Saturday October 25, 2014
7:00 a.m. Bird Nest Guest House
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Shopping adventures continue. I went back to a camping store yesterday to consider purchasing a mosquito net and a sleeping sheet. I was going to go to the big Explorer store in the Publika shopping mall, but at the last minute, I changed my mind and went to a smaller shop I knew about. Its advantage is its location somewhat near a subway stop. I had purchased my Sawyer water filter at this shop.

The mosquito net I ended up buying is a Boxnet from Lifesystems. In a rare feat of self-control, I purchased the single instead of the double. Since I was attempting to save weight, purchasing the double would have made no sense. And when I got it back to the guest house, I had the rare experience of feeling good about a purchase. The Boxnet appeared to be perfectly sized. It was long enough, wide enough, and even high enough. I was most concerned about the height, because you need enough material to have some space above your head and body while leaving enough to tuck underneath the mattress. I slept under the net last night, and I found it to be very comfortable. In fact, it worked better than the huge, billowing mosquito net I’ve been carrying around all these years. My huge net IS much, much bigger and provides much more headroom, but it still hangs down from a central point. The central point is fairly large, as it is formed by a radiating set of wooden arms, but it is still a central point, and the netting goes down from that point the edges of the bed at an angle. That angle is more or less extreme depending on how the net is hung. Yet, the angle is always there, and it means that the net leans inwards and tends to touch my body if I move too close to the edges. The net often lies right on top of my lower legs and feet. I have to stick my feet inside my sleeping sheet to prevent mosquitoes from biting me right through the netting. This Boxnet hangs from four points – one on each corner of the rectangle – and therefore all four sides hang straight down, forming ninety degree angles with the top part and the bed. That means that no interior space is lost and the net does not hang down. It works out much better and requires far less material.

The Boxnet is also constructed of a better mosquito netting. The holes are too small for a mosquito to get through, but they are much larger than the holes on my other net. This means the net requires less material and is lighter. It also means that air passes through the netting much more easily. My old net tended to get hot because the air from a blowing fan would not pass through the netting easily. And the fan blowing on the netting would push it inwards – again making it touch my body. This net’s more professional construction means it is much lighter inside and a blowing fan does not blow the material around. The air goes right through it and kept me cooler during the night.

The one problem with the net – and this is the main reason I hesitated over the purchase – is the exact same design feature that makes it so good – the rectangular shape with ropes on all four corners. My old net requires only one attachment point – a hook in the ceiling. Even finding that one attachment point can be a challenge. I often had to rig up all kinds of crazy systems with ropes and bungee chords just to create a point from which to hang the net. This new net requires FOUR such points and those points can’t be placed randomly. They have to be at the four corners. Even in the product’s official description they talk about the difficulty of finding these four points and conclude that this net is best suited for someone staying in one place a long time. Having to set it up in new rooms night after night after night could be challenging. But I’m so in love with this net now, that I’m up to the challenge. Ah, Lifesystems Boxnet Single. Where have you been all my life?

While I was at the camping store, I also looked at sleeping sheets. My current sleeping sheet is a Sea to Summit sheet that I purchased at the same time as the mosquito net – before my trip to Ethiopia. It’s an old friend, but it, too, needs to be replaced with something lighter. It’s a simple cotton sheet sewn into the shape of a sleeping bag and weighs a fair amount. There are a variety of options for a replacement sheet, but the problem is that the lightweight options are expensive. These are either silk or a silk/cotton blend. A pure silk sheet is the lightest and smallest by far. People also say it’s warmer than cotton, but I’m not convinced that a silk sheet would feel good next to my body. It feels sticky and clingy to me. Silk/cotton blends feel better, but they are just as expensive as pure silk ones. In my current mood, I don’t think I have a choice, and I will end up purchasing one of them. I just have to decide which one.

And that’s about it for the day’s adventures. There was the standard huge rainstorm in the afternoon. I spent some time in an Internet café and then hanging out at the guest house chatting with people about this or that.

Sunday October 26, 2014
6:30 a.m. Bird Nest Guest House
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Spotted an interesting headline yesterday as I was on the Internet. It seems there was a very large and unseasonable storm in Nepal and a lot of trekkers were caught in it and died. The death count is in the forties at the moment. Most of the deaths occurred on Thorung La – the same high pass on the Annapurna Circuit that I climbed a long time ago. According to the articles I read, about one hundred trekkers left from a guest house at 5:30 in the morning to make the long climb over the pass. On the way, the storm moved in and they got caught.

The story strikes a strong chord with me because that climb over Thorung La remains one of the dumber things I’ve ever done and I remember the experience clearly. I made the climb by myself – which was a very bad idea. I don’t think anyone else made the climb that day at all. So if I’d gotten into trouble, I would have been totally screwed. These people were doing the climb in October – by far the best month of the year for the climb. I did it in February – the middle of winter a much more dangerous time. It was far more likely to have had a storm move in in February instead of October. This was a fact I talked about with a number of people before I made the climb. There was a lot of talk about whether the pass was open or whether it was snowed in and what the chances were of a storm moving in while I made the climb. All the signs were good and I made the climb and didn’t have a problem. These people were not so lucky.

Last night was my second night with my new mosquito net, and I’m happy to report that I’m just as pleased with it as I was on the first night. I was worried that its drop in comfort from my old net would be so great as to make the lighter weight unjustified. However, it is actually MORE comfortable than my old net. It’s a better net and much lighter. So it’s a win-win situation all round. The only problem – as I already mentioned – is that it requires four attachment points. However, the fact that it uses four attachment points (and therefore forms a rectangle) is what makes it so good.

I took a trip out to another camping store, but it was closed. I was very annoyed at that. What kind of large camping store closes on a Saturday afternoon? When I got back to the Bird Nest, I learned that a German couple had also gone to a camping store and found it closed. I had told them about the place and given them directions. They asked around and were told that the store was closed because it was a holiday. With the mix of three strong cultures in Malaysia and all their varying traditions, they have a lot of holidays.

The big event of the day (at least big for me) was going online and ordering a Bikebuddy water bottle attachment system. My happiness with my new mosquito net has encouraged me to pull the trigger on other purchases I’ve been obsessed with. I currently have two normal water bottle cages on my bike plus one oversized cage from Minoura – the type of cage meant for 1.5-liter plastic soda bottles. I made some measurements and concluded that even though I couldn’t put in a second Minoura cage, there was a chance a Bikebuddy system would fit. I’m not positive about that, but it seemed worth the risk. In any event, even if there isn’t enough room for a Bikebuddy with a 1.5-liter Nalgene bottle, it won’t be a total waste. I can always use the Bikebuddy with normal bottles or a fuel bottle or, in fact, any bottle. That’s one of the key features of the Bikebuddy, that you can use any container at all with it.

While I was busy ordering the Bikebuddy, I also looked into getting a couple other items. Unfortunately, I had to deal with Amazon and they did the usual thing of informing me that the items in my cart could not be shipped to this or that destination. My default shipping address is Sarnia, of course, and the message I get is always that this or that item can’t be shipped to Canada. It’s like from an American point of view, Canada is on the far side of the galaxy. And if they wouldn’t ship to Canada, they certainly wouldn’t ship to Malaysia. I did find two items that they would ship to Malaysia (a bike mirror and an Op/Tech lens case), but the shipping charges were more than double the price of the items I was ordering. Insanity reigns at Amazon.

Life goes on in the Bird Nest as usual. I chat with a few people, but it’s rare that the conversation is satisfying. It always feels somewhat forced and unnatural. People gather in the common area at night and will sit there for hours – sometimes far the entire night – and talk and talk and talk. I look at this scene with something like astonishment. Based on my interactions with people here, I can’t imagine what they find to talk about for so long. It could be an age difference, I suppose. I still don’t think of myself as particularly old or even older, but it appears I’m alone in that perspective. One man here told me that he thought I was in my sixties. That was weird because I thought this man looked older than me. But who knows? Maybe I have blinders on when it comes to my appearance. I was in the storage room working on my bike the other day, and I heard Willlie (the owner/manager of the Bird Nest) telling someone about another guest. Willie was describing this other guest and saying that it was an older guy, etc. Then Willie saw me and said, “Oh, there he is.” So in this guest house, I’m known as the older guy.

I can’t wait for my new Kindle. I’ve read all the half-decent books on the bookshelf. I’ve been reduced to reading espionage thrillers with titles like “The Whole Truth.” Books like that are embarrassing. They’re so obvious and so filled with ridiculous characters. The hero in this one is six feet five inches tall, heavily muscled and immensely powerful, very handsome with striking blue eyes, extremely intelligent, speaks multiple languages, is very brave, can take on entire roomfuls of evil terrorists with just karate chops and kicks, and is very nice. His girlfriend speaks 15 languages, has supermodel good looks, and has an IQ off the scale. The other main character is a (multiple) Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist with a dark past. The bad guy is a self-made billionaire owner of a weapons manufacturing company. It’s all so ridiculous and awful. I’m embarrassed to be reading it.

Not much else on my mind except for my current and usual obsessions. While online yesterday, I was also looking at tents. Tent technology has advanced since 1999, too, and they’ve gotten much lighter. I’m not entirely sure, but I think my tent – fully packed – weighs about eight pounds. The equivalent tents today weigh about four pounds. Were I rich, I’d just buy one.

Monday October 27, 2014
9:30 a.m. Bird Nest Guest House
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

A much later start to my day this morning. I have no idea why. I was woken up by something and when I checked my watch, I saw it was 8:45. I don’t know why I slept in so long. I guess I was tired, but I had no reason to be.

I spent most of yesterday either in the Internet café or at the guest house reading my embarrassing thriller. I finished the book and now have to rummage through the bookshelf to find something else I can tolerate.

While at the Internet café, I made another online purchase. I’m not sure how I feel about this one. It’s a strange purchase in a way, but it is something I really do need and have needed for a long time. I just didn’t know it.

The object I’m talking about is a Trangia fuel bottle. You’d think that being a Trangia user for almost thirty years, I’d know everything there is to know about the stove. It’s strange, then, that up until quite recently, I had no idea that methyl alcohol had to be stored in special containers. You can’t use regular fuel bottles because this type of alcohol dissolves all kinds of metals and rubbers and plastics. I’ve been trying to buy a plastic cap for the fuel bottle for my gas burner. The idea was to use it to store gas when I use that burner and then use it to store alcohol when I use the alcohol burner. I’m glad now that I had my usual trouble and couldn’t find a simple plastic cap because if I’d stored alcohol in that fuel bottle, I might have ruined it.

The odd nature of methyl alcohol started to become apparent to me in the Philippines when I used one of my Nalgene bottles to store alcohol. To my astonishment, the alcohol ate away at the bottle until it was unusable. The threads at the top dissolved to such an extent that they developed long cracks and gashes and resembled rotten teeth. The alcohol just poured out through those cracks if the bottle was on its side. And the body of the bottle itself was totally destroyed with a dense pattern of hundreds of hairline cracks through it. After doing some research, I learned that this alcohol even dissolves a wide range of plastics and rubbers. Only certain types can be used to store it.

I never realized this before because in the past, I always kept the alcohol in the containers it came in from the store. I bought it in one-liter bottles from hardware stores and paint stores across Canada. I just threw that bottle into my backpack or pannier bag and used the fuel until the bottle was empty and I had to buy another bottle. The Philippines was the first time I was in another country where alcohol was readily available and I used it regularly as fuel. In other places, I used kerosene or gasoline.

Anyway, that is a long way of saying that I bought a dedicated Trangia fuel bottle – one meant specifically for alcohol. I feel strange about the purchase because I don’t really know how much I will use it in the near future. I really could have used it in the Philippines, but I don’t know about other countries (assuming I ever go to other countries). The other reason I feel strange about it is that I think it is quite large. This bottle comes in only three sizes – .3 liters, .5 liters, and 1 liter.

Tuesday October 28, 2014
6:00 a.m. Bird Nest Guest House
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

I was interrupted yesterday, so I didn’t finish my story about the Trangia fuel bottle. The second reason I felt weird about the purchase was that I bought the largest size – the one-liter bottle, and I have a feeling it will turn out to be surprisingly large and a pain to carry around. However, I don’t think I had much of a choice. Half a liter of methyl alcohol is next to nothing for this type of stove. The standard bottle in the Philippines that I bought was 450 mm. I’d buy two of those at least, and that is .9 liters right there. So if I had a half-liter Trangia fuel bottle, it would be next to useless. It’s strange, then, that when I did my usual research, I found that everyone bought the .5 liter version. Everyone said the same thing – that the 1-liter bottle was far too large for them. They didn’t need so much fuel. So why am I (once again) entirely different in my needs? I even had trouble finding an online store that carried the 1-liter version of the bottle. Most stores carried only the smaller ones. Anyway, I now have a 1-liter Trangia fuel bottle winging its way towards Kuala Lumpur. We’ll see just how huge it is when it gets here.

I haven’t heard back from the Clikstand company about how the Trangia multifuel burner doesn’t actually fit into the Clikstand designed specifically for it. I had a typically horrifying thought this morning as I was thinking about this stupid stove and all my troubles with it. It was supposed to be a triumph of travel equipment – an alcohol burner and a multifuel burner that fit into the same Trangia base and windscreen. It was to be the best of all worlds, particularly because the multifuel burner was essentially the legendary Primus Omnifuel.

Everything went wrong from the very beginning when I took delivery of my Trangia Multifuel Burner X2 and found that unlike the pictures of it that were online, it did NOT have a simmer control. The Primus Omnifuel has a simmer control that you can use to make the flame bigger or smaller. However, when Trangia modified it to fit their system, they removed the simmer control. I have no idea why. So right from the beginning I was disappointed. I had paid the usual premium price to get a premium product and found that they had removed one of its main features. And I never got a good explanation of why they did so.

The next problem was that when I REALLY needed this stove to work – in the aftermath of typhoon Yolanda – it gave me no end of trouble. I could not get the damn thing to light and stay lit. No one else ever seems to have this problem. People cycle the world for years and cook every day with their multifuel stoves and burn gasoline and never have trouble. I guess I’m an idiot because I can never get my stoves to work properly.

And fast forward to ordering the premium-priced Clikstand. It’s a premium product designed specifically for the Trangia Multifuel Burner X2. And when I get it, I find that the Trangia Multifuel Burner X2 doesn’t fit. I keep repeating that because it is so insane and yet so typical of my life. I order and now have the specific Clikstand designed exclusively for the X2 burner and the X2 burner won’t fit. This only seems to happen to me. And now I’ll be sending emails back and forth with this company and they won’t say anything that makes any sense.

But this morning, I realized something else. The only reason I purchased the X2 burner to begin with is that it would fit inside the original Trangia base and windscreen. So what do I do? I decide that the Trangia base and windscreen is too heavy and bulky and replace it with the super lightweight titanium Clikstand. But if I no longer have the Trangia base, then I had no reason to buy the X2. I could have purchased the original unmodified Primus Omnifuel – the one WITH the simmer control that I wanted from the beginning. Sigh. It just never ends with me. How many stoves do I have to buy in my lifetime to get just one that works? Apparently, a lot.

I am REALLY irritable this morning. Maybe I didn’t get enough sleep. I just whacked the stupid rabbit with the cover to my NEO. The stupid animal keeps lunging at my legs and trying to bite me, so I shouldn’t feel too bad. Still, hitting a cute bunny is not how you want to start your day.

There was drama yesterday with one of the other animals that lives here – the cat. Everyone has to leave their shoes on the steps when they come into the guest house. No shoes are allowed inside. And when I sit down on the steps to put on my sandals, I’ve noticed that the stairs smell horribly of cat pee. Yesterday, I was going out with this young couple from Germany, and when they went to put on their shoes, they noticed that they really stank. They said that there was a water leak on the stairs and so their shoes were always wet and had this moldy smell. The guy held out his shoe for me to smell. I gave it a smell and offered my opinion – that smell was clearly cat piss. The guest house cat spends a lot of time on the stairs and I’ve noticed that a black cat comes to the door outside the guest house every night and sits there. The two cats face off and yowl at each other – a fight over territory or a frustrating mating cry, I’m not sure which. Either way, the guest house cat reacts by peeing all over the shoes to mark its territory. The German couple reacted with horror when I told them that the smell was cat piss. Later in the day, I saw them in the bathroom scrubbing their shoes with a soapy brush.

Tags: Bikebuddy, Kuala Lumpur, Lifesystems Mosquito Net, Malaysia, Trangia Multifuel Burner X2