Coming to the beach was not exactly part of the plan when I decided to come to Malaysia. I mean, I knew I wanted to move around, but I didn’t really know where, and besides, when you’re all alone—or at least when I’m all alone, it’s a little harder to find the motivation.
Luckily, I tweeted about my trip to Malaysia, and that tweet showed up on Facebook and this friend read it and told me about her cousin living in Kuala Lumpur.
Kuala Lumpur is nice, but few cities deserve more than a few days to themselves. I would’ve liked to visit more around KL—and all over Malaysia, for that matter—but I didn’t want to have to run, so settled for a single destination: Pulau Perhentian, the Perhentian Islands.
I woke up early because I had to pack my bag. I had also been criticized my “beard”, the result of not standing shaving and having forgotten the machine I use to keep it short in Paris.
It’s a fact: I love this city. I’m not declaring it my favorite city in world just yet, but if you offer me a job here, I would probably move.
Day 2 meant, not only waking up early, but actually getting out really early in order to try to catch a ticket for the Petronas Towers Skybridge again. I don’t know if it’s because I came on a weekend, but in my experience, you have to be at KLCC at or before 8 a.
5 minutes
Le temps que je mets, une fois que je quitte un endroit climatisé ou avec des ventilateurs, avant de commencer à transpirer comme un malade dans cette ville que j’adore définitivement, mais dont il me faut encore un temps d’adaptation à la chaleur et l’humidité.
(all links below are to pictures)
It was like a 1000 degrees in Kuala Lumpur today! OK, I may be exaggerating, I think it was an average of about 32° with a maximum of about 35°.
Still, that didn’t stop me from walking around the city. Yes, walking! I was sweating like [insert whatever you think sweats the most in the world here], but I really don’t see how you else you can enjoy a city.
After walking for a while around the West Lake in Hangzhou (photos), I headed to one of the many Starbucks coffee shops to secure an Internet connection.
I used to be anti-Starbucks, at least when travelling in a country like China, where I refused to pay a small fortune for a fancy drink. Then I started hanging out with the wrong crowds (i.e. my current friends) and became an Internet addict.
2009-05-22 05:00 GMT+8 Arrived at Hangzhou about 20 minutes ago. After a noisy arrival, it was taxi to Xi Hu, the West Lake. There’s already plenty of people here; jogging, doing t’ai chi, shouting, jumping, … I have a few hours before I leave for the airport. I will probably walk around the lake a bit and then look for an Internet connexion. After all, I still don’t have a bed in KL.
I’m on a night bus to Hangzhou, where I will grab a plane to Kuala Lumpur. It is crowded as hell. I’m afraid for the people sleeping on the floor as the bus guy keeps walking over them. I’m on a top bunk with the TV right in front of my eyes. Hopefully it will be turned off eventually, but in the end I don’t really care. My bunk is barely larger than my hips, and definitively narrower than my shoulders.
3h30
Le temps qu’il faut prendre à midi pour faire l’aller-retour à Qingdao depuis Huangdao pour acheter ses billets d’avion Singapour - Beijing - Qingdao pour moins de 40€ au lieu de presque 500.
Aujourd’hui, la vie est belle :)
Dans un peu moins d’une heure on passe devant le 1er jury de la finale française d’Imagine Cup. Le 2ème aura je plaisir de nous entendre une heure plus tard. Si ça ne vous parle pas, ne vous inquiétez pas, je vous expliquerai tout ça plus tard. Entre temps, sachez que c’est super important pour mon équipe et pour moi. N’hésitez donc pas à nous soutenir à fond. Commentaires, Twitter et SMS bienvenus ;)