Hold-ups in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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Friday 28 May 2010
Thwarted again! Here we are back in Kuala Lumpur having got back on Tuesday night from Kho Phi Phi, near Phuket, to travel to the port of Klang on Wednesday to see our shipping agents this side of the Indian Ocean with the expectation of being able to get our car out of customs to begin our short trip down to the south of the country. On arrival we were greeted by a very efficient lady called Jannet who spelt out the situation in no uncertain terms - we were actually both impressed by her professionalism after our experiences on the other side of the water - and it turned out that the Indian side had not released the release papers to allow Jannet to process the papers for customs here in Malaysia. While in the office, we were able to speak to our Australian agent who was coordinating our move to Malaysia as well as our Indian agent, both of whom gave apologies, but that was not want we wanted. The upshot of delay is that John and I now spend more time in KL because as luck would have it we have another holiday to contend with. More about that in a moment. It means that the customs process was unlikely to unfold until at least next Monday and more likely Tuesday. It now means that we have more pressure on us to get the car to Johor Bahru by next Thursday to get it into another container for shipment on 5 June to Fremantle. I think we can still do it if the Malaysian customs get our car released by the latest Wednesday morning. If not it means missing the ship on 5 June and that will be frustrating. I won’t go into the what ifs? At the moment.
The national holiday today isn’t helping. It is Wesak Day, a day for the Buddhists to gather at temples nationwide to pay homage to Lord Buddha. It celebrates his birthday and his attainment of enlightment as well as commemorates his death. So all Government services are closed for the day. Well at least John and I will be able to watch the procession and floats we are told will be passing through areas of KL.
I have added a few more photographs of our time in Phi Phi which I hope you will enjoy. While a lovely island there are many like this and or course Malaysia itself has many wonderful beaches and places to see, some of which I hope we will be able to pass through if we get release of our car early enough next week.
In the meantime, its planning time to ensure we can get to Sydney, and tomorrow John and I plan to visit working elephants outside KL!
And I apologise for any of the diving photos if they offend in advance!

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Photos

Welcome to Erawan Resort
This was our man who came to meet us at Tonsai and escorted us back to the hotel.

A view from Reception
Erawan Resort - the reception was a small dwelling set on its own away from the living accommodation.

Thai Massage
John spent three days here! It must have been good to get him back again after the first day when he put his thumb into the fan and cut it.

Getting ready for massage
John getting ready for his massage.

John's Massage Parlour
We could not resist recording the fact that John actually has shares in his own massage parlour here in Tonsai!!

Tsunami
This is the unprotected beach of Tonsai that took the force of the Tsumani.

Interesting buildings
Rebuilding continues on the island.

Preparing for diving
A long tail boat took me out to the dive boat