Malaysia, 2010
Where I happen to be today is in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – sitting in a Pizza Hut sipping ice tea (passion fruit flavour). My travels this year are one of my crazy ideas that I actually put into action for once. I felt I wasn’t using my talents sufficiently at Cambridge University. So I wondered what would happen if I just travelled the world ‘singing for my supper’? In my case that means giving talks, lectures, training, workshops, etc. If people paid for my songs, great; if they didn’t, I’d head back home, nothing lost. I’m like a modern day monk, with my begging bowl, although I haven’t shaved my head yet!
Diary entry, 22 March 2010
I am staying at Tune Hotel, downtown KL. This is part of the low cost airline group, Air Asia, and in some ways it shows. Any luxuries (like a bathroom towel, toiletries, air conditioning and wifi) cost extra. Also (a new first for me) there are billboard adverts inside the room (painted on the walls): McDonald's above the bed and Maggi (noodles) in the bathroom. However, it is clean and rather spacious (even a separate toilet and shower!).
I have had a few excursions beyond the hotel and "office". On Monday, [name] (my host) treated me to a Malaysian-Indian style lunch (deliciously spicy) and on Thursday [name] took me out for an "uptown" dinner at Cafe WIP. She is an amazing person. […]
Saturday was a tourist day, so I headed for the Petronas Twin Towers (88 storeys and still the highest building duo in the world), walked around the park (discovered a beautiful whale sculpture), then got on the hop-on-hop-off tourist bus. The panoramic view 250 metres up, from the KL Tower viewing deck, reveals extensive green space among the gleaming spires and sprawling asphalt. On the tour, I heard about Malaysia's long trading history in tin, rubber and now palm oil.
Diary entry, 25 March 2010
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