Kuala Lumpur is amazing! It’’s relatively clean, the buildings are spectacular, transport is efficient and, unlike Bangkok, the people are nice. It could well be the perfect city. That said, what really made our time in KL so pleasant was that it was where we lost our ”couch surfing” virginity. Hmmm, I think I better explain…

In a nutshell, couch surfing is a website (couchsurfing.com) where you can search for people from around the world that will allow you to stay, free of charge, at their house. As the website says:

CouchSurfing.com helps you make connections worldwide. You can use the network to meet people and then go and surf other members” couches! When you surf a couch, you are a guest at someone’’s house. They will provide you with some sort of accommodation, a penthouse apartment or maybe a back yard to pitch your tent in. Stays can be as short as a cup of coffee, a night or two, or even a few months or more. We hope that Couchsurfing.com will enhance members” lives and contribute greatly to making the world a better, safer, more peaceful place.

I was, as Yuki continues to remind me, quite hesitant to try couchsurfing at first. Being a somewhat reserved - or should that be paranoid? - Englishman, I was fairly convinced that any individual inviting complete strangers into their home would have to be either:

a) An axe murderer
b) Crazy
c) All of the above

I did not want to meet such people.

Luckily, Yuki was far more open-minded than me and insisted that ”we should try it at least once”. Whilst this form of logic rarely persuades Yuki, or girls in general, I must be a softer touch because a few days later we were standing in the rain waiting for a lady named Samantha.

As it turned out, Samantha was a lovely lady - with, might I add, no axe wielding tendencies - who quickly became a friend. She is without doubt one of the kindest people we”ve met on our travels and we truly hope we will get the chance to meet up with her again soon. Aside from giving us a room for three days, Samantha (and her friend) took us all around KL, drove us to see places that public transport did not reach, created personalized itineraries for us and just made us feel so incredibly welcome. A fantastic experience! After three great days we left KL and took a flight to Kuching, Borneo.

Borneo
Okay, I”ll come clean. We”ve taken it pretty easy since we arrived in Borneo. Yup, other than a few national park visits, we”ve actually been enjoying regular lie-ins and DVD sessions - a luxury not experienced since our teaching days. To summarise though, Borneo is quite nice. It’’s got some good national parks, good food and lots of monkeys - although the latter are mostly good-for-nothing thieving bastards.

Categories: South East Asia
Tags: Borneo, Couchsurfing, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia