Coen Circling the globe : Changes

This post is long overdue, but the last few days have been quite hectic. I have taken a small peek at Kuala Lumpur, found my way in Tokyo, and am now settling down slightly in a hotel there. A lot of changes have taken place in the past few days, so let me highlight a few. There is a high risk that this will be quite a long post.
First of all I had to say goodbye to the rest of the family, they are now back in the Netherlands, while I have become a solo traveller. Secondly I lost my name (ow no!), no not really, instead of using my calling name 'Coen' which is very easy for Dutch people to pronounce, but much more difficult for foreigners (Co-en, coin, goon, you get the idea) I am now using the first name that is also in my passport: Robert. This, so far, hasn't given any problems (except for me remembering that if people are asking Robert something, they are asking me ;-) ).
Further changes are ofcourse in the way of travelling. In New Zealand all accommodation was already booked, we had our plans and our 4WD's. Now, I basically have only flights, the rest I make up as I go. For Kuala lumpur this meant going couchsurfing instead of to a hotel or apartment. Teresa and her boyfriend hosted me in their apartment (shared with three other people) in a residential area of KL. Getting there was interesting, especially with the load of backpacks I was carrying, and the sweltering 30+ degrees Celsius. The final leg was haggling over a taxi fair from the end of the metro line to the apartment block. In the end I only paid 5 Ringit too much, but the taxi driver also dropped me off one block early (luckily that was only a 200m walk). I was received warmly by Teresa, her boyfriend Johan (who on introduction proved to be Dutch as well) and we had drinks and a chat on their balcony. Teresa and Johan both dive, and had a friend over who dives as well, so we shared our diving adventures and plans.
The next day I spent as a tourist in Kuala Lumpur (see pictures), and met up with Teresa, Johan and some of their other friends again to explore the night market. Finding the night market at all proved difficult (we spent half an hour walking, and a lot of time stuck in taxi's in a traffic jam). In the end, however, we managed to find it, eat some crazy food (not the stinky tofu) and a good meal. We had a good time and it was a nice adventure all together.

Petronas Towers (they're BIG)

Statue guarding the entrance to the Batu caves, a hindu holy place

Statues inside Batu caves, depicting ???

The dirty mess inside Batu caves

(lower 2m painted with anti-graffiti paint, full of graffiti, boxes and trash thrown in haphazardly everywhere..)

The view from the entrance of the caves back to smoggy KL suburbs

Being a Hindu holy place, there were lots of monkeys and pigeons around.

My last day in KL was spent together with Johan, he is a 20-year old Dutch guy spending his time travelling at this moment. He's been around Asia for a while, met Teresa and will go learn to be a Divemaster in a couple of weeks. He's also studying the local language part-time and is managing it all quite well. He had the day off, so we took it easy. Had breakfast at a local cafe, relaxed at the pool (this was part of the huge apartment block they were in), and went shopping for some more shirts for me in a local mall. We discovered a dive shop there as well, so I got some extra gear for a good price. After the shopping it was time to get my backpack back in order and head for the airport through rush hour (and in the heat). I was quite stinky when I finally arrived, but luckily could change to a new set of clothing in the airport. My apologies to the Kuala Lumpuri's (?) that had to sit next to me in the train.

Breakfast

If you're queuing for the metro and you start wondering why there's only girls around you... this might be the explanation. Rosa Parks would turn over in her grave to see what's happening in Asia (Japan has similar rail coaches).

Snapshot of messy KL near the old railway station

One of the changes that should've also taken place is that I would be no longer speaking Dutch, but I didn't manage this one yet: Johan and I spoke mainly Dutch, and being in Japan I just discovered that my colleagues are also here, so we're gonna meet up in Tokyo (and speak Dutch). One change that was also really apparent, especially while I am now in Tokyo, is how messy (edgy/gritty) KL is, compared to organized countries such as New Zealand and Tokyo. I enjoyed this in China, but probably because I was only in KL for a few days, Tokyo feels a lot more 'comfortable' to be in. I will end this post with just a few snapshots from Tokyo, as this post is getting quite long already.