World Malaysia Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur

No Reservations

Penang/KL/Melbourne Feb 4, 2012

I'll make this quick - it's been a very long holiday! Nine days travelling through Malaysia via Penang and Kuala Lumpur celebrating Chinese New Year in both cities. In KL the hotel we stay at is in a street with several brothels. Our room was on the 5th floor and had a great view of the doorways to two of the busiest ones. Starting early in the morning, crowds of young men descended on the brothels, always walking in very purposefully and leaving at a much more relaxed pace, in almost every instance checking their fly.....great fun watching!! Seemed to be hundreds going in and out with great rapidity. Our hotel receptionist said as it's a long public holiday, many Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi workers come up from Singapore for a bit of fun. Poor girls must have been exhausted. Caught the bus to Singapore, quick visit to Chinatown for our last Asian meal and then home. Phew, been quite a trip. Mastered 9 different currencies and almost as many interpretations of "hello/thank you/two cold beers please/goodbye", by the end of the trip talking complete rubbish which no one can understand! Of course there's been lots of highlights, Tiger Leaping Gorge, House of Dancing Water, Portuguese egg tarts, great train rides and not forgetting all the lovely people we've met. Unfortunately, there has also been tragedy. Walked through old Little India, munching on spicy fried chicken and samosas, heading for Times Square. Crossed over busy streets, across traffic lights, standing on the median strip, trying to cross a busy four lane road to the Seven Eleven for a soft drink. As we were about to cross, heard a loud crashing noise behind us, Peter thinking it was the skyrail, and, not one metre behind us, careering over the median strip from the other side of the road, was a big black sedan going at least 60kph. Peter felt the air move on his back. It then smashed into a man and woman on a motorbike, maybe 60 metres down the street, arms and legs cartwheeling, before we looked away. Unbelievably the car did not stop. The man died. The woman was taken to hospital. We saw the poor man on the road. Smashed. Took ages for the ambulance and police. Some poor sod from the public had to direct the heavy traffic around the man's body. We were one metre from being dead. Thank you God. The motorbike couple weren't so lucky. As distressed as we were, can you imagine how their families feel..... Now it's back to Tasmania where we left the van. As CSIRO have closed at Merbein we no longer have our summer wine-making jobs so we've decided to rent/renovate a tiny 3 roomed stone cottage (1830) on a property we prune vines at just outside Swansea on the east coast. Somewhat daunting, kind of semi-settling down but we're looking forward to it. Of course we'll continue to travel, it just might be at different times. Thanks for reading our blog, it's been fun. Farewell!!!

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