I was reading a guidebook in St Marks Bookshop yesterday and saw familiar names made strange. The northern beaches of Batu Ferringhi (wiped out by the tsunami, I wonder? the guidebook predated it). There was an entry for the strange little mall of Pulau Tikus, which I had always thought was spelled "plauticus." And clear English definitions for words I'd only struggled to understand in context, like bumiputra and peranakan. The places we went to eat now have a certain number of stars attached to each of them. And Georgetown reduced to a charming example of colonial architecture, instead of what it really is for me right now, a Lovecraftian bureaucratic machine that has the power to summon me over vast distances until I arrive, sleepwalker, to take my place at the end of the line.

The other thing the guidebook had was a list of recommendations for immunizations. Immunized? For Malaysia? The last country I needed immunizations to travel to was the US. Should I even bother? I may not have enough time to get sick. I may well be too busy stuffing my face with every dish known on the island.

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