Before I get started, I would like to describe the scene in
which I am writing this blog for your visualizing pleasure: I am actually
writing this from an airplane! These blogs take a lot of time to write, so I
thought when better than on a plane? I am cramped in the shittiest plane (a
[Sc}AirBus) I may have ever stepped foot on, in a seat that won’t recline for
whatever reason, holding my laptop at a weird and very uncomfortable angle due
to the asshole in front of me reclining his seat back. I guess he isn’t an
asshole, I would also be an asshole if I COULD lean my seat back. However, the
space between the seats is so damn small that with his seat back, and my seat
back unable to recline, I am unable to fully open my laptop to type on it, and
am as a result typing hunched over and very uncomfortable. To make matters
worse, the couple next to me reeks of fucking kimchi. I HATE kimchi. It has got
to be one of the worst smells on the planet. Yes, I lived in Korea, but I never
got used to it. They also just opened up tuna fish sandwiches that smell like
they have been rotting in the sun. I guess it beats kimchi smell…Add to this a
neck pillow around my neck that is impeding ability to type because I can’t
fully move my head down (there isn’t anywhere else to put it) and I am covered
in a zebra-print snuggy. Welcome back to traveling with Kimberly!
But I digress.
I haven’t made an entry into this blog since I was in
Australia, way back in 2011. Actually, I didn’t even blog about Australia at
all. I left it off leaving Hong Kong having come from living in Korea, making
my way come via seeing Colin in Sydney. I never ended up blogging about
Australia. I kept meaning to, but couldn’t ever bring myself to do it for
whatever reason. I think I was struggling with moving back, even though it was
something I wanted. It was almost as if there was this period in my life that
didn’t even happen, that I just skipped over. Traveling and living abroad often
leaves me feeling that way. You leave, get on a plane, land some place new, and
then come back to life exactly as you left it. It is a strange feeling, and
something I can’t quite convey in words. Anyways. Enough of that. I just
thought I would explain why I hadn’t blogged about Australia. I also didn’t
discuss my trip in Mexico for my sister’s wedding at all. However, I spend most
of that trip over a toilet, puking my brains out, and then my sister got
married. That was my week, in a nutshell. Anywho, the blog is back!
If you are reading this, then you probably know that I have
spent the last week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for a conference for work. After
my time in KL, I am heading to Bali (island in Indonesia) for a week, and then
Singapore for two days, and a day stopover in Dubai on my way back to Seattle.
I work for a non-profit organization that trains medical providers
to manage obstetric and neonatal emergencies, primarily in developing
countries. I help coordinate the programs and work on a few medical simulation
products. In a nutshell, we use these birth simulator pants, which an “actress”
wears and simulates a delivery with a baby in order to simulate a birth for the
providers to respond to. As part of our work, we attend a lot of international
conferences. Through this job, I had the amazing opportunity to go to Women
Deliver, the biggest and most important global conference on women and girl’s
health. It happens every three years or so. When in graduate school, I heard
about Women Deliver and wished that I would someday be able to go. It seemed an
unlikely fantasy to think about, as it is extremely expensive and is generally
held in some far-flung destination. Essentially anyone who is anybody in
women’s health is there. However, I am proof that sometimes things, even of
seemingly remote possibility, can happen! Because of the job I have (which I
love) I was able to attend Women Deliver! Something that I never thought would
happen, was actually going to happen, and I was unbelievably excited when I
found out I was going to go.
Myself and a coworker left for KL a few days before the
conference started so that we would be able to have a weekend there, allowing
us to explore the city. KL was never a place I had on my radar as wanting to
visit. My list of desired places to visit is long and ever-growing, however KL
just wasn’t on it. I am SO GLAD work ‘forced’ me to see KL; what an amazing
city! But, more on that later.
Getting to KL is quite the feat. It is literally on the
other side of the planet, and would involve more air travel than I had ever
undertaken in my traveling days. We flew Emirates from Seattle to Dubai, which
was a 14.5 hour flight, and then immediately got on another plane in Dubai and
headed for KL, which was an additional 8 hours on a plane. Let me tell you, 22
hours of flying essentially non-stop, is by NO means fun. The longest flight I
had been on before was from Sydney-Vancouver, and that was 14 hours, but was
just a hop down to Seattle from there. Being confined on an airplane for that
amount of time is just really difficult. I know, wah wah, I had to sit on an
airplane and fly to SE Asia and I didn’t even have to pay for it. But it really
was more difficult and taxing than I had anticipated. We did fly Emirates
though, which as a consolation prize for having to fly half-way around the
planet, is AMAZING! Hands down the nicest airline I have ever flown. Thankfully
the seats (even though I was in economy) were very large and roomy, and had individual
seatback TVs with more movies than I could have imagined, and even had in-seat
power! The first leg of my journey was fairly torturous. I slept only a few
interrupted hours, maybe three. There was a moment around hour 8, when I had
awoke from sleeping, where I temporarily went insane. I guessed that we had
maybe an hour, at most 2, left on the plane. When I realized that I had MORE than
6 hours left I had a mini freaking out moment. Traveling for that length of
time (especially while on large amounts of Dramamine) does strange things to
your mind. I was so exhausted I could cry and everything hurt…AND I HAD SIX
MORE HOURS! Kristina and I experienced a similar phenomenon on our first
international flight to London in 2006. Waking constantly, being nearly 100%
positive our flight was almost over, only to realize we were still stuck in
hell. Needless to say, I survived the flying ordeal and thankfully managed to
sleep around 5 hours on my second flight. I will try to avoid this much air
travel in one go whenever possible from now on. Thankfully, my route home includes
a 24-hour layover in Dubai (where I will be going out and seeing Dubai on
Emirates dime), which I am extremely grateful for. It might seem better to just
get it over with in one go, but I think the annoyance of going to and from the
airport will be worth it outweighs the extreme discomfort of two very long
back-to-back flights.
After our crazy day of travel, Francesca and I arrived in
KL! We were immediately hit with a wall of extreme heat and humidity. Everytime
I arrive anywhere in the tropics I forget just how hot this place is! Our
flight had landed early in the morning and we planned on hitting KL first thing
with a day of sightseeing.
Just in case any of you have forgotten or are new to the
blog, I tend to travel with shit hanging off of me; a random collection of
pillows, blankets, water bottles and bags flung every which way. Even though we
were staying in a 5-star hotel, I did not change up my traveling style! I had
multiple pillows hanging in a chain, draped from the bottom of my backpack,
exemplifying a style I like to call, ‘hobo chic’. Essentially, I look like a
hobo while traveling, and am always a hot mess. Few people have been privy to
traveling with me, but for some reason none have ever appreciated my sense of
style while traveling, haha.
After changing out of my hobo-chic attire, Francesca and I
set out to explore KL, we got on a hop-on, hop-off bus tour. Our first hop-off
stop was a local market. We ate lunch at a stand inside the market, eating
traditional Malaysian food. It was so cheap and delicious!! Just a few dollars
for a bowl of noodles in some type of brown gravy or something. They were
amazing. I have been pleasantly surprised with Malaysian food so far. It is a
mix of Indian and Chinese and very delicious.
After lunch we embarked on one of my absolute favorite
traveling activities: shopping in a local market! I bought a few items and
really enjoyed wandering around the market, getting back into the groove of
traveling. After the market, we headed to Chinatown, where Francesca ate a
bunch of ‘street meat’ on a stick, and I found a Washington Apple vendor! It
was really random, but provided a nice photo-op! We checked out a Hindu temple
that was AMAZING! Extremely beautiful, full of intricately and ornately carved
columns, stone and other things. A wedding was about to start, so we had the
good fortune of seeing a typical wedding set-up and admired the beautiful
wedding clothing everyone was sporting.
After Chinatown, we headed for the Petronas Towers; arguably
the most famous things in all of Malaysia. They were for a short-time, the
world’s tallest buildings; they held this title for only a few years before the
Burj Khalifa in Dubai (which I will be visiting in a week and a half or so)
took the honor. I am not really into doing something just because it is, the
biggest, tallest or whatever fill in the blank. However, I must say that these
buildings blew me away! They were sort of a futuristic interpretation of art
deco. Just gorgeous. They are often referred to as the Twin Towers (there are
two identical buildings), which are joined by a sky bridge. The tour took us up
to the sky bride and also up to the observation deck on the 86th
floor. What amazing views! Everything about these buildings is great. The exterior was my favorite part, and
thoroughly enjoyed photographing them all through the week with a changing
backdrop thanks to the sky.
We finished off our day by riding around on the top of the
open –air bus. We started just before dusk. The next few hours will be one of
those traveling memories that I reflect back on often and can easily recall. KL
at dusk is literally one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. The sky
put on a show and was full of bright oranges, pinks and purples, which slowly melted
into blues and blacks. The night air was warm and thick with humidity, but the
breeze from the bus made it perfect. It started to sprinkle and we were treated
to a light dusting of rain. It was just one of those sort of magical travel
experiences that defy words or explanations. I am not really sure why, but it
was just amazing.
The next day we headed out for the Batu Caves, about a half
hour drive outside the city. I had heard many great things about these caves
and looked forward to our visit. You can take a taxi out to the caves, but we
opted for the train since it was significantly cheaper. Francesca and I are
both seasoned travelers (she also lived in Nicaragua, but as part of the
PeaceCorps) and were excited for the challenge. I realized that one of the
reasons I may not have blogged about Australia or Mexico was because I didn’t
feel challenged or compelled to write anything, because those experiences
didn’t affect or impact me as significantly as other travel experiences have in
the past. I realized in Malaysia that the more ‘roughing it’ type of travel,
the type that stretches and challenges your thinking is when I am in my
element. It is not that I don’t enjoy a 5-star resort or taking in the sights
of a developed English speaking country, I just love adventure. I love having
to figure shit out and going with the flow when something crazy inevitably
happens. I love not being able to understand a word being spoken, and having to
really use my brain to figure out how to get from point a to point b. I have
also realized I regularly need this type of adventure, it feeds my soul.
But anyways, back to the Batu Caves! We thought the train
route sounded easy and straightforward, and would involve a short subway ride
from our hotel to the main train station. I should remember that things never
seem to go as they should when it comes to Kimberly+travel. About 10 minutes
into our journey on the train, we were instructed to get off, that we had to
take a bus the rest of the way. It didn’t make a lot of sense and contradicted
what we had been told, but we went with it and hoped we had understood
correctly. We ran to a bus that was about to depart and shoved our way into the
throng of people. We were on the bus for a while until it suddenly stopped,
where we were told to get off, and get back on another train…ok…We did as we
were told, again just hoping that things would work out. Thankfully, this train
got us to the caves. What should have been a half hour journey, turned into a
90 minute (or more) travel adventure, including a subway, two train rides and a
bus. In the end, it was worth it.
As soon as we stepped off the train, we were greeted to
views of monkeys! LOTS of monkeys! Lots of little babies as well. It was so
cute to watch them scurry about and jump from tree to tree. We made our way to
the caves and were overwhelmed with a massive and huge gold statue of a god of
some kind. It stood at the foot of nearly 300 stairs, which led up into the
caves. The caves were huge and expansive. There were a number of temples built
inside the caves. This really was one of the coolest things I have ever experienced
traveling. They were impressive at their sheer size and magnitude. The statue
was unbelievable in how detailed it was and in its massive size. The top of the
stairs provided a great view of the area. I highly recommend the Batu Caves if
you are in KL! Such a sight to behold.
After the Batu Caves, we had lunch at an extremely authentic
Indian place. KL and Malaysia are comprised of Indians, Chinese, Malay and
Indonesian people. There are nearly equal proportions (or so we were told) of
each population. As a result, the city has a very multi-cultural feel to it,
with lots of options for food. The restaurant looked a little bit sketch, but
decided to go with it hoping it didn’t result in diarrhea or puking later
(these two ailments seem to be my lot in life when traveling). We were the only
non-Indians in the restaurant and the only people not using our hands to eat.
It was a really interesting and new experience! This restaurant is also the
first time I have experienced a squatting toilet! I’ve decided it is an
experience I don’t necessarily need to repeat, but likely will at some point.
The food was delicious and thankfully neither of us got sick from it!
After some shopping in a nearby market, we headed back to
relax. I enjoyed time in the hotel’s infinity pool while enjoying a view of the
Petronas Towers. I do believe work travel will spoil and ruin me!
The conference started the following day. The past few weeks
have been a flurry of extreme stress and many long hours of preparation for the
conference. All of the stress ultimately paid off and I was happy just to be at
the conference. The conference was full of all sorts of really important and
‘famous’ people in health. Including Melinda Gates, Chelsea Clinton, and the
president of pretty much any and all women’s health organizations in the world.
It was exciting to be around such people! The conference was abuzz with energy
and excitement.
As part of the conference, my work was to give three simulation
demonstrations of our birth simulator during a few panels and presentations. I
was the ‘lucky’ one who got to wear the pants and pretend I was giving birth. Thankfully,
this wasn’t my first pretend birth rodeo, and was already over any embarrassment
of ‘giving birth’ in front of a shit ton of people prior to the conference. Our
presentations were all very well received, and people had to even be turned
away because we went over capacity! It was great to be a part of it. Throughout
the conference I had many people coming up to me asking, “you’re the one who
gave birth with the pants? Great job!” I was told a number of times I have a
new calling as an actress, HA! Perhaps I will make the big bucks pretending I
am having a baby, haha. I owe it to having seen around 25 real births in my
days as a Doula.
The conference overall was simply amazing. It was just a
wonderful experience I am utterly grateful to have experienced. I met Cecile
Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, stood feet away from Chelsea
Clinton, the princess of Denmark and other really ‘famous’ and important
people. It was very surreal. I felt like a groupy pointing out various people.
There were a lot of, “Oh my god, it is Jill Sheffield! Purnima Mane! Ana
Langer!” Most of you won’t know who those people are, but I suggest you look them
up, wonderful women who have dedicated their lives to improving women’s health.
I don’t mean to wax poetically about this conference, but I
have come away from this whole experience feeling completely blessed and
fortunate to have the job I do. There were (many) moments in the last few years
I wondered if all of the time, all of the school, all of the loans, would be
worth it, if they would ever pay off. I am extremely passionate about maternal
and reproductive health, and have made a lot of choices over the years many
people didn’t agree with in order to continue on this career path. I feel like
it is finally coming together. All of the years of being extremely poor, all of
the school, they have finally come together and I have a job that I not only love,
but allows me to travel internationally. Without the support of many of you, I absolutely
wouldn’t be where I am today. This conference has made me realize how fortunate
I am. Without the financial support of my parents over the years and knowing I
always had a place to live, I wouldn’t have been able to take on certain unpaid
or extremely lowly paying positions in order to advance my career, which
allowed me to get to where I am today. I have always been able to count on my
extremely close friends and family to pick me up when something hasn’t worked
out, and for that, I am endlessly grateful.
This conference has also made me realize a lot of things
that I have always known. I have been afforded an unbelievable amount of
privilege merely by being born into a developed country. I don’t mean to say
that life in American is perfect (or any developed country for that matter), or
that my life has been without struggle, far from that in fact. However, I never
had to deal with most of the issues that were spoken of at the conference. I’ve
never had to worry about a lack of contraceptive choices, being forced to marry
at a ridiculously young age, and never even had to blink at the thought that I
could go to school. However, for many, many women and girls around the globe,
these choices we often take for granted, such as having easy access to
contraceptives, the ability to choose who and when to marry or if at all,
whether or when, or if at all to have children, going to school, or having
access to healthy foods and medicines, these things are not a part of everyday
life. I have always known this. I studied development in graduate school and living
in Nicaragua opened my eyes to a world few Americans see. These have always
been very real and tangible issues for me. I deal with them day in and day out
by way of the work in which I engage. I’ve always known I was lucky to have
been born where I was, but I never made the conscious connection that my life
would literally be radically different had I been born in a different era, or in
a different area. I just feel like I had to address this. I am feeling very
blessed for my job, my life and the ability to make my own choices about both
right now. I guess what I am meaning to
say, is that while we may take these things for granted, it is important to
know and acknowledge that many people don’t. By miracle of birth location, we
have been afforded unqualifiable privileges. Because of these, I think we all
owe a little bit back to the world and those who do not have these same
privileges.
Anyways, off my soapbox. Just very glad and grateful to be
where I am. I am so happy with the life I have chosen and even happier that I
had the power to choose this life. While the road to this point in my life
hasn’t been always very easy, I am glad to be here now and thankful to those
who came before me to plow the way and supported me along the way.
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