Tag 25: The Big Dragonfruit

24th July 2016

All of a sudden, a guy wakes me up whom I would rather assign to the category of Somali pirate than Asian controller due to his aggressiveness and briskness, as I try to open my half-closed eyes. We realize that we are in the wrong bus, but nobody really cares about that and it is only mentioned as a side note. The only disadvantage is that this bus arrives in KL earlier, which means exploring the city in the middle of the night once again. Due to the excitement and testosterone from the pirate defense action earlier, I am not really granted much sleep in the next few hours.

Arriving at the Big Dragonfruit – the equivalent of the Big Apple on the other side of the world - everything is still asleep, but even now we can see that we have landed in a different world. There are certainly 10 times more screens in the subway station alone than we have seen in the last month, not to mention the Western fast food chains.

When we arrive at our hostel at 7 o'clock, we do make a nice acquaintance with a slightly slow night shift employee who speaks the worst German I have ever heard from a German. However, our room will not be ready until 2 o'clock. Although our tired eyes are not very happy about this, we decide to try our luck in the city and see what KL has to offer on a Sunday morning.

We quickly find out that there is relatively little. Although Chinatown, where we have the highest hopes for activity, is huge, it is deserted. Eventually, we end up in a Swiss hotel and, mainly out of boredom, treat ourselves to a €4 breakfast buffet of the highest class. Although my digestive system rebels a little, the endorphins released by the delicious meal more than make up for it. After going through the buffet line three times, we do some sightseeing, catch a glimpse of some skyscrapers, but are not particularly fascinated at this point.

When we arrive at the hostel, it's 11 o'clock and I decide to fall into a deep sleep-like state on the couch. 3 hours later, Gudi wakes me up because the room is ready and I am in danger of merging with the leather couch due to sweating.

Gudi apparently doesn't need sleep because instead of staying in the room, she immediately wants to visit the Twin Towers of KL, which are quite beautiful and tall. We are lucky and catch a great time when the sun is shining down, so we feel compelled to take unnecessarily many pictures of the tower and ourselves in various positions. When Gudi refuses to take a photo of me doing a handstand because they would look way too crooked in front of the tower, I am offended and the mood changes – but not my handstands, they are wonderful, it's all just a matter of camera perspective.

Shortly after that, we make our way through the multitude of shopping centers in KL and somehow end up back at the hostel. And in bed. Gudi is exhausted, I am less so, so I refresh my knowledge of mountaineering and watch a documentary about Reinhold Messner.

During a long journey together, many funny moments arise in which you get to know your supposedly familiar travel partner even better than expected, I am repeatedly honored to admire Gudi's quirks and wisdom. For this reason, a small section will be dedicated to these idiosyncrasies starting from the next blog post. Since my dear friend sometimes likes to take charge and therefore likes to emphasize how things should be, I will call my little subchapter "Gudi's Glorious Laws". Of course, it will not only contain common wisdom but also other quirks, fears, and insanities of the fabulous Gudrun.