I spent my time in Kuala Lumpur being exceptionally lazy, and only venturing around 8 blocks all around the hostel – which to be fair are quite full of things to see!

Crazy Colonial District Skyline

There was quite a mix of people from all over the world at the hostel, and we spent the evenings chatting outside in the relative cool. One girl from London stepped off the plane, grabbed a map and took off around the colonial district – so I tagged along and we also went inside an amazingly decorated hindu temple.

I had a go at haggling at the markets for some birthday presents for Joe and Het, which was fun but I was a bit rubbish – need some practise I think.

The Melaka Night Market

On Friday I came down to Melaka with a Chinese girl that was at the hostel, so we shared the taxi fare and managed to find a really nice place in the old district of town. The streets are really narrow and packed with little shops and markets, and its quite close to the river and other tourist places too.

I’ve made friends with the owner and booked myself in here for two weeks, as I have my own little room and the wifi is fast – so I should be able to happily balance working and sightseeing.

The View From The Top - Notice The Giant Pirate Ship

I seem to be permanently jet-lagged despite zero time difference between Karratha and Malaysia – but I did manage to get up before 12 today and headed out up the hill and around to another more modern district, having breakfast at an English Cafe.

All the best for now,

Alex

Jalan-Jalan Emas, Melaka, Malaysia - Early September 2010

BackHome Hostel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Late August 2010

At the back of Eagle Boys Pizza, Karratha, WA, Australia - May to August 2010

]]> http://www.alexjollands.me.uk/?feed=rss2&p=515 0 http://www.alexjollands.me.uk/?p=502 http://www.alexjollands.me.uk/?p=502#comments Tue, 31 Aug 2010 06:49:10 +0000 Alex http://www.alexjollands.me.uk/?p=502 Well if I thought wandering the streets of Perth was dissorientating that was nothing compared to how I felt on the streets of Kuala Lumpur!

After a pretty non-eventful departure from Australia and flight I stepped off the plane into 33 degree heat at 94% humidity… love it!

AAAHHHWWWYAYAYAYAHHHMMMMAAAAA! You know you're in a muslim country when at 7am you hear...

The trouble with that kind of humidity are the afternoon thunderstorms – which rolled over the city right as I was wandering the streets in search of my hostel! The rain came down so hard that the roads were awash with inches of rain within minutes complete with forked lighting above the skyscrapers. That coupled with shrugs or vauge gestures from anyone I asked for directions meant I lost heart after about an hour and checked into the nearest hostel dripping wet and glad for some air-con.

Not having eating since 5am that morning (now 4pm) I went straight back out and bought a handful of sweet-chilli chicken from a street vendor for a song. Happy once again, I ventured down to Petaling Market in ChinaTown and had fun weaving in and out of the throngs of people selling watches, dvds, handbags, wallets and die-cast statues of the KL Towers.

Dinner was a cashew nut chicken dish at a bustling cafe along with a sickly-sweet chocolatey drink that was served when I asked for coffee.

An amazingly decorated temple nestled among modern KL skyscrapers

Today the hustle and bustle (which reminds me very much of Libya) seems a lot less intimidating, and once settled in my proper hostel I’ve spent most of the day exploring the markets and shops around ChinaTown. It certainly feels like I’ve begun something new – its been a long time since I’ve wandered through colourful markets, jumped holes in the pavement, been harrased to buy DVDs and had to risk life and limb just to cross the road! Definately enjoying myself now!

My new office

I met a Swedish vagabond yesterday who had great things to say about Malaka – a town I was thinking of staying at anyway – so I’ll be taking off there in a couple of days to settle down and do some work for a couple of weeks.

I’ll keep you updated!

Al x

Well well well. In my last post I said that I had 4 weeks left in Karratha… it’s now 5 days later and I’m in Perth!

The day after I put up that post my boss at Eagle Boys insulted me – which is nothing new, he sparodically insults everyone there – but that day he pissed me off so much I thought it was time to leave.

The Belltower at 9am

I toyed with the idea of going back to McDonalds for a month or else staying in Karratha, but eventually decided on getting the ruck out of the place.

So it was that on Wednesday I went in, quit, packed my bags, slept for two hours at a friends place and got an early flight to Perth the next morning! Freedom feels good.

Slightly disorientated, I’ve since been wandering around the city, doing some work and reading the final book in the Millenium series (The Girl Who Kicked A Hornets Nest). I’m staying at the YHA in the middle of the city which is nice and convenient – I’ll be here for another couple of nights before I leave for Kuala Lumpur. I managed to bring my flight forward a month, as I figure a couple of days expenses here equals a weeks expenses there.

Jeans!

I have absolutely no idea where I’ll be staying or where I’m going, and I know very little about Malaysia at all – other than a place called ‘Langkawi’ which Google Images tells me is beautiful. I plan on going to see for myself.

Leaving so suddenly did have its drawbacks however as I didn’t get a chance to have a proper goodbye with many of my friends, but I have a feeling I’ll be back in touch with a few of them in a few years time.

Last night I was so exhausted I went to bed at around 4pm to read and ended up sleeping until 8 am this morning! I slept for so long that a hot shower and an hour long walk around the city couldn’t ease the pain in my disc. It was worth it though!

Inner City Gardens

Enjoying a smoke on main street, doing some people-watching and getting to wear my jeans and a jumper again it certainly feels as if I’ve begun another chapter of my adventure. Quite where I’ll end up is uncertain at the moment, as the length of my travels and the level of extravagance partly depends on many of my as-yet untested abilities to launch and run a business…

We’ll just have to wait and see. As always, I’ll be keeping this blog updated when new things happen which ought to be quite often…

Take care,

Alex x

Apart from going on holiday for two weeks with Sooji in May I’ve been working in this small town since Feburary – so as Im sure you can imagine I’ll be glad to get moving again!

I’ve been very busy the last month working at the pizza shop and finally getting a project finished. My business endevours are now focusing on new things so I’m a lot more interested and motivated. I’m looking forward to getting to Korea in October and experience some of worlds fastest internet speeds.

My plan is to head to Kualur Lumpur for a week and have a little explore (and get a suit made) before flying on to S. Korea for a month. I was going to surprise Sooji by turning up at her university, but I had to tell her before she bought a ticket out to Kualur Lumpur!

Despite the many irritating things, I will miss Karratha – hopefully not very much though as where I’m going should be great!

I hope your all well, and sorry I have no pictures today but I figure you don’t want to see another picture of the pool (even if Im doing a newly-mastered barrel-roll dive).

Take care everyone!

Alex x

Mondays have turned into the best day of the week for me! Aside from having a day off work, Monday has turned into Barbecue and Swimming day

A couple of weeks ago me and the guys from Eagle Boys all had a day at the caravan park, cooking up $100 worth of food and swimming for hours! It was awesome fun, and we did it again today.

A few days ago, after about an hour and a half of walking up to the side of the pool, grappling with my fear and then chickening out, I finally managed to do a backflip! Since then I’ve been flipping in and out everyday – trying for a double soon!

A friend of mine from Wales is leaving Karratha tommorow, so we honoured him by chucking him in fully clothed. He didn’t mind – I think he was dry again in about an hour.

Aside from the recent kebabs and sausages, Karatha is the same old. I’ve bought my flights out of here now though, so the end is in sight!

I’ll be flying to Perth September 20th – and on to SE Asia for the next major stage of my adventure… can’t wait!

I hope your all well, take care, Al x

Hehe – well on Monday I turned 22. Strangely enough, I feel very much the same as I did when I was 21. Apart from the fact that I have a constant, lingering feeling that I am missing out on something fantastic, something wonderful that I should be doing but am not….

I suspect that it’s my nicotine cravings. )

Monday, which was the first day of action for my carefully planned non-smoking strategy (read : cold turkey), I felt strangely spaced out the entire day – and yesterday and today is not that much better!

Despite this, Monday was fantastic – and by far the best day I’ve had in Karratha since Sooji left. Apart from reading some great new books, kicking a ball around the pool and eating cake with my workmates who dropped by as a surprise, I got to pilot an aeroplane for the first time!

I was flying too much of the time to take any pictures! I took these two as we were heading around to land

To receive a present from home I was told to be at the airport at 11am – which turned out to be a 1hour introductory flight in a 180hp Cessna 172! After a brief run through of the mechanics of a plane we were strapped in and doing pre-flight checks. I got to handle the controls a lot sooner and a lot more often than I thought I would! As soon as my instructor Alex had shown me how to use the rudder controls (which also move the nose-wheel) I was taxiing out to the runway!

The instructor must have had nerves of steel, as despite my constant zig-zagging left and right of the yellow line (the rudder pedals are very responsive) he let me take off!

It turns out that the idea that ‘taking off is easy, it’s the landing that’s hard’ is true – all I had to do was point down the runway, push down a lever for full power and keep us straight. Once we were at the right speed, Alex told me to pull up and I brought us into a very steep ascent!

Home Sweet Home

We cruised around 10km to the East of Karratha (soaking in the views!) and then did some great turns. Alex showed me a 60 degree turn which was extreme! The G-forces really come into play when you turn 60 degrees at 130mph!

I had a go too, which went well. When I say it went well I mean I got us out of the downward spiral myself, without Alex having to take back the controls!

So now the mystery is gone – I know how a plane works and how to fly one! What a birthday present!

Other than that, I’ve been going to the pool a lot and kicking about a ball – more so now I’ve stopped smoking!

Me and Nabin with the pool to ourselves

Life in Karratha is the same as ever (hence the dearth of blog posts – sorry), but I only have around 12 weeks left here now before things get exciting once again!

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes and presents,

All the best,

Al x

Well I knew that as soon as I came back to Karratha I would be back to work and up to little of blog-worthiness. Quite how soon I went back to work was a surprise though! The plane landed at 5 and I was at back to cutting pizzas at 6.30! Oh well – the holiday had to end sometime.

The last couple of weeks have flown by – I’ve been working hard and saving my money, as well as pushing forward with my business project. I fixed up a spare bike and so I’m a little more mobile now than my first few days – although cycling anywhere in this heat is  hard going.

Mike resisting the temptation to have a go

Me and my friend Mike worked at a school fete last weekend and were in charge of a great big slide ride, which was great fun as we watched terrified faces turn to smiles as they queued up for another go!

Sooji is ok, we’ve been talking most days on Skype and she’s getting ready for Uni. The prospect of an imminent war with the North is a bit unsettling though!

I’ve been spectacularly lazy too as I’ve only used the pool three times since I’ve been here – and as it’s so nice (and free) I ought to be in there every day!

The very welcome cool pool

Other than a lot of work, I haven’t been up to much interesting I’m afraid. Any chance I get I work on my sites – I’m currently doing a revamp which involves a lot of boring and repetitive technical tasks which is a bit draining – but I’m pushing through. I’m also researching aviation more and more – I have a dream of owning and flying two particular aircraft in the next couple of years, one a low-slow flying bush plane, and the other a personal turbine-engine helicopter! Well have to see when my birthday comes up.

Living in a caravan is ok too – I get on well with my Nepalese roommate who is learning to be a chef (to get a permanent visa) and so I’m enjoying the many spin-off dishes!

Hope your all well, all the best for now,

Al