South East Asia

Came to KL with Irvin to reunite with part of the Ipoh gang - Martin and Vanessa. Martin, our Scottish veteran traveler, took no time to show me and Irvin the best budget spots in town. We had food in the cheapest and incredibly delicious self service street restaurant, grabbed some beers from the tiniest off-licence alcohol store in Chinatown and stayed in his very humble and very friendly hostel, where instead of the typical backpackers we crossed paths with locals and immigrants from all walks of life.

For the weekend I had the pleasure to stay with Audrey, Dan and their wonderful kids. Friends I've met in Geneva but later moved to KL where they lived for the past 3 years. It was a long weekend, filled with fireworks to commemorate Dipawali, an indian holiday. It was a great excuse to grab some drinks with a bunch of nice expats friends of theirs.

The next day we all went to a Vietnamese restaurant for lunch where we met Gil Carmo and his family. The Pho was the best I had in my life and was the perfect remedy for my hangover.
Gil is a Portuguese emigrant married with a Vietnamese and father of two beautiful yong daughters, Tamara and Lana. He lived 4 years in Vietnam and has been living in KL for more than 8.

He challenged me and Dan to a game of squash in his condo. First time I played. So much fun! We ended up staying for dinner for which Gil opened a bottle of 5 year old Bacalhoa Moscatel, grilled a linguiça, prepared bread with sardine patê and cheese from Alentejo. Their generosity was immense. I learned a great deal about health, politics and his views on work ethics and South east Asia. I left feeling in debt to them.

After saying goodbye to Audrey, Dan and the little ones, I came back to the iconic Hibiscus hostel where I met Irvin and Martin again. While having lunch with Irvin in Martin's favourite street restaurant a familiar face passed by. It was Lieke, a dutch girl me and Irvin had met two weeks before in Taman Negara. Together, we visited a Buddhist temple and the national mosque where a nice lady told us all about the mosque and Islam.

For that last night Enayat joined me, Irvin and Martin with two of his friends. It was a typical boys night out, Irvin chatted up some girls, Martin (after a few beers) tried similar approaches resulting in hilariously non offensive racist ice breakers. The three of us ended in the attic bar where the manager kept offering us drinks.

It was a nice farewell. The next day I departed to Penang, this time around without Irvin.Les mer