“unwanted attention”

21Jun07

Well we finally made it to warm, warm, warm (32 degrees and totally humid) Kota Kinabalu where our project coordinator, Albert, was there to meet us with a colleague named Denny and a sweet ride. He took us for a quick spin around the city and then brought us to our hostel, which he was not very impressed with. Our hostel is a little ways out of the city centre, in Scary Town. It’s in the middle of this backstreet, that has no less than 5 mechanic garages and scary little alleyways. Actually, in the daylight it’s quite quaint. But as soon as the sun goes down, it’s Scary Town. We went to bed right away our first night as we were totally dead from all the planes. We had spent just under 48 hours in airplanes and airports. Pretty gross. Actually, very gross. Every strand of my short hair was greeeeeasy like I’ve never seen. Those of you who tell me people with short hair can get away without showering everyday are liars.
The next morning we got up around 10am (Malaysia time, we’re 11 hours ahead of Canada, so that would have been 9pm at home) and after some showers we headed out to the bank for some ringgits. Albert had warned us of the “unwanted attention” that would be garnered if we wore anything too revealing so in the sweltering heat we put on our capris and tees and headed out. I had assumed that the unwanted attention would be one of disgust, but apparently white people are the hottest things around in Malaysia. before we even made it off our block we had been waved at, honked at, “sssst”ed at and yelled at by no less than ten people. This continued. Seriously, I was completely baffled. Men of every age and marital status were going out of their way (some even leaning out of cars and looping around) to remind us that we were white and therefore stood out. Being a visible minority was a new thing for us. Very interesting. It was pretty funny and they’re all very harmless. But I certainly did not want to have to ask anyone for directions. The funniest thing about this is that the Malaysian women are beautiful. Completely stunning. And they’re all wearing hot pants and painted on dresses and makeup. They get absolutely no recognition. Ridiculous.
Anyhoo, we swung back by the hostel after we realized that the sewer system was keeping us from crossing the street to the other side of the city (the sewer is a series of open trenches in varying sizes and depths which you may or may not be able to hop over). We grabbed our map and were about to head back out but then Albert came to take us to a wildlife reserve with an ex volunteer of the program. The reserve was huge and beautiful (it looked a lot like Jurassic Park) and we spent over four hours there checking out the aminals and meeting a lot of the workers there that also work at the Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre.
After the park Albert brought us back to the city where we went to Little Italy for a meal and met up with another Scottish girl that has been working in Malaysia for four years doing research projects. They gave us a lot of tips and we compared countries. Then we went for a walk along the waterfront before grabbing a ‘teksi’ back to the hostel for the night.
The plan for tomorrow is to get up early and take the ferry out to one of the secluded island beaches and sit around.

Filed under: Uncategorized   |  3 Comments

farewell to nova scotia

30May07

Airports, airports and more airports. Missed a connecting flight and have been stuck inside just waiting all day. About to wait for three more hours to get on our 20 hour flight. Some fresh air would be nice.

Highs: Ice cream pie. The cast of The Departed working customs. Swedish fiancees.
Lows: Newark.

Filed under: Uncategorized   |  1 Comment