miss cayce

KL: Saturday night fever

So here I am in Ubud - finally! The bemo rides took forever. I just wanted to say that I'm here safe and sound, and am staying in the cutest homestay where I have my own floor and my private verandah.. I'm pretty happy with it. More on this later but first, I want to give an update on my Saturday night in KL.

It was AWESOME!!

Oh, wow - many thanks to Lets and Joyce & Andy for a fun saturday night. It was actually Let's idea for the play - which was so amazing, I must say. It's been ages since I've been to a play, and I think it's my first Malaysian play as well. Life Sdn Bhd is a collection of personal anecdotes from Malaysians. Unfortunately, I left my playbill with Sheila so I can't give a proper review. You'd have to bear with my ramblings. So who was there? Jit Murad, Patrick Teoh, Susan Lankaster, Joanne Kam were part of an amazing cast. I was in entrall throughout. The first performer was this older chap who talked about his experience of the race riots in 1969. But don't think that the play was rather a downer - it had so many laughs throughout. It wasn't unconventional in the Malaysian sense, where the performers made digs about local politicians, talked about their homosexuality, their drug experience, their virginity (or lack of). I was so enthralled - wait, I said that already. It's just that it's nothing like I've experienced as a Malaysian, that is anywhere close to free speech in a public arena - and that's why I'm so enthusiastic about the play.

I wish there was theater in Kuching!!!

And oh yes, I have a crush on Galvin - the cute acid head thing. I think I remember declaring my crush on Galvin to Shelley Leong - ooops. It was the sangrias speaking really. The embarrassing part was when she said that her friend knows Galvin and then I SAID, "please tell him that I have a crush on him!" Yup, definitely the sangrias.

Shelley Leong's amazing live by the way. I know I am being very free with my compliments in this entry, but she was really great! She was playing at La Bodega in the BB area. There was no cover charge so off, we went. I really like the venue - it's really small and cosy. Besides her friends though, I think we were the only ones who were there specifically to watch her and Az's performance. The later by the way, is the son of some Malaysian great poet. He was pretty cool on the guitar. In between sets, me being extremely happy with sangria in me, beamed at her and she came over to talk. She was very friendly and as pretty in person as she is in the mags and such. I'm pretty amazed that she hasn't gotten more airplay than she should because she is talented. And she's great live. She writes her own songs, she sounds a bit like Jewel but with her own distinctive style lah, she's so cute, what's wrong with Malaysians?

After her set, we immediately headed over to.. some French bar, I forget to - see Pete Teo and friends perform. I think the set was actually called Melissa and friends however. Melissa (?) was also another amazing local performer. She was with a band consisting of young kids who were great on their instruments. I'm just in awe of the local music scene (or rather KL music scene?). I didn't know that we had all these talented artistes out there.

Lets happened to know Pete (on a fan basis - she supports the local arts scene more than most Malaysians!) and after the set was done, we got to smooze with Pete. Actually, I should also mention that Andy too knew Pete on a photographer-musician basis. So I was travelling with the right group - it was all good. I once left a comment on Pete's blog and that night, wondering if he had remembered me, I told him that I'm on his mailing list and that my name was Cayce.

"Cayce, from Sarawak!" he exclaimed. And I was all smug and stuff. Well, not really. Just pleased that he remembered.

We talked about how difficult it was to find CDs from local English music acts in Kuching and then the drinking started. Pete's quite the drinker, I gather, after a couple of tequila shots. After I had told him that we had just came from watching Shelley - he immediately called her and got her down at the same bar. So there I was - with Pete and Shelley and Az! And they started jamming - it was so cool. And Pete treated Lets and me to tequila shots - very very cool. I was happy. But I hadn't yet told anyone that I had loved them or that I wasn't drunk. We broke up at 3 a.m. and much to my surprise, as we headed down from the first floor - we had actually closed the bar down. They had to unlock the doors to let us out.

Thankfully, Lets and I had a designated driver - Andy, who brought us home safe and sound.

So twas a wonderful night I had, but the next day, I had a hangover which was not very very cool. Like the annoying early bird I was, my body decided to wake up before 8 a.m. and there I was, lying miserably on the bed, with a hungover and very much awake.

Needless to say, there was no flea marketing that day. I stayed in the apartment all day, and thankfully, managed to fall back to sleep after lunch - didn't awake until early evening! Oops!

Anyway, I have discovered the charm of KL and it ain't about the shopping (ok, maybe some part of it). One should really really take advantage of the local arts scene - the theater or indie music. I love the little pubs we were in - they were cosy, and friendly and had live music! So much better than clubbing lah.

Sorry, Lets that we didn't get to meet up once more - I hope to see you again before I leave for Kuching. Keep the comments coming, I love reading them - but if you don't mind, I won't reply to your comments personally. Aiyah, time limit and all. So expensive yah - Rp8,000 for an hour. Actually, that's comparable to the rates in KL but I'm whinging because I'm in a foreign country and it's kinda scary and I certainly didn't bring enough cash stupid me!!! Well, that's for the next entry. Toodles.

posted by Cayce @ 5:36 PM