~ unplanned expedition ~
Fri. Feb.26. Up very early...'bout 4am!...head out walking about 8am, thinking I'll catch a bus to Teluk Bahang, where I stayed in early '75. So I head over to the main road, like I'm itching to see the sea...maybe get a view across to the mainland then after that I'll catch a bus out from there. But instead, I end up walking along the shore-front properties towards Gurney snapping as I go. I actually made it to Teluk Bahang a couple of days after the Gurney Drive Expedition. Open-ended plans, indeed...that's what traveling is all about. Spontaneity's the key, right?
The beach is public right-of-way, yeah? Some people have other ideas, yeah. At one stage, some dogs bark at me and a guy...who happens to be Indian...security, stick-in-hand...bluntly shouts at me to “Git”. 'Beach's public, mate”, I shout at him and move on. I don't know if it is or not under Malaysian law, but later reason that, being an ex-British colony, it probably is. Private beaches, bah. As I continue I look along the sea-front towards Gurney Drive beach and Batu Ferringhi little of what one can see, apart from the sea was here 35 years ago.
So much for historic. Just inland is Gurney Drive, a.k.a. 'Millionaire's Alley', formerly with majestic, old mansions...for the colonial idle and wealthy. The Drive is now mostly developed into upmarket seaside hotels and apartments. They seem to be presently unoccupied, as far as I can tell. For we're now in the post-colonial 21st century and the local nouveau-riche don't take too many holidays from their money-making. I presume that they do get out here from KL or Singapore or Hong Kong or Bangkok to stay in their 'investments' only seldomly. As one looks up at the high-rise investment apartment buildings, you can feel a post-modern trendiness...the decadence perhaps? Some of these places might look pretty tatty in the not-to-distant future. An apartment here, costs...I don't know how much?
Again. I have the lingering thought that a lot of the up-market tourist-resort development in S.E.Asia which is already in place or underway...is due to the expectation that hundreds of millions of Asian package-tourists are on the verge of being economically able and willing to afford such holidays. Almost certainly they will reach that stage...like the mass-tourism that happened in the West from the '60s onwards...here in Asia one would think that it will probably hit sometime in the next decade. Independent travel is not really part of the 'Asian' way, either so when it does...wow there'll be some pretty new trillionaires...with places on Gurney, no doubt!
Some of the architecture on display is...interesting..? Some seem to come here now...to get educated here too. There's an nteresting blend of building styles that greets the students at Wawasan University... 'for the rich people'...it says to me...but the slogan on the gate says simply "for the people". Mao and uncle Ho's 21st century people, perhaps?
My plan is still to catch a bus. I get to the beach. By 10am I'm tired, hungry too, and the day is warming up. Must continue, although I feel like heading 'home' to the Noble. I just gotta get to the beach, at least. It'll be the first for me in an awful long time. Kep doesn't count. One thing's for sure...no Teluk Bahang today. I flagged the bus idea a couple-a-hours ago. Another day. It's been 35 years...what's another day. Eventually I do return to the Noble on foot, by road this time...calling in at a 'Giant' supermarket...to cool down. There's a place for air-con after all! Time to remember that skyward view as you leave the Gurney beach area on the road back to central Georgetown. And that shore-line up towards Batu Ferringhi...the rock of the foreigner it means. Well after Gurney, I didn't have the desire to visit the rock place...but I did see it's Hard Rock Cafe from the bus when I made it out to Teluk Banang later on.
Remember too the CCTV surveilance area notice; a not so wealthy individual is searching through the garbage cans...to the surprise of onlooking [Asian] tourists...the locals not in the slight bit interested. I know the feeling mate...don't think he'll find much in the ones I've just walked past though! Amazing what some people throw away, and here on 'millionaire's' alley you just never know... On the way back I'm temporarily disorientated even thought the top of the landmark Komplex Tunku Abdul Rahman Tower is visible. Komtar's in downtown Georgetown but it wouldn't be out of place up here on Gurney really either. For some reason though it's tallness aside, it's round shape means that it's not much navigational help...to me. Maybe it's because it looks the same from all directions. After I emerge from the coolness of the market, a friendly guy, who happens to be from India, puts me right...I wasn't too far away from where I thought I was, after all. And so I continue along for a few hundred metres and turn a corner and slog on down Jn. Chulia and into the fan-room at Noble...very hot again so cooling down gently for half an hour, before showering.
Reportedly, when Daniel Boone, the explorer of the American mid-West, was asked
“Ever bin lost out there, Dan”, he replied,
“No, never. Only temporarily disorientated...for a year or so at a time”.
I seem to remember, from somewhere, that he also said:
Come to think of it, Dan probably relied on the locals too, for directions and possibly other 'ection' words as well?
“When ya don't see no Injuns, that's where they're thickest”,
'Boone-talk' ...about [relationships?] when things are going great, all rosy...
After Gurney Drive I upload pfotos to the laptop...some well-constructed. This camera is a point and shoot...not designed to compose frames with...and the main problem is that the screen doesn't really give me too much opportunity...in full sunlight you can't see hardly anything at all. Guess I need a big [expensive] SLR to get round that one. But, I believe, there's absolutely no reason for not taking some passably good snaps, at least of buildings because on perusing the frames taken today, it's apparent that a 29mm lens is great...getting used to it might take a while.
And another thing...playing around with the exposure is possible too..just remember to re-adjust the settings back! Some of the day's pfotos seem to be pretty damn well-balanced...taken as they were in the heat of the day/moment...without too much effort, too. Using the grid overlay on the screen helps a lot...especially if there's a horizon involved! Maybe it's just that the earth, the planet, and everything on it, is pretty damn well-balanced anyway...you just can't miss...or beginner's luck.
A whimsy...
“Superior indeed, isn't it, to have a simple view such as this from one's verandah, don't you think old chap”?
“Indeed, it's everything”...it's what the Empire is all about...he's sure of that.
“Took the jolly old words right off me upper lip, old boy”.
The old days...the good days... the only days. He continues though...
“Relaxing with a 'gin and tonic', to such a view, of an afternoon, after having a difficult time of it”...needs no explanation.
“ I say old boy, really spiffing...”, as he stands up, stiffly...ghostly...as ghostly as his manner of speaking.
“So glad you could make it...again, Charles”.
“ Really can't imagine that there'll be that much left soon...only reminiscences”.
Superior view indeed...at least, what's left of it, he thinks as he returns gliding to his dozing great, great. grandson's 'intelligent' apartment, happy and totally relaxed but keeping to the shadows, as usual, as he goes...
...what's that...where's me shades, dear...I mean to say...