No need to push mah, just call lah!

After more than one year spent in KL I noticed that there are phone numbers painted on almost all the sign-posts, streetlights and stop lights in KL, but until yesterday I never had the curiosity to call and figure out whose number it was.

Yesterday, Marie's bike had a flat tire. I came to help and we were getting ready to push the bike over few blocks to reach a nearby garage. It was about noon, temperature was 35°C, that would have been hell! So I asked a guy passing by if he knew a bike shop closer than the one I was thinking about.

He answered: "no need to push mah, just call lah!", and he finger pointed a streetlight... He explained that repairmen write their phone number on all the streetlights within the area they cover!! One can call and get service 24/7 within 10 to 15 min ;-) But you need to speak Malay to give your location since bike repairmen usually don't speak a word of English...

Half an hour and twenty ringgits later, we were on the road again!

Way to go!...

Kiddy Kiddy!

No big story here, but just the cutest picture I ever took! (not that I'm a big fan of the "kiddy kiddy" type of picture, but I really like this one, though)!



I took those pictures a few weeks ago as Marie and I took a ride to Kuala Selangor.


















Those Silverleaf monkeys are freely roaming in the hills around the town. They are famous for the bright orange fur of their infants, before they turn to regular adults' dark hair with silver shining.










But don't give me wrong, this one is definitely my favorite kind: it can even ride a bike!!

Keep in touch!

I suck really bad at keeping in touch with people who are not around. In my case it's all the more worth since in the past 10 years I lived in 6 different locations within 3 countries...

There are so many people I still wanna be in touch with! Therefore in order to catch up with those people that count for me, I'm giving a try with the Facebook thing. I actually registered few years back when it became big in the US and everyone got excited about, but I never really got to use it since at this time I thought it was useless and I preferred IRL interaction.

But yesterday I got a message from a good old friend of mine (Sweta ;-) and it made me really happy to read about her! Of course I'd much better raise my glass with her, but it's still much better than nothing.

I'll update my contact info and update some pics soon.

So, see you around on Facebook...

Borneo

I'm not even gonna try to apologize for the looooong time I didn't upload this blog. What can I say? I have really gone through a rough time at work...

Anyway, I still found time during the last two month to do something I kept postponing for too long:

After traveling here and there, I can now claim that I know peninsular Malaysia pretty well. However I never stepped on East Malaysia (Borneo Island) before. In order to catch up, I flew to Sarawak state (Southern Borneo) two weeks ago to attend the Rainforest World Music Festival. This festival is especially famous because of its location: it takes place at the Sarawak Cultural Village, just in the middle of the jungle, surrounded by hills. Definitely a great location, but I wasn't that enthusiastic about the music itself. Also I was expecting some roots/trash/hippie experience with w33d smell floating all around but it was actually more a "friendly event". The day workshops were fun though! And guess what? I had a chance to listen to the unique Breton bombarde noise! So far away from Brittany, that was quite unexpected!


Bottom line: the festival was nice, but I definitely had a crush on Bako Park where Marie and I went for 3 days trek just before the festival. Bako is located on the south-west coast of Borneo Island. It's a wild park, we met only very few other trekkers. What is great about Bako is that after a really tiring walk into steep hills and moist jungle comes a great reward: the sea. Bako is surrounded by beaches and with a moderate luck you can expect to reach a desert beach just for you before sunset! It feels so good to spend a few nights in the simple wilderness. As opposed to Taman Negara, Bako discloses much more variety in the landscapes alternating rainforest with beach ecosystem or dryer meadows. I definitely hold it as the best place I've been in Asia for trekking so far. Big up for Marie who found the strength to carry my bag and find a remote river to get some water while I was literally paralyzed by recurring cramps.

We spent one day in Kuching, the main city in Sarawak before reaching back to KL: it's a very charming city. The riverbank is amazing, very calm and beautiful. Strong contrast with the average large Asian city, usually much more bustling...

Overall, a short trip (only 5 days), but as usual, very well filled!