Saturday 19 December 2015

Ears Kuala Lumpur - 15/12/2015

I left Yogyakarta with a bit of a cold, a light sore throat and a little bit snively but nothing major. I had gotten over a few small headaches over the last couple of days and I felt like things were definitely getting better, right until that descent into Kuala Lumpur.

My left ear popped ok, a little painful as always but exactly the same as every other descent that I have undergone over the duration of this blog. The difference on this occasion is that my right ear didn't. Instead I was subjected to an excruciating pain, the kind that makes you pull a gopher face as you try to contain a grimace that you don't want anyone to see. This only got worse as the altitude dropped, and I was subjected to even more agony whenever I moved my neck or pressed and released jawline just below the ear. I sat there still for the next 15 minutes, face scrunged as if it was a rubber finger mask with 3 digits rammed in the back.  The Malaysian lady in the row opposite looked at the stewardess as if to say "i'll have what ever he's having".

She could bloody well have it as far I was concerned. I was completely deaf in my right ear and in such severe pain that I was concerned that somehow I had managed to perforate the damned thing. My mind does that, freaks out on it's own and tries to come up with explanations as to what the hell is going on without having suitable knowledge to base it's theories on. I decided to ignore it and try and read up on it a bit later.  As the plane drew to a halt on the runway at KLIA2 I still managed to find humour in the fact that I had travelled from Java to Malaysia on "Erasure" as the cabin crew pronounced it over the tannoy. I had to smile using only my eyes now though. All other facial movements had just become too bloody painful.

I struggled to hear the chap on immigration, with my arms out stretched impersonating an airplane and laughing along with him as it became clear that I was now deaf.

I struggled to hear the lady at the bust ticket counter as she talked to me, my own voice bellowing loudly inside my head making anything she said distant and inaudible. Struggled to communicate when trying to get a sim card to cover just a few days with appropriate data allowance rather than one that would last me until 2021.

And I struggled with the girl in the kiosk as I didn't hear the amount of money she asked for as I hadn't been looking directly at her, Point to ear, make plane gesture, laugh it up. you know the score.

I gave the bus driver the ticket, chucked my bag into the bus luggage hold and got on to find a seat. I didn't say a word, I couldn't be bothered to explain it anymore.  The experience that was already  wearing pretty thin.

The hour long air conditioned coach trip from the Airport to KL Sentral bus and train hub cost 11 ringitt (about 2 pound) and was comfortable enough considering my legs had been folded back on my myself for the last 2 and a half hours. From here I took the train a further stop towards my hotel (1.2 ringitt) and then tried to walk the rest of the way, about 8 minutes according to Googlemaps or about 25 when your having to work with a GPS that has a warped sense of humour. Mine was now gone.

I arrived about 7 pm I think. All I know for sure was that it was dark and the Geo Hotel sign on the side of the building that faced the main street wasn't lit up, so would have been fairly easy to miss. I managed to catch it through scouring every inch of every tall building that was around that area and eventually found the entrance around the back.

Whe-hey.

The check in process was smooth, the young man who processed me through their system was polite and helpful if not a little short on exercise, baulking at the idea of a 5 minute walk to get some decent food, suggesting instead the brightly lit 24 hour Texas Chicken establishment next door. After unpacking my gear in my 10th floor room with a view and having a quick shower to freshen up and clear my sinuses,  I decided to go for that walk instead to announce my arrival to Kuala Lumpur.

I don't think it heard me.


Ditto!!









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