The Stars Come Out, And All That Counts Is Here and Now

Not for the first time on my travels, technology seems to have got me in a world of trouble.

I knew that writing, maintaining and continually posting a blog wouldn't be easy. Having gone through the experience of doing the same thing in Korea and also in Singapore, I realised how much work it takes in order to create, edit and add photos to each posts. Apart from when I have been away on short trips of a week or so, I don’t think any of my other blogs have featured daily posts and perhaps that is why I am having so much trouble keeping up.

The Internet connection of several of the hotels I've stayed in hasn't been doing me any favours though. Even in places where I was able to write out my blog, I couldn't upload any pictures, and considering the amount that I usually write on each post, I didn't want to have to subject anyone to my essays without the occasional photograph to break up the monotony of my thoughts.
That put me in a bit of a bind as now I have nine or ten posts to catch up on and add photos to, before I can even get myself up to date.

I did consider only writing a weekly post or writing one every few days, but if I did that I think each post would be the same length as my university dissertation, and also I would probably forget what had happened by the time I came round to writing it. Posting each day (hopefully) keeps the memories fresh and my brain sharp so unless anyone else has any bright ideas I am going to continue to write something each day, even if it’s just a few sentences about how much I dislike travelling from one place to another.

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Unfortunately my experiences in the Malaysian capital came to an end this morning as I checked out of my swish hotel and headed to the bus station to travel further north on the Malaysian peninsular.
I only really have one major stop left in this country, but to break the journey up and prevent me from having to spend an entire day on the road I stopped in a city called Ipoh which is halfway between KL and Penang which is my final destination in Malaysia.

Going through my route plans again last night I was trying to assess exactly what to do and where to go once I leave Malaysia and travel on to Thailand. Having looked at my speculatory route I realised that it's going to involve far too many plane rides going to each little island on the list and so have decided to continue being focused on visiting the places which I really want to see. Bangkok is definitely going to be the major stop on my travels through Thailand and having whittled away places like Phuket where I have already been, and Krabi, where is doesn’t seem there’s that much to do, I have freed up a couple of extra days.

Looking into things a bit more carefully I think I have crafted a way in which I can spend some time in China, which was one of the countries which I was most looking forward to visiting when I planned to come to Asia. Not to completely re-hash my angry rant from one of my original blog posts, but visa regulations there are a bit of a nightmare so I had cancelled my plans to go altogether. Last night whilst looking for something to fill the void I discovered that you can stay in several of China’s major cities for 72 hours provided you remain in the metropolitan area, and have on onward flight booked when you arrive.

The list of five places includes both Beijing and Shanghai, so if possible I am going to try to do one of the two on my way over to Japan and Korea, and then one on the way back before I visit Taiwan and Hong Kong. If I can’t do both then I will probably select to do Beijing, just for the novelty of being able to visit the Great Wall of China which is perhaps the most spectacular sight on this continent – or maybe even on this planet.

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I actually managed to make it to breakfast in my hotel for the first time in four mornings and I made up for my previous three days aberration by eating pretty much everything on offer.
I went across the bus station to check the time of departures for Ipoh and then packed up my stuff and went back over with the intention of actually buying a ticket.

The meat market vibe from Johor Baru had returned with a series of people communicating through walkie-talkies to let each other know they were sending people their way who were needing tickets. After letting someone know where I needed to go, I was escorted to a ticket office where I purchased a seat and then had to sit and wait twenty minutes for the bus to arrive.
I had no idea how long it was going to take to get to Ipoh, but I figured a couple of hours so I reclined my chair and spent most of the journey catching up on my sleep.

I was rudely awoken by the afternoon sun beating down on my face as the person in the seat behind me had decided to yank the curtain in my section away to shield their own eyes, but thankfully I didn’t have to put up with it for too long because soon enough we arrived at the depot. The bus station is quite far out of town so I had to get a taxi to my hotel which is about two to three minutes walk from the city centre.
I’m barely counting this as a stop on my trip considering I am pretty much using it as a gateway to Penang, and to break my journey there down, but I decided to go out for a walk around the city anyway to see what it had to offer as I knew there were a few historical buildings around.

Whether it was because it was a Sunday afternoon, or if it’s just a quiet place in general, there wasn't much going on in Ipoh. I followed a map given to me by the guy behind the reception desk, and once I'd figured out where everything was I decided to try and head towards the centre.

There are a few colonial buildings built in rapidly dirtying white bricks which were quite impressive, but apart from that it seemed like everything was closed or abandoned. It was only about a ten minute walk to the main area where all the architecture was, so I decided to walk further back in the opposite direction as I was getting quite hungry at this point.

I managed to find a shopping mall with a food court in so went I went and grabbed some dinner from there. Whilst I was in the mall, I found where the population of Ipoh were spending their time as for a Sunday afternoon it was certainly very busy. I know that shopping is a very popular pastime on this continent, but to say there weren't that many shops, it was ridiculously busy.

Once I’d had my dinner I escaped back to my hotel and began doing some more preparations for the coming days.

Quiet days like this don't come around very often, and I am having to learn to use them wisely to recuperate and rest my body as best I can. A combination of too many late nights and the hot sun have left me feeling pretty tired each morning as I had woken up in KL, and I keep having to remind myself after a headache on the first night that I have to keep drinking plenty of water and making sure I am eating plenty of food (the second bit is definitely not a problem...)

In the same way though, I still need to use my time wisely and it's important to me that I don't feel like I am 'wasting' my days. The stop in Ipoh has been helpful, but in the grand scheme of things, I don't want to have too many of these days as I continue along. Hopefully from here on out I will be able to go from place-to-place as directly as possible, and fit in everything I need to before returning to England in a timely fashion.

Glad You Came
The Wanted (2011)