Hai,
this morning me and Marlena took our flight to Malaysia! Of course we saw a lot of stuff today and it feels again, like I have left Cambodia for weeks, but before I start to write about the tourist attractions we saw, the food we ate and of course the weather..... I have to tell you the most incredible story I think I experienced in the last few years.
After feeling NOT so much warmhearted welcomed in Malaysia I went jogging in the middle of the night....I know, that arabian people are not really impolite. It is just the way they are when they want be first at the counter or scream as loud as they can in the hotel lobby to get their friends attention, who is at the other side of the lobby, but I had to get used to it.
Of course I was tired, but I wanted to work out and to see some parts of the city I didn't know..... Like a safari....
In every holiday till now it has been amazing to explore the city while running. You see so many places you would never find with an tourist bus or travel agency. Maybe they are not so special, but to get to know the culture a little bit better it is pretty good! An this time I learned so much about Malaysian people and their culture and the way they are.
I started at 00:30am for my run.... and after about 2 hours I admitted myself, that I had lost my way.... It was the first time, that I could not track which way to go except the one I came. but If I would have run the same way back that I came from, I would be at the hotel maybe half past five in the morning. The worst feeling was, that I knew Marlena would ask herself, if I am okay.... just with my room key in my pocket, without any money or anything else I thought about how to get home..... I was lost in an pretty lonely area, without any traffic (so no taxi) and mostly no people on the streets.... After about 5 min more running I saw a little (kind of) shop with its shutter half open and five elderly men sitting at a plastic table on plastic chairs drinking some undefinable alcohol, smoking some shisha and eating some malay food. (three of them were indian people and I think two were Malay, all aged about 50-60years)
And they were talking pretty loud, that is why I heard them.....
Anyway I thought if I would not ask them now I would run the two hours my way back to the hotel....
I gathered all my courage and went there pretty slowly and out of breath, sweaty all over.... As they noticed me coming closer to their small clan in the ground floor of some old house (looked like a closed butchery) they looked at me pretty curious.
I felt totally in the wrong place and in the wrong time..... Me in my blue Nike (Blitz) outfit and my running shoes being observed by 5 old men smoking shisha in their long, dark, arabian style robes.
After a few seconds I asked them in the most politest (and I think for them in the cutest) way where I am, because I got lost in this city while running. They started to smile at me and one of them just said:" No worries my friend, come and eat with us.... the night is young" I was a little bit confused, but didn't wanted to refuse the offer. But I told them, that my friend was waiting for me and is maybe sick of thinking where the hell I am.... But they just said, calm down, here is a drink.... My friend is a taxi driver, I will call him after you finished your meal. I told them, that I even have no money just the key.... But again I should not worry about anything. Life is too short for worries. I felt so warm hearted in this moment, that I just let go and joined their talk about the world and the universe. One of them even gave me a blanket, because he was afraid that I catch a cold because of the air condition was drying my sweaty body. Of course I had to tell them everything about my life in Korea and how I came to Kuala Lumpur. They listened very quietly to my story and of course to the german football league (I know, that I know like nothing, but they were interested in what club my Dad is crazy about... of course Bayern München...). After I had to tell them about my family and my and how it is - "Family-life" - in germany we talked about different religions, ways of living and many more...
I got a few shots of the undefinable alcohol which burned pretty hard in my throat and I had to take some shisha - inhalations. After finishing my meal (vegetables and meat) they called their friend to take me back to my hotel. They even gave me the money to go home. I never, really never expected so much love from five strangers in the middle of the night in Kuala Lumpur. I joined them in the end for one hour, but I did not feel the hurry from before in my body.
It is like I see the people now with different eyes. I can't imagine a place I would think to get so much support and love at the same time from complete strangers.
While writing this I thought, that this is so unbelievable, that I should maybe stop to write..... But I have to write it down, even for my memories. I hope I will never forget this feeling sitting in this small, dirty, mostly damaged room with some food, alcohol, a shisha and five old men from different countries and religions...They didn't care about my nationality, my religion or my way of life. That was so impressive!
