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Greetings all.
It's been too long since my last entry (that's what she said) and so much has happened that I'm not sure where to begin or what to include (she also might have said that...not sure).
Anyway, I left you with the action packed hollywood blockbuster screen play style story of my trip to a Borneo electronics mall to seek out a guitar hero guitar which was essential to the success of a chinese wedding. As you will recall, I achieved this daring feet with a few sub plots thrown in for good measure. The best man was over the moon with my success and did buy my several beers for my troubles. That night the foreign contingent of the wedding party (about 20 highly qualified scientists and mathematicians from Brown, UCLA, and MIT) and I got wasted on Malaysian beer and wiskey in the coverted party loft of the Hostel that I mentioned previously. We whiled away the evening relentlessly playing guitar hero with a full band of two guitars, and drum kit, microphone, and a special cheat setting that gave us access to about 100 additional songs. We rocked hard until the early hours with the groom (a synthetic biologist working to NASA!) rocking hardest of all on both the booze and the microphone. After much fun he insisted that I attend the wedding banquet the following evening, an invitation that graciously accepted.
After a late finish I awoke with a sore but happy head and set off out to buy a sim card so I could wish my mum happy birthday that evening during the Banquet. I headed into town (a five minute walk from the Hotel), and found myself in the middle of a huge Dragon Boat Regatta, which apparently is the biggest event on the Kuching annual calendar. Where there had been a peaceful riverside walkway the previous day was now a bustling crowd and a multitude of stalls selling pungent street food, cold iced drinks and various arts and crafts. I could barely move to find the phone shop but enjoyed the chaos and the bits and pieces of food that I was compelled and coerced into buying as I made my way through to crowd (see pictures). After finding a SIM I proceeded back with time to spare before the Banquet so I walked along the front to see if I could catch some of the dragon boat racing. As I reached the river front I came across a large marquee that looked quite incongruous among all the street vendors. I could feel air-conditioned air pumping out from the entrance which was attended by a uniformed soldier. Intrigued by the scene I ventured inside to find a science industry fair which seemed to focus primarily on Borneo based biotech companies. I went over to one of the stalls where a young Indian man was tending to a laboratory bottle display and glossy marketing material for his lab, which was based just outside Kutching. After explaining that I had a microbiology degree we discussed his lab's work. He explained that they had found a special bacteria in a nearby lake about a year ago that synthesizes a type of biodegradable plastic that he had harvested into samples which he had with him at the display. You don't need a biology degree to realize the potential of such a discovery so I porbed further keeping in mind that half of the wedding party were synthetic biologist with contacts in NASA and MIT. He explained that they had produced an intravenous drug delivery system using the biodegradable plastic in micro molecule form as a delivery system. Once inside the body, the plastic would quickly degrade leaving only the drug in the desired location. Without going into too much details (far too late already I know) I told him about the scientist in in the group and took his details so that a meeting could be arranged. When I returned to the guys they were intrugued by the discovery and arranged to contact the lab in question. The groom is working for NASA in Malaysia and is looking for Malaysian labs to get in contact with so I'm intrigued to see what happens.
Anyway, the Banquet was really great and very bizarre in comparison to the usual western style of wedding reception. There was a ten course meal consisting of every chinese meat dish I think I've ever tasted and an unlimited supply of Malaysian lager. The meal was accompanied by bouts of Chinese soft rock love ballads and speeches from the groom and his nearest and dearest. the proceedings were interspersed with Western style rituals like a cascading arrangements of champagne glasses all filled by a single bottle, and the cutting of the wedding cake. I have never been to such a wedding but it was an excellent experience and a very happy occasion shared with a very excellent bunch of complete strangers! I have never been such a random in my life but I was grateful for the experience.
After that banquet we piled on the bus which took us back to the hostel. En rout I was invited again to a day out with the group to some nearby lakes followed by another large meal arranged by the groom's parents at their very lovely colonial style guest house. Altogether I spent about 72 hours with the group and met some very interesting people. I think such experiences are more likely to occur when traveling solo, which is making me look forward all the more to the next months when I rock up in India.
This takes me up to about the 6th August but I have to catch a flight to Dehli so can't write more now. I'm currently in Singapore with Si and Polly (who is about two weeks away from giving birth to wee Jack). I get in to Dehli at 2:30am tomorrow morning, what a way to kick off my trip! I've arranged a hotel and a lift from the airport already which should take the edge off the chaos. I'll write more about my Diving trip to Sipadan and my time on The Gilis for my birthday when I have time in India.
I can't believe you made it this far through my blog, you're all fools
lots of love
Doom.
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