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Published: August 12th 2007
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Its rare to be forced back home in the middle of the travels and enjoy home comforts, recharging and then being spit out on the road again. Although the latter is fully voluntary, similar to jumping off a plane at 15000 ft with some billowing material strapped on your back. In any case, writing about home through a traveller's eyes is too good an opportunity to miss.
The stolen passport saga continues... For time memorial, even up till I applied for a new passport in Singapore in 2003, the level of service was pretty low. I have vivid memories of High Commission staff chatting and lounging behind the counters without giving any explanation as to the delay in passport collections. Fast forward to 2007, the experience seems to have improved dramatically with little to no queues, staff answering your questions etc. Is it the change affected under the current PM Badawi or is it in stark relief to the trauma of facing Indian Officials? Perhaps a little of the 2. Like newlyweds on a honeymoon, there were constant smiles at every Malaysian hiccup under a cloud of haziness shrugged off as 'oh, that's ok. Its nothing compared to...'. This saga
being halfway in its journey, continued smoothly with some forms being filled in, and voila, new passport collected on the 4th of July - from now on this day will be remembered as San's Independence Day! .
The waiting time only gave us more reason to enjoy being on familiar ground. Peppered with opening the mile high piled up mail, paying overdue debts, replacing lost items (shopping!), making insurance claims, catching up with old buddies (The Yeos, Jurian, a newly liberated Laurent, Rob, Choobs, Rob, Eric, Kian Yen, etc.), spending time with Mum and eating her delicious food and enjoying living in our own place for a change, we even found time to attend a wedding and a Cuban art exhibition arranged by the Cuban consulate (Vinales in KL! Imagine that!).
Clean and sweet smelling laundry must get an honorary mention here. As any traveller on the road for a while can imagine, its not that easy to get laundry clean with it being washed by hand without a scrub or a washing board regardless of how long you toil by the bucket. And boy, have we toiled for those clothes with zero technology, and with technology we
are referring to that from the stone ages i.e. the brush or the rough stone. Bigger smiles stretching to insane grins.... beware, this good feeling is infectious!
How infectious you may ask? Even when Richy was managing the on-going saga with ABN-AMRO (DE worst BANK in the world) and needing to spend several days holding ABN-AMRO staff hands through their impossible, very unglobal banking process to get our hands on our money after balances in the other accounts were starting to dry up, he was still smiling! (Wow, that was a mouthful of a sentence wasn't it! It just reflects the tediousness this Bank imposes on its customers who are out of the bank account country). 2 countries, 3 days, 6 hours of effort, 3 visits to the bank and 1 uncompetitive exchange rate later, we collected sufficient cash to complete our travels at the ABN and delivered it to the relatively more efficient HSBC.
It so happened that whilst we was back, Emil Chau was going to be performing in KL (
Wakin 20 Live in Malaysia 2007 ). (
Let's transform to first person here as Richy didn't go) So what is the big deal about a concert? A number of personal reasons. Firstly,
Chinese weddings
Best reason to get drunk! If the drinks are free flowing that is!! this is my first chinese concert and probably the biggest concert that I have been too. There is a special culture centering aroung chinese concerts. The most obvious is the collective chanting of the performer's name along with the in-time waving of glow-sticks and the presence of cuddly toys and flowers that will be presented as gifts to the performers (no smeggy underwears!). So fast forward the dream to actualisation, there I am at with a big grin plastered on my face! Secondly, this was a concert with stamina! It started only 15 minutes late and ended more than 4 hours later! Talk about a real performance. This relegates the 45 minute mixing madness of Linkin' Park who performed in Singapore 2003 (starting an hour late) to that of a primary/ standard 6 (mediocre) school band performance. 4 hours of non-stop music, including acoustic singing, audience banter and guest artist duets all rolled into one! Boy, he sure worked hard on his 20th anniversary in the industry!
A word about
chinese weddings for those of you who have not had the opportunity to attend one. Do, do, do, even if you have to gate crash. Why? You will see
Out n About...
Notice the different clothes we have on!! the friends and family in their best, surrounded by what holds many people together in a social setting: Food and entertainment. If you are lucky, you may see the star couple being subject to an embarressing list of questions or even games, they may even sing a duet, or you may get guests being invited for Karaoke... all this after the waiters have served the first course in a choreographed formation to some striking song, at ours, we had 'Sandstorm' by Darude, 'Star Wars Epilogue' tune is a favourite at some places. And not forgetting the 'Yam Seng's' The salute to the couple at EVERY table and the obligatory photo snaps. How? As a traveller, throw on your best dregs and visit the hotels on the weekends at the ballroom areas and see which couple is having a wedding that afternoon or evening. Pretend either to be on the brides or groom's side. With about 300 people or more, its not difficult to merge in. If you get found out, well... at least you got to enjoy the pre-meal drinks reception!
Some of the things we also started to notice from the traveller's eyes is the number of guesthouses
KL traffic
Love it or hate it... after India, we loved it! and backpacker places behind Bukit Bintang road on Jalan Alor and Jalan Berangan etc. This is one example of how our lenses are shaped by our experience. Its not easy for a traveller to get a real feel of a place especially if the big backpacker draws are limited to a certain few areas accesssible by foot usually. In KL, a few things to do to along the tourist route and still 1)avoid the touts 2) go away seeing KL as a local would is to
a) Have drinks and a meal in Coliseum on 98 - 100, Jalan Tuanku Abd Rahman. Most importantly mingle with the oldies at the bar. Learn some history.
b) Opposite the same road is Kamdar and Globe silk store. Everyone, and I mean everyone goes there for fabrics at some point. Take a visit just before Hari Raya or Chinese New Year to experience the Squeeze
c) Head to Lake Garden at about 6am and join the groups there on their morning walk or Tai Chi. Just find a group and ask them whether you can join and then head for breakie with them after.
d) Have Street cooked Hokkien noodles at the corner
Jules in da house...
Notice the beer cans behind of Jalan Imbi in an old shophouse opposite the Honda showroom either before a night out or after at Bukit Bintang.
e) Hang out at a mamak (South Indian muslim food stall) place
f) Or do what we frequently do when in town, have a glass of nice wine in Vintry, Jalan Kasah, Bukit Damansara.... in your broad shorts, very faded T and bracelets/ and or wild hair. Mingle with those dressed in the extremes of casual or chic. No one bats an eyelid. You might catch us there from November onwards! We will recognise you by your look 'alone'!
g) Gate crash a wedding and dont tell them we told you so!
So, after all this, dont go home only having spent 2 days in KL and complaining that all you ever saw in KL was Chinatown and getting harrassed to buy tickets at PuduRaya Bus station...
A sideword on buses, Konsortium to Thailand from Pudu bus station and if heading south towards Singapore, buy your tickets from Pasar Rakyat Behind Jalan Imbi as an alternative.
The fluid plan from here is:
19th-25th July Islands in South Thailand - probably Koh Tao
26th-5th Aug Bangkok and Chiang Mai
6th-25th Aug Laos
26th Aug-5th Sept North Vietnam
5th Sept-1st Oct China (Bejing-Xian-Tibet)
2nd -31st Oct Nepal
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Jacque the idiot
Jacque Foo
Wow........
Wow, I've never been to most of the restaurants/cafe you mentioned.....guess I need a guide book to revisit my hometown next time. Nice blog!