Marrakesh Express…

 

Pinch, punch it’s the start of the month…and the start of another blog!

As the barrier lifts up it’s pitch black, wild and windy and the winter rain feels a few degrees above zero as we make our way into the long stay car park at Edinburgh airport to catch the early morning’Marrakesh Express’ flight out to the Kingdom of Morocco.

We have between us 3 pairs of shorts, a speaker, sunglasses and a large lump of Mr Zogs Sex Wax…what more do u need for a winter break at a surf camp?

This time, we are off to the Moroccan sunshine, spiritual home of the camel and the tagine…that would make a great name for a pub “Il meet you for a pint in the Camel & Tagine”…I digress…

A week in the waves should be a tonic…so once Iv been swabbed for explosives by a stern Border Control operative we head for the Duty Free to purchase gin to go with it!

Winding past the plethora of perfumeries and scarf-mongers we head for the gate, stopping to frown in despair at society as the baseball capped, shell-suited holidaymakers with matching white trainers tuck into their hearty breakfasts of Stella Artois and Tenants Pilsner at 05:45 in the morning in the Wetherspoons…

The onboard entertainment for the 4hr flight was the memoirs of the larger than life loose-head and newly retired, harlequin Joe Marler.

By lunchtime we were in the warm Moroccan ☀️ sunshine 

Graham Nash wrote the song about a train trip he took in Morocco in my birth year of 1966 so this is a good place to start the trip. Here is a live version with Crosby,Stills,Nash & the obligatory Neil Young to get us on our way.

What’s up…?

Our pad in KLCC

Arriving back into Malaysias capital we had a private apartment for the last couple of days in on the opposite side of the city from our previous stay in KLCC.

Wonderful views of the Merdeka 118 from the 43rd floor apartment window.

Plus an incredible view of the city skyline from the amazing infinity pool on the 51st by day and by night.

 

Everything thing here is high.

Incredible and high…

“And so I wake in the morning 

And I step outside 

And I take a deep breath and I get real high

And I scream at the top of my lungs

What’s going on…”……..from the 4 Non Blondes!

Downtown train…

We have enjoyed our short time seeing the sights of Ipoh, a real foodie town with a great night market. 

Footsie 100 Index

Ipoh had been a cool little town, quite bohemian with the river splitting old from new.

Bed

Rock

Whisky Room

Staying at the ‘Bedrock’ was a great choice, a boutique 10 room hotel with an air-con wine cellar, whisky room all with a Geological and a funky Andy Warhol-esque decor and vibe. 

Ipoh Railway Station

Morning came and at 10:30 on the dot the electric bullet, train bound for KL, pulled out of the station. We had Business Class booked for this and as it reached 140km per hour it was time to sit back in the recliner, stuff our faces with more free food and catch up on a good blog. 

‘Downtown train’ by Tom Waits from the ‘Rain Dogs’ album before Rod Stewart got his greedy little mitts on it a few years later. Enjoy a great live version here.

C’est si bon…

We are finally tearing ourselves away from Pangkor Island having thoroughly enjoyed our time here.

Every day the sun has shined on us, but we must say goodbye to our little chalet home and the amazing hornbills in the beautifully manicured garden by the sea.

We have traversed the island daily, finding secluded beaches, monkeys and monitor lizards and searched out places to eat choosing where to watch the sunset. 

Life has been easy here so thanks Pangkor, C’est si bon!…

We said goodbye to Kevin before the 10:15 ferry took us back to the mainland where we arranged a ‘grab’ to take us to Ipoh for the day.

Enjoy the harmonious ‘Say She She’ with a video featuring a Silver Shadow!

 

Crazy Again…

Bit of an action packed water sport fest next to report.

To mark surviving 58 years on this planet I thought I’d turn the heat up a bit as Iv been told that life can get a bit fusty if you let it, as you get older, so a bit of crazy stuff every now and then should be just the tonic.

So I booked myself for half an hour on Great Big Mable….Hey!, Steady!…don’t make up ur own jokes, it’s MY blog!

She was ready and waiting for me on the beach, looking radiant in her bright red livery.

Strap yourself in for da ride..

I climbed up and fastened myself in, it was going to be one helluva birthday ride…she set off like the clappers and all I could do was hang on for dear life, bouncing up and down I yelled for her to stop but she had got a grip of me now and all I could do was to close my eyes and wait for her to finish….#ifuwannagofasterjustscream!

Next stop, a throbbing Yamaha 700 jet ski was wheeled out by my water sport ‘fixer’, Mr Kunabalan.

His only instruction was…” just clear the boats before you let rip”

I manoeuvred slowly around the moored craft and when clear, hit the accelerator. My arms extended about six inches as the Gforce locked out my elbows as I clung on while maintaining suction on the seat with my limpet like bum.

At top speed and flat out I was out to see what this thing could do as I blasted towards the distant island. Best of all, no-one could hear me shouting in my head “we are the mods, we are the mods, we are, we are, we are the mods”….

A few doughnuts and figures of eight around the bay and my old bones had been subjected to enough of this craziness, it was time to winch it back in.

It was AWESOME, dude!

The winch man 

Next was a more sedate kayak trip over to Coral island 🏝️, a spot we were already familiar with that was great for a spot of snorkelling.

Coral island 

All in all it was a great fun and exhilarating day and finished off with an BBQ on the beach looking at what we had achieved….

Oh, yeah, And…I’m off the see ‘The National’ at Edinburgh Castle…Yip, Yip!!

To accompany please find ‘The Gossip’s new single ‘Crazy Again’, great new song and must watch bonkers video!

Be thankful for what you got…

 

Normal service will resume when I can be arsed…

Just sit back with a bit of Massive Attack

Motorcycle Emptiness…

Sometimes you get the ‘need for speed’ so now we need to talk about Kevin…

Meet Kevin ‘Spacy’, our rented ride.

It’s the perfect way to bob about the island visiting beaches and calling into foodie spots and visiting the gin emporium. This is our second set of wheels for visiting Pangkor Island. There’s only one road and takes about 20 minutes to circumnavigate if you lean into the bends and avoid the monkeys 🙈 🙉 🐵 

The ‘Spacy’ features a subtle design that puts functionality at the forefront. Powering the Honda is a 108cc engine that makes 8.64 hp of raw power at 8000rpm. Iv not been allowed to get it up to full speed due to the back seat driver clinging on like a crab 🦀 and tensing up at the sight of a sweet tight right-hander…

To rent a bike you just need to confirm that you can balance adequately with a quick test ride around the block then pay with cash the negotiated fee (30 dobbers/5 quid) for the days you need it for and off you go, max 4 minutes. Thankfully no messing about with licences, passport details and pointless forms.

Now you need to be aware of some of the rules around here.

Wearing helmets ⛑️ is COMPULSORY but if you don’t want to that’s ok.

In fact lots of things are ok, like don’t worry about stopping to give way, just keep going and someone will make room for you. Stopping for a chat in the middle of the road is fine, going in the opposite direction to traffic, also ok. Overtaking can be either side and you don’t need to bother too much about road markings, non importanti, as they say around here.

Parking is also easy, just get as near as you can to the place you need to be at and stop.

Bulky items such as wheelie bins will require the rider to be able to operate the bike using only one hand while maintaining the same speed with the bin in the other.

Maximum 5 on a bike though…I’d love to see 6 but 5 is very impressive!

5 ring dings usually fills the tank at the local gas station.

Enjoy a bit of the ‘Manics’ here with ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’