A Big Adventure

Monday 9th February 2009, Malaysia

So our time on the mini tropical paradise island Pulau Pangkor comes to an end.An initial 5 days was finally extended to 11 days.

Up at the preposterously early time of 10:30am – My god all those years I got up at 6:00am and now I am struggling to make drag my self out of my pit at 10:30.

Part of the reason I am in no hurry is because parts of the day are going to annoy me. Since Sasha left to go with Gabbi to Thailand, we have inherited her largest luggage bag and all it’s contents and it is by far the heaviest of all our bags.

Sebastian’s bag has got a broken wheel and the handles on both Sofia’s bag and mine are on their last legs.

That’s the problem with Luggage, buy expensive and it will get lost or mistreated or buy cheap and it will get lost or fall apart.

Frankly I would love to spend stupid money on luggage, I must confess to a bit of a luggage fetish, I spend ages looking longingly at it, but when all is said and done I just never seem to be able to spend the kind of money they ask for.

I have seen one too many piece of luggage either falling off of the little train on the way to or from the plane, pieces of luggage just lying seemingly deserted on roads out to the runways, I have seen too many luggage handlers chucking the bags as if they were just bin bags full of rubbish. In a word I hate luggage handlers they don’t seem to have any pride in their work, rather they treat our luggage as if it is a piece of shit to be got rid off as quickly as possible. And of course the airlines themselves seem to feel the need to fulfill some kind of unspoken quota on how many bags they should lose.

Oh of course there are also the light fingered bastards – while going through Birmingham International Airport in the UK my bag was proudly bearing an attractive Las Vegas luggage label and also a Las Vegas Security Band, neither made it to the destination – bastards.

Opps  I seem to have gone off on a rant

So we knew that carting our luggage around was going to be a nightmare, particularly getting on and off the Ferry as these involve lots of steps and even at Pulau Pangkor Ferry port as somebody has felt a need to insert some metal poles in the ground at the beginning of the path which a bag wont quite fit through, so they have to be lifted over.

The taxi turned up and ten minutes later we were at the jetty, there was a ferry ready to go so we struggled aboard, the luggage section was full so we left the bags where ever we could and found seats.

At the other end I waited for everybody to disembark and finally we got the bags off and up the steps.

Upon leaving the Jetty our driver was already waiting for us, we were an hour early so this was a major plus.

We loaded up and sat back for a six our drive back to our over night stop at the Fenix Inn Malaka.

Upon arrival in Melaka we dragged the bags up to our room and we all went out to get some food, not so good.

We checked the cinema but there was nothing new on except for Benjamin Button and I did not fancy a further three hours sat on my fat ass today.

I split to go and get a massage feeling the need for what could be the last massage of the trip. There is a big difference between paying GB£10 for an hours and a half massage and GB£100 for one. Especially as the Malaysian massage is so gentle and relaxing, I don’t want to end up in some Aussie rub and tug merchants paying over the odds for something I can do for myself thanks!

Sofia and Basty went off shopping and stocked up on items for whilst we are on the Island.

Whilst packing (again) that night, Sofia decided to dump her small bag before the handle fell off completely and I told her I though the stuff would fit in my bag.

Sofia had a sort through and left more clothes behind along with my by now very ragged playing cards (from the MGM Grand Las Vegas) and some books that we had both finished.

Off course upon zipping up my bag the material split, not enough to lose stuff yet, but still a good six inches, so we really do need some new luggage and soon.

It’s great isn’t it, in the real world people are worried about weather, births, deaths and marriages and also whether they can afford the latest obscene utility bills and all I can moan about is my luggage, pathetic.

Tomorrow the van will pick us up at 10:00am for another five hour plus ride plus a further hour and a half ferry ride before landing on Pulau Tioman and then well actually even more bag dragging, apparently we have to walk to the resort which is some ten minutes from the jetty, all this with our dysfunctional luggage and too many bags for three people to carry.

Sofia will be left sitting on the side of the path in the heat of the day guarding what we cant carry, whilst Basty and I struggle with the rest through what I am informed is a dirt track and lots of steps oh yippee!

[mappress]