Siem Reap to Kuala Lumpur

A couple of our planned volunteer projects in Cambodia fell through, but the one that I'll always remember is spending two days at an orphanage, simultaneously assisting Kym with her photography and abandonning her to play with the kids. We were surrounded by the most loving, affectionate kids ever; most have been discriminated against for being HIV positive; many have been abused. The orphanage, Hope For Cambodian Children, is a truly inspiring non-profit organisation. Within the coming months, expect to see Kym's telling photos on their website.

After Battambang it was back to Siem Reap, a town with a bustling center of annoying merchants and tourists. As Kym and I walked the streets, every few minutes someone would inevitably offer, in their hurried jumble, "Lady-sir, massah?" (They meant "massage" but it seems their accent drops the last consonant sound.) I didn't mind being called a "lady-sir", but they could've at least said something to Kym. Children prowl between restaraunts with their goods for sale: "You buy, three for one dollah!" As if in a Disney cartoon, two more heads would pop up above our table and sing, "Buy from me tooo!" Then there are the tuk-tuk drivers, whose heads dart this way and that like a hen's, and when a foreigner walks past, they tilt their heads and cluck, "Tuk-tuk?"

It was a bit of a shock to the system, then, to go straight from that into Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: a modern, Westernised city, complete with shopping centers inside food courts inside shopping centers. Crossing the road without traffic lights (by the way: omg, traffic lights!!) was a challenge, as the cars seem to come a lot faster than a row of motorbikes and tuk-tuks. And did I mention there were a lot of shopping centers? I did? Oh good, because I'm not kidding: there were a lot of shopping centers. And each one was mostly made up of bag, shoe, accessory or clothes shops. Just like in Australia, I'm sure, but Japan doesn't do shopping centers on this scale, so it's all a bit of a fresh reminder of Western life. Hard to believe that just days before I was in a dusty town getting scammed by some dude who, for him, three dollars was a lot of money. Puts a bit of perspective back into the mix, doesn't it?

We spent two and a half days in Kuala Lumpur, and the highlight for me was definitely going to Imbi Market for breakfast yesterday morning. I stuffed myself on popiah (a wrap containing egg frost, fried shallots, sliced cucumber and carrot, crushed peanuts, and turnips boiled in soy sauce and garlic), a creamy egg tart, and Chinese apam (two flat-cakes with ground peanuts and sugar between), all washed down by a mug of hot tea with gooey condensed milk sitting at the bottom. That's right, my highlight of KL - the same as pretty much everywhere - was food.

We did, however, explore some of the city, including the Lake Gardens. Sure, the gardens were great, but it took us two hours to find the lake itself, thanks to poor maps and even worse signage. This morning we took a taxi to the airport, and I swear we must've had the most popular taxi driver in the city, because his phone just kept ringing, again and again. Sometimes, when he bent down to pick it up, we'd swing suddenly into the next lane. It was quite alarming, actually. I'm not entirely convinced the taxi driver knew he was changing lanes, either, because as he righted himself the car would straighten, and then he'd be too busy chatting away to notice. Ah, yes, we're a long way from the familiar cry of "tuk-tuk?" now.

We flew to Kota Bharu, on the north-eastern tip of the Malaysian peninsular, and not far from the border of Thailand. We're here for a few days and have some cool-sounding things planned (I'm particularly excited about going to tonight's night market for dinner). We have an incredible view outside our hotel's window of a communications tower, a barbed-wire fence, and a building with white paint peeling off its sickly grey walls in dangling strips that sway in the wind. We paid twice for this room than was worth it, and even then it probably wouldn't have been worth it. But that's travel: you don't tend to get what you expect!