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January 28, 2005
Kuala Lumpur | Jan 20-24 2005
This time round, I really didn’t want to have to get a return ticket, and fortunately enough, Malaysia Airlines was having a special – in that I could get a ticket to Phnom Penh for almost exactly half the price of a flight to Bangkok, Phnom Penh or Saigon. That made things much easier for me, as I don’t have to have a return ticket to fly into Phnom Penh, and it didn’t require any overland travel.
Also fortunate was that the stopover in Kuala Lumpur could be taken as a full stopover, not just a transit stop. So… I had a long weekend in Malaysia :)
Kuala Lumpur I found to be a very interesting place… I have gotten used to the under-developed side of Asia, so this city almost as developed as Sydney was strikingly different! (Relatively) Clean streets – nothing compared to what I’ve heard about Singapore, but compared to other parts of SE Asia… A great public transport system (built primarily around a weaving network of monorail and light-rail systems, trains and buses), large numbers of skyscrapers (including the famous Petronas Twin Towers – remember the towers and skybridge from ‘Entrapment’ with Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones), yet still abundant in large areas of flora – parks, trees and gardens.
Even more interesting is the cultural mix of people – Malay, Chinese, Indian, etc… with a religious mix of almost everything (Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian…) There is a noticeably strong influence (and possibly influx) from the Indian side of things, in the general population, landmarks and food selection… (I ate about 10 or more Roti Chanai over three days…. hehehe) The strength of the Indian influence is hugely stronger than in the areas of SE Asia I’d spent most time in.
The large Muslim population makes up for most of the architectural and cultural influence on the city. The Twin Towers have Muslim 8-sided star/circle based structural designs, which are similarly repeated in many places, including sidewalk concrete slab patterns. Another quite unexpected effect is that there are incredulously (considering the ‘western developed’ style of the place) so very few bars and nightclubs. Even in poorly developed Cambodia, bars and clubs TEEM the streets due to western demand. Yet I walked around almost the entire built-up section of KL, seeing barely a handful of bars, and nothing I would consider a nightclub. In addition to this, the price of alcohol is astounding! It’s even more expensive than Australia in many cases… wow! Apparently what many local expats do is go to some duty free island and bring back cases of their favourite beverage at a greatly reduced cost.
It was also comforting to be in a UK-English based country (Malaysia is part of the Commonwealth), driving on the left, hearing British accents instead of American, etc.
The shopping in KL is also spectacular… A dense city, filled with countless malls and shopping centres, 5, 6, 8 stories high, filled with every global and local brand-name clothing shop you could ever want, as well as electronics galore (yay for me :P), etc… Perhaps it was the malls that also comforted me. Ah yes, and also the ability to get ‘real’ lattes… They have many Starbucks shops, a few Gloria Jeans, as well as a few of their own, cheaper, and definitely worthy equivalent local chains, serving high quality espresso coffee.
In general, KL is definitely not as cheap as some of its other SE Asian neighbours, but in most ways its much cheaper than equivalent western cities – and still has most of the things provided by large western cities. My major costs were accommodation, airport transfers (35RM (about US$9) train each way), alcohol and shopping purchases :) So if you can minimise those things, you could have a very cheap, nice holiday there.
I went up to the skybridge in the Twin Towers (free, just have to wait in very long line very early in the morning), on the 41st floor. The high speed lift is quite impressive – 1 floor per second, meaning 41 seconds to the skybridge, or 80 something seconds to the top floor. One of my regular UNSW lifts would seemingly take 80 seconds just to get up 4 floors!
Yep, 41 floors up! and another 40 odd floors to go…
The view from the skybridge is quite vast and impressive. However, not as good as it would be from the top floor, but that is all office space inaccessible to the public. A better view would be from the top of the KL Tower, which I didn’t quite make it to (not free either).
KL City Centre Park
And again the KLCC Park – How very very cool!
View of KL
KL Tower
All in all, KL was a great little stopover holiday, and would be even more fun with a partner.
Posted by Dan at 09:32 AM | Comments (1)
New Year 2005 | SA | Australia
After a fairly hot and tiring couple of days at the beach (Not that we didn’t have a brilliant time!), we thought it a good idea to have a pretty calm evening at the Jerilee home. Seeing as I was away from Lydia and New Year’s Eve is generally most satisfying through the people factor, not events, an easy NYE at home was sounding pretty good.
They treated me to an amazing Indian meal at a restaurant near their home… Naan and Curry and Beer – oh my! We sat outside, as it was a great temperature and setting, and even though there was pending rain, it didn’t eventuate, so our meal was fantastic!
After dinner we went to pick up Graham and Vivvie’s dog and got the opportunity to hang out for a few minutes with Mark and Sandy who were looking after the place.
More playing around with the camera ended up with some pseudo animation clips by both Jeremy and Mark…
Here’s the Jez Motion Montage…
And click the image for a very simple flash animation made from Mark’s antics!
The rest of the evening was filled with what we thought to be a good idea at the time – drinking the dreaded Fijian Kava! To put you in context, this stuff comes from the root of some dirty plant, and as such, tastes like the root of some dirty plant. Mixed with water it turns into a putrid swamp of mud, which is supposed to be an enticing evening drink. It is some kind of muscle relaxant, the initial sensation in the mouth kind of like the numbness of eating too many strepsils at once.
For me, it was not worth the pain of ‘drinking tree’, although the others felt more relaxed, and we all definitely had a good night’s sleep.
After the New Year had been counted in and appropriately celebrated, we went for a walk around the block, listening to the sounds of celebrations in the area, as well as some local youths ‘mooning’ cars as there was nothing better to do, and no chicks to impress :)
The next night was a nice ‘sibling’ catch-up BBQ at Tim and Chelle’s place which, after a couple of bottles of ale and wine, caused much very interesting conversation extending into the wee hours… So engaging was it that it could have gone on longer had a certain cousin not had to fly back to Sydney very early the next day. On the way home, again, KB, JB and I had more great convo which had to be cut short…
It was a great few days in South Australia, a great opportunity to catch up with the rellies, as well as a bit of a reminder of what outdoor oz can be like.
The remainder of my time in Sydney was filled with family, IT work, family IT work many friends’ catchups and preparation for heading back overseas…
Posted by Dan at 09:15 AM | Comments (3)
January 27, 2005
Pre- New Year 2005 | Yorke Peninsula | Australia
My NYE plans had originally been to be in Koh Chang, Thailand, with Lydia… However, it was a little far to go seeing as I was in Sydney. I was too late (and cheap) to go to any of the major events happening in Sydney, and there didn’t seem to be any major friends’ parties happening, so I decided to spend some more time with the SA family whom I value dearly :)
I flew down a couple of days before the turn of the year, giving me enough time to spend a couple of days camping on Browns Beach, which is at the tip of Yorke Peninsula.
I also took with me Jerilee’s latest purchase – a Canon Poweshot Pro 1 digital camera – a mighty beast of a thing! We had much fun while I was there playing with it, figuring out the funky little features and getting it all working perfectly. I think in the space of 72 hours we took over 400 photos! Don’t worry, I wont be posting them ALL up!!
This is Yorke Peninsula, en route to Browns Beach.
This was our campsite :)
This is da beach wit da boyz…
Camping was great…. Beaching it up during the day… eating, drinking and chatting during the night… I don’t even know how long it’d been since the last time, but a couple of days on the beach was just what I needed.
All the SA crew was there apart from Mark and Sandy, but fortunately I got to see them later… Eloise was usually the star attraction of the camp – what a cute little bubs!!
During this intermission-like trip back to oz, I was also fortunate enough to get some snaps of ozzie wildlife… Roos and Emus (as well as the occasional brown snake…)
We headed back to the Adelaide Hills on New Year’s Eve, trying to figure out our options for the night…
Posted by Dan at 03:43 AM | Comments (0)
January 26, 2005
Xmas | Australia
As has become a bit of a tradition in the Hunters Hill region, Xmas eve was spent with ‘the boys’ (and of course everyone else) down at the Woolwich Pier Hotel. It was pretty packed when we got there, but it surprisingly scaled down pretty quickly… being less than half full by the time the ugly lights came on and the bus came to take us to the next venue…
Which was the Bayview. After a melodic and scenic trip to the Bayview, we found we had to wait in line for more than 10 minutes just to get in! Once in, we partied and danced pretty well ‘until the break of dawn!’ – well…. Maybe not quite… But it was fun nonetheless.
After the Bayview, Russo and I walked home, dropping Petra off on the way. Sitting on the Russo porch, we saw Nick arrive home, even having a brief conversation with him before he crashed home. The funniest part is that Nick doesn’t even remember it!
Xmas was a typical family Xmas, filled with more than enough festive food than we could handle, although this time it was at Kelly’s place, and it wasn’t as hot as it usually is – The ‘boys’ (Tim and Nick) again also making an appearance :)
After Xmas, I hung out with the boys a bit more before deciding to spend New Years in Adelaide with the cousins.
Posted by Dan at 09:37 AM | Comments (0)
pre-Xmas emergency exit to Australia
Well it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything… Not a great deal of anything in particular happened after the trip to Vietnam – just work, going out with Lydia, etc… And for those who didn’t know, I moved out of my apartment and have been living with Lydia, sharing her rent. It just didn’t make sense to stay in my place seeing as I’d stayed there a total of 3 days in 2 months since being with her.
Anyhow, Lydia and I had been planning to go to Sihanoukville for Xmas, then spend the following week on the island of Koh Chang, Thailand (nearby the Thai/Camb border), but all our plans disappeared into the ether just before xmas…
My maternal grandma had another fall, but this time it caused serious subdural haemorrhaging… Initially she was ok, and in no pain, but corrective surgery was outed (due to not very good chances of recovery). A few days later she fell into a coma. Mum was in New Zealand at the time, and she flew back straight away to be with Nan. Once I heard Nan was in a coma, I knew it was time to go home.
I flew back (via Bangkok) on the Saturday/Sunday, keeping in contact with Mum as to what the plans should be, and when to go to Brisbane.
As luck or coincidence would happen, my cousins’ grandfather had just passed, meaning they were transitorily in Sydney, on the way to the funeral. This meant that I got to spend Monday day with them – which, albeit rushed, was a great chance to catch up. I dropped them off at Nana Rainey’s place, then also getting the opportunity to see a whole bunch more of the Adelaide rellies (and of course Rainey :) ).
Nan passed away early am on Monday morning, so, Dad and I drove up to Brissy on Tuesday, Kel flying that evening to meet Mum. The funeral and reception was on Wednesday morning, and happened without problems – a sombre time for all. As timing and opportunities presented themselves, Pip went back to Melbourne with the Melbournians, to have Christmas there, followed by a trip to Tassie in order to spend some time with Nans relatives. From what I hear he really enjoyed it, and I’m sure it did him a lot of good at the time also.
Dad and I drove back to Sydney (via a refreshing breakfast stop with Tassie Ree and family) on the Thursday, ready for a local Sydney Xmas…
Posted by Dan at 09:23 AM | Comments (1)