BKK-KL-KB (1)

After at least 15 visits to Bangkok, I've now come to view its streets only from the heights of an apartment or the cocoon of a car. A world of plush hotel lobbies, giant malls, swanky restaurants and hushed massage parlours, forays into Jatujat, meetings with wonderful Thai friends. Jerome and I spent 3 days savoring these rainy, decandent pleasures.

On Tuesday I caught a shuttle flight to KL for the first time. Unlike the flat density of BKK and home, this city was spread-eagled across the hills, inter-connected by arterial highways. Driving along these I'd suddenly see a block of flats straddling the high darkness, or a cozily lit hamlet in a concavity of land. I met up with Meng, Ed and Simon, and at 4.30 am the next morning, we awoke to catch our flight to Kota Bahru.

From the air-strip we drove though padi and villages, past countless women on scooters with multi-coloured tudungs, into Terengganu and down to the coast. At the fishing town we boarded a ferry for an hour long trip to the island of Perhentian in the South China sea.