virtual diaries

KL Day 4

Yes, our fourth day here, though it feels more like the third after spending the first day in bed. Slowly getting used to the heat and humidity here...feeling a bit better about that now. I went for a swim in the hotel swimming pool before breakfast this morning - that was very nice. Aurelie came down with me, and dipped her feet in the pool - she didn't want to get her hair wet or something like that :-D (Sorry, she tells me that she was tired and the pool was cold). Apparently it's because I kept fidgiting last night and woke her up.

So, yesterday, we were near the centre, in 'Chinatown'. Here we felt the unpleasant side of life here, with petrol fumes and chappies staring at my lovely girlfriend. We stopped in a little cafe, where we both had a hot cup of the local hot sweet milky tea which I like very much. Trouble is that place was dirty and smoky too! So the missus wasn't too happy about all that. So then we strolled around the 'Central Market' where we had a 'Curry Noodle Special' which was unimaginably spicy. We couldn't really eat it! At least the place was air conditioned. Then we walked around a while, and got further aquainted with the city, saw some of the sites.

So after my swim today, we came to the centre again. We went to a rainforest reserve, which is 10 hectares of virgin rainforest in the middle of the city - extraordinary. As soon as we went in, the mossies started making a meal out of us, so we got out of there pretty soon. We went to the KL tower, the fourth largest in the world. It was expensive (about 8 euros each), but we went up it, and got an aerial view of the city. I justified the cost by it being a once in a lifetime experience. And just now, we had a curry in 'Little India.' Again, very spicy! But tasty. And great fresh pineapple juice. One of the great things about KL is just how friendly most people are. Almost everyone has a smile for you, and people seem genuinily interested in us. It also feels very safe - neither of us feel threatened at all. We saw this just a moment ago, in the curry place - there were no other westerners about, and people were just as described above - I said to Au, I bet they treat westerners very poorly somewhere like Bangkok. Not quite so many whities make it out here...but we've seen a few, especially yesterday in Chinatown.

I was going to upload a couple of photos, but it's taking too long - I'll do it another time when I can resize the photos first. Already got some good ones! Thanks for your comment Sylwia - I had to leave your namesake (my guitar, so named for being dark and curvy) at Aurelie's place in France I'm afraid - I bought a new hard case for it, but together it was over 7 kilos, and apparently Malaysia Airlines charge as much as 30 pounds per excess kilo (and we already had too much). We still haven't decided what we'll do in the coming weeks, whether we'll stay or not. I think Aurelie would have to take a taxi to work everyday - but that might be ok - we've made contact with a friendly taxi driver called Raja who sadi he'd do it for 15 Ringgits - about 3 Euros. Well, I'm off, Au is already sleeping next to me!

Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur

I write this post from a huge shopping centre under the twin petronas towers, in Kuala Lumpur, or KL as it's known. Aurelie is sat to my left, typing away to her friends and family too. We're both happy to be here, together.

We arrived yesterday morning, 7am local time, and were met at the airport by my new boss. He's the kind of guy who likes to talk a lot, sacrificing sometimes factual accuracy. He took us to the university, which seemed pretty good - met some of the staff there. By this time, we were both feeling the tropical heat and humidity. I was like a walking zombie, after missing out on a night sleep. i had tried to sleep on the plane, without success.

So then, after a near miss on the motorway, we got to our new flat. Quite nice, spacious. No sheets, cups, pans, nothing like that. Fortunately there was a 'Giant' mall just over the road, so we went there, got all that sort of stuff. I was becoming more like the living dead with each step. Then we finally got back to the flat again at around 10.30am. Then we had a quick swim, sorted out the flat a bit...then tried to sleep around 1pm. And.....I couldn't sleep, dammit! Later in the evening, we attempted to get to KL centre, when we found that we lived in a satellite city of kl called Petaling Jaya, and it's not easy to get to the centre.

But, I did sleep last night. And here we are now. Exploring. We don't know if we'll stay here. We're not really 'city people.' I said to Aurelie, 'why not just travel around for a few months, and get a job later?' And...well..she said why not too. A few months near a beach, making babies is somewhat appealing. So we'll see. I have to go now, else they'll charge us for another hour. Bye!

Not long now...

Hello everyone,

Sorry once again for taking so long to write anything. Aurelie and I have been very busy teaching, but now all the kids have gone back to their homes.

We are in France again, at her parents house. We came here last night (Saturday) because she wanted to see her sister, who had come home from Tunisia for a little while - It'll be the last time they see each other before we leave for Malaysia. She's just left to go back to Tunisia, and we've just had lunch. We had veal and rice - it was nice. I also drank a fair amount of red wine from Bordeaux.

Feeling rather tired today because I couldn't sleep last night. We arrived here at 10pm after driving for 3 hours, and I was just so tired after teaching 7 hours. At my current job, it's common to teach that much in one day, which is just ridiculous, frankly. At lunchtime, I had already had 4 individual students for 50 minutes each, each with their own needs and expectations. That's a lot of time for ones brain to be concentrating and interacting. Too much. I was mentally shattered after another 3 hours in the afternoon, but not physically. After arriving here, and talking in French, my brain went a bit crazy, and I couldn't sleep. So I'm not feeling brilliant today.

But next week will be our last at Thiaumont. We have invited most of our colleagues out to a pizza restaurant next Saturday evening, our last day of work. Then, that's it. I've got my new passport. We've bought our tickets to Kuala Lumpur (cheap, incidentally. We got 2 one-way tickets,from Paris, for 590 euros in total, with Malasia Airlines).

The next day (Sunday), we're driving back to England, through Calais - Dover, and we'll stay there till the Friday. Then back to France, here in fact, (with a petite deviation in Thiaumont) where we'll stay until jetting off on the 25th March (Wednesday). We'll arrive in KL on Thursday morning, 7.30am local time, where someone from the university will meet us and take us to our appartment.

We are both very excited of course! It's very hard for us to imagine exactly what life will be like in Malaysia. I always find that I get an image in my head of what I think things will be like. The appartment, the university (it's at a place called Limkokwing creative university), the city. In the past, my imagination hasn't been that bad, but not that great either. We can't wait to see it all for ourselves. That's the beauty of travelling, eh?

OK, more later perhaps, time for a nap...