Mental health break in Malaysia 🇲🇾

Hello readers,

Since we got some extra days off during Ramadan, my colleagues and I headed to Kuala Lumpur for five days. It would have been great to head to the beach but with the flight changes and layovers, it wouldn't have been worth it for such a short trip. It was also super fun to do a city escape! My friends wanted to stay super central and near all the shopping so we selected the Ascot which couldn't have been more central. KL also has great potential for a city escape but then again, everything feels fresh and great after Dhaka. I think that might be the best travel advice I can give - live in Dhaka and you'll be extra grateful for every escape.

There's not really much to say about KL though, we did all the things required, saw the towers from inside and out, had an Iftar in the restaurant at the top at sunset, wandered around the town, shopped in all the biggest malls, spent time at the pool.

KL is a super walkable city and especially, if you have a hotel at a prime spot you can walk anywhere. One of my favourite little stop overs was this cool graffiti street that also had some great restaurants, cafes, and bars.

We also did one excursion out of the city centre: the Batu caves. I had actually seen this on the Finnish Amazing Race and wanted to see it for myself. It was definitely worth it.  Driving around is calm and beautiful and also another easy way to get around. The caves are beautiful and you can explore around nicely.

KL was great overall and it was good to see it once, I won't be visiting it again. Mostly because we were the unluckiest on our way back and should have taken the car breaking down in the middle of the highway as the bad omen that it was. Our flight got delayed because the bathroom on the plane was leaking so we were escorted back out and had to wait three hours for a new plane. We had booked a late evening flight to land to work the next morning and the delays were hindering that plan.

We finally managed to board a plan around 5 am and the flight started smoothly. However, there was a massive thunderstorm over Dhaka and the plane couldn't land. The entire plane is shaking and bouncing around as the captain stubbornly tries to land it. We had already tried and failed twice when I asked my friend when the pilot might give up because I really wanted out of the damn plane. He made one more horrible attempt and then circled for another 10 minutes that I spent thinking how horrible it is that as a passenger you are just in it for the ride and have no control over what the pilot decides to do so you try and just their professional assessment. Which I generally don't on South Asian planes anymore.

Finally, after everyone has squeezed their seat handles knuckles white for over half an hour, the pilot announces that we will be heading to India. Unfortunately, he had to exhilarate and ascend through the storm to get back to the correct flight speed and hight. To me, the plane felt like a pancake that the storm decided to flip. Everyone on the plane is crying and praying and the plane just keeps shaking and rattling on. I didn't let go of the seat until the wheels had stopped in Kolkata and then I kept waiting for them to let us out of the plane so I could take a bus to Dhaka.

The other passengers are rushing to queue for the toilet to puke and the praying is still ongoing. To my dismay, we only refuelled the plane and weren't allowed out. Just over an hour later, the pilot announces that the weather has ''improved'' and that we will ''try again''. I got to say, I just wanted out of the damn death-trap. The flight back to Dhaka was a blur: I was exhausted, stressed, panicked, and squeezing the seat with all the strength I had left. Luckily, we landed in Dhaka okay but flying will never be the same for me.

Needless to say, the work event and everything else went to hell as well.

Since this, I've been wondering about living in such a environmentally fragile area, the dangers that alone poses, and how events like these will influence my future travelling. I already try (and fail) to fly as little as possible, I try to be environmentally conscious about everything I do with my feet on the ground to offset that, and I aim to travel in the region I am in rather than fly across the world. If I can access places via land routes, I always choose that option. As climate change gets worse, flying also gets more hazardous. Which I guess is the beauty of Mother nature to correct itself and punish us for our ignorance or lack of caring. Some tough choices are to be made: what matters the most to us and what are we willing to pay for it. I, for one, can never look up to a person who selfishly travels every country in the world just to tick things off the list without actually meeting the people, getting to know their culture, and considering the footprints they are leaving behind. I also have some great travel dreams, one of the longest term ones being the Easter Islands, but I'll have to see if this will ever be worth the overall price of going there.

Anyway, that's some gloomy but honest thoughts to finish this off. Wouldn't want to just have an impersonal travel blog that AI could write up.

I hope you have some great, safe travels.

Mira