AirAsia must be complemented on their supercheap fares once more. Bangkok is the same dirty congested city i left behind a couple of months back. The dissapointment with the city is that it has no discernable city centre, business district or areas of open spaces. So every corner feels the same. Anyways, ordered my suit, wandered around the backpacker ghetto of Khao San, bought some t-shirts that attempt to make me look younger. Then all the Grand Palace stuff.

- posted by Daniel @ Friday, June 25, 2004 0 comments

 
The mundane of KL now, but Rajani's arrival livens things up a bit. McDonalds at KL Sentral pickup.

He talks of marriage and children. My stomach turns. Lots of sitting around chilling out, for the rest of the week. Then they all leave. Raw heads to Singapore, Dipesh to Melbourne and Anthea and Karena to London.

Finally, i depart WIM, and head for Hanoi via Bangkok.

- posted by Daniel @ Friday, June 25, 2004 0 comments

 
Leg muscles not happy. We checked into a decent hotel and tried hard to relax, but in the end, we all needed about a week to recover, after getting back to KL. Raw's grand idea of continuing the morning jog in no way consoled my limbs.

- posted by Daniel @ Wednesday, June 23, 2004 0 comments

 
The Big Climb. We took a flight out to Sabah on Thursday, stayed in Poring Hot Springs, and then moved to Kinabulu National Park on Friday. The trek began on Saturday at about 2000m. We covered 6km in the first day up to Laman Rata, and stayed overnight. Arising at 2am on the Sunday morning, we were the last to leave Laman Rata at 3am behind a big queue of tourists. Our guide, Marius, followed. Annoyingly, I was struck by a weakness from a stomach bug that still seems to affect me now. Sharing 1 backpack between Raw and myself, Raw took over the load after 5 minutes, and we steadily climbed overtaking a lot of people on the way up. A 2.7km trek gaining over 1000m was covered in under 3 hours. The summit was extremely cold because of the windchill. A quick hot drink from the Thermos, and we descended the full 8.7km. Legs now shot to pieces.


















- posted by Daniel @ Tuesday, June 22, 2004 0 comments

 
After a meeting yesterday, it was recommended that Vic and I head to Singapore for CommunicAsia. The event was being held over 5 days, and showcased a variety of products for the telecoms industry. Charged the phone and laptop, and jumped on the overnight train down to Singapore. Walked into a 5* hotel and abused their toiletry facilities in the morning, changed, and began to feel like Jack Lemmon from Glen Garry Glen Ross. The expo was interesting enough ? but I somehow feel that the few sales leads we pursued will come to nothing. Which fits falls succinctly into place with the Jack Lemmon mindset.

Tomorrow we head of for Kota Kinabulu, for The Big Climb. With the lack of sleep in the past two days, and the junk food consumed with loathing today, and the disruption in a /cough/ rigorous training schedule not withstanding Tiger Beer ? the excuses for dismal yet fabulous failure are secure.

Kota Kinabulu. Which bring me on to the interesting subject the Malaysian partiality for two letter acronyms. So far Kuala Lumpur, Sungai Petani, Kota Kinabulu and Johor Bahru are the cities which are transparently referred to by their acronym. Perhaps a vogue following the lead of The City of Angels.

Notes to self today.
Singaporean taxi drivers speak good English. Therefore, fast paced English conversation between passengers can be understood. This liberty of a private conversation appears to be restricted to the confines of the Protons of Malaysia. So in future, no mumbling grumbles about S$2 surcharges.
Burger King?s offering of a Rendang double meal burger is truly one of the foulest culinary disappointments available in South East Asia. Not to be repeated, and let the word spread. Like the Ford Ka, if enough of us refuse to buy, the producer will take note.



- posted by Daniel @ Thursday, June 17, 2004 0 comments

 
Some photos of the Batu caves. The limestone caves were found just outside KL by an American, and are now host to Hindu rituals.



- posted by Daniel @ Tuesday, June 15, 2004 0 comments

 
GoFreelance went live on Friday, and has got over 400 members already.

The weekend spent at Taman Negara was tough. After spending the Friday night at Jerantut, I headed off for a 2 day trek in the jungle, with the intent of sleeping in a hide in the forest itself. The first day's trek was an intense 6 hours. Sweaty, repetitive, taxing. The plan was simple. Trek for 8km alongside the river, and stop off at a village for supplies, then a further 1.5km to the High Hide, to spend the night. Waiting in a A&E to be seen by a doctor takes time, but trekking through the jungle is longer still. With bugs and beasts and fallen trees to overcome. And sweaty. The biggest disappointment to be had was upon arrival at the village, to discover that it was abandoned - for some six months now. The park warden didn't think it necessary to pass on this information. So, thirsty, tired and hungry, I sat in this ghost town, staring at the river, and picking off leeches. A man (who in hindsight could well have been a mirage) appeared, and I engaged him in conversation. It turns out that due to pesticide restrictions, the timber for huts had rotten, and the resort was abandoned. He advised I get moving as soon as possible for the Hide, as the sun was setting. So I set off, and circled for a while, unable to find the Hide, due to bad signposting and too many paths. Finally arriving at the Hide, I was greeted by some Americans with the words "There's a shower upstairs". Thanks.


The bed was simply a wooden bunk, with no mattress. Never has solid wood felt so comforting before. Passed out before 9pm, and awoke at 7am to head back to the park HQ.

11km on the Sunday, and blasted through it in less than 4 hours. Lots and lots of drinks, some fried rice, and a thoroughly relaxing boat trip out of the jungle. Taxi back to KL, and sleep with air conditioning.














- posted by Daniel @ Monday, June 14, 2004 0 comments

 
Got my salt pack ready for the leeches. Going jungle trekking this weekend.
- posted by Daniel @ Friday, June 11, 2004 0 comments

 
In a Soy Cowboy bar today, a 60 year old white guy started hanging by our table. So, after a couple of hours, I eventually started talking to him.
ME: "Hey. So are you here on holiday or work?"
HIM: "A bit of both, but tonight's not about business."
with a seedy glance in his eye toward me.
OWW. That's the last time I speak to a random guy in a bar.
- posted by Daniel @ Thursday, June 10, 2004 0 comments

 
Jamie continues his fascination with the concept of a Submersible Pressure Gauge.

Pictures of Tioman follow. The islands beauty was only matched by it's difficulty to capture on film from the ground. Haven't managed to develop the photos from the underwater camera yet - which proved to be overengineered (survival at 18m, when rated to only 10m) by the boys at Kodak.

One of Tioman's beaches



The jungle that we trekked through



A local



I took this photo with a 15 second exposure, and an F/2.8. Despite that, you can still see nothing when it gets dark in the jungle.



Another random (stiched) photo of Tioman, taken from the departing speedboat



- posted by Daniel @ Wednesday, June 09, 2004 0 comments

 
For the final day of diving, and i'm beginning to get the hang of things. That means 18m is now possible. We headed out to a Thai fishing boat wreck and floated about (after doing a few more testy exercises). Lots of fish and coral. It was amazing to see a boat underwater, especially since it appears to be so much larger underwater, and your perception of distance changes. There was a lot of life within the boat - the fish now propagating in the house that was once their predator.
After a 200m swim in the sea with a snorkel, and a few gallons of Tioman seawater consumed, Jeff finally decided to give us the certificate. Boat off the island, hang around Mersing for a few hours, then overnight bus back to KL.
- posted by Daniel @ Monday, June 07, 2004 0 comments

 
Day three of diving, and feeling good. No post drinking illnesses, feeling fit and ready to rock. So we headed out on the boat and dived in near one of the tiny islands off Tioman. Beautiful warm clear waters, coral colourful fish and sea cucumbers. But no turtles and sharks - because we ran out of air and had to surface earlier than Jeff, who I was beginning to suspect of having Amphibious lineage. One of the exercises involved floating. Just floating, not moving, at the bottom of the sea. We all had problems, but Jeff just floated. No effort. It broke all convention and understanding with me, as I was buffeted from side to side and my bouyancy changed on breathing. Buy Jeff remained still - and was easily one of the most astonishing things I saw underwater. One of the excercises that we completed was a NO AIR rehearsal. It involved Jeff turning off our air, and hand signals saying "NO AIR", and then Jeff turning the air back on again. I was first. But I didn't understand what he was signalling prior to the excercise. So I simply ok'd back to him, expecting him to pick on someone else first, and I could copy. He disappeared from my sight, I sat (relatively) still, and waited. After a few seconds the air became thin. Then, quickly, NO AIR. AH!!!! Jeff was telling me that he was going to turn my air off. Ah!!! turn it on!!! And not a moment too soon - as I mellowed into a deep shade of blue. Hmm. I should really pay more attention next time.

The night finished with a jog to Berjaya Resort, up an annoyingly steep hill. Raw and I cut a deal. Exercise every day in Tioman, and we would be able to reward ourselves with a Chilli's (dripping greasy) burger. I can't wait.
- posted by Daniel @ Sunday, June 06, 2004 0 comments

 
Drinking last night, a result of the fact that we had purchased some duty free Jack Daniels, had plenty of time on our hands, and nowhere to go. A recipe for disaster. Disaster came in the Nelson, the worst singer I have heard bar none. No matter little flexibility you feel your own vocal chords have, trust me, Nelson was worse. Strangling a cat would have provided a welcome relief to my ears. So we drunk.
The drawback was that waking upon waking up late on Saturday, we were tired, feeling groggy and truly not in the mood for more boring videos and cumbersome underwater excercises. But we soldiered on, and finished by about 5pm, whereupon the decision was taken to trek across the jungle to the other side of the island, 7km, to Juara. Knowing that the sun would set before we had a chance to return, I armed myself with a Maglite. After 1 hour, the sunset, and things got spooky. Lots of strange sounds, and movements in the jungle. And not a human to be heard. Despite a full moon, pitch darkness under the shelter of the trees. So despite not reaching Juara, we turned back and headed for Tekek. Which was not without incident. The path was not always clear, and after being intimidated by the many overbearingly sharp, loud sounds of the jungle we stopped and thought "I dont remember walking through a stream before". Lost. In the jungle, pitch darknesss, 1 flashlight, 2 guys. Eek. We headed back, circled around, and eventually got our bearings and relocated the correct path. After about 10 minutes, my ears were graced with the sound of a muezzin calling the faithful to prayer at the mosque down the road. We were near civilazation, and further from the monitor lizards, and other large hungry animals that the forest was teaming with.
- posted by Daniel @ Saturday, June 05, 2004 0 comments

 
Today we head for Tioman Island, on the South East coast of Malaysia, to dive. It begins with a 7 hour overnight bus journey to Mersing, and then a early morning speedboat (1hr) to the island itself. The great benefit of overnight travel is arriving first thing in the morning - especially when you've been too lazy to sort out accommodation. I've been spoiled for lodging in SE Asia so far, as there always appears to be an abundance of rooms. Tioman was different, mainly because of the happy coincidence of Singaporean and Malaysian school holidays. Dammit.
We walked from Tekek jetty to meet Jeff and Michelle from Eco Divers, which was the one thing that I had been bothered to organize prior to arrival. They helped sort out accommodation for us, although we had to move chalets after the first day. A mistake not to be made again on my part.
After checking in, and a fantastic banana milkshake breakfast, we headed back to see Jeff for our first lessons. PADI have produced a 4 day course for certification in Open Water Diving, which involves watching what is arguably the most insulting, patronizing, boring yet strangely droll video that modern cinema has produced since the ACME's annual corporate morale booster video. We endured the video over 2 days, and answered theory questions based on it and the text book given. Wow, so air volume gets smaller under water. Now I know.
Lunch, then the first dive. Saddle up with 25 kilos of gear, and walk to the beach. Owww.... rocks on bare feet. A spooky feeling initially, as you sink
beneath the waves and continue to breathe normally. Then some exercises to help acclimatize to the new environment.
After messing around at the beach for an hour, we finished for the day, and went home to assemble Raw's newly procured Sky Warrior radio controlled airplane with much anticipation. It failed to deliver. Not even gliding could be achieved. Disappointment, and a crash landing into the sea. The Sky Warrior was no more.
Raw and I then headed out for a jog to the next town along, Air Batang. Tioman has one road, joining the tiny airport to the posh resort 2 or 3km down the road. The locals get about using boats. This came as a shock to us, there was no point hiring motorbikes, and we had to stay local to the dive shop, as the walk between villages was 30+minutes. Tioman was therefore difficult to capture on film, as it is simply a rainforest with a few village beachhuts on some corners by the half dozen jettys. A surprising lack of tourist development, even given that people have been coming here since the 70's, and it has been made a duty free (hic) island.
- posted by Daniel @ Friday, June 04, 2004 0 comments