How to be a pedestrian in KL...

Hellooooooo friends!

Thought I should let yall know that things have gotten ALOT better over the last 7 days here in Kuala Lumpur. The one thing that was missing in my Kuala Lumpur life was companionship – i.e. friends --- someone to converse with, someone that could make explore with me, someone to joke with J In the last 7 days, I have met an overwhelming number of people! I have met both AIESECers and Mindvalley coworkers, both groups consisting of really lovely people from all around the world. I have never engaged with such a diverse group of people at one time, and I am the sole Canadian. The closest person around to a Canadian is a girl at Mindvalley who started about 6 months ago – She went to UBC but is American. So upon meeting AIESECers and ppl from Mindvalley, I finally made plans with real life PRESENT, PHYSICAL people and exchange my number with the other interns and newbies at Mindvalley. I initially took a cell phone plan with 100 txts and 200 mins under the pretence that I had no friends and therefore no one to talk to .... Now I def don’t think that 100 texts it going to be enough J

Now although I was happy to meet people, happy to finally find a taxi driver that I feel safe with (and will get me to my destination because he knows where he going...this is not the majority of taxi drivers) and I finally have purpose in my life in the form of going to work, I still found myself feeling uneasy.... and then I realized why:

Because Kuala Lumpur is not a city for walking around or for taking public transport. To literally transport yourself 1 km, maybe a 5-10 min walk, the locals catch a cab to take them there. So as I walked from my apartment to the grocery store, I did not pass or see one single person walking up or down the street, in broad day light, and this was the creepiest feeling ever. Coming from Toronto, and more so, the last 4 years in Montreal where walking is basically the ONLY way to get around, I was like, WHAT. IS. GOING. ON. Why doesn’t KL care about its pedestrians?? The lack of planning for pedestrians is clearly demonstrated by commute to work. Even though I literally live across the ‘street’ from my building, the STREET that I must cross is a 4 lane HIGHWAY consisting of the ramps leading on and off the highway. This means I’m crossing an area where cars are traveling at VERY HIGH SPEEDS. I tried to explore where the closest crossing was so that I could cross to work safely, but that required walking 15 min away from my office in one direction, crossing, and walking 15 mins back to my office. Totally insane. Basically, I found myself having to cross to the middle of the highway, stand on the divider praying that I wouldn’t be stuck there for ever, watch more gutsy people around me cross the highway in half the time I did, pray again that there would be a break in the traffic so I could leave the death trap, and then RUN across.

Now you may think I’m being a baby, but I was NOT the only other person complaining about this when I got to my office on the first day!! Luckily, another girl named Natalia (from Poland) was also starting out like me and lives in the same building as me (along with 24 other ppl from Mindvalley). We discussed the highway situation and decide to ask some people about the safest place to cross. LUCKILY I found one person who told me of such a place! Under the ramps was a really bushy area that made crossing a lot easier. Instead of crossing the 4 lane highway, it was only 2 very spaced out lanes. But you could see that within this bushy area, a path had been FORGED by pedestrians. This was no KL-city-constructed path.

Anyway, I can truthfully say that finding this area to cross improved my mood by 200% regarding living in KL. And as I met people from Mindvalley and as they asked me how I was adjusting, I kept thinking about how nice it was to finally meet ppl who went through the same adjustment process as myself. Things were put even more into perspective when I was asked if this was my first time in Asia, to which I obviously said no way, my mum was Singaporean and my dad grew up in Hong Kong! I came to realize that SO MANY of the ppl at Mindvalley literally picked up their lives and moved to Asia without stepping foot in Asia before. Now THAT is bravery. At least I (Sort of) knew what I was getting myself into.... sort of.

AIESEC also quickly demonstrated to me that many ppl who came to KL on short internships (6-12 months) have remained in KL for 2 or 3 or 4 of 6 or 9!!!! years!!!!!!!!! So that means there must be something really great about KL out there... I still need to explore more but I know that things are only looking up from here. What I find really ironic is that before I left Toronto, the one thing I for sure knew was that I wanted to live in ASIA for some time. Now, being here, the only thing that is making e a little iffy over my decision is that I’ve come to ASIA. In Toronto, I knew in my head and heart that this is what I wanted. Now that I’m in KL, my head knows what I want and my heart needs to play catch up.  But it’s getting there J.

Also – wanna give a shout out to my roomies, Diana and Uza. They are the most wonderful people. They are genuinely interested in my day, how I’m adjusting and how I am feeling. I really, really love them J

Enjoy pics of the apt and my walk to work!!

My messy messy bedroom

My roomies and I swimmin

My toilet/shower combination

THE FORGED PATH

which is located underneath this RAMP

Ze living room

P.S. MANY thanks and hugs and kisses for the bday wishes. Im feeling the love :) Talk to you soon xoxo