The sun was high up and it was very hot when I got down from the bus in

Bukit Jalil. My first thought was to look for a restaurant where I could gulp down a
glass of icy cold water and sample the countrys famous Bakso soup. But my thirst
and my hunger quickly faded away when I noticed a girl staring up at me from the
roadside. She was wearing a facial expression so powerful, it was impossible to
forget her.
I thought the girl was beautiful in a very unique way. I remember her head
was partially covered with an old, brown scarf showing some of her uncombed
brownish-red hair framing her dusty face. She had a deep-set pair of big eyes that
were almost olive green below her thick eyebrows. Her nose was quite wide, unlike
the usual pointed noses of her countrymen and she had a scar just below the right
side of the bridge. Her lips were pale and quite thick, neither smiling nor frowning
and forming an almost straight line where the lips met. What was noticeable were
the traces of dirt around her mouth that I wondered if she had been eating dirty
food or if she hadnt washed her face for a long time. She was wearing an
expression that was almost angry it made her look like a male.
It was the summer of 2009 and it was my first time in Malaysia when I saw
the girl. I have travelled back to the country every year after that but my trips have
always been marked by the image of the girl I saw on the roadside that afternoon
when I got down from the bus in Bukit Jalil.