2018 S.E. Asia: Some people we have met

Recently, in Kuala Lumpur (K.L.) thunder shower shelters we have met some locals. On our trips out from K.L. we meet people working in and near the places we stay - for instance, there have been young restaurant workers who tell us their story of wanting to visit and work in Canada, and many who are awed that we traveled so far to see their part of the world. Our conversations usually start with the person asking where we are from, so we have a map of the Pacific Ocean to show them the route from Vancouver Island to their land. We then ask them where they are from. Most laugh and say they are from where we have met them and have never traveled, as it is too expensive. One Nepalese fellow was in Johor Bahur, Malaysia on a work Visa and his next application will be for Calgary (he had heard that this would be a good first stop for him in Canada). The young fellow from Nepal explained the process and that once his application is accepted he is helped to find a work experience. In a similar exchange, we met a young fellow from Bangladesh who was almost at the end of his work Visa in a Penang, Malaysia restaurant. In a rain shelter last week, we met a dad who was keeping dry on his run just before going to pick up his daughter - he gave us his number in case we needed anything and then we all decided to go out for Indian food together with he and his family before we went back to Canada. The dad is an avid mountain biker and would like to visit Whistler some day - we told him also about Mt. Washington on Vancouver Island. At a rain shelter we also met Pola, who, in his retirement is an active writer about preserving natural areas. Pola's brother Harban turned out to have had an association with the Panti Bird Sanctuary so he called up his brother and Harban and Bob spoke about our plans - that was a helpful interaction. Bob later texted the outcomes of our Sanctuary trip in reply to Harban's inquiry. At Penang Hill we met many wonderful locals, including a young family we saw and had a nice exchange with the next evening while out at a restaurant. Also at Penang Hill, we met a woman from India who was selling her family pottery, which we purchased and Yolanda chatted with her at length. A few hours later, when we were headed to the exit tram, the woman ran up to Yolanda and gave her a gift of a woven grass-hopper. The clusters of young people on school trips are particularly memorable, as they like to try out their English and often ask Yolanda to pose in photos with them. We have spoken in previous Blogs about other lovely people we have met while traveling. It is difficult to think about leaving the very welcoming and diverse people we have met - of anything in SE Asia, it seems we will miss them the most.