The final Chronicle it would seem. (hey, I've only posted it a month late!)
I am now in Brisbane contemplating the joys of work, the daily grind and all that.
Lets see what I can remember of the end of my trip... umm.....
K.L.
Was an interesting place. The Petronas towers are rather impressive, especially at night. They are the tallest buildings in the world after all... My late night walk to them took me past some cheesy theme bars. There was a Thai bar complete with imported seedy old men with imported young Thai hookers on their laps, all visible from the pavement! Beggars in K.L. are well dressed. "Excuse me sir, my card won't work in the ATM, could you give me some ringgit? Maybe 7 or 8 ringgit", I believe my response being something along the lines of "Bugger, how gutting for you."
I met some people up to no good. This old fulla stopped me in the street and asked from whence I came. I told him and he says his daughter is heading to NZ and could I talk to her about it. I was up for a random experience so we went to KFC and he gets me a Pepsi. I talk to him and this all too worldly looking woman. Then next thing I'm in a taxi heading to the burbs. I think they drugged the drink cos I lent forward and got a head rush and contemplated getting out at the lights but thought nah, I'll ride this out. Curiosity taking the better of me and trust that the Tao wouldn't lead me to misfortune. And, unbeknown to them, I'd just had a massive feed so what ever was in the drink did sh!t all anyway. We went to a nice middle class house in the 'burbs and a met a slightly dodgy looking fulla. They gave me a cup of tea, which of course, I didn't drink. The fulla told me he worked at the casino and could tell me how to win at cards. The woman I was supposed to talk to never turned up, was at the hospital or something apparantly. I think they realised I didn't have loads of cash for them to con me out of and wasn't going to willingly part with my kidneys so gave me a ride back to Chinatown. She wanted some money from me on the way back. "From my heart" Unfortunately for her, my heart gives money to starving cambodian children, not dodgy middleclass hussies. The whole situation was rather strange.
I went to the botans. Well, I think it was, some parkland on a hill. It was wicked. They had a planetarium up there and the heaquarters for the Malaysian Space Agency. They also had an equatorial sun dial that could tell one all sorts of astronomical stuff. There was an ancient observatory park with a large replica of stone henge, a chinese and an indian observatory too. There was a nice park with a lake too. The state mosque was pretty cool. I had to put on a blue robe to go see it cos I'm a heathen, actually, more likely they weren't down with my jandals, camo boardies and black beer singlet. The Muslim Arts museum was awesome. Their calligraphy is quite impressive.
I went to the Islamic Supplies Megastore. They were playing Iron Maiden! I was suitably impressed so I bought some prayer mats cos they looked cool. The head scarf wearing check out chick didn't seem too pleased that some scruffy kiwi in beach gear was buying holy artifacts.
Malaysian food is most worthy. Especially Rojak. Picture a large collection of fried goodies. Spuds, squid, fish, chicken... all sorts of fried goodies. Choose what you like, hand it to the man and he chops it up and pours a sort of sweet satay sauce on it. Really tasty.
Getting a bus was easy as and I made it to Singapore in time for my flight. Basically jumped off the bus and walked to the MRT stop (a nice chinese man showed me the way) checked my baggage in, got a couple of feeds and it was time to go. The flight to Cairns was only about 8 hours but just as I was drifting off to sleep it we landed in Darwin, had to go through security, just to hang out in the transit lounge for an hour before getting on the same plane. I guess they were worried about the explosives we'd been manufacturing mid flight. I was sitting next to a french woman, cheeky thing that she was. Good value for a single serving friend. They stopped her bag after the xray and I said "they've got you now!" then walked into the transit lounge. She didn't come through for quite some time and when I saw her later they had 'got her' and confiscated her scissors. I recall having a craft knife confiscated at Welly airport once...
Security checked my passport in Cairns in between immigration and customs. I must have looked dodgy, that happened last time I was at Welly airport too, although I was wearing combat pants that time. At least they didn't give me a cavity search like this fulla on Border Patrol the other night!
Well, thats it for the Asian adventures. It had its ups and downs but was well worth while. Now for some Australian adventures. I shall put the occasional post up when I'm actually doing something other than sitting in an office or drinking p!ss. Such being the Australian way.
