Sorry folks, I’ve been spending much of today working my way through all the pictures I’ve taken this week which means the long blog about my rail trips being delayed. I’ve still got a lot of picture captions to do as there’s not much point blogging about the trip if I can’t identify the locations of some of the pictures. I’ve decided to have another day working from home here at Bigland Towers KL branch in order to clear the decks of everything I need to do.
To be honest, it’s been lovely not to be under pressure. I was up at 06:00 and pottering around soon after as I had a load of washing to get sorted. Clothes don’t get particularly dirty here, but they sure get sweat-soaked, so a constant rotation of fresh clothes makes life much more pleasant – both for me and anyone in my vicinity! At least stuff dries very quickly in the 30 degree heat…
Having done my dhobi duties I went for an early morning wander around Chinatown which is very quiet that time of day as most businesses are still shut. The empty streets gave me time to explore and look up and around which is how I realised just how much damage Covid has done to the Malaysian economy. Several very large high-rise hotels are now derelict having never reopened after lockdown. Some of the smaller ones succumbed too, including a few backpacker hotels and the associated bars frequented by their customers – like the well known ‘reggae’ bar. My tour through the backstreets showed me gaps where little stalls have vanished too. There used to be an old Chinese street barber on Jalan Sultan. He had a mirror fixed to the side of a building and a barbers chair bolted to the pavement and little else other tan a tiny metal sheet roof to protect his mirror and clippers from the rain. In truth, he was a miserable old bugger, he had a big sign up saying ‘no photographs’ and he refused to cut foreigners hair, but he’d been here for donkey’s years. Now he, his mirror and his chair have vanished. But then so has much of the trade. Tourists are reappearing but the area’s so much quieter than it used to be. The Chinese are starting to return, but the Russians are otherwise occupied at the moment and even the numbers of backpackers (or more likely ‘flashpackers’ nowadays) and European tourists are well down.
None of that prevents me feeling happy to be back and relaxing into life here. I spent a lot of time here 10 years ago as I was trying to get a lens repaired – but all the spares came from Thailand which had been devastated by floods, so it took weeks, but then I was working for the International Railway Journal then so took time to organise an interview with the (then) President of Malaysian Railways and spent an interesting couple of days with himself, his Senior Managers and other KTMB staff. Happy days!
So I feel quite at home here and I’m looking forward to wrapping up the bits I need to do before spending some more time exploring. In the meantime, here’s a few pictures from today showing life in Chinatown.
This is where I eat. It’s a great Malaysian street food place on Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock, just around the corner from the famous Jalan Petaling. It’s run by a delightful Malaysian bunch like this woman who’re only too happy to talk you through what’s available. A massive mixed plate of rice, vegetables and a meat or fish dish will cost you around 7 ringgit 50, or £1.40! The food’s delicious. You’ll never go hungry here.The alleys off the side streets are some of my favorites as you never know what little businesses you’ll find tucked away in them. Here’s a traditional Chinese food stall getting ready for the day (and they work long days) with the chap on the red stool cracking on with the washing up from the night before.
A sight that’s become very common nowadays is pavement bric-a-brac stalls like this one as people sell stuff to help make ends meet. A shot from this evening’s perambulations. 10 years ago this street would have been chokka at this time of night…
If you’re interested in seeing older pictures from Kuala Lumpur that I have in my archives, click on this link. Don’t worry, they’re not all of railways – honest!
I’m going to call it a day at this point in order to get back to picture editing. Expect more stories from KL tomorrow.
I’ve a small favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
I’d fully intended to write a long blog about this fascinating trip but I’m currently holed up in my hotel in Kuala Lumpur after another busy day and I’ve realised I’m really not going to be able to do the trip justice is such a short time. I need a full morning to write about the trip, not just half an hour, so the trip report will come tomorrow.
After 6 days constantly on the move I’m having a day off tomorrow. I’m staying in a hotel with all the facilities I need like a desk, plenty of power sockets and wifi and if I get lonely there’s a big mirror over the desk so I can always talk to myself. I even have a TV with Netflix, so this is a cut above where I normally stay. I’s in the old Chinatown district where I’ve been staying for years – although it’s changed as Covid sounded the death-knell for many businesses. There’s a lot of vacant shops but life is slowly returning to the place. I’ll explore more tomorrow and explain as I’m having an admin and rest day, rather than gallivanting around the city’s public transport network. I’ve got plenty of time for that in the next few days. So, my apologies if you were expecting a magnum opus today. Still, here’s a couple of taster pictures for you.
My train heads North on the early part of the trip. As you can see, it’s not just a case of laying another track next to the old one. In many places there’s a completely new formation and all flat crossings have been replaced with overbridges. The lineside also has much improved drainage and many gradients have been flattened. An increasingly rare sight on Malaysian Railways, once there were a network of sleeper trains carrying you around the network. Now there’s just on on the ‘jungle’ line from Kuala Lipis. Here’s the Southbound working passing us at the huge new station and yards at Menkibol. The old Victorian colonial railway has well and truly vanished. A single track line with station that often just had a single platform and a loop or two have been swept away with four platform places like this which have level access to all areas.The old station at Gemas, the junction for the jungle railway with the new station in the background. This is currently the Southern limit of double tracking and electrification. The old stations’ been preserved but plans to turn it into a museum have fallen by the wayside. Even a few years ago it still maintained an excellent cafe/restaurant but this has fallen on hard times. Now it’s just teas, soft-drinks and boiled eggs. Still, it’s cool for cats (many occupy the station as someone feeds them). As for the rest of the place, Gemas isn’t exactly a thriving town, it’s not even one-horse…I made a friend…An all to common sight around KL’s Chinatown at the moment.
I’ve a small favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
I’m writing this from the comfort of my hotel room in Johor Baru, Malaysia where I’ve retreated to after crossing the border from Singapore earlier. I’m only staying here one night, it’s little more than a pitstop that allows me to catch the early morning train to Kuala Lumpur without any hassles.
Despite the fact I had a really god nights sleep last night my body clock is still all over the place. I was wide awake at 5am Singapore time so I cut my losses and spent a couple of hours picture editing, which means a fuller selection of shots are starting to appear on my Zenfolio website in this gallery. There’s plenty more to do. I’m hoping to get a few more done this evening as Johor isn’t exactly the most exciting place. As I still had several hours to kill as I was in no hurry to leave I went and had a coffe in a place in Little India and watched the world go by for an hour before showering and packing
Getting here was easy enough. I wasn’t bothered about faffing around with the KTMB shuttle train from Woodlands as I travelled the whole line to the former Singapore station many times in the past. Here’s how it used to look like when it was still the terminus. of the line all the way from Bangkok. The station’s been preserved and it’s being incorporated into one of the new metro route stations, so not all’s lost. Instead, I got the MRT from Rochor, on the downtown line which was around the corner from my hotel as far as Stevens, which is the interchange station on the new Thompson line that takes you to Woodlands, where buses run across the causeway to Johor Baru. The metro cost me a couple of dollars (less than £1.50) and the shuttle bus $1.90 (just over £1).
Woodlands itself is a fascinating place as it’s packed with food stalls with all manner of tasty treats. I treated myself to a takeaway of a mix of different noodles and breaded chicken for all of $2.60 (£1.63). Part of the the huge Woodlands bus station has been taken over to be used as a drop-in Covid vaccination centre, but it doesn’t affect the single-deck buses to Malaysia which run roughly every 10 minutes. You join a queue then get on the first one that turns up. They’re all pack of course. I was fascinated to see that the vast majority using them were young people/students, as you can see from this picture of the queue I was the head of. Talk about feeling like Grandad!
The bus takes you to the monolithic Woodlands checkpoint. It’s a modern building across multiple levels with an imposing tower which has a touch of 1984 about it. That said, once off the bus I breezed through the biometric passport check and was back on another packed bus within 10 minutes. Arriving in Johor Baru was much the same process, except no biometric checks. Instead I got my passport stamped than had to undergo baggage customs check from some very nice but impossibly young women customs officers.
And that was it. I’m now in Malaysia. I popped into the railway station to book an onward ticket from Gemas to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow, which was no problem. That cost me all of 32 ringgit (a few pence over £6 for a three hour journey). After that I wandered over to my hotel but the pleasent girls behind the counter (I’m starting to see a theme here) were adamant check-in wasn’t until 14:00. At least they agreed to look after my suitcase, so I went for a wander to try and rediscover places I remember from when I was last here in January 2017.
Sadly, the place hasn’t fared well. The town centre anyway. There’s vast amounts of Chinese money here that’s been invested in massive housing complexes, but the place has never really taken off as a destination. It’s tatty and dirty and the artisan coffee shops that were meant to be the brave new world are either struggling or closed.
Sandbrewed coffee? It’s a bit niche and this place faces onto a bypass along the Johor Straits, which is hardly scenic
One good thing about crossing the border is my smartphone’s restored to full functionality I’ve had this problem in Singapore in the past, they don’t seem to get on with O2 for whatever reason. I’d just got used to not having it although the lack of maps was sometimes interesting as I hadn’t any paper ones either so I was reliant on memory, which only caused one lengthy detour…
Whilst waiting for my room to be ready I discovered Jalan Meldrum and old guys like this. More of which later…
Beer, fags and the Malaysian version of the Racing Times, plus watching the gee gees live on smartphones…
Having relaxed for a little while, had a shower and composed this blog, I went out for a wander and headed over to the old Johor Baru station which nestles in the shadow of the modern station. The building’s still intact but it’s looking rough. There were plans to open it as a rail museum, and to that end a number of locomotives and other rolling stock were moved onto the site, but nothing ever happened and now they’re derelict and rusting away. The building seems to be used as a staff messroom at best, a car-park at worst. Such a shame.
Then again, the area around the station’s undergone huge changes as opposite there’s now a massive shopping mall that looks like so many of these beasts. Bizarrely, despite the huge sums spent on building the new, multi platform JB station, it’s criminally under-utilised. Apart from the Woodlands – JB shuttles, there’s just four trains a day in and out Northwards. Tomorrow, I’ll be on one of them, the 08:30 departure to Gemas (the junction for the ‘jungle railway’. I’ve fond memories of travelling between KL-Singapore on sleeper trains back in the 1990s. Now there’s nothing like that. Electrification should have spread South from Gemas in 2020, but there’s no sign of it yet. I’ll be interested to see hoe the line’s changed since my last trip in 2017.
As the weather was crap due to leaden skies and lousy light I gave up and came back to the room to resume blogging. I’ll nip out later when it’s dark and more photogenic as by that time I’ll be starving!
So, first impressions having crossed the border again? Obesity and smoking. Now, admittedly, Singapore has banned vaping so there’s more smokers because there’s no alternatives, but I was surprised to see a number of young Muslim women in JB smoking Admittedly, their religion doesn’t cut them much slack when it comes to vices and that one was never mentioned in the Koran, but even so…
Whilst JB will never be in the top 10 tourist hotspots it is an interesting place to people-watch as its a real collision of cultures, economies and social attitudes. I’ll write more about this later.
Happy consumerism! Inside the shopping centre across the road from the railway staion and entry port from Singapore. I’m assuming Malaysian prices are meant to attract Singaporean day-trippers.
It’s half past 8 Malaysian time and I’m putting my feet up back at the hotel as the weather’s been very wet these past few hours, which has put a damper on much of the evening. I’d intended to nip out, get something to eat, then have a mooch around and get some pictures, but unless pics of empty streets are your bag…
Anyways, here’s a few from this afternoon/evening – and this morning in Singapore..
Several buildings where I was staying had these classic old spiral staircases at the rear, but the shapes and colours of this one really stood outLittle India’s normally deathly at 10:00, but this one entrepreneurial shopkeeper was ahead of the crowd. The former clocktower and centre-piece of the former Johor Baru station,Thanks to the weather it was a quiet night for the food hawkers in the alley behind my hotel. Here’s where I ate, stuffing myself with curried fish and rice.
I’m literally going to call it a day now. Tomorrow’s another day and no doubt I’ll be awake early…
I’ve a small favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Welcome to my first (but very definitely not the last) blog of 2023. New Years day was a quiet one here at Bigland Towers, although we popped out for drinks with friends ‘early doors’ on New Years eve we were back at home well before the year rolled on and had a quiet night counting down to midnight. Just the two of us, plus ‘Bernie’, a miniature cockapoo dog that we’re looking after for friends whilst they’re away on holiday.
New year’s day was in very much the same vein although Dawn couldn’t keep herself out of the kitchen despite having spent much of Christmas down in Surrey cooking for her family. I can’t complain as Dee prepared a fantastic Flemish beef stew and roast vegetables which made a fantastically tasty start to the year. In the meantime, I’ve begun to plan my Far-Eastern adventure in earnest which has involved a lot of research into seeing what’s changed since I was last out there in 2017. Well, Covid’s had a huge impact obviously and some places still have restrictions that we (perhaps foolishly) gave up on in 2021, but it’s the logistics of travel that have changed too as (for example) Malaysia’s redeveloped a lot of its rail network and Thailand is following suit. A few days before I arrive in Bangkok their massive new multi-level station at Bang Sue (now renamed Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Terminal) will start receiving long-distance rail services instead of the old Hualamphong station. The full changeover isn’t expected to happen for several years but first services will run on the 19th February after a delay of several years.
Researching the changes meant I spent a lot of time digging through archive photos on my Zenfolio website only to realise that some pictures are missing. This is due to the fact I’d originally used the free hosting site ‘Photopic’. Sadly, the people who bought photopic off its creator were financial and business incompetents who pulled the plug on it in 2010. These idiots had no idea what a rich historical resource that contained millions of pictures from 10s of 1000s of worldwide contributors they were trashing. Many people lost entire collections. I didn’t as I only used it as a shop window. I’d kept the originals on hard-drives, but it took me several years to migrate my old pictures to my new Zenfolio website. Unfortunately, when I first went digital in 2004 I made a cardinal error. Rather than keeping one archive I divided it up into different folders (railways, travel etc.) which made it much harder to keep track of individual pictures. Some folders got filed away and never saw the light of day for years. In 2010 I learned from my mistake and kept a yearly folder containing everything I’d taken that year – no matter what the subject.
I found one ‘lost’ folder today which contains some of those missing pictures. They’re from Malaysia in 2009 and one of them is today’s picture as it reflects the changes I’ll be seeing in that country’s rail transport. The only thing in this picture that I believe still exists today are the two coaches.
Here’s the ‘international train’ that ran between Butterworth in Malaysia and Bangkok in Thailand. This view was taken at Butterworth (the station for Penang Island) on the 9th February 2009. The two sleeper coaches belong to the State Railways of Thailand whilst the engine is Malaysian. Well – sort of! It was one of 39 ex-Indian Railways Class YDM4s that were leased to KTMB for many years to cover a motive power shortage. Surplus to requirements in their home country due to the conversion of the meter-gauge network to broad gauge some pitched up here.
The coaches would be hauled by the KTMB loco from Butterworth to the border station of Padang Besar where there would be a customs check)and a loco change. An SRT loco would then take the coaches and passengers forward to Hat Yai where they’d be attached to the rear of an overnight sleeper train to Bangkok which would arrive in the Thai Capital the next morning. It was a fantastic (and cheap) way to travel between the two countries as well as a superb way to enjoy the scenery.
Nowadays you get an electric train from Butterworth to Padange Besar. After a wait you catch an SRT day train to Hat Yai where you join a sleeper service to the capital. I’ll be doing this trip in February so I’ll key you know what it’s like now.
If you want to see more of my old pictures of Malaysian railways check out these galleries.
One thing I’ve promised myself is that whilst I’m away these next few months I’ll rationalise these galleries by country and separate out the railways, travel and other transport images. It’s one of those classic ‘when I get around to it’ jobs that never seem to happen! In the meantime, expect a lot of new pictures and blogs from that neck of the woods over the next couple of months – starting very soon…
I’ve a small favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
A short blog from me today, mainly because I’ve not been up to anything existing and I can’t be bothered trying to dress up the mundane with wordplay!
The weather’s been as gloomy as a post-brexit economic forecast – but I won’t go there tonight, honest! I’ve not been able to see the valley tops all day and tonight the weather’s closed in even more. I went out to do some shopping in the late afternoon and by the time I climbed up the valley side from Sowerby Bridge I was in the cloud line where the visibility would have been akin to one of the old London ‘pea-souper’ fogs. I half expected to see ‘Dixon of Dock Green’ come strolling towards me out of the murk to recite his iconic “Evening all”.
With the weather as it is I suffered a severe disinclination to venture anywhere else and enjoyed the rest of the evening at home on cooking duty, rustling up a new batch of Thai Green curry for tonight’s meal (and the freezer) whilst Dawn’s out making the final preparations for heading South for Christmas, taking her folks (and a friends dog) to Surrey for the annual family bash. This year I’m staying behind as I’ve work I want to do to the cottage before I fly out to Asia for a few months in the New Year.
Tempting as it was to post another food picture, I’ve decided you can have too much of a good thing. Instead, here’s a picture from the Hindi festival of Thaipusam. I *should* be back in Malaysia for this as this year it’s on February 5th. I last experienced it in 2009. It’s been banned in India due to the nature of sacrifice/penance people put themselves through, but it’s still a big event elsewhere. If you’re of a squeamish nature – look away now…
Four hours after leaving the temple in Little India, this pilgrim (who has pulled a chariot attached to his body by hooks) arrives at the The Nattukkottai Chettiar Temple. And yes, that ARE a real metal rods all the way through his cheeks and his tongue. (you should have seen the hooks in his back, but that’s another picture)..
If you want to see more pictures from Thaipusam, just follow this link.
I’ve a small favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
The first week of August is already over? Really? I know it’s said that time seems to pass more quickly as you get older but it feels like someone is seriously taking the pee here! I’ve so many things to plan or fit in my diary or on the calendar but some bugger keeps nicking the days!
The consequence of this time foreshortening (and other things) has meant that this Sunday’s been anything other than a day of rest – despite my best hopes and aspirations. I wouldn’t mind, but next week is going to be jam-packed with events and suchlike. It’ll provide me with material for several blogs – if I can find the time. Oh, and then there’s sorting out dates and planning for my bi-annual round the UK trip for RAIL magazine, which I really need to get on top of – especially with the next round of rail strikes in the pipeline which could really put the mockers on things. I suspect my Monday is going to be spent poring over timetables and calendars whilst I map out the rest of my year. Especially as I’m determined to get back to Asia in December-January. Whilst I’ve got some great holidays planned with Dawn and family, I miss flying solo and really travelling. I’m hoping the things I can put in place over the next week will fix that.
But, right now it’s time to relax and leave you with the picture of the day which is another one from a previous life where travel was so much part and parcel of my everyday life – even more so than now. Many of us have a ‘happy place’ and for a whole host of reasons Georgetown on Penang Island, Malaysia is one of mine. I first discovered the place on my solo travels in 1991-92 and I’ve been drawn back on a regular basis ever since. After a long journey overland there’s something about getting on the ferry across from the mainland, seeing Georgetown hove into sight and thinking ‘I can relax now’. Here’s one of the reasons I love it so much. Streetlife -and streetfood.
Hawkers stalls take over Lebuh Chulia in Georgetown of an evening, serving a fantastic variety of Asian foods. They’re a great place for tasty cheap eats and chance to watch the world go by…
If you want to see more of my pictures of Georgetown taken over the years, click on this link.
I’ve a small favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Well, that’s it – We’re now both now ‘double-dosed’ – having received the second of my Covid jabs yesterday and Dawn today. Compared to the first dose this one hasn’t been too bad. I don’t feel any major side effects – apart from the fact my 5G reception’s amazing and I’ve developed a curious interest in ‘news’ programmes on Russia Today!
The same as last time I received my jab at Boots the chemist in Huddersfield, where part of the 1st floor’s been converted for the purpose. It was a slick operation but not as quick as last time because they had more people wanting the jab, which can only be a good thing. That said, most of the folks I overheard talking were like me and in for their second dose. I can only hope that the succesful rollout of the inoculation programme will allow us to return to normal, even if normal won’t be what it was. The big question now is how the rest of the world fares as I suspect it won’t be until next year that we’re finally out of the woods.
Dawn’s reaction to her second jab seems much like mine – feeling ‘Meh’, and with a few neck cramps, but that’s it. Infinately preferable to the alternative anyways! Neither of us had anything planned for today as we didn’t know how we’d react so we’ve had a quiet (if productive) day. Whilst I’ve spent the day scanning the last slides from my 1991-92 world trip Dawn’s been busy baking. The smells drifting up from the kitchen as a Victoria sponge cake’s cooking have been wonderful!
The pair of us are having a quiet night in so all that remains is for me to choose the picture of the day. I’ve a large backlog of slides scanned that need editing, so I thought I’d use the very last one I have from my trip before I flew back from Kuala Lumpur to London with Aeroflot. Reading through my old diaries there’s sooo many stories that I could relate – but they’ll be saved for when I have more time to spend writing.
My last day was ‘interesting’ as I only had 6 Malaysian Ringgitt left. I’d maxxed out my credit card on buying my flight back to the UK and that was the only cash I had left. I had enough to buy a bunch of Rambutans (a fruit similar to a Lychee) and the fare for the bus to the airport. Oh, and my camera was playing up too. The mirror kept locking up so I never knew if it would work or not. But, I managed to get this final shot on the 8th October 1992. I was people watching outside the Central market and spotted this blind musician busking along with his daughter/grand-daughter. I may have been on my uppers but nothing like this. Never forget, there’s always someone worse off than you…
Having spent the past few months looking back 30 years I’ve often wondered what happened to the people in my pictures? From the other travellers I met and spent time with to random street scenes like this. This young girl would probably be a middle-gaed mother by now, probably with Grandchildren of her own. I wonder what the stories of their lives were after I froze them as moments in time three decades ago? They’ll live forever like this in pictures, but what happened afterwards?
Hopefully I’ll have the rest of the old scans edied and added to this gallery in the next week or so. After that I move on to albums from the next phase of my life. Having returned from travelling in 1992 my life took a very different turn – and travelling became an even bigger part of it…
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/Thank you!
Wait? What? It’s the end of April already – where’s the year gone whilst we’ve all been sat on our backsides at home? I thought time was meant to drag during lockdown but the opposite seems to be the case. Either that or someone’s been sneakily stealing days off my calendar whilst I’ve not been looking. As we’re now allowed out will someone please give me some of those days back so that I can savour them in the style in which they should be enjoyed? Joking apart, the year does seem to be flying by but for the life of me I can’t work out why unless it’s the ‘Groundhog Day’ effect. I wouldn’t mind but I’ve got so much that I want to do this year I really don’t want to run out of time.
Today’s been a good day – apart from the weather which has been cold with momentary flurries of rain and hail. Mind you according to Facebook’s memory prompt a few years ago we were covered in snow at this time – so I shouldn’t really complain. I certainly had a valid excuse to hole up at home ‘type-swiping’ to get an article written and a few more archive pictures added to my Zenfolio website which makes it rather a productive day.
Those old slides supply me with the picture for today. My 1991-92 solo odyssey has moved on from Thailand (yesterdays picture) to Malaysia where I discovered what – 30 years later – is still what I regards as a ‘happy place’. I’m sure many of us have them. They’re somewhere you’ve discovered where you feel perfectly at ease and at home for a whole host of reasons. Georgetown in Penang island, Malaysia is one of mine. I’ve been going back there every few years ever since. The first time I arrived I fell in love with it and that feeling remains despite the fact it’s changed a lot since those early days. What hasn’t changed is the mix of cultures (Malay, Chinese and Indian) the fantastic food, the fascinating architecture or the laid back atmosphere. Like many backpackers I ended up staying on Lebuh Chulia. In may case it was at an old Chinese hotel called the Eng Aun. It’s still there today but it’s gone much more upmarket from when I took this picture on the 1st May 1992.
Hotels like this had a central hall with reception on the ground floor behind which was a central staircase to the first floor. Each floor had rooms off to each side. The thing I remember about the Aun was the smell. It had a really weird one and I never worked out what it was. It wasn’t Durian (the stinky SE Asian fruit banned from most public transport) but it did smell like something had died beneath the floorboards! After a couple of days you got used to it, but I’ll never forget it! I passed through a couple of times on that trip and met some great people staying there. Nowadays I stay just around the corner in a place I first discovered in 1997, but I’ll never forget this place as my first introduction to Malaysia after a long trip overland from Thailand.
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In an effort to be positive, optimistic and get loads of stuff done I was up and scanning old pictures at 06:30 this morning but by day’s end I find myself in pensive mode for a whole range of reasons. Maybe I’m just feeling the weight of history on my shoulders when I look back at pictures I’ve not paid attention to for nearly 30 years and I realise just how much the world’s changed in that time – as have I.
It’s not that a lot of the day’s been a bad one as I’ve achieved quite a bit, but there’s still a niggling feeling that no matter how hard I run, time’s catching up with me…
The day dawned bright (if not particularly warm) here in West Yorkshire. It’s almost like the weather Gods are teasing us. They dangle Spring in our faces then slap us with frosts and freezing temperatures just to remind us how capricious and powerful they are! Despite the weather, Bluebells are beginning to stick their heads up in the local woods – the brave souls. Back at home the central heating’s still earning its keep especially early morning, although we’re hoping that can’t be for much longer. I’ve noticed the temperature more as I had a crap week on the exercise front compared to the previous so I’d been stuck more indoors but I’m determined to up the ante this one – so far with success, but the long round-trip walk through the woods can still be rather chilly although its wonderful to hear the bird chorus now it’s Spring. You certainly don’t feel alone when you’re walking as you’re followed by the sounds of all manner of feathered creatures – even if you can’t always see the buggers!
Back at home I managed to make a sizeable dent in my email inbox by wading through a four-figure sum of the traffic contained therein. Remember the old days when it was exciting to receive an email? I do – but a bit like my youth – those days are long gone!
I mention stuff like email because of the picture of the day which is from my 1991/92 travels when such things never even existed. Then ‘you got mail’ was a physical letter sent to a ‘poste restante’ address which was normally the main Post Office in a city on your route. It was all a bit hit and miss as many post offices would only hold mail for 30 days before returning to sender (and I lost a few that way) so you had to have a pretty good idea of where you’d be and when.
‘When’ or rather maybe ‘where’ is a question I’ve been asking myself about the location of today’s picture. I’ve loads more new scans to choose from but I’ve been trying to keep the trip linear, so today’s shot comes from the country I moved onto from the last pic in Thailand. I took this in Georgetown on Penang Island Malaysia on the 3rd May 1992. This was my first visit to Georgetown and I fell in love with it immediately. It’s one of my ‘happy places’ and I keep returning to it as a consequence. I really feel at home here. It’s laid-back, cosmopolitan, colourful and with a fascinating history. Oh, and the food is divine because of that melange of cultures.
Of course it was rather different 30 years ago as it was a lot more run-down, but maybe that’s one of the reasons I fell in love with it. It had the air of a place time had rather passed by – as this shot shows. I had to chuckle when (as an English speaker) I saw the name of the coffin shop…
Nowadays many of these of Chinese shop-houses have been converted into fancy homes or boutique hotels or eateries. It’s a double-edged sword. On one hand old businesses like this are forced out because of prices and the area becomes more gentrified and loses some of its history. But, on the other, it means more are restored to their former glory. My concern is that it could mean the place becomes another Singapore where the buildings are saved but the character of the place is lost.
You’ll be able to find more of my pictures from Malaysia in this gallery very soon…
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
I’ve always said that Extinction Rebellion and HS2Rebellion are anything but real environmentalists. Both organisations have jumped on the ‘green’ bandwagon to further a wider (anti-capitalist) agenda and nothing more – hence some of their mad tactics that do nothing to promote tackling climate change. Exactly the opposite in fact. One only has to look at the way XR have frequently disrupted public transport in the UK, even going as far as disrupting electric public transport by gluing themselves to trains on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) or standing on the roofs of Underground trains!
HS2Rebellion are doing the same with High-Speed 2, opposing a green railway that is the only way we’ll have the rail capacity to get modal shift from road air to rail to cut our biggest source of Co2 emissions (transport) and meet our international obligations to tackle Climate Change.
Today, HS2Rebellion let the cat out of the bag by showing they either don’t understand the issues – or just don’t care. Their target was the news that Malaysia has cancelled the proposed High-Speed rail project between Kuala-Lumpur and Singapore and they used this (superficial) report on the BBC from a freelance journo based in Singapore. In the report it mentions that there are 30,000 local flights between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur per annum – as well as a 24 hour bus service. Here’s what XRebellion have to say on their Facebook page.
Yet again we have supposed ‘environmentalists’ playing along to the right-wing libertarian narrative about costs. This is bizarre. After all, aren’t they the ones who’re always telling us that there is no ‘Planet B’ and that the environment is priceless? Not if you’re intending to build High-Speed rail it seems (roads? No problem – carry on!).
What is it that these ‘environmentalists’ are deliberately ignoring? Simple, just how much carbon those different modes of transport generate. Take a look at this and compare domestic flights, buses and high-speed rail (mentioned as ‘Eurostar’ on this chart).
Here you have the blatant hypocrisy of XR and HS2Rebeliion exposed in black and white in one simple chart.
Over in the UK there’s a similar picture. The biggest market for domestic aviation is between Scotland and London’s airports. HS2 (like HS1 before it with flights to Brussels and Paris) will make severe inroads into that market by speeding up Anglo-Scottish services, as Chris Ogilvie often points out.
I have to declare an interest here. I know Malaysia (and Singapore) well. I’ve been travelling there since 1992 and maintain a keen interest in the areas political, economic and transport issues. In the past, I interviewed the then head of Malaysian Railways for the International Railway Journal and I maintain contacts inside both countries, which is why I know the BBC story isn’t the full story by any means. Even so, for ‘environmentalists’ to gloat over the failure to building a carbon-neutral alternative to 30,000 horribly polluting domestic flights a year (never mind all those 24 hour, 5 hour coach trips) is mad – but then, these people aren’t real environmentalists. What’s depressing is the number of genuine ‘green’ groups and people who’ve been taken in by them. We’ve now gone from saving the planet by any means to saving the planet – just as long as the price is right! This is why I’ve long maintained that the the UKs ‘green’ movement (or what passes for it) simply isn’t fit for purpose as they’ve become just another limb of the libertarian right. You have to ask, how (and why) did ‘greens’ suddenly start celebrating the failure of plans for high-speed rail networks whenever and wherever in the world they happen, and how on Earth can they still call themselves greens?
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Paul Bigland 