Melaka

From Melaka

On Sunday I decided to make use of my weekend car hire by doing a day trip to Melaka, which is on the coast about 2 hours drive south of KL. Having spent half an hour looking for a parking place, I eventually managed to take to the streets on foot.

The touristy stuff is cantered around the old port area and the Chinatown streets. There is sill a fair amount of the old colonial architecture around, and the old part of town contains quite a few Buddhist and Hindu temples as well as the odd mosque or two, as you can see from the photos. Also some interesting Chinese restaurants and tea rooms to be seen, including the one where I had lunch on the renowned Jonker Street.

The old port area contains masses of museums, but some of them are looking rather run down. I had the energy to do about three of those on offer, mainly to get out of the heat for a bit. One of the underlying themes in several of the museums was that the Malays were rather pissed off with the various colonial powers that successively took over the city over the past four centuries. They seemed happy enough with the immigration of the Chinese back in the 1400’s but seemed to think that the Portuguese, Dutch and finally (especially) the British made a complete mess of things.

Anyway, a pleasant enough day out and it was good to see parts of Malaysia other than KL for a change.

Petaling Hash, Semenyih

View KL Hash Runs in a larger map

It's going to get rather tedious for me to write and you to read the same thing every week about the Saturday hash to I'll just do a summary table, and talk about anything out of the ordinary.

Weather - v. humid	a
Impenetrable jungle	a
Rivers to ford	a
Attacks by venomous reptiles	a
Man-eating Chinese ladies	a
Beers drunk at end	a

Actually, I lied about the venomous reptiles, but I did get attacked by a leech the previous week, I think.

The apres-hash party (actually called the On! On! On!) was again held at my local so an easy walk home afterwards.

KL Weather

Malaysia does not really have any hot or cold season, or even a wet or dry season. It is hot (30C) all year round and can rain at any time of the year. Nevertheless, at this time of year there is a distinct daily pattern to the weather. Starts off sunny and relatively fresh in the morning, becoming progressively hotter and more humid throughout the day. By about 3-4pm the sky clouds over and a strong wind starts to blow. This is followed by thunder, lightning and then torrential rain for about 1-2 hours. This usually finishes by about 6pm, leaving the evenings pleasantly fresher again (relatively speaking!). I have had to adjust my daily routine to take this into account, so that the poolside session is from 1-3pm after which I go to the gym for an hour or so, during which time the storm usually brews up. After that back to the apartment for another hour or two of work before the evening's entertainment, whatever that might be.

Butterfly Park, KL

From Butterfly Park

On Sunday, I decided to make use of the hire car to explore some of KL's tourist attractions. The butterfly park seemed like a good place to start. In the event it was slightly run down, but still plenty of specimens. Unfortunately my main camera packed up so I had to make to with the phone camera, which meant getting right up close to the butterfly's.

The butterfly park is one of many attractions in the Lakeside Park, which also contains an orchid garden, large walk in aviary, planetarium, various museums, etc. I decided to leave these for another day and took a walk around the lake. the palace was virtually deserted, maybe because of/in spite of the fact that this weekend was the Dipavalia and Hari Raya holiday for the Hindu and Muslim communities.

Serendah Hash

View KL Hash Runs in a larger map

Another Saturday, another hash run, this time near Serendah, about 40km to the North of KL. I managed to get there on time thanks to the trusty GPS, but waited for John to pick me up in his 4x4 for the final 2km along a muddy dirt track road. One drawback of this activity is that not only do you need a car, but SUVs are actually a necessity here, rather than a poseur thing back in West London.

The run itself was interesting enough, through virgin jungle and old rubber plantations, and included a 1.5km stretch along a river! (Change map to satellite view and zoom in to see vegetation). Managed to avoid being eaten by snakes, etc, and made it back for a beer or two at the end. This was followed by the usual cheap but excellent Chinese meal and entertainment, before heading back for the final part of the evening, which luckily for me is in my local bar, so not to far to walk home afterwards.

Khon Kaen, Thailand

After a brief business meeting in Bangkok on Friday, I spent the weekend with friends living in Khon Kaen, in the northern Isaan region of Thailand. Not a great deal to do there except eat and talk, which is what the locals spend most of their time doing. Some interesting temples to visit, but that’s about it. Looking forward to returning to the relative civilization of Malaysia.

Diving, Jomtien, Thaliand

News of my stay in KL seems to have got around. I was contacted by an old friend, Mikey, who is currently working in Bangkok. He suggested a couple of days diving in Jomtien, which is only 2 hours drive south of Bangkok. This fitted in OK with my upcoming business meeting, so I agreed to go along with him.

Jomtien turns out to be quite a posh area, with a load of up-market condos and hotels with private beaches. Unfortunately the dive shop Mikey had selected was not particularly efficient and took ages to get organized each morning. Their dive boat was also not really up to the job. The diving itself was OK, but not great, with visibility being rather limited much of the time. Anyway, a break in the routine and good to catch up with Mikey.

A Day at the Office

After a fairly hectic round of meeting old friends over the past week, I have spent the last two days in what passes for normal working mode here in KL. This involves about 2-3 hours of consultancy work doing stuff on my laptop or on Skype calls with the folks back in the UK and Dublin. The rest of the day is free for lounging by the pool, reading, or doing my Mandarin home work. I can eat out in one of the local restaurants for 10MR (<£2), which includes a large rice based dish, a mango drink and a fruit dessert. So not much incentive to get into home cooking. Impressive nighttime views over the royal palace construction site to the KL skyline.

Petaling Hash, Panjam

I managed to survive another hash outing, losing only small amounts of skin in the jungle.

The post-hash dinner was particularly good on this occasion as it coincided with the Chinese moon festival (same as autumn equinox I think). So the Chinese hash members (who make up the majority of the group) made sure that we all got to eat various Chinese treats such as moon cake, a well as the usual excellent food and a fair amount of beer. A very friendly bunch to spend the evening with, and great company.

View KL Hash Runs in a larger map

Windsor Tower

Finally got to move into my apartment (see pics). Small, but should do nicely for what I need. There are a load of restaurants in the plaza next to my block so plenty of choice for eating out. Talking of eating out, I discovered yesterday that my hotel was right next to the main eating street in KL (Jalan Alor), so I managed to get an excellent meal, including some tasty satay and a large beer for 35MR (<£6). Now off for a drink with the lads at the Backyard pub, which is pretty much my local. I will probably get talked into doing the hash tomorrow, so this may be the last you hear from me before I get lost/eaten by snakes in the jungle.