MALAYSIA

09.34 We’ve landed and are back in Kuala Lumpur. It is two years since our last visit here. Now all we´ve got to do is to teach our bodies what we already told our watches, that we are six hours ahead from Swedish time.

10.49 We’ve reunited with Shu Ming. We had to wait in the passport control, get our luggage and now we´re sitting down on the airport rail link KLIA Ekspres. I am looking forward to this. I do would like to get a shower. There is a genuine thunder shower outside the train right now.

Shu Ming and Peter having a discussion. Eels, are they fish or not?

11.54 We are in yet another hotel. We are not that far from where we stayed as we visited the city the last time (6/7 2006). Then Christer was registered as Mr Christer Ulf. This time we are staying at Hotel China Town 2 (http://www.hotelchinatown2.com) We are waiting for the room to be cleaned.

13.01 We had a shower and are about to leave room 201. We are going for some sightseeing. Today Christer is registered as Ulf Christer Lundstedt. Address: Europe.

13.26 We are sitting in a small restaurant along a street in the outskirts of Chinatown. We are eating beef noodles and are drinking herbal tea. It is delicious and much needed. The noodles are served as a soup with large balls of meat in it. The tiredness hangs along like a veil, a curtain. This kind of restaurants are ever so handy, they serve mainly one dish. It saves time from the menulooking that one usually have.

14.45 We’ve been walking for a while and escaped into a cool Starbucks. Here we will have ice tea and coffee. Soon we will take up the walking again; Christer is informing us that he didn’t get much sleep on the flight.

Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur.

Walking through KL, Kuala Lumpur.

17.00 More walking has been done and we have taken some pictures of the Petronas Twin Towers which is one of the tallest buildings in the world. They are ever so amazing this time as well. We are not going up in them as we did last time in 2006. You have to stand in a queue in the early morning to get one of the few tickets that are offered each day. We have also been going with the metro. We have seen the Supreme Court and are currently resting outside the main post office. We are pretty close to our home but we are not going home yet. We are having a stone bench break. It is needed, it is hot and humid. During the walk we´ve also said hello to Shu Ming’s sister and some of her colleagues.

17.23 We’ve exchanged some money at the post office and we are now train waiting on a bench with a sitting area consisting of three steel pipes. It is still hot and I am tired.

18.20 We’ve walked around in Mid Valley Megamall (http://www.midvalley.com.my), one of many malls in Kuala Lumpur. We are looking for a restaurant.

Midvalley Megamall

19.17 The dinner is coming to an end here at Madam Kwan´s. Christer had Beef Rendang and Shu Ming and I had Nasi Bojari.

20.40 We’ve been shopping and once again felt the scent/stench of the fruit durian. We will soon start the journey back to the hotel, the room, the bed. We got to wash our clothes before we can hit the sack. Shu Ming will go home to get some sleep.

21.35 We managed to find our way home. Our homestreet Jalan Petaling didn’t look the same. Some stalls had appeared, the night market had opened. Had they been there as we left the hotel and just didn’t remember it? All I could remember was the fact that our street had a small roof over it so we walked under that roof. Christer is having a shower. Tonight it will be the fifth sleeping place in a row and it is not over yet.

22.42 We are thinking and adding up the day that passed. So much has happened. We have seen so many different people, from Europeans and Arabs to Indians and Buddhist monks, plus Chinese and Malay. It is time to sleep on a pretty hard mattress. Will I be able to sleep? Will Christer get some sleep this night?

Wednesday 25th of June

09.26 We’ve slept well. We’ve slept a lot and prepared most things before today’s events. Today is a tour day. Shu Ming will soon knock on our door.

10.16 Shu Ming knocked; we got prepared and have started our walk away from our hotel. We are now standing still inside the Chinese temple Chan See Shu. It is quiet and peaceful here. We are not that far from our hotel and on our way to get transported.

Our homestreet Jalan Petaling in Chinatown.

10.29 We are on the move again. We are going by the monorail. We got on at the Maharajalela station are going to the end of the line at Titiwangsa.

10.58 We’ve just seen U2. It doesn’t please us at all. It is U6 that we want. That is the number of the bus that will take us further.

11.07 The bus arrived and we got on it. Christer is cleaning his camera lens. Soon we will be moving towards our destination today.

Christer at Batu caves.

12.07 We’ve reached the Batu caves in Kuala Lumpur’s outskirts. We’ve taken pictures and eaten the lunch we brought with us. Now we will walk the 272 steps up to the caves. The sky is gray today. At the foot of the stairs there is an enormous golden statue of the Hindu god Murugan. Murugan is especially popular among the Tamils and most of the Indians of Malaysia originate from southern India.

No, it´s not the incredible hulk!

Murugan and the 272 steps.

12.44 We are allowing ourselves a bench break inside the caves that is a holy place for the hindus of Malaysia. Here are different temples and plenty of monkeys, macaques more exactly. They are famous for stealing food and beverage from the tourists so we´d better hold on to our belongings. The ceiling of the cave is way up, nearly 100 metres to be exact and not as cool as I had thought and hoped. It is amazing and impressing here. A little melody is echoing in our heads, "Welcome to the dark cave, 30 minutes guided cave trip". It is a jingle inviting visitors to a cave adventure but with a quicker pace it might be one of these summer hits on the dance floors.

Hello!

13.28 It is time to ride a bus again. It is cool and nice and we get to sit down. All is well. We are going back to Kuala Lumpur or "K L" as everyone calls it here.

14.04 We are back on the monorail. This time we are on our way away from Titiwangsa. We are on our way to a mall. We are going to have food, food to eat today, tonight and perhaps tommorrow.

14.49 It is time for dinner at the restaurant Dragon-I in yet another of all the malls in Kuala Lumpur. One of their specialities is handmade noodles made on spot.

Peter is testing something black and interesting.

16.09 We’ve arranged with all the food we need, today, tonight and tomorrow. Now we are going to the hotel to check out.

16.42 We are back in our room. We came here via the hotel we will be staying at in August as we have returned to Kuala Lumpur. It is called Swiss Inn. We wanted to avoid all the crowds around the stands. Now we will just relax and arrange with everything before we check out.

18.30 We are sitting in the hotel lobby watching the British comedy Fawlty Towers on a DVD Shu Ming has brought with her. It is the episode when Basil Fawlty receives an American couple as guests and pretends that the chef is still in the kitchen cooking (when he has actually left).

19.45 We have left the hotel, moved ourselves to KL Sentral and we´re sitting down at a café here at the railway station. We are having coffee from glass jars. The café is in the same chain as the one we visited at the airport as we were going to fly to Kuching, (8/7 2006). I got more coffee in my jar while I wrote this. It has happened again just like last year (22/7 2007). The train will leave within an hour. Oh I almost forgot. The place is called "The coffeebean" (http://coffeebean.com).

On the nighttrain leaving Kuala Lumpur, heading to Penang.

20.53 Our night train is heading north towards Penang. We are seated in our compartments and get information from the loudspeakers. To ride a train here is a bit more complicated than we are used to. No one is allowed on the platform before the train arrives. One must also show a valid ticket to be able to get in the vicinity of the train.

22.30 Shu Ming has played some Swedish music here in our compartment. It is a strange feeling to hear old Swedish tunes as we´re travelling through the night on the Malacca peninsula. We are going by First Class, it is absolutely amazing according to a Chinese man who looked into Christer´s compartment.

Thursday 26th of June

05.10 Morning has broken in the compartment. We have slept well and are approaching our destination.

06.24 We got off at the station in Butterworth and took a quick walk to the ferry terminal. We are now going with the ferry out to the Penang Island. A room at the Bayview Hotel in Georgetown waits for us. I have to revise my latest note. Christer hasn’t slept well; he slept in a compartment above the train´s squeeking breaks. He has hardly slept at all. Neither Shu Ming has had a good night’s sleep.

View of Georgetown, Penang.

07.09 We have travelled with the ferry, walked through the morning calm city and checked the map before we carried on. Now as everything is set we are ready to cross the street, but what is happening, a motorbike just drove in front of us, a little too close for us to accept it. We are in Georgetown, the main town in the state of Penang. The island is also called Penang. So where are we? Penang is most commonly used so we will be doing it as well.

07.47 The room at Bayview Hotel (http://www.bayviewhotels.com/georgetown/) isn’t ready yet. That´s why we are sitting waiting in the lobby. Shu Ming and I are laze, Christer is tired. There are some flags hanging on the wall around the TV. All are European except one; it is a flag from Indonesia. Wait, the other ones are from the countries taking part in the European Championship of soccer, Euro 2008. It shall not be Indonesia; they have hung Poland’s flag upside down.

09.51 We’ve showered, been resting awhile and now left room 1515. I have never stayed this high up. Now it is breakfast time at Tai Tung café/restaurant. We are having coffee that looks like motoroil, rice and some roasted duck.

One of many small Chinese restaurants in Penang.

Peter is trying to enter this photograph.

11.04 We are sitting down in the nice and cool bus U 204. We are on our way on yet another daytrip. Shu Ming keeps guiding us in her home country. It is +33º degrees today.

12.18 Just as we had reached Penang Hill we were told that the funicular train is out of order. It is under maintenance since they had discovered an error. The train might not be running but the business here goes on full speed ahead. We are in Air Itam a bit west of Georgetown.

The non-moving funicular train at Penang Hill.

Durian sale in Air Itam.

12.44 We’ve filled up with fluids and also bought postcards. Now we are sitting on a new bus on our way to new views.

13.07 We are sitting on a bench in a gazebo just below the buddhist Kek Lok Si-temple. It is absolutely crawling of turtles. It feels great as the wind cools our skin. The heat is tearing us down. We are still in Air Itam. It was just a short bus ride.

Three tourists of different sizes at the temple Kek Lok Si.

Shu Ming and Peter inside a nice Penang frame.

13.37 Yesterday we paid a visit to a holy place for the hindus. Today it is time for the buddhists. We have taken some pictures and we´re waiting for the rain to stop before we catch a bus back to Georgetown. There are plenty of statues of Buddha here. We have also seen a couple of swastikas. The ones here are counter clockwise and has nothing to do with the infamous Nazi swastika. Here they are a symbol of fortune. The temple is beautiful and the view is amazing. Another amazing thing here is the amount of cheap t-shirts. We are between the devil and the deep blue sea. Either head out in the tropical rain or listen to the constant nag of the hawkers.

14.27 Eventually the pouring rain stopped and now the three of us are back on a bus. The time has come to get back to Georgetown.

15.35 The bus took us back to the bus station. I took the chance to get some sleep during the ride. Now we will try to get across the bridge to the mainland. We have to change bus station to be able to do so.

15.53 We chose to catch the ferry back to the mainland and it is about to leave. A lot of things are happening as we are travelling. The backboards of the benches are flexible, forward or backward. Because of this you will always be able to look forward and have the backboard the same angle wherever you are going. At least I think so.

16.52 The matter of transport is switched to a bus and we are now having yet another coffee break. I´ve got nothing against that. We are in yet another Starbucks. This one is situated in Megamall Penang in Seberang Perai.

18.13 We looked around in the mall and bought some wet wipes. These are worth gold on a hot day. We walked back to the bus station and was told that the next bus to our island leaves at 19.00. What shall we do before that?

Penang bridge

18.25 We went back to the mall. Here we crashed down on a narrow bench. How long will we remain here? Are we able to get up?

19.10 We got up and to the bus. Now the bus takes us over the 13,5 kilometres long Penang Bridge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penang_Bridge) out to the island where our hotel is situated.

19.42 We have changed bus and are on our way to the part of the city where we will be having our dinner.

21.00 Our walk took us along MacAllister Road and to Town Steamboat Restaurant. Steamboat is to pick what you want from vegetables, meat, fish and seafood. All this is cooked by you at the table. You can fry or cook what you want to eat. It is a all you can eat place. It is absolutely delicious and ever so. It isn’t the place we had in mind but a great alternative.

23.11 We are full ever so full. The food cost us around $16 for the three of us and juice was included.

Steamboat-dinner at Town Steamboat Restaurant.

Friday 27th of June

09.07 All of us have slept well. This was the seventh night in a row in the seventh bed. The time has come to go down and have breakfast. I wonder what is offered. It is full activity in the schoolyard outside of the hotel. There is song and music and the whole school seems included. We’ve heard the national anthem.

10.02 All we had to do was to choose, classic Malay breakfast with rice/noodles and meat and vegetables or European hotel breakfast with coffee, juice, bread, cereals, cheese and ham. We also could choose from different fruits; papaya, pineapple and watermelon. It was also possible to get some omelette and you could eat what you wanted.

Peter and some fishing locals on Penang Esplanade.

Christer entering Fort Cornwallis.

11.09 The time has come for the first bench break of the day. We are resting in a small park with a fountain in the middle. The sky is blue and I fear it might be hot today.

11.56 I am sitting in the shadow of a large tree and Shu Ming swings in a large swing hanging from the very same tree. We are inside Fort Cornwallis. It is an old British fort from the 19th century; all is preserved from the colonial days, barracks, canons and more to see. It is as I predicted and feared hot today. There is air conditioning in the rooms so they got really interesting.

13.28 After having refreshed ourselves with some beverages from the museum area´s café we´ve bought tickets for tomorrow´s ferry trip. It is so wonderful with an air conditioned ticket office. After that we have without any luck tried to cross a street. The heavy traffic here made it impossible and we chose a footbridge instead. Now we made a stop to find out where we go next.

View of the traffic near the Georgetown bus station, harbour and ferry terminal.

13.52 We are at Leong San Tong Khoo Kongsi (http://www.khookongsi.com.my) It is a several hundred old Chinese temple area. Here we will walk around and take pictures among other things. On the way I got to see something not remotely so amazing and definitely not as old. It was though unexpected. Parked by the street that we followed, Lebuh Armenian, there was an old Volvo Amazon. A car made in Sweden in the 1960´s.

14.27 The temple area was just wonderful. The main temple had around 30 centimetres high thresholds. This is/was used to stop the evil spirits from entering the temple. So much beautiful things was kept and displayed there. It is wonderful how different we think about things around the world. Now we are having coffee at Edelweiss. It is a Swiss café inside a nearly 150 years old Chinese house. We’ve also ordered pastries to go with our beverages.

The street "Lebuh Pitt", also called "Lebuh Masjid Kapitan Keling"

Kuan Yin-temple, Georgetown.

15.34 We remained till after closing time. Now we have reached the Kuan Yin temple (Goddess of Mercy-temple) It is one of the oldest Chinese temples in town, build in the early 19th century by Cantonese and Hokkien-Chinese. We’ve also passed a large mosque and a small Hindu temple along the very same street. Malaysia is indeed a multicultural country. They seem to hand out some food packages around the temple area. There is also the fresh scent from several incenses.

16.05 We also passed a church before we were back at the hotel. Now we are back at the room to get some rest and liquids. The evening must be planned and we need motivation.

18.11 We are showered, motivated and ready to go by a bus to new views and after that we will have dinner.

19.07 We’ve reached Gurney Drive, an area by the sea with hotels, restaurants and small stands where they sell all kinds of food. We are sitting down by one of them and are having a local dish, ma zhi. It is dough rolled in crushed peanuts and sugar.

19.16 We are down by the beach walk. We are just close to where the tsunami struck at Christmas 2004 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFpcDC3KHzA) Not far from here is the rebuilt restaurant that was destroyed. The whole area was flooded.

19.35 The time has come for a small break on a bench. We have to find out where we´ll go after this. We just saw some animals down on the beach. We are thinking and mutters might it have been otters?

Otters on the shore.

Peter taking notes during the Penang sunset.

20.36 We’ve reached the place where we planned to go yesterday. We are at Café 747 at YMCA on MacAllister Road 211. Here we will have dinner. We are not alone here. There is a large group of people here.

22.55 The large group was fond of talking and really lively. Among them there was one calm gentleman who didn’t say much. I wonder if he had some problems with his speech and/or hearing. We are after all back home. It feels so nice. The shower is calling and so does the bed. We got music outside again this time it is slightly more of the rock kind. This is the last evening with Shu Ming for a while. That isn’t fun at all.