Vagabond Jim

...that Kuah Town ("kwah" town) is even hotter than Kuantan?  How??? I just don't know.  But it is.  And, it was overcast!  B R U T A L  Brutal, I tell ya.  You don't care.  Truth be told, it's a hassle but I'll be fine. The "feels like temp" was 112F when I went out!  It's chillin' out now.  Yay! The day has been a long one.  I had an 1100 flight.  Not being sure how Grab would be I did not want to play it loosely. So at 0700 I was on my way to have breakfast.  With Bob.  Damn right I was gonna dine at his place again.  It's really good.  If you find yourself in his neighborhood before 1000 have breakfast there.  (They only do breakfast.) Bob's place.  It's soooooooooooo good. Mee goreng today.  Spicy, complex flavors, simple food that fills one's belly and soul.  I'll miss it. Then pack, shower, check-out, Grab ride all went to plan.  So did the airport (except the worst coffee I've had in a long time.  2 sips and I

  The sun blazes with the heat of ... A single sun shining relentlessly on The Tropics.  Relentless. Hot. Relentlessly hot.  Threatening to blister tender white skin in seconds. Oh, wait, we tried to establish that previously. Lunch was tricky today.  Simple yet tricky. The warungs open at 1500.  I was hungry at 1300.  I decamped to the kopitam sure I'd find something I wanted on the menu.  Corn dogs?  No.  "Chaos Nachos?" Decidedly no!  OK, French fries and lemonade.  Cannot get any more Malaysian than that.  As the tourism office says here: "Malaysia is Asia!" (Honestly, that is their slogan.  This meal aside, well and the Subway franchise down the street too, it is very wonderfully true.) Kecap ("Ketzapt) originated in the Malay Archipleago ( The Good Stuff ) as a sweetened soy sauce.  The British took it home, back in the day.  And, of course as the British are prone to doing, butchered its name.  Worse, they changed it entirely.  Since the summer of 1

  I'm neither brave nor proud...but I am in possession of the chicken across the road! Tuna of some sort Tiny cockles and clams This is very close, but not in the direction that I hear the prayer calls. 2.25 miles in the morning heat. I was drenched.  And, hatless (foolish) - we'll see if that comes back to haunt me. Breakfast was at the kopitam - the folks across the street were all closed.  I'm not sure why.  But the coffee shop is pretty good.  Hot tea with nasi lemak is wonderful.  Today it was tea with lemon - even better!  So good I had two nasi.  And, They're not pyramids, they're tetrahedrons.   

After writing earlier I was tired enough to nap.  Can one nap from 0600 - 0700?  The sun was not up when I started dozing, that's not a nap. But I awoke after an hour.  Hungry. So, hat on, I walked across the road.  Existential threat be damned - I was no chicken today.  And, I looked rightward.   None of the collection of restaurants directly across the road were open.  Except a guy selling Nasi Lemak from a card table.  OK, I was a chicken and decided not to try roadside, wall-less vendors.  Yet.  I walked a hundred yards.  One place was open and had a good crowd.  But cowardice once again prevailed.  I stand out pretty obviously here.  Especially with white as snow legs and a funny hat.  (I LOVE my Tilley Endurables hats.  2 came with me on this trip; the third is too heavy for this weather.)  Fearing awkwardness is silly but real at times. I saw a bunch of cars parked in the road and people milling so I walked there.  Yes, they had parked in the road.  To stop at the fish monge