Trip Report VI

Salamat pagi setiap orang. (Malaysian)
Sawat-dii thuk khon khrap. (Thai)
Salam alekum. (Arabic)
Dag. (Dutch)
Bonjour et salut tout le monde. (guess)
1) Introduction.
2) Addenda to previous trip reports.
3) Suman's duck feed joke.
4) A vision of drunken Irishmen
5) Shopping for electronic devices.
6) Getting to Sukit's Church.
7) The gospel-my world view.
8) What I want to do with my life.
9) Sunday afternoon until the plane fight.
10) Dubai.
11) Cairo airport.
12) Getting to the Youth Hostel.
13) The Youth Hostel & the hotel.
14) It's all too much.
15) Things weren't what they seemed.
16) Thinking negatively.
17) Thinking positively.
19) Addenda for Trip Report V 6) Rama's death.

1.1) In my previous trip report I included a section 6) that was information about the events surrounding Rama's death. Apart from sending it out to all the people I normally send my trip reports to, I sent it to all my relatives as well as other friends who knew Rama. Anyway, as some of the extra people I sent that report to may be interested in receiving the ongoing reports, and as in 2 cases I heard people wanted to receive the report through mum and not directly from the people concerned (& in 1 case they had emailed me but I didn't see it), I'm emailing the trip reports to everyone I emailed the last report to plus some other friends. So if you're getting these trip reports and you don't want to, please let me know.

1.2) This meant I sent the last report to over 50 people, which is Hotmail's limit 'to prevent spamming' (it's a good idea but Hotmail receives more spam than all the other email addresses I've ever had put together, and it doesn't stop people using Hotmail to send it out, either), so I emailed the report in 2 goes, the 2nd of which was only to 2 people neither of whom knew Rama, so I didn't include that section and changed the introduction. So, Dazza & Mark, you know what these references to something you didn't get are about now.

2.1) On the trip to Ayutthaya, 5 were German, one was Slovenian & spoke German, 2 were from I don't know where & spoke I don't know what, 2 were from Japan, 1 was from York UK and then there was me. So although the man from York wasn't a particularly talkative type, we talked a lot.

2.2) Most evenings before going to bed in Bangkok I sat in the outdoor lounge at the Youth Hostel and we tried to see who could come up with the worst jokes. I remembered jokes from when I was 5 plus some old baby & dingo jokes (so now you know the level of humour). Here's one Suman told me:

3) A duck walks into a hardware store and asks for some duck feed. The owner says, "No, we don't have any duck feed, this is a hardware store and we don't carry duck feed." The duck leaves, but turns up a week later asking for duck feed again. The owner repeats that they don't carry duck feed. A week later the duck turns up and asks for duck feed again. This time the owner tells him to leave and not to come back. A week goes by and sure enough, the duck walks back in and asks for duck feed again. The owner says, "Right, the next time you come in here asking for duck feed I'm going to nail your feet to the floor." A week later the duck turns up again. This time it says, "Got any nails." "No, were all out I'm afraid." "Got any duck feed?"

4) Three drunken Irishmen from elsewhere in the Youth Hostel burst into our dorm at about 4am Saturday with chipmunk voices. They weren't too loud and it was just funny. They have also supplied a lot of the humour in our joke evenings, but I can't repeat their jokes.

5) I caught up with Suman and we did some shopping together, buying a portable CD player for myself, 2260 Baht, about $112 AUD (it plays MP3 files). Saw a Palm 130 for 40 000 Baht (just under $2000 AUD). Palm 130 in Malaysia, RM960 (about $460 AUD). Palm 125 in Malaysia, RM699 (about $330 AUD). Palm 125 in Australia, about $350 AUD. Palm 130 in Dubai, something ridiculous (I think it worked out to about $1000 AUD). Palm in Egypt, there ain't no such thing.

6) I got up, packed and headed off to Sukit's church with all my bags (the big backpack, the new little backpack & the old little backpack), caught a taxi to Siam Square then the train to On Nut, then a taxi to RCA. After driving for what seemed like ages in I don't know what direction until (which always makes trips feel longer than they are) about 70 Baht was showing on the meter it crosses my mind that even with my maps I couldn't find RCA as it's a shopping centre & I don't know which streets it's on, so the cab driver could not know where he's going and just be driving in any old direction (which happened the night I directed the cab driver to the hostel in Thai). Anyway we arrived. Sukit sends his regards.

7) The gospel is that we were trying to relate to God but kept doing stuff that broke that relationship, so Jesus came and sorted us out. Now we can do anything God is doing, which Jesus showed us is making life better for everyone, including making those who are acting destructively cease and desist. We see God not actively forcing people to cease and desist because what's important is dealing with our heart's motives, which cause us to act destructively, and just stopping people won't change their hearts, so instead he is changing people by injecting love into the lives of those who will receive it. We get to play a part in this process, and doing so is what life is all about.

8) My objective in life is to do things that are part of this injection of love into people's lives that will still be making a difference 400 years from now. As Asia has heard less about the injection of love into the world through Jesus per person of any continent on the face of the earth, as it has more people than any continent on the face of the earth, as all the emerging superpowers in the world are in Asia and for various other reasons I believe that a centrally located Asian bible college helping people from all over Asia learn about just how gracious the gospel of grace is, and to effectively help them go out and be part of God's injection of love into the world more effectively than they otherwise might, could be such a work. That is, I believe that if I threw myself into such a project, it might indeed have such a huge impact in the course of world events that the world might still be feeling the ripples from it in 400 years time.

9) After lunch I rang Suman but he had been out the night before at a colleagues going away party and was more inclined towards making contact with his bed than going out on the town, so I went back to Sukit's place & wrote French on a postcard while they had a meeting (it took me several hours to complete 2/3rds of one postcard). After the meeting we had some dinner, I jumped in the shower and Sukit dropped me at the airport bus stop. Made use of the CD player while waiting for the plane.

10) 1.20am and my plane leaves for Dubai. Catching a tail wind it get in at 4am Dubai time, which is 7am in Bangkok and 10am in Australia. My plane to Cairo leaves at 3.20pm so I have a bit of time to kill. Dubai has the fanciest toilets I've ever been in (or even heard of, apart from in space). The water for washing your butt is hot (they have paper as well but I only use that for drying my butt now), the loo flushes automatically, the water in the washbasins is hot and comes on with an automatic sensor like those in hand dryers, so you don't even have to turn a tap! Had to hold my hand behind my razor when washing it while having a shave, though. I'm excited when I arrive and everything is wonderful. Had a New York burger with six kind of cheese and a 1/2 pint of Kilkenny beer in an Irish pub for breakfast (got a photo). Spoke to mum for over an hour on the phone (I hate to think what this months mobile will be, I used it a lot in BKK and Cairo as well). This makes 11 hours total that I've used my phone since I bought it in Nov. last year. I fill out a few postcards. Some guy gives me a survey of how their airport's facilities rate and I give it mostly 10s. Then I'm checking out the duty free and an alarm goes off and nobody does anything about it by the time I've moved away taking about 10 mins. to get out of range. I go to the 'quiet lounge,' get about an hours sleep and am woken by the sounds of Muslim prayer blasting through loudspeakers. Go to the gate lounge and make use of my CD player again. We leave and I get to see the Arabian desert as we fly over it, the coast of the Red Sea & Sinai and am pretty impressed. I always go for a seat with leg room and this time I'm 1 seat away from the window, which is the best I've been so far (and often I've been flying at night). We have another tail wind and arrive in Cairo early.

11) I arrive to duty free shops with refrigerators and washing machines but not even a mobile phone or a CD player (they have tape players). Some guy offers to take my somewhere where they will give me a big discount on tours and I refuse. They check my neck passport holder. There are more police with automatic rifles than in Thailand (in Cairo they're on about every street corner, with squads outside the Egyptian Museum, in Thailand they're soldiers). A guy offers to sit me down and show me some brochures and I accept. For the sake of looking at some brochures (which I assume will be a scam), I get a chance to sit down & gather my thoughts & he helps me get my bags and carry them, and get through customs. He offers me an all inclusive tour of 2 nights accommodation in Cairo, guided tours of the Egyptian Museum, & the Pyramids on the 2nd day, overnight sleeper cabin to Luxor, guided tours in Luxor for 2 days, accommodation in Luxor for 2 nights, train to Aswan, 2 nights in Aswan & a day trip to Abu Simbel on the 2nd day, Felucca back to Luxor (Egyptian sailing vessel) including 2 nights and all meals, overnight train back to Cairo, tour of the old city and the citadel and 1 nights accommodation with all accommodation being A/C’ed private rooms with private bathrooms with breakfast included, all entry fees taken care of, guided tours every day except while on the Felucca for $1035. I think this is a great price as I budgeted 1500 pounds (2.5 Egyptian Pounds [EP]=1 AUD) for a similar trip without including entry fees or guided tours but including all meals and 20 hours internet access while staying in dorm rooms in Youth Hostels. Then I realise he means US$, about 4800 EP. He is budgeting $25/night for the accommodation. He drops the guided tours, entry fees and the Felucca ride and gets down to 1500 EP, or 900 EP if I take economy class on the train and sit up all night (this would make it impossible for me to do much the next day). I decline. A cab driver tells me he will take me to downtown Cairo (near where I want to go) for 30 EP while we are talking. After I walk away another man says come and have a drink and we'll talk tours. As he's offering me his mobile phone & I need to call directory assistance to get Matt & Robyn's ph. no. in Cairo, which has changed from the one our mutual friends gave me before I left which I rang from BKK, & I need a drink anyway, I go along. He offers me a similar price on the cut down tour, budgeting 40 EP/night for similar accommodation. If I had taken him up on the accommodation alone I would have saved EP 40 per night in Cairo. I pay 6.5 EP for a 250ml tetra pack of juice. Not all touts are frauds and not every price being asked for is 10x what is reasonable (as sometimes happens).

12) I ask around and eventually find the bus stop, which is in the car park near a store, buying a 500ml (I think) water for 2 EP. I just missed the bus so it is 20 minutes before the next A/C’ed one. I get on but he can't change my 50 note for the 2 EP bus fare and no one else will either, so I have to get off. The guy at the shop informs me it's a 50 Piastre note (50 cents). Then someone tells me the bus at the stop that is not A/C’ed also goes to downtown. I get on. It's 50 Piastres. When we've been driving for ages and pass an internet cafe and a hotel (which I assume is downtown), then start passing car yards I get off figuring I'm a bit south of downtown which should put me near where the Youth Hostel is (there seemed to be no official bus stops and no one on the bus spoke English). I get in a taxi and show him the address. After driving for ages he won't put his meter on and asks me for 14EP when we get there. I figure from what I've read this will be about 5-10 times the real fare & from experience about 30% extra (i.e. the guidebooks have stories about people getting ripped off a lot more badly than I've been) Also I thought I remembered that 10 EP was a reasonable fare from the airport (but see [15]). After arguing, during which he says Giza is a different city (he did ask if I meant Cairo when I said near the University), I agree only to find out he said 40 EP. This all gets me a bit down.

13) I get to the Youth Hostel and give him my membership card. He says to have a look at the room. There are only dorms. The room is the most like a prison cell (except with several beds) of any room that wasn't actually a cell I've ever seen, and it's empty (I could do with some friendly company). By this time I'm too tired and hassled to worry about it so I say OK. He asks me for my card and I say I gave it to him. He just says I didn't do any such thing. I search my pockets, wallet & have a quick look through my bags as he asks (I've never had my card in my bags) and I leave, being quite upset at the reception I've received at the one accommodation place I thought I'd be all right (in BKK the hostel has signs saying 'no longer lost and lonely traveller,' they have free guides and are extremely friendly). Again, see [15]. I go down the road and check into the Nile Garden hotel at 89 EP per night.

14) I've been awake for 44 hours with a couple of broken hours of sleep, I started this day off thinking I was completely lost with a taxi driver just driving around with no idea where I was, I then had my plans changed (not that spending time at Sukit's house was worse than spending time with Suman, it's just that it was a change to what I thought I would be doing which used to really stress me out), spent over 12 hours hanging around airports & got blasted by alarms & loud prayers (& that last in the 'quiet lounge'), I've been hassled by touts, I've gone from one country with a language I don't speak and a script I can't read to another, passing through another country in between, I've been put on the wrong bus and been ripped off by a cab driver, then at the end of it all, at the one place I thought all would be well, I've had someone take my hostels ID card and tell me to my face it never happened. I lay down on my bed and had a good cry, for about the 2nd or 3rd time in my life (the first time I had a good cry as an adult was when my dad died, and I was so relieved that I could finally cry). Considered ringing mum again but it was 5am there.

15) The Lonely Planet guide says from the airport to downtown should be 25-30 EP. Giza is on the opposite side of downtown to the airport, and almost as far away. The taxi driver did overcharge, but not by anything like as much as I thought, and I simply stayed on the bus too long (KL airport is 70km out of town, BKK is about 50km I think, Cairo's is 12km). I found my Youth Hostels membership card stuck to my address book by sweat. I did give it to him, but he gave it straight back & I put it in my pocket (and didn't find it searching my pockets because it was stuck to my address book). Sunday went marvellously, and Dubai does have a great airport, but no one is at their best after 44 hours. The Nile Garden is a great hotel with a manager and assistant who speak really good English and write destinations in Arabic for me when I want to go somewhere, and the first night when I wanted to buy some water they actually sent someone with me to the shop (1 EP for the small, about 500ml, water). 89 EP per night is about as cheap as you can get an A/C’ed room for in Cairo according to Lonely Planet, which suggests leaving the Youth Hostels in Cairo & Luxor alone. The taxi driver and the 2nd guy who came up to me at the airport were actually offering good prices (actually I've still got that guy's card), and at the end of it I knew exactly how I wanted to organise my time in Egypt (which I'd had a fair idea of from studying the Lonely Planet guide anyway, this just help put the final finishes on it).

16) A huge amount of the stress in my life comes from my reaction to what is occurring, even more so than what actually is going on. I thought I had come to a point where I didn't freak out when things changed on me, and to a large extent I have, but it still takes its toll to some degree. AS we passed over Saudi Arabia and I looked out at the sand dunes and rocky hills I felt like I was leaving behind my old self, with my propensity to assume the worst will happen, that people will act against my interests instead of on my behalf, and to be stressed when things change, even when it really turns out well. Perhaps my first night in Cairo was just a little goodbye party, with that kind of thinking trying to keep it's grip on me. My propensity to forget things and assume something negative is a bit of a worry, though. In KL I had put my plane ticket in a bag I left at my aunt Anu's place while travelling south, but I changed my mind and stuck it in my CD bag. On the night before I left I am greatly ashamed of the thoughts that were going through my head (not about anyone related to me). I didn't find it when I checked my CD case because I had a whole heap of business cards that I had looked at frequently while travelling in the case and just gave a cursory glance, and, of course, it was buried amongst them but I had not seen it except once & I remember praying that I'd remember where it was because I've done this sort of thing before. Once I remember finding a pair of my shorts amongst a friend's stuff and I forgot that I had given them to him. Thankfully short term memory loss & confusion are symptoms of CFS which I'm getting better from, but if I ever get Alzheimer’s & I continue with these thought patterns, I'll be a real pain. Time to change the way I think.

17) I've had to learn to assume everyone around me is thinking positively about me at all times, even if I think things are contrary to this. What I've found is that on those occasions when someone actually was being negative, it was because they had a hard day at work, got caught in traffic on the way home and got yelled at by some hoon or something. My completely ignoring it is a blessing to both of us. In theory if someone really was trying to be negative towards me I could say that my not taking it on in any way serves them right and is the best possible reaction, although I've never had this happen. It is increasingly obvious to me that I have to take a similar view of situations and begin to think that people are, in fact, acting in my best interests even when I think they may not be. In 99.9% of cases I'll be at least partially right, and in the other cases, provided I'm taking all reasonable means not to be taken advantage of, I'll be less stressed by the whole event if I assume the best even though it's not true. It seems to me that although I am not completely in touch with reality and assuming the best and that people are acting in my best interests at all times is actually a more effective, productive, stress relieving way of life than to be right about negative assumptions.

19) On the night before Rama's wallet was found (17th August), Rama rang from a public phone to tell mum how much he loved her. Both mum and Rosalyn, her friend who happened to be there, commented on how his voice was full of love. There was no phone in his room. Rama used to throw handstands in sometimes foolish places when he was happy, and mum believes (and it makes the most sense) that he threw a handstand on the edge of the cliff and fell. So at the time he wasn't deliberately trying to kill himself, although in the next moment he might have and he certainly wasn't trying to keep a firm grip on life.

Love & blessings,
Joe Krishna Mithiran

Trip Report V

1) Introduction to this email.
2) Ayutthaya.
3) Money.
4) Drinks revisited and languages.
5) Royal Barges museum.
6) Rama's death.

1) I've included a history of events to do with Rama's death in this email which I am sending to my 'Family' & 'Trip' email address groups, so if you're in both groups you might get this email twice (sorry 'bout that), because some of my family haven't heard what happened clearly and some of my friends might like to know, if you don't already. Also if you're family but haven't been getting the trip reports you can see if you're interested, but if you don't want to know the details of my brothers death it will be easy enough to skip those paragraphs (just stop reading after the Royal Barges museum visit).

2) 25/7/02 Went to Ayutthaya today. Saw my 6th & 7th palaces, being the ruins of the Imperial Palace at Ayutthaya and the complete (& still in occasional use) palace at Bang Thit. Several of the palaces I've visited are about a square km in size. I wasn't planning to take a tour so I figured the 700 Baht I had on me on Wednesday night would be fine, but a 450 Baht tour ticket, tuk-tuk ride home & taxi ride back, breakfast & some postcards later I was all out of Thai money. I had figured that it would be OK if I ran out because lunch was included & Kaosan Rd (where the tour departed and returned) is the best place in BKK to change money, but I forgot about water (drinks weren't included with the free lunch) & charges on loos. Fortunately one of the tourists on the tour gave me change for the loo & I had a bottle of water at the beginning and pigged out on Rambutans at lunch. Ayuttaya (amazingly I can pronounce it as well as spell it) has signs for money changers and ATMs, but the actual facilities haven't arrived yet.

3) Changed the last of the money I brought with me from Australia when I got to Kaosan Rd. This means by the time I hit Cairo I will have spent $570 AUD all up assuming I spend all I changed but no more (a fair bet), except for duty free presents, accommodation, a steak & my mobile bill which went on credit cards. All the accommodation I've booked for the trip cost about that much, which covers 6 nights in Bangkok, a night in Amsterdam (or Den Haag, which was as close as I could get), 2 nights in Paris & 9 nights in the USA staying in Youth Hostel dorms (which aren't too bad really). It doesn't cover Cairo, which you can't book over the internet, or Fiji, which doesn't have a youth hostel. The rest of the time I'll be staying with friends or relies'.

4) Forgot to mention raspberries, blueberries, oranges & watermelon in my list of drinks in my last email. Started the day of with a raspberry milkshake at breakfast & had watermelon & coconut milkshakes after arriving back from Ayuttaya. I then successfully directed a taxi back to the Youth Hostel in Thai using my map & phrasebook. He had no idea where it was and didn't understand any directions in English (but he did understand I was visiting family). I've found 'hello'/'good day', 'please', 'thank you', 'excuse me'/'sorry', 'right', 'left', 'straight ahead', 'stop', the numerals from '0' to '9', 'where are the toilets,' 'please wash my clothes,' & 'train station' will get you an amazingly long way in a foreign country.

5) 26/7/02 Walked to Kaosan Rd this morning and found it only took 20 minutes. Had an orange shake while waiting for my cousin (I was very early) (the shake was something between an OJ & a milkshake). Caught a cab to the Royal Barges museum, wandered around, Suman went back to work & I caught a ferry & a skytrain to Siam Square (the heart of downtown BKK), had a steak for lunch & did some window shopping before getting buses home.

6.1) Rama had been renting a room at Katoomba. On the 18th of August 1993 the police in Katoomba found Rama's wallet at the top of a tourist lookout near Echo Point (although this was a different lookout). About 2 weeks later a police car arrived at the house and 3 constables informed mum that they'd found Rama's wallet. Not realising he was missing, presumed dead, mum said "oh well, we'd better let him know then" and rang Daniel. Her comment to us was how ridiculous to send 3 cops when they could have just rung her from Katoomba. Thinking that since Daniel was living nearby (whom is like family & I've known since we were both 4) he would have let us know if anything was wrong, mum still wasn't alarmed so she asked if he could let Rama know about his wallet. Daniel informed mum that Rama's lights hadn't been on for about 2 weeks and he hadn't seen him, but had thought he must be in Sydney at our place. Daniel went with the police to Rama's place where they found a suicide note. One of the constables was amazed at how close Daniel was to Rama and thought he must have been his brother. When considering the note in the light of what I will say later you should know that Rama suffered from depression and you could have filled an attaché case with all the suicide notes he'd written at various times. At this point we suspected he had committed suicide.

6.2) Jan's mum and brother were staying with us at the time in Redfern. People have assumed this must have been a comfort, so I'll just use mum's words and say that her brother Cyril is very bombastic. The next day grandma, Cyril & I were visiting dad when mum rang the police to find out that they had discovered his body at the bottom of the cliff. A guy had to be winched down on a helicopter to get it. That we were away gave mum the freedom to run around the house screaming for a while, then she rang us and let us know what had happened. Then the business of organising the funeral and contacting people began.

6.3) Rama had dropped head first close in to the cliff face (which is a difficult way to drop yourself off a cliff) and had hit his head on a rocky outcrop part way down the cliff killing him instantly. Mum and Daniel went the next day to identify the body. There was a sheet covering all of it (he'd been in a wet area for 2 weeks), except for a small spot on his leg which mum was always concerned about in case it turned cancerous, so she had measured it to make sure it wasn't changing, so she knew it was him. Also they found a ring and an earring belonging to him. The police had prepared us for the worst and Daniel and mum were surprised that the sheet was normally shaped except that where his face would have been it was flat.

6.4) At the time Soli, Daniel's sister and at one time Rama's best friend, had a dream where this angel came and spoke to her and she said "Go away, I don't believe in angels" and it went away. Then she thought if they were there speaking to her she had better investigate and went looking for them but couldn't find them. Finally she found an angel but he was a dark man, unlike the first angels or any angel she had seen pictured before. She said "You're very sad." and he said "Yes."

6.5) Rama and I were very close (as often happens with siblings who grow up in traumatic circumstances) and the shock of his death and my inability to grieve openly at the time (I just didn't know how to grieve) meant I got non-specific liver disease and the CFS relapsed. With regards the non-specific liver disease - I got a feeling (I just knew inside myself) one day that if I didn't express my grief it would affect my liver, but that was OK as I would get better and one day I would learn how to grieve. Several months later I was diagnosed with non-specific liver disease. Regarding the CFS - at the beginning of 1992 I was studying full time while working part time, and I continued to study full time until August. 1994, but I failed everything at the beginning of 1994. I have not been as healthy as I was before Rama died since then, when I was well on the way to a complete recovery. I was the saddest thing that ever happened to mum and she could burst into tears about it easily for a long time. Dad was in denial and would talk about Rama playing some big prank on us and how he might turn up somewhere someday (which is why those of you who heard these events through him may not have received a clear picture).

Blessings,
Joe Krishna Mithiran

Trip Report IV

G'day everyone.
Table of contents:
1) Undercharged by cab driver.
2) Dealing with fear of heights.
3) Burned photos to CD.
4) Weekend, Tara's birthday.
5) What I've been drinking.
6) What I've been eating (Kluang).
7) Sunday night-Monday night.
8) Tuesday-Wednesday.
9) Travel tips, showering.
10) What I'm eating (Bangkok)
11) I love Bangkok.
Excerpts from emails:
12) Hands on hips, cultural no-nos.
14) Eating with hands.

1) 18/7/02 Got undercharged by the first taxi driver I've met who spoke no English whatsoever. Also fares do need to be negotiated at Peak Hour, so make that 3 times I've been overcharged.

2) One thing is that a couple of months ago I got a sense from the Holy Spirit one night that all I would have to do to not be afraid of heights was to remember not to be afraid, and ever since then as long as I remember not to be afraid I don't have a problem. This has proven very handy hanging around 6 storey malls with escalators suspended out over open space between levels, the situation which used to freak me out the most. Now I'll handle a situation like that without a problem, come unexpectedly upon a 1 storey drop, forget not to be afraid and almost collapse (well, it happened once).

3) Burned my first CD this evening. Took the pictures (most of which are on the web at ) which I had uploaded from my camera to my uncle Sri's computer and burned them onto a CD, along with the program that came with the camera, that Intel expect me to pay $30 AUD for the privilege of being able to install under Windows XP. At least now I'll be able to get at my cameras documentation (& a bit of clip art). So I should be able to record Ben's song onto an audio CD when I get back (not to mention the rest of my songs).

4) Here I am in Bangkok. I caught the morning train to KL on Saturday morning, enjoyed the view and had one good conversation, then went straight to Tara's birthday party (my cousin once removed I believe, Priya's daughter). Great party & I got some good shots. There was a cake shaped like a clown, a candle shaped like a jack-in-the-box which didn't get used (but I got a picture it was so cute), a treasure hunt for chocolates and party games, and, of course, more absolutely wonderful food. I was very pleased to find out the next day that one of the best dishes was actually cooked by my uncle Dr Vaithynathan as the party had been catered. I stayed the night in Dushyan's room and the next day, after a big sleep in, went to a mall for a while then spent some time writing postcards before relaxing with everyone in front of the TV with large quantities of mangosteens, longans & something similar to rambutans.

5) Why can't we make iced teas, iced coffees, frappachinos, blended ices, juices, milkshakes & smoothies out of custard apple [soursops or durian blenda], jackfruit, honeydew melon, peaches, strawberries, lychees, sugar cane, barley, kiwi fruit, star fruit, mangos, paw paw [papaya], guava, pineapple, lemon, lime & coconut in Australia, not to mention why don't they use rambutans, mangosteen, longans, durian etc. in Malaysia & Thailand. I haven't tried every one of these combinations, but I'm working on it.

6) While I was in Kluang I tried mangosteen (delicious) and durian (all-right) for the first time, not to mention wild boar which was delicious and unlike any meat I've ever tasted before.

7) Sunday night we went to my uncles club for dinner, then I went to aunty Anu & uncle Jega's place for the night as my pack was there & it's easier to get to the airport from. This morning everything went smoothly with my flight (had a baby boy beside me to keep me amused trading quizzical looks for smiles). I arrived and had a good chat to my mum while my luggage came through (the first months bill was $12.40 AUD so global roaming isn't sending me broke). Caught a taxi to the Youth Hostel, checked in and started walking around the area. Right nearby are the Dusit palaces, and although I've been to the Vimanmek Teak Mansion before (last year), there are heaps of smaller palaces, museums and a zoo I will have to start checking out tomorrow. I got there at 2.15pm and it closed at 3.15pm so I only had time for the overview tour. Came back to the hostel and in a moment of insanity decided to stay in my crowded dorm, with no air conditioning during the day, tonight to see how it goes before deciding if I'll upgrade to a room with A/C & it's own bathroom at 280 Baht/night (21.75 Baht/AUD at the airport, don't know what it is in the street yet). You can only book Youth Hostel dorm rooms over the internet. Last year I was spending 390 Baht/night at the cheapest place I could find in Kaosan Rd for a similar individual room. After getting back from my walk (chalked up another few kms) I've gone next door to the hostel to an internet cafe that's about 75% the price of the best in Kaosan Rd, and just undercuts the Youth Hostel. There are definite advantages to being out of the tourist district.

8) Woke up and found out there were no single rooms left. The problem is there's no room to spread out a map, eat mangosteens or sort out my clothes because I'm in a top bunk. Got some apples since I could eat them while walking and they served for lunch and dinner. Visited 3 of the smaller palaces with their museums then went to sleep about 2.30pm until after 7pm. Sat around chatting with other travellers & found someone to give my Vietnamese money to. I had $270 000 Vietnamese which equals $18 US, he gave me $10 US and we both came out well (considering it had been given to me). This morning swapped bunks to a lower bunk, which solves my problems, then caught a cab over to Suman's work today as today & tomorrow are public holidays & there's not much to do. He has to work since most of his staff are on holidays, but we got opportunities to chat and went out to lunch together. He's suggested some ruins just out of Bangkok for me to visit tomorrow.

9) Having earplugs, a small torch & a sleeping mask (didn't mention that in the first email) is a definite advantage in a dorm room. The other tip is to have your soap handy at night. The travel towel works but you really need a small real towel to finish off with for comforts sake. The two together would still be less space than a big towel & just as effective, and would dry out for 3 showers a day (unlike a big towel). I can't believe that I'm taking 2 showers a day with changes of clothes, brushing my teeth twice a day +/-1, shaving at least once in 36 hours and almost always within 24, and in Australia I regard it as evidence of the Holy Spirit's work if I manage to be showered, shaved, teeth brushed and in clean clothes. You probably didn't want to know that, but with the CFS I just didn't get it all together very often. By the way, the tip in the first email about rolling up your clothes works only if you fold them neatly flat first. It was told to me by a friend and sure enough I can fold an ironed shirt, then roll it up and stuff it in a side pocket of a backpack, then pull it out without a crease.

10) One thing about this area is that there are food stalls, like in Kaosan Rd but not nearly as many or varied, but there are also lots of fresh fruit stalls which I didn't have before. I think I'll continue skipping lunches and eat fresh fruit during the day (I've gone off my see-food diet). Who knows, maybe if keep up the walking, keep up the self restraint (not something I've ever had a lot of), and eat a bit of fruit I'll end up being just fat when I leave instead of obese. Tried fried frogs in chilli & basil for dinner tonight. It's true what they say about it tasting like chicken, but there's too many tiny bones for my liking.

11) The other thing is I'm reminded of how much I love Bangkok. You walk around the block and you run into palaces, there's interesting food stalls everywhere (as in Malaysia) & for some reason the whole place just feels friendlier than any other city I've ever been in.

Excerpts from emails I've sent (edited):

12) I don't know why standing with hands on hips is offensive in Malaysia (& Thailand as well I believe), it's just one of those cultural things, I suppose like shouting someone a beer and not joining them or something. You also have to be careful not to touch people's heads (i.e. don't pat a child on the head) because it's where the soul is, and not to sit with your feet pointing at anyone (particularly their head). In the tour of the Vimanmek mansion we stop in a throne room with pictures of the king & queen and we have to sit on the floor with our feet pointing behind us so as not to be higher than their pictures or pointing our feet at them.

14) When eating with hands you have several dishes with a variety of small servings &, yes, serving spoons in them. This means that after your first serving you need to use your left hand to serve with, which is a big no-no but it seems to be what my family do. The food needs to be in bite size portions or soft enough to break up with one hand, although my relies' can break up a crab with one hand (I give up at that point and grab it with both hands). You have some carbohydrate to gather up your food with, and to mop up chutneys and gravy. Don't know if you've ever seen the movie 'Sabrina,' but there's a seen with Harrison Ford & the character Sabrina eating with hands, and he says 'this would be difficult with soup.' Well you just mop it up with your carbohydrate (dosas, rotis, chapattis, rice, naan or puttu). After going on about how convenient it is, you do have to wash your hands before & after (& in my case, sometimes during) your meal, and sometimes when I'm really tired I prefer to just grab a spoon & dig in.

Blessings,
Joe Krishna Mithiran

Trip Report III

I didn't asterisk phrases giving the sense of each paragraph this time. If anyone actually misses them, let me know.

It's the 12th July and I'm listening to the relaxing music of Helen McCrimmon with the soulful sounds of Peter Stacey playing in the background. I've got CDs by Helen McCrimmon, Peter Stacey (his mention above refers to his sax on Helen's CD), David Brinsmead & Ben Fink/King Clam (apart from Third Day, who I don't know personally). Talking of musical collaboration, the bass player on Helen & David Brinsmead's albums is Chris Patchett. Actually everyone involved in the making of both of those albums is a friend of mine as are most of the musos on Ben's.

My last comments about Australianisms were went to be directed to those who aren't native Australian speakers; and Prabhasa plays Badminton, not tennis.

Eating with hands again: apart from the other stuff, it's fun and you get to engage your sense of touch with your culinary experience.

Terengannu: The orders given from on high to every police station there is not to enforce any of the religious laws under any circumstances, even if they're charged with contempt of court by the religious authorities; which is encouraging, but it doesn't stop the religious authorities from using their own police. They have turtle watching there, which would have been nice to see. Now the papers are saying they're only going to enforce the Hudud laws on non-Muslims voluntarily. I can't see too many people volunteering to be flogged and thrown in prison for drinking. The Hudud prescribes stoning to death, amputation, or whipping for theft, robbery, illicit sex, false accusation of illicit sex, drinking liquor & apostasy. Qisas, or the law of retribution, says murder or causing injury results in a punishment of similar nature to the crime ("an eye for an eye" etc.). Some people are actually calling for crucifixion for apostasy.

If you've received a postcard from me, maybe you could keep it and when I get back I'll throw that long talked about Indian night, put my Tamil cooking skills to the test, get out my Jippa & put some Ragas on the CD player, pull out my pictures from the trip, and you can get a squiz at each others postcards and learn how to eat with your fingers.

In case you're wondering why I seem to have spent more time in Kuala Lumpur (KL) in Malls than anything else and none sight seeing, I've done a couple of tours of KL previously, seen rubber tapping, the pewter factory, the creepy-crawly factory (ash trays etc. with your worst nightmares embedded, such as scorpions & spiders), the batik factory, the national monument, the palace (which we couldn't go into), the national mosque, the old railway station (which I've seen from the inside on numerous occasions), the national museum (twice) and the Batu caves (although you can't go in the bottom cave with all the Hindu gods now, which is one of my most vivid memories of the visit when I was 7), and the KL Tower (you can't go up inside the Petronas Twin Towers). I've been to Malacca twice and checked out the old fort both times, seen the area with Buddhist temples, Hindu temples and churches a stones throw from each other (and yes, I went inside), seen a house set up in the traditional Malay style as a mini-museum with all their traditional clothing, ate Malaccan food (the combination of Malay & Chinese developed their own style, which used to be only found in Malacca, but there's a Malaccan restaurant in York St. behind the QVB in Sydney now), and seen the Dutch ship twice (but it was closed both times). I still plan to visit the national library and cultural centre and go out to watch fireflies on my next visit, not to mention Penang. I've heard the zoo in KL isn't worth seeing at the moment.

I've discovered that generally the less I spend on transport, the more people I talk to, and not knowing things (where to go or what 'ada orang' means on a toilet door) is a great conversation starter (it means occupied)(as in, I asked someone beside me what it meant, I didn't get into an accidental sudden quick heated conversation with the person inside :> ). Caught the night train to Johor Bahru (JB) and there were a group of backpackers doing a trip from Bangkok (BKK) to Singapore in the bunks next to mine. Got a couple of conversations out of that. Maybe I should add bring some light reading to my travel tips. If you do want to read it, someone else will. Also it's easier striking up conversations with people who are on their own.

On computers again: as I mentioned, Anu & Jega's was having various problems including not finding the hardware drivers at startup and re-loading them each time, and I hadn't taken any pictures until the last couple of days of being there so I didn't try and download the pictures from my camera while I was there. At Prim & Kuhan's there was no USB support; and now here at Sri & Eeswary's the camera isn't working (to download pictures anyway). Turned out the batteries were flat. Here's a little trick: I've been using this camera with flat batteries for over six months, just taking them out and swapping them around when-ever it stops working. So now it's worthwhile checking out , or if you can't see all the folders that are there (photos is a sub-set of briefcase). Sometimes I log on and some or all of the folders containing the photos are missing, in which case try the other address or try logging back in again.

Mark commented that when he knew me (he's been out of Australia for several years) it would have taken me weeks to put together an email as long as the ones I keep sending out. I remember I used to love email because I could give an intelligent reply to something without people knowing it took me 2 weeks to write, which was usually a couple of paragraphs. On the Wednesday before I left Australia I saw professor John Dwyer (my CFS specialist, the top guy in Australia and one of the best in the world), and he threw some more light on what's going on in my body. My immune system is like an army with no leadership; it's fighting itself and the rest of my body and wasting huge amounts of energy doing so. There are certain immune cells that tell the others what to do. A few years ago I had very few, now I'm just somewhat below normal. It's as I get more of these cells that I'm getting better.

I continue to eat ridiculous quantities of food. I can't say I'm eating like a horse because no horse ever ate this well. On the other hand I'm walking more than I ever have in my life, so maybe I'll end up not gaining or losing weight, but being a bit fitter with more muscle bulk than fat (I hope). So much for that thought (it's now 18th July, By The Way [BTW] this email is almost in chronological order). I'm blowing up like a balloon. Time to cut back on the eating.

On Thursday night I got the night train to JB and remembered my uncle Sri telling me last time to make sure I got a bottom bunk as there's heaps more room - as I climbed into my tiny top bunk. Actually I've been told before about getting the airport limousine from KL airport and not the private taxis as well. I've now been ripped off by taxis 4 times, and although only 1 of those was in a private cab (I didn't get those after the first time), the proper taxis only take me for a few ringgit, not the RM 50 the private cab got out of me above the airport limousine price. I'll have to get into the habit of making sure they have their meter on every time I get into a cab. What's really annoying about it is I sometimes tip more than they rip me off for if I get a good conversation (I always tip, having driven cabs however briefly & found it was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, although I did have CFS and was just coming down with non-specific liver disease, just after Rama died, at the time). A good conversation and they'd have made more than by not switching their meter on and I'd feel good instead of angry. Don't know how I'm going to handle Egypt. From the sounds of it I'll not only need prayer about not getting ripped off, but also not to get too angry when it happens.

Got into JB Friday morning and had a rest before going to where my uncle works and joining him for lunch, then coming back and doing some computer stuff. Did some shopping when he got in and we all went out for dinner. Saturday and I did some computer stuff in the morning, then we (uncle Sri, auntie Eeswary & myself, as well as Eeswary’s cousin Sivalingam, his wife & their son) drove to Kluang, got a bite to eat and went to the reception. By the time Siva's son & I got a bit lost finding the hotel, then Eeswary & her cousin in law got a bit lost, then they had given Sivalingam's son & myself a room with 1 double bed, we were 1/2 an hour late. Then Eeswary forgot her purse, Sri got a bit lost getting out of town, then he forgot his present, and we were a bit over an hour late to the reception, which was at a really nice place with a waterfall in the background. After everyone left we went back into town and went to a cafe. Sunday we went out for breakfast, then Sivalingam & his family went back to Singapore and Sri, Eeswary & myself dropped in on Paramasivan's house for lunch with the bridal party and some of their friends. Sri & Eeswary went back to JB & I stayed on. Uncle Param (who is actually my dad's cousin) & I went visiting in the evening. Monday Paramasivan took the day off work and we took it easy and went visiting in the afternoon/evening with some of my dad's old school friends. Tuesday I went out to the palm oil plantation where he works, saw his clinic, the palm oil crusher, the banana packing, and we went visiting some of auntie Jennie's friends (she is also called auntie Janaky) in the evening. Wednesday I rested and caught the bus back to JB in the evening. Today (Thursday) I was going to go to Singapore but I was so tired after going out to the palm oil plantation even though I got a lot of rest that day and on the days around it that I decided Singapore was too much, so I stayed home & put the photos on the web and worked on this email.

I love catching up with people who knew my dad before he got his tumour. When I was 1 1/2 a tumour started growing in his head which caused temporal lobe epilepsy, so before I had gotten to know my dad as he was he suffered a permanent change to his personality, so I keep hearing about this man from my mum and his old friends and relatives who I didn't have the chance to get to know. This is why I don't see his death as tragic, he was so sick for so long and now he's free to be himself, and I will get the chance to get to know him as he is, without the effects of the tumour (indeed, without any of the detrimental effects of this world). That I bonded with him before it happened is evident in that I always had a closer relationship with dad then Rama did, who was born after he had already changed.

This afternoon I'll get my ticket on the Saturday morning train to KL if possible. Although the night train in a bottom bunk is good as you sleep your way there I'd like to see the view from the train. Failing that (it's a very popular train), the Friday night train. Saturday is Tara's birthday, so I'll get to see a few people I haven't seen in a while. Sunday I'll catch up with Suren & most of Monday will be spent in BKK, settling in to the Youth Hostel, checking out the area & finding the best ways to and from the centre of town.

Blessings,
Joe Krishna Mithiran :-)

Trip Report II

G'day everyone. This was written on the 10th July.

As before I will surround a word or a phrase in each paragraph in asterisks to make skipping to the bits that interest you easier. One friend suggested I do a web site, but everyone getting this is someone I know and love and I can say things I wouldn't like to put up on a public web site (although I can't think of anything that fits into that category). I suppose the old rule that you shouldn't say anything over the internet that you wouldn't want your worst enemy to know still applies anyway. That's apart from the fact that I'm not sure I could update a web site from any computer in any house or net cafe that I happen to be using, and at least one friend would have trouble if there were any graphics involved.

This brings me to the odd incident of logging on in a net cafe to find my web site at (out of date) was set to the homepage of the computer I was logged on to. I hadn't mentioned my site before because I haven't been able to put up any pictures of the trip yet. There's other stuff of mine there, though, if you're interested. I thought back over the last few days and I had not been at that computer. Wondering what on earth was going on, it took me several hours to remember that I had used that computer the first time I had been in that cafe 4 days earlier, and the window with the controls to clear your cache or temporary internet files (I'm bi-OperatingSystemual) is the same window in which you set the page your viewing as your browsers homepage, which I must have done by accident. In the meantime I had managed to startle Gav, who happened to be chatting to me in Instant Messenger when I noticed the anomaly. Actually I'm multi-OSual, but it's a long time since I was a Unix wizard busting hackers & having Elm as my .login prompt, and all the other OSs I've used are no longer heard from much, if at all.

Having said that, Prabhasa just reminded me I can listen to CDs while I type, which, if I'd remembered would've meant I could have listened to about 20 hours of my friends' music by now (that's how long I've spent at computers since I arrived in Malaysia). I brought 4 of my friends' CDs as well as Offerings by Third Day since I was bringing the software to download pictures from my camera & my French learning CD anyway. I had hoped that I would at least be able to carry out a conversation in French by the time I got there, but the fact that I've twice had to look up English words in my French/English dictionary to get the spelling right in this email, let alone foreign ones, doesn't bode well. Nor the fact that after over a week of living in houses where someone spoke very little English (the housekeepers, now you know the secret of serving up almost a dozen dishes a day), my Malay is still such as "I leave. Back 6. No lunch. Please wash clothes." And that with the help of a phrasebook. Now it's dawned on me that if I switch to Word instead of Notepad I can use the spelling checker (although fauxpas wasn't in there). Time to go to bed.

If you're praying for me, at Jega & Anu's the computer got a virus, using net cafes is slow because the main link between Japan & the US is down, and here at Prim & Kuhan's (where I'm saving this onto disk), their ISP is down. Communications, particularly over the internet, would be a good prayer point. Today I have a sense that the Holy Spirit wants me to pray for computers. While on this subject, if anyone wants to SMS me it's not as expensive as calling (61-403 815 452). You still pay for the message to Australia, & I pay for it to arrive in the country I'm in, but it's still less than a $1 (I hope, depending on whose network I'm using I suppose). I can't figure out how the costs work. If I call within the country it's based on whatever network I'm currently using, if anyone calls me it costs me whatever my network in Australia charges to relay the call to me, but if I ring Australia it doesn't seem to be based on either. At least if my aunt rings Malaysia from England it will cost RM 6 per minute, while if she talks locally in the UK it will cost her RM 8 per minute, but she gets charged RM 3 per minute to ring the UK from here in Malaysia ($1 AUD= RM 2.12 at the time of writing).

I definitely think eating with my hands (or hand actually) is better than using cutlery or chopsticks. I never forget to wash my hands before I eat, I never end up with a mouthful of food that is too hot to swallow (I just drop a bit of food on my plate) and there is less washing up to do. I thought it slowed me down and I was neater, but the mystery of why I make such a mess with a knife & fork was revealed when I began eating just as quickly as I do with them & started making just as much mess. By the way the Ben I said was a neater eater than me in my last email had his 2nd birthday not so long ago. So now we know, it's the wind created by my hands moving so quickly that sends food everywhere! At least, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Looks like this is the first visit (as an adult) where I'll get to stay with every one of my aunties and uncles, not to mention catching up with my cousins who are studying in Australia in Canberra and Perth. I caught up with Prabhasa (Canberra) in Sydney & probably will again, but it'll be a long time before I get to see Kulendra. I'm glad I caught him before he left for Perth on Tuesday morning. After missing Yudi by hours (who is part of the reason this became a world trip and not just a trip to London with a stopover for a couple of weeks in KL), then finding out Peik See was in Sarawak, I found out Suman was not in Bangkok as well, but at least in his case he'll be there by the time I arrive. I was at Anu & Jega's for 8 days; I'll total 3 here at Prim & Kuhan's; I'll be with uncle Sri & auntie Eeswary for about 4 days not counting 3 with uncle Paramasivan & auntie Janaky & 1 in Singapore where I might meet my auntie Rajes' sister in the middle; Sat. the 20th I'll be back here in KL for Tara's (my cousin once removed) birthday and will hopefully stay with my auntie Dhamayathi and uncle Vaithynathan until I leave Monday morning the 22nd of July for Bangkok. Hopefully by then I will be spelling everyone's names correctly (if you got my last big email more recently I made some corrections).

I'm glad I'm not staying in Terenggarni during this trip. They've introduced the Hudad & Qisas Muslim laws and will be applying them to Muslims & non-Muslims alike. Kelantan also introduced a Hudad law in 1993 but has not yet implemented it, but Terenggarni will be implementing them as of the first of August. Apart from chopping off people's hands for theft, this means rape or adultery requires four Muslim men of good standing as witnesses to prove. Recently in Pakistan a young man (about 20) was caught walking with a 30-year-old woman, so the 4 village elders decided as punishment to rape his younger sister publicly and send her home without any clothes. I've got a friend who was almost sold into slavery in a Muslim country by her husband's family. Anyone remember the name of the lady in Egypt who was showing from the Koran that this kind of thing is not on?

Now that I've calmed down after writing the above I'll talk about Pokemon bubble fruit flavoured toothpaste. My toiletries kit comes courtesy of Countrylink, from when they whacked me in a 1st class sleeper cabin one time coming back from Crescent Head (lack of space in economy again). I seem to have good fortune regarding public transport. Once I had finished the smallest tube of toothpaste I had ever seen (the size of my little finger to the first knuckle) I got the cheapest toothpaste I could find, which was the above. Well those of you who aren't Australian native speakers, you'll probably have heard every Australian expression in the book by the time this trip is over.

Cultural fauxpas So far the Holy Spirit has twice reminded me to remove my hands from my hips (either that or I subconsciously reacted to the looks I was getting), I've already discussed eating, and I'm still forgetting to point with my thumb, but nobody has said anything yet. Between everyone these emails are going to I'm probably making a few in what I write too.

11th July. Two things I have been doing are reading & going to movies. Yesterday I saw Wind Talkers with Prabhasa and today I'm seeing minority report while Prabhasa has a badminton match. I started reading a book about 'Operation Sunshine' (the Indian army's push into Jafna in 1996) from a Tamil perspective. We don't really get to hear much of either side in Australia, but anything we do hear is from the Indian propaganda machinery (independent journalists are never allowed into the areas the Indians have or are 'liberating'). I'll rave on about that some other time though. The other book I have read is "The glass palace" by Amitav Ghosh (Harper Collins 2000), who also wrote "The Calcutta chronicles" & "The shadow lines." Bill, if you haven't already read this guy, you definitely should. It was a brilliant chronicle of three generations of Indian/Burmese and their lives in Burma, India, the UK, the USA, & Malaya (pre-Malaysia) in the style of 'Roots.'

Blessings,
Joe Krishna Mithiran -:)

Trip Report I

G'day everybody. I've put some stuff in bold to show what each paragraph is about (the Cairo stuff runs on for 2 long ones) in case you're skimming.

3/7/02 The flight got off to a good start. Mum & me were praying so long before we parked at the airport (40 mins.) that they ran out of economy class seats and bumped me up to business class. It's one of the things I like about mum being around, we tend to get together and pray a few times a week and before or after anything important. Consequently I watched 'Monsters Inc.,' 'I am Sam,' 'Ali' & some of 'Charlotte Gray' on the flight over. 'Monsters Inc.' was a lot deeper than I expected and makes a great environmental analogy, but remember this is from someone who saw a strong Christian analogy in 'Aliens III.'

I arrived to a dinner of 4 delicious hot curry dishes & chapattis, and lunch the next day was another 5 with rice, followed by another 4 plus an omelette with a carbohydrate I don’t know the name of. I miss the food here when I'm gone, but gee we eat a lot of chilli. No one bothers asking me if I want cutlery any more. If you've seen me make more mess than Ben did over 6 months ago (Ben is 2) when eating with a knife and fork (let alone now he's getting tidier), you can imagine what I'm like with just my right hand. Actually I think I did a lot better than I would have if I'd been using a knife and fork. Last night I finished before my auntie & uncle without making much of a mess at all (which is a bit of a worry, I thought that at least using my hand I couldn't eat too fast as I normally do). Maybe I should give up on cutlery when I get back to Australia (saves on washing up too).

Getting around. One thing about this visit is I'm familiar enough with the local area to walk to the mall (less than 40 mins.), direct a taxi here or find my way here from the city, apart from having a map of KL with me. Man, a good map of the city is probably the most useful thing to have in any given place, even though I didn't use it for this. Before I relied on uncles, aunts & cousins to show me around. Where I always have stayed in KL is a relatively new area and if you give a taxi the address they just look at you quizzically. Having more energy this time helps as well.

Well the thoughts of becoming a Malaysian citizen have gone down the gurgler. It used to be that Australia didn't allow dual citizenship & Malaysia did, then a bit over ten years ago they both switched. Mum will breath a sigh of relief. She was concerned that if Centrelink didn't use Malaysian citizenship as an excuse to kick me off the pension and the immigration department didn't decide I had to leave the country, that I’d probably be regarded as a suspected terrorist.

Now let me tell you about the trip to Cairo saga. A bit less than 2 years ago my cousin Yudishtra, who I get on particularly well with and has caught up with me in Sydney while studying through a uni. in Melbourne & came over for my dad's funeral in 1997, was transferred from the Ritz-Carlton in Double Bay to the one in Alexandria (well, after he decided against Qatar for the lack of night life, not that he has much time outside of work anyway). His parents Jega & Anucia are where I am staying now and where I have stayed the previous times I've been to KL. So when I got a round the world ticket I of course included Cairo, the travel agent (who also happens to be a friend of mine - Becky) reminded me I could visit the pyramids & the sphinx etc. In order to do the stop in Cairo I couldn't stop in Toronto (where I hoped to visit the airport Vineyard church & Nicole). They are the two destinations a long way out of my way that together exceed my ticket air mile limitation. Then I was hearing about the Neufelds who have been good friends with everyone whose homegroup I've been in since being at RBC/GCC and thinking if I want to do some sight seeing and catch up with everyone I'll need more time, and it turned out Pierre-Alain & Natalie wouldn't be arriving home from Australia (where they were arriving shortly after I left - irony no. 1) by the time I was due to arrive in Geneva, so I changed my ticket. Now I would arrive in Cairo on the 29th July and leave on the 9th August, 11 days (although I arrive in Cairo at 6pm and leave at 4am).

As I hadn't heard from aunty Anu via email I was going to ring them anyway. They don't check the home email very often & she was on leave for most of June, hence didn't see her work email either. Then she replied and asked me to ring. So Saturday night I find out Yudi is now working in the Ritz-Carlton in Bali, but that he's there at Anu & Jega's at that moment, but flying out Monday morning! After all this planning I missed him by a few hours! I still have a good feeling about my trip to Egypt, like God has something planned for me there. Sunday arvo. & Jaqi, Ev, Ben, Kylie, Anna, Bernd, Alain & Carole give me the lonely planet guide to Egypt and a condensed one for Amsterdam. Monday morning & mum is picking up a CD carrying case from Jane in Cleveland St. (they last thing I didn't have for my trip, then someone left one at her place), stops to talk to a neighbour at the end of our street, and discovers she has just written a guidebook about Egypt! They get into a big conversation about the Kurds as she has just written a book about them ("Fire, snow & honey - voices from Kurdistan" edited by Gina Lennox, published by Halstead Press Publishing at her own expense). Anyone bombing Iraq will be the opportunity for them to finish off the Kurds is her fear. She is desperate to get the book published in the UK in the hope that it will turn public opinion against an invasion of Iraq. She gave mum a couple of tips about Egypt (actually most of which I read in the lonely planet guide), & suggested I make an effort to contact the woman who is desperately trying to show that Islam, at least from the Koran, does not support the humiliation & degradation of women the way they are being by fundamentalist Muslims (mum was asking about interesting universities to visit & people to talk to). If any of you know who she is, please email me. I've seen stuff about her but can't remember her name either. I guess I'll be talking to a few publishers in London when I get there.

How’s this for a change of pace - for the couple of weeks before I go away I was really exhausted and sometimes unable to move, complete with aches, pains & cramps. This seems reasonable considering I was doing stuff all day each day without a days rest anywhere near as often as I usually need. After a big day and a 9 hour flight during which I filled watching movies, I stayed up talking (and unpacking etc.) until 11.30pm which is 1.30am in Australia. The next day I woke up at 8.45am, later went for a walk to the OUG Plaza, walked back and had lunch, did a bit of computer stuff, then walked back past the OUG Plaza (almost 2 hours walking by this time, but only 6 km so I’m going slower than my usual 4 km/h) to Old Klang Rd and got a taxi to the Mega Mall, wandered around then spent a couple of hours on the internet before getting a cab home in time for afternoon tea (at 6.30pm). Spent the next couple of hours reading about where I’m going to go and places to stay in the next few months, had dinner at 9.30pm then started catching up with the relies? on the phone. Eventually I started working on this email again until 12.15am and I didn’t feel tired. I’d spent probably a couple of hours lying in bed praying or with my mind wandering, but that’s it - 9 hours sleep in over 40 hours and I was still going without the inclination to stop. I thought I would sleep in this morning and yesterday but had no desire to. In the wee hours of the morning & I was so excited I couldn’t sleep and wrote some more, then woke up in time to say 'salamat pagi' to uncle Jega & aunty Anu (actually I just say it to Atun, the housemaid, English is all of my families first language).

At the moment my auntie Dhamayathi is organising dinner for tonight, Thurs. or Fri. with all my cousins who are here in KL (Prabhasa, Kulendra, Dushan & Priya) at her & uncle Vaithynathan's place, I'm organising doing something in town with Dushan & Priya on Saturday and I'll see more relies' than you can poke a stick at on Sunday night at Surendaran & Annie’s wedding (Suren’ is Paramasivan & Janaky's son, and Param' is my dad’s cousin). On Monday I'll head down to Johor Bahru (across from Singapore) with my uncle Sri and auntie Eeswary until the reception in Kluang (a couple of hours drive north of JB) on Sat. the 13th, then stay with uncle Param' & auntie Janaky until the 19th when I'll head back up here to KL (about 6 hours drive from JB) and stay with my auntie Primalini, uncle Kuhan & Prabhasa until the 22nd when I leave. I'll go to Peik See's parents church where we did a grace conference a year ago and say hello to a few people on Sunday morning and on the 21st. Peik See has moved to Sarawak so I'll miss her (in both senses :) ).

Joe's Travel Tips. Get a GSM digital mobile phone (i.e. not an Orange One) (you can get a Motorola with a 300 entry address book, voice dialling etc. for about $200 AUD at the moment) and get global roaming. I had to put down a $500 AUD deposit, which at 16% interest on Bankcard works out at $6.67/month. Join Youth Hostels Australia & get their books about the hostels for the area you will be in (either Europe or the rest of the world, in my case both) but check you have all the pages (I'm missing pages 129-150, including all the pages about London, & there's not much I can do about it now). Stay at Youth Hostels when not staying with friends or relies', book over the internet and ring them from the airport as soon as you land. Ask them how to get there by bus or whatever & approximately what it should cost. The books have a lot of info about how to get to the hostels anyway. One taxi fare saved and you’ve probably paid the cost of getting global roaming for the whole trip; not to mention the feeling when you arrange to meet your cousin Suman in the hotel you're staying at, you go out the front and down the lane to catch him as he arrives, wonder why he's taking so long and ring him on his mobile to find out he went in by a back lane you didn't think off and you were about to miss him. This means you will know exactly where you want to go before you arrive and will get there by the cheapest means possible, which apart from saving you taxi fare also makes it less likely you will be ripped off. I got driven from the airport by some guy in a private car for the lovely sum of $100 Ringgit, $50 Ringgit more than the airport limousine, which is almost $25 AUD difference. Be wary of transport that requires bargaining when you’ve just stepped off a plane into an unfamiliar city (or in my case, one I’ve been in several times previously).

Youth Hostels seem to cost about half again as much as the cheapest possible accommodation or less, and the good ones come with some fancy dooverlackies (hence you need to book ahead). For example "Le d'Artagnan" in Paris costs $19 Euros per night including breakfast & linen and has wheelchair access, groups catered for, all meals available, self catering facilities, café bar, common room, TV room, library, internet access, 3 conference rooms, laundry facilities, luggage storage, a basic shop, lockers available, tourist info., currency exchange and a disco. It’s also 5 km from the city centre. Can anyone guess where I’m intending to stay while in Paris?

Get a good map of the city (preferably one with transport routes, which are sometimes free) and walk around the hostel until you are familiar with the area and can direct a taxi from a well known landmark if you need to. When in Asia (or anywhere else where squirty things are provided in the loos) learn how to use them, if you get the runs your backside will be very grateful. Pack earplugs, a small torch, nail clippers, a sewing kit & a travel clothesline. Learn how to speak a few words in the language of the place you are going. A greeting and ‘where is the toilet?’ are enough to get started. Use whatever language you have, making people laugh is a good thing. Roll all your clothes up (avoids creases).

Apologies for the fact that I get so verbose when I'm hyped up. I always used to say I could say in only one page what most people took a whole sentence to say. Let me know if it's too much and you don't want to hear all my travel exploits.

Love & blessings,
Joe Mithiran