Quiet as a mouse

Tuesday 17 July

We decide that we can't be bothered to take the ferry over to Penang Island again today, even though it was great to spend the afternoon on the beach yesterday. There's a lot of waiting around for the ferry, and the journey to the beach takes another hour, mostly through heavy traffic, until the bus leaves Georgetown behind and finds the coast road.

We're going to have a catch-up, admin day. I need to load more money from our bank account onto our Caxton card. This would be easy if the primary card hadn't been stolen in Kazhakstan. As it is, I have to email Caxton, they open the stolen card for a few hours to enable me to load it, I email them to tell them I've loaded my card, and they close the primary card again. We still have our secondary Caxton card, which we use all the time for withdrawing money from ATMs; but you can only load money onto your primary card, which was the one stolen. To be fair to Caxton, they are really efficient, and always email me back quickly to say the card has been opened for me to load. We're extremely impressed by the service they offer.

Our main task for today is to buy a new mouse for Reg's netbook computer. The one we've got is on its last legs and is very frustrating to use. I'm writing the blog and muttering about the technical problems when Reg says, nonchalently,

“I'm off to buy a new mouse, ok? See you later.”

These words are honey to my ears; not only will the computer be more efficient with the new mouse, I won't feel guilty about hogging it, because Reg is out so won't be waiting to use it. He enjoys using his computer to read the English papers, catch up on news, and to find out more about places we've visited or are going to visit. He wants me to keep up with the blog though, and has been excellent about me taking over the computer while I do this; but I also have emails to write. If we come away again (is this a possibility?!) we'll need a computer each. It'll be a good excuse for Reg to let me have his current netbook and for him to buy himself a new one.

Reg returns an hour later, really pleased with himself for having purchased a new mouse for 8 ringgits (£1.60). At last he's discovered something “techi” which is cheaper in SE Asia than in England! And it works too.

We have lunch (fish and chips – quite tasty really!) in the hotel; then I continue to write while Reg, unusually for him, has a sleep. The long walk in a temperature of 35 deg c to get the mouse has worn him out.

We've emailed a car hire company (the only car hire company, actually, in the small town of Ipoh, at the gateway to the Cameron Highlands, where we're going tomorrow) but haven't had a response, so we decide to phone them. We have to do this at the reception desk of our hotel, as we haven't yet bought a Malaysian sim card for Reg's smartphone. My Orange phone, having briefly come to life again in Thailand, is once again in hibernation “Network Search” mode in Malaysia.

“Hello? Is that Car Rental Ipoh?”

“Yes, yes, hallo.”

“We'd like to rent a car please. A Proton 1.3. Our name is Parker. We sent you an email yesterday.'

“You phoned? Which number you phone?”

“No, we didn't phone. We emailed you.”

“Oh, you email. Aaaaa. Aaaaa.”

We gain the distinct impression that the man on the phone hasn't looked at his emails lately.

“It doesn't matter, “ I continue. “Do you have a car we can hire?”

The man confirms he does indeed have a car, and someone will meet us at Ipoh station tomorrow with said vehicle.

In the evening, we wander out to find a street cafe. We're surprised at how difficult it is to explain to the cafe owner that we'd like a fried rice please – or, as they say frequently in Malaysia, Nasi Goreng. Malaysia was a British colony for many years, and a British influence remains. Most people speak English, they drive on the left, and they have square, 3 pin electrical sockets the same as us. There's also a British influence in architecture; and they know we like milk in our tea (though to date Reg and I are still drinking it black).

I pack up ready for our train journey tomorrow to the Cameron Highlands; we will spend 5 days there before travelling to the last destination on our epic train journey – Singapore!

We've had a quiet day – quiet as the mouse Reg is happily using, while I sort out my suitcase. Inevitably our thoughts are turning more and more to our homecoming – the joy of seeing friends and family again; and how difficult it might be, especially at first, to settle back into our old way of life.