Map? What map?

For this story I am stepping out of the role of stenographer as it seems only fitting. Read and you will see…

It’s Day 51 and Eric & I have finished climbing and are getting ready to head back to KL’s city centre. We are hungry and tired from about 4 hours of climbing, so we double check our directions with David, who works at “Camp 5” and begin our journey “home”. Today Eric is in charge of directions since it’s his friend we are meeting in the “burbs”.

Together we sort out where to stand to pick-up the bus. It’s about 9:00pm and we haven’t had dinner yet. The only options nearby are “mall food”, so we decide to wait until we get back to our hostel because there are better choices available.

Eric has the map … the bus pulls up … he reads the sign … clarifies the end point with the driver … and decides this is the bus to get on.

“Oh and it’s perfect” he says “because this bus will take us right downtown without having to make any transfers.”

Our end destination is Puduraya Bus Station.

We hop on the bus and settle in for the ride.

After about half an hour in, I read a sign for the International Airport. And I think to myself “hmmm… that doesn’t seem right.”

Then I see a sign for Putra Jaya, which is a suburb near the airport, on the opposite side of town from where we want to be.

So I’m sitting here thinking “how am I going to bring this up?” knowing how much time Eric spent researching the directions online and asking several people for clarification. Because we were not staying on the usual tourist path, Eric wanted to make sure we knew exactly what we were doing to avoid any problems…

Like this.

So as I take a deep breath and prepare to bring up the subject, another large print sign for Putra Jaya goes by. And at that moment Eric perks up and begins to look for something in his bag.

The map.

And then I see the light go off in his head.

He looks at me… he looks at the map… he looks outside… he looks at me.

He clears his throat and says, “Ummm… I think we may be going to the wrong place. I think we’re going to Putra Jaya. We are supposed to be going to Puduraya.”

“Puduraya” is very different than “Putra Jaya”.

It’s like starting in Hamilton and wanting to go to Union Station but ending up in Unionville.

I smile.

I am hungry and tired and remembering the morning he left our breakfast of rambutans (sp?), banana bread and honey loaf in a taxi cab in Borneo-Malaysia.

It’s not hard for us to get back to where we need to be. It just means we have to travel for an hour and half longer than needed.

We get off the bus and head up to the train platform and we notice a guy chasing us up the stairs. He approaches us with a big grin and says “you’re not supposed to be here”.

It’s David from “Camp 5.”

The same David we clarified directions with earlier.

It’s awkward but we laugh, clarify directions once again and thank him for his concern.

Eric and I get on the train laughing, but are assured we are heading in the right direction.

At midnight, we finally make it back to our hostel. We enjoy some pearl noodles and are in bed, exhausted, by 2am.

Maybe tomorrow I should carry the map?