David's AW News: So Surprising!

Greetings from Kuala Lumpur

Hope you guys are doing well and the Christmas uplift is coming your way..

Last week I was telling you about our trip to the gemstone mine.. in Jharkhand - a small Indian state - a surprisingly peaceful and beautiful place.. I'm working on a YouTube about our trip.. coming soon, but if you missed the newsletter, you can catch up here.

As is traditional, we spend a few days in South Goa with our good friends. The last days in India, sorting out the loose ends and relaxing. Me, Toni and Mr Chatterjee..Then yesterday Toni headed back to Spain, Chatterjee and I parted in the airport, him going home to Kolkata. Me onwards.

I just arrived from India to KL on an overnight red-eye flight. The journey started with a taxi from our apartment in Goa to the airport, in which a young, crazy guy on a motorbike tried to squeeze through an impossible gap and managed to scrape two taxis in one go. Fortunately, no-one was hurt, but two angry Goan taxi drivers you don't need shouting at you.

I was impressed, the police arrived in five minutes, took pictures, worked out the motorbike guy had no insurance, so issued an on the spot fine to cover the damage. There was more discussion as to how much the damage would cost to repair, at this point, all the locals came to join the debate. Whilst this is happening, no traffic can move in either direction, a backlog building up. As soon as the agreement was made, we were on our way.. and Rosario, our driver, said the guy will have to pay and will come to his account in a few days. That seemed so damn efficient. Surprising.

Conflict resolution Goan style!

Then a very short flight from South Goa airport to Bangalore, change to the International terminal, T2 - which is garden themed and beautiful. The most beautiful airport in India, maybe all of Asia. Surprisingly beautiful airport. The whole airport is business lounge standard, and theme park Indian.

Then, around midnight a four hour Batik Air flight to Kuala Lumpur. Surprisingly, the passport control in KL is as friction free as it possibly can be. If you fill in an online arrival form within 36 hours of arrival, you can just use an e-gate. Enough booths so no queue at all, it's a one second job to enter Malaysia. I can remember when there was a hall with thousands of people waiting, snaking for up to two hours. People getting angry and frustrated, even one time a large guy keeled over and appeared to die (but maybe just passed out) in the middle of the hall. His poor wife screamed the place down. When some medics came and put the body on a stretcher.. the officials came and wouldn't let them take him until they searched his pockets for the passport, did fingerprints and photo and actually stamped him in.

I digress.. Anyway afterwards, I used the Grab Taxi App to get a smart EV and a friendly driver into the city.. Just in time for breakfast in my hotel.

The taxi driver told me there is a major ASEAN summit about to start. Donald Trump has invited himself, and the city security are in a flat panic setting up roadblocks escorting world leaders creating massive traffic chaos. Looks like I arrived at a bad time.. let's see how it goes.

Meanwhile, it's almost Halloween.. and soon as the nights draw in - folk begin to think about Christmas..

Take care, have a lovely weekend - I hope with lots of nice surprises!

David