Trading This For That

We’ve traded this This for That- well at least for now.

THIS:

awe-inspiring Petronas Twin Tower, KL Tower to the left of it

the KL Tower, our homing beacon as we live almost at the foot of it

Resplendent statements, armour-clad in shiny metals and resilient concrete- power houses sprouting overnight relentlessly competing to dominate the skyline. Grey is the new Black. The sleepless city driven by achievement targets and ambition. Bustling with energy, seeking opportunities or to fulfil unborn dreams.

“This” is where we currently call home base, buried in the heart of the city of KL. Wedged between narrow roads posted with “One-Way” signs that seem to encourage a constant stream of 2-way traffic. Back-to-back with the business district and the main shopping area, we’ve got all the mod cons living within the Golden Triangle. Our apartment block is elbowed by other similar newly developed blocks, providing complete facilities and privacy, along with it silent corridors and closed lives. Contact with another person is the (sometimes!) obligatory brief salutation followed by a quick retreat into one’s defended space, probably during the silent shared ride in the lift. The Suits have few words and minutes to spare least it deviates from their important plans for the day. The people who take time for a conversation are the amiable shopkeepers down the street who provide me with practical tips and insights to navigating some aspects of life in this city. The elderly man who comes around the neighbourhood each evening on his motorbike selling steamed buns shouts his greeting to me with a warm toothy smile despite my irregular purchases. We exchange opinions about the weather and the buying behaviour of his customers for the evening.

view from our apartment balcony, tip of Twin Towers just visible

Fortunately our apartment view overlooks a patchwork of 3-storey apartments. This is my theatre of daily drama, rich with sounds of real life. Puppies whining, mothers yelling at their kids, woks clanging out a hot meal, neighbours gossiping loudly across balconies, laundry hung out to dry appearing and disappearing, cars playing musical chairs for parking lots on the street.

Stress in the city often results in the inevitable- a developed inability to refrain from using the horn. Deep into the night, sirens and the hum of traffic keep the pulse of the city alive. Crime statistics and crazies soon affect your walking routes and pace and give you swivel-head syndrome to constantly keep your eye on your back. Our apartment has been burgled in the quiet hours of the morning while sleep cocooned us despite our property having better security than most other places. It was not the loss of property that was most disturbing but the violation of what we took for granted was a safe space and the psychological adjustment to reality.

THAT:

hills shaped by time and the elements

room with a view and more

rural country roads winding through oil palm plantations

Surrounded by the silhouette of hills, traversed by typical meandering roads through brooding, dense oil palm plantations and colour-speckled fruit orchards. As far as the eye can see, a carpet of verdant green adorns the geography. Night is lit by the stars and street lamps are few and far between which immediately brought back precious vivid memories of life in Bali. Hefty aggressive trucks laden with oil palm, fruits, raw building materials from quarries, ply the main road, mercilessly dominating their route day and night. Thankfully they stay off the humble rural road we travel on.

We’re on the west coast of Malaysia, just north of the port of Lumut which is the jump-off point for ferries to the vacation island destination of Pangkor. The main commercial activity here is oil palm cultivation and engineering fabrication at Lumut port. The port reminds me of a mad scientist’s lab from which monstrous metal beasts, each one more amazing and bigger than the last are magically churned out overnight. The fabrication is mostly for the maritime, oil and gas industry. Before this, I had only seen such structures on TV and they’re always sitting isolated in the middle of the ocean. Here the proximity to land lends reality to the staggering scale of these ocean platforms and sub-sea structures. The fabrication work clocks 24/7. This metalscape navel crawling with life while the surrounding jungles and plantations retire at nightfall. On a smaller scale, the river estuaries are dotted by prawn farms and the scalloped coastline populated by small fishing villages.

metalscape

prawn ponds/ farms

Further away from the port in Rural City, Nature rules and dictates the order of the day. No doubt the day begins with standing out in the open under the sky, looking at signs for wind direction and speed and feeling the moisture in the air. At first light on a clear day, farm hands and plantation workers make their head start while small wooden fishing boats head full throttle out to sea or hug the coastline carrying hopeful hearts. The birdsong heralds fine weather ahead just before daybreak. Macaque monkeys living in the swampy mangrove along river inlets get busy with hunting for mud crabs and then hang out on electric cables chattering at passing vehicles. This is now my theatre of drama and watching and listening to the changing moods of the elements.

morning birdsong conversations

the palette of blue

Here I have found my connection to place, where all the five senses are dilated to the pulse of stone, cloud, wind, storm, water. This is the taste of the earth.