Tron

Thursday 16^th December 2010

MP3 track of the day: Three little birds – Bob Marley

Weather: Another fine sunny day

My room felt like the arctic when I awoke; when I went to sleep last night someone had the air-conditioning temperature down to 20 … I put it up to 23 but I was still cold during the night. I didn't feel too well when I woke and thoughts of the Cameron Highlands came flooding back to me, luckily I only have one more night here. Once out of the room I immediately warmed up; it was a bit weird eating breakfast on my own (as Claudia wasn't up and Mike was in another hostel) and I was missing the group. Soon after Claudia came past me and said goodbye as she was heading to Bangkok on the train … so now we are down to two.

Today I have loads of internet chores to do; firstly I have to update my blog (which, as you can see, I've done) as I've been having so much fun recently it's been on the back burner for days. I also have to:

• book accommodation in Krabi (plus print off map)

• Check the Thai bat

• Upload my photos to the internet

• Update finances

• Check emails and facebook

I also need to purchase some more shaving foam, a memory card and re-pack my bag (as I will be passing through the Thai boarder ... I don't want anything that isn't mine in my bag). I knew this would take a while so, whilst chatting to Mike last night, he decided to have a look around town and we would meet up in the late afternoon. We both wanted to see 'Tron: Legacy' so that's the plan for tonight, though I do have to watch the pennies as I am running out of cash with only one day in Malaysia to go.

I started my chores and booked an 'okay' place in Krabi. It doesn't look brilliant and, with only six beds, there won't be much of an atmosphere … oh and it's expensive, but it's the cheapest I could find. I only booked two nights so that I could look around Krabi, when I get there, for something cheaper or, if I don't like Krabi, move on … trying to keep it flexible.

All other internet jobs went well but took there time. It wasn't until 2pm that I was ready to leave the hostel. Once outside I went to the shopping center to have lunch and purchase a can of shaving foam and another memory card (which I managed to barter the price down by five ringgit, or a British pound to you and me … first time). I then came back to my hostel, went though my entire contents of my bag and re-packet it. Some compartments aren't lockable so I'll have to check them again tomorrow morning.

By this time it was around 4:45pm and so I emailed Mike to say that I was ready, whenever he was, to meet up. I started to watch a film at the hostel and, at around 5:15pm, Mike showed up and off we went to the cinema.

'Tron Legacy' was great, I really enjoyed it and I'm tempted to watch it again soon (also theres a really fit bird in it). The thing that wasn't very nice were the Malayan people in the cinema. Mike had someone behind him stick his bare feet to the left of his head and mobile phones went off all the time (with one guy behind us having a long conversation). Both of us are petty tired of this selfish Malayan culture and we moaned about it all the way to the Indian restaurant.

I had eaten so much pop corn (which was lovely) that I wasn't hungry at all and so I only had a pudding, where as Mike had a full meal. On the table to our left was another traveling couple struggling to find something on the menu that they wanted to order (seemed like a 'steak and chips' couple). We tried to help them but we got our bill and left before they had made their minds up. I went for one drink with Mike before we shook hands, wished each other good luck for the rest of our trips, and I headed off for an early night. There is still a chance that I will see Mike again, but its uncertain.

So this ends my time in Malaysia. Yes I found it difficult, yes the people in Kuala Lumpur aren't great but overall Malaysia has been okay. There are quite a few things to see here and, apart from Kuala Lumpur, the people are friendly enough. You could do the sights in Malaysia in a week and compared to other countries I've visited (JAPAN) it's not as good. Malaysia isn't as cheap as I thought it was going to be either; my daily average was over £17.00! (I wanted it to be ten!). However I did do quite a bit of shopping (plus a two-day tour) that will hopefully sustain me as I travel further into South East Asia. Finally I don't think that I will be coming back to Malaysia anytime soon.

Toodle Pip!

Last Meal

Tuesday 14^th December 2010

MP3 track of the day: Jingle Bells

Weather: Raining in the middle of the day, followed by sunshine

For the first time whilst staying in George Town I woke up a decent time; however it still took a while for the group of us to get ready, which now included Mike as he had arrived, this morning, from the jungle. It was at this time that I asked the receptionists if I could extend my stay by a further two nights. To add further confusion I had to change dorms today due to a party of people coming who had booked the whole of my dorm. It felt like I had just asked the receptionists to explain partial physics as it took me hours to sort it all out; the end result was that I did have to move dorms and that I did have an extra two nights, however I couldn't go into my new dorm due to other guests not checking out yet. I therefore packed all my stuff up, left it at reception, and went out to join the others. We had planned to head to the national park today (I had purchased a bottle of water especially), however with the clouds becoming darker and darker, it was decided that it wasn't worth going as it would probably rain constantly.

Instead we walked around town … again … and the rest of the group went into a Mosque where as I, not really that bothered, waited outside. The rain did indeed throw it down and so I took shelter in the Mosque porch and waited for the others to finish their tour. We then decided to head to a coffee shop, recommend by our hostel, for a drink and to wait for the rain to stop (it was actually really good as the place had a lot of character).

The rain finally gave way and so we headed to a Chinese temple that cost us ten ringgit to enter (all the others had been free). It was quite nice but I don't think it was worth the cost, especially as I shall be heading to China at some point.

Feeling quite tired we went for lunch before heading back to the hostel to watch the second half of the 'Shawshank Redemption' (great film). The film finished at around 5pm; feeling as though we hadn't done much today we decided to go out for another walk. Before this though I was able to put my stuff into my new dorm. I picked up my bags from reception and put them next to my bed. It took me a while to work out that something was missing … my towel wasn't there. Due to having a shower this morning my towel was wet and so I left it out of my bag to dry; on my return the towel wasn't with my possessions. I went back to reception to see if they had it, in which they replied 'no', but they would keep an eye out.

I followed the group out on our walk, still a bit annoyed about my towel, wondering why anyone would steal it … I suppose it is a quick dry towel. The walk was okay, we went into a market and looked at shops that we hadn't seen before, but I got the feeling that no one could really be bothered, including me.

We shortly arrived back at our hostel to chill before tea. I decided to get my computer out of my bag and go on the internet; once I opened my bag I found my towel (I must have gone back to my bag during the day and put my towel away when it felt dry). I felt like such an idiot; I immediately apologized to the receptionists for my mistake.

At around eight we headed out for something to eat. As it was the two German (Stephanie and Anna) and Kiwi girls (Barbara-ann) last night they got to decided what we would eat. Indian was chosen and so we all popped down to the local one. I was feeling a little festive (Christmas songs were playing at our hostel) and so the Santa hat came out for the final meal; on our way to the Indian apparently a little girl saw my hat and started singing 'Jingle Bells'; sadly I didn't hear her and only when Barbara-Ann mentioned it was I a little gutted to have missed it. Now something I haven't mentioned before but every time I've been for something to eat I'm never quite sure what I'm going to get. Communication is a little difficult, and it doesn't help that 'yes' seems to be the waiters answer to every question:

• “...Is this my meal?...” - Yes!

• “...Should I put the chilli sauce on or is it better with the mint?...” - Yes!

• “...Will I die if I eat what you've cooked?...” - Yes!

The reason I'm telling you all this is because this time the meals got mixed up. I ate Stephanie's' meal and she ate mine; what was worse was that a) this was Stephanie's' last meal here 2) hers had lots of mushrooms in it and d) it was more expensive than what I had ordered. Still we both had a good laugh about it.

After the meal we went to a 'Reggie bar'; just before arriving Claudia (another German girl who had joined us) said that tomorrow was her 28^th Birthday. It was her birthday and she didn't have any cake! … that's not on. As we walked further to the 'Reggie bar' we past a seven-eleven where I dashed in to find a cake along with Stephanie. There was a poor selection on the shelves with one said cake looking so green it looked like it had gone off. In the end I purchased a small Swiss-roll which she was very grateful to receive. We had one drink at the 'Reggie bar' where we also managed to persuade the owner to get Claudia a better birthday cake and the whole bar sang happy birthday to her. I then asked her what she wanted to do tomorrow (as she wasn't leaving until the day after) to which she replied she would like to go to the beach at sunset … Mike and I were on the case.

Everybody was pretty tired and so we headed back to the hostel where everyone went to sleep, apart from Stephanie and I; we chatted for a bit about life, the earth and whether Elvis was still alive … it was 2am when I finally went to bed.

Toodle Pip!

Santa Hat

Monday 13th December 2010

MP3 track of the day: Do they know it's Christmas – Band Aid

Weather: Rain midday but brightening up towards the evening

I got up even later today than yesterday. Looking at the clouds it looked like rain was on it's way. The girls needed to do some shopping and so we all headed to the local shopping center; the two German girls, a German bloke and I. Once there the two girls did their stuff and I went with the bloke to find a Santa hat, as it's Christmas. We went to this one shop selling cheap-looking Santa hats for 60p and we purchased one.

I was a little worried wearing a Santa hat in a manly Muslim country however it was he best 60p I've ever spent. As we walked around we saw people smiling, laughing and we even got quite a few merry Christmas exchanges. One Indian bloke came up to the both of us, with a big smile on his face, shook our hands and said Merry Christmas … that alone was worth the cost and it had been my best experience, with the Malayan people, so far. It seems the Santa bit of Christmas breaks boundaries of culture, country and religion … it seems to bring people together and everyone we spoke to was a little happier once we had exchanged comments.

It was still raining when we left the shopping center and so we grabbed some lunch; we headed back to the hostel to watch a film called 'Brothers' (set around the Afgan war; its good) and we just chilled waiting for the rain to stop.

The rain stopped around 5:30pm and so we headed out to this chocolate shop in George Town where they make Malayan chocolate. I was pretty excited about this as it would help me keep my 'world of chocolate' trip alive. The chocolate shop was only a five minute walk away from the hostel and so we were soon given a group number and went on a tour. This had to be the quickest tour known to man; there were six rooms with different types of chocolate in each and we had roughly 0.045 seconds in each room where we got to taste a very small chocolate sample before being escorted to the shop where the staff were encouraging us to purchase something. Unusually we found some boxes of chocolates that looked quite nice, were quite expensive and were to all of our tastes. We had just about decided to spend eleven ringgit each when an attendant said to us not to buy the chocolates we had chosen; she was so adiment that I thought she might not even allow us to purchase them. We therefore opted for a cheap box of chocolates that we shared between us. The chocolates weren't actually that good compared to Belgium, UK, Japan and New Zealand and so it was quite a disappointment.

We had an hour and a half to kill before we had decided to head out for tea; we walked around town for a while, checking out some of the temples and the waterfront, again, before heading back to the hostel to meet up with others before heading out for tea.

We found a nice place to eat where I had some spring rolls, fried pork and a noodle soup … which was so large that I felt really full after wards. However we didn't stop there; we then headed to another restaurant to have a banana rotai (banana pancake to you and me) which is famous around this part of the world … it was okay, however the hot mango juice (which I certainly didn't order hot) was horrible.

I was extremely full by now, however as we decided to watch another film back at the hostle before hitting the sack (Shrek four … with dodgy English subtitles) I decided to purchased some chocolate and a coke. It's been a nice, relaxing day today … not sure what tomorrow will bring.

Toodle Pip!

George Town

Sunday 12th December 2010

MP3 track of the day: LDN – Lilly Allen

Weather: Raining early afternoon but brightening up towards the evening

As you would expect, being up until 3am the previous night had taken its tole on the time I eventually got up today. An hour of lazing around, surfing the web, I was eventually ready to hit the streets around midday. Yesterday the others had decided to hire a scooter, however I wasn't that bothered and so I decided to do my own thing.

The skies were cloudy as I walked around the city looking at government buildings, colonial buildings, temples and mosques. As I approached the north harbor front the rain, yet again, came in. I had only been out for thirty minutes and there I was, sitting in a bus shelter, waiting for this monsoon to pass … hopefully the guys on the scooter weren't caught up in this weather. Once the worst of the rain had past I continued my walk around the city.

It was still drizzling around 1:30pm and so I decided to head back to my hostel, drop off my stuff, and head to a shopping center for lunch and to have a look around. Georgetown seems to have four big shopping centers in one complex, though only one is rammed full of shops with the others only having, I reckon, 20% of retail space in use. Once I had found the full shopping center I had lunch (which included a chocolate waffle … yum) and I then checked out the cinema, just encase this wet weather persevered throughout my stay here.

Once out of the shopping center the sun was out and the skies were blue. I hurried back to my hostel to pick up my camera, to re-trace my steps of earlier, and take photos of things that I didn't have the opportunity to take because of the rain. Once this was done it was around 5pm and so I headed back to hostel as I was a) pretty thirsty and 2) tired.

Around 7pm the others returned from their moped adventure; we went back to the same food court for tea as yesterday. This time I had the duck rice (which wasn't very nice … to many bones) and fried ice cream (which sounds bizarre, but good). There was a live band playing and the place was packed, a good atmosphere all round.

After this we yet again hit the town by starting at an Irish Pub (which, when I went through the door, I thought I had been transported back to the UK) where we played a little table football and pool. After this we headed to a club where we stayed or one drink as the prices were so high, the band onstage were pretty impressive though.

Around 2am we walked back to our hostel where we found the door locked; this in itself wasn't a major problem as the same scenario occurred yesterday, we just had to ring the bell. Unfortunately the bell wasn't working either and so we were effectively locked out … oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

The situation was resolved when a kiwi girl forcefully opened the door a little to find that it was only held by a weak yale lock and the door swung open … result. We didn't go to sleep straight away, we finished our drinks, chatted abit and went to sleep around 3am … another good night.

Tomorrow, lie-in again I think, Georgetown's ace!

Toodle Pip!

What a guys have to spend to stick with the ladies

Saturday 11^th December 2010

MP3 track of the day: Wonderful Christmas Time ... a Christmas time ... a Christmas time – Paul McCartney

Weather: Hot with frequent showers in George Town

After blogging last night I went out with said German girls, two German guys, a Kiwi and Mike. One of the German guys wanted us to all try this dish called 'steamboat'. At fourteen ringgit (£3.00) it was a little more expensive than I would normally spend on my evening meal, however for the experience (and the company), I went for it. Just before going I went to the bathroom which, when I looked in the mirror, indicated that I hadn't gotten away without being sun burnt today. My face and neck were bright red, however my skin didn't feel too hot. I knew I wasn't badly burnt but, along with my running nose, I felt that this wasn't an attractive criteria for pulling women.

A steamboat is basically a large metal bowl, divided in two, with a lid. In the compartments were two soups, one spicy and one not. The whole thing is then positioned on top of a gas burner in the middle of the table. Plates of meat, fish, noodles, egg, mushrooms and spinach are distributed around the table and you put the food in the soups, wait for it to be cooked, and then eat it (Chinese fondu basically). The meal was delicious; I preferred to cook my food in the spicy soup, which when eaten, made me go even redder in the face (much to the amusement of everyone around the table, including the German girls … making girls laugh, first point done). As most of us have to be up early to travel to George Town (or more commonly known as Penang, due to the island that George Town is situated on) we all went to bed, I said farewell to Mike as he was going to the Taman Negara National Park; I'm sure I'll see him later on in my travels.

Waking up at 6:10am I got ready for my 6:50am bus journey to George Town. There were six of us to fit into this small mini-van and we were all pretty sleepy-eyed. As you can imagine not a lot was said on the mini-van as we all tried to catch up on sleep (however most of us failed due to the 's' bending roads, the van being so uncomfortable and periodic bumpy road surfaces). As everyone else was trying to sleep I was decided to look out of the window; it hit me there and then that this day last month - 11^th November 2010 – I was flying into Japan. It had been a whole month since I landed in Japan and I have been talking about the country non-stop, to every traveler I meet, ever since. I still want to head back to Japan and so far, its so much better than South East Asia. I'm still not liking Malaysia, mainly due to the people, however I have been promised that it does get better in Thailand.

Once we had stopped for breakfast we all awoke a little and started chatting. Before the breakfast stop one of the German girls offered me one of her oranges to help me with my cold … it was good. At our breakfast stop I decided to get myself a bag of oranges … which are okay but not as nice (why is it when I purchase fruit it's minging, but when others do is lovely … I'll stick to biscuits).

We soon arrived in George Town on the island of Penang. The mini-van driver took me to my hostel (which happens to be the same one as the to German girls … what a coincidence. Okay, okay so I asked them where they are staying) and dropped the others at their hostels. It's a little more expensive than I would have liked; the staff are as friendly as any other Malaysians I've met and some of the additional charges are down right cheeky (5 ringgit for a locker and 5 ringgit for a top sheet … surely that counts as bedding? Lucky I have my sheet sleeping bag … Malaysians are so money grabbing it's unbelievable, not like the Japanese). As we had arrived early at our hostel we couldn't go to our rooms, therefore we put our bags behind the reception counter and went out to find something to eat.

As I had to drop my stuff behind the counter I couldn't really sort my day-bag out; I therefore forgot to take any suncream with me, or an umbrella, however I did remember my hat. We found a nice Chinese restaurant to eat in which was a little more expensive than I would have liked, still the girls were happy. I then followed the girls around town on this signed walk thing, taking in most of the sights. We got about on third of the way around the walk and, at this point, I was cursing not bringing any suncream with me as the sun was beating down and I felt pretty idiotic considering what had happened yesterday.

We sat down on the northern coastal wall of the town for a rest. Heavy white clouds were ascending on Georgetown blocking out the sun (which I was very grateful of) however these clouds soon changed their colour to a very dark grey / black. Then the rain came pouring down; At first I sheltered under one of the girls umbrellas however it wasn't really working with two. I then decided to brave the rain as we headed for a coffee shop recommended by the hostel. It was weird because it was throwing it down with rain, yet I was still hot … I didn't mind getting soaked at all.

We couldn't find the coffee shop the hostel recommend so we went to another; I had a cup of tea and we waited for the rain to stop. Once it had stopped the girls wanted to head back to the hostel for a rest while I needed to get some shampoo (as I had run out). I went to this shopping center which was huge, but most of the retail outlets were empty, which made the place very spooky indeed. I didn't hang around and so I bought some shampoo (which the advertisement said it attracted the ladies … could be useful) and then met one of the girls back at the hostel. The other girl had gone to have a snooze and so I decided to check into my dorm and sort my stuff out.

As mentioned above, I didn't really like the hostel at first as I felt it was too expensive and that they were money grabbing. However the dorm is really clean and I have my own space with a light, power port, a big size bed and a shelf to put stuff on … it wasn't that bad after all.

After lazying around for an hour or so I met up with the two girls plus three new guys (one German, one English and one American). We headed out to this food court called the 'Rose Garden'. The food court was like a large circular tent with food stalls around the edges. In the middle were numbered tables. The idea was that you choose a table number, have a look around the stalls and when you find something you like, order it and tell the chef your table number. I ordered 'crispy pork with Wong-tong noodles', which was nice; I also ordered a side plate of spring rolls … yum. The six of us sat down at table number six and took in the sights, smells and sounds of this busy eating area. On our table was an array of foods which cost little over £3 per person, it was a good experience.

Considering that the time was 8:30pm – and that we had been up since 6:00am – we decided to have a night on the town. After a quick shower we headed to the main drinking street and the others ordered three liters of Tiger Beer (which came to the table in a big tube, with a half football cup as a mount with a tap to pour the beer). It was interesting just to watch the people out and about, but the staff at the bar continually bothered us, filling up glasses trying to make us drink more so that we bought more. We left after one round.

It was around midnight we decided to find a final pub for one last drink. The 'blue diamond' was our target however, once there, it was a right dive and so we didn't stay. The best bit was that they had a live band with a drummer, a keyboard / vocals and a bloke at the front of the band … who couldn't sing … who couldn't play the guitar … but had ripped jeans, lots of fuzzy brown hair and could air-guitar a bit. It seems standards are low when trying to be apart of a Malayan band. Instead of a pub we bought drinks from the local 'Seven-Eleven' and just sat outside the hostel talking ... it was brilliant and we eventually crawled back into the hostel at 3am, much to the annoyance of the owner (which I liked as he's really grumpy).

I'm not sure what I'm going to do tomorrow (probably weather dependent) but one thing is for sure … a lie-in!

Toodle Pip!