As always it's the journey, but this time there's an unexpected tectonic movement

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The annual pilgrimage has started again, although this year there’s a little twist in the tale. Opportunities being what they are, are too good to resist at times so with that in mind I took a little diversion on the way over to chicken this year and dropped in on a couple of friends in Bali on the way. Well if you call flying over them to KL and then traversing from one terminal to another before jumping on the bird again to fly south for the summer dropping in. But it was an enjoyable catch up and a revisit to a place that I’d been to a few too many moons ago. It had changed a fair bit, I’m sure at one stage we were walking down a road that was a dirt track last time I was there. Plus now it had become a little bit swankier. One of these swankier places that has emerged is a nice little place Ku De Ta to go for dinner or sunset cocktails, we did both just to make sure.

Jetting back into KL was not without it’s little adventure, there’s nothing like coming into land and then hearing the engines throttle up a bit more than usual and the feel the nose point skywards again. Penang is nice at this time of year, especially for a refuel before heading back to KL to try that landing thing again. At least this time the storm had passed and all was good once I finally made it to the hotel after the little diversion. It was at the hotel that I realised that I’d fell into the trap for young players and worked out that I only needed the hotel for one night thanks to the 0030Hrs departure. But I did still have time to wonder the streets to check out the old favourites. Regular readers will remember the joy from a couple of years ago when I discovered this sensational little Japanese restaurant just up the road from the hotel. Well there’s a bit of disappointment this time around when the little tempura number was nowhere near as delish as the previous incarnation.

One standout this time about KL was that it absolutely poured, oh it’s the monsoon season the taxi driver said. Yes I’ve lived in the tropics for a while and they had nothing on this, it absolutely bucketed without even trying to give up. The lightning show was pretty cool though.

Arriving in chicken had that sense of déjà vu, not much had changed except that this time the organisers were kind enough to send us a bus that made us look like we had to do clown car impersonations. They seriously thought that we were all going to fit in the minibus with all our luggage, hopefully it was not an indicator of things to come. Well it wasn’t we came out of the blocks strong with setup commencing within hours of our arrival and the sun shining. It’s that old saying make hay while there’s sunshine. Day 3 things were looking even better, but the little tectonic realignment put paid to that. After a sensational day laying out the show and loading a barge it all started to unravel with a rumour that the show may be cancelled due to the earthquake 1200 km away. By lunchtime it was confirmed and the unpacking began with a very sombre mood amongst the crew. We’d gone from being ahead of schedule to having the rug pulled, but it was better than being trapped in a collapsed building hoping to be found before it was time to have your life flash before you.

This then led to the unfortunate dilemma, what to do with the bonus week that had now magically appeared due to the untold tragedy. A bit of mad interweb searching and a bit of discussion amongst the crew and off we all went to the four winds. Next stop Roma.

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Photos

A few cracks but still open
Supermarket in Bali post earthquake.