Author: Jeff Milner

This morning I finished packing up my stuff and returned my motorcycle. I bought one final shirt and jumped into a cab.

Thailand has a tax for people leaving the country. You have to pay 500 bath if your flight is international or they don’t let you leave. I had worked my money down to the cent but ended up having to get more money changed for my overly heavy bag fees and the aforementioned “leaving” tax. GRRRR.

I loved Thailand and was surprised at what a treat Malaysia was to return to. I met up with Jon at GXM Studio – he’s been so great to me – and he let me stay at his place.

We met up with a couple of the Canadian girls from the University Wednesday afternoon and had a great time hanging on the beach. We went for supper together and I had some roasted Duck. It was extremely spicy to say the least – I, unfortunately, am not great at eating really spicy food. Luckily I was able to share a little bit of Kelsey’s not-so-spicy leftovers.

That evening I saw things that blew my mind. I guess it’s fair to say that there are a plethora of prostitutes in Thailand. On Wednesday night I think we found the epicenter. I was glad to have been there with the Canadian girls because the “ladies of the night” seemed to leave us alone while practically jumping on every other guy that walked down the street. The thing that was kind of surprising is that the girls didn’t look like the typical prostitutes you would see in films, they looked like any other Tai girls with normal amounts of makeup and pretty standard looking dresses (IE. not something you’d go to church in, but nothing that would shock you at the bar either). Also of note was the fact that they were fairly good looking girls. A lot of older, “less handsome”, white males were making the rounds, some sitting down with a girl others just coming in and walking out with a “friend” in only a few minutes.

The thing about the prostitutes there, is that some of them are men. Or more accurately – “were men”. There are a ton of lady-boys in Thailand, men who apparently wanted to become women and so they did. Dave and I didn’t seem to have any problems picking them out (it didn’t seem very difficult) but the girls weren’t as quick to spot them as we were. Once we started pointing out the ones with really large hands, shoulders, feet, and adam’s apples, they started to get the basic pattern.

There are so many things to write about… I hope I can remember them. I’m going to try something new, see how you like it.

motor bikes
fast
fun
convenient
beach
sun
waves
a few topless
sand
salt
breeze
lunch
vegetarian
suits
custom
inexpensive
Armani
mini golf

karma
ticket
dave
police station
lady boy
uncomfortable
staring at me
certainly not female
hookers
yelling
laughing
waving
wrong side of road
no problem
evening drive
relaxing
elephants
bedtime
sleep

Yesterday I arrived in Thailand at about 4pm local time. I met a nice couple at the airport and we split a cab. I thought they might be Mormons but there were a couple of clues which tipped me off that they clearly weren’t. It turns out they were members of the Jehova’s Witnesses religion.

After taking what was quite possibly the most dangerous Taxi rid imaginable I met up with my new friend Dave at our “Guest House”. As I mentioned before Dave is another student from the U of L. Let me just elaborate on the most dangerous taxi ride imaginable. If you know anything about the video game “Crazy Taxi” you might be on the verge of understanding what I went through yesterday. This guy didn’t really speak english that well, and frankly he didn’t drive that well either. Stop lights were no match for our driver, he just got into the left turning lane, turned, u-turned, turned left again, and we were on our way. When converting traffic lights into round abouts (traffic circles) was not an option, our guy just drove onto the shoulder, passed all the cars that were stopped, waited for the other cars to go through their green light and then just ran the red while everyone behind us just stared in amazement. We were only “offroad” once and that was so we could pass some cars waiting at a red light. I guess the only thing I can say is, all’s well that ends well.

In the evening Dave spent the night beating me at 8 ball. I told him a good pool player is the sign of a wasted childhood. He had to agree that he had played “a few times” growing up. I understand his older brother was in a world class pool tournament with over 250 teams and came in 4th. Dave says he doesn’t even bother to play him anymore because once you miss a shot it’s pretty much game over.

This morning we rented scooters and the plan for today is to take in some of the beaches, and maybe explore around the island. I’ll try and get some good photos.

I’m officially moved out of KL. I packed up my stuff this morning and headed for the KL International Airport.

I was a little disappointed to find out that my flight has been delayed for 3 hours, but at least I bumped into a nice girl from Regina that I had met a couple of nights ago and again last night. She gave me some good tips on how much she paid for DVD’s in Chinatown and so last night I maybe over did it, but I now have one of the biggest DVD collections of anyone I know.

Me at the KLIA BK

The internet kiosk at the airport is run through Burger King. The interesting thing about this particular Burger King (other than the fact that they overcharge for internet use) is that they are out of burgers.

They have fish burgers, and chicken burgers, but if you see their large sign from across the room that reads, “HOME OF THE WHOPPER” and walk over salivating for a tasty hamburger, you are going to be disappointed.

I got myself some lunch at Nando’s. It’s a Western style restaurant that serves mostly chicken dishes. I ordered the Chicken Burger with fries and a glass of ice water. The waitress informed me that they “weren’t allowed to serve ice water”. I told her that I’d had ice water the last time I was there but she just assured me, the managers wouldn’t allow it and the servers get into trouble if they do anyway. I wasn’t exactly in a good mood having gotten off of the phone with my ex-fiance whom I just told that she was crazy (that didn’t go over well but that’s another story) so I told the waitress that no water would be fine, and that if I started to choke I wouldn’t hold her accountable. She laughed and then brought me some ice water anyway. I’m glad she was able to over-rule her managers stupid no ice water policy.

Later I went for a haircut; quite possibly the world’s worst hair cut. I would have been better off just shaving it all off. Instead I took a more rational approach (pretty good considering how irrational I’ve felt lately) and went back to have it trimmed again. It’s much nicer now, although going back wasn’t completely rewarding, I did get a nasty bite from the electric razor. I could practically see blood as he showed me the updated trim in his hand held mirror.

It’s so hot outside and I’m not sure if this post conveys it or not but I’m not exactly in the best mood. Going for a swim would do me wonders. So I asked around if there is a pool and the consensus is that in fact there are no swimming pools in all of KL! WTF? I might have to break down and go to Sunway (45 minute bus ride) and rm 40 for a day pass. Seems a little steep considering all I want to do is about 40 lengths at a leisurely pace. It shouldn’t take much more than 20 minutes to get my fill and Sunway is not the place to swim lengths, the main body of water there is actually a wave pool.

Here is an interesting story about Cleveland’s Y-Bridge.

Since its construction in 1981, the Y-Bridge has served as the launch site for 43 suicides and countless more attempts.

But unlike most bridges that seduce jumpers, the bodies here don’t fall into rivers, lakes, or forests. They fall onto buildings and houses, and into backyards, like some weird, ominous plague.

(Via Plastic QL)

I think today was the first Saturday since I’ve been here that I didn’t have something planned for me. So instead I hooked up with some friends that I met a week or two ago and we had lunch together at the Dome Cafe in KLCC. (KLCC is the location of the Petronas Twin Towers). I lugged along my backpack because I wanted to bring my water, camera, and ipod but it ended up being a waste because I never used any of them.

While at KLCC I picked up another book, “The Tipping Point”, by Malcolm Gladwell. I haven’t had time to read much of it yet, but I did check out the first couple chapters and so far it’s very interesting. It’s about how trends form and what makes one idea into a fad or epidemic while others die off.

I also booked my flight to Thailand today. I’ll be flying to Phucket (pronounced poo-ket) on Monday (tomorrow) and as luck would have it I’m meeting Dave Wood there. I was worried that I would be doing all of my last week traveling on my own. Dave is one of the other students from the U of L.

Today was my last day of work at GXM Studio. With only eight more days until my flight back to Canada, I’m both excited and sad that my time in Malaysia is coming to an end. I’ve decided to spend my last week in Thailand and will fly there on Monday.

I finished up the Kick-Ray game and Jon said he would put it online. I’ll link to it when it becomes available.

This evening Jon took me out to a friend of our’s place for a house warming party. I had a great time and I especially enjoyed the treat of western food (KFC chicken and Pizza Hut pizza). We had a good laugh watching the poor unfortunate contestants of Malaysian Idol butchering their favorite tunes. The interesting thing about TV in Malaysia is that often you have to know at least two or three different languages to know everything they are saying. They switch back and forth just as people in everyday conversation do here. It’s assumed that everyone can understand in whichever language they happen to be speaking. One thing is for sure, when it comes to singing it doesn’t matter what language they speak – if they can’t sing in Malaysian or English it’s still funny to see the judges responses.