Working backwards...

The easiest thing to do is to start off describing Kuala Lumpur (affectionately known by locals, and Kari, as KL). We slept in the latest we had in a few days (mmm, maybe until 6 AM? still too early to get another delicious breakfast) and went to the airport via our last tuk tuk ride with Chanty--we asked if we could grab some coffee onthe way and he took us to the cart he knew we liked right outside the gates of Angkor Wat, so we got one last view of the temples, as well.

Note on the Siem Reap airport: there is in fact coffee, croissants, and free computer access right at he gates. We were able to check our e-mail for the first time in 48 hours, and both found out that a clinic we had applied to had sent out e-mails for another set of interviews to be held Monday (this was Sunday morning). Kari and I sent about the same e-mail to them pleading for some flexibility with the times and the methods (Google Voice, which ended up failing on me, and a time NOT in the middle of our nights), and we both ended up getting interviews Monday right before bedtime.

Also had a fantastic e-mail from Annie, a classmate I have yet to meet at NYU but an Indonesia expert and wonderful travel adviser. I cannot wait until I visit some of the place she's described!

Upon arriving in KL (which I already loved for their fantastically easy and free visa process), we took a bus for 8 RM (mm, about $2.50) into the city center, then went to the hawker's market, where I picked up a few great souvenirs, ate some delicious chinese-malay food, preemptively fortified ourselves with coffee, and got ready for the Batu caves.

BUT THEN: reason number 2 why I loved KL even more: there are giant lockers in the central train/bus/transit station. YES. We dumped our backpacks and accumulated goods in one and caught the commuter train to the Batu caves just north of the city. These caves are beautiful on their own, but are also a pilgrimage site for Hindus in the city and beyond, and have statues that we might consider gaudy on a front lawn in the US, but they admire, as well as temples and (of course) souvenir shops.

There were two other highlights of the trip, though: first was a woman in a burka using an ipad to see the caves (we guessed she didn't have enough peripheral vision to catch everything through her veil)--I can't even used words to explain. Second was two adorable girls, probably fifteen and thirteen or so, traveling with their father, who clearly adored them and took numerous pictures of them. They laughed at us as we shied away from the monkeys that were crawling everywhere, and I (having heard from my mom numerous times how she hates never being in the pictures because she is always taking them!) offered to take a picture of all three of them. After numerous gestures and lots of nodding, he finally understood what I was asking and I took one. The older girl then asked where we were from; we said America, and asked her the same. "Iran," she said shyly, then added, "you know you are beautiful, right?" Kari asked her to repeat herself because both of us were unsure that that had actually just happened, but it did, and she shyly turned back to her family and they continued down the steps.

Both of us wanted to yell WAIT after them and spend the rest of the day with them--what is it like to be a teenage girl in Iran? Can you wear shorts and t-shirts there (they did that day)? WILL YOU BE OUR FRIENDS???

But we didn't. I wish those girls the best of luck with everything, and I hope my picture turns out well!

And wow, this is only about half of KL and doesn't include 12 hours of temples, the silk farm, or the floating village, but it is past my bedtime and I still need to research Lombok! Until tomorrow!