My passport was issued on December 22, 2012.  Since that date, the number one country that I have entered is Thailand, with 36 entries. Number two is probably Hong Kong, but I have a sticker to go through the automatic gate, so I don’t get stamps. And number three is Malaysia, with 14 enteries. As I reflect upon those 14 entries, the best I can say about any single visit is that it was not unpleasant. And further reflection brings forth the fact that the shorter the duration of stay in Malaysia the less unpleasant the visit.  My best visit to Malaysia was on September 13, 2016, and it lasted approximately 7 minutes. I would call that visit semi-uncomfortable, as due to heat and humidity I began to sweat profusely. Today, I visited Malaysia for the 14th time since the issuance of this passport.

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the release of one of the seminal works of Stanley Kubrick, 2001 A Space Odyssey, a Malaysian gentleman, recreated the scene at the beginning of the film of early hominids beating up the not as smart early hominids.  In the recreation he beat a cobra to death, but not to get access to a watering hole or anything, but just because he was a savage.  He was driving a car past it and could have just driven by so his wife would remain safe.  But no, he had to stop, get out of the car, and beat it to death.  I arrived at the cobra before the guy got out of his car.  I’ve never seen one before, and it was cool looking. It’s head was in the hooded position, and raised, and it was looking around trying to figure out what the fuck was going on.  The guy gets out and quickly finds a stick, I realize what he’s going to do. I start yelling in Thai to throw the snake into the trees, but even though I’m oh so close to Thailand, he don’t understand Thai.  “No no no!” he don’t understand that either.  He just beat the snake until it was dead, just like the early hominids in the movie.  He was all so fucking proud about it, when getting in his car and driving off, but the cobra he just wasn’t hurting anyone, he was just being a snake.  And the Malaysians there thought I was the crazy one for not wanting to see such an amazing creature killed for nothing.

That will be my lasting memory of this trip to Malaysia, and what made it horrible.  I don’t really even like snakes, but understand that they play an important part in the ecosystem.  The whole thing was just so stupid and just writing this I’m getting all angry again.  There were actually some positive things on my 33 km I spent riding in Malaysia, but the whole snake thing just destroyed those positives. Fuck that place.

Heart

0

Comment

0

Link

Log in to comment or reply