Category: Travel diaries

I woke up spontaneously at 6:30. After 6 hours of sleep. Woke up to the sounds of birds. Around 8:30 I was in the street on my way to any coffee. Took the metro which they call “LTR”. Malaysians queue at certain points in the platform where the door of the metro will be. My first impression is that they are quiet, friendly and conservative people. They are also silent! The metro is very quiet and I had to compare it with Egypt or italy. Suddenly I heard two guys talking, I looked to find two Africans 😀

It is pretty cheap here, compared to Europe of course. I started buying food from the street. Which looks clean enough compared to what you expect when you do the same in Egypt. 1.20 Ringitt for some backery thing with cheese. Around 30 cents or so.

I had breakfast and went to meet Jirka, a couchsurfer I have been in touch with him before the trip. We were both actually on the same flight from Istanbul to Kuala Lumpur (KL) but failed to meet. Jirka is from Czech, 42 and told me his interesting story. He worked in a bank where he didn’t like his boss, the boss didn’t like him either so they offered him money to leave! He did! Took the money and traveled the world. Not bad! Then he started with two friends a small business selling “drones” lol. I took a photo with Jirka. When I also his permission to post it here, he asked if it was a good photo and said: “this is my smile number 36”. Hehehe. He used to train to smile everyday in the elevator in his bank job. So if you don’t like this photo, remember that he has at least 35 other smiles 😀

We had a lot of interesting conversations about our travels and other stuff. It was a long walk that left us both sweaty resting in some cafe drinking anything cold!

We split around 12:00 since Jirka has a lunch arranged with a friend, I visited the city gallery that had an impressive miniature model of the city with a presentation that markets this city which is one of the most touristic places in the world. I also visited a small traditional market where you see a lot of fake brands and lots of food that you want to eat. I rest a bit now and then I want to find a place where I can see the city from above. Will try to climb one of these many towers!

Some pictures for you 😉

Stuttgart airport. A couple of hours to kill. I went to check-in using one of the machines of Turkish airlines. After I finished, a woman was queued behind me so I made space for her and started to tidy my stuff. However, she didn’t use the machine. She just slid with some retarded blank smile between me and the machine and went behind me. While I rotated to observe, I saw her taking some bag from a cart and hurrying up towards the gate. I was a bit stunned and was not sure of what I saw. Clumsied with my passport and mess, I observed her going through the airport gate. At that moment my slow brain realized she just stole the bag from the old couple. I asked the old man who was stupidly wondering beside me: is this cart yours? He said "yes"! I said in a broken German "eine Frau hat etwas genomen" the man noticed the missing bag and flew towards the gate. At that moment I realized that I should have chased her myself and followed them both thinking about possible scenarios and calling the police. Luckily, I met the old man at the gate with his bag, or his wife’s hand bag! He was breathing quickly and took a rest after recovering his loss. I asked him if he was OK! For some reason the guy didn’t even talk to me afterwards. Not a thank you, nothing. I found this very strange! Anyway, I proceeded with my steps towards the gate wondering how these events happen to me only when I backpack!

Stuttgart airport is beautiful. The pillars/columns are designed as trees! For Christmas, they decorated them with lights and they looked beautiful. I sat down playing with the "fisheye" lense I bought or the iPhone to have photos with bigger field.

Flight was smooth. I am relaxed and excited. Food on Turkish airlines is always good for me! Nothing really was special on the two flights. First flight to Istanbul around 2:30 hours and then 10 hours to Kuala Lumpur!!

What do you do in 10 hours stuck on a plane? You watch a movie, read a bit, watch another movie, clean your nose when everybody is sleeping and check out the Russian chick on the seat next to your next. For some reason, one never gets a seat beside a hot girl. As if the universe doesn’t want this to be easy! Or maybe airlines have a special algorithm that "unmatches" the passengers! Anyway, the girl was without makeup at the beginnig of the flight and then changed her cloths, spent an hour and a half wearing her makeup. I was following the transformation after every page of my book and was impressed by the results. LOL. Then she put some kind of ribbon on her shoulder like what they do in miss world. The ribbon read "Estonia". My neighbour and I stopped our discussion and almost dedicated the rest of the flight looking at her! LOL. His name is Terry, an Irish music teacher coming to Malaysia to attend a wedding. Terry said "not bad, she is an eye candy" I agreed. But we both agreed that she is a girl you can only look at her. While her not-so-hot neighbour, an Asian engineer girl, was more interesting!

Anyway, the 10 hours passed, I am on Kuala Lumpur. Passport check was smooth and fast. I changed some Euros to Ringitt. €1 = 4 MYR. Then by bus to the city. It is cloudy, it is hot, and it is humid! Lost in the chaos of a lot of Malaysian people from everywhere! It is a country with different ethnicities and they have different faces and colors. In general, I felt taller than the majority. Which is something Germany makes you insecure about! 😃

I started my way to find my airbnb room. A crowded city, chaos, a bit similar to where I come from. And everywhere people look at me like a tourist. With the "what-the-fuck-are-you-doing-here" look!

I ended up in one of the very local restaurants, where I was sure that the hyegenic standards are definitely not met! I tried English and sign language to order anything from the menu that I didn’t understand a word in. In vain! Eventually, the waiter, who is also the cook, and who was strangely rasting his hand as if holding his dick, decided that he will serve me anything. I agreed and started accepting the idea that I will definitely be sick tonight. Unavoidable they said, a night in the bed! They brought the food, noodles, pieces of what I think was chicken and coke! I ate and started suffering from how spicy it was. By the end of the meal, my lips were burning and I couldn’t have kissed you if you were there!

Meanwhile, everybody was excited about a football match between Malaysia and Vietnam. 

I reached the room. A bit tired. The room is very basic, but has an air conditioner. Looks like a poor region. I rented a room in a family house. A mother and her deaf-mute son live there. He is super friendly and responds with a thumb up to anything you try to say! The mother, has a basic English that seems to be particular to this part of the world. I am trying to get used to it. The floor of the room is marble. Which is very strange luxury for such a poor house. I think I sleep now to start my tours tomorrow. Already planned to meet two new friends! A domani 💤

It is time! Hitting the road again with all the passion and excitement for traveling! I have had two reactions from people who asked me "where are you going?" One reaction was "wow, enjoy, I envy you" and another reaction was "why?". The second reaction left me always speechless. I don’t know how to respond to this question any more! A big list of reasons, experiences, friends, life skills that i attribute to traveling! Me and everybody else who hit the road once on their own. With time passing, I realize how essential is traveling as a quality in any person I bond with. Every traveler has a unique experience, however, the personal development is similar on many aspects.

I write these words in the bus, on my way from Tübingen to Stuttgart airport. The bus driver waved at me in a very non-German way indicating that I don’t have to pay the fare. Was he too lazy to process? He has just done this now again with another traveler! Anyway, a beautiful way to start your travel. It is cloudy here, snowed a bit this morning. My backpack Is sitting in front of me. Not really my backpack, a good one that I borrowed from my dear friend Daniel! Let’s hope I can return it without damage 😀

So this the first note. I will try to document my travel and experiences using short posts. I travel without a labtop, nor an iPad. I have only my iPhone in this trip. Trying to spend less time looking at screens and more time looking at what the universe has to physically offer me!