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Published: February 6th 2007
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I just had a few days left in Malaysia so decided to head off to the island of Palau Pangkor a few hours north of KL. It turned out to be a bit of a let down, especially compared to some of the Thai islands and there was no decent places for single travellers to stay so I ended up in such a scrutty place, you wouldn't even make a dog sleep there, I'm not joking. I woke early, unable to bare my disgusting bedroom any longer and it was raining, ruining my plans of a morning on the beach so I just had breakfast and headed back to the mainland, having been there less than 24 hours but I was glad to leave. Once back in KL i checked into a hostel I'd been recommended which turned out to be one of the best yet so that was sweet. While I was back in KL the Hindu festival of Thaipussam took place. This is a march of religious devotees from the centre of KL to the Batu caves, about 15kms outside. They begin walking at midnight and arrive at the cave sometime in the mid morning. The followers take their
devotions to different levels. Most were just in yellow robes and carried a silver pot of differing sizes containing offerings. Others also had big things to carry on their shoulders, some with huge complex metal structures containing more pots, pictures and statues. The most bizarre, however, where the people with all sorts of piercings. This ranged from a spike horizontally through the tongue so it poked out the corners of the mouth, to others with thick kebab like sticks (presumably their are a few kebab shops missing their spikes at the time)through their cheeks to the most gruesome with differing sizes and numbers of fish hooks embedded in their backs. The hooks were used for a number of different things from suspending pieces of fruit like lemons and limes (?) (maybe they were mixing up some massive cocktails in the cave?) to hooks that were tied to sort of reins held by a person behind holding the person back to some who were pulling carts with statues and things on behind them. It was all very strange to see, rather vomit inducing to begin with but real car crash entertainment, you just couldn't take your eyes of it. All this
is done with no blood which is strange and supposedly just under the power of some sort of trance. The red powder and whitish liquid being pored into the devotees' mouths may have had something more to do with it though I imagine.
I caught a bus from KL to Singapore which went uneventfully, despite the legenderily strict customs controls. So far I managed to visit Changi Prison, which is now a museum which houses the original chapel built in the prison's ground by POWs. It was here that my grandfather was held as a POW in the second world war after Singapore fell to the Japanese invaders. The museum was very well done with many accounts of locals' and allied prisoners' experiences of the occupation, much of it brutal. I took a trip over to Sentosa Island which is a short trip on either a cable car or monorail over the water to, to the south of Singapore. It's like one huge theme park, with loads of attractions from museums to rides to the bizarre Merlion (a half lion half mermain statue created by the tourist board as a bizarre tourist attraction) and a large man made beach
that occupies the southern most part of the island, looking out onto the beautiful vista of dozens of giant cargo ships moored in the sea waiting to come into port. The beach itself in all it's fakeness is a nice place to spend a few hours though.
I splashed out and got very drunk (Singapore's probably one of the only places more expensive than the UK for drink) with some friends down on the beach at a bbq which was great fun but it wrote off the entire next day. Since then on my final day I've just been to Raffles Hotel to have the essential drink whilst here, a Singapore Sling which was really tasty even at S$21 (about 7 Pounds a glass). It's pretty cool in the Long Bar with broken peanut shells all over the floor, and even the old sparrow flying around scaring people and hoovering up the scraps.
So that's it. It's all over. I fly home in six hours. One year down, eight countries, no work (of any significance), thousands of miles, countless unforgettable experiences. I could go on but I'll just depress myself further. I hope you've enjoyed my blogs over
the past months and hopefully there will be more to add in the coming years. Watch this space!
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