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Published: July 19th 2005
Twin Towers
It's a long way up.Woo hoo, woo hoo, woo hoo!!!!! After seven months of traveling we were finally heading to Malaysia and Kuala Lumpur. This was a huge part of the trip for me if not so much for the place as the people. Three very special people to be exact.
When my brother first moved to a town on the South Coast of England called Shoreham-By-Sea, he moved in with a couple called Karl and Jenni. Little did we know at the time, that it would be the start of some great friendships (that so far have lasted eight years and are set to continue). While Alan was living in Shoreham, I used to fly down from Glasgow to visit and had a ball every time. Meeting new friends, drinking, partying and fun, fun, fun. After I finished University I decided that I wanted to move to the South Coast. I lived there for three and a half years before moving to Canada.
Karl and Jenni also moved. They have been living in Kuala Lumpur for the past three years (and loving it). Now, you may have picked up on the fact that I mentioned three special people earlier. Well, they had
Charlotte and Yasmin
"You said you were who? Mom, Dad should this woman really be holding me?" a baby girl in January, actually on the day that Mike and I first landed in Thailand from the UK. Her name is Yasmin and she is beautiful.
It was great timing in the trip for us. We didn’t want to visit when we first came over, so as not to intrude. Instead we waited until the middle which was perfect. Yasmin is older and more settled. For us, a proper house with all the mod cons. Malls where you can try on clothes unlike street stalls!!! A social group of people doing normal every day things, like going to work, fixing cars, paying bills and shopping. It was a breath of fresh air, just what we needed after traveling for so long and before we head to India, which will most definitely be a culture shock. However, Malaysia has given us a taste for the food we’ll be getting. We’ve had lots of curries and roti chanai (bread with curry sauce). Yum. We love it!!!
We spent two weekends with the De Souzas. During the week we went to the East Coast island of Penang , so that Yasmin didn’t have us in her hair for the
Yasmin
"That's better. Now, where's dinner?" whole time. Penang was a fun place. We did our usual and hired a bike. This created our Penang adventure. We had been up since 4am on the day we arrived, so a wee bit dozey. We went driving around the North of the island to look at the beach resorts up there. We were in one small village when the bike started swerving around and going thump, thump, thump. Doh, a flat tyre. Oh jolly good!!!!! We managed to walk to a garage but they couldn’t fix it as they didn’t have a small enough inner tube. Oh well, next place. But they were all shut. Ohhhhh. Next town, three miles. Ha, ha, ha, ha!! So Mike pushed and I followed. Half way, we found a little beach and some shelter as it started to rain. When it stopped, Mike left me (mean boy) and managed to drive slowly into town and found a garage to fix the bike, hurrah. He then was my knight in shining armour (or most favorite boy wearing a funny helmet and his traveling gear, just as good). He collected me and we were on our way.
We then went to Georgetown. It
Superbikes
That's Karl in turn two. Just before the pack separates. took quite some time to find a nice enough place to stay. One thing we noticed in Malaysia was the cost of traveling. It is still a cheap country by Western standards but for travelers like us, who are on a daily budget it is maybe 20% more expensive than the neighboring Asian countries. We looked at some really horrible, grotty rooms on the same price level as we’ve been staying in but they were just too scary. We ended up staying in the Oriental Hotel for 23 dollars a night. It was great. Sheets on the bed, a/c and a t.v. Our room had a great view. We were ten floors up and looked out over Georgetown. It also meant that we could hear the “call to prayer”, which bellowed up the 10 floors morning, noon and night.
We spent our next two days driving around the island and seeing the sights of Georgetown. We found a mall that had factory outlet shops. As we’ve been on the road for quite a while now most of our original clothes are a bit yucky and falling to bits. So it was just lovely to try on clothes, in a
Superbabes
Vicki, Lottie, and Jenni hanging at the track. mall and not having to figure out if they would fit or not, while standing at a stall on the side of the road. So, some new gear was bought, we no longer look so grotty. It’s nice to be able to go out and to feel good about oneself.
We had a night at the cinema. We watched “War of the Worlds”, pretty good, kept you on the edge of your chair the whole time. It was nice to watch a movie without having to stand up like you do in Thailand. When we were in Phuket, we went to see the new Star Wars film. There, before it started, they put on a five minute video of the King and Royal Family of Thailand. We had to stand for the entire thing, which was kind of strange.
We had two weekends in KL. Our first weekend coincided with Karl’s bike racing. He rides a super bike in the Malaysian domestic grand prix. We went on Sunday to watch him race. It was fun to have bikes roaring around me again, it’s a great sound.
On our second weekend, we had a big night out in
@#$%^&
It's not that far really. Only another few kilometres. Push white boy. KL centre with the Petronas
twin towers gazing down at us while we partied. We went to “Rum Jungle” and it really was one. There was a huge crowd of Karl and Jenni’s friends and we had a little spot among the palm trees with a mist of water spraying gently over us, cool. Lots of drinks and there was a few bucket games to get things going. Girls against boys. Object: to see which group could empty the bucket fastest. The girls won, but of course. We managed to get home in the early hours and Yasmin was such a good girl and didn’t get up too early the next day. Bless her.
We had a day out at the beach. It rained a bit, so had a coffee at the yacht club, while deciding which sailboat to buy. Then it was on to the beach where we sat and had a lovely picnic with more friends of Karl and Jenni.
We had a really great trip. Hanging out and catching up. Having lots of BBQs, thanks to Karl’s skills with the old coals and Jenni’s super salads. We spent some time in KL centre looking at
Georgetown
The view from our hotel in Penang's Georgetown. Lots of great food and cool sites. museums, such as the history museum and the Islamic Arts museum (it rained for all day, so we had to time it just right to race from one to the other). We had an afternoon gazing up at the Petronas Towers from the ground and then sideways from the Menara Tower. From the Menara tower you get a 360 degree view of the whole of KL, which is pretty cool. We met lots of Karl and Jenni’s friends. Andy Stone is a name that a few of you in Vancouver may find familiar. We had a few meals where he joined us all and it gave us time to gossip over friends!!!
The highlight of our time in Malaysia had to be hanging out with Karl, Jen and Yasmin. They are great people and it’s nice when your friendships don’t change, even when you are on opposite sides of the world. We had a smashing time, so many thanks to them for letting us stay and for letting me play with Yasmin, someone to talk to at last! She is a great wee lass.
Our time came to and end though. Hopefully we’ll get the chance to see
You Suck
It's no wonder everyone had a big head the next day. them soon as my brother Alan, his girlfriend Kat, and another great couple called Trev and Charlie (all stars from our second travel blog), have just booked flights to come over to Thailand in November. As Charlie says, woo hoo!!! I can’t wait. Hopefully we’ll all meet up then.
Until November, life is busy. We are in Bangkok until tomorrow morning, when we leave for India, our next adventure. Tonight we are meeting up with our friends Will and Sophie who we met earlier this year on the island of Ko Chang. They are teaching out here at the moment. So, hopefully our hangovers won’t be too huge for tomorrow’s travels.
Until the next blog, take care and cheerio for now.
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gill brown (Jenni's Mum in Exmouth)
non-member comment
Fantastic commentry
What a lovely story - so glad you enjoyed your visit to Kuala Lumpur to stay with our wonderful daughter and her hubby (not forgetting sweetie Yasmin). I know they all enjoyed having you to stay.