(Daniel) This morning I woke up to a the same quiet beach view that I had yesterday, but about an hour later I got a feeling that there was something happening outside.  I stuck my head out of the door, and saw three lorries, unpacking lights and scaffold, there were people everywhere, and many locals had turned up to see what the fuss was.  A Chinese man walked over to me and introduced himself as Andrew, casting director for VT Productions.  He explained that they were shooting a Chinese series here, and asked if some of his crew could use the toilets.  He also mentioned that they may want to use my vehicle for the shoot, and that they would of course pay me, a “carrot” of course!  I said that it was OK to use the toilets for today, but explained that I was going to have to get in contact with the owner of the property.  I went back inside and opened the outside door to the toilet, locking the inside one, so that the people could come and use the toilet without traipsing through the house. I phoned Aleyna then, and told her what was happening.  She said that I should tell them that we want 100RM per day to use the property, and that if they didn’t want to pay, to tell them to go away!

I decided to tell them later, and walked over to the small café next door where the boys were having a party the other night. Some locals were there, and one of them spoke English, he told me that this was a common area for filming, and that the casting director was a slippery character.  I told him about my feelings of despair at the people here, and that they were not very welcoming, or willing to make an effort to communicate.  Another man then joined in, explaining again that people here were shy and uneducated.  He and I then went to lunch in his car, we had chicken curry, which I noticed had the head in with the centre cut open so that the brains could be eaten.  He told me that it was fine to eat, and actually I have eaten it before.  So I ate them, much to his approval.  Afterwards we returned to the café, where I found that there were now three lorries, two minibuses and a herd of motorbikes parked in my garden!  I walked over to a guy from the production company, and asked what was happening, he explained that the light meters on the cameras were picking up too much white, so they had moved all of the vehicles over here.  I explained that unless he was about to pay 100RM per day to use the property that he had better move the vehicles right now.  He told me that he would talk to Andrew, and come back to me.  While I waited for the answer, a man from the village came over, and told me through the English speaker from earlier, that I had not been given permission to let these vehicles park here.  I told him that I had not given them permission, and had asked them to leave already.  He seemed satisfied, but I could see that the politics of village life were showing themselves.

An hour later the vehicles were moved, to some other unfortunate persons land no doubt.   However the road to the café, which passed through the front of my property, was still blocked and so people wanting to see the action, or visit the café had to park in my garden.  I thought that this would be a good way to endear me to the locals and so I sat at the front of the house and before long a few of the old men from the village had come to join me.  Then Pak Uda, the caretaker who had let me in the other day arrived to watch the show,  he noticed that people were walking around to the back of the house, and I explained that I had let them use the toilet.  He was not upset, but went and locked the outside door so that they couldn’t come in again.  I was happy at this, as Andrew had not shown his face again and had taken a liberty by parking all those vehicles on the front while I was away at lunch.

Later on after the other men had left, I went down the beach road to find a restaurant for dinner, and settled for a small shack.  The language issue cropped up again, when I asked in Malay for Mee Goreng, or fried noodles.  But rather than listening to what I was saying, the woman kept saying I no speak English!  Eventually she realised that I was saying something in Malay, and went off laughing to make my dinner.  Whilst I was sitting alone, and had no chance of getting chatting to anyone, I went and got the Expedition Handbook from the Wolf, and started to read about driving techniques.  My food came, and while I ate, a very beautiful girl turned up with some younger boys.  She was unusual in that she did not wear the veil, and I caught her looking at me several times.  She left before I finished, and although I had not spoken to her I could not get her out of my head as I went home.

When I arrived the fuss was all over and the beach was quiet again.  I watched a movie on the laptop with a few beers and went to bed.  The sun in this area is so strong that even with factor 25 on I got burnt again today in the few short walks from one building to another.  My legs are starting to get better though!

(Nick) Another newspaper article today, this time in "The Star", generally considered to be one of Malaysia's leading English language papers. Unfortunately, the article conveys an impression of Daniel, which, is quite a typical stereotype of English people across the world. However, Daniel is not "drunken", and he was in fact, attacked, unprovoked, and hospitalised, requiring serious surgery for his injuries. 

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