, rising up out of the ground with steep on-ramps going every which way; all that was missing was spaceships zooming in and out. Just as we got near the bus station, rain started that was the most torrential downpour I've ever witnessed. I thought the entire bus station might be swept away in a flash flood. Instead, I tried to figure out how I would get into Kuala Lumpur without wiping out wearing my flip flops on slippery tiles. I wandered around for a while and finally figured out that I needed a commuter train so I headed off via an overpass at a snail's pace. Going down the four flights of stairs to the station entrance, I was going step by step like an elderly woman, gripping on the handrail, for fear of my flip flops giving way. Two teenage girls clad in jeans, long-sleeved shirts and their headdresses came behind me on the stairs and watched me in horror as one of my shoes gave way and I ended up in the splits at the top of the stairs, trying to not lose my balance and topple all the way down (side note: if you think walking down slippery stairs wearing your giant backpack is an exercise in balance, try squatting to pee!).