Shedding some weight and some light on what’s been happening since Japan

Having left Japan early after the quake on March 11, it didn’t make much sense to continue writing under the heading “Experiencing Japan on a working holiday”.  And while many may question the necessity of writing my drivel under any heading, on I go with a new blog.

Thinking of a new name was an issue, all the best ones were already taken.  I'm not entirely happy with the one I ended up with, and will no doubt think of something better now that I've started posting on it.  But what can you do?  Suggestions are appreciated.

I’ve taken the past two afternoons to get my affairs in order.  Namely updating the blog (or starting a new one) stripping my bag of more unnecessary weight, as the heat is atrocious, and walking around with a heavier bag than you have to is just silly.  So, I have discarded a grotty old fleece that I’ve had since a school ski trip back in 2003, which I took because it’s light and warm.  It’s still wearing alright, but I think it’s time to say goodbye.  Also getting the heave-ho are two old tee-shirts which leaves me with five – still too many, but I quite like all of them, especially my icebreaker tee-shirt which is full of holes on the right shoulder from taking on and off my bag.  Wore it practically every day I hitched in Japan and it’s got a story behind it - not that anyone asks, they just think I’m a hobo.  A nasty old pair of orange shorts I got in Greece (although I cut out the pockets and I’m going to sew them into my bag for keeping things neat), two pairs of uncomfortable cheap underpants that I bought in Penney’s and a few pairs of socks that have nothing particularly wrong with them, except for the fact that they’re far too thick for this climate are also out.  My cargo pants are too thick and heavy so they're going to have to go out as well.  It’s tough saying goodbye to stuff, but life is all about sacrifice.  I’m going to leave the clothes in the hostel, and hopefully they’ll donate some of them to the homeless, if they’ll even take them.

After ditching all this weight I then went and bought a tent, which will put those extra kilos straight back on, but on the other hand it will mean that I don’t have to worry about being homeless if I get stuck on the road somewhere.

As for my whereabouts, last you heard from me I was just after leaving Japan and had flown into Hong Kong, where I spent a week with a few of the other guys that left with me.  We all went our separate ways on the 26th of March, and I flew to Singapore to see the sis.  She’d booked a week off work to visit me in Japan from the first of April, which was obviously no longer going ahead, so we looked into other ways of productively spending her holiday time.  We were interested in doing our open water diving course, considered going to Bali and then decided on Sibu Island off the east coast of Malaysia, where we spent the week chilling out and reading beside our little beach hut (I highly recommend A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami, if you can get your hands on it); getting shown the ropes of diving with Grant, our friendly instructor; getting to know the staff around the resort; having the odd drink and playing SCRABBLE.  Overall very relaxing indeed, and on top of all that we finally are qualified open water divers.  At the end of the week, we went back in the direction of Singapore, although I hopped out at the Malaysian side of the boarder in Johor Bahru.

The JB CS Gathering

I was only planning on staying in JB for two days, but instead stayed four getting caught up in the social high life that comes with meeting the Couchsurfing society there, but then began my hitching career in Malaysia.

I got off to a rocky start as at first it seemed that nobody understood what I was doing on the side of the road with my thumb out.  One guy on a scooter stopped and asked what I was doing the conversation went as follows:

Guy: What are you doing?

Me: I’m going to Melaka.

Guy: You want the bus?

Me: No, I want to go by car.

Guy: You have a car?

Me: No, I’m waiting for a –

Guy: - ah, your waiting for your friend?

Me:   ...y-es...?

Several other people stopped, offering to take me to the bus station and another guy asked where I was going, and asked how much I would pay him to bring me there, I told him I was all right.

Finally a gent in a jeep stopped for me and offered to take me to a better place to hitch to Melaka, as the place I was in wasn’t really on the main route (oops).  This guy was a chicken farmer, who when he was sixteen had started his farm with twenty chickens.  Now, twenty or so years later he has over TWO MILLION of the things.  I, for one, am impressed.

Once he dropped me there I carted my gear along the road until I was standing at a less dodgy part of the road hoping that someone in the three lanes of traffic would spot me and stop for me without causing a major crash.  Eventually someone did stop and once again offered to drive me all the way to Melaka if I paid him, I refused again, and in the end had to tell him that I was waiting for my friend again.  He drove me to a better place to wait for my friend, right beside the bus stop in case he didn’t come, which was very nice of him.  He also gave me his number in case I was back in JB and needed a drive.

When he’d disappeared I left the bus stop and stood once again beside the busy road, but this time under an overpass.  Nice and shadey, but it also made me less visible, and additionally I was actually practically standing on the road now, instead of on the pavement.  A few taxis thought I was flagging them down.  So did a bus, which started pulling in to stop for me but, when he saw I didn’t mean to get on, kept driving in the margin where I was standing and I had to sidestep quite quickly out of the way to avoid being driven over.  Eventually a young fella pulled in and told me that he had nothing to do, and he didn’t mind driving me all the way to Melaka, so long as I covered the petrol and the tolls on the highway.  He seemed reasonable enough, so I decided to go along with him.

As it turned out, the price of the tolls and the petrol cost more than a bus would have, but at the same time my new friend, a twenty-one year old airport security guard, was chatty and interesting, and he dropped me off exactly where I needed to go, so I really got a good deal.

It was raining, but not pouring two days later, as I was making my way out of Melaka, but I had more success in getting rides, for one because I had decided to steer clear of the larger roads and highways after careful consideration and consultation with some Couchsurfing friends I made during my time there, and secondly because my CS host drove me a fair ways out of the town until we finally found a decent stretch of road.  In the end I made it to Kuala Lumpur in good time, and just three lifts (although I did have the obligatory offers of a lift to the bus stop thrown in)

And that’s where I am now, still in a cheap, but very clean hostel, bang in the centre of the capital city.  It looks like I’ll be sticking around Malaysia for a while, as I’ve discovered that to cross the border to Thailand by car gets you a fifteen day visa, whereas flying in gets you the full month.  Seeing as I had already booked flights from Tokyo to Bangkok through Kuala Lumpur before things got messy in Japan, I may as well use the second leg of those flights.  It suits me fine anyway, I’m liking the place so far.

More than enough writing done for the moment, I’m going to try to become more regular with my updates  (promises, promises), if not because I know all of you are simply dying  to know what's happening in my life, but also because I take ages trying to decide what to cut from the post and what to leave in.