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Today I visited the Penang botanical gardens and Penang Hill.
In the botanical gardens I saw some trees hug and some monkeys
copulate. The monkeys were fast and efficient, and without complaining
over apparent lack of foreplay. Penang Hill gives you a great
overview of the whole island and can be reached by a funky Swiss-built
railway.
After having seen the botanical gardens, on my way back into
town, I ran into a police control. Sticking out as a foreigner,
I feared they would wink me out, but they got the car in front
of me. That car had already passed the control when the policemen
suddenly jumped after it signaling violently for it to pull over.
Only then did I remember what this whole maneouver was about:
Malaysians have accumulated so many unpaid speeding and parking
tickets that the traffic police is holding a concerted action
with the sole purpose of catching the offenders. This action got
some recent news coverage, because among those caught were several
Malaysian ministers (secretaries of state). Clever as politicians
are, they blamed the POS, the Malaysian postal service, for not
delivering the speeding tickets to their home, as of course, they
had been unaware of any pending notice.
Later, I came close to getting lynched when I cheered for Belgium
in the Japan vs. Belgium match in a Starbucks.
Besides this, I was on the phone, piling up yet another non-trivial
phone bill.
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