Right now, Kirsty and I are in Kelantan, West Malaysia, near the Thai border. We are not having a great time to say the least. I'll start from the beginning. There was much debate over the flight cost because it was pretty much extorshinate by Malaysian standards. In the end, we decided to pay for it, cause we were hoping the camp would be as much a success as the previous one. Initially, we were told the camp was going to run for 6 days, Saturday until Saturday. Then last minute, Catherine told us that we weren't leaving until Monday. Quite relieved that we could spend the weekend in KK, cause Georgie had a doctor's appointment and we didn't want her stayin in KK all alone. So on Friday night, we went to KK, met with Georgie, had a little Italy pretty sharpish, since Kirsty and I were starving. The weekend carried an imulgination of not-so-good things. Kirsty was absolutely eaten alive by bed bugs during the nighｔ, Saturday morning we had a dodgy guy in the hostel that got the boss and Penelope involved, Georgie had been feeling ill again, all feeling mega uncomfortable in the hostel. Lately Kirsty and I have been creeped out by men with all the freaky stories we've heard that happened in Sabah that we're pretty paranoid and jumpy at the moment. Then on Sunday, after Georgie went back to Ranau, Kirsty and I were chilling in NBC, when we got a phone call from Catherine asking where we were. Turned out that our flight was in 2 hours, even though she told us it was on Monday, and everyone was waiting for us to go with them to the airport. We were in KK, 20 minutes drive from Penampang, hadn't packed and were feeling rubbish as it was. We had to grab our stuff, run down the street (no time to call Mr Soo), jump in the nearest taxi we saw and ask the guy to drive as quickly and safely as possible to the school. We found ourselves in a taxi with leapord skin seats and a pimpish driver, but he seemed alright, and found the scenario quite amusing. Got to the school pretty quick, packed in about 3 minutes and managed to get to the airport in time. It reminds me of those radio shows, where they get gullible people to go to an airport with zilch money and try to get to the furthest away point in 24 hours. BUT, Liya, who was in charge of the tickets, decided not to bother looking at the departure time on Kirsty and my tickets. It said 11am, and at this point it was 4pm, so we had completely missed our flight. Not being amused, I sent an annoyed text to Catherine, since the situation was a bit out of order, since we had payed so much for the blooming tickets and now we were being told we would have to pay for a cancellation fee, plus top up charge for new flights and wouldn't get the same deal as before. Ahh. So, Catherine ended up coming to the airport to help sort it out. After queing for ages, much deliberation over 'emergency' tickets, since we were supposed to be escorting the deaf children, we managed to get on a flight to take us to Kuala Lumpur, KL (half way of our destination). We took the flight, Catherine paid the extra costs (school will reimburse her). Next mishap occured when Kirsty's kaftan (the only top suitable to wear in Kelantan) ripped big time. Not amusing. By this point, Kirsty and I were feeling very unsettled and were hoping we would be stranded in KL airport for the night so that we could get some peace! Our flight to KL went fine. When we arrived, we went to the transfer desk to see if we could get the last flight to Kelantan. We waited around for a couple of hours, and the dude managed to get us on it. So at last we met up with the others at the departure gate. Initially, one of the teachers, Fatly, looked really apologetic and was obviously embarrassed and felt really bad about the c*** up. But Liya didn't even apologise even though it was her fault. At the gate she said a brief apology though, which was something. We just can't get over the lack of communication in the deaf department and the department of special education, its a frigging joke. Next day, up early to face the sweltering heat. Got the bus to the stadium, where there were loads of kids from different states around Malaysia. There were deaf as well as blind and mentally disabled kids there. There was an absolutely gorgeous teeny tiny blind girl there. I think she was only partially blind though, cause she kept coming over and smiling and looking at us. She sure cheered us up. Felt like we're were a tourist attraction as the kids from different states in Malaysia kept coming up to us, asking to have a snapshot with us. The deafs also put a smile on my face, asking me all sorts and fascinated by my life. We just could not, at all, no way, stand the heat. It was worse than any heat I've ever felt before, it was just as bad as being stranded in the Sahara Desert. Like, hard to breathe, energy draining, the sweat was pouring off us, it was horrible. This was really the first time we've been out all day seeing that we're mostly indoors teaching. The only thing we could sit on was stoney ground that scratched. Turned out that we weren't needed at all, so we took refuge inside, infront of a puny fan. Wasn't much use. We drank about 4 bottles of water, but it still wasn't enough. We couldn't bare to stand infront of the circuit to watch the races. Ended up watching the most random advert. We were too weak to laugh at the time but now it's too funny. It was an American ad, advertising this heat belt, 'Sauna Solution'. It started off with this typical blonde actress, all smiley, telling us about the product and the stupid guy next to her nodding and agreeing. It was a belt that you can put around ur abbs, or anywhere else you wana lose weight, and you can turn the heat as high as you want. You leave it on for 50 minutes and when you take it off, you'll be sweating like crazy in that area. They claim that you will have lost 1 inch or you can get your money back. They then continued to test it out on numerous people, measuring them before and after. It was hillarious, on the second measurement, the blonde girl was blaitantly pulling the tape measure tighter, so sad! This went on, and on, and on, and on. We just couldn't believe how long the ad lasted. We ended up taking pictures of it, it was so amusing. It lasted for about 45 minutes!! That advert just proved that some Americans are clearly stupid. We were like, the amount we've sweated off today, must be at least 10"! Oh yeah, we weren't the only ones that were hot. From the first races, there were girls fainting when they crossed the finish line. This got more and more frequent as the day went on. There were ambulances parked and the first aid crew kept running on the track at the end of each race. Mental! Forgot to mention, Kelantan is 99.9% Muslim. The headmistress at DPM warned us to cover up, and Catherine said that Kirsty should be prepared to be started at. We do get loads of looks in KK, but here it's just been really horrible. We've been completely covering up and tying our hair back but we just can't get over how people in the streets literally stop and just stare, especially at Kirsty, even when we stare right back, they keep staring until we're out of sight. I know I said the Malays admire fair complexion but this was going a bit too far. At the games, the men just oogled at us non stop and the girls all giggled and pointed, and even though I've travelled the world and never really had it this bad but this just got beyond a joke. Got to the stage where Kirsty flipped out last night. We were invited to a 'Cultural Show' if we wanted to go. Liya told us to meet downstairs to get the bus with everyone else at 8.30pm. We went down at 8.15 and the bus had gone, typical. There were a bunch of people from our group at the hotel asking what we were looking for. We were told to go in a mini van with a guy and he'd follow the bus for us. Obviously Kirsty and I felt a bit dube about going with him, but we knew some of the people that told us to go with him. So we did, but had our phones set to various peoples phone numbers incase we needed to call for help. Was a bit nerve wrecking on the way, checking sign posts to see where we were all the time. Arrived perfectly safely only to be absolutely pointed at, hooted at, stared at and even laughed at on arrival. We entered the hall and every single person's head turned. We found a seat, and next moment Kirsty had a video camera in her face and she was on a big screen at the front. So we moved seats. The video camera followed, moved again, the guy followed us with the video camera. Each time the crowd, cooed, hooted and laughed. So we got up and moved to a seperate part of the room, where we thought we would be safe from exposure. Only to find another camera guy and photographer infront of us. Literally sticking the lenses of their cameras inches from our faces. Kirsty deliberately put her hands over her face, but didn't want them to make us miss the performance. We stayed for a few acts but just couldn't take the camera men in our faces anymore so were forced to up and leave. Can't get over how ignorant people are here. Don't think I've ever felt so uncomfortable as I did last night. Was just horrible to be stared at non stop. Even though I'm deaf, I can't imagine what it must be like for people in wheel chairs, or with different disabilities that get oggled at. Liya's invited us to go shopping tonight, so that's cheered us up a bit. We're going to have to stick the heat and the stares tomorrow cause it's the closing ceremony for the sports. Unsure if the money is worth the entire messed up week but then again, it is all about the experience. Appreciate my placement in Sabah Borneo far more now. We leave on Thursday morning, but only have our flight to KL confirmed. Looking forward to getting back to KK, looks like it will be a bit of an adventure getting there though! Wish us luck cos we need it. x