[MALAYSIA]▬ I looked for my way out of this airport terminal. Although heaps of happenings and paranoia have played with me the first few hours, I'm not yet that desperate to move out from this airport but I have to move quick because it's getting late (blame my delayed flight that ruined my detailed minute-to-minute itinerary that requires time obsession). Actually, I'm looking for the terminal of SkyBus—the one I learned from the travel forums like Lonely Planet and Trip Advisor.

[KUALA LUMPUR] ► MOTORCYCLE LANE

• At the Counter and the Sign Language

After withdrawing ringgits from the ATM, I went back to the ticket counter I noticed a while back. I asked the girl inside the counter who is wearing a headscarf if the bus ticket I am going to buy can bring me to KL Sentral and she answered me affirmatively. "Yes" - with Malaysian accent.

I asked how much is the ticket. She answered, "&#@#@^*&#^!"

I said, "What? Come again, please?"

She replied. "&&**(^#@&^"

"Oh, I'm sorry. Can you say it again, please?"

I think the girl is getting annoyed with me. She started to speak very slow emphasizing every syllable. "Uhh - luhh - vuhhnh - ringgits." I still didn't get it at first until she did a sign language. She put her two forefingers together and I finally got it.

"Uh! It's eleven (11) ringgits!" I happily squealed.

'Yes!." She happily replied [that I finally understood her out-of-this-world accent] then I gave her 50 ringgits. Of course, I waited for the change. So this is it. I paid eleven ringgits (around 130 Philippine pesos) for this more than an hour travel to KL Sentral from Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 where I am now. This is my first ever person to person business transaction in Malaysia.

[VIGAN] ► SO I TOOK THIS PHOTO AT HOME (AFTER MY TRIP) BUT THIS IS THE TICKET ISSUED TO ME IN KLIA2 BOUND TO KL SENTRAL. THE PRINT IS ALMOST GONE NOW. I FORGOT TO TAKE PHOTOS OF THIS WHILE IN MALAYSIA SO YOU'RE SEEING THE 'VIGAN' INSIDE THE BRACKETS AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS CAPTION.

[VIGAN] ► CLEARER VERSION: THIS IS THE TICKET ISSUED FROM MY SECOND AEROBUS RIDE. FOR ILLUSTRATION PURPOSES, I TOOK THIS PHOTO AGAIN IN VIGAN AFTER THIS TRIP. THIS TICKET NOW BOTH HAVE THE 'SKYBUS' AND 'AEROBUS' LABELS. THE BRACKET AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CAPTION IS THE NAME OF THE PLACE WHERE I TOOK THIS PHOTO SO DON'T BE CONFUSED. THIS POST IS ABOUT MALAYSIA.

The bus where I am going to board is SkyBus. At first, there was confusion because my ticket says "AeroBus" which is different from SkyBus. I panicked because the ticket I got is a bus that will leave 05:40 PM. I don't want to spend more time figuring out where to find that bus. I spent about 10 minutes personally examining all the buses from point to point but there's nowhere I can find this SkyBus. The time now is 05:30 PM. Finally, I saw someone from the couch crew if Aerobus and Skybus are the same. He answered me "yes" then he took my ticket and tore it. Viola! I'm boarding! This will be my first land travel in Malaysia and the first outside my country Philippines.

• Inside the Bus and the False Feeling of Discrimination and the Time Zones

Inside the bus, no one seemed interested to seat beside me. I got upset because I felt like I am discriminated in another country. I am thinking this because I've read several articles about discrimination in Malaysia. I am not sure though if they know I'm a Filipino but many have told me that I look like an Indian or a Thai (sometimes I'm Nepalese, ridiculous). I know I also look like a Malay though but never Chinese. At least my appearance is kinda universal here in SEA and it can cross cultural barriers. Anyway, after a few minutes, an old Chinese man came to sit beside me when there's no longer space left inside the bus. My feeling of being discriminated is I think not true in reality. Blame these heaps of articles I read lambasting the government for favoring Malays and discriminating Indians, sometimes Chinese. They are giving me a not-so-good impression about Malaysia. I believe I'm not discriminated. I was just carried away by the media news hype about discrimination. If ever true, this won't stop me from exploring this beautiful country.

I was showing physical awestruck signs overtly while inside the bus because I was seeing different races. There are Malays, Indians, Chinese, black and white men. This country is so multicultural! This is my first bus ride in Malaysia!

The bus started to run and I spent my remaining energy seeing the view along the road for a few minutes. I was able to sleep in the bus until we reached a point where I saw a motorcycle lane. I was thrilled because of my love in driving motorbikes and this will be very helpful for me whenever I'll plan to explore Malaysia using a motorbike.

I managed to sleep inside the comfortable bus and I looked at my watch, It's already 7 PM. We're now more than an hour inside this bus. Based on my research, this travel would only take approximately 40 minutes but this is the reality now. I'm traveling within the bounds of rush hour and after more than an hour, I'm not yet in KL Sentral. My time-obsessed itinerary is useless now.

At first, I didn't believe it's 7 PM because the sun is still up there and the sky looks like afternoon-ish only to find out later that Malaysia and the Philippines belong to the same time zone so I made my own theory. Geographically, the Philippines is closer to the Pacific (the east side of the planet) so even if Malaysia and the Philippines belong to the same time zone, the sun rises first in the Philippines. So for example, if the sun appears in the Philippines at 6 AM, in Malaysia it's still dark. Well this is not a serious issue anyway. I am not just accustomed of the possibility and reality that I can get sun burn in Malaysia while seeing my watch that it's already 7 PM (already evening in the Philippines). Unbelievably real.

• Reaching KL Sentral

When I woke up, I'm now in the midst of traffic jam (this is more manageable than Manila though, back-off # M A N I L A

#MANILA

). I was consistently looking outside from the bus window to spot for the first time the ultra famous and iconic Petronas Twin Towers I learned when I was in Grade 4. I didn't learn this in school though. I learned it from the trivia section printed on the world map I used to study back then and that time, this building was still the tallest building in the world (Taipei 101 stole the crown, then these super-rich Arabs didn't know where and how to spend—or maybe how to waste—their surplus wealth. Klinggg! The Burj Dubai!). Anyway, I didn't see the Petronas Towers—one of my childhood fantasies—this time around. Accepted.

It's getting dark (well not too dark) and I'm starting to see bulbs and lamps lighting up the houses and buildings and neon lights for the streets. We reached a part where I saw a vibrant night scene! There are lots of Indian restaurants, bazaars and business establishments with Indian labels. Uh! I had goosebumps because I am fascinated with new cultural encounters like this not to mention that India is my dream destination. Sadly I can't alight here. The bus slowed down in this area because of the crowd and the traffic jam so I had few minutes of visual feast (I later learned that this is KL's Little India).

[KUALA LUMPUR] ► FILE PHOTO: LITTLE INDIA

[KUALA LUMPUR] ► FILE PHOTO: KL SENTRAL

I'm now in KL Sentral. It looked like a mall. After alighting from the bus, I looked for my way to the monorail station. This is already the big city scene I'm not accustomed with. Everywhere is concrete structure and it's my first time to ride a train alone in my life. This is ridiculous but I've only tried to ride the LRT in Manila twice but with my friends—and they did all the process. Sorry, this may sound very easy for train commuters but it's ignorance for me. I'm so nervous right now to ride a train by myself and I don't know what to expect. I'm relatively afraid of squeezing in the crowd while commuting in a train station because I only did this in my life in the scale of never to rare. I can explain to you the pathophysiology of AIDS, lecture about Illuminati's influence in pop music for hours, recite chronologically all the books of the Old and New testaments of the Bible or recite all the provinces of the Philippines with their capitals but dealing with big city life is my waterloo because as I have always said, I never lived in big cities and I don't know yet how to live and roam in big cities. My probinsiyano ignorance is prevailing and now I'm here in a big city of another country outside my comfort zone.

Now that I'm already in KL Sentral right in the heart of # K U A L A _ L U M P U R

#KUALALUMPUR

, what are the things I learned and discovered for the first time here? Did I find the train station? Did I get lost? Did I survive? The real adventure starts now. Welcome to Malaysia! / to be continued...