Back in Malaysia

To answer Carboman's questions, my trip to the backwater countries mentioned recently are all business trips.

I came back to Malaysia on Saturday and am glad to be able to eat the delicious food in Malaysia again. Here you can walk into any restaurant or food stall and pretty much everything is good to eat. Even when you order foreign cuisine like Italian or Arabic, you can expect something good Not so over there in Tu*****tan.

Before I continue let me write a bit more about what I had over there since my last post.

Ordered margarita pizza (tomato and cheese) from the Italian restaurant at Nissa hotel. What arrived on my table was a thin bread with an equally thin layer of melted cheese. At the outer rim of the pizza, the "chef" had splashed a thin layer of tomato sauce. There were no slices of tomatoes, onion or green pepper. Does this thing deserve to be called a pizza?

The next day, I went to Yimpas shopping centre. My aim was to sample the local Turkmen food at the food court. I ordered rice, 2 pieces of fried fish in batter and some green beans. What I ended eating was the fish. The rice was a big soggy and the green beans cold and lifeless. So much for the local cuisine.

On running, last Saturday I ran in Asghabat. The area I ran had a lot of government buildings. As usual there were the assorted police and soldiers standing around every 200 to 300m. The park where I ran was beautiful although there were not many trees. But I don't mind running around the flowers.

In the park, there were many fountains so I ran a loop around several of them. There was a man selling ice-cream from a cart. The park was quite deserted with only half a dozen people sitting on benches. A large number of workers were doing some maintenance on the plant , watering them etc.

At the my current pathetic state of fitness, I only managed to run about 3 km. On the way back the hotel, as I was crossing the road I stepped on the divider which was planted with grass. I overheard someone shouting in a intelligible language. I turned and saw some soldiers shouting and waving. I did not what they said but I guessed it something to do with me stepping on the grass. I ignored their shouts and continued walking. Want to chase me ? Go ahead.

I still have trouble with my right knee. I don't think I will be able to run any races this year.

Turkmenistan Post #2 Food Adventures

Another report abut my food (mis)adventures here in Ashgabat.

Tuesday evening saw me and a colleague walking towards the only Chinese restaurant in Ashgabat. I ordered egg and vegetable fried rice and stir fried cabbage, carrots and green beans. We asked for takeaway and got a blank look from the waitress. After making a few hand gestures, we made our request understood; Take away equivalent here is packet.

I was hoping to have a good tasty dinner. Alas my hopes were dashed when I had the first take of the fried rice back in hotel room. The fried rice was very bland and utterly tasteless. For reinforcement, I added the stir fried vegetable fried in soya sauce. The flavour improved a bit and I was able to eat about six spoonfuls. But after a while I gave up and discarded both dishes into the trash can. I think this was the first time I have come across a Chinese restaurat anywhere that serves awful food. The price was USD 4.

Next day (Wednesday), I had dinner at a fancier restaurant at Yimpas. Yimpas is the only shopping centre cum supermarket. On the 3rd floor, there is some restaurant and a bowling alley. I ordered fish cooked in soup and rice. Besides a huge chunk of fish, there were two slices of tomato covered in cheese and sliced potatoes. The fish was quite hard and tasteless. I forked bits of the fish and ate them with the small amount of rice. I finished off the smal slices potatoes and tomato. I left 90% of the fish untouched as it quite inedible.

On Thursday it was a public holiday - Day of Constitution. I skipped lunch and was quite hungry by 6.00pm. I went to hotel Italian restaurant and ordered tomato soup and seafood pasta. The tomato soup was OK . The seafood pasta tasted slightly bitter and the spaghetti was a bit hard because they have not been fully cooked. Neverthess due to hunger I managed to eat half of it.
The price = USD 12 including 2 glasses of orange juice.

Todaay is Friday. Tonight's dinner will be Magii mee curry;a welcomed respite from the awful food I've eaten over the past 4 days.

Turkmenistn - Post #1

I have been here for 4 days.

Sunrise here is at 5.00 am and sunset at 8.00pm but so far I haven't run a single step. Besides the cold that I've had since 8 days ago, my right knee is sore again.

The food here does not suit me at all. At the hotel restaurant, they serve only Italian food. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy eating Italian food but their version is the worse IMITATION Italian food I've ever tasted. Last night I had instant noddles - Magii Curry.

It's hard to find good places to eat in Ashgabat and mind you this is the capital city and largest city in Turkmenistan.

Turkmenistan Links

I am hoping to post some stories during my stay in Turkmenistan. In the meantime, here are some links to stories about this relatively unknown country:

from the BBC,

and from someone who had visited the country in 1998.

Going Overseas again

I am going overseas again - this time to Turkmenistan. I will taking the Thai airways flight tonight at 8.15 pm to Bangkok. Then I take another flight at 4.00 am to Ashagbat, Turkmenistan.

I will staying in Turkmenistan for about 2 weeks until 27 May (Saturday) . Normally, May would the month where I would start training for the Ipoh and Seremban half marathons in July. If I was travelling anywhere, I would be worried that I would not be able to train properly. This year, I am not worried as I am unable to run very far now. To date (3 months now), my right knee is still injured and I have only been able to run 3 to 4 km about 2 to 3 times a week.

Yesterday I ran at KLCC park but only managed to run 1.3km before giving up.

No doubt that my running friends are training hard for the PAR relay race in June

Bye-Bye Sudan

I am writing this post from the international airport in Doha, Qatar.

Before I continue , let me write "Bye-bye Sudan". I was glad to have left Sudan.

When I was at Khartoum airport this afternoon, the check-in process was utterly chaotic. People were jostling about and porters waiting like hungry vultures. There was no system or signboards to guide anyone where to check-in.

Around the check-in area, I took a photo. Immediately two guys (porters) pounced on me and one grabbed my camera. One guy said "No photo" while another said "Fullus, Fullus". In Arabic , fullus is money. They were asking for money!. I replied "No fullus!" and refused to give any money to them. Seeing that they won't be gettting any money from me, the guy who held my camera returned it to me.

As far as the check-in process, luckily I had an "agent" who helped us through the airport basically from the beginning. He waited until we were safely go through the last X-ray machine to the departure lounge. Thank you,sir!

Inside the departure lounge, there were no announcements nor were there any signboards giving the flight number information.

One can tell how well a country is run and managed by conditions in their international airports. Well run airports with smooth arrival and departure process indicate the country is likely to be well run with proper procedures and regulations. Think of Singapore, New York or even KLIA (Malaysia). Contrast these airports with airports in Khartoum, Cairo and New Delhi, you get the picture.

Doha airport is a brand new airport. They are trying hard to compete with Dubai as a duty free shopping airport. I made my own contribution towards this aspiration by buying a 4GB iPod Nano. I paid USD 290 (RM 1100). I think I got it at a good price - it costs about RM 1300 or more in Malaysia.

The guy who sold it to me is a filipino. It is the same in every international airport in the Middle East. Most of the workers in the sales line are filipinos or filipinas. The general workers like cleaners are either Indians or Bangladeshi. The bussiness lounge where I am using this PC has Filipina or other non-Arab personnel.

Post from Sudan

This is my first and probably last post from Sudan. The Internet access speed here is extremely slow. I have been here for 5 days now and so far:

On arrival at Khartoum airport, I saw some U.N. (United Nations) aircraft parked on the airport tarmac. I didn't even realise that the U.N. has their own airplanes. They were small airplanes maybe able to seat about 20 persons. The airplanes were white in colour with "U.N." in black letters. Over the next 4 days, I saw more U.N. vehicles in Khartoum; white coloured four wheel drive SUVs.

I've seen two people run here. On Friday, a white guy was jogging along a river. There is a river in front of the hotel. This river is about 100 m wide and by Malaysian standard, it was a large river. I thought it was the Nile river but later I found out it was just one of Nile river's many branches running through Khartoum.

Last night at 10.30 pm, I saw a black guy running. He looked like a serious runner as he was running at a decent pace. Over here, many social activities start after sunset. During day time, it is just too hot to move around much. The temperature is 45 degree C and I was told it's will be hotter later in July. Summer temperatures can soar past 50 degrees C.

For those who are regular alcohol drinkers, Sudan will leave you high and dry. Sudan is a dry country not just in terms of rainfall but the sale of alcohol is proohibited here. The hotel menu has a vast selection of cocktails with not a drop of alcohol in them. As you may have gathered Sudan is a strict Islamic country with many restrictions and a conservative society. There is even a law that prohibits Sudanese women from swimming outdoor; they must swim in indoor swimming pools. The hotel in fact has one for this purpose.

Nightlife? There are no cinemas, bars and karaokes in Khartoum.

Women? Good luck.