Flawed-democratic Federation of Malaysia
Tengkat Tong Shin A 28/25/F
Mutiara Villa Condos
Fully-furnished 700-sqft one-bedroom apartment (no. A-25-F) on the 25th floor for MYR 1,750.- or US$ 483.- per month, with balcony and free access to gym and swimming pool with Jacuzzi. Stunning views over the city.
Click below for an interactive road map of the Mutiara Villa Condos in Kuala Lumpur and for directions:
Meeting Tilo and Herry, the German and Romanian founders and administrators of the informative travel website Backpacking Asia, realising that backpacking in comparison to perpetual travelling is like charter sailing compared with liveaboard cruising, and twigging the driving forces of Southeast Asia's booming backpacking industry: (i) the immense spending power of many well-off backpackers (...and their middle-class parents) who hurry from dorm to dorm during their holidays or sabbatical leave and who are keen to cover as many destinations in as little time as possible in order to enhance their status on their curriculum vitae, (ii) the desperate effort of many overegoed backpackers (during their quarter-life crisis) to overcome their subconscious xenophobia, which (a) steers them to overpriced and greenwashed backpacker ghettoes with names like "One World", "Rainforest", "Trekker", "Green" or "Eco", (b) makes them always double-check the seals of their water bottles, (c) attracts them to seemingly hygienic international (fast-food) chain restaurants with "Western food" instead of local (slow-food) eateries, (d) gets them ready to believe the silly travel warnings of the politicians and civil servants in their home countries and (e) holds "malicious bacteria", "contaminated water" or the "sickening climate" accountable for their self-induced psychosomatic sufferings, and, last but not least, (iii) the obsession of many blogging, tweeting or facebooking backpackers who are busy around the clock with their netbooks and smart phones in order to tell the Joneses about their adventures as travellers and as explorers (not as ordinary tourists, perish the thought) on this not-so-lonely planet: backpacking obviously means arriving … back home in Western Europe, in the UK, in Australia, in north Mexico, in Canada, soon-to-be also in Russia (including Poland), China (excluding Tibet) and in India, the world's fastest growing economy and democrazy.
"Modern tourist guides have helped raised tourist expectations. And they have provided the natives - from Kaiser Wilhelm down to the villagers of Chichacestenango - with a detailed and itemized list of what is expected of them and when. These are the up-to-date scripts for actors on the tourists stage."
Konni: Circumnavigating one half of the globe to Toronto/Ontario and changing temporarily my identity from a "perpetual traveller" to a "domestic helper" (an unpaid permatemp, alas) in order to assist our number-one daughter Ulrike who had just given birth to our second un-cloned grandson Tien at home (planned home births reduce the rates of obstetric interventions and other adverse perinatal outcomes compared with planned hospital births).
"I cannot follow you, my love,
you cannot follow me.
I am the distance you put between
all of the moments that we will be.
You know who I am,
you've stared at the sun,
well I am the one who loves
changing from nothing to one.
Sometimes I need you naked,
sometimes I need you wild,
I need you to carry my children in
and I need you to kill a child."
you cannot follow me.
I am the distance you put between
all of the moments that we will be.
You know who I am,
you've stared at the sun,
well I am the one who loves
changing from nothing to one.
Sometimes I need you naked,
sometimes I need you wild,
I need you to carry my children in
and I need you to kill a child."
Click below for more blog posts about our grandchildren
01 Aug - 28 Aug 2010 Toronto
07 May - 26 May 2009 Toronto
24 Oct - 04 Dec 2008 Khao Pilai
01 Jan - 10 Mar 2007 El Gouna
01 Jan - 25 Aug 2006 Ashkelon
Click below for a summary of this year's travels
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| Facing Malaysia © Konni & Matt |
Recommended books - click below for your order from Germany
