Mandy: 1st and 2nd August
The sky was dark and the thunder and lightening was topping up my nerves nicely. (worried look) A lovely old Indian man with a white beard tied up with a scrunchy under his chin took us from the bus station to the hotel in his taxi. It was a struggle for him to believe we were in the Ipoh Boutigue Hotel and not the Lotte hotel (i have no idea why!!) but he dropped us off there in the end after another circuit around the block and much persuading. (smile) I told him I was nervous of the thunder and lightening in case it struck us. He said when God was ready to take you there was nothing you could do about it and so there is no need to worry. He seemed very happy and said he didn’t worry about anything. What a lovely man, what a lucky man. We just managed to get inside the hotel seconds before the rain came down!
So we were checked in to our hotel by Dev Patel (smile) he is a very nice young guy not at all affected by his fame. (Wink)
I didn’t mention it before because I do not have conclusive photographic evidence to show you but the station master guy or whatever they are called, on duty at the Penang Hill funicular railway, was Denzel Washington! Maybe he was not working there but shooting a film as I seem to be in the habit of encountering film sets this week. (Smile)
We had our breakfast in an Indian cafe this morning…… they didn’t speak English but we got by with pointing and Glen repeating things enthusiastically several times with hand actions and the waiters looking at each other and saying lots to each other and the odd word to Glen!…. We ended up with roti with an egg mixed inside it was delicious …..served with some sort of curry sauce on the side! ……and Iced Coffee…. Not an ice cold coffee, no, a hot coffee (just as we wanted) but with ice cubes around the base of the mug on the saucer! What is that about!!? Actually now i think of it I am not sure if it is something they have on the menu or whether the hand actions Glen did had invented something new and they thought we were weird rather than the other way round…..if it catches on remember Glen invented it (wink)
People wear their coats backwards on their motorbikes in Asia….why is that?
We have been appreciating many and varied places of worship in Asia since we arrived and I have been wondering if we could be finally finding some sort of faith. Then earlier today we were walking along on our way to another Temple, this time inside of a cave, when I noticed a metal pole sticking out above me on the pavement and I had the urge to swing from it. (open mouth) Wow that must have been my Ape instinct coming out! Perhaps religion is not for me after all! Glen thinks Darwin’s findings are more conclusive than my sudden urge to swing from a metal ‘tree’.
Talking of which…… ‘All of the monkeys ain’t in the zoo’ (I love that song, do you still have it on vinyl Dad?) some of them are on top of the limestone hill where Perak Cave Temple is!! Glen walked up to the very top of the temple path and ‘met’ some! I was happy to have waited for him having got all stepped out and seen quite enough of the horizon for one afternoon. He walked another 100 or so steps and returned a little while later with photos of the little critters. (smile)
I need to set up some sort of cultural exchange. Lessons on ‘what Pedestrian and Zebra crossings are for on the road’ will be top of the list for discussion! This part of the trip could have been done in half the time if crossing the road normally could have been possible. And of course the toilet situation …….I’ve been thinking…..maybe they pee on the normal toilet seats because they are standing on them and using them like an elevated squat toilet?
