Traveling to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia
As I stepped off the ten hour flight from San Francisco into Tokyo Narita airport, my eyes were bleary from too many movies and a few uncomfortable hours of sleep. With a bit more that two hours for a lay over I headed out to explore my culinary options. The smell of duty free perfume and bright Hello Kitty toys were dizzying but I found my way through to the food area… Ramen! I will admit I was on a mission for sushi, but the smell of the fresh soup lured me in. Real Japanese Ramen… it was delicious and filled all the empty parts of my stomach. If you have never had the pleasure of trying authentic Ramen, I highly recommend it! Spicy Miso base is my favorite.
Full and eager to get on my connection to Kuala Lumpur I headed to my gate.
I was on my way to Malaysia to participate in the KL Tower BASE jumping event held annually. Only one hundred of the worlds BASE jumpers are invited, and I felt honored to be included in that list.
Out of one hundred invitees from all over the world… I was surprised to see nearly twenty of my friends waiting in queue at the terminal to board the flight! Apparently a lot of the group was coming from the United States.
Mat and Jordan, two very talented jumpers I have known since before I started BASE jumping, were among them… and waved me over. Jordan had been invited and Mat had decided to come along hoping for a last minute slot in the event. We chatted and caught up…. The last time I had seen Mat had been wingsuit BASE jumping in Switzerland months prior.
Turns out their trip had been all planned a bit last minute.. standard for these two. And even though our flight into Kuala Lumpur landed after midnight with an hour ride into the city, they had no accommodation booked. Of course not, laughing out loud I told them they could stay in my room as my roommate had to bail on the trip last minute. … it wasn’t until I was in my seat and settled into the next seven hour flight that I remembered how LOUD Mat snores. Face palm. BASE missions to the valley with him always result in many day naps and night elbowings. I do love those guys though.
By the time I finally checked us into the hotel directly across from the KL Tower, we had all been traveling twenty plus hours across international datelines… and it was a local two am. Who knows what internal time I had going? But of course with all the excitement of a kid on Christmas none of us could sleep so we put our BASE rigs and luggage in the room and set out to explore downtown Kuala Lumpur.
The four hundred and twenty meter tower loomed above, taunting us as we walked. A few blocks away we found a side street littered with street food venders. Words in a completely different alphabet, foreign characters, and an audibly beautiful language that I couldn’t even begin to translate. I had never been to any part of Asia and I was awe struck.
Honestly I have no idea what I ended up eating, Jordan had been to there before and ordered for us. It was delicious! … and now past three am. With the events safety meeting scheduled the next day (in fact in only a few short hours) we finally decided to retire to the hotel room and passed out.