Back from KL shoot… Again…
Just got back from a wedding dinner shoot in KL. Following is what transpired.
Friday, took a 9.45am bus to KL. Stopped at Yong Peng for lunch, pretty expensive for a rest stop. Almost reached bus terminal when the aircon belt broke, no air conditioning in the bus, temperature goes up and we were stuck in a massive jam. Saw the hotel just around a few blocks away, asked to be dropped off and walked to hotel with gear and all, blistered my toe in the process, that’s what you get for walking without proper footwear. 4pm, arrived at hotel, checked in and went down to Times Square, dinner and then walked around the place. Had supper at this kopi tiam that serves pretty good authentic hokkien noodles. Had a history lesson on the area, traids used to own the area until the government decided to clean up the place. Before that nobody would be eating supper like I was during the night. Shop owner beside the kopi tiam was hacked to death soon after he took over the shop. After supper, went for a drink at hotel lounge and then back to room to catch some sleep at 2am.
Saturday, 8.30am, woke up, breakfast, food at the hotel quite bad. Back to room and slept till around 3-4pm. Went for late lunch. Stepped out of the hotel and was just in time to see this woman robbed by these 2 guys on a motorcycle. They must be waiting for her ‘cos they just suddenly appeared out of nowhere and grabbed her handbag. Her husband gave chase but it was too late to do anything. I couldn’t do anything as well so I left the scene. Ate at Bukit Bintan. Went back to hotel and sleep again. Evening, restaurant where the wedding dinner was held is just across the road, took a walk across making sure I had my camera bag secured. Finished the shoot around 11pm, went back to hotel, showered and sleep again.
Sunday, woke up for the “not so nice” breakfast again. It’s free, no point wasting it. Went back to hotel room, took a nap, packed my stuff, checked out and made my way to the bus station via cab. Cab driver a very weathered fella but seems pretty friendly and sincere, he’s driving a very run down taxi, can’t close its boot, quite amusing actually when we were banging the boot at the hotel entrance trying to close it, finally gave up and left praying hard that the boot cover would not open up during the trip. He didn’t want to get stuck in a jam so he took a short cut, parked his cab and walked me to where I was going before going off, nice. Weird ticketing system for the bus, you buy the ticket and had to bring them to this small counter to change them for the actual ticket, don’t know why they couldn’t just issue the actual ticket. Took my free bottle of mineral water that comes with the bus ride and crossed the bridge to the terminal station and boarded the bus. Bus left 30 minutes behind the schedule time. Stopped at Yong Peng again for dinner, should have brought my own food. Reached Malaysian customs around 8.05pm, mad rush for clearance. Reached Singapore customs around 8.50pm due to traffic jam. Mad rush for clearancee again but at least bags are x’rayed instead of hand searched. Hope the scanners are film safe though. Reached Golden Mile complex at 9.30pm, had dinner across the road, called a cab. Reached home at 10.30pm. Clear bag of cloths for wash, showered, drink lots of water. Check emails, mind racing again after reading the emails, lots of stuff coming up this week.
I want a holiday.