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Little Kirsty Ventures to Pastures New
Mmk, even though I'm oober behind on getting my other posts uploaded, I'm just gona fill you in on the last few days. Right now, Aman and I are in Kelantan, West Malaysia, near the Thai border. We are not having a great time to say the least。I'll start from the beginning. There was much debate over the flight cost because it was pretty much extorshinate by Malaysian standards. In the end, we decided to pay for it, cause we were hoping the camp would be as much a success as the previous one. Initially, we were told the camp was going to run for 6 days- Saturday, until Saturday. Then last minute, Cathrine told us that we wern't leaving until Monday. I was quite relieved that I could spend the weekend in KK, cause Georgie had a doc appointment and we didn't want her stayin in KK all alone. So on Friday night, we went to KK, met with Georgie, had a little Itlay pretty sharpish, since Aman and I were starving, then totally chilled out for the rest of the night.
The weekend carried an imulgination of crappy things. Firstly, Aman got some s***ty news from home, then I was absolutely eaten alive by bed bugs during the night, sat morning we had a dodgy guy in the hostel, Georgie had been feeling ill again, all feeling mega uncomfortable in the hostel. Then on Sunday, after Georgie went back to Ranau, Aman and I were chilling in NBC, when we got a phone call from Cathrine asking where we were. Turned out that our flight was that evening, even though she told us it was on Monday, and everyone was waiting for us to go with them to the airport. We were in KK, 20mins drive from Penampang, hadn't packed and were feeling rubbish as it was. We had to grab our stuff, run down the street (no time to call mr soo), jump in the nearest taxi we saw and ask the guy to drive as quickly and safely as poss to the school. We found ourselves in a taxi with leapord skin seats and a pimpish driver, but he seemed alright, and found the scenario quite amusing. Got to the school pretty quick, packed in about 3 mins and managed to get to the airport in time. BUT, Liya, who was in charge of the tickets, decided not to bother looking at the departure time on Aman and my tickets. It said 11am, and at this point it was 4pm, so we had completely missed our flight. Not being amused, Aman sent an angry text to Catherine- since the situation was a bit out of order- since we had payed so much fo the bloomin tickets and now we were being told we would have to pay for a cancellation fee, plus top up charge for new flights and wouldn't get the same deal as before. Ahh. So, Catherine ended up coming to the airport to help sort it out. After queing for ages, much deliberation over "emergency" tickets, since we were supposed to be escorting the deaf children, we managed to get on a flight to take us to KL (1/2 of our destination). We took the flight, Catherine payed the extra costs (school will reimburse her) then Aman and I went to the internet cafe in the airport. Next mishap occured when my kaftan (the only top suitable to wear in Kelantan) ripped big time. Not amusing. By this point, Aman and I were feeling very unsettled and were hoping we would be stranded in KL airport for the night so that we could get some peace! Our flight to KL went fine. When we arrived, we went to the transfer desk to see if we could get the last flight to Kelantan. We waited around for a couple of hours, and the dude managed to get us on it. So atlast we met up with the others at the departure gate. Initially, one of the teachers, Fattly, looked really apologetic and was obviously embarrassed and felt really bad about the c*** up and at the gate Liya gave a brief apology. We just can't get over the lack of communication in the deaf department and the department of special education- its a joke.
So, eventually arrived in Kelantan around 1.30am and got to bed around 2. Stinky hotel and all sharing beds, with stained bed sheets. Atleast it's something.
Next day, up early to face the sweltering heat. Got the bus to the stadium, where there were loads of kids from different states around Malaysia. There were deaf as well as blind and mentally disabled kids there. There was an absolutely gorgeous teeny tiny blind girl there. I think she was only partially blind though, cause she kept coming over and smiling and looking at us. She was the only thing that cheered us up that day.
We just could not, at all, no way, stand the heat. It was worse than any heat I've ever felt before. Like, hard to breathe, energy draining, the sweat was pouring off us- it was horrible. And the only thing we could sit on was stoney ground that scratched. So we took refuge inside, infront of a puny fan. Wasn't much use. We drank about 4 bottles of water, but it still wasn't enough. We couldn't bare to stand infront of the circuit to watch the races. Ended up watching the most random advert. We were too weak to laugh at the time but now it's too funny. It was an American ad, advertising this heat belt- "Sauna Solution". It started off with this typical blonde actress, all smiley- telling us about the product and the stupid guy next to her nodding and agreeing. It was a belt that you can put around ur abbs, or anywhere else you wana lose weight, and you can turn the heat as high as you want. You leave it on for 50 minutes and when you take it off, you'll be sweating like crazy in that area. They claim that you will have lost 1 inch or you can get your money back. They then continued to test it out on numerous people- measuring them before and after. It was hillarious- on the second measurement, the blonde girl was blaitantly pulling the tape measure tighter- so sad! This went on, and on, and on, and on. We just couldn't believe how long the add lasted. We ended up taking pics of it, it was so amusing. It lasted for about 1/2 hr!! We were like- the amount we've sweated off today, must be atleast 10"!
We got a couple of chocolate waffles to keep us going and we were so so relieved when it was time to go.
Aw yeah- we weren't the only ones that were hot. From the first races, there were girls fainting when they crossed the finish line. This got more and more frequent as the day went on. There were ambulances parked and the first aid crew kept running on the track at the end of each race. Mental.
Forgot to mention- Kelantan is 99.9% Muslim. The headmistress at DPM warned us to cover up, and Catherine said that I should be prepared to be started at. We do get loads of looks in KK, but here it's just been really horrible. We've been completely covering up and tying my hair back but I just can't get over how people in the streets literally stop and just stare- even when i stare right back, they keep staring until I'm out of sight. At the games, the Men just oogled me non stop and the girls all giggled and pointed, and it just got beyond a joke.
Got to the stage where I flipped out last night.
We were invited to a "Cultural Show" if we wanted to go. Liya told us to meet downstairs to get the bus with everyone else at 8.30pm. We went down at 8.15 and the bus had gone- typical. There were a bunch of people from our group at the hotel asking what we were looking for. We were told to go in a mini van with a guy and he'd follow the bus for us. Obviously Aman and I felt a bit dube about going with him, but we knew some of the people that told us to go with him. So we did, but had our phones set to various peoples phone numbers incase we needed to call for help. Was a bit nerve wracking on the way- checking sign posts to see where we were all the time. Arrived perfectly safely only to be absolutely pointed at, hooted at, stared at and even laughed at on arrival. We entered the hall and every single person's head turned. We found a seat, and next moment I had a video camera in my face and I was on a big screen at the front. So we moved seats. The video camera followed- moved again, the guy followed us with the video camera. Each time the crowd, cooed, hooted and laughed. So we got up and moved to a seperate part of the room, where we thought we would be safe from exposure. Only to find another camera guy and photographer infront of us. Literally sticking the lenses of their cameras inches from our faces. I deliberately put my hands over my face, but didn't want them to make me miss the performance. We stayed for a few acts but just couldn't take the camera men in our faces anymore so were forced to up and leave. Can't get over how ignorant people are here. Don't think I've ever felt so uncomfortable as I did last night. Was just horrible to be stared at non stop. Can't imagine what it must be like for people in wheel chairs, or with different disabilities that get oggled at.
The same guy drove us back and we went straight to bed.
Thismorning, the thought of going through all that again made us bail out. We stayed in bed and I told Liya that Aman was ill. They went off to the sports day and we had a nice sleep in. Eventually we got up to go and look for somewhere to eat, but just as were leaving, the girls arrived back for Lunch. We joined them then headed out to find an internet cafe. We found a Backpackers and now we can actually chill out, well kinda- it's still pretty hot! But it's nice to get on the comp.
Liya's invited us to go shopping tonight, so that's cheered me up a bit. We're gona have to stick the heat and the stares tomorrow cause it's the closing ceremony for the sports.
We leave on Thursday morning, but only have our flight to KL confirmed. Looking forward to getting back to KK- looks like it will be a bit of an adventure getting there though!
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