My last night in Malaysia, and what did I do? Listened to some great live jazz, hung out with friends, drank a few glasses of white wine and had a night-time driving tour of Kuala Lumpur.

As you do. When it’s your last night in Malaysia.

I went a little snap-happy - even by my standards - tonight. Anyone who knows me, or knows the sort of pictures I like to take, will know that a fancy schmancy hotel lobby by night, and a city by night, are like a red rag to my photographic bull. A few examples:

As on my last gig, I wore my new Posh Frock (pearl bracelets a present from A’s recent trip to Hanoi):

It was great to meet K, and to hear her and her trio. They play in the high-ceilinged, rather vast, lobby lounge of the Hilton - so quite a different set up from mine, and much more like playing, say, The Dorchester every night. They also have a baby grand piano, of which I was envious, and a Saturday Night Fever-style floor, of which I was even more envious:

So there we sat, A and R (they should get together and work in A&R) and I, talking and listening to K and the band. I was particularly impressed by her ability to swing ‘Hello’ by Lionel Richie (go on, try it at home) and ‘Jump’ by Van Halen (ditto) - and particularly excited when she and the band did ‘On And On’ by Stephen Bishop, a song which I love and which has a huge sentimental attachment for me. It was all I could do to stop myself from leaping up on stage to singing backing harmonies with her. As it was, I did it from the comfort of my chair.

And then to our night-time tour of KL - for which A’s nephew played chauffeur, and A played GPS system. The Petronas Towers were pretty amazing, it has to be said. Very pretty, rather calming, skyscrapers… not unlike the Chrysler Building. If only there were two Chrysler Buildings. Side by side. And connected by a skywalk.

And then to bed. Or rather: to blog. And then soon, to bed. And in the meantime: the realisation that, sitting here in my dressing gown, with the skyline behind me, I have come full circle:

…but it will come back to bite you on the bum.

Not really. Little Buddhism gag, there.

Say what you like about Buddhism… but it’s nothing if not a colourful religion. Just take a look at the temples I visited today:

I like that last shot; it makes me think that that’s what a Buddhist temple would look like in Florida.

One of these temples contained a 100ft reclining Buddha -

- which as you can see, is pretty big. Although not as big as the Statue of Liberty (I know, I just looked it up). But then the Americans always have to do things bigger and better, don’t they? I mean, theirs even stands up.

Mind you, I bet there’s not a sign like this on Liberty Island:

I’ve just uploaded the pictures from another afternoon excursion - this time to a great little cafe/restaurant in Georgetown called Eco Cafe; and then to the Khoo Kongsi, a Chinese clan house in the centre of town.

The Eco Cafe is run by a friend of CC’s, and with its white tiles, pink walls, and old French music being piped out of the speakers, it was a haven of simple food (pasta, sandwiches and salads) done in a nicely laidback, slightly Western, sort of way. We met an American writer who’s boarding there, and the owner - who was happy to let me snap the surroundings (such as here and here), and who proudly showed off his new wood-burning oven, which he had built out of local clay and cow dung. Fancy.

We then went to an exhibition of German photography at CC’s old university - a former army barracks up on a hill (it’s surprising how similar an army barracks is to a campus university, in fact) - and then back into town to see Khoo Kongsi.

Khoo Kongsi looks like a temple - and in fact partly is a temple - but it’s chiefly a clan house, ie. a place where people from the same clan would meet and, erm, do whatever clans do. And it looks something like this:

There are lots more photos taken in and around the Khoo Kongsi here. Most of which are of lanterns inside the hall, or of the houses you pass as you make your way to the courtyard. Such as here:

And here:

Who says that tourists are always looking up?

(Unless something back home has changed.)

CC dropped by the bar last night, and brought with him the negatives and digital versions of the photos I took with the SLR the other day.

The results weren’t too bad - beautifully sharp, if a little over-exposed (it was a very sunny day). But hey, nothing a little iPhoto-ing can’t fix. Almost:

What I noticed most of all when looking at shots like the one above and the one below, here -

- is that, apart from both being of windows, they’re really not so different from the results I can get with my little digital camera. So easily the most satisfying photos I took with the SLR are ones which really use that SLR , if you see what I mean. Like these:

Though the centre of focus is clearly slightly skew-whiff* on that second one.

Anyway, SLR Lesson Number One learned ;-).

More pictures from that afternoon in Georgetown are here.

*Definitely the first time I’ve ever written that word.

The sky and sea just now (no colour exaggeration):

Just before it turned to this:

And then darkness.

I love the way the view from my window changes.

This is how it looked earlier today:

And here it is this evening:

And, erm, that’s it for today. It being a lazy Sunday, an’ all. Unless I have anything interesting to say about Vantage Point, that is - which I’m going to see tonight, at the cinema next door.

I spent this afternoon with CC. Or to be more precise: CC, and a film SLR camera. Or to be even more precise: CC, a film SLR camera and my little Canon Ixus.

CC is not only a bassist and jazz fan, but a keen amateur photographer who works in one of the camera/photographic shops in the mall next door; and a thoroughly nice guy, to boot.

He is also, it transpires, a brilliant tour guide.

As he had the day off today, we decided to go on a little photographic expedition in Georgetown. I took with me the film SLR B has kindly leant me - and when I ran out of all 36 exposures (which took about, erm, an hour), I switched to digital.

First stop was lunch - curry mee soup served in typical Penang style, ie. down a ramshackle alley. And, rather bizarrely, with white toast soldiers with butter and some sort of sweet spread on them.

Second stop: roaming the streets of Georgetown, taking photos; and CC leading me into a massive building not unlike Smithfields Market, which turned out to contain second-hand book stalls that you could get happily lost in. Imagine the final scene of Raiders Of The Lost Ark, and you’ll get some sense of it.

Third stop: more streets and alleyways (and CC all along pointing out interesting places and buildings). By this point, I was using my digital camera:

The last one is an election sticker for the ruling coalition party - ‘Keep Reinventing’ being their slogan. Actually, say what you like about Malaysian politics (and I have) but their elections do at least brighten the place up - there are banners and flags everywhere, festooned across the streets, or waving on flagpoles along the sides of the roads. It’s all very festive, until you realise what they’re actually promoting:

Third stop: one of the Chinese jetties. It turns out that there are a whole series of Chinese jetties near the pier in Penang; Chinese in the sense that they were established long ago by various clans of Chinese immigrants, and are now inhabited by descendants or by those otherwise allowed to own a house there. Well, less a house as more a shack on stilts… But glancing inside you could see that these were pretty spacious shacks; and it was a fascinating little community that we walked through:

See? It’s not unlike a Malaysian Venice.

And so to the fourth and final stop: Cornwallis, the old fort in Penang that was established by, yes, the Brits. And here’s the intrepid Captain Francis Light himself:

Fort Cornwallis was actually pretty dire: a delapidated little area that was part museum, part falling apart, sea-faring theme park. They even blast out classical music as you walk around. And for no apparent reason, there are three semi-wild ponies roaming the place. Very odd.

One advantage to taking photos alongside someone who works in a photographic place is that, upon completion of the film, you can just hand it over to them for processing :-). If any of them turn out to be any good, I’ll get them scanned and posted too. In the meantime, you can see the rest of today’s shoot over here. And yes, they include obligatory pictures of - you guessed it - teeny tiny cats! Hurrah!

My lovely new friends T2 (sorry T2, there’s already a T) and HH (Chinese Malaysians get two initials) picked me up at lunchtime today. We drove along the coast to Batu Ferringhi, where we had lunch, and then on to Penang’s Tropical Spice Garden.

A sort of botanical garden-cum-jungle, the spice garden contained, among other things: herbs and spices in their wild habitat, rather like a zoo; the world’s largest leaves (possibly); the world’s coolest swing (definitely); a sign warning us not to shelter under trees, and to remain seated in the tractor; a cafe up on the hill which served massala tea; and a cat called Molly.

T2 and I sat on the huge swing and talked about our home towns, and school, and it was lovely. A truly calming, peaceful spot, where the breeze hit us and the swing swung with such smoothness.

And yet I felt a little lost.

I had an invitation to dinner tonight, too… But when I got back home (funny, I think that’s the first time I’ve called the hotel “home”), I showered off the day’s humidity (and anti-mosquito spray), called my parents on Skype - and was hit by a huge wave of home/friendsickness, and a desire for solitude and quiet. So I cancelled tonight’s dinner date (sorry, guys).

I’m sure that the vague sense of feeling ‘lost’, and the need for quiet tonight, are a hangover from last week’s events.

And thus, I suppose, it will go. Until it doesn’t go like this anymore.

And as the song says: along with the sunshine, there’s gotta be a little rain sometimes.

Here are a few pictures from the afternoon (with more here):

(Oh, and Tracy: you were right).

I wrote the following post last night, but the hotel’s internet server went down. So: Meanwhile, last night in the hotel room…

V is busy packing. Goodness knows how she’ll fit everything in her suitcase, given that she has bought an entire new wardrobe, and a wooden elephant. Being a 3D designer, however, and thus very spatially aware, she’s an expert at packing. I said that there must be a job in there somewhere. And then said: “Removal man”.

We’ve had a lovely last day, checking out the monthly street market in Georgetown - which felt more like a village fete than a market, and where we bumped into a musician I knew, who promptly invited me to perform at the event next month - and then heading up to Batu Ferringhi for the sunset and the enormous evening street market they have there. It was gift-shopping heaven - and I’m sorry to spoil the surprise, but… you’re all getting knock-off Gucci bags and Michael Buble CDs.

It’s been wonderful having V here. We’ve realised that we’re highly compatible holiday chums, finding ourselves being conversely up for it (whatever ‘it’ is) or wanting to take it easy at exactly the same times. She’s also proved to be a savvy financial advisor, especially when wearing a bikini. (I’m sure there’s a job somewhere in there, too.) I will miss her when she goes. And will also have a lie-down for about a week.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a Spot-The-Ball competition (American friends, see here). This was Batu Ferringhi by sunset tonight. Can you guess where the ball is about to appear?

The correct answer is: