Jeff Milner

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.

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.

On the way home from work I couldn’t believe my eyes. The bus was driving through a neighborhood that I had never seen before. After having almost taken the wrong bus a few days ago, how could I have not noticed that this was not the number 10?

Without panicking too much, I asked the person behind me where this bus was going. She asked where I was going and I explained that I was on the wrong bus, but I was going to Kota Raya. She said that yes, this was the right bus but it was taking a different route because traffic was bad on the main road.

A bus that can just veer off the main route whenever it pleases – just to avoid traffic? It’s almost as good as a taxi!

Yesterday after work Jon took me to do some voice over work for the corporate video we shot last weekend. It ended up taking about 5 hours (including the time we spent eating dinner) but despite the fact that it took a long time I had a pretty good time doing it anyway.

We ended up having to redo the whole thing because of some background noise that was recorded. Afterwards I just crashed at Jon’s place because it was pretty late and he needed to get some work done at GXM. I’m amazed at how he is able to focus so much time and energy and so many long nights in order to make sure he gets everything done. I guess there’s a reason why GXM has such a good reputation.

In other news at GXM, I’m currently working on a flash based game that hopefully will be finished before my last day on Friday. Not much time so I’d better get back to it.

I almost took the wrong bus on my way to work today. I hopped on without even looking at the number. Then I noticed the guy that usually yells, “Sunway – Sunway – Sunway” was yelling something else. As the bus started to merge with traffic I thought, that’s funny he must think this bus isn’t going to Sunway.

Immediately I jumped out onto the sidewalk and as the ticket collector looked at me funny from the door I yelled back to him over the noisy traffic – “I was on the wrong bus!”

So in conclusion, having someone yell where the bus is going and keeping the doors open for those that would like to get on (or off) while the bus is in motion is very handy. Who knows where I would have ended up or how long it would have taken me to notice my mistake.