Another Country

Made our way to a somewhat out of the way kampong in the Gombak area this afternoon to attend a wedding. Our GPS didn't recognise the address so we needed directions from Noi's brother Yazzir to get there. Slightly to my surprise we managed quite well, getting a bit lost, but nothing overly traumatic. The final leg of the journey featured narrow winding roads in what felt like the middle of nowhere, but quite a well-populated nowhere with all sorts of fascinating houses and a wonderful lack of uniformity. And, as ever, once we arrived we enjoyed the typical unforced hospitality native to these parts.

In contrast to our comfortable little adventure we were vaguely aware of some kind of political rally taking place in the centre of KL. We caught wind of this when we heard a travel advisory for Singaporean citizens to avoid heading for the capital over the weekend, ironically as we were crossing into Malaysia. We took it that there were some worries that things might turn violent - the word 'skirmishes' was used in the warning. Happily we were heading in a completely different direction, and even more happily it turned out that the demonstration was peaceful and went off without incident.

We're still not entirely sure what prompted it, though, despite me buying a newspaper yesterday that featured some coverage. Another example of just how little I really understand these parts, fascinating as they are. But I suppose that's true of anywhere in this strange world into which we find ourselves thrown.