Return to KL

Saturday, May 29

Back to Kl, back to the heat, the treacherous footpaths, the familiar ex-pat faces, and the substandard hotel air-conditioning in our room (it fights a losing battle with the midday sun pouring in the glass window walls, but it’s not so bad that I would be justifying in complaining - again).

The flight back was just the sort I like – uneventful.  Or maybe I am becoming a better air passenger; I was able to doze, only half aware,  through turbulence which in the past would have been enough to cause me panic attacks.

I’m told one of the few things that has changed in my absence is the news channel the hotel cable service subscribes to.  The hotel managers have ditched CNN, in favour of BBC World.  Hallelujah!  Now we just need them to enrol for the NRL coverage.  I won’t hold my breath.

Dave claims the weather is milder (but the weather stats don’t support him), and that there have been fewer storms.  He could be right on this – it is, after all, the dry season, but as I write, the familiar white curtain of rain is moving in from the north-east.

After two and a half weeks of flitting up and down the east coast of Australia, visiting as many friends and rels as could be squeezed in between the highway kilometres, I have come back here for a rest.  It may take a while for me to get going again…  But at least I have had a dose of Oz atmosphere, news and food.  And the weather.  I mustn’t forget the weather – for the first time ever, I appreciated the chill of a Melbourne autumn day, and have tried to save the memory of it to tide me over the hot spots here.

Sunday, May 30

We won’t mention last night’s Rugby League results.  I had been regretting that I wouldn’t be in Newcastle for any Knights’ home games, but if I’d made the effort to stay for that one against Melbourne, I would have ended my trip on a very flat note!

***

And interesting education sidelight here….

Jail terms often include the (in my view barbaric) punishment of flogging, with a rotan (cane).  Now, whipping demonstrations at school assemblies in a test campaign are being used to keep the country's young on the straight and narrow, to show youngsters what lies ahead if they pursue careers on the wrong side of the law.  With admirable restraint, the floggers are using only dummies on the receiving end of the strokes, although there are graphic photographic displays of real punishment sessions to reinforce the message. 

Those administering the penalty in the jails are paid an extra 3 ringgits per stroke – I wonder if it inspires the kids to see a career path in being a prison officer?

I shouldn’t be too critical of Malaysian justice – it is only just over 40 years since the last flogging was carried out in an Australian prison, a comparatively short time in the overall scheme of things.  During a visit to Melbourne’s old jail (now a museum) a couple of years ago, I saw a triangle frame used to tie up a felon for lashing – the display noted that the last time it was used was in 1959, at Pentridge Gaol.  Well within my lifetime.

***

In the old jungle movies, it was sometimes heard that “the natives are getting restless”.  Well, in the tropical jungle of KL, it’s the expats getting edgy. Several of those here in the hotel are plotting to terminate their stays, with varying degrees of success.  DB has announced that at the very least, he is taking August off  for commitments, rallying and otherwise, back home.  I have a sneaking suspicion however, that early or mid-September will see him back in KL.  The job here appears to be getting bigger and bigger.

Dave has gone to the rooftop pool area to join Randall and Michael in one of their favourite Sunday afternoon pastimes – drinking beer and watching the pyrotechnics of a  big thunderstorm lashing KL with lightning and torrential rain.

(later)

I joined the storm watchers on the roof, summoned there as the storm really picked up intensity.  At one point, three separate, but simultaneous bolts of lightning hit the Petronas towers – despite his best efforts, all of them escaped Michael’s camera.  One odd, rare side effect of the storm was the temperature plunging by more than 10 degrees to 23° - the coolest afternoon I have experienced in KL.

I read somewhere last week that Kuala Lumpur has the second highest recorded number of lightning strikes a year, second only to a spot in Sumatra, Indonesia, a short distance away across the Straits of Malacca.  And, unsurprisingly,  the number of deaths by lightning is also high here.

Monday,  May 31

Tonight, sitting idly flicking through a copy of Time magazine from a couple of weeks ago, I came across a travel article, on a luxury hotel in Cambodia which took in street kids and trained them in the hospitality industry.  It was with a sense of disbelief that I read the name of the hotel: Shinta Mani, the boutique hotel we stayed in at Siem Reap while touring around the nearby temples of Angkor Wat. 

I knew Shinta Mani (right) was a hospitality training centre, but I hadn't realised the story behind it.  The manager, Martin Dishman, was quoted in Time as saying: "Seeing the living standard of many of the residents of Siem Reap, you naturally want to try to help."

Time says the trainees are paid $10 a month plus 4 kg of rice (for their families?) and presumably their board – it doesn’t sound like much, but it would be better than the streets of Siem Reap.

Tuesday, June 1

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