"When English author Somerset Maugham spun his tales about the fascinating and little-known Southeast Asian colony of Malaya, he invoked an era of tropical opulence, married to the intrigue and drama of hidebound British civil servants and expatriate planters living in paradise."
One of the photos below is of the Royal Club in Ipoh, a large town in central Malaysia, and it was evocative, poignant and a bit weird to be in a place which Somerset Maugham visited and to imagine him and other expatriates sitting under the shade of the trees watching pink faced English men in 'whites' calling out " oh jolly well done old boy"
http://www.gotaiping.com/
Having stayed in the most boring hostel of my travels in Ipoh I am now in Taiping helping a young and inspiring couple to hopefully realise their dream of setting up a sustainable development project.
26th April ... Another volunteer and myself have gone to Langkawi Island for r&r!
April 30th ... have decided to move on to the next project on pangkor island. The "youthful enthusiasm" consisted of too much 'dreaming' and not enough 'planning' and 'doing' with the consequence that in the three weeks I was there only two days were actually spent 'doing' what had originally inspired me to apply as a volunteer. However in spite of everything I managed to make a bench saw which utilises their circular saw and lay a concrete pad for the first building. I still think that eventually they will succeed in creating something resembling their dream once they get past the first faltering steps.
The hosts of the pangkor island project are in Australia until May 11th visiting friends and family which coincidentally happens to be 4 miles from where I was in November / December 2014 visiting my sister Trish. So for the next few days I have a 3 bed house to myself in Lumut with the use of a 125 cc moped. This morning I decided to try out the motorbike and go shopping at a supermarket about 4 miles away. It was an extremely exhilarating and extremely frightening experience in equal measure due to my lack of recent inexperience on motorbikes and the lack of adherence to even basic laws of the road by the majority of other road users but after having got lost and literally going round in circles for an hour or so I eventually found my way 'home'.
An interesting acquaintance
Fascinating roots
Wonderful colours
My dream home!
L-R Clarissa Yoong Melissa Mo
What a lucky man I am!
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Local restaurant
'Howzat!'
Proposed kitchen
Taiping Museum
Dark clouds ahead!
Aloe Vera
Hard graft
Langkawi Island
A new friend!
W/away project on Pangkor Island
Turtle sanctuary
