Kuala Lumpur, Again!

7 March 2009

We spent our last week in Thailand, and stayed on the same beach for a week. Quite frankly, there isn’t much to say except that we relaxed and we cleaned the wombat thoroughly. It was great. Oh, and we finally did something with the surfboard. As suggested by Patricia, we turned it into a form of Art. A big mosaic with the name of the bar where we slept. All it took was three colours of electric tape, scissors, patience and a little creativity! It took about 4 hours but turned out really nice, we were quite proud.

On the last day of our visa, we made a dash for the border, and came into quite heavy rain. We said goodbye to the year 2552 in Thailand and came back to 2009 in Malaysia! We made it to Malaysia without any worries, and drove on the perfect highways towards KL. We were both surprised in the ease with which we passed customs and immigration! We made a overnight stop on a highway rest place, which was clean and quaint, and then drove on to KL. In KL, our first stop was at our friend Stiven’s 4x4 shoppe, and he let us borrow his GPS with the KL map to run our errands, which was quite nice of him! We were having fun by changing the voices and languages on the device. We put it in French Canadian, and there was even Luxembourgish! “Lenks ofbeien!” We spent the night in the KL hills.

The next day, we ran more errands, and got everything ready for shipping the wombat to Chennai. Unfortunately, by then I was sick again, I think I ate some bad seafood, but hey, it’s part of the joys and woes of travelling!

We slept our last night for a week in the wombat, at Stiven’s brothers’ workshop with two cute guard dogs who were happy for the company!

Yesterday morning, we left for port Klang, collected a 250 RM deposit the port still owed me, and drove to the agent that is taking care of the shipping. Mr Abul was very friendly (and MC found him quite stylish in his fuschia shirt.) Again, nothing too exciting happened, but we like it that way when we’re dealing with shipping! The car was driven in the container, lashed and locked without a problem! In the container yard, we met two other overlanders travelling in the car of choice, a 75 series Landcruiser! They are shipping their car back to Europe, after 16 months on the road. It was great to talk to them, and we hope to stay in contact!

Now, all we are waiting for is to catch our flight to Chennai. We are going to beat the car there by 5 days, so hopefully we will get time to get to know the port and get everything sorted before the car arrives.

It has been almost 5 months that we have been driving around South East Asia, and I can’t say that we are leaving the region without a little regret. It is a really beautiful place, with so many wonders to see, but as usual, the most wonderful thing about our trip around has been the people we have met. I hope that it continues like this in the future.

Jonathan

Epic day in KL

What a fantastic day!

We woke up and had fried eggs and toast for breakfast...it had been a while!

I wanted to walk today, so we decided to venture to the Orchid Gardens. We walked by the river and it was lovely, although ridiculously humid. We were sweating and I had the crazy hiccups. After cooling down at a dep, we bought water and kept going.

The gardens were lovely, we debated going to the bird park, but I’m glad we focused on the gardens. There were fountains (lillypads rule!) and covered walkways and old gazebos, it was really beautiful. Closer to the hibiscus gardens there were tons of monkeys raiding the rubbish bins. Mummy, Daddy, and baby monkeys everywhere, fighting over trash! I got pretty close to one to take a photo and it hissed at me! I was scared senseless, but went on taking photos. It was fun!

After a great afternoon, we set off to pick up the wombat from the mechanic’s. Jonny looked up which suburb train to take, and we chose to take a taxi from there.

6 Janvier 2009

We arrived at 4x4 Malaysia at 530, as planned. We went over the work that was done on the car (they even washed it and waxed it for us!), paid the bill and had a beer!!! Stiven is fantastic! He has travelled to over 70 countries and is full of knowledge. He gave us tips and “must sees”! He got me very excited about Nepal, I hope we get there. He will give us a contact to help us in shipping the car from KL to Bangladesh! After our beer, Stiven took us to dinner. We followed him and Peter, one of the mechanics, in the wombat. The restaurant was 8km from KL on a mountain (great view of the city). It is a secret gem! It is a Thai restaurant where the cook are from Thailand, so the food is really authentic. Stiven ordered everything, so we didn’t have to make decisions. We have tom yam soup with prawns, calimari, and mussels, garlic greens, a type of local bean with soy sauce, bbq lamp, bbq fish (so fresh, they JUST took it out of the water and stuck it on the grill) and mango salad (cucumber, carrot, mango, lemon juice, chili, dried prawns and peanuts). EPIC dinner! We even tried a local drink of fermented coconut flower juice mixed with Guiness! Very special...Stiven is such a nice man, we could talk about everything and anything. He gave us such wonderful tips, I’m glad we had the chance to meet him.

At dinner, I was frightened by a rogue crab that escaped his cage. Embarassing....

A few many tiger beers later, we headed back to the hostel. What a great night!

Marie-Claude

The Wombat is Freed

3 Janvier 2009

Finally, we got the wombat free! A few hitches though, we had to pay a late fee as the container had been sitting in the port’s yard for more than 5 days, and I also had to organize for the container to be picked up ( this took me most of the day of course...) but in the end, it was all good. The wombat roared to life for the first time since the 23rd of December, and it was as if we had never left it! All was in order, although a bit dusty. Nothing a car wash won’t fix! I drove back to KL and parked it near the hostel, and went back to join MC who was still feeling a little ill, but a lot better since she rested most of the day.

Now it is time to get things together for our Malaysian trip! Fill up the gas tank for the stove, do a little groceries, get an oil change and a clean for the wombat, and we are set!

Will anyone insure me please?

2 January 2009

The plan for the day was as follows, quickly find an insurer, get the infamous ICP(International Circulation Permit) from the Malaysian Government Roads and Transportation department, and then go to the port to get the car out. It sounded pretty easy, so i set off while MC stayed at the hostel to rest from the cold she caught the other day.

I set off to the UniAsia insurance office, which was a short Monorail ride away. I had read online that another person travelling overland with his car had used them for the insurance. Well,at the office, every person that saw the carnet they looked a bit puzzled and passed it on to next. Finally, they decided that they couldn’t do anything for me. I was thrilled. They suggested a tiny insurance company next door, they thought that they might help me.

I went and checked it out, and there was one young lady that was working the counter and about a dozen of people waiting to be served. As nothing had changed in the 10 minutes I spent there, I decided to move on. My next idea was to go see the Malaysian Automobile Club (AAM). They issued carnets, so they must be familiar with the process, and might be able to point me in the right direction.

I was thrilled to hear that, in fact, they would be able to insure me, and issue the ICP at the same time as well. YAY! The bad news was, i wasn’t at the right office. I had to go across town. Oh well, at least i could get everything done there.

By the time I got to the main AAM office, it was already 12:15. I talked to the lady, she knew what I was going on about straight away, and I handed over my documents. She seemed puzzled that i didn’t have any registration papers for the car, and I insisted that the carnet was proof of registration itself, as they wouldn’t issue it if it wasn’t registered. She got on the phone, started chatting away, and then passed the receiver to me. The guy on the other side was the manager. He insisted that I needed registration papers, as I needed to prove that the car was in my name, and the carnet itself can apparently be issued to anyone, not just the owner. I was still trying to cling on to my logic, but the manager would have none of it. He did offer to call Peppina (the carnet officer in Australia) to confirm that the car was mine, but he wouldn’t be able to do that until 3 o’clock because he was away. That was in 2 and a half hours. I said that was fine, I was going to sit in the office until then. I had nothing better to do, as i planned to go straight to the port after that!

I feel like I’m going on a long boring rant here, but, in the end, I got what we needed, after a little help from the AAM people, but by then it was 5 o’clock, and it was way too late to start things rolling at the port. Oh well, it’ll have to wait until tommorow.

I went back home, had some dinner with MC, had a beer and went to bed!

Looks like 2008 end in KL

December 30 2008

We woke up at 530. Jonny hopped straight in the shower as I whined and winged; a typical morning for us both. Once awake, I wanted to focus on positive things. I wanted to get it in my head that it was possible to see our friends in Thailand tonight if we were efficient, positive and hard working. Sadly, some things are just left out of our control...

Walking toward the bus stop in KL I told Jonny about “The Secret”. I saw it on Oprah a while back, and it really baffled me. He seemed to think it was a bunch of hooplah because he just kept walking briskly, as he does. I just kept imagining myself on the beach in Thailand, surprising our friends at the new year’s countdown.

We arrived in Klang at about 815 am. We waited for the bus to westports, but apparently no one is interested in going there... we waited for about 30 minutes until Jonny went to ask how much a cab cost. I waited for him to get back, and I saw him hop out a cab. I guess it was cheap to take a cab (40 RM). We get to westports and I’m feeling a little woozy. I sit back and read some F. Scott as Jonny goes to the customer service counter. It turns out the wombat is at North port. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Jonny organizes for another cab to come and drive us to North port. He wants 60 RM, we don’t have a choice. By then, it is 10 am (my watched died in the night, I’m wondering if it’s cheaper to just buy a new one, instead of changing the battery).

We get to North port. I sit in the festive office. I say festive because they really got into the holiday spirit and turned the thermostat to minus 20C. Seriously. It feels like they’re trying to make it snow in here. I fear I will catch pneumonia in here. Seriously.

Jonny goes and makes a friend at the counter as I curl up in a little ball on a couch. It turns out we need to get a permit for our car at the ministry of transportation. Jonny goes with Mike to customs and I stay behind to “watch the bags”. I feel like crap. I try and position myself on the couch so that it looks like I’m reading to the people at the desk, and so it doesn’t look like I’m snoozing at their workplace. Success. A funny man walks in who makes everyone laugh and wakes me up.

Jonny comes back with the carnet all signed and ready to go. We need to get a sheet stamped by Syina back at the Modern Shipping office that releases the car to us, and we need to get the permit from the ministry. Jonathan says that he will go take care of everything. I will rest on the icicle couch. I go eat lunch.

Jonny said that once everything is done, the customer service office can call the container people and have our car taken out. It would take a total of about 2 hours do unload the cargo.

Now it is 330 pm, I am still waiting for Jonnyboy. If he doesn’t get back soon, we will have to go back to KL without the car, because there won’t be enough time to unload the container. I’m afraid that if he doesn’t get back soon, we will have to wait until friday the 2nd to get the Wombat.

I tried to think positive, but it looks like this one’s out of our hands (again). Maybe for “the secret” to work, you need to imagine those things months in advance. Jonny and I don’t know what we’re doing tomorrow, so we can’t send positive energies into the universe in advance....damn....maybe I should just think ahead and focus my positive energy on a pony...hmmmm

MC

JD writes- In the end, it turns out we were missing a document form the Road and transportation department, and we could only get this if we could prove that we were insured. I found this out at around 4 o’clock, and decided that the wombat was not going to be freed today. I headed back to the port to find a exhausted MC and a couple of eager port officers. They helped me sort out all the documents that I needed so that I could come back on Friday the 2nd and get the car out as quickly as possible. It was kinda neat, as they took me behind the scenes and were extremely friendly. Most of the people I saw today were a bit overwhelmed and lost when i tried to explain my story, but the guys at Northport customer service and documentation office were right on the ball, and they went out of their way to help us. Rasa, from customer services even offered us a ride back to Port Klang, so we could catch a bus back to KL.

As I was taking a shower at a new hostel, MC befriended some Russian people, one of whom hardly spoke English, and they invited us to go clubbing with them. We all headed out to an area with a bunch of clubs, where MC and I stopped to grabbed a bite, while the others went inside a club. Unfortunately, we never saw them again, and about 30 minutes before midnight, MC and I went to a little bar near the Petronas towers. At midnight everybody cheered and some fireworks went off, but we couldn’t see them very well as they were partly hidden by the skyscrapers. It was still fun though, and after we walked around the town until we caught the Monorail back to the hotel and went to bed.

To Klang and Back

30 Decembre 2008

I woke up at 930 feeling like it was 3 am and I hadn’t rested. I really don’t like those morning. I was ready to call every port agent in Klang to try and get the wombat.

First, I called the contact that Mr Indrawan gave me in Klang. It was a nice lady named Syima at Modern Shipping. She told me that we had to pay a release fee of 610RM in cash to her at the office to release the car. It turns out that the port didn’t have a record of our cargo because we haven’t paid the release fee. It makes sense so that people can’t get their cargo unless they’ve paid. She gave me the name of a shipping agent who could help facilitate the retrieval of our cargo.

I call the agent, Mr Halim, who tells me that it is going to take 2-3 days to complete the paperwork to get the cargo. Because it is a car, we have to apply for customs approval to release it and it needs to be inspected. I was pretty upset...I wanted the car today to drive up to Thailand to see our friends for New Year’s!

To calm down, I call my family on Skype. It is so nice to see them. My brother shows me his new bass and my mom shows me her Montréal Canadiens paraphernalia. I think the Canadiens heard that I was down because as I was talking to my family, they won against Florida 5-2 (they scored twice while I was on the phone with them!). Lapierre got a hat trick, which means the Canadiens have scored a hat trick in the last two games they’ve played! (Kostistyn scored a hat trick against Pittsburgh). In any case, I was pretty psyched. Another picker-upper was to see my kitty cats on the webcam. It’s silly but I miss them very very much. Pets dont call or email, so Skype is as good as it gets!

So now I was all happy and ready to face the bureaucracy of shipping companies. We took the bus to Klang without a hitch and arrived in the town centre. We took a taxi for 20 RM to the Modern Shipping office. Syima was waiting for us, remembered our names, and was ready to help us. It took me a while to understand everything that needed to be done. We were meant to apply for customs approval, pay our fee and then we would get a ledger number that needs to be entered into an electronic system which allows us to release the cargo from the port. Apparently we needed to hire an agent because we don’t have access to the electronic system.

So we had lunch and called the agent again. His fees were 400RM + 700RM because it is a car + the 610RM release fee. That is ridiculous! It’s almost as much as the shipping itself! So we went back to see Syima. She told us that was indeed too much money, so she gave us the name of another agent.

I called him, and he said that because we had a carnet, we didn’t need to apply for customs approval. All we needed to do was pay the fee and get the shipping company (Syima) key in the ledger number to release the car to us. The reason you hire an agent is that individuals don’t have access to the electronic system, so when the shipping agent keys in the ledger number, they can’t release the car to us, they release it to the agent. The agent we called wanted to charge us 600 RM (cheaper than the other guy) but he was out of town! So while he was on holiday, we would do all the work and go to the port, but we would have to wait until he was back in town to release our car! Screw that!

We went back to see Syima ( she was so patient and polite with us!) who told us that it was unreasonable. She made a phone call and said that we could go to the port in the morning and we should be able to get things sorted. We paid the 610RM release fee, to avoid having to come back to the office. She gave us the invoice and said that we should be okay now.

Many people are not familiar with the carnet, and now I’ve learned to talk to as many people as it needs to find someone who has heard of it! The procedures are different whether you hold a carnet or not, so it’s important to hear the steps to take from someone who knows what a carnet is! I wouldn’t have panicked about all of this 2-3 days custom approval thing if I had just kept calling different people until I spoke to someone who was certain what a carnet was. Live and learn!

We headed back to the Klang city centre and had 45 minutes until 5pm. We thought it might be worthwhile to go to the port just so that we would be familiar with it and could get things done faster the next day. We waited at the bus stop until 450pm and then realized that we should just go back to KL and go straight to Westports in the morning. By then, it had been a long day!

Back in KL we went to the same curry house as before. Jonny had his favourite tandoori chicken with butter naan and I had an almost-too-spicy tom yam soup. Great dinner.

We bought snacks to have a little movie night. Volcano was on television. I love seeing geologists in movies. Anne Heche is classic. I love when movies over simplify geology...I reckon they do the same for every subject in movies, but I notice geology because that’s what I studied. When Anne Heche explains plate tectonics to Tommy Lee Jones: classic. I internet-movie-databased to see the goofs, Jonny and I laughed. Good times. We ended up watching Full Metal Jacket for movie night. Not a good thing to watch right before bed...Especially when the alarm is set for 530 the next morning.

Marie-Claude

Stuck (but happy) in KL

29 Decembre 2008

We were hoping to pick up the wombat and be on our merry way today, but we were foiled by a public holiday yet again. Seems to be a little tradition that when we ship our car it arrives on long weekend. Today is a muslim holiday, so offices in Malaysia and Indonesia are closed. That meant that we were not able to reach Mr Indrawan, who still hadn’t sent us the bill of lading. I called the Aeroswan office in Jakarta but Mr Indrawan was not in. No one spoke English, only Bahasa Indonesia...At the hostel, I found a woman who spoke English and Bahasa Melayu and another woman who spoke Bahasa Melayu and Bahasa Indonesia. I was able to, in English, tell the first woman what I wanted to tell the man on the phone. The first woman, in Bahasa Melayu, told the second woman what I said who then, in Bahasa Indonesia, told the man on the phone. It was tricky, but it looked like we were getting somewhere. It turns out all he said was “try tomorrow”. I wanted my car today, so I was not giving up! I called the area of the port where we thought our container was (according to the tracking website) but they had no record of our container. I was given the number to call the vessel operator, who also had no record of our container being in the yard. He said that he didn’t even have a record of it being put on the ship in Jakarta! Oh boy...I was stressing on the phone! I was on the phone at the entry of our neighbouring hostel where on my right everyone was trying to check out, and on my left a bus’ engine was being repaired (and the revs tested). I could not hear much and was getting so confused. How could the website confirm it made it, but not the port? The nice man at the vessel company gave me 3 other phone numbers to try, but there was no answer at any of them...looks like the wombat will sleep alone in the dark for one more night.

We decided to go walking around after having eaten a pizza. We saw the Petronas twin towers, and the expensive mall under them. We went to see the latest James Bond movie, it was awesome. Once out of the cinema, it was dark and the towers looked amazing! They are so nice all lit up! Also, we had a nice view of the KL tower, that was imitating the Eiffel and twinkling all sweetly. We started back to the hostel, and decided to take the monorail. Jonny was happy.

We went back to the same curry house for a nice dinner. amazing.

Marie-Claude

Kuala Lumpur

28 Decembre 2008

Melaka is stunning and quaint, but we couldn’t stay long. The hotel we stayed at, Hotel Kancil, was very nice. It was quiet, the cleanest I’ve seen and the staff was friendly. It was very hard to find accomodation because the Prime Minister is in town, and we have to get to KL to organize getting our car, so we left.

It was hot and we were out of the way of the central bus terminal, so we took a taxi there. It cost 15 RM but saved so much hassle! I was told by a nice woman at the bus stop that they don’t run as often in Sundays, and that the bus driver would charge us more to go to Plaza Sentral. I’m glad we took a cab.

Once at the terminal we bought tickets to Kuala Lumpur, which is 2 hours away from Melaka, for 12.20 RM each! The bus was leaving in 10 minutes (I hate waiting around) which was just enough time to run and grab some drinks at 7/11 before leaving. I ran to buy them as Jonny brought our bags to the bus. I had 5 minutes by the time we found the right gate. Of course, I got lost. There were so many people, and 3 ways to get back to the terminal. I followed the signs but i ended up at the domestic bus terminal instead of the interstate bus terminal. I panicked and probably frightened a sweet lady as a yelled for directions. Everything ended up fine...as per usual

The bus ride went quickly.

Once in KL, we saw a bunch of hostels right next to where the bus dropped us off. We were tired and annoyed (and lazy) so we just took one there. We could have saved a couple of bucks by going to China town, but we figured it wasn’t worth it. We got a private room with a/c anf free wifi for 60 RM.

We went to a splendid curry house and had some naan and roti. yum yum. After, we walked around and bought some books. We also had a coffee at 9pm....

We stayed up late, all cafeined up. Jonny checked the website to track our container and saw the our ship and container arrived on the 28th at 1pm! We still haven’t received the bill of landing though...hopefully it will all be sorted tomorrow...(no more late coffee Jonny didn’t get to bed until 430am!!!)

Marie-Claude

And on to Malaysia

27 December 2008

We woke up a little late, as we did go late night shopping in Mustafa Centre last night, and had a good breakfast at the hostel. It is the third time that I come to this hostel, and I can remember, the very first time I came here was also my first time in Asia. I had been surprised to see noodles for breakfast, and also a little surprised to see all this food was just sitting outside on a table for everybody to serve themselves. Well, I can tell you now that after spending a month in Indonesia, the food seems absolutely luxurious! It was relaxing to be in a some what familiar environment.

It seemed like the bus to Malacca wasn’t going to be before 2:30 pm, so we went for a light vegetarian lunch at Suriyas on Serangoon road. It was great, and I am really looking forward to more Indian food! We should be there in a couple of months!

We caught the bus with the usual complications, but nothing surprising (booked solid so had to wait for the next bus, wouldn’t take Credit Card, so had to go to the ATM) The bus broke down at the border, but they had a replacement there within 30 min, so no worries. One nice thing about the ride was that the bus did take a break at roadstop a supper time, so we got to eat a quick supper before getting back on the bus.

We took a while to find a hostel, as the taxi drivers wouldn’t take us downtown, as the prime minister was visiting and the city was jammed with traffic. So we caught a city bus instead, which turned out to be cheap and effective! All hotels were full so we got back on the bus and some locals pointed us in the right direction. We found a beautiful guesthouse, and felt right at home straight away! It was quite an intense day!

JD