What happened in KL ....

I arrived at KL in the evening, I had 2 t-shirts on and a hoodie and thick Jeans cause it was pretty cold back in melbourne, as soon as i stepped out of the airport the humidy and heat hit me hard, it was such a different weather compared to Melbourne, it reminded me of the days back Saudi Arabia it had the same level humidity and the same smell.

I got to the hotel, which was in the middle of China Town, nice hotel actually, took a shower watched TV for a bit and then it hit me, Haylee(one of the 7 Australians heading to Malaysia) and Huda ( A Jordanian Aiesecer) were in town, I take out my phone to send them a message but to my surprise my Optus SIM card is not working ... well not really a surprise with such a crappy customer service and a 15 min wait every time I call to ask about something I kind of expected something like that, so I get My Malaysian Sim and put in the spare phone - and here is where Murphy's law strikes - I forgot the security code to the spare phone, so I couldn't use that phone either.

It was about 2.00 am at that time, so I thought my best way of communication is well ... facebook, I knew it was a long shot but it actually worked, I sent a FB message to both Haylee and Huda, leaving them My Hotel Number, but I forgot that on Facebook I was Mahmoud Shadid, but to the Hotel I was Mahmoud Naser, after I send out the Messages I went wondering through the KL streets, went to a 7 11 store bought some pringles and a 7up, went back to the hotel and slept like a baby.

The next day I woke up at 10 am, so i give a call to the reception to see if i got any calls, he tells me no, I asked him again "Are you sure than no one asked for me ?" , so he asks " are you Mahmoud Shadid ?" and I'm like "yes" he says "A European lady was asking about you and just left the Hotel 2 minute ago " I get dressed quick and try to catch Haylee before she goes but no luck, so I go back to the hotel and give Huda a call from the Hotel, but no one answers at that point I realized that it was 10.30am Melbourne time in Malaysia it was 8.30am, I just hoped that i didn't wake her up.

I start wondering the streets of KL at around 10.00pm try to call Haylee from those cheap calling booths but no answer, at that point I get A McChicken Meal for a near McDonald's ( I know its not a local meal but what can I say I really like McD's ) and head back to the hotel, where the reception guy informs me that a girl called Huda called, so I give her a call and we decide to meet at some market at around 2, I start playing around with the phone and for some reason the Malaysian Sim worked on the Optus phone, thank god I have a phone now.

I had a short nap, and then I met up with Huda, we went to the KLC twin towers and my god, they were really amazing, especially from outside, as we go in I remember Haylee so I send her an SMS and what a surprise she's in the twin towers too, so we meet up go for a coffee at Starbucks and chat about different issues then we go the highest tower in KL, the view from the top was beautiful, after that Huda had to leave for piano lessons if i remember right, me and Haylee tried to find are way back to china town using the lonely planet guide and some chinese map that Haylee got from the backpackers place she was staying in.

we passed by the Indian street, there were a lot of clothes and I mean a lot, we had lunch at some Indian restaurant which surprisingly didn't look dodgy, it was pretty nice, and then we both went back to our hotels for a shower and a short nap, after that we went to the night market in china town, and there you can find almost anything from cheap dodgy massages to fake Rolex watches to silk Japaneses Dresses , you name it they have it, then we went for coconut Juice which wasn't the best juice I had but it was good.

Haylee went back after that to get some sleep cause she had an early flight to Kuching, and i went to an internet cafe, then I want to dodgiest restaurants i could find and ordered 5 satay sticks and a fish , and it was one unforgettable meal.

went back to the hotel, and next day headed off to Kuching to start my adventure there, Kuching the city that I'll be spending the next 4 months in ... here I come ...

before I left Australia

Alright its been a while since I wrote a blog about 7 months so I'm a bit rusty

My flight was booked for the 28th of July 08 about a month before, i don't remember giving it much thought, the only thing I had to worry about is being in Kuching- Malaysia on the 1st of August, so i though 2 days in KL would be enough and leave KL on the 30th, get to Kuching a day before

I'm writing this blog about one month after I left, I don't recall much details but here's a briefing of what I remember ..

the day before I left I was supposed to meet up with a few @ers Negah, Ron, Abhi and Martin, it turns out that James ( Victoria's coach) just flew in from Sydney that morning so we all met UTC at around 10.30 went for a cup a coffee, chatted , in short had a really good time, i was given a photo album, which had photo's through out the past semester and beside each photo was a simple funny comment.

I said Goodbye to everyone their and then headed back home to finish my things-to-do-before-i-leave list, and its was a pretty long list, as soon as I got home I started to freak out, cause not only do I have to fly the next day, it was my last day at the Swinburne Unilodge, so I had to pack everything either in my suitcase or in a 10$ plastic container.

At that point I was also sending out SMS's to everyone I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to, cleaning the wall and backing up my Laptop HD on the portable HD, it was quite a long night, a few friends dropped by that evening and we chatted and had coffee, and by the end of the night everything was packed, the room was empty and I was almost dead tired.

The next day I woke up late as usual except "it was one of those days", and by that I mean its one those days that you know that everything will go alright no matter how bad things seem its all going to work out in the end, so i took may bags said goodbye to my brother Yousef, and then me and My other Brother Ibrahim headed for the airport, The line was soooo long I took us almost an hour and a half, thank god I had Ibrahim there so we can make random arabic jokes and laugh at people without anyone - well almost - knowing what were saying

We had Sushi for lunch while we were waiting in the never-ending line, once we got there I was asked if I had any preferences for my seat, so being a normal human the first thing that popped into my head was the window seat, from the look in his eyes I could tell that was pretty hard, but - and this comes back to "its one of those day" - he makes a phone call talks for about 2 minutes and then informs me that I did get a window seat "WOOOOOHOOOOO !!!!!", not only that I found out later that no one was sitting next to me "Oh yeah !".

After all that I needed a coffee ( not that i need a reason for sipping a 2 sugar take-away cappuccino), My brother decides that he wants to buy me my last coffee before, I had absolutely no objections. but .... and here 's where the "nothings for free" Saying Comes in , I go to the bathroom and come back and I see My brother playing with his phone, couldn't really figure out what he was doing but looked very specious, i ignore it and take a sip of coffee , as soon as I started to drink the coffee my brother bursts laughing, well I don't really want to continue this story, let just say it involved a joke my brother was dieing to do and I didn't finish my coffee.

I said goodbye to my brother and went to check in after I check I get asked to step aside and I was checked for explosives out of around 50 people I was the only one !, me the innocent, knows no evil Mahmoud was checked for explosives, well I can't really say I blame them , if anyonw had my passport photo i'l check him too.

After all that I got on the plane and started reflecting on my past year and what have I done ?, what have i accomplished ?, how many people did i gain and lose in that year ?, and was it all worth it ?, in the end I have to say it was a year with no regrets.

As soon as the plane took off I went into a peaceful 30 min sleep , before the meals were served after that i watched a few movies and POOF I was KL- Malaysia , what happened in KL is another story ...