There Will Now Be A Short Intermission

... please excuse the short intermission whilst I am in the UK...

Summary: family, friends, work, France, Kew Gardens, Tourist, Soho, shopping, drunk, food, Brick Lane, Bournemouth...

On Home Soil

The BA flight was nice, as usual, but the guy next to me was a fidget arse and kept banging the seat and divider as he settled in, which really pissed me off. 

Anyway, I manage to get some sleep after watching a few movies and arrive relatively refreshed in London the following morning and get a taxi (£80!!) back home. It’s nice to be home and it’s the longest I have been here since Christmas, but in a way better as there’s not the pressure to see everyone plus the added hassle of Christmas too. I have got a lot to do whilst here, I hope I manage to get to see everyone and do everything I need to do... 

Bill? What A Coincidence!

I am heading back to the UK for a while - a mix of holiday and work. I was due to end my assignment in June, but things have changed at work and  I am needed out in Malaysia until the end of the year. How marvellous - and besides, I haven't completed all the travelling I want to do in Asia just yet...

As the flight was last minute, I only manage to get one via Bangkok with a long (6 hour) stopover - good job I get to use the lounges. Whilst I am guzzling champagne and munching through my own body weight in cheese, I notice this guy who I thought I recognised as a project manager from work. Of course, it couldn't be him, and I just ignore him and forget about it.

A few days later in the office, I bump into Bill and mention this story... It was him!

Plenty Of Parking

Last day in the office after an incredibly long week at work and to celebrate the end of it, I have arranged to meet friends for dinner in town. The most convenient place is probably the Pavilion...  When I get there, the LED indicator outside the car park entrance said there were "1058 spaces available". 

Bollocks.

I must have driven round the entire multi story car park before finding what must have been the last space at the furthest point away form any exit. 

Rabbit Rabbit

The drive back from Fraser's Hill was a chore – there was traffic almost everywhere, and by the time we reached KL it was food time so we stopped off in Kota Damansara at this famous satay place and had a selection of lovely hot satay: chicken, beef, lamb and rabbit. Delicious - especially the rabbit...

The drive may have been quicker had the "new" highway been open. It's been constructed, but just abandoned, so the trek back was through small towns. 

Mad Horse And Abandoned Houses

We drive around the Hill and stop in the town where there seems to be a Bird Watching Convention going on, and after buying a few souvenirs we head off, via a horse riding paddock (where this horse seemed to be going a bit mad, nodding his head manically from side to side in his stable. I had visions of it bolting and running madly towards us. 

It didn't.

There was a newly opened road back down (thus negating the need for this alternating up and down that had confused me earlier on) and se made our way down, again missing the breathtaking scenery: there really ought to be rest points along the way down so you can stop and admire the views – instead we just slowed to a crawl and Arif took photos where he could. A few times cars came hurtling round the corner behind us, but we just sped off!

As we reached near home, I stopped on the road near to where I'd seen this row of derelict houses: it looked a bit like a ghost town; an abandoned housing estate and was a bit eerie...

A Bit Like Us, But Not Like Us

Once at the top (10 km of winding road) we can eventually stop and get out other car to look around. It's beautiful.

We head to The Smokehouse for lunch, which was lovely. It was like being in a rural country pub in the UK on a lovely summer’s day, and made me feel a little homesick really. I would have liked to eat outside, but it was a bit stuck in a time warp and the restaurant was quite formal, so alfresco dining was not really the thing to do here, so they declined when asked if we could eat on the patio. Not to worry – it wasn’t that important… to us. 

A few minutes later this old German guy with two r I d I c u l o u s camp queens on his arm minced in and sat next to us.

• Like us, they too wanted to eat. 
• Like us, they wanted to eat outside
• Unlike us, they kicked up a complete stinky drama when told that the restaurant was indoors and eating outside was not allowed, shouting at the poor manager and saying shit things like “I've been coming here for 20 years and I  WANT to eat outside" and "I am going to tell all ze foreigners not to some here”

What a complete cunt.

Anyway, they left in a strop, him virtually goose stepping and them giggling and mincing away out of the place – nightmares. 

Lunch was nice: a bit 1970s (heavy cream sauce on my lamb shank) and after taking a few photos of the place (which probably could do with renovation and bringing into the 20th century) we leave as it had stated to rain by this point too.

The (Non Stop) Road To Fraser's Hill

I was going to get up pretty early this morning, even after being out last night at this new bar called The Hill in Bangsar (was OK, but weirdly no music was playing and was host to several Hen Nights) as I'd agreed to drive out to Fraser’s Hill today with Arif.

Anyway I don’t get up till about 10am, and I am little hungover and so we are a little late leaving for, what I think is, a chance for another outdoor hike in the fresh air. Alas, it’s not. It’s a 70km drive about an hour and a half out of KL, through Rawang and to the higher ground passed the Hulu Yam dam and, basically, you can’t get out of your car for the whole journey until you reach Fraser’s Hill, as the road  twists and turns and is virtually single track. 

This is a real shame as the scenery along the way is breathtaking! I had to make do with committing the scenes to memory instead. 

The road to the Fraser's Hill summit is even more winding, narrow and steep, so there is a system of allowing cars up between a certain time, and down again at certain other times, so we check the internet on the way to find that we are probably going to be in time for the “up at 1300 hrs” slot, but when we get to the gate, at 1230, it’s open with no-one visibly looking after the car entry. Hmm… So we just go ahead hoping that cars are not allowed down, otherwise we’d have been screwed. All along the way were these warning signs telling you that it was forbidden to stop and look at the scenery.

It would have been more fun had I been able to go faster up the hill, but I was behind someone most of the way, plus the fact Arif looked like he’d throw up if I did go any faster round the bends!

Broken China

Amongst the daily plop that this week has been bringing, I get a text from Edwin with the Beijing flight details and so as a distraction, I spend time trying to book flights, only to get very frustrated with the Air China flight booking system. You apparently can’t use a UK credit card on a Chinese website, and kept getting an error message.

I actually read the error (rather than start huffing and close the website down) and it was because I was trying to use a UK credit card from a website being accessed on a pc in Malaysia. So what?

SO FUCKING WHAT?

Anyway, I tried fooling it by changing my location to "UK" on the Air China website options, but the Chinese are far too clever for that and they weren't fooled.

In the end I gave up using that site and booked it all through PYO Travel for the same price and none of the hassle.

China In Your Hands

The week turns out to be a nightmare (work, boring, won't go into details here) but on the brighter side I am I am chatting to Adrian tonight and we get onto the topic of China, and the fact I am pretty disappointed that I haven't managed to get there yet for a trip.

He has been planning a holiday to Beijing in August and when we were out the other day, I cheekily invited myself along - only joking mind - but tonight he's confirmed that it's OK for me to join them (and a few others). Fantastic!

I had better resume my Mandarin lessons, as I think I'll need more than 你好吗？， 我是 Chris, 我住在英国。Plus, counting to 10 can only get you so far...

Had I Known...

...how this week would pan out the way it did, I would have probably stayed in bed.


   ...with a bottle of gin.


       ...all week.