Dec 11 2009
The Holiday of Hamburgers and Air Conditioning is Over
I’m sitting here in the fancy, new Air Asia airport in Kuala Lumpur waiting for my flight to Padang soaking up the last bit of relatively luxurious living before heading back into the steamy jungle. KL is a great city to decompress in as it has all of those comforts you crave when you’ve been living in rural Aisa for awhile: hamburgers, Western toilets (with toilet paper!), frappuccinos, free wifi, air conditioning, steak, ice cubes, ice cream, and a private room all to myself to sleep for as long as I want to.
I’m usually able to cope well for long periods of time without these things but, this time, I could hardly wait to get to Malaysia and descend upon the Starbucks. I had been sick for my last week in Indonesia and I also went off the food and was sustaining myself on peanut butter and jam sandwiches. The thought of eating another mouthful of rice made me gag and I successfully avoided it all week here in KL, instead feeding my face with Western crap that probably didn’t do too much to help make me get healthy, but it certainly made me feel better!
After a week of indulging on goodies, hanging out in shopping malls for the air conditioning and wifi, and hibernating, my batteries are charged and I’m ready to clobber some buildings with a sledge hammer back in Indonesia. I really needed this break, possibly more than on any other project I’ve done with Hands On, but I can only take so much luxury before I start to long for dorm living, 7:30am starts, long, hot work days and humid nights. I would still be happy if I never saw rice again but I’ve come prepared with a stockpile of tuna fish, pasta, tomato sauce and other goodies that will give me a break once or twice a week from the routine having the same thing to eat almost every day.
Even when I’m backpacking around I can’t usually go for much longer than a month of constantly moving or being in a really rural location. Little breaks from my travels, either on the beach, in a major city, or just unpacking somewhere for a week and doing nothing, go a long way towards keeping me sane on the road.
But I’m ready to get back and am looking forward to shoveling me some rubble and getting sweaty. I’m hoping this week of luxury hasn’t made me soft!
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I've been travelling since January 2008 living off earnings from the web. Follow me as I bum around Asia and beyond, getting up to mischief and working online as I go. 
:looks horrified: no toilet paper?!?! how on earth do you manage?
Glad that Malaysia rejuvenated you! Stay healthy : ))
Lea - it is quite common to use water for the cleaning up!
No toilet paper? I could do without the rest
No toilet paper….welcome to Asia my friend…welcome! It’s great that you were rejuvenated though…Keep up the great work!
I wouldn’t be able to eat the same thing everyday either. I need my variety.
It sounds like you have really earned this break though. Keep up all the great work that you do!
Rice and…. what exactly? Just rice?
Fear not, there’s toilet paper at our base… just not anywhere else we might venture to. Ya, there are always hoses of mystery that I have no idea how to use without getting completely soaked.
@keith Rice and other dishes, but usually the same thing each day for lunch and dunner: red sauce with stuff in it and white sauce with stuff in it. Plus the occasional night of noodles. I really love the red sauce and rice but after thirty days of it the thought of it made me gag. I’m back to liking it again, though… for now.
KL has to be one of the best cities in all of Asia for comfort food. Shame beer is soooo expensive there, possibly the most expensive pint I ever had was in an Irish Bar @ Bukit Bintang - that’s apart from airports of course!
Hey, if you’re around KL for Xmas, drop me a line and I will buy you one of those expensive beers.
Yes, sometimes we can’t manage without our necessity things. We feel very uncomfortable without it.
If I would get sick in a foreign country I wouldn’t even know what to do. What are the names of drugs? Where can I visit doctor? Or what to eat and what should I avoid? Surely I’m not a material for adventure-hunter