There is not such thing as a free meal...

... as the proverb says. However tonight in Changkat Bukit Bintang street I had the best free meal ever!!

A new restaurant had its opening tonight just down my condo. For the connoisseurs, it replaces former Copper Chimney but it is managed by the same owner. Marie and I got invitation as loyal customers. The Moghul House serves typical North Indian Food. And tonight, everything was free!...

In a nutshell: I'm stuffed! I'm full! I enjoyed excellent Indian food from 8 to 1am! I never ate so much tasty food in one meal. I think I now understand what a Roman orgy could be... My jaw is still hurting, I don't know if it's due to chewing or laughing!

Shall I also mention that there was an open bar for beer too? Needless to mention how high I am now...

Beyond that, the menu is great, the food is good and the prices are reasonable for Changkat Bukit Bintang. I'm glad to find out that the substitute for the lovely Copper Chimney will keep the same spirit.

Huh, what's that? How, yes, I forgot: I got to wake up in 5 hours to go climb the Taman Melawati : a quartz ridge at the edge of the Klang Valley (WWF classified). A long hike which includes several steps along the way where it really becomes about climbing... Hopefully I will sleep my beer off by the time I will hang with one hand above a 20 ft deep gap :-)

Bons baisers de Jules Vernes

Yesterday I had the chance to spend the evening with Tristan, Charlie and Jean-Claude, 3 artists currently on tour in South-East Asia. Jean-Claude is a pianist/singer. Tristan is a photographer and Charlie is a theatrical performer. They found a way to match their talents and build an incredible show (cf. title above mentioned), which I strongly recommend (they will perform in Hanoi, Vietnam
tomorrow night).

Those artists have been touring the world for a long time. It was really interesting to chat with them. Their experience of the cultural difference is endless. Jean-Claude in particular has been traveling in the USA for 3 years. Marie and I were amused to figure out that we all have the same feelings about this country. A great country to which one can’t stay indifferent!

I wanna have a gypsy life, so bad!

Haze-ardous!

What's going on in KL? The whole city is covered with a thick fog smelling just like a charcoal barbecue before you drop the meat on the grill... What's that? Oh, I know: the haze is back in KL :'-( Cough, cough!! What is the haze? It's easy as a pie: farmers in Indonesia (especially on the neighboring island of Sumatra) burn the forest in order to clear off fields for cultivation. This generates huge amount of smoke. Depending on the wind, those clouds of smoke make their journey over the Melacca sea and end up reaching Malaysia West coast.

See "before" and "after" pictures of KL:

Sometimes, when the smoke is too thick, schools are closed, as well as some industry manufactures and offices. This is bad for productivity. And needless to mention the health hazard... But to me the most surprising thing about it is the Malaysians reaction: obviously some of them are very concerned about the above mentioned troubles. But others are pretty happy about it because during haze attack the sun can't reach KL and the temperature drops from a few degrees!!

Malaysian government urged Indonesia for collaboration in chasing those illegal forest fires. Indonesia sent some officers in Sumatra jungle. They caught several fire criminals and deported them towards Malaysia... because they were Malays!! Yes, some Malay people setup business among the pyromaniacs... An excellent way for Indonesia to tell Malaysia: "See, the criminals are from your country, all this is your fault so now stop boring us with this smoke story and let our farmers burn forest if they want to"...

I bet you, we are not gonna see blue sky in KL before pigs fly.

Koh Lipe picts

There we go:

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One week with the Sea Gypsies

Get there ASAP, before it becomes overcrowded and corrupted by tourism and easy dollars!!!

Koh Lipe is a small Island located in the South Western Thailand, in the Andaman sea. This Island is part of the Tarutao national park, spreading over a small archipelago. Most of the Islands are wild. Nobody lives there permanently. Koh Lipe is the only inhabited island.

To reach the Island from M'sia, it's a hell of a journey... Count 24h, two buses, three boat hops (including one with the most noisy engine I ever heard in my life (and will ever ear because I'm deaf now), one cab ride. But believe me, Koh Lipe is worth it!

The Island is really like in the movies: thin white sand, lagoon blue water, coral reefs, multicolor underwater life, etc... We lived in a very simple bungalow with a perfect view on the lagoon. We shared our room with plenty of animals, including a fleet of cockroaches, a giant worm and believe it or not, a spider bigger that my hand!

One remark, though: I read on the 1999 Lonely Planet about Koh Lipe that it is a wild Island with almost no facilities for tourists, and that opportunity is given to the visitors to live like the fishermen. On the 2003 edition, some bungalows and guest houses + restaurants are mentioned. And my 2006 experience is that there is a lot of tourism facilities! Especially on Pattaya beach. And not only there are already a lot of them, but also there are a lot being constructed currently... I even got to meet a French girl who settled there, living from necklaces she sells to the tourists! Until recently Koh Lipe was wild and authentic, visited by only a few respectful tourists looking for true experience. My sad feeling is that this time is over, and Koh Lipe is "growing" very fast. In a few years it will just be like Koh Phiphi or Koh Lanta, i-e transformed into a giant recreational park for tourists in spite of its own soul...

However even if it seems pessimistic, there is still hope for those looking for an adventure a la Robinson Crusoe: the neighboring Islands are still untouched (Koh Adang, Koh Rawi, etc...) For a few bahts a fisherman will drop you there for a week... That's actually what we planned at first for this trip, but due to several reasons we couldn't do it :'-( Next time, for sure!

Koh Lipe is inhabited by a handful of sea gypsies, or Chao Lae, the Thai for "people of the sea". Traditionally, they were nomads who traveled from island to island fishing and collecting shellfish. Ethnologists believe their ancestors were some of the first inhabitants of this area. Most of them settled now and they live mainly from fishing. They ride the famous "long-tail boats": their propellers are at the end of a pole, so the person steering the "long-tail" boat looks like a gondolier. We had a chance to walk through their little village, we could see how those gypsies live their life outdoor.

This sounds like they are a bunch of people having a very peaceful and simple life, by the sea, self-sufficient, etc... However the reality is a bit darker than this perfect picture: I had the chance to meet Chris, a German guy who has been wandering in the area for the past 7 years, and who lived the last two years on Koh Lipe. He lived like the Sea Gypsies and and was adopted by them (they named him after the Thai for "our older child"). He had a chance to realize how dark the future is for this People: first they have not been granted citizenship by the Thai government, although they were the very first inhabitants of this land centuries ago. However the Thai government conceded them ownership of lands on the Island. But there came the ruthless Chinese who offered them to buy their land for a few fistful of dollars... Ugly scam! However the Chao Lae are not educate, they are simple people living by the sea. Of course they accepted! They have now just enough land to built their houses that's all. It so reminds me of pioneers buying off Indian lands with alcohol. On top of that they suffer strong racism from the other few inhabitants of the Islands. They are really regarded as inferior human beings. Add to this that they are exposed and were strongly hit by the Tsunami two years ago... And they are still smiling at us. One of them invited us to have a curry dinner at his place and was delighted to help us the best he could when my friend Guilhem lost his passport... Really really nice people.

Overall this was a great trip! So good to leave the noisy KL for such perfect place. However I keep a slight taste of bitterness because I was expecting a truly wild Island... Now I'm informed, next time's gonna be just perfect :-)

PS: pictures to be posted soon!

Off to Koh Tarutao, Thailand!

Long time no post... I have been kept really really busy by my job lately! I didn't even have a chance to have dinner with my dear one in the last two weeks :-(

But half of next week is public holidays in Malaysia (combinaison of Indian Deepavali festival + muslim Hari Raya celebration for the end of the Ramadan). And tonight I'm off to Koh Tarutao in the Southern Thailand with some friends! Plan is: reach one of the desert wild islands off Satun region and settle there for some days, living like Robinson :-) Hum... Ring a bell? "The Beach" maybe ;-)

Checklist:

-matches: ok
-fishing gear: ok
-booze: ok

Alright Charly, I think we're good to go!...

Long time no see, huh?

About one year ago I graduated from Ball State University (IN, USA). A former classmate (my former roommate actually) just sent an email to all the alumni last week in order to get back in touch and write a newsletter to know what each one is doing with his life... I am still in touch with a few, but I will really appreciate to get a chance to get back in touch with those I regret not to be anymore! Thank you for this great initiative, Garth!


Only one year ago, and all this seems so far away for me! So many memories suddenly resurfaced. This email relates to a point of my life were I was a heedless student... Not that I am all stressed out now, but the gap between student life and professional life is a huge one. Don't give me wrong, not that I don't like the way it is now, it's just a bit of nostalgia! To be fair, the mood within our class was really positive. I was part of the so called "CICS mafia". I felt more welcome in the USA than in my own country!

This year in was definitely one of the best. First overseas experience, unforgettable travels across Canada, USA, Mexico. North America is so appealing for travels! I also got to met really different and interesting people... When I got back to France for a short while after this year spent in the US, I really felt this was not the place I wanted to be!




Huh!... I gad forgotten how curly my hair gets when I live it for a while...

Small world...

Last Friday I had a great dinner at a colleague's place, with home made crepes enjoyed while chitchatting. Really great time!

The funny thing is that his girlfriend happens to be the best friend of my brother's former classmate... How small is the world!

Kuala L'impure

I can't pretend I wasn't warned about this because it happened to almost all of my expat colleagues here. I have been briefed many times. I heard many stories. But it was meant to be, I guess: I have been victim of bag snatching last Thursday night :-(

After a great gathering at Guilhem's I gave a ride back home to a friend living in the opposite side of KL. She sat behind me on my motorcycle while Marie was following me on hers. It was around 2a. As I just got my new motorcycle I don't have the rear fly case yet so I don't have a place where to put my handbag. So I dropped it in Marie's motorcycle front basket, along with her purse.

We have had a very good evening at our friends place. We were happy. We felt comfortable and secure in this district of KL we know well. So we didn't act especially carefully. There was not much we could do anyway: two guys riding on custom bikes came from being, snatched our two bags and flew away. For a sec I thought about chasing them, but I might I put myself in much bigger trouble, not even mentioning the risk for a car accident.

Content of the bags:

• our two wallets, including several hundreds of ringgits, 3 credit/debit cards
• one digital camera + a 1Go flash drive
  
• two cell phones
• Marie's eyeglasses + my sunglasses
  
• two international driving licences which happen to be not renewable from overseas
• my Malaysian motorcycle licence which I had obtained the very same day!
• and last but not least: the keys to our apartment

So there we are, in the middle of the night in KL, with no money, no ID, locked out of our apartment, and in the urge of finding a way to cancel our credit cards...

We filed a report at the police station until 5a. We called an overnight locksmith who tried to took advantage of the situation and asked us an insane price to open our door. So we sent him back to his bed. We ended up waking up a friend (thanks again Jerome!) in order to sleep two hours before waking up with the dawn to call the real estate agency for a spare key. Couldn't get a hold of them, so we finally borrowed some cloth from Jerome (yes, Jerome, the tall guy... almost 2m long! We looked funny...) A quick shower and let's look fresh for an intense workday which ended up for me in the late evening... What a day!

I won't let this happen ever again!

Bali forever!

Bali is great! Bali is full of variety. Bali is a glimpse of Paradise! Bali absolutely deserves the worldwide fame it is entitled to. However it's really surprising to notice that what it's mainly famous for is not the best part of it, namely Kuta!

Anyway, I'm too lazy for the full story, so here is a must do/"mustn't do". (disclaimer: all this is just based on my humble own experience)... Let's keep the best for the end and start with the (few) mustn't do:

The South West coast (Kuta, Seminyak, etc...). It's like Cancun for the American springbreakers, except you replace Mexico with Bali, American students with Aussie ones and pesos with rupiah. In a nutshell: beaches packed with tourists, seafront covered with MacDonald's, nightclubs, etc... In a word: you won't find authentic Bali there. Great waves, though: we enjoyed bodysurfing for one or two hours before taking off to KL on the way back.

Bali being on a volcanic hotspot, there are of course a lot of craters here and there. One of them happens to be particularly impressive. According to our guide, GunungBatur is the largest crater in the world (17 km diameter, he said). It was erected hundreds years ago. But then 1962 a second eruption provoked a second crater to appear inside the initial crater. We climbed this inner crater, and from the top, at 1,800m above sea level, the view is just breathtaking. One can walk the whole tour on the crest of the volcano. Needless to mention the perfect 360 degrees view. We could stare at the lake and villages laying inside the outer crater, as well as at the Agung volcano some miles away and the long lavas trail leaking from the inner crater. Just perfect. OK, if it seems so perfect, then why did I mention about Gunung Batur in the "mustn't do" list?? But then, I have to admit that part of the pleasure has been spoiled by the "GunungBatur Gangsters"... A few local inhabitants decided to bar all the slopes to the volcano and despoil the tourists passing through. If you don't pay, it's easy, they beat you, and I am not sugar coating it! Don't give me wrong, it's not that I am not ready to participate and help developing this very remote and rural area. But thing is, they steal 80 USD from every tourist. 80 USD! In one day those guys make the money it takes 6 month to the farmer next door to make! And it really looks like it's not shared at all among the Batur community... I can't help but just hate being screwed like that! Of course, no way I could pay that amount. So after 1 hour bargaining, I cut down the price by 8. And to finish with a positive thought: the trek was a real delight. My advise if you wanna climb a volcano in Bali: forget about Batur and drive 20 more miles to reach Gunung Agung which is supposed to be more wild although as beautiful!

Well, even after a few minutes brainstorming, those are the only mustn't do I could come up with! On the must side:

Ubud, its artist galleries, its Hindu temples and just the atmosphere in those tiny streets. Balinese people are really friendly. At some point you wonder if it's just for marketing purpose, but after having some talks we couldn't identify any ulterior motive. It is natural for Balinese to be smiling. At least I want to believe it...

The North coast (dark volcano sand). The Liberty wreck is really worth some dives! It is just incredible how dense the underwater wildlife is down there! Anywhere you look at there will be some weird colorful specimen... It's like making 10 dives in one! We took some underwater pictures. Soon to be on this blog. Beyond that, we felt like the North coast is much closer to the traditional life. It hasn't been spoiled by tourism and easy made dollars, yet...

Driving in Bali is a truly intense experience, especially at night! First, there are very few signs to find your way. Buying a detailed map is really worth the money! Plus, the road are really narrow! At some point we ended up being lost in a very remote area, and the road became no larger than a bike path... Also, it reminded me of Senegal in Africa were the inhabitants settle along the roads. You can drive half a hour and still feel like you are in the same village, a huge village. But actually this is not a village: there are at best two rows of houses and then the jungle... People live on the road. At night time you can see barbecues setup on the sides of the road, people actually sitting on the sides of the roads, etc... On top of that, add a crowd of motorcycles and you as a driver get really nervous!!!

The mountains, and the wonderful rice plantation landscapes. Even better than in the National Geographic. You got to stop by a little town and stare at the vista while tasting some unusual fruits you never had before.

I am in love with Bali and I plan on discovering the Island further anytime soon. To be continued...

Almost there!

From now on, plan is: 3 hours sleep, pack the luggage, take a cab towards KL Sentral, shuttle to the airport, flight to reach Denpasar, cab to get in Kuta, rent a jeep, make it to Ubud, and finally enjoy some rest in the cheapest guesthouse in town before waking up with the dawn to climb Batur volcano...

That's what I call vacation!

Off to Bali!!!

Thursday night, almost 10p, and I am just about to get it over with this endless working day. The whole day was pretty intense. Worthless mentioning how exhausted I am now. Also, I'm already late for the dinner I am supposed to have tonight at some friend's in KL near suburb. I should be bored.

But you know what? I'm definitely not! I don't care, because tomorrow I am... off to Bali!!! For 4 days! Can't wait to take off :-)

Well, obviously one can argue that Bali deserves a longer time frame than four days. Let's just say we are making initial eye contact...

KL noise

When settling in a new place (especially in another country), one has to adapt (at least) a bit to one’s hosting country and its way of life. Among the changes, some are obvious: I mentioned about food in a previous post. Switching driving side is another obvious change you have to comply with, etc…

But after a while, when those new habits which were real brain surgery at first begin to become part of your everyday life, you can start focusing on those more subtle differences. Namely the noises. Yes, the noises. Places often have a very typical noise. Most of the time it’s barely noticeable. It’s just part of the environment. As I said, your mind is too busy to notice them at first, but thereafter you can identify them.

For instance when I moved in Brest, one of the biggest harbor in France, I got woken up every foggy morning (so basically each other day in Brittany…) by the foghorn… When I moved in Muncie, a small countryside town in Indiana, USA, it took me a while to identify this weird noise haunting the streets: Muncie is a major crossroads for train freight. And one surprising thing about US: as per federal law, trains are supposed to honk repeatedly while approaching the least crossroad… Thus this noise days and nights…

It took me while but I finally identified the typical noise for KL: having a mosque nearby my house, I can sometime ear the chant of the muezzin’s preach…

F.R.I.M

Sunday afternoon Marie and I visited the FRIM (Forest Research Institute of Malaysia). This is a protected wild area concentrating the majors species of trees and plants of the Borneo's primary forest. One good thing about this park is that although it's only 25 min North of KL, as soon as we entered it we felt like we were trekking in the heart of Borneo's jungle! We took the short loop (about 4 miles). This was enough to feel weird: I already noticed this, jungle trekking has a hypnotizing power on me! After some time I feel the same as after speleology. Perhaps it's due to the dense canopy above my head preventing me from seeing the sky and also from the thick silence due to the dense surrounding vegetation. Or maybe just the moist heat getting on my nerves?

Anyway, it was really interesting. We saw giant bamboos, screw shaped creepers, elephant trees, unattached trees, etc... Regarding the latter, the FRIM is really proud of those unattached trees, big time! Apparently the National Geo made a paper about it... Actually it's something truly unusual (cf. picture on the left). It was curious to figure out why on Earth those trees won't just overlap like any other tree! I googled it but didn't get a hit. Same for National Geo online archives. If some biologist specialised in jungle trees wander around please share your knowledge!

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Guru

The Bahasa Melayu word for teacher is... Guru! Sorry you probably don't give a sh... but it just cracked me up! It made my day!
Guru... hahaha!

Berhenti = Stop ; Beri Laluan = Give Way

I have been feeling like a teenager lately: I'll take the written part of the Malaysian Driving Licence test tomorrow morning. Therefore, I have been practicing the Malaysian driving rules and road signs all evening yesterday... Kindly reminds me of my 16th birthday! Well, might sounds a bit stupid, but driving here makes a hell of a difference compared to France. Beyond the anti conformist reverse British driving, Malaysian people make an intensive use of their honk. And I now understand why: as per the Road Transport Department of Malaysia, it is officially advise to do so in many case: overtaking, entering a bend, passing a cow... What about kindly waving cops?

Edit: I passed :-)

Where the hell is Matt?

I wish I was Matt! So does my colleague Sam who spends 10 min steering at this video every morning since a week. What Sam, don't you like seating at your desk?...

Makan lah!

It's been about 3 month now that I landed in Malaysia. Among all the changes from my previous life, food was a big one! Malaysian having a very rich ethnicity, food is accordingly incredibly varied. In Europe we sadly tend to call "Chinese" any restaurant serving any Asian food. But of course the variety is at least as wide as within European countries! And a Chinese Steamboat has definitely not the same taste as the Thai Fish Curry or the Indian Brinjal plate!

Add to this that dinning out at the restaurant is much much cheaper than in Europe and you will figure out why I spent 3 month without even peeling an apple! Though I like cooking, but even the dish I am the most proud of cannot compete with the mouth fireworks I experience on a daily basis down here. I just can't get enough of discovering new cuisines, new taste, new spices...

However after 3 month not even approaching my condo's kitchen I finally caught up with my favorite hobby: Marie and I spent some time Saturday cooking home made veggie lasagna from scratch. According to the Friends who came enjoy it at night, it was delicious! Either they were being really polite or I just didn't loose it too much during this no-cooking period...

Anyway, it was a lot of fun, a great time spent with some close friends, good wine enjoyed along with the lasagna... To be done again!

Work hard, play hard

I just found out that I got a meeting with the customer next Saturday morning... One noticeable thing about Asia: work never stops there! But what to say... when you got to see the client, you got to see the client. Period.

Call mom

In order to reduce cost, my company implemented a gateway to pass international calls over its own network. As a result, when I call my mother, I got to dial:

0320560827P820033495298713
(some digits randomly changed)

Gosh, I got to love her!

Merdeka in Perhentian Islands

It feels good to leave the boiling KL and relax for a bit on one of the most beautiful paradise Island in the world!

Well, when I say "relax", it turned out that things could have been much different. At first this trip started pretty bad: Merdeka being one of the busiest week-end, I made sure to book transportation, accommodation and PADI course for Marie and I ahead of time. So after an intense working day, we arrived around 9:30p at the Sentral train station, ready for an overnight journey across Malaysia towards Kota Bahru. I suggested going check the platform number and then having a coffee, since we had 1/2 hour before the train leaves... That's pretty much at this point that I figured out that the actual departure time was... half an hour ago!

Now, what? It's almost 10p, the busiest week-end of the year, all the transportation fully booked since at least a month! We had struggled to be able to take one day off, to get the PADI course booked, etc... No way to screw up the week-end like that! We felt so desperate :-( And I especially felt so stupid because I was the one in charge. So we rushed towards the Putra Jaya bus station at the other side of the city, expecting to take over the seats of some passenger not showing up at the last minute. And it turned out that it's pretty much was happen!... Great!

Enough with the complaining: the rest of the week-end was really enjoyable, though. The diving course was pretty intense since it's suppose to fit in three days, but as we took a plane on the way back, we where not supposed to dive 18 hours before take off, so we took the course in two days. The Turtle Bay Diver club on Besar Island deserves some advertisement here: the manager really helped us get the best out of our diving experience! They are both really cautious about security and ready to let the fun show up even 18 meter underwater. I recommend them.

The last day we climbed the hill along a dirt trail across the jungle. Intense and rough experience! But the overview of the two Islands from the top of the hill makes the hike worth it.

I can't wait to get underwater again!

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PADI-ing hard!

Thursday, the 31st of August is the Malaysian national day, called Merdeka (= independence). Of course Thursday is public holidays. I took a day off Friday, so that I can make it to the Perhentian Islands over this 4 days week-end. Great opportunity to go for my PADI OpenWater certification. Purpose: being able to rent diving gear and dive by myself!

This is for the fun part. Now, the PADI exam requires a lot a reading ahead of time. Nitrogen pressure, thermocline, Archimedes principle, buoyancy control... WTF?? Reminds me of my Physics classes a loooong time ago! So definitely I can say that I am paddling hard with it...

Grand Opening

It's Saturday morning, around 2p. No special plan to spend the day. Beautiful weather, you want to enjoy the (rest of the) day. The typical question raises up: what to do? Then you wonder "let's see, what did I do last week-end?... Huh I can't recall. Two weeks ago? Can't either!" Pfff... So sad to spend great moments and forget about them right away! So, why not starting a blog? Not a diary, just a log to keep track of all the fun I got...