Archive for April, 2008
My shopping is all done and I went to see Iron Man A ticket cost 1.50 (that’s with a 1/3 markup for opening day blockbuster) and popcorn and a coke cost 1.20. It was hugely fun from start to finish and I left happy. No Sam Jackson cameo here but a few in-jokes and more than one nerd in the audience to appreciate some lines. Amazingly it’s the first movie that actually makes Gwyneth Paltrow look attractive. That must have taken some doing! Downey Jr. is note-perfect as both Tony Stark and Iron Man. The movie nicely (very very!) sets up War Machine and Devil In A Bottle. If the rest of the movies that Marvel are making themselves are as good as this, it’ll be a good long run.
Oh yeah, best Stan cameo by a long shot!
Alrighty catchup time. I’m sat in Starbucks in a shopping Mall in Malacca. It is too hot, it’s simply too hot. I don’t know what it is because I’m sure it’s been hotter than this before (Hanoi, Krabi) but it’s just overwhelming at the moment. So I have decided to take refuge in the air conditioned mall and to catchup on stuff. Most of the group seem to have done the same. Also as we are in the cultural capital of Malaysia we decided that last night we’d all go bowling and tonight we are going to see Iron Man. Life is good!
So right we moved from the Cameroon Highlands into Kuala Lumpur. I liked KL, I’d have liked more time there. It’s feeling a bit rushed at the moment, lots of 2 nights somewhere but only about a day and a half to see ‘em. When there is a good bit of getting up early and spending hours on a bus, well it saps really wanting to do much in the afternoon/evening after arrival.
Anyway KL. We were hugely central in the hotel and could walk almost everywhere which was good. I may have mentioned spending a stupid amount of money on books in Borders, that was not good. In fact Malaysia so far has not been good for my wallet. It’s expensive, well that’s very unfair. It’s not expensive at all but it is in comparison to Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand. The other night when I had my Dave time, dinner and 4 pints cost me about 20 quid. So not hugely unreasonable at all but in context of the same thing in Vietnam costing around 80p, you can see where I’m coming from.
Our last night there I dragged a very willing group of volunteers to Finnegan’s Irish pub with one simple promise “bacon butty”. Glorious. Good Guinness too and I’m informed that their Old Speckled Hen was also good stuff. It was fun, just sitting down and relaxing.
So I did a bus tour because it was either too hot or raining (it rains alot in Malaysia, way more than Ireland or England!) and that was decent. It probably wasn’t worth doing as the city is entirely walkable but I got a good feel and was pointed out a few things I wouldn’t have noticed.
Two big things for KL, well three technically. First up the Petronas Twin Towers. The ones with the skybridge between ‘em. The ones that you think of when someone says Kuala Lumpur. Well the tickets for ‘em are free but they only let 1400 people in everyday and queueing starts early. So on the second day myself and Hiego got up just after 06.30 and headed there to queue. We did well, we were about tenth in the queue and all was good. Some of our group wandered in later and we figured we would see how many tickets we could get and lo and behold we got enough and pulled ‘em out of the queue for which they were duly grateful. Then at the top of the queue a nice woman asked if we were in a rush, would we like to be in the first group up. So that was even better. We got about 30 seconds of an empty bridge and then some time with just us to wander and take silly pictures and enjoy the sites.
It was at the same time entirely not worth doing and entirely worth doing. I’m really glad I did it. I like towers and I generally try and go up ‘em when I have the chance. I have already been in the tallest in the world (CN Tower Toronto in 1999 and the two days I had lunch at the top of the World Trade Center in NYC).
KL has another tower, the KL Tower. It’s not as tall but it’s observation deck is much higher. So we did that the night before. I managed to meet up with the group there. It’s good fun with a much better circular view of the city and of course you can take some shots of the Petronas Twin Towers (though the angle isn’t great). I enjoyed that too.
Other than that, I did lots of cards and sent about a dozen from the post office yesterday. It’s much cheaper here, as I may have mentioned and so I should do some more today. I have an awkward shaped package to get back to Dublin.
Ooh and I found a copy of Wired in KL, not the out of date issue I’d missed but the one just out. So I enjoyed that. It also, timely, informed me that Toyko Police Club’s debut album came out this week and as soon as I can get a good net connection I’ll be having that off iTunes. Looking forward to it a lot. The first EP has been getting a lot of play from me since I accidentally saw them at Reading last year and indeed lotsa titles from ‘em
So then it was a quick bus trip to Malacca yesterday with a nice enough dinner in the hotel before we went bowling. It was good if silly fun. This morning I wandered for a little while before taking shelter in the mall.
So tomorrow brings another new country and the beginning of he end for stage one of my trip, Singapore. I’m staying there for a week which is good in that I can empty and sort my bag and have some down time. I don’t feel like I need it but I know that I really do. I have to do some sorting out of stuff and it’ll be good to have a base for a while. I’m looking forward to it. Then it’s China!!
Lets see, I saw a 450D there in KL for a very reasonable 500 (with lens!) and I could get tax back on that. Tempting, so tempting, especially in light of the horrible amount of dust on my 400D. I did a cleaning job on it yesterday and I think it’s better but man I’m gonna need to do some recovery work on some shots from the past few days sometime down the line. The complication and indeed the main reason that I’m not going to update to a 450D now is that it does not take the same battery pack or indeed the same batterys as mine and so I’d need to buy them new too. Seems like a waste.
So now I’m gonna go and take a wander around the mall. I need a couple of bits of clothes and then I’m going to see Iron Man and see what the evening brings!
Shit.
It’s 22.48 and I’m going to bed in a bad mood. I have no-one to blame but myself which makes it even worse.
I’m way behind on my journal and I should spend some time working on it but I just cannot get into the mood to do that. So instead I’m going to go to bed and read a bad book by Mamet (I know, I’m shocked too).
One final thing before I do go to bed, I’d just like to re-iterate plainly for the record Pete Doherty is a cunt and should be locked up somewhere with the key thrown away.
22.51 Malacca, Malaysia Tuesday 29 April
I got up at 06.30 to go and queue for tickets to the Petronas Towers Skybridge. Due to some excellent work by the security guards, “only one of you needs to queue”, we got 5 of us in as the very first group of the day which was pretty cool. So Karen, Fireman Jeff, Zoey, Hiego and myself made it up there just after 09.00 and had fun. Some photos to follow at some point.
I like KL. I’ll go into more about it later when I have a chance (I’m waiting for a bus at the moment) but it’s good. It helps that everyone speaks English and there is a large Borders where I may have spent more money on books than I should have. Just when my bag was starting to empty out a bit!
Lots of cards and stuff gone into the post today. It’s much cheaper here than anywhere else to date. I may try and get more off before we leave Malaysia in a couple of days.
12.23 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Tuesday April 29
I Feel It All
Awesome, thanks Alex!!!
It’s tonight, perhaps Sunday? Oh it must be Sunday there is a grand prix on in the background. I am sat by the side of the road in Kuala Lumpur (how awesome is that!!) and enjoying a pint and some wifi. It’s nearly bedtime but for now I’ve posted updates and some photos. I’ve written some cards and some emails and it’s all good.
Now it’s time for another early night. I like KL. I found a bookshop and I found a great magazine shop. I have enjoyed a lot of Dave time today and tomorrow I intend to do a red bus and take it from there.
The bad news is that they only let 1400 people up the Petrnoas (twin towers) each day and queueing is mad early. I really really want to do ‘em. I like towers and I like significant towers. I mean to be fair you think KL and if you have heard of it you think those towers…I may queue…but not tomorrow.
21.49 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Sunday April 27
Uh it’s Saturday I think. I’m in my hotel room in a small town in the middle of the Cameron Highlands and it’s awesome. For one thing it’s cool, to the point of where i woke up this morning and I was cold. That didn’t last long as I spent a good portion of the day trekking through the highland jungle.
Anyway getting ahead of myself here. So we bussed from Penang to the Cameron Highlands and well shortly after got the bus there was a large bang from down the back and then repeated bangs on a semi-regular basis. This was of great concern to us and the other tourists on board but the driver either didn’t notice or didn’t care.
Conjecture lead us to a blown tyre and after quite some time later when we eventually stopped, this was confirmed to be the case. Hurrah. There was a few half hearted chorus like “The wheels on the bus go whump crash bang, whump crash bang, whump crash bang” and then eventually we pulled in to get the tire changed under the direct supervision of Fireman Jeff, Sheffield Dave and myself. The photo is worth looking at. We easily did 100km on that tyre before it got looked at!
Anyway we made it and all was good. Today there was trekking (awesome), swimming (oh no togs…oh well lets just jump in anyway!) under waterfalls (also awesome!), a tea factory (not so awesome but the largest tea plantation in at least South East Asia if not the world so well no still not awesome), a butteryfly farm (hmm maybe some good photos) and finally a strawberry farm (distinctly not awesome). Trekking was unquestionably the highlight and indeed one of the whole trip I think. Good good stuff.
Oh yes I’m feeling hugely better, all around. So that’s good news. Indian for dinner last night and then some local chicken/rice dish tonight before a quick search for wi-fi to update. I found some wi-fi but ended up on IM to family and friends and well the connection was probably too shit to update anyway.
Right that’s it for now. Bedtime calls. As much as I’d like to stay here in the Highlands for longer, tomorrow we are off to KL. More then.
22.52 Cameron Highlands, Malaysia Saturday 26 April.
I think last night was a pretty big one actually. I’m disgusted to have found out today from Sheffield Dave who informed me with malicious pleasure that we had spent last night in an English pub drinking and merrymaking on St. George’s Day!
Oh that reminds me as an aside. I have a great story from a few years ago. Andy, Patrick and Rich and myself (I think that was it) went out for a few pints after work. It simply happened to be St. George’s Day. We went to the Albion (the pub I tried to buy towards the end of last year) and it was dead. We were the only people in there. It was early, I think we had knocked off before 6 and we were just shooting the shit as my American friends would say. Then one of the local alchos, older fella wanders in and sets up a one man band in the corner for St. George’s day. It was the worst thing I have ever heard in my life. I have never ever left a pub as quickly as I did then (and that includes being caught in that riot in Bristol a few years ago with chairs flying and glass smashing!). We all immediately decamped to the Cumberland around the corner. I think that was the beginning of the end for the old Albion.
So today was quiet..as you may have guessed. Lots of faffing around and a little bit of shopping. I have an awesome greeting card that I picked up in Cambodia which is perfect for a couple of people. I bought it with one person in mind but as soon as I thought of someone else it struck me how perfect it is for her. I’ve managed, mainly due to lethargy, to not get it into an envelope and posted but today I got it all written and addressed and I just need a stamp. I’ve got a couple of postcards written up too, they just need a stamp and then a letter ready to go to Jill for her art project. Remind me to pimp that link when I’ve got a net connection, I’m typing this up offline in my hotel room.
Then it was back to the same place we had dinner last night for another lovely and exceedingly cheap meal and then a couple of beers before calling it a night. Well I called it a night, Paul, Keith, Irish Karen and Fergal have gone to karaoke. I’m not that happy!!!
I have totally and utterly fallen for track 2 I Feel It All from Fiest’s The Reminder. It’s glorious and I’m sticking it it on repeat. I’m not sold on the album, I’ve not managed to make it to the end of it once yet. I’ll work on it some more again tomorrow or so. I suspect that many of the next few entries will take their titles from it and indeed I’ve used it already.
Tomorrow isn’t too early a start. I have my alarm set for 07.30 and we leave around 09.00 for an 8 hour coach trip to the Cameroon Highlands. I’ve got some music and some books to get through!
22.31 Penang, Malaysia Thursday April 24