God and AirBnB

I wake up at 13:00 and I lay in my massive hotel style bed, the air condition cooling down the room. Islamic prayers are being sung in the background and it´s beautiful. They are thanking and praising Allah - God - for life, for family, friends, their homes and their food. I lay under the thick soft duvet, and I feel covered by gratitude as well as silky white cotton. Last night Ilisha took me out for fatty crab at a little hidden place outside the city center with some of her friends and her ever present bodyguard. The restaurant was busy and the energy was high. Expectations were sky high sitting there, waiting for the crab to be brought to our table. Our heads often turned to the kitchen door, eager for us to be next. When the food finally arrived – we didn’t wait for long, but it still felt like a small eternity – we where salivating, so excited to get our hands and faces dirty. We ate crab with the best fried rice and toasted bread ever until our stomachs almost bursted – licking our fingers for every bit of delicious chili sauce. Full and content we drove to a shisha place where we chilled and played cards and pool. The night ended with one hour of pleasantly painful massage in Bukit Bintang – the backpacking area in KL – before my friends drove me back home. Home in this context is the AirBnB apartment I´m staying in at the moment; the luxury apartment that Ilisha offered me to stay in for free as her boyfriend who was meant to stay there couldn´t come to KL after all. So instead I am enjoying a pool, a gym, a prime location, a TV with pirate Netflix (meaning it has any movie you can think of) and a beautiful apartment – all for free. So when I lay here in this lovely bed, listening to the Muslims praising Allah, I can´t help to thank him too. I can´t help to thank him for the amazing friends I´ve made and their kindness towards me. I thank him for fatty chili crab and massages, for soft beds and air condition.

I don’t really care what you call “Him” – God – but I know he´s looking out for me, giving me everything I need. A few nights ago I was walking around in Chinatown and I walked past a stunning Hindu temple. The moon was new and thin and it sat beautifully on the left side of the temple roof, shining its soft light on the statues of the gods and its worshippers. I took some photos and an Indian man who sold flowers by the entrance told me to go inside. I followed his words, removed my shoes, and walked inside. People were praying in the middle part of the temple, but on the right side everyone was eating. I hadn’t eaten dinner yet and it smelled good. Suddenly a woman handed me a plate of food; thosai (almost like a bread), rice balls (a south Indian side dish), dhal, and vegetable curry. “Eat”, she said, “It´s free!” I took the plate with a big smile on my face, which she returned, and sat down. I started talking to an Indian man who was eating next to me about the food. He explained that the thosai is easy to make, but the rice ball is much more complicated. I nodded, eagerly soaking up the last bit of delicious sauce with the final piece of thosai. The man´s name was Abraham and he was Christian – he was just there for the free food really. Abraham asked me if I was Christian too. “No”, I replied, pointing to my chest, “my God is in here, and right now He´s feeding me.” Before Abraham could respond, a little girl brought us banana leafs with a very tasty dessert dish which consisted of fine rice with coconut and sugar. Quickly I finished it all before saying to Abraham: “You know Abraham´s wife was called Sarah? That’s a coincidence, or what?” Abraham agreed, shaking his head at God´s desire for the two of us to meet right there, right then. “It doesn’t matter what you call Him”, he said. “It´s all the same thing we´re praying to – all the same One who takes care of us – who creates and sustains this world”. I looked into Abrahams´ eyes and we both knew that we´d gotten it – understood something that not many has. So we ate the free food from the Hindu temple, before we went separate ways; I, with my big heart beating inside my chest, and Abraham with his Bible verses and prayers to someone he calls God.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, August 2016