first day in KL

I woke up at 4am this morning. Since I had gone to bed at 9pm the night before, I didn't think there was much chance or point of sleeping. Besides, Return of the King was on TV. Starving, I waited until after sunrise to make my way to my favorite hawker stall for breakfast. It has especially yummy tofu...although any healthful things I might have felt said goodbye when I agreed to have everything in a bowl of tasty but artery clogging laksa. The red chili oil splattered everythwere as I tackled the big pieces with chopsticks. I was thankful to be wearing a black top.

About that time, a couple of men walked into the alley. They greeted and chatted jokingly with the people in the hawker stall. The older one was extremely gaunt, making his muscular shoulders seem almost an abnormality. His face was slightly marred as if part of his chin had been remvoed, and his speech seemed to indicated a stroke at some point past. He wasn't pretty...but his eyes were young and full of a deep love for life.

I watched and smiled warmly. He stood transfixed, but returned the smile as he searched his memories. Perhaps not quite finding what he searched for, he nodded and moved to go into the inn across from me. As he passed behind me, he lightly tapped my tattoo, smiled and said, "You've changed your hair!". I laughed and queried, "Gan?" He nodded.

My old friend joined me for a few minutes. Apparently he has cancer, and has had for nearly 4 years. I thought back to our first meeting more than a year ago. He was thin then, but this year had taken a toll on his already slight build. He glazed over the treatments and told me that he's on chemo now. I pointed to his full head of hair and he started laughing. "Chemo makes it grow! It's supposed to fall out, but mine is growing and growing!" He laughed a merry laugh, the same old twinkle in his eyes. I have rarely seen anyone so joyful as this dear man who sleeps on a cot in the hall of the Grocer's Inn, a "Backpackers" that happened by chance*. This dear old man is one of the best people I've ever met. We made a date- I'm going to come tonight with my guitar and he's promised the best food in all of Chinatown.**

I'm feeling very happy and full of love and good energy (except for the early morning artery clogging fest).

*The Grocer's Inn Backpackers came into being first as a bar upstairs in Chinatown. The problem was that the bathroom was on another floor. In order to have access to the bathroom on the same floor (down the hall and outside on the veranda), they rented the whole floor. Then they put beds in an alcove and one room and called it a backpackers'. Since I first came, they have cut the bar in half and now have thirteen rooms and three clean shared bathrooms (cold showers).

**Dinner was fantastic!