09-Aug-2019
It seems a long time since Monday.
A long time since we were enjoying our last Baku breakfast (lavash, smoked cheese, yogurt, cherry jam...), taking our last walk along the Caspian seafront, and experiencing (actually for the first time) Baku's notorious wind.
The contrasts of Baku harbour
It was sad to climb aboard an aircraft, I have to say, after all these weeks of "real" travel.
I've never been a fan of flying, and am now even less so (too cramped and claustrophobia-inducing -- on a train you can lie down; and on a boat, even if you can't afford a cabin, you can walk around).
Nevertheless, we climbed on and off safely (Baku to Almaty, Almaty to KL), and for that I'm very grateful.
Since Tuesday we've been in Malaysia's capital, our former home, recovering from the rigours of the flight; trying to shake off the inevitable feeling of post-trip flatness; going back to favourite food places (pan mee, both soup and dry versions..., sukku malli coffee..., hojicha ice-cream...); doing a range of dull but necessary jobs; and catching Toy Story 4 (the viewing of Toy Story movies is a fair reflection of our life's peregrinations so far: we saw the first in England, the second in New Zealand, the third in Australia, and the fourth in Malaysia).
Providing transitional atmosphere in abundance has been the novel Ali and Nino. We first came across this pair of lovers in Batumi. But large parts of the narrative are set, very evocatively, in Baku. (A more analytical post will be coming soon, I hope, on The Velvet Cushion.)
It's seven months since we we left KL.
Long enough for a number of eateries to have gone out of business (replaced, for the most part, by others); long enough for the traffic to have got worse (summer holidays, I guess); long enough for a flock of pesky scooters to have contributed another hazard to the pavements; long enough for the edifices-under-construction to have put on a few layers.
The tower that was going up outside our window last year continues to grow
And long enough for the smoke pollution from regional forest fires to have reappeared. It's worse in Kuching, we're told.
Poor visibility today because of what is euphemistically referred to as the "haze"
But seven months is not long enough to be forgotten... It's heart-warming when the people we buy food and other services from greet us as though we've never been away.
And some things don't change.
The Pavilion mall, often a meeting-place when we lived here
Gearing up for the national festivals (Merdeka Day and Malaysia Day), with art works at Pavilion
KL at night, from our window. We are within earshot of two beautiful mosques
We don't live here any more, but it will always have a special space in our consciousness.