Malaysia, Day 16: Botanical Gardens

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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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