Kuala Lumpur – city and the jungle

I am writing this from Perth, Western Australia. I am sitting on the balcony at a friend’s house in the suburb of Scarborough. I am overlooking the Indian ocean, flexing it’s muscles with heavy wind and large waves crashing the shore. A few days ago my view of the world was the Twin Towers of Kuala Lumpur, sitting on a balcony in the Kuala Lumpur suburb of Ampang. One week ago, Chiang Mai, Thailand. Life can be like that, a quick jumps around the world where the soul is still stuck in transit waiting to catch up. My soul is learning fast to catch up though. When I boarded the plane for Perth it was flight number 13 in the past two months. No wonder I do get slightly tired of airports.

The suburb of Ampang in Kuala Lumpur feels perhaps on first sight a little constructed, a little like a Legoland. Like a reverse Truman Show where only Truman knows everything is fake. But settle in and it is a rather spectacular place, from my friend’s flat we have a view of the twin towers from the balcony and behind us on the other side of the building we can literally reach out and touch the jungle. Ampang is one of the greenest suburbs you will ever see. Most of the time it is so quiet you only hear the birds and the jungle. A 5 minute walk from my friend’s flat and we are in ancient pristine jungle. Not many suburbs where one can do that! I snapped this snapshot on my new compact Canon powershot S90 camera from a walk in the jungle just behind our building. KL actually has a nice skyline at night and someday I will find a great spot for a cityscape. I think they overdid the light on the Twin Towers at night though, they shine like Christmas ornaments and the light pollution is so great it lights up the whole sky over KL!

Randomness

  • Space Monkeys on the balconies! Since my last visit to the Menara Indah apartment building in KL, they have cut down a few branches so the cheeky monkeys cannot just wander straight from the jungle onto the roof. Still. There are always the drain pipes, great fun for monkeys to climb! They then proceed to wreck havoc on the balconies, even going into peoples living room and stealing shiny things – which are then promptly flung out the window so the monkeys can climb down and recover the loot on the ground! It is entertainment all morning watching the space monkeys.
  • Photography wise I have been a bit short on inspiration and creativity since the magnificent mountains and children of Laos. What I am discovering is that on a normal photography trip everything is so condensed, I shoot like crazy, and then I go back to everyday life. But this is now everyday life for me. So there will be longer periods between shoots, longer time between magic moments as I adjust to my new life on the road as everyday life somehow also came along for the ride and demands time as well. I am sure inspiration will bounce back soon, just did not quite count on having everyday life following me!

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