Kuala Lumpur WednesdayWalk in my new neighborhood

In this view you might think you are looking at a parking lot, but it is actually a road. There are two of them in fact, one going up and one going down a fairly steep grade.

This is my local shopping street in the Wangsa Maju Township of Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. This is only one of the many places I can shop, but it has the biggest concentration of stores, services, and restaurants.

This place is only a few minutes walk from where I live now and also leads to my LRT Station. I am here almost every day and this photo set is from one of the first times I tried to negotiate through the scene. I am still not exactly familiar with this place, but on this day I was highly confused. I think my photos show my state of mind and body well.

I made the mistake of going out too early in the afternoon. It is better to go very early or as the sun is going down. I'm down near the equator because I like to live in heat, but that does not mean I should be wandering around in it.

This next photo shows you a place lower down on the road. The view across the street is pretty much the same as the side I'm on with shop after little shop running up the road. All of them are filled with things I have never seen before and not often telling you what they are in English.

If you look where my logo is on this photo, you see the opening of a flood control raised ditch sort of thing that is very common here. This is known to me as an "obstacle."

The cement things on top can be pulled off to clean out the ditch, or might be broken or missing, but normally you can walk on them and people do. This particular ditch thing is too high for me to climb, and I will go around it and find another way to get up there where the shops are.

This second photo is higher up on the road and you can even see the road in this view. The red car is moving and the white one behind it is parked. The motorcycles all randomly parked is how they do it here. On the left are more flood control ditch things and some of them will be low enough for me to get over.

My goal is to get to the covered walkway on the extreme left. Only a conplete idiot would be standing out in the heat of the street taking photos.

Here is the same place of motorcycles, but now looking in the direction of the walkway. The curtains are down to protect normal people from the heat and glare.

Notice how each storefront is higher them the last. Plenty of random stairs help you as you climb in there. The arch in the middle of the frame is repeated at each change in shop. These are structural to hold the second floors above and indicate where the level changes with stairs.

Now I'm a bit closer to my goal and deciding which path might be easier on my arthritic hips, knees, and feet. If you count and look closely, you can see about fifteen levels of pavement here. Some are steeper than others; and no two steps are the same height. Some places have grates; some places are on a tilt; some places are too high for me to climb. But I will find a way somewhere here. I have confidence now.

I'm in! And now I need to find something to drink before I keel over.

I will post more of this place in future posts and show you what I have figured out so far. On this first day I knew almost nothing about what I was looking at and was just trying not to trip or fall.

My post is for the #wednesdaywalk by @tattoodjay. I plan to post more of my walks here since I love my new home so much and I am endlessly photographing it.

I know I have already taken much better photos of my wonderful street, but I wanted to start with my first look to remind myself how far I have come in both knowledge and skill of navigation. I can jump in and out of these walkways like a champ now!

Please start here to kick obesity to the curb:

Set Your Goal for Weight Loss
Anyone can beat obesity if I did. Please ask me and I will help you do it too.