My thoughts – on the coach from KL to Penang

Mandy: Sunday 28th July

General thoughts going around in my head over the past seven days. Probably best kept there rather than putting on the blog but here goes….. You haven’t got to read it, I won’t be testing you on my return. (Smile)

Ongoing celebrity spotting.

I keep doing a double take thinking I have spotted Gok Wan!!!! Seriously! I am not being racist. Well I don’t mean to be. (blush)

They speak English but not as we know it!

You know they are speaking English but something isn’t quite right and it is difficult to understand all but every forth or fifth word. It’s enough, it has to be! Some times they miss out letters and some times they miss out whole words. When buying some plasters (I am looking after my toes now!!) in a little shop the lady on the till shouted “plastic…plastic?” at me….. ‘I’ve already given her cash i thought’ ….then her colleague said “plastic bag?”

One tri-toothed old ‘waitress’ shouted at Glen…POK! POK! POK!? After he had ordered chicken and rice and didn’t stop until he said yes! He was then served (as I suspected) Chicken AND Pork with his rice!!! Maybe it was a two for one meat day!!! And she was told to push the Pork!

Highs and lows.

PETRONAS TWIN TOWERS – woo hoo!!!!! What more can I say it has been the high so far, literally and emotionally (smile) they were amazing, impressive, futuristic……not sure how to describe them or my feelings except to say it was very exciting to be stood looking up at them. (big grin)

Lowest feelings….seeing the poor, disfigured, missing limbed and dirtiest people and dodgy areas in the city in KL.

Lucky dip.

I remember as a child getting excited about pulling out an object from a big tub at the local church fete held in the old vicarage in Marshfield. I was in fancy dress…..as a gypsy if I remember correctly. (The old romantic sort of gypsy not the modern pikey traveller sort!) Anyway Mum handed over the money and I rummaged around and pulled out a surprise object wrapped in paper and tied with string… I can’t remember what It was but it was exciting not knowing what I was going to get……. I am the opposite now. I want to know, for instance, what food they have wrapped inside the weaved banana/palm leaves hung on string on the side of the hawker stalls? I want to know before I buy it. I don’t like surprises any more!

I have a photo of us at that fete, me, Alison Philpot and Ruth Robinson if I remember rightly…… Must dig it out.

I also remember getting Mum and Dad to part with their well earned money at the same church fete so that i could go into the fortune tellers tent……i am sure it must have been one of the locals in the village dressed-up as they told me I would be a Horse Jumper one day (everyone knew I loved horses at the time). Over here you can go and have your palm or cards etc read. I think I will leave it, if they told me again that I would be a Horse Jumper when I grew up it might freak me out!

Flies! Where are they? It is hot and there is food out everywhere, yet we can count on one hand the flies we have seen, weird…….Ah I know! they are all in Egypt! and some!! I wonder why that is? Something else to look up……… (Mind you maybe that is what is inside those palm/banana leaves hanging up on the food stalls!)

Oldest swingers in town.

“don’t worry, you’ll fit right in, you wont be the only mature travellers” so where are all the other old folk they said would be hobbling along by our side? They all seem very young and fit so far!

Trying to understand the cultural differences.

Why do they eat with their hand? I know why they eat with their right hand only, but why not use cutlery? Some of the people we have sat along side eating with are well dressed (some!!) and I can’t help but think that they could easily ruin their outfits with the curry sauce! And if they have a hot chilli sauce…(it is difficult to avoid it!) they will surely suffer later if they rub their eyes or pick their nose….(as seen on street corners!!)……Glen just said they would pick their nose with their left hand (he has read that they do dirty things with their left and clean with their right) I googled it too! The mind boggles!!! Glen just also said that does it mean they use their left hand when surfing the net for porn? Lol! It makes me smile when we see the hand basins in and around food courts that have signs saying “wash your hand” not hands! Lol! And if you watch them they actually only wash their right hand! Surely while the tap is running you might as well wash both!? No?….. Strange.

I was told some six or seven years ago by a special (and patient) colleague and now friend that I have OCD. I am ok with that, it has since helped me understand my foibles to be honest. I also believe that there is nothing wrong with being over fussy and clean. However It means I don’t fit in here! That’s ok though as I don’t want to fit in, I am just passing through. (Smile) if it means eating a couple of bananas instead of the local street food in KL one day then so be it. Not only do i have enough fat to keep me going for a day or two but I am banking on loosing weight during this adventure and I must surely be toning up the little muscle I have got with all this walking. (Smile)

I know that I didn’t need to come to Asia to see the big divide between rich and poor, I could see that in the UK. However when you are used to it you see through it, past it and except it. Here I think too that there is such a huge difference. Seeing the very rich outside some of the top hotels and designer shops in Singapore, and KL and then having just suddenly, as i am typing this, driven past a rubbish dump clearing within the tropical scenery on our way to Butterworth, Panang. On top of the huge, steaming, gull filled site was a tiny ‘tin hut’….obviously someone’s home. Sorting through and living off other people’s rubbish. (We’ve seen them in the streets too) How could humans born with the same two legs and arms etc find themselves with such different fortunes on the same planet? Could either imagine the others life? Could I imagine either extreme? I’ve thought about it a lot as we have walked around.

I wrote the above paragraphs yesterday on the coach and was feeling tired and hungry and a maybe a little ……melancholy I think. I feel a lot brighter this morning after 8 1/2 hours sleep in the Tune Hotel (smile) we fell asleep to the ‘tune’ of motorbikes going by last night! Nothing could keep us awake after all the walking though.

I do not want this blog to just be our smiling faces in front of iconic buildings and scenery. I want to note down all of our thoughts and findings good or bad, funny or boring. (Smile)