We had a 4 hour bus ride ahead of us, from Cameron Highlands to Kuala Lumpur, it costed us 35 ringit each. After arriving in KL, we found our guesthouse. We booked this in advance long time ago, cause we wanted to make sure that we had a place to stay during the Formula 1. We didn't know if the city would be packed or not. Fortunately it wasn't as packed as assummed. We were curious to see what we got for our money at the guesthouse, so we checked a few other places out around in Chinatown, and compared to those places, we were pretty lucky with our room and the price.
We had an extra ticket for the Grand Prix, and in the last minute Erik got his race partner Carsten convinced to come and watch it with us. It was a very spontanious trip. You gotta love car racing to travel that far for only 3 nights!!! We were very happy about his arrival though, so unexpected and that's probably what made it so cool and exciting. Erik had someone to be a nerd with now, and I could have a break.
Erik went to the airport to pick him up, and they were both in such a good mood when they got into the guesthouse, already with beers in their hands. We went out to see the KL tower, that raises 421meter over the city, we got up to the highest platform at 335m. Wauw what an amazing view. Petronas towers were small from this height. Erik and specially Carsten were in party mood, so they went for some drinks at night. I had a painfull headache, and I think that fitted the guys perfect, cause then they had some alone time without me asking stupid questions about the race.
Erik woke me up in the middle of the night when they got back, he looked dazed and had his soaked wet t-shirt in his hand. He had tried to clean the blood of it, after some Indians had tackled first him and then Carsten, on their way home. They hit Erik in the face so he fell down and hurt his chin, he got up again and got all the small guys out of the way, but still theres was one big guy, crazy like he was on all of the worlds worst drugs, so he continued fighting Carsten, so he got hit aswell, shortly after, some bartenders had run out on the street to help, and that made the Indians run away. A bad ending of a good night out for the guys,
eventhough none of them got bad hurt.
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| Chinatown |
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| KL Tower |
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| Petronas towers |
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| Nerd 1 & 2 |
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| Petronas towers, from street level |
Friday 28th March
When we finally arrived at the caves we only had 50 min there, before Erik and Carsten arranged to meet up and take a taxi to Sepang. Apparently there had been a little misunderstanding about the meeting time, so Carsten never showed up, and he didn't have our Malay number, and we didn't have any money left on our phone, so it was impossible to get in contact with each other.
We saw one of the caves quickly and then we realized that we should probably head back to the guesthouse and hopefully we would find Carsten there. But then it would be too late to go to Sepang, It turned out that Carsten had waited at the caves, but at the wrong time, an hour before planned, so this was basically a day where we used a lot of time on nothing. The caves wasn't worth the effort, and the guys didn't watch the training. Just wanted to delete this day/afternoon! Carsten was still knackered when we met him back "home", and we were all keen for a nap and some resting.
At night we met up with Tom & V and had a fabulous dinner at Nando's (an english food chain, that serves spicy chicken). I can't remeber when we last ate so much food. They didn't sell any alcohol there, but they were kind to let us go buy some at a nearby store, and bring it to the restaurant. Went for beer towers in Chinatown afterwards, and enjoyed overselves.
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| Batu caves |
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| She should wish for a bra |
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| By mistake we entered this train, and after 40 min with women looking at us, we realized that Erik wasn't allowed in there! |
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| So here are the rules in the "normal" train. |
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| Cheers |
We enjoyed the 32 degrees, walking around the main entrance area with cold beers in our hands, so nice to be in the racing environment again! As the day passed by, we got to see some Asian cup racers and Porsche 911’s, when the 3rd free practice session was about to start Lisbeth turned up, she had been taking the bus together with V and Tom, who also had tickets for the race. Sadly we couldn’t talk with them, because they were in another section of the track, and all sections were closed by big fences… Very sad, also for the whole racing experience, on similar racetracks in Europe, you can walk all around the track, without feeling like being in the zoo!
After the last practice session Carsten challenged us to a gocart race, so off we went for the gocart track, before the F1 qualification was up later in the afternoon. We only just managed to find the gocart track, when the asian weather showed us it’s bad site, almost from a clear blue sky a torrential rainstorm came over us, luckily Carsten was quick enough to rip his money back, out of the hands on the helpless man at the gocart counter, for with this amount of water we wouldn’t be able to enjoy gocart racing.
We walked back to the track, and of course we’re so use to these kinds of weather changes after more than 6 mounts in Southeast Asia, so we already brought the necessary equipment, like raincoats and unfortunately a almost useless umbrella (or maybe Carsten broke it?). The qualification session was delayed about an hour or so, because of the heavy amount of water – we just used the time putting up the giant Danish flag that Carsten brought along, and drinking danish beers (Carlsberg, which was the only beers sold at the track, and for the heavy price of 30 RM each!) The qualifying went okay, seen with Danish sunglasses on, but could have been better as well – 8th starting position on the grid for the race, for Kevin Magnussen. This evening was a quiet one, we had a late dinner at McD. when we got bact to KL around 9.30 pm, and then all of us went straight to bed.
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| Happy happy |
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| Memory wall for the victim on MH 370 |
Sunday 30th March
We had brought a lot of earplugs, that my mom’s husband Jan brought us when they visited us in Thailand, (we asked for a couple of pairs, but got a bag with maybe 100-150 pairs). I got the idea that Lisbeth should try to sell them at the track, the sale went much better and quicker than we would have thought, we ended up selling every single pair within 18 minutes, providing us around 130 RM. WELL DONE!!! So naturally we celebrated that with a beer, and then it was race time… It wasn’t the best F1 race I’ve seen, but just being there with Carsten and Lisbeth made the weekend perfect anyway. After the race there was a big afterparty with Calvin Harris as the big name of the concert – this was also included in our tickets, so we went there to have some more beers and listen to some European music, before Carsten was off to the nearby airport. But we were in for a big disappointment. The party was alcohol free.. Say what.. Yeah alcohol free – so we went back to the track right away, here it was still possible to buy beers. We had a couple of beers there while taking care of the world history. Carsten left around 9pm and we went back to KL with the bus, had dinner again at McD. And then off to bed. Finish with the unhealthy life for now.
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| One more thing to write on my CV |
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| It couldn't be big enough for the guys |
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| The track |
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| Best travel buddies |
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| Enjoying danish beers |
F1 Malaysia Video
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| A hard day at work for most Asians |
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| Just a reminder on the ladies bathroom of how you should NOT be peeing. |
Tuesday 1st April
Payed the hotel bill and left to Melaka, first with train and then with an one hour delayed bus. 2 hours to Melaka and 22 RM less in our wallet. Melaka made a really good first impression with it's small streets, colourful buildings and a river running through the town with cafe's on both sides.
At the bridge crossing into the town, from the busstop, we met a guy that offered us at room at Raymonds guesthouse, which was central located, and only 40 RM for a night was a fair price for us. We went out to see the dutch square and the marine museum. Most of the afternoon we spend in a mall, looking for prober shoes to Erik. He needed some for the mountain that we're gonna climb on Borneo (he have only had flip flops and his Fivefingers since he lost one of his running shoes on a motorbike trip in Laos back in late november last year). I was pretty lazy when we got in and had a rest, while Erik went for a jog.
We knew that Tom & Verity were in this town aswell today, so we enjoyed the last night with them, and then our ways split, they were heading south and we were going to Borneo. It ended out in almost two weeks exploring and travelling together with them. It's been great fun, thanks to Tom for his crazy humor about Mr. Bean bear, Slovenia, the German shepard bagpack, the raindeer-goat-dog etc. And thanks to V for putting up with him, and being such a nice person.
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| Trying to sell a suitcase that Carsten left behind. It took a few hours and we earned 50RM. That CV is gonna get good! |
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| Malay laksa |
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| Melaka's chinatown |
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| Fantastic colourful little town |
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| Marine Museum |
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| Some of all the romantic tricycles in Melaka |
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| Beer christmas tree |
Wednesday 2nd April
I went jogging in the morning and then we left Melaka, going back to Kuala Lumpur, where Erik had a surprise for me. Today was our 4 years anniversary day, so I was hoping for a decent place to stay and some luxury. We took the train to Putra station in KL and at this time I was getting really excited for my surprise, and at the same time I promised myself not to expect to much, for the fact that I then could get disappointed was a reality.
Erik didn't seem too sure of where we were going, but I think he was playing a trick on me. I followed him and we didn't speak much on the way there, but at some point Erik walked into a very nice looking 5 star hotel. It was even better than I had hoped for, it had a swimmingpool and gym on 11th floor with view over KL and the Petronas Towers. The room we got was huge, clean and comfortable. Definitely not the quality we're use to, so we were enjoying every second of our luxury day. Oh how I love surprises, and Erik is sure good at arranging them.
We ate some delicious Indian food on a restaurant on the street nearby, and had a wonderful night. Putting up with each others weirdness and stupidity for 4 years needed some celebration.
Thursday 3rd April
Took advantage over the gym in the morning. Then we had the biggest and best breakfast ever, the buffet was enormous, and had both western and asian dishes. Ate till we started feeling sick, and to get the full value of the hotel we didn't check out before a minute to 12.
It was very easy to get use to the air-con cooled hotel and the feeling of a civilized world, and we didn't feel like going back to the smoking hot weather outside again.... Well back on the streets it didn't take more than a few minutes before our clothes was sticky and sweaty, so here we was again. We left towards the airport and had a flight to Borneo in the afternoon with Malaysia Airlines... With fingers crossed that we wouldn't get lost somewhere in the big ocean, we entered the flight and luckily we got safely to Kota Kinabalu on Borneo. And actually Malaysian Airlines is a really nice company to travel with, meals and free drinks on all flights more than an hour long, and all flights include 20 kg. of luggage aswell, so in most cases (if you have luggage to check in) this company is cheaper and MUCH better to travel with, compared to the, in most cases, terrible AirAsia!!!
Erik didn't seem too sure of where we were going, but I think he was playing a trick on me. I followed him and we didn't speak much on the way there, but at some point Erik walked into a very nice looking 5 star hotel. It was even better than I had hoped for, it had a swimmingpool and gym on 11th floor with view over KL and the Petronas Towers. The room we got was huge, clean and comfortable. Definitely not the quality we're use to, so we were enjoying every second of our luxury day. Oh how I love surprises, and Erik is sure good at arranging them.
We ate some delicious Indian food on a restaurant on the street nearby, and had a wonderful night. Putting up with each others weirdness and stupidity for 4 years needed some celebration.
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| Our 5 star room |
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| The excellent view over Kuala Lumpur |
It was very easy to get use to the air-con cooled hotel and the feeling of a civilized world, and we didn't feel like going back to the smoking hot weather outside again.... Well back on the streets it didn't take more than a few minutes before our clothes was sticky and sweaty, so here we was again. We left towards the airport and had a flight to Borneo in the afternoon with Malaysia Airlines... With fingers crossed that we wouldn't get lost somewhere in the big ocean, we entered the flight and luckily we got safely to Kota Kinabalu on Borneo. And actually Malaysian Airlines is a really nice company to travel with, meals and free drinks on all flights more than an hour long, and all flights include 20 kg. of luggage aswell, so in most cases (if you have luggage to check in) this company is cheaper and MUCH better to travel with, compared to the, in most cases, terrible AirAsia!!!
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| Another terrific view from several km height |
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