Greetings from Kuala Lumpur. I made the flight over yesterday from the Philippines and arrived safe and sound in the world's fifth best airport (that's official) just after 9pm. The flight was competently handled, and I was happy to reflect this in my customer service questionaire gradings.
It was a very worthwhile flight for me actually, because we flew across Borneo whilst still in daylight, and alongside one of it's greatest wonders: Mount Kinabalu. Mount Kinabalu is four thousand one hundred and one metres high, and towers above the (shrinking) tropical forests of Borneo. By chance, I was already looking out of the window as we approached (trying to make out the almost visible ground below) when the pilot spoke over the public address system. 'Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls,' he said, sounding more children's entertainer than pilot. 'If you look to your right you'll see Mount Kinabalu, the largest mountain this side of the Himalayas.' I looked up, and further round, thinking there were only clouds, and that we were surely too high to see anything, when I caught sight of the most enormous thing I've ever seen. Mount Kinabalu, looking back across at me, and towering well above the clouds. Huge, barren, brown, a feat of nature: it was actually rather frightening to look at. The clouds, which didn't look so big now, hugged areas of rockside. It seemed the sort of environment where you'd find King Kong or Godzilla hanging around. I was so pleased and lucky to see it, and to enjoy such a stunning aerial view was a real treat.
We landed for about half an hour in Kota Kinabalu a bit further south in Sabah (the northern half of Borneo) to take a sick baby on board. The poor thing was wheeled on calmly and quietly in an incubator, and never heard from during the rest of the flight. Along with the other passengers, I was allowed to disembark and wander around the airport until we were ready to fly again.
To celebrate having made it through another leg of my journey, once I'd checked in to my hotel in Kuala Lumpur (called Le Village), I went over to a local establishment called the Reggae Bar. It was after 11pm so it was just a quick nightcap. I've made a point, as I've been travelling around, to try the national beer of the country I'm visiting, and thought Malaysia should be no exception. I wondered what I would find as Malaysia is a Muslim country, but wagered there would be something. I was disappointed to find that the Reggae Bar only had two beers in stock: Carlsberg and a lager called 'Bavarian.'
'Bavarian?' I said to the barmaid slightly sarcastically, 'is that a Malaysian beer? I'm after a Malaysian beer.'
'No. It's Dutch,' she said confusingly, and showed me the label to prove it.
I reluctantly had two glasses of Carlsberg.
Today I've been making arrangements. Tomorrow morning, at 9am, I'm catching a bus to Singapore. This will take five hours. I'm staying in Singapore until 28 November when I'll catch another bus back up to Kuala Lumpur. The following day (29 November) I have an afternoon flight to Kuching (Southern Borneo) booked. I'm going to spend a week or so in Kuching and travelling northwards through Borneo until I reach Brunei. I should reach Brunei on 7 December, and will spend a few days looking around, before flying back to Kuala Lumpur on the afternoon of 11 December. This will bring me back to KL two days prior to the arrival of my friend Raj who will be joining me on my travels until 2 January. We will then explore Peninsular Malaysia together. A bit more of the jigsaw has been put in place, a bit more planning is complete. Even got my washing done today.
Forgot to mention earlier: I have some bad and good news. Bad news: realised in Boracay that I've lost my lovely turquoise swimming trunks. Damn it. I was very happy with those. Very happy. But good news: also established in Boracay that my running shorts can function as a perfectly adequate replacement. I'm not a hundred percent but I reckon the trunks are on a washing line up in Chiang Mai. Anyway, bugger. And these things happen.
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