Blanchards' Oriental Travel Journal

Why I travel BA I still do not know,.. BA serves up the two worst cuisine scourges of the Western and Eastern world... British food and airline food...in a practiced mix. After 10 years in Asia maybe I've grown accustomed to Asian cuisine...there is no way I find this stuff appetising anymore..

Same mix of course here in cattle class, not as many tourists as there used to be. The rising Asian currencies and decreasing pound have seen to that. The great Singapore sale has had a bit of a push in the old country of course...little do they know that now that even at sale prices you can still buy things cheaper back home. ..and Singapore?..why travel 13 hours to go shopping...women still confuse me...

Singapore as first stop..at least its a smooth ride from plane to hotel. I'll see if I can beat the 40 minutes it took me from touchdown to check in at the Hyatt last time. Singapore must be one of the most efficient airports in the world, $10 US in the passport gets you nowhere these days except a quick trip to the "other Changi", you don't have to haggle with the cab driver and their "peak hours" are like 2 am in KL, London, or Bangkok.

A very efficient and comfortable ride to boredom as one of my friends once called it. I like Singapore, I get the meetings done quickly, everybody is on time, and the airport is so efficient you can leave quickly before you have to spend your budget on their expensive hotels, food and whatevers...

Off to see if I can get a few hours shuteye Betty. Thanks for packing my files....

Thursday 20th July, Singapore Hyatt Hotel

24 hours in Singapore and much achieved already. Harry Tan was there to meet me at Changi of course. He tends to come out when I arrive now even though it is so easy to get to the hotel myself. So I couldn't time my trip to the Hyatt. We had drinks at the Compass Rose as I was in remarkably good spirits having slept for a good time on the flight. This is a great view of course, but better during the day when you can see things. At night, form that far up and looking straight out you miss Singapore altogether and see Malaysia, or Indonesia instead.. I got to bed at 2 am, avoiding Brannigans and that rowdy crowd in favour of a Hyatt bed.

Today I did all the right things with the business card, and gave away 10 and got 12...a good ratio for the first day in. The Singaporeans have a serious way of doing business... as usual..I got seated on one side of a board table with Harry and 5 managers from the other company faced us from the other side. All very cool and looking intently at Harry and I as we spoke. And as usual again my Chinese tea got cold while I concentrated on the intense talks. The same secretary who was there last year gave me one of those sophisticated, slightly surprised but knowing looks as she took away the full tea cup. Over the years the Singaporean business style seems to have changed to become very professional and formal. While the personal friendly style has been lost, I guess its in keeping with their position in the world now. WE come to Singapore now, not the other way around...and I guess both sides know it!

Chinese lunch and many smiles all around. That Chinese restaurant at the Boulevard.. always good for many years... I passed on the durian dessert, and had some Earl Gray instead. Handshakes and jokes about the Genting landslide in KL and the fact I would be there soon. I guess its Gods punishment for all the gambling that goes on up there.

Friday 21st July, 1995, Shangri La Hotel Kuala Lumpur

From Singapore to KL today and for two countries so close together they are miles apart. Of course Singapore is Chinese in the great majority and Malaysia has a Malay majority (just), with the Chinese a substantial majority, and the Indians more in evidence than in Singapore. The English are less evident but maybe that's because of the places I go. The Shangri La again of course. This is one place that doesn't change. Used to be the most prestigious hotel n the place but new places like the Regent and the Legend seem to have taken over that mantle. But the old hands like the familiar and the "Shang" is the only port of call for many.

Two meetings today...both started 30 minutes late. No prizes for guessing the excuse was the traffic. And Friday prayer time. The best thing about the Shang of course is that you can have your meetings here and people come to you. Fighting with taxi drivers on a Friday is nobody's idea of fun or efficiency.

Meeting Jamal, an old friend tonight at happy hour at the HRC. Says he has a proposal. Guess its all in his favour, otherwise he would pick a venue where I could hear him.

Saturday 22nd July, 1995, Kuala Lumpur

Having a whole free day with no meetings of any kind I took the suggestion of an acquaintance form the HRC last night and decided to get a haircut. Having paid 50 Ringitt for a haircut at the Concorde hotel last time, he sent me along to his barber in Jalan Bukit Bintang. Now good cheap barbers in KL are hard to find; I decided to give the Chinese barbers at Jalan Sultan a miss...yep the ones that hang their cracked mirrors n the side of the old shophouse and you sit down outside for a clip in full view of the amused on-lookers form the Furama hotel across the road. Besides I'm not sure whether they talk English. But Saturday being Saturday in KL, taxis are a rare commodity from 8 am to 3 pm, so I took the bus from the Bangkok Bank stand. Now if you know (or don't know) the pink buses like I do, you know to stick to the route numbers you know, so No 60 seemed fine. I knew that one went down Jalan Raja Chulan, past the famous Hamid's restaurant, takes a right turn into Jalan Sultan Ismail and 5 minutes more you're there.

But No 60 didn't come, so I took my life in my hands and jumped on a number 16, which had at least one number in common with No 60 and it did say "Lot 10 and Sung W" on the front. Well it didn't go the way I expected, but I took consolation in the fact that I could still see the Telekom tower on my right. Of course the thing is so bloody tall (3rd tallest in the world the cab drivers keep on telling me) that you could still see it and it could be 60 miles away.

12:30pm on a Saturday, heading the wrong way,...things could only be worse if it started raining and I ran out of Borkum Riff... ..and did I tell you it was hot? I decided against unlighting as it was a long way to the front past a lot of sweaty bodies and I wanted to wait for a bus stop where other buses stopped so I could get a connecting bus (maybe)..

So the surroundings became less and less familiar and as I reached into my pocket to find an empty sachel of Borkum Riff, the rain started, meaning that all the windows were pulled up, and the interior of the particular pink bus started resembling a crowded sauna full of people who had forgotten to take their clothes off. We made about 1 mile in 45 minutes, and suddenly we were joyfully released as we crossed the ring road and we managed to get over 10 miles an hour for the first time in almost an hour.

I eventually got off at a place called Pertama. Now I didn't know these places existed 6 miles from the city. Lots of Malay faces, Wooden tin roofed shops lining a long shopping street, puddles everywhere of course and not a shop that had even heard of Borkum Riff. In fact I got a free drinking straw at one place where my clumsy attempt at miming puffing on a rollie was misinterpreted. An enormous market here, dampened somewhat by the rain, not a taxi in sight of course and a long way from any barbers poles of course.

So I went back to the old coffee shop, bought a cup of Kopi to go with my drinking straw and watched the world go by, the chickens pecking around on the floor and the water pouring off the corrugated iron roofs. All around me people were laughing and the kids were playing in the mud. I forgot for a little while my presentation for Monday in KL city and soaked in the feeling of relaxation after the 6 and a half day week and the bus ride that the residents out here experience not once in a life time but every day. Next door was a shoe mender so I got my shoe soles redone at the same time.

I got back to the hotel at 3 pm today, to be greeted with amused stares from the staff who had never seen me out of my suit. Minus haircut and soaked to the skin..... with all 3 of my souls mended.

Tuesday 25th July, Jalan Alor, Kuala Lumpur

Raining again and starting to remind me of Hortense back in the old country, probably knitting me a new pullover for when I get back in the midst of an English winter. Shes a fine women my Hortense and next time she will come back with me for a couple of weeks. Singapore of course..its the only place she will go to so I will leave her at the Hyatt where shes right in the middle of all the shopping in Orchard Road. Then I'd come back to the hotel early at nights and listen to all the gabble about what she got "so cheap" and how she bargained down all the traders and let her find out for herself when she gets back to England that she would have done better at Harrods.

Had a quiet night tonight. One of the girls from Hock Chow Trading offered to show me around Jalan Alor, for some local food and a stroll around. A fairly long street this with hawker stalls down the length of it. They tell me it gets more lively later at night but we settled for an early night, and some food "cooked in old dustbin lids" which a first-time visitor from the UK once described it to me. Suzi seemed to get a lot of satisfaction from my still imperfect expertise with the chopsticks. Then she told me the story about another gweilo she knew trying to find cheap medium term accomodation, who ended up looking at a second floor apartment just across the road from where we were sitting. Seems the place was sitting just above the Mikado Executive Health centre and the landlord was the mammasan. She kept on ringing for weeks saying what a nice person he was and she was the only person she wanted to stay there and she would even put a shower curtain up and fix up the broken window on the door. ..And the gangsters had all left that area now and moved to Chow Kit. "It was now a very nice area"..

I contemplated this as I looked up and down the street at the rubbish strewn in the gutters and the plethora of other "health centres". Lots of character yes...

Regardless, we finished off with some Ice Kachang, when she suggested she walk me back to the hotel to "walk-off" dinner. We walked down some interesting looking lanes and took in the sounds and activity of a busy night in Bukit Bintang. It gave me some pleasure to note another quite attractive lady sitting in a darkened little Chinese eating house having the same trouble as me with her chopsticks. She was sitting with two Chinese who obviously knew their stuff and a European guy who looked ridiculous still dressed up in his suit. When will those guys learn to relax... She flashed me a little smile when she saw me looking at her...It struck me she looked a little bit like Hortense when she was 21. ..I must have already been away too long...

Suzy said goodbye as she deposited me back at the Shang. The "Lambada" was emanating softly from the muzak system as we bid our farewells and I promised to be on time to go over the marketing plans with her on the morrow. Sometimes I take for granted the genuine friendliness of the Malaysians.. Of all the people in the world, they are generous of time, spirit and heart... When I think of the furrowed faces of my countrymen back home I wonder who is really living life to the fullest..

Well, have to pack up now. Another long day tomorrow and the Malaysian national anthem is already being played on the television. Just the reciting of the Koran after that and the screen will go black and IId be alone again.... The housemaids have generously left me two chocolates on the pillow tonight. ....I wonder what that means.....?