Postings from my recent travels in southeast Asia, Italy and England. As usual I found that travel reveals more about oneself than about ones destination.

Friday, May 24, 2002

Of birds and one-armed bandits

Hello all - it's an oft-mentioned cliche (or is it really a cliche) that the unplanned, spontaneous things we do are often the most fun. The parties that happen by accident when a few people decide to drop by at the same time, trying a new restaurant on the spur of the moment or even simply walking down a different street on your way to a familiar destination.

My fairly last minute decision to come to Malaysia has resulted in a very enjoyable time although a bit of a zero on the cultural scale. But what the heck - I've had enough temples, cultural performances and 'atmospheric' stuff (i.e. bumpy bus rides, hot tramps round markets) to last me for a while.

After a few days in KL getting the lay of the land (or is that lie?) I headed off to Bukit Fraser (Fraser's Hill). If I was not a fairly serious bird watcher I would have been very disappointed in this place as it was nowhere near as nice as the brochure would have you believe. Just getting to it proved how inaccurate the brochure was.

Two busses a day were supposed to leave from the intermediary town - Kuala Kubu Baru (KKB) - at 8:30 and 12:00. In fact there is only one bus a day that leaves at 10:30 a.m. As I arrived at about 11:10 a.m. this wasn't much help. However there is a bus that leaves at 4:00 p.m. and drops you at a place called the Gap (the ORIGINAL Gap perhaps) where there is a wonderful, decrepit colonial guesthouse that you can stay in.

So that's what I did. Then the next day I walked UP the 8km road to Fraser's Hill seeing spectacular birds along the way. In the town (a bit of a glorification as it is really just a few shops and a grungy hotel) I met Durai the local bird expert. He arranged for me to stay in a quite nice private apartment for 50 RM per night (about $20 Canadian). I bought cornflakes (Nestle not Kellogs - weird), fruit and instant noodles at the local shop as the food pickings were very limited at the local stalls.

I went out birding with Durai a couple of times and by myself mostly - I saw about 55 species many of which were spectacularly coloured. I must admit that birding back in Victoria is going to seem quite boring in comparison.

After a week of relaxation and coolness (20-25 degrees C) it was back to KL for a few days and then off to Genting Highlands to gamble like a silly fool.

I had a great time at Genting although it was as much of a culture shock - being almost completely without foreigners - as any cultural destination might be.

I stayed at the low end hotel (First World Hotel) which is huge and shabby. It is hard to believe that it is less than 2 years old. The carpet in the hallways is stained, gouged and burned. And it is rather amateurly run (as is the casino). The first room I was given (they use a keycard system) was occupied by someone else - imagine if I had burst in on them when they were in the shower?! And I certainly would have been irate if that was my room and the front desk accidentally issued someone a key to it - but they didn't seem to think it was a big deal.

The doors of the rooms were made of stone and the walls of paper. If you let the door go it slammed loudly and in the morning I was treated to the bathroom sounds (lots of horcking and spitting) of my neighbour as if they were using my bathroom. And although the room was supposedly 'made up' each day the standard was pretty amusing.

The first night I was there I left the window open and a good sized moth (about the size of a matchbox) flew in and landed on the second bed. It was very noticeable against the white sheet (it was dead by this time). When I returned to my room the next day the bed was made up but the moth - that had been where the pillow would go (but I had removed the pillow to the first bed and was using it) - was still there. And it remained there the whole time even though it was clearly visible. And it will probably be there for the next guest.

The casino was fine and good fun although no free drinks and no interest in customer service. Several times a day they come by and throw everyone off the machines and remove the money from them. They also don't bring you change (like in Reno and Vegas) - if you can't get a machine to accept a bill and you want to use coins you have to go and get them yourself.

All in all though it was good fun. I'll sign off now. I'm going to head out soon to the airport and at 11:40 p.m. I'm on my way to London.

Next bulletin from Italy!