So "once in a lifetime" could describe half of every day's activities, technically, and I think that starts to change how I look at the world around me. Each moment of beauty, each surprise, must be fully appreciated as it happens, because there may never be a second chance. Learning to love things without trying to hold onto them is a new challenge, a skill I'm trying to build.

But within all these small once-in-a-lifetimes, there have been some experiences that have stood out, that I have felt truly lucky to have chanced into.

Like last week, high in a volcanic mountain range in East Java, on the lip of what was once the crater of a massive volcano that is now an otherworldly desert landscape called the Sea of Sand, we watched the sun set -- watched it slip flaming red into the western peaks and color the clouds of sulphur smoke billowing up from the craters of nearby volcanoes salmon and lavendar. And then, moments later, we watched the full moon rise up out of the mountains in the east -- a bright orb in a surreal misty purple landscape.

The next morning, we woke before dawn and watched the same full moon set into the peaks of the volcanos to the west, pausing to balance like a glowing marble atop the flat mouth of a mountain before being swallowed whole, and then turned to the east and watched as the morning star ascended through the rainbowed band of pre-dawn light and the constellations faded into the brightening sky and then as the sun come up. And the wild combination of being on top of a mountain, on the equator, on the night of a full moon, all translated into one of the most breath-stopping, awe-striking sights I've ever seen.

So that's what I think I'm trying to get at when I say once in a lifetime. Moments that force me to be aware of the fact that time is passing, that each day is a gift and a chance to witness something incredible.

And, incidentally, I've never been much of a hiker or an outdoorsy type, but this trip to Gunung Bromo -- the national park where we experienced these volcanic sun/moon/rises/sets -- may have turned me into a fledgling mountain junkie. We had been planning to climb Mt. Kinabalu, in Sabah, the easternmost Malaysian province on the north coast of Borneo, anyway, just because I had read that it was not to be missed -- but now more than ever I"m really excited about it.

Meanwhile, the past four days have been spent here in Kuala Lumpur, a city that I knew next to nothing about before stepping off the Air Asia flight on Saturday. There was no set agenda for Malaysia, other than a vague plan to travel around the peninsula and then head off to Borneo, and we didn't know how long we'd be in KL, but figured just a day or two, especially if it was anything like most of the Indonesian cities we experienced -- crowded, polluted, unwalkable, and generally not very approachable. But instead it has come to feel, in a matter of days, like a second home.

We got here Saturday and made our way to one of the guidebook's recommended guesthouses in Chinatown, and were pleasantly surprised to find a place with tons of art on the walls, a shared kitchen, music playing on a stereo in the communal living area, and small but decently lit bedrooms for under $10. We dropped off our backpacks and headed out to nearby Little India, where we'd read there was a Saturday night market, and stumbled onto this astounding array of street food, each stall more mouth-watering than the next. After three weeks of Indonesian food, which was almost entirely delicious (especially the tempeh, the avocado milkshakes, the fried whole fish, and the sambal asli that I got addicted to) but which, honestly, had just started to get a little mundane, I was oh-so-excited to be eating Indian curries and drinking new frozen concoctions and especially to find yummy 12-grain bread that we've been toasting for breakfast every morning and eating with Nutella or black currant jam.

And KL is truly walkable, with wide sidewalks and crosswalks and unpolluted air and some beautiful architecture and very few people interested in staring at you or trying to sell you things just because you happen to be a westerner walking down the street -- so we've been having what feels like a little break from the exciting but often exhausting process of travel. We've seen a few sights here, eaten a lot of good food, met some really great fellow travellers at the guesthouse, spent a lot of time on the internet, and done a little shopping -- including checking out the mall in the Petronas towers, which is probably the biggest, swankiest mall I've ever witnessed.

Ah, shopping... yes, it only took about a month for me to get sick of my four outfits, so I found a couple of cute tops and a salmon-orange knitted shrug at a local boutique, spending less than $20 for all three. We also happened upon a little record store the other night whose selection of US indie rock was so impressive that we decided to ask the guy working there for some recommendations of Malaysian bands, and came away with an album by a band from Sarawak called OAG which so far I'm really digging. They sound a bit Death Cab for Cutie-ish, but sing in Malay.

All this time in KL has been comfortable and relaxing, but it's getting to be time to head out on the next adventure. We'll keep you posted on whatever that might be.