I’m sitting here in the fancy, new Air Asia airport in Kuala Lumpur waiting for my flight to Padang soaking up the last bit of relatively luxurious living before heading back into the steamy jungle. KL is a great city to decompress in as it has all of those comforts you crave when you’ve been living in rural Aisa for awhile: hamburgers, Western toilets (with toilet paper!), frappuccinos, free wifi, air conditioning, steak, ice cubes, ice cream, and a private room all to myself to sleep for as long as I want to.
I’m usually able to cope well for long periods of time without these things but, this time, I could hardly wait to get to Malaysia and descend upon the Starbucks. I had been sick for my last week in Indonesia and I also went off the food and was sustaining myself on peanut butter and jam sandwiches. The thought of eating another mouthful of rice made me gag and I successfully avoided it all week here in KL, instead feeding my face with Western crap that probably didn’t do too much to help make me get healthy, but it certainly made me feel better!
After a week of indulging on goodies, hanging out in shopping malls for the air conditioning and wifi, and hibernating, my batteries are charged and I’m ready to clobber some buildings with a sledge hammer back in Indonesia. I really needed this break, possibly more than on any other project I’ve done with Hands On, but I can only take so much luxury before I start to long for dorm living, 7:30am starts, long, hot work days and humid nights. I would still be happy if I never saw rice again but I’ve come prepared with a stockpile of tuna fish, pasta, tomato sauce and other goodies that will give me a break once or twice a week from the routine having the same thing to eat almost every day.
Even when I’m backpacking around I can’t usually go for much longer than a month of constantly moving or being in a really rural location. Little breaks from my travels, either on the beach, in a major city, or just unpacking somewhere for a week and doing nothing, go a long way towards keeping me sane on the road.
But I’m ready to get back and am looking forward to shoveling me some rubble and getting sweaty. I’m hoping this week of luxury hasn’t made me soft!
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