It's a wrap - Vietnam/Malaysia

I've taken to doing a last summary or a 'greatest hits' review whenever I've completed the final write up of the 'how, why, when and whatever else may have been alcohol related' daily blog series of my most recent excursion.  Sticking with tradition therefore and adopting the same template that I've used in the past, see also;

[Morocco-Europe wrap - June/July 2008]

[Laos wrap - April 2009]

 well, I bring to you the 'close out' of the Vietnam-Malaysia experience, Dec'09 - Jan '10.

Vietnam-Malaysia - 'the final'

Favourite places:  Hoi An - definitely for it's relaxed vibe, great bars and restaurants, just a really fantastic place to take some time out and immerse yourself in whatever it is that you need/want.

Also, Hanoi - it's chaotic,charming,vibrant, irritating and welcoming, and that's all at the same time. A great place to explore, get lost and get into some unique experiences.

Most Surprising:  Hoi An - Basically because it was several places in one, an old Ancient town, a place close to a fantastic beach setting, a shopping mecca. It's everything you want and more.

Coolest place for a night out:  I think Hanoi on this one, althought it doesn't beat Hoi An by a great distance. I only base our experience on the small area of bars that we visited in Hanoi but I loved them all.

Favourite Hotel:  The Traders Hotel in Kuala Lumpur by a long way, the view of Petronas Towers is something that just couldn't be beaten by anywhere else that we stayed. Although an honourable mention gooes to the Hanoi Elegance chain of hotels, their service was supreme.

Best place to get totally lost:  On a night out, it has to be the Old Quarter in Hanoi. Get plastered and try and find your way anywhere after that!

Best place to drink and get totally lost:  The Old Quarter in Hanoi is a gem but Hoi An has its winners also, so I'm going to have to let them fight out a draw on this one. Both of them are unique in their own right and comparing totally different elements and characteristics wouldn't do either of them justice.

Coolest Moment:  The whole damn trip was one long 'cool moment' - so to pick out a few in chronological order.

* Catching up with Frichot on our first night in KL, getting totalled in the Beatles Bar and then trying to remain lucid enough for the remaining hours of the morning to try and catch our flight out to Hanoi

* Frichot showing us all we he 'really thought of Malaysia' on that initial night. The YouTube footage will be available shortly.

* Any of our nights at the Funky Buddha bar in Hanoi

* Cruising Ha Long Bay

* Karaoke night in Hoi An

* Our 'Messi' night in Hoi An

* Our huge NYE in Skybar at the Traders Hotel, Kuala Lumpur

Uncoolest Moment:  This comes down to two. The English git that wanted to take both Frichot and myself outside in order to teach us a 'lesson' as we had queue jumped and we'd left him with an additional five minute wait - KL LCC Terminal, on the morning of our flight from Kuala Lumpur to Hanoi.

Tied with that fruit loop comes the Malay guy in the Chinatown McDonalds in KL on New Year's Day morning. After taking a photo of two girls crashed out on the table this guys eyes filled with rage and he tried to tell us that we had no right to take the photo seeing as though we had not asked permission. Well no my friend, it's a public space, this photo was taken on my camera and is now my personal property! He was a true charmer, although I'm sure both Frichot and I in our moderately jovial and pissed state antagonised him, 'slightly' ;)

Best comeback:  Frichot hurling outside of the 7-11 in Kuala Lumpur after our Beatles Bar session. It was a gem of a comeback as I thought that in his state he wouldn't be making it out of the hotel for hours, and we needed to get moving in about 30mins. He made the cab, I don't know how, but he did.

Most random...but still cool event:  There's a couple on this list.

* Hoi An karaoke - it appeared out of nowhere but once we were involved it became a great evening.

* Running into our new South African friends a few days after the karaoke experience. My bicycle required maintenance just in front of the cafe that the girls has stopped in at and from there I ended up spending a great afternoon with them, and also acquired an additional drinking session with them to boot.

* Catching Frichot in the customs line at KL LCC Terminal on the flight back from Hanoi to KL. Now this was the epitome of random. In a sea of humanity we just had the feeling that we'd find each other, and 'hey presto', we did.

Best Meal:  There's a couple on this list also;

* The three course meal that I had at the River Lounge in Hoi An. It was absolutely fantastic and only cost me $10AUD, inclusive of drinks.

* The evening dinner on the Bhaya, whilst cruising Ha Long Bay

* The random street fair in Hanoi, not the 'best meal' but it became one at the point in time I knew that we'd dodged food poisoning!

Total Flights:  7

Train Rides: 1 (Hanoi - Da Nang)

Total kms covered (air):  18,826kms, an average of 2689kms per flight.

There we have it, Vietnam/Malaysia all wrapped. I look forward to delivering you more when the tour of  Morocco-Europe-South America (2010-2011) kicks off on June 24th!

Melbourne - 'Bourne to run

Getting the flock loaded onto the Asia X flight bound for Melbourne at just after midnight was a relatively easy thing to do. It looked as though the plane was only at approximately 60-70% capacity as there were seats aplenty scattered around the cabin. As we thundered down the runway and launched ourselves into the KL sky I had kind of wished that I’d been able to knock down a few drinks beforehand. This to me is no longer a pleasant part of doing continental runs, I hate taking off more than anything! All that I can imagine for those few minutes whilst climbing into the vast emptiness above the ground are either the engines blowing out or the plane somehow spiralling out of control at 500kms an hour into the apartment blocks below…anyway….enough of that. We sailed through the canopy of darkness with ease and set our sights south for a 9hr journey.

With a little dexterity and subtle manoeuvring I somehow managed to score the tri-chair dream position in the centre of the aisle. Three seats of bliss that Frichot could somehow not find himself to get comfortable on whilst I made my bed below those seats for the first two hours of the flight. Needless to say, I accepted the gift that he presented me without any concerns and virtually slept the entire way to Melbourne. Each time we encountered a little turbulence however I was roused from my sleep just long enough to see Frichot sitting bolt upright either reading away or staring into the abyss and wishing that the flight was over. I think he’s more of a nervous flyer than I am, although we make an excellent ‘panic station’ advert duo for all those that fear flying generally. Check us out boys and girls, all the reasons as to why you shouldn’t fly, etched right here on our faces!

Touching down at Tullamarine somewhere around midday I think both of us just wanted to head for home rather than spend a night in Melbourne, well probably more so myself than Frichot. My attempts to get in contact with any customer service rep by phone from Tiger airlines was futile and walking down to their own terminal, several hundred metres away from the main domestic terminal, I kind of realised why these guys are considered at the extreme end of the budget spectrum. The queues and the size of the terminal generally reminded me of the line ups for bathrooms at major sporting events, crowded, claustrophobic, with piss and shit everywhere. This was a cattle yard, and man, I was not going to endure that hideous mist of evaporating sweat and body heat just to be advised that ‘No sir, we can’t do anything for you because we’re only authorised to be ignorant, arrogant and ignore anything that remotely relates to decent customer service’.

We eventually decided that staying in Melbourne for the night was the right choice, and really, I wasn’t complaining, it is my favourite city in Australia. Booking ourselves into some budget accommodation, The Albany, just off Toorak Rd in South Yarra, we jumped onto a bus and headed to Southern Cross station on Bourke St. There we got ourselves into a taxi at which time I reminded myself that at journeys end I should only be paying cash as I’ve been scammed by Melbourne taxi drivers twice in the past with them using my credit card details to fraudulently charge amounts and trips that were never taken.

For reference: [Melbourne Taxi Scam] .

It’s the only irritating thing about Melbourne, and even though this scam is really well known nobody seems to be doing anything about it, not the police, not the government, ombudsman etc.

After checking in at the Albany we crashed out for a few hours, Frichot catching up on the sleep that he didn’t get on the Asia X flight and me stealing whatever additional sleep that I needed just for the hell of it.

The Albany - South Yarra - Melbourne

By the time early evening came around and we unpacked some of our luggage we were also able to find where we’d hidden our wits and energy, which appeared to be well hidden away in our bags. We walked down to St.Kilda road and jumped a couple of trams to Brunswick St. I’ve mentioned it a few times before, and I’ll do it again now, this area is one of my favourite places in Melbourne to either grab some food or have a few drinks – especially the Black Pearl bar, tucked away in the kind of grungy Fitzroy bar scene than is not really replicated anywhere else in Australia…well, I guess Newtown tries but it doesn’t really get it across the line in the same manner. Frichot, his mind drifting back to the ‘greatest hits of 2008’ had a bit of a hankering for the woodfire pizza joint that we’d been to a year earlier and I fully supported him on that stroke of genius. Parking ourselves there for a couple of gourmet pizzas and a bottle of red or two, we chatted about the last few weeks and showed the waiter some of our NYE shots from KL – it was kind of hard to believe that we were there only two nights ago, leaving many a brain cell behind. The waiter also told us about his ex-girlfriend was now living in KL, kind of looks like we weren’t the only ones to lose something to the Malaysian capital.

Mural just off Brunswick St - Always take a photo when I'm here

Apparently the ex of a friend of mine painted this - or so she tells me!

As the night wore on we made our way up a couple of hundred metres to another cool venue, the name of which escapes me, it had a bit of live music going, then checked out a drummer that had camped himself on the intersection of Brunswick and Johnston St to display to one and all the type of groove he was capable of…and man…he was alright! [Brunswick St Drummer] . Hanging out for a little while Frichot made that call that we head up to AC/DC lane and have a few drinks at the place where we’d spent the earliest hours of last year getting our drink on, which in turn we did. Truthfully by this point my enthusiasm for all things nocturnal had vacated the premises and my mind felt like it was swimming threw a bowl of thick soup. I think we hung out for a few hours before calling it a night and making it back to the Albany for what would be an early morning start in order to catch out 6:00am flight back to Sydney.

So it was, at about 4:00am we were picked up at the Albany and driven to Southern Cross station where we jumped a bus to the domestic terminal. A little after 6am we were up in Australian skies once more, on a Singaporean based airline, flying on our last leg home from trip to Vietnam and Malaysia. This my friends is where this journey ends. It was definitely one of the best trips that I’ve had and I think having a really good mate along to share those experiences, the laughs, the sights and sounds just really made it for me. So hopefully sometime soon we can do it all again, NYE 2010-11, Rio de Janiero is a callin' !!!. This however is the last write up for this journey, one more ‘Greatest hits’ wrap ups to go and then I’ll be off to more wicked and wild escapades somewhere in this world…watch this space!!!

Last leg - Melbourne to Sydney

Kuala Lumpur - 010110 Struggle St

As sure as I knew that it was an anomaly for me to be feeling perfectly fine and reasonably energetic at the Traders buffet, I  knew that a monumental crash was on the way, it’s the standard financial boom-bust cycle transposed onto my physiognomy, and also accompanied by my own internal knowledge that I know at times like these I get a little soft. Looking around the ‘Camp 2010’  crew of Traders diners, everyone looked particularly fresh, kind of like that they’d decided to call the night quits at 8pm  last decade or something. I had however stood my ground fervently, had witnessed every second of every minute of every hour that this decade had offered thus far. Had made my way through the streets of Kuala Lumpur long enough for my shirt and trousers to dry completely from an early morning swim, and now here, in this place where food is the great equaliser, the ‘reasonable’ , the ‘conservative’, the ‘soft’ and the internally ‘weak’ were eyeing me off like I was the one missing out!? Well my friends, I’m glad you went to bed earlier in order to be up at this time to help me polish off that bacon, it must have been a worthwhile trade-off!

With my stomach lined and my mind swimming in a sea of turbidity, I took a ride up to our floor, walked into our room and contemplated my situation for a few moments. The Maxis scoreboard was calling me out at something close to 8am which in turn was roughly the equivalent time that I’d taken the photo of Petronas in my previous write up, 24hrs earlier. Unfortunately my heart and mind gave out at that point, the bed looked way, way too comfortable for me to be playing New Years Day chicken with it and I caved. I knew right then that when I woke again the Elisher I’d checked out with would not be the same indestructible Elisher that would awake later in the day.

Somewhere after midday the groans and echoes of groans were heard in our room. This was reality, as pure as it gets. Frichot had tapped out about 90 mins before me and the collective result of our mornings' activities had certainly caught up with him. I was personally feeling like bat shit! Having not ever seen bat shit or even Googled it, I could only imagine that it’s the worst kind of shit that you could ever encounter, well, perhaps somewhere after bull shit, cow shit and maybe horse shit, but yeah, it’s definitely in the top 5. Petronas was also glowing through our wondow  like the freakin’ daylight smartarse towers of smugness that you knew stood there just to make fun of your pain and agony. What’s worse, Frichot and I both realised that we’d beaten the clock on 'requested' checkout time, which I remember as being 12pm and we needed to ask for an extension. No problems from the Traders staff, they provided us with an extra hour of torture and pain for us to be able to somehow shower, pack and checkout. Good luck I say!

About 1:30pm we called in a few porters to assist in making our way down to reception and finally checked out. We were weak and weary, the will to walk anywhere too far from right here was not within our undertaking, in fact, it’s not something that we could have even comprehended at that point. We made a joint decision to head to the Traders business centre and took up a position at a couple of terminals, surfed a little, ordered up some mega doses of caffeine and tried our best to make sense of it all. I don’t know how the hell we managed it but somehow we ended up sitting on these seats, surfing the net, contemplating our life and loves for somewhere verging on 3.5hours!

Eventually finding the gumption and the internal fortitude to remove ourselves from the Traders NYE purgatory room of redemption, we walked on over to the mall at Petronas Towers, not so much with any purpose but rather with the idea that some movement was going to be better than nothing at all. We walked around, checked things out, got a late lunch that really doubled as an early dinner and essentially tried to play ‘beat the clock’ on our decade busting hangovers.

This shot is all sorts of wrong...and I think Bert & Ernie are thinking along those same lines

Petronas Towers - Kuala Lumpur

Considering that our flight out of KL was until midnight we still had a few hours to burn before having to take the ride out to the terminal in order to make our Asia X flight to Melbourne. Frichot nominated a movie to carve out a few relaxed hours and seeing as though Avatar in 3D was ready and available, we made an easy decision. What however was not easy was trying to make a ticket purchase to catch the movie. I don’t know what time of sadistic system these Malaysians had going but standing in queue to try and land a spot lasted somewhere close to the movie duration. Knowing that Avatar is an epic 3+ hours then that’s no mean feat!

Sure, given the right situation, why the hell not!?

Malaysians giving a big shout out to 'ya mother bot's' - Word

Petronas Towers - Kuala Lumpur

In any case we did get to see Avatar and it almost perfectly aligned with our KL escape plan. Walking back across KLCC park to the Traders hotel we picked up our luggage out of storage and were quickly whisked away by taxi for the hour ride to the airport. Other than that, arriving, check in, customs and the whole departure standard was as per normal. We were on our midnight flight out of KL bound for sunny Melbourne and a final night of who knew what before heading home.

Kuala Lumpur - The 'Berserker'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berserker

New Year's Eve - 2009/10 - Kuala Lumpur

Throwing up the decade digits - Skybar - Kuala Lumpur

So the shot that I’ve actually kicked off this write up with was taken in the decade following the one in which the detail of what I’m writing actually commenced. That’s me throwing up the ‘2010 digits’ after a night partying at Skybar in the Traders Hotel KL. Getting to this point however is something both Jet and I had contemplated over several months, and it was a NYE planned in order to be just one thing, ‘AWESOME’. Sometimes plans fail and sometimes they just line up with every expectation, so to find out which way it fell for us on this night, I need to back track a little and you might need to read on a little further!

The final day of 2009 had me waking up relatively early, (8:43 by all accounts on the Maxis tower), and staring at the Petronas Towers which were being bathed in the morning sunlight, which in turn was reflecting off it’s external façade and providing me with a moderate sunburn. Making our morning moves a little conservatively we so somehow managed to make it down to the Traders breakfast buffet two mins before it closed. Not particularly amazing in itself but impressive when you find out that in those two minutes prior to closing both Frichot and I rounded up a very vibrant and colourful mix of breakfasts foods, took them down with the contempt that they deserved and then dodged the outgoing breakfast traffic to steal anything that was left over. We are the masters of the final minute breakfast lap and surely if we were in F1 we’d have qualified for pole position without any dramas.

Morning view - Petronas Towers from our room at the Traders

Post breakfast we were back up in our room for a while, just chilling out. Jet got into pose down for a few shots for his myspace page, the photos of which he still hasn’t harassed me for but one of which I’ve included here because I think it looks pretty good. We then decided to take a short ride up to the Skybar and check out what was to be our base for NYE in KL.

Frichot - Myspace pose down

The pool deck - Skybar - Traders Hotel

So, how to describe Skybar? Well, for starters it has ‘THE’ view that you’d want to have if you were going to celebrate the main transition! Located on the top floor of the Traders Hotel overlooking KLCC park and the iconic Petronas Towers, it obviously had the view but also had prime position for the fireworks that were going to be let loose at midnight. Right in the centre of what can really be classified as a large atrium is a lap pool, and truthfully, even prior to seeing it I kind of already knew that my destiny would be to end up in the drink sometime after midnight…but that’s a story for later. Along one side of the pool is a none too wide walkway that provides access to the sunken lounges and large bay windows that in turn provide a fantastic outlook onto the park. The far end of the room is where the main bar is located, and scattered around the pheriphery of the pool on the side opposite the main outlook are lounges, bar stools/tables etc. We walked in in order to try and scope a suitable position for the evening but realised quick smart that most of the tables and lounge seating had been booked out and that come 9 or 10pm getting into this place would be near impossible to get into. Having a drink and questioning the bar staff as to availability we found that the upper deck/balcony above the pool was being opened up and that tables there could be reserved…for a price…from what we were told, it was a requirement to purchase two bottles of ‘something’ from their menu in order to confirm your place. To me personally this was a no brainer, if you’re going to be drinking on NYE then why the hell not order in advance. Of course the NYE menu was overpriced but you were locking yourself in to some prime real estate for the festivities. I don’t think it took Frichot too long to make up his mind either, as a few mins later we were advance ordering our vodka and champagne and having it explained that all mixers were included and being briefed on the names of our personal wait staff for the night. ‘Oh Yeah’, it was sounding like we had the plan and it was taking effect. I did also quiz our man as to how many people would 'per chance' end up in the pool during the evening and his comment was, ‘there’s always someone’ …yes my man, isn’t that the case…remember my face bro’, you’ll be fishing me out sometime after 12!

Mr Frelisher - locked and loaded at Skybar

Mr Frelisher also!?

We left Skybar feeling pretty damn psyched as to the set-up that we had. Sometimes NYE’s can be flops but I usually think that the failure is derived from not ‘setting yourself’ up properly. Winging it on NYE is kind of a waste as everyone is out and about, the place that you know or might like to be in  will inevitably be full or even if you do get into a place then it's going to cost you big! Wasting time and effort late in the piece just puts you on a downer, so at the very least, if you have a destination and friends to boot, well, you’ve won half the battle.

Dropping down to KLCC park and then walking over to Petronas, we spent most of the later half of the afternoon just cruising the huge centre under the towers, checking out some of the stores and also trying out the local delicacies. Well, when I say delicacy I should probably say more ‘oddity’. We stopped in at 1901 which is the hot dog equivalent of McDonalds and took ourselves down a couple of Deutsch Doodle Dangs, done more so for the novelty of the name than anything else. Innuendo and weirdness aside, the dog was a damn good one and we had no complaints with following up for the repeat journey of a good old Deutsch following numero uno. [Check out the Doodle Dang Action here]

Deutsch Doodle Dang - A whole lot of something...and more!

Frichot at Petronas - I love this shot!

As the afternoon drew on into the early evening we saw that there was already a few people starting to gather around the main lake in KLCC park, that NYE vibe was just starting to pick up and we were riding that wave. Walking back to the Traders and taking up residence back in our room, we took some time out to raid the bar fridge again and watched the NYE lights take over in the park with Petronas acting as the focal point. With each drink that we had and as the hours ticked on by, that NYE vibe was just starting to resonate at a higher frequency. Ripping out some of AC/DC’s new album and the Black Eyed Peas party classic, I’ve got a feelin’, by the time that 9:30pm rocked around I was suited up and Jet was in his newly purchased Chinese style tunic, and yeah, we were ready to roll!!

Kuala Lumpur, NYE - ready to go off!

Frichot giving KL the 'What for..' - Watch out, we're coming

Skybar, set to go!

Skybar

Skybar was looking good by the time we walked in. We headed upstairs to our table, marked out our territory and started to get our drink on with the attentive assistance of Juno who was going to be our man for all things food and drink related –Vodka, lemonade and lime, ‘why yes sir’! Spring rolls ? Why yes again, thanks Juno. Frichot and I kicked off with our bottle of vodka and took up a position on the balcony overlooking the pool. You could just feel that this place was going to be a hell of a lot of fun, everyone was in a good mood, the music was just right and the setting was as much as you could ask for. By the time the DJ decided to drop I’ve got a feelin, which probably would have been about the 15th time I’d heard it that day…but was still getting better and better with each spin, the room was in full NYE swing and if we didn’t know it before, well we knew it then, this was going to be one for the ages.

Elisher....Henry, Elisher

Windows on the world

'Ay, you order fly lice sir?'

Kind of raising the roof...kind of not

Frichot looks kind of possessed here

Rounding out the 11pm marker and heading into the NYE home straight, I ducked down into our room for a minute or two to set up the camera to capture the fireworks over KLCC park and Petronas. Whilst I still haven’t uploaded this video I can tell you it’s first cut viewing looked pretty damn impressive. Back up at Skybar however the queue out the front door was long and filled with prospective clientele who unfortunately for them had left their run too late, Skybar on this night was at capacity. Finding my man Frichot happily drinking back at the table, I joined him to ride shotgun and bring home the new decade.

The count in - two minutes of the decade left

11:59

Dawn of a new decade!!!!

…and so it was, Frichot and I closed out 2009 in kind of the way we had started it...365 days earlier we had been at a Mexican restaurant overlooking the Yarra in Melbourne when the fireworks lit up the sky [Melbourne NYE Fireworks - 2008/09]. On this evening we were in the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur and bringing in a new decade exactly the way that we had intended it, with style and a good dose of fun!

[NYE Fireworks - 2009/10 - Kuala Lumpur]

  

Kuala Lumpur - NYE - 2009/10

Kuala Lumpur - NYE - 2009/10

Kuala Lumpur - NYE - 2009/10

Kuala Lumpur - NYE - 2009/10

Kuala Lumpur - NYE - 2009/10

The fireworks display was spectacular and the façade of Petronas provided more than a useful mirror to amplify the colours of the display. As you can see from the photos, it was just one of those nights that you’ll always remember.

Frichot, 9 mins of the decade in

Frichot getting friendly with the girl next door...who apparently had just gotten married!?

Frichot strikes - AGAIN

Somehow I’ve always had the perception that the hours after midnight for NYE always move on a hell of a lot faster than the hours prior to it, and tonight was no exception. Midnight turned into 1am almost instantly and by this time, well, my vision of making the one storey dive into the Skybar pool had reached a critical moment. It was now safe enough for me to do as getting thrown out was not going to be the devastating issue that it would have been prior to the cutover. Informing Frichot of my decision, my partner in all things chaotic gave me a resounding ‘DO IT’ – I’m going to film it’, and yeah, it was now game on. Admittedly it took me a little while to build up for the jump but when my brain snapped, well I was already over the ‘no return’ line. I made my way over the glass barricade and stood on the ledge ready to go, and by the time I heard Frichot say, ‘…Yeah, Elisher’s going for a run’, I taken a step and I was flying through space in the Skybar. I won’t lie, it was more than a little exhilarating to take the dive and the cheers coming from the Skybar punters also displayed a little appreciation for my manoeuvre.
[Skybar dive - NYE]

The Skybar crew - post the 'SkyDive'

That's the beginning of my 'trashed face' look

'Oh Henry, why the bottle of red!?'

Sticking it out to the bitter end

Are you scared little girl!?

Walking back up to our central location overlooking the pool I felt more than certain that we were going to get escorted out of the place and sure enough, security did make an appearance not to long after. Surprisingly though, they were kind of cool about the incident. They only asked me a few questions and didn’t press me too hard about anything else, well other than the fact that they wanted my word that I wouldn’t try the stunt out again…lol…and I didn’t.

With a fist load of endorphins and a little male bravado to the good I for some reason thought it was an even better idea to order myself and Jet a bottle of red to keep the good times a rollin’. Ladies and gentleman, this was to be our tipping point. A bottle of red on the back of the vodka and champagne that we’d just tried was probably not the smartest play of the night, and by the time 3am rolled around, me in my still quite saturated ‘remains of the day’ suit and Frichot in his tunic, were rolling around on concrete showing each other the martial arts moves that we’d both picked up over the years. In actual fact, Frichot kicked my arse big time, but I wasn’t prepared to back down from the challenge that he was throwing up at me. The real challenge for us however was that 3am closing at Traders meant that we needed to find another place to keep the NYE party moving and I’m not sure if either of us was in the right frame of mind to suggest anything that had real purpose or potential. For me, this part of the night gets more than a little hazy, but I do remember dropping down into KLCC park for a bit of a morning stroll and then somehow jumping a taxi to Chinatown from somewhere close to the Petronas Towers.

The Karate Kid in KLCC park

Pulling up in Chinatown and still having the wits about me to outgun the taxi driver that was trying to scam us for double the ringett value of the ride, the only thing that we could find open was good ‘ole Maccas. Walking in, most of the tables were occupied by recovering revellers sleeping off their night. For me this was kind of amusing and I felt compelled to take a photo of two of the girls crashed out on the table next to us, well, that was until a middle aged and I think more than conservative Malay man flipped out about us taking the photo. This guy had rage in his eyes but I had alcohol in my veins and I wasn’t going to back down from the crap that he was throwing at us. In all seriousness it could have turned into a fight but Macca’s security suppressed the rage and took myself and Frichot outside to have a chat. After explaining our situation we walked back in and based ourselves in an alternate location, somehow finding some equally hammered Finnish and Norwegian dudes to chat with.

NYE lights out in Macca's - the hands (stage left) are of the man that wanted to kill us

Do you think I need coffee? Man, I need something!

Somewhere close to 5:30am we dragged ourselves out of Macca’s and took a ride back to the Traders. Not sure what the hell I was talking about but I do recall having a stimulating conversation with the taxi driver. Walking into our room a little after 6:00am Frichot had hit the wall and needed to tap out. For some reason I was still charged and hung out for the bell at 6:30am which signalled the commencement of the breakfast buffet at Traders. I did everything in my power to pull Frichot out of his New Years Day coma, cranking I’ve got a feelin at full blast and even screaming it in his ear….but nothing….my partner in crime had checked out. As I walked out and closed the door behind I kind of chuckled, I new that the drinks of several hours earlier would eventually ‘claim me’ and that I’d be taken on that wild hangover ride a little later in the piece. With Struggle St beckoning it was time to make the most of the buffet breakfast on offer, and that’s exactly what I did, I took it down for all it was worth…..(to be continued)

Kuala Lumpur - The penultimate

It was an early morning start at the Hotel Elegance, breakfast at 6am and a 6:30am pick-up by taxi to take me to Hanoi International for a flight to Kuala Lumpur. After approximately 10 days in this fascinating and wonderful place I was flying back to Malaysia to meet up with my travelling buddy and future NYE cohort, Mr Jet Frichot.

Walking out into the darkness, Hanoi provided me with a light drizzle to accompany me on the drive out of the city to the airport. My head touching the head rest, I drifted off, my eyes opening every now and then with the start and stop of the taxi dodging its way through the morning traffic. Meandering through a combination of daydreams and reality, enjoying the rain falling on the windshield, my time in Vietnam had been as enjoyable as I had wanted it to be and my travelling buddy had been an absolute legend – even if he did absorb all the attention and interest from every passing stranger ! :)

The flight out of Hanoi with Air Asia X was set to leave at 9:20am and get into Kuala Lumpur somewhere about 1:30pm local time. I did recall when I was setting up arrival times for myself and for Frichot’s flight out of Saigon that arrival in KL was going to be within 15 mins of each other. Assuming that all things went to schedule I had kind of imagined us somehow catching up in the arrivals hall or even in the customs line prior to baggage claim, perhaps a little far fetched but that what I had imagined. As I disembarked in KL and walked through to customs the lines were all full but still I scanned the lines for my long haired friend just in case. It was kind of amazing but as I was doing the scan I saw Frichot turn around and catch me dead in the eye – you can’t get an international rendezvous organised better than that my friends. As Jet was already in queue it allowed me to jump probably about 20 mins of boredom and progress through customs without any hassle at all, and then, there we were, back in old KL where it had all started just a few weeks earlier.

Before jumping onto a KL Sentral Express, Frichot and I parked ourselves at the local Macca’s for what Frichot had promised was going to be a major culinary experience. In his earlier solo escapades he had discovered the McDonalds in Malaysia have their own local delicacy, the Prosperity Burger, made in either chicken or beef, that is absolutely soaked/drenched in a relatively hot pepper sauce. This he explained was a must, so we rounded up a chicken and beef burger each in order to take the challenge. Biting down into that pressed mystery meat, pepper sauce oozing out of the bun and dripping onto the table, I’ve got to say, from the perspective off eating an item that was absolutely hideous in form and being equally as messy, the end result wasn’t too bad [Click on the Prosperity Burger Challenge Link to check it out!]. As an interesting side note, we were also later to find out that ‘prosperity’ in Malaysian actually means oblong, thus the obvious shape of the burger. Needless to say, the pepper sauce on the burger was bountiful and I just assumed that the volume was somehow linked to the ‘prosperous name’.

After our savage Malaysian dining experience we ‘swam’ through all the humidity that the KL atmosphere had to offer and parked ourselves into a KL Sentral transit bus which was thankfully air conditioned to the hilt. The ride from KL LCC into the city takes approximately an hour and we both crashed out for a while, I assume our early morning flights having gotten the better of us.

Frichot getting caught out - did someone order a cup of HTFU?

It was good to catch up with Frichot again. I mean I’d only had a few days in Hoi An on my own, and that was cool, but because the trip had been absolutely freakin’ awesome thus far I was really looking forward to getting back into the ‘Frelisher’ combination and ‘claiming’ KL for all it had to offer so that we could rock out 2009 in style and bring in a new decade with the exuberance and requisite excitement that was required.

Offloading at KL Sentral we managed to score ourself one of those ‘union’ taxis after a moderate wait and quickly made our way to the Traders Hotel which was to be our ‘humble abode’ for the next two nights. Now let me just say, we chose this place primarily due to its outlook onto KLCC park, it’s view of Petronas Towers and the great bar (Skybar) that they had on the top level of the hotel which was to be our vantage point for viewing the fireworks for NYE and also  our one stop shop for all things alcoholic. What I didn’t expect however was the view that we encountered when we opened the doors to our room! Whoa!! The towers were virtually standing right in front of us, and at a height of 451 mtrs, it was more than ‘just’ an impressive sight to have as the backdrop to your room….it was ‘freakin’ awesome’! I remember Frichot and I rearranging the couches in the room slightly to face the window, and as we ransacked the bar fridge and looked out onto this spectacular view we discussed our trip thus far, the monetary difficulties that he had encountered in Saigon and also our plans for the next evening – we had the mandate – Close out the decade in style!

The view of Petronas from our room - as taken on arrival

[Check out the Petronas View, as taken by the maestro, Jet Frichot]

Welcome to Kuala Lumpur

Night shot of Petronas taken from our room at the Traders

I love this shot - Frichot in the zone!

After a fair bit of time chatting and watching the evening set in, we went up to the Skybar for a while in order to check out the surroundings and then dropped down into KLCC park to see what we could find.

KL Tower taken from the Skybar @ Traders

Petronas taken from KLCC Park

For this evening there didn’t appear to be much going on in the immediate vicinity so we jumped a taxi to the Beach Bar, which was a place that I remembered from my trip to Laos earlier in the year. I have to say however, what I encountered on this evening bore absolutely no resemblance to what JJ and I had found approximately nine months earlier. The set up of the bar was absolutely the same but on this evening the place was packed, and not for the reasons that you may imagine. As we walked in and checked out the clientele we realised that there were a disproportionate amount of females congregated in groups both sitting inside and outside the bar, whose choice of attire was far below the bar set in relatively conservative Malaysia. These girls obviously were out to make some fast money and this place obviously was a place where the setting up of these transactions were done freely. Jet and I picked ourselves a few drinks and sat outside to observe how business was conducted and to see how these girls ‘stalked their prey’. It was amusing for a while and I readily admit that a few of them were just more than a little gorgeous but that was a track I wasn’t going to take. In any case, we finished up at the Beach Bar relatively early and hiked it back to Traders for a couple of nightcaps in our room before closing out the day. Tomorrow however was going to be another story and we were preparing ourselves for what it was going to deliver!

Hoi An - Lost in transition

This was to be my last day in Hoi An, and by now as you have already come to realise, the place had well and truly suckered me in. It’s quaint, relaxed, serene in part and has some really kind, good natured people. What’s more, you get the best of both worlds, a beautiful ancient trading port filled with all the things you look for as a tourist and just 5kms down the road you have a great beach where you can wile the way the hours overlooking Cham island in the South China Sea. What’s more, the place is so ridiculously cheap that it comes to bargaining with the locals it ends up making you feel a little uneasy and unethical about the whole process, especially when you’re in a relatively heated dispute over what amount to a dollar or two. The thing is that a lot of the time you end up forgetting the exchange rate and bargain strictly on ‘comparative value’, haggling over say 10,000 dong and then realising only later that it was kind ‘some kind of silly’ that made you do it.

After breakfast at the Nhi Nhi I rode out of town and back to the ‘My Son’ café, located about 2/3rds of the way to Cua Dai beach. I took up residence on a more than comfortable lounge overlooking the river, sat back and wrote down random thoughts and impressions in my journal, watched the local fisherman paddle by, got lost in the time and space within my mind and just chilled out basically. It was one of this contemplative moments that you would be happy to stay in for days, and the three hours that I did spend passed me over in an instant. I also think that the several Manhattan’s that accompanied my later morning journey also made up a large part of my well being.

My Son Cafe - Hoi An

One of my favourite shots - My Son Cafe - Hoi An

My Son Cafe - Hoi An

Long Island Ice Tea and a journal

Locals on the river

Locals on the river

As unfortunate as it was I had to pull myself away from the My Son, hopefully I’ll be able to make my way back to this place again sometime in the near future because it’s a truly charming place where time should really be one of the last things on your mind. Riding back into town I stopped at the corner baguette vendor that Lili and Judith had tipped me off on the day before, their pork roll was phenomenal and on this day, well it certainly lived up to my high expectations of the place.

Pork roll bonanza - coming right up!

Seeing as though I was going to be flying out of Da Nang in a few hours time there wasn’t a lot that I was able to do before leaving for the airport. This actually worked in my favour, it forced me to slow down and enjoy the moment. Taking up residence at the River Lounge, I laid back on their enormous lounges that doubled as day beds and got drawn into the great French chill/low tempo music that they were playing. It actually had my mind tracking back 18 months earlier to some of the fantastic bars in Marrakech, they mostly had the same type of quality music and unique atmosphere. Now this is something that I probably should have done a day or so earlier but what the hell, you take it when you can get it. I eventually dragged myself away from the River Lounge and rode out of town to take a few shots before making my way back to the Nhi Nhi in order to checkout and take a ride back up to Da Nang airport for the early evening flight to Hanoi.

Hoi An street shot

Hoi An street shot

River Lounge - Hoi An

Hoi An

Somewhere about 3pm Tony’s brother picked me up from the Nhi Nhi and whisked me 30kms up the coast to Da Nang. It was kind of amazing and almost a little disappointing to notice the amount of resorts that had set up along the coastline in the two years since my last visit. I mean, I understand the reasons offcourse, that’s the price you pay for the sake of progress and economics when you have such a beautiful natural resource on your doorstep. Still, you don’t want to see them completely wreck the place, which by the size and numbers of developments taking place seems to already been a forgone conclusion.

Sunset over the Marble Mountains - Da Nang

The flight out of Da Nang was at 5:45pm, and just after 7pm I was back in Hanoi. The Hanoi Elegance hotel had kindly arranged a pick-up from the airport and before I knew it, I was back out in the hectic hustle and bustle of another Hanoi evening. Hearing the incessant sounds of car and scooter horns, the insane manoeuvring of the vehicles, it felt as though I’d come full circle. It was only two years earlier that I’d made my first inroads into Hanoi, not knowing really what to expect and remembering how the chaotic nature of the traffic really heightened all my senses. On this night I kind of expected it. I don’t think you ever get use to it but there’s something very fluid and unique about it and Hanoi generally that really strikes a chord with me – sometimes you just can’t help liking a place.

The Hanoi Elegance 1 is located in the Old Quarter only a couple of blocks from the top of Hoan Kiem lake. I had a great room, a nice little balcony overlooking the nightly traffic ‘nutfest’ and also an offer to catch up with Vanessa for some late night shenanigans, although as per my last pass through Hanoi I knew in myself that I wouldn’t be taking her up on it. So for this evening, it was really very simple, I cruised around and did a little shopping, soaked in the usual Hanoi vibrancy and ended up at a local restaurant for a late dinner and a few more cocktails. I closed out this evening relatively early, about 11:30pm, but with that said, I was catching an early flight the next day back to Kuala Lumpur and my man Jet Frichot was going to be waiting to assist with bringing 2010 in style!

Last night in Hanoi - on Hoan Kiem Lake