Saturday
Seven Stars
Flashlight
You took away my flashlight.
Now I'm walking in the dark.
Thinking why'd I even stop
To think that this could be love.
Is it too late to turn back?
Now that I've given you my heart.
Before this whole thing falls apart.
But could this be love, love?
Could this be love?
Could this be love, love?
Could this be love? Love, yeah.
When I wake it’s like my brain has been booted up on supercharge, I’m immediately conscious of everything, the room, this place and then the words echo in my head, “This is our last day together”
Our last ‘half’ day to be sure, so the plan is to fit in as much as we can, do as much as we can, then pack our bags and get the hell outta here and make it to the airport in one piece.
We meet for the last time over breakfast, Lively is there, Jeff is sleeping apparently hangover, I think we all should be fairly hangover, but instead we move kinda sluggish, talk slow, everything’s an effort. I slip on my sunglasses and pretend to read the newspaper that Lively has brought to the table. A waiter that has been serving me all week brings me coffee, I don’t say anything I just look at him and smile and he smiles back like he gets what’s going on.
There’s a empty vacant space inside my head and the process of eating is not automated, instead it’s about playing with your food, conjuring up the strength to put this or that piece of food into your mouth and chew, the taste of food is difficult and I’m thankful that when my tastebuds finally do kick in I know that recovery is made just a little bit easier.
A thought bubble flashes inside my head and I say out loud “That was awesome”, and Joggy, Lively and Soly nod their heads, nothing else needs to be added to that either, a sense of knowing is enough that last night was special for all of us.
I’m showered before heading out, but I dose a couple of Vals and slip two headache tablets into my pocket just in case my head starts bugging out. Downstairs Lively, Soly and Joggy sit around a coffee table smoking, Joggy and Soly’s suitcases sit beside them. Oh that’s right I tell myself, they are leaving this afternoon. Joggy asks, “Can I put our bags in your room”, and it’s no problem at all.
Seven Stars
Flashlight
You took away my flashlight.
Now I'm walking in the dark.
Thinking why'd I even stop
To think that this could be love.
Is it too late to turn back?
Now that I've given you my heart.
Before this whole thing falls apart.
But could this be love, love?
Could this be love?
Could this be love, love?
Could this be love? Love, yeah.
When I wake it’s like my brain has been booted up on supercharge, I’m immediately conscious of everything, the room, this place and then the words echo in my head, “This is our last day together”
Our last ‘half’ day to be sure, so the plan is to fit in as much as we can, do as much as we can, then pack our bags and get the hell outta here and make it to the airport in one piece.
We meet for the last time over breakfast, Lively is there, Jeff is sleeping apparently hangover, I think we all should be fairly hangover, but instead we move kinda sluggish, talk slow, everything’s an effort. I slip on my sunglasses and pretend to read the newspaper that Lively has brought to the table. A waiter that has been serving me all week brings me coffee, I don’t say anything I just look at him and smile and he smiles back like he gets what’s going on.
There’s a empty vacant space inside my head and the process of eating is not automated, instead it’s about playing with your food, conjuring up the strength to put this or that piece of food into your mouth and chew, the taste of food is difficult and I’m thankful that when my tastebuds finally do kick in I know that recovery is made just a little bit easier.
A thought bubble flashes inside my head and I say out loud “That was awesome”, and Joggy, Lively and Soly nod their heads, nothing else needs to be added to that either, a sense of knowing is enough that last night was special for all of us.
I’m showered before heading out, but I dose a couple of Vals and slip two headache tablets into my pocket just in case my head starts bugging out. Downstairs Lively, Soly and Joggy sit around a coffee table smoking, Joggy and Soly’s suitcases sit beside them. Oh that’s right I tell myself, they are leaving this afternoon. Joggy asks, “Can I put our bags in your room”, and it’s no problem at all.
We come back downstairs and the plan now is to take a taxi out to Mid Valley Mega Mall and to try and squeeze a little more shopping out of the trip. Jeff will sleep through the morning, the bug that plagued him the day before still remains and he’s keen to do something when we all get back.
We drive out to the mall of malls, and all of us remain sombre and don’t talk that much to one another during the entire 25 minute cab ride. When we’re rounding the circumference of the mall the normal gasp of “Wow” isn’t there, instead a chorus of “Hmm’s” permeate from the backseat and I lift my sunglasses comically to check if what I’m seeing isn’t drawn from fiction. Yeah it’s impressive, the mall is absolutely huge when compared to anything I’ve seen before, we take in the view of the mall as we drive around to the main entrance and with strained effort Joggy says simply, “It’s big”. And I know by rights that Joggy and Soly have every reason to be tired, they walked all of KL’s shopping malls yesterday afternoon and I think that after last night’s celebration that we’re all feeling pretty tired.
So the plan now is to see what we can with what reserves of strength we’re each capable of.
Joggy says that him and Soly are going to go off and look at some stuff over there, Lively tells me he’s keen to shop plus he wants another suitcase so I ask him to tag along while I check out the exclusive Garden’s section of the mega mall, this is where all of the boutique stores will be located so my strength or effort will be to see all that I can here.
Before separating into pairs we make a time with Joggy and Soly to meet back here and we’re off.
Lively and I head over to The Gardens and visit all the stores that I want to see first, Lively is a champ he’s supportive that I get to cross some stuff off my shopping list, but it’s a series of early hit and misses. For instance I visit Mizuno and don’t find any sneakers I like and they don’t sell tracksuits anymore so I cross that off, I visit Isetan and don’t find any suitcases I like or any that Lively likes. I go into Campers and look at the Spanish footwear and realise that it’s all horribly overpriced and I don’t find any shoes that I can see myself wearing. I go into Burberry and try on a polo top and it’s a little snug and not to mention overpriced for what it is. We go into New Balance and do a quick lap and I’m satisfied that they have nothing that I haven’t already seen.
Before we leave The Gardens we go into Robinsons, which is a department store of the same calibre of say Isetan and Parksons. We check out a Timberland sale which has just started and there’s like 50 people gathered here rummaging through boxes of Timberland shoes. I look for loafers and find some but in piss yellow. I want loafers sure, but not even I could pull off yellow suede loafers they’re just wrong, way wrong. We wander around a few floors and decide it’s more or less the same stuff we’ve seen already and then leave The Gardens extension of the mall returning to the main mall.
We walk back from The Gardens empty handed and walk over to a City Chain retailer and I look at a wrist watch by Ellesse, it’s a tennis watch, it’s kind of small for a sports watch and when I try it on it’s a little snug. So the store assistant brings out the larger model and it’s a nice hefty chunk of black metal that dangles from my wrist with links to spare. I like it and he cuts me a deal that works out to be around 730RM and I thank him for the deal, though I’m not sure he thinks it’s the best deal as he schoffs to a colleague at my thanks.
Next I walk with Lively to a Quick Silver outlet and here he buys up t-shirts, loads of them, I ask him whether he will want to come upstairs and look at the sporting section and look for his coveted DC sneakers he says Yes and we travel up one floor stopping at F.O.S, Factory outlet Store, here I buy two pairs of Canterbury shorts for 69RM, it’s money well spent as I could have just as easily bought chino pants by Canterbury in the same colours. At F.O.S I see the fake Lyle and Scott polo’s and it makes me a little sad in the pants. We go up another floor and here the sporting stores are pole positioned, we pass Nike but don’t go inside, the same goes for Adidas and Puma. We go into a larger specialty store and here we find a small display rack of DC’s, there’s easily a dozen or so styles and Lively takes his time considering his next purchase.
While Lively is attended to by a store assistant I wander about looking at clothing and find nothing in my size. Lively decides on a pair of DeConstructions and lines up, box and docket in hand at the cash register. When Lively is done here we wander the full length of this level, stopping at model and toy stores, some specialising in anime and others with more toy influenced shit. On this floor last year Jeff and I found a hobby store specialising in table top role playing games, we find it again and do a quick lap looking for Flames of War stuff but I don’t see much and besides I’m still collecting 28mm stuff so it goes against all reason for me to start collecting 15mm RPG miniatures.
So we go and then after checking the time we realise that there’s not much left in the morning, we come down two floors and head over towards the entrance. Here I find a store called XL Shop, it’s where Jeff bought all his Gundam kits from last year. I go inside and ask about Maschinen Krieger and whether or not they have any, the store attendant asks me what does it look like and as we scan a wall full of model kits I tell him that it looks exactly like “that!” pointing at a ma.K kit of a Hornisse, another piece of marvel in the Maschinen Krieger universe. The price is expensive for Malaysian ringgit but cheaper than what I might have otherwise paid online or ordered in to a retail shop back home. Sadly there is no other kits I want from this store today, they don’t sell any other ma.K kits this was the last one they had in stock.
On the way back to meet Soly and Joggy we ride the escalators down to the ground floor where we spy Joggy and Soly sitting nearby a luggage store. Lively says, “You go meet Joggy n’ Soly and bring them over to that store” and I go. When I meet up with Joggy and Soly they’re both tired as, they tell me they walked up this section, west to east, up n’ down on all floors and then went north and south and again did all the floors inbetween. I ask did they visit the Garden section and they tell me that they did and that they were absolutely fucked by the end of it and just went and grabbed a coffee and sat down. They ask about Lively and I tell them, “Oh he’s over here”
I take them both to the luggage shop and here Lively has worked a deal for a large size case with a combination tumbler lock for about 250RM. I look around at other cases and I can’t see any Mandarina Duck or Benetton, but I do see Samsonite in various steel colours, they’re not what I’m after so I pass when the store assistant asks did I want to open up the case and look inside. But I already know what I want and sadly these aren’t it.
Lively is kind enough to dump all of my bags of shopping plus his own into his new suitcase as we roll out of the mall over to the taxi stand. We don’t have to wait long as there’s a premier taxi here in seconds to take us back to the city.
When we come back to the hotel Jeff is up and about, hungry and keen for lunch. We look at the time and there’s still a few hours until Joggy and Soly need to make tracks for the airport.
We head into the city and end up eating lunch at the Lot 10 food court. Lively, Jeff and I eat at the Bavarian food stall that we ate at earlier in the week, this time I elect to try out the Chicken burger that they were raving so much about and we all end up ordering the burger for lunch. I’m tempted to order a beer but decide to skip it and to try out a grape Fanta from the Isetan grocery store.
While drinking the grape Fanta it occurs to me that I haven’t opened the bottle of Canadian Club and that there is about a dozen of these mini Schweppes Dry Ginger Ale can’s sitting at the bottom of Jeff’s hotel fridge.
Minutes later the burgers come out and they are every bit as good as what Jeff and Lively had promised they would be. We’re seated at a round table with plenty of room and Joggy and Soly join us here, the two of them electing for Asian cuisine which is every bit as nice as our burgers.
While we eat Joggy proposes a plan of attack for our last few hours of shopping in KL. He says that we should go over to the I.T. mall of Low Yat Plaza and there do some serious PC parts buying. And I’m all for it, as is Lively who says that he’s keen to buy a Solid State Drive and perhaps some more PS3 games.
As we’re all Drunkards this is perhaps the best part of the shopping trip, buying PC parts we’re going to use for our gaming rigs back home, the spend up could be huge if I let myself get out of hand but to be honest for all the amount of cashish I saved up, while we’ve been away I haven’t even spent close to what I was planning to so I reckon that if I wanted to really bad, I could go nuts and grab some preemo gear for my machine back home.
At Low Yat we hit the more reputable PC stores first, we check price lists and then head into the stores with larger floor space and see what we can bargain for. I look at a G510 Logitech Keyboard, at this point it feels as though I’ve been starting at it all week. I ask Jeff if this is a good bargain or not and he looks at the price tag then does a math conversion in his head and tells me the Aussie price. The price puts it cheaper than what I might pay for a keyboard like this back home. So I spoil myself and grab it.
We walk back from The Gardens empty handed and walk over to a City Chain retailer and I look at a wrist watch by Ellesse, it’s a tennis watch, it’s kind of small for a sports watch and when I try it on it’s a little snug. So the store assistant brings out the larger model and it’s a nice hefty chunk of black metal that dangles from my wrist with links to spare. I like it and he cuts me a deal that works out to be around 730RM and I thank him for the deal, though I’m not sure he thinks it’s the best deal as he schoffs to a colleague at my thanks.
Next I walk with Lively to a Quick Silver outlet and here he buys up t-shirts, loads of them, I ask him whether he will want to come upstairs and look at the sporting section and look for his coveted DC sneakers he says Yes and we travel up one floor stopping at F.O.S, Factory outlet Store, here I buy two pairs of Canterbury shorts for 69RM, it’s money well spent as I could have just as easily bought chino pants by Canterbury in the same colours. At F.O.S I see the fake Lyle and Scott polo’s and it makes me a little sad in the pants. We go up another floor and here the sporting stores are pole positioned, we pass Nike but don’t go inside, the same goes for Adidas and Puma. We go into a larger specialty store and here we find a small display rack of DC’s, there’s easily a dozen or so styles and Lively takes his time considering his next purchase.
While Lively is attended to by a store assistant I wander about looking at clothing and find nothing in my size. Lively decides on a pair of DeConstructions and lines up, box and docket in hand at the cash register. When Lively is done here we wander the full length of this level, stopping at model and toy stores, some specialising in anime and others with more toy influenced shit. On this floor last year Jeff and I found a hobby store specialising in table top role playing games, we find it again and do a quick lap looking for Flames of War stuff but I don’t see much and besides I’m still collecting 28mm stuff so it goes against all reason for me to start collecting 15mm RPG miniatures.
So we go and then after checking the time we realise that there’s not much left in the morning, we come down two floors and head over towards the entrance. Here I find a store called XL Shop, it’s where Jeff bought all his Gundam kits from last year. I go inside and ask about Maschinen Krieger and whether or not they have any, the store attendant asks me what does it look like and as we scan a wall full of model kits I tell him that it looks exactly like “that!” pointing at a ma.K kit of a Hornisse, another piece of marvel in the Maschinen Krieger universe. The price is expensive for Malaysian ringgit but cheaper than what I might have otherwise paid online or ordered in to a retail shop back home. Sadly there is no other kits I want from this store today, they don’t sell any other ma.K kits this was the last one they had in stock.
On the way back to meet Soly and Joggy we ride the escalators down to the ground floor where we spy Joggy and Soly sitting nearby a luggage store. Lively says, “You go meet Joggy n’ Soly and bring them over to that store” and I go. When I meet up with Joggy and Soly they’re both tired as, they tell me they walked up this section, west to east, up n’ down on all floors and then went north and south and again did all the floors inbetween. I ask did they visit the Garden section and they tell me that they did and that they were absolutely fucked by the end of it and just went and grabbed a coffee and sat down. They ask about Lively and I tell them, “Oh he’s over here”
I take them both to the luggage shop and here Lively has worked a deal for a large size case with a combination tumbler lock for about 250RM. I look around at other cases and I can’t see any Mandarina Duck or Benetton, but I do see Samsonite in various steel colours, they’re not what I’m after so I pass when the store assistant asks did I want to open up the case and look inside. But I already know what I want and sadly these aren’t it.
Lively is kind enough to dump all of my bags of shopping plus his own into his new suitcase as we roll out of the mall over to the taxi stand. We don’t have to wait long as there’s a premier taxi here in seconds to take us back to the city.
When we come back to the hotel Jeff is up and about, hungry and keen for lunch. We look at the time and there’s still a few hours until Joggy and Soly need to make tracks for the airport.
We head into the city and end up eating lunch at the Lot 10 food court. Lively, Jeff and I eat at the Bavarian food stall that we ate at earlier in the week, this time I elect to try out the Chicken burger that they were raving so much about and we all end up ordering the burger for lunch. I’m tempted to order a beer but decide to skip it and to try out a grape Fanta from the Isetan grocery store.
While drinking the grape Fanta it occurs to me that I haven’t opened the bottle of Canadian Club and that there is about a dozen of these mini Schweppes Dry Ginger Ale can’s sitting at the bottom of Jeff’s hotel fridge.
Minutes later the burgers come out and they are every bit as good as what Jeff and Lively had promised they would be. We’re seated at a round table with plenty of room and Joggy and Soly join us here, the two of them electing for Asian cuisine which is every bit as nice as our burgers.
While we eat Joggy proposes a plan of attack for our last few hours of shopping in KL. He says that we should go over to the I.T. mall of Low Yat Plaza and there do some serious PC parts buying. And I’m all for it, as is Lively who says that he’s keen to buy a Solid State Drive and perhaps some more PS3 games.
As we’re all Drunkards this is perhaps the best part of the shopping trip, buying PC parts we’re going to use for our gaming rigs back home, the spend up could be huge if I let myself get out of hand but to be honest for all the amount of cashish I saved up, while we’ve been away I haven’t even spent close to what I was planning to so I reckon that if I wanted to really bad, I could go nuts and grab some preemo gear for my machine back home.
At Low Yat we hit the more reputable PC stores first, we check price lists and then head into the stores with larger floor space and see what we can bargain for. I look at a G510 Logitech Keyboard, at this point it feels as though I’ve been starting at it all week. I ask Jeff if this is a good bargain or not and he looks at the price tag then does a math conversion in his head and tells me the Aussie price. The price puts it cheaper than what I might pay for a keyboard like this back home. So I spoil myself and grab it.
While Lively is looking at a SSD disc, I search around for the G9x mouse I saw earlier in the week but don't find it. I also look around for headphones. I see the Razer Megladons but they're well expensive, even in this country. While I’m scanning the isles looking for dual sided blank DVD discs my stomach doubles over and I feel as though I’m gonna hurl. I go find Jeff and tell him I'm walking back to the hotel and I leave him, Joggy, Soly and Lively here and begin the walk back from Low Yat. As I descend the floors I stop by a genuine Motorola dealership and buy an original cover for the Xoom tablet Jeff has given to me, the transaction is quick enough for a brief respite in the nausea, but as soon as the leg pumping action continues my stomach starts up it’s old tricks.
When I hit the street I’m two shades of sick, ready to vomit, I do something I swore I would never do
in a foreign country and walk down an alleyway to puke. Only the alleyway is being used by pedestrians as a way of cutting across the block, so there's nowhere to stop and it doesn't look I could stop to be sick even if I wanted to. I walk with my bag at my side, the box with the keyboard and Xoom cover is not heavy but it can't be carried easily, I turn my wrist and shift the weight of the bag, throwing it over my shoulder and I walk uphill towards the main road. As I walk eyes follow me at every step, or at least it feels that way, I can't wait until I’m more out in the open, my legs are pumping, there's the sensation of a washing machine inside my guts, I bead up a cold sweat and walk like I’m feverish with zombie plague.
I walk past the front side of Sungei Wang / BB Plaza, the traffic is heavy as is the pedestrian foot traffic here on the sidewalk. I stop at a souvenir stand and notice a Petronas towers statuette that Jeff bought when we visited China Town, I ask about this, and while doing so I’ve already got my hand on my money clip deep inside my pocket. The stall attendant gives me some huge price hike of 25RM and my expression on my face says it all, I’m not in the mood, I say to him, “Look buddy I can get this for less than 17RM from China Town, so how about it?” and the guy considers this as he knows what I’m saying is true and he says, “Ok fine 15RM” and I wince and say “Ok deal”. I peel off two fives and fist full of singles. Right now I’m not even thinking of the chump change game I’ve been playing with Jeff all week, instead I just stuff it all into his hand and toss the Petronas towers and their display case into my already awkward plastic bag. The attendant has the look on his face like he’s been shafted, I feel my stomach give me the elbow and I walk up the street to the main cross walk of Jalan Bukit Bingtang.
While standing on the sidewalk I decide my next move, should I continue straight up and walk to the hotel to perhaps hurl and puke until I feel better or instead should I weather the storm a little while longer and go to Tangs to get a suitcase.
“Fuck it”, when the crosswalk icon goes green I walk right, crossing the street towards Lot 10.
As sick as I am this really does feel like the last hurrah for me, walking down the street on my own, past these mega malls that I may never see again. I pass Lot 10, Fahrenheit 88, Sephora attached like a pimple onto Star Hill Gallery, I see the same guy selling those penlight sized lasers, bouncing the green light off shadows on the sidewalk, he looks at me with recognition but I keep going and then cross over to the other side of the street and walk into The Pavilion.
Here I walk left and then walk the entire length of this wing until I’m at Tangs, I walk around the store first, stopping to look at watches, hoping to see an Ellesse watch as nice as mine, I see Clarks Wallabees in olive suede. In the men’s department I see t-shirts and tank tops by SuperDry and I find a small pontoon with a three shelf stack displaying Fred Perry polo’s in every colour imaginable.
My first thought is, “Do they have it in my size?” which is followed by sensible reasoning, “Of course they don’t...This is Asia”, I tell myself. “And you’re fat”
To lose some more weight is on the cards, but right now I need a case large enough to haul all of my treasure home. I want something fabulous too, there’s a line in Gibson’s book Pattern Recognition that when Casey dolls herself up she calls the look, ‘the fabulous fanny’, and that’s pretty much the direction I’m going for here. I want a travel case that’s a little excessive in the brand lust, but practical, is it possible that the Benetton cases I look at now are it? I scan the wall display of Benetton cases and conclude to myself quietly, I think they might be.
Here I see the metallic colours I’d seen at Sogo earlier on in the week, I don’t see the colours of the world case I’d see on evilBay but I see the large Benetton logo embossed onto a set of jet black cases. An attendant appears out of the corner of my eye, expectant, but nervous to close the deal, he walks up to me with extreme caution, “Can I help you Sir” and I greet him with a serious look, “Yes, you can” then point at the case, “This one Sir?”. I nod my head and then, for no obvious reason the attendant goes into his sales routine, “Oh Sir this is a fantastic case, it is currently on sale, but if you were to look at these other cases that are marked down even further...” but I cut him off mid sentence, “No, this is the case”. But this guy is relentless to please, he starts throwing discounts in my direction to somehow sweeten the deal, to make me feel like I got the very best out of the purchase, God how I love this country. I’ve seen this behaviour before when I went to buy underwear at night and I got an automatic discount of 10% just because it was after 5pm. “I can reduce the cost by a further 10% Sir” and as happy as I am internalising this special treatment, my body is tired and I really just want to get this over with. I follow him to the cash register and when they ring up the price I pull out a wad of 50’s that I have with a red elastic band tied around it. There’s a sudden gasp from the attendant and the cashier as I start counting off the money. I lose count twice and in the end hand them an approximate of the agreed amount. Thankfully they’re honest folk and they had back a 50 note and some chump change. The attendant helps me to load my plastic bag from Low Yat into my Benetton case then puts an orange Tangs security check sticker around the carry handle, for which he has extended for me, ready to roll on. I give him a smile and say gratefully, “Thanks for your help” and he smiles back at me as I roll on out.
Coming out of Tangs I swing right and head out towards the coffee shops and then take another right until I’m at the backside end of The Pavilion walking down a flight of concrete stairs to meet the sidewalk. There’s a few office buildings on this side and I can only see one or two people on the street and a few parked cars and scooters, I’m trying to get my bearings but I know that if I walk up the block and stay on this angle I’ll be across the street from the Hotel Istana.
So I roll on, my case taking the tiled sidewalk easily and without fuss, in the time I spent at Tangs the nausea has somehow slacken off and I’m in the mood to eat, drink and be merry. In less than ten minutes I’m at a cross walk facing the hotel and I breathe a sigh of relief knowing I’d done the whole thing alone.
When I hit the street I’m two shades of sick, ready to vomit, I do something I swore I would never do
in a foreign country and walk down an alleyway to puke. Only the alleyway is being used by pedestrians as a way of cutting across the block, so there's nowhere to stop and it doesn't look I could stop to be sick even if I wanted to. I walk with my bag at my side, the box with the keyboard and Xoom cover is not heavy but it can't be carried easily, I turn my wrist and shift the weight of the bag, throwing it over my shoulder and I walk uphill towards the main road. As I walk eyes follow me at every step, or at least it feels that way, I can't wait until I’m more out in the open, my legs are pumping, there's the sensation of a washing machine inside my guts, I bead up a cold sweat and walk like I’m feverish with zombie plague.
I walk past the front side of Sungei Wang / BB Plaza, the traffic is heavy as is the pedestrian foot traffic here on the sidewalk. I stop at a souvenir stand and notice a Petronas towers statuette that Jeff bought when we visited China Town, I ask about this, and while doing so I’ve already got my hand on my money clip deep inside my pocket. The stall attendant gives me some huge price hike of 25RM and my expression on my face says it all, I’m not in the mood, I say to him, “Look buddy I can get this for less than 17RM from China Town, so how about it?” and the guy considers this as he knows what I’m saying is true and he says, “Ok fine 15RM” and I wince and say “Ok deal”. I peel off two fives and fist full of singles. Right now I’m not even thinking of the chump change game I’ve been playing with Jeff all week, instead I just stuff it all into his hand and toss the Petronas towers and their display case into my already awkward plastic bag. The attendant has the look on his face like he’s been shafted, I feel my stomach give me the elbow and I walk up the street to the main cross walk of Jalan Bukit Bingtang.
While standing on the sidewalk I decide my next move, should I continue straight up and walk to the hotel to perhaps hurl and puke until I feel better or instead should I weather the storm a little while longer and go to Tangs to get a suitcase.
“Fuck it”, when the crosswalk icon goes green I walk right, crossing the street towards Lot 10.
As sick as I am this really does feel like the last hurrah for me, walking down the street on my own, past these mega malls that I may never see again. I pass Lot 10, Fahrenheit 88, Sephora attached like a pimple onto Star Hill Gallery, I see the same guy selling those penlight sized lasers, bouncing the green light off shadows on the sidewalk, he looks at me with recognition but I keep going and then cross over to the other side of the street and walk into The Pavilion.
Here I walk left and then walk the entire length of this wing until I’m at Tangs, I walk around the store first, stopping to look at watches, hoping to see an Ellesse watch as nice as mine, I see Clarks Wallabees in olive suede. In the men’s department I see t-shirts and tank tops by SuperDry and I find a small pontoon with a three shelf stack displaying Fred Perry polo’s in every colour imaginable.
My first thought is, “Do they have it in my size?” which is followed by sensible reasoning, “Of course they don’t...This is Asia”, I tell myself. “And you’re fat”
To lose some more weight is on the cards, but right now I need a case large enough to haul all of my treasure home. I want something fabulous too, there’s a line in Gibson’s book Pattern Recognition that when Casey dolls herself up she calls the look, ‘the fabulous fanny’, and that’s pretty much the direction I’m going for here. I want a travel case that’s a little excessive in the brand lust, but practical, is it possible that the Benetton cases I look at now are it? I scan the wall display of Benetton cases and conclude to myself quietly, I think they might be.
Here I see the metallic colours I’d seen at Sogo earlier on in the week, I don’t see the colours of the world case I’d see on evilBay but I see the large Benetton logo embossed onto a set of jet black cases. An attendant appears out of the corner of my eye, expectant, but nervous to close the deal, he walks up to me with extreme caution, “Can I help you Sir” and I greet him with a serious look, “Yes, you can” then point at the case, “This one Sir?”. I nod my head and then, for no obvious reason the attendant goes into his sales routine, “Oh Sir this is a fantastic case, it is currently on sale, but if you were to look at these other cases that are marked down even further...” but I cut him off mid sentence, “No, this is the case”. But this guy is relentless to please, he starts throwing discounts in my direction to somehow sweeten the deal, to make me feel like I got the very best out of the purchase, God how I love this country. I’ve seen this behaviour before when I went to buy underwear at night and I got an automatic discount of 10% just because it was after 5pm. “I can reduce the cost by a further 10% Sir” and as happy as I am internalising this special treatment, my body is tired and I really just want to get this over with. I follow him to the cash register and when they ring up the price I pull out a wad of 50’s that I have with a red elastic band tied around it. There’s a sudden gasp from the attendant and the cashier as I start counting off the money. I lose count twice and in the end hand them an approximate of the agreed amount. Thankfully they’re honest folk and they had back a 50 note and some chump change. The attendant helps me to load my plastic bag from Low Yat into my Benetton case then puts an orange Tangs security check sticker around the carry handle, for which he has extended for me, ready to roll on. I give him a smile and say gratefully, “Thanks for your help” and he smiles back at me as I roll on out.
Coming out of Tangs I swing right and head out towards the coffee shops and then take another right until I’m at the backside end of The Pavilion walking down a flight of concrete stairs to meet the sidewalk. There’s a few office buildings on this side and I can only see one or two people on the street and a few parked cars and scooters, I’m trying to get my bearings but I know that if I walk up the block and stay on this angle I’ll be across the street from the Hotel Istana.
So I roll on, my case taking the tiled sidewalk easily and without fuss, in the time I spent at Tangs the nausea has somehow slacken off and I’m in the mood to eat, drink and be merry. In less than ten minutes I’m at a cross walk facing the hotel and I breathe a sigh of relief knowing I’d done the whole thing alone.
I’m in my room for about a minute or two before the doorbell rings and Jeff, Lively, Joggy and Soly all pile inside. I’m drinking a Carlsberg and ask the fellas will they help me out and have a beer or two with me. Thankfully the entire gang happily obliges.
We chat, talk shit, make small jokes while drinking together in my hotel room until it’s time. Time for Joggy and Soly to get into a taxi and begin the mad dash to the airport to head home to Australia.
Jeff, Lively and I help Joggy and Soly with their bags and luggage and we all ride the elevator down to the lobby floor and walk out with them to the taxi stand.
Here Joggy talks to the taxi rank manager to ask for a premier taxi, and I hope that they get a nice big new blue one. Joggy looks at me kindly, “It was fun Mr. B, definitely have to do it again sometime” and I give him a big hug. As I pull away Joggy can see the emotion water over in my eyes, he says, “You gonna be ok?” and I’m comforted at his concern, on Team Speak, hanging out in cyberspace every night for almost the last decade we’ve discussed very openly our lives and our everyday struggles, so I know not to hold back. I explain to Joggy that the wetting of my eyes here is not for tears of emotional pain. Instead it happens that even when I laugh, or if I’m really really happy my eyes water up, they always have, and that this is one of those happy times that you don’t want to forget. Jeff and Lively hug Joggy and Soly, Joggy says to Jeff, “I’m gonna see you like next week dude” and Jeff is as playful as ever, “I know... I just didn’t wanna miss out on the free hugs”.
There are smiles as Joggy and Soly climb into a new blaze blue Rav4 by Toyota and we wave our goodbyes as the taxi pulls away from the driveway. The driveway staff have probably seen this display of affection too many times but they warmly smile at the three of us for our affection shown for our friends, they smile with a warm sense of Malaysian hospitality and pride, and I feel as though we’ve just passed some kind of a test and then I think, maybe we have.
With the taxi cab long into the distance now Jeff turns to me and says, “What now?” and I tell him that I want to go back to Low Yat. “Back to Low Yat?” Jeff says like I’m crazy, and I tell him that I want to get that mouse pad that he recommended to me and then Jeff’s mood relaxes. “Oh, yeah for sure” and the Lively says, “You know what, come to think about it, I will get that SSD” and then it’s settled back to Low Yat it is, I ask, “You wanna walk there?” and Jeff and Lively look at me like I’m crazy and just laugh. We pile into a red taxi and enjoy the ride over to Low Yat and when we go there the evening shopping has started to ramp up. I say to Jeff, “This is like Sunday of last week”.
And then it occurs to me, Sunday last week was so very long ago, what of the changes I’ve been through since then. I’ve been shopping, I’ve been pampered with massages, I’ve been swimming, gone in the hotel steam room, slept in late, eating great food everyday, running amuck down the back streets of the hotel, laughing chasing cats, avoiding hawker food, I’ve been sick as a dog, then marvelling at the history of Islam, to drinking cocktails I’ve never tried before, to dancing with the lead singer of a band who made my heart glow.
When I snap out of it the lump in my throat has returned and I’m standing in a checkout lane of one of the I.T supermarkets. Standing here, my arms are full of computer shit, I have a Razer mouse pad, a HDMI cable for the PS3 back home and a DVD drive to replace my busted one back home.
Lively has got his SSD drive and Jeff hasn’t bought a thing. He asks, “You guys wanna eat” he treats the question carefully knowing that the entire time away I’ve detested it whenever we have eaten western food. But I’m in a good mood and I say to him, “How about Tony Romas for dinner?” and I watch Lively and Jeff’s faces lighten up like excited children but with the difference being that Jeff says, “Fuck yeah!”
We walk back to the Pavilion and along the way we watch sidewalk salesmen hawk the latest gadgets. I watch neon fluorescent helicopters fly along in the night sky. I see the guy selling the laser lights and I ask Jeff, “How the hell are you going to get that thing home?” but he just smiles.
At Tony Romas we go all out knowing that this is the last time for a while that we’re all going to be sitting together eating a meal, so we order everything we want, entrees, two drinks, mains, dessert, everything. So that when we’re done we mark off the entrees like a shopping list, “The loaded potato skins were good” I say, and Lively, seemingly satisfied with his bellyful simply says, “Hmmm”
Sitting here reflecting I’m revisited by that familiar feeling I had last night over dinner which returned to me over drinks. There’s this sense of knowing that this might be the last greatest time ever, here, in this place, all week long I’ve been hanging out with my mates, the guys I hang out with every night on the internet, my so called internet friends who aren’t in my daily life, but are a huge part of it all nevertheless. There’s this feeling of pure joy knowing that we all came here together, to this country, to hang out together for a week and as a group of people who are close on one level we are now made even closer through this holiday, a departure of our normal lives.
Last year when I sat here with Jeff we both had that all-knowing feeling that we would be coming back here again together, but only this time it feels different, we’ve been here twice now and who knows what the future holds, only that I’m fairly certain that the seven of us returning to Kuala Lumpur won’t be in it.
We chat, talk shit, make small jokes while drinking together in my hotel room until it’s time. Time for Joggy and Soly to get into a taxi and begin the mad dash to the airport to head home to Australia.
Jeff, Lively and I help Joggy and Soly with their bags and luggage and we all ride the elevator down to the lobby floor and walk out with them to the taxi stand.
Here Joggy talks to the taxi rank manager to ask for a premier taxi, and I hope that they get a nice big new blue one. Joggy looks at me kindly, “It was fun Mr. B, definitely have to do it again sometime” and I give him a big hug. As I pull away Joggy can see the emotion water over in my eyes, he says, “You gonna be ok?” and I’m comforted at his concern, on Team Speak, hanging out in cyberspace every night for almost the last decade we’ve discussed very openly our lives and our everyday struggles, so I know not to hold back. I explain to Joggy that the wetting of my eyes here is not for tears of emotional pain. Instead it happens that even when I laugh, or if I’m really really happy my eyes water up, they always have, and that this is one of those happy times that you don’t want to forget. Jeff and Lively hug Joggy and Soly, Joggy says to Jeff, “I’m gonna see you like next week dude” and Jeff is as playful as ever, “I know... I just didn’t wanna miss out on the free hugs”.
There are smiles as Joggy and Soly climb into a new blaze blue Rav4 by Toyota and we wave our goodbyes as the taxi pulls away from the driveway. The driveway staff have probably seen this display of affection too many times but they warmly smile at the three of us for our affection shown for our friends, they smile with a warm sense of Malaysian hospitality and pride, and I feel as though we’ve just passed some kind of a test and then I think, maybe we have.
With the taxi cab long into the distance now Jeff turns to me and says, “What now?” and I tell him that I want to go back to Low Yat. “Back to Low Yat?” Jeff says like I’m crazy, and I tell him that I want to get that mouse pad that he recommended to me and then Jeff’s mood relaxes. “Oh, yeah for sure” and the Lively says, “You know what, come to think about it, I will get that SSD” and then it’s settled back to Low Yat it is, I ask, “You wanna walk there?” and Jeff and Lively look at me like I’m crazy and just laugh. We pile into a red taxi and enjoy the ride over to Low Yat and when we go there the evening shopping has started to ramp up. I say to Jeff, “This is like Sunday of last week”.
And then it occurs to me, Sunday last week was so very long ago, what of the changes I’ve been through since then. I’ve been shopping, I’ve been pampered with massages, I’ve been swimming, gone in the hotel steam room, slept in late, eating great food everyday, running amuck down the back streets of the hotel, laughing chasing cats, avoiding hawker food, I’ve been sick as a dog, then marvelling at the history of Islam, to drinking cocktails I’ve never tried before, to dancing with the lead singer of a band who made my heart glow.
When I snap out of it the lump in my throat has returned and I’m standing in a checkout lane of one of the I.T supermarkets. Standing here, my arms are full of computer shit, I have a Razer mouse pad, a HDMI cable for the PS3 back home and a DVD drive to replace my busted one back home.
Lively has got his SSD drive and Jeff hasn’t bought a thing. He asks, “You guys wanna eat” he treats the question carefully knowing that the entire time away I’ve detested it whenever we have eaten western food. But I’m in a good mood and I say to him, “How about Tony Romas for dinner?” and I watch Lively and Jeff’s faces lighten up like excited children but with the difference being that Jeff says, “Fuck yeah!”
We walk back to the Pavilion and along the way we watch sidewalk salesmen hawk the latest gadgets. I watch neon fluorescent helicopters fly along in the night sky. I see the guy selling the laser lights and I ask Jeff, “How the hell are you going to get that thing home?” but he just smiles.
At Tony Romas we go all out knowing that this is the last time for a while that we’re all going to be sitting together eating a meal, so we order everything we want, entrees, two drinks, mains, dessert, everything. So that when we’re done we mark off the entrees like a shopping list, “The loaded potato skins were good” I say, and Lively, seemingly satisfied with his bellyful simply says, “Hmmm”
Sitting here reflecting I’m revisited by that familiar feeling I had last night over dinner which returned to me over drinks. There’s this sense of knowing that this might be the last greatest time ever, here, in this place, all week long I’ve been hanging out with my mates, the guys I hang out with every night on the internet, my so called internet friends who aren’t in my daily life, but are a huge part of it all nevertheless. There’s this feeling of pure joy knowing that we all came here together, to this country, to hang out together for a week and as a group of people who are close on one level we are now made even closer through this holiday, a departure of our normal lives.
Last year when I sat here with Jeff we both had that all-knowing feeling that we would be coming back here again together, but only this time it feels different, we’ve been here twice now and who knows what the future holds, only that I’m fairly certain that the seven of us returning to Kuala Lumpur won’t be in it.
Jeff breaks the spell I’m under and says, “Wanna make a move?” and it’s back to reality. We all throw in cash for the meal and Jeff says “What did you wanna do now?” and I tell him I’m keen to go back to my room to use the toilet and Lively says that he needs to look for a plushie to take home for his sister, mum or cousin, I can’t remember for whom.
I’m as full as I’m ever going to be, so walking on my two swollen cankles is kinda tough going, I sort of shuffle along and follow Lively in and out of stores. Jeff teases Lively the entire time and I do my own fair share of belly aching too, the time passing like an age and my colon gives me the elbow and says c’mon man move.
Leaving The Pavilion I do a head check knowing that I’ve got clean jocks and socks for tomorrow’s flight home and before long I’m back at the hotel, getting off the elevator that comes to a stop with a wheeze and whoosh sound of tightly vacuumed air. This sound brings me back to reality once more, standing here in the hallway to our club rooms, Jeff and Lively talking about tonites plans and suggest coming downstairs to drink some more but I reluctantly say No and say that I need to pack up and that I want to have a hot shower and to take it easy for a little while.
I say goodbye to Lively and Jeff and it’s not as nearly awkward as what it was saying goodbye to Joggy and Soly. While these guys are a constant source of shit giving and bouncing jokes off of one another nightly, they are also the closest thing I will ever have to younger annoying brothers.
Instead of hoping into the shower I begin a pack down of all my stuff, I start with organising all of the shopping bags and boxes from all the designer stores I visited, I make sure to document this occasion with taking photos from my phone. I line all of the trash up along one side of the wall of my hallway entry, neatly, so that housekeeping can remove it without fuss. I think back to the young man who brought me extra water on the day when I was in bed sick with nausea, I also left out the part where he changed the sheets and brought me new fresh towels. And how I chased after him down the hallway to tip him with a 50 ringgit note and his look of shock at my gesture.
I fold up all my clothes and place these carefully into my suitcase which is laid out both halves open on the suitcase stand by the wall. I have the TV on the entire time, I’m not really watching this re-run of The Walking Dead but it’s comforting having something familiar playing in the background. I drink a beer while packing. I go the bureau and write down dot points of today’s journey like I do every other night before sleeping, saving them as I am doing now to record this for future travel blogs.
I clear everything from the bureau, closets and cupboards and then go to the fridge and toss out food stuff I won’t possibly eat. I reach inside and begin work on the last beer and perform an idiot check to make sure that I’ve packed everything away. I put stuff I’ll need for the flight home into my North Face carryon bag and I check the room safe for my passport and other personal items.
I tell myself I’m ready to get clean, I strip off out of my boxers and t-shirt and then hop inside the shower, I stand here under the warm water for a long time, definitely using more than my fair share.
I’m as full as I’m ever going to be, so walking on my two swollen cankles is kinda tough going, I sort of shuffle along and follow Lively in and out of stores. Jeff teases Lively the entire time and I do my own fair share of belly aching too, the time passing like an age and my colon gives me the elbow and says c’mon man move.
Leaving The Pavilion I do a head check knowing that I’ve got clean jocks and socks for tomorrow’s flight home and before long I’m back at the hotel, getting off the elevator that comes to a stop with a wheeze and whoosh sound of tightly vacuumed air. This sound brings me back to reality once more, standing here in the hallway to our club rooms, Jeff and Lively talking about tonites plans and suggest coming downstairs to drink some more but I reluctantly say No and say that I need to pack up and that I want to have a hot shower and to take it easy for a little while.
I say goodbye to Lively and Jeff and it’s not as nearly awkward as what it was saying goodbye to Joggy and Soly. While these guys are a constant source of shit giving and bouncing jokes off of one another nightly, they are also the closest thing I will ever have to younger annoying brothers.
Instead of hoping into the shower I begin a pack down of all my stuff, I start with organising all of the shopping bags and boxes from all the designer stores I visited, I make sure to document this occasion with taking photos from my phone. I line all of the trash up along one side of the wall of my hallway entry, neatly, so that housekeeping can remove it without fuss. I think back to the young man who brought me extra water on the day when I was in bed sick with nausea, I also left out the part where he changed the sheets and brought me new fresh towels. And how I chased after him down the hallway to tip him with a 50 ringgit note and his look of shock at my gesture.
I fold up all my clothes and place these carefully into my suitcase which is laid out both halves open on the suitcase stand by the wall. I have the TV on the entire time, I’m not really watching this re-run of The Walking Dead but it’s comforting having something familiar playing in the background. I drink a beer while packing. I go the bureau and write down dot points of today’s journey like I do every other night before sleeping, saving them as I am doing now to record this for future travel blogs.
I clear everything from the bureau, closets and cupboards and then go to the fridge and toss out food stuff I won’t possibly eat. I reach inside and begin work on the last beer and perform an idiot check to make sure that I’ve packed everything away. I put stuff I’ll need for the flight home into my North Face carryon bag and I check the room safe for my passport and other personal items.
I tell myself I’m ready to get clean, I strip off out of my boxers and t-shirt and then hop inside the shower, I stand here under the warm water for a long time, definitely using more than my fair share.
Coming out of the bathroom I grab my toiletries case and only leave out the bare essentials that will back into my carryon bag. The aftershave boxes all find their way to the trash row in the hallway and I make sure that nothing here is forgotten and that tomorrow morning when I wake up, as sleepish and clumsy as I might dare to be, nothing here will be left behind because of all the careful packing and time taken now.
I power down the lights to the bedroom, it’s only 10:30pm and I know that I could have just as easily put on some clothes and meet up with Lively and Jeff for some last drinks, but I don’t.
Instead I close the blackout curtains and adjust my phone alarm to wake me at 5:30am and I call downstairs to set a wake up call.
The last thing I have left to do now is to sleep, I slide my legs into bed and I prop myself up on the extra pillows looking at the television, not really watching TV but more or less just staring through it, everything in my mind is on rewind, I’m revisiting, replaying the best bits of the week like the sporting highlights on the nightly news. I’m sad and joyful at the same time but still the smirk in the corner of my smile remains, it’s a warm good feeling that I have, knowing that everything is alright with me in the world, I don’t think about the past nor do I day dream thinking of the future, I’m right here, enjoying this perfect moment in time, and I try to hold onto that I as I roll over onto my side, thumbing off the bedside light, the room filled with the cathode glow of television and I sail away to slumber, to dream here, in this place for the last time, guided to dream by the angels of seven stars.
I power down the lights to the bedroom, it’s only 10:30pm and I know that I could have just as easily put on some clothes and meet up with Lively and Jeff for some last drinks, but I don’t.
Instead I close the blackout curtains and adjust my phone alarm to wake me at 5:30am and I call downstairs to set a wake up call.
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