pptanuki | Reading

The original plan for Sunday had been to meet up with another fur and head out of the city, specifically to the Erawan Museum and the Ancient Temple. However, a family emergency put paid to that, meaning I was on my own for the day. Fortunately, that didn't mean the entire day was scuppered as the Erawan Museum was accessible by public transport so at least I could do that.

My original plan had been to meet up with my friend at 1pm, as he had to travel back to Bangkok from his family home a couple of hours south. This meant it had always been my intention to go to the two main parks in the city beforehand - Lumphini Park and Benchakitti Park. As both of these were en route to the Erawan Museum, it made to call off their first, although it was past noon by the time I rocked up to Lumphini. This was a nice oasis in the middle of the bustling city, with skyscrapers framing all four sides. There were pleasant bodies of water dotted around, while I also took the opportunity to go spotting for monitor lizards. These big bastards live in the park - there is even a statue dedicated to them - and I saw one behind a tree trunk once I'd gotten off the beaten track. He stuck his tongue out at me and flicked, but largely left me alone, allowing me to take a few photographs too. Aside from this, I had a pleasant enough half hour just strolling around in the sunshine, which was the perfect antidote to the cold European weather from which I had come. The water features in the lake had a particularly cooling effect while the brightly coloured flowers were nice to see too.

I then had two choices - go to Benchakitti Park first or head to the Erawan Museum and pick up the park later. I opted for the latter, thinking sunset in Benchakitti Park would be a rather pleasant experience. As I'll highlight later, this turned out to be the correct call. I made this while being confused at a traffic junction which had the longest set of lights imaginable - I must have waited at least five minutes to cross the road. Anyway, with my mind made up, I hopped back on the BTS and made the near hour-long journey over to the Erawan. Built in 2003, it is essentially a temple in the shape of a three-headed elephant. It sits by the side of a motorway and you can see its imposing form as you head towards Erawan BTS station. From here, it's a 15-minute walk back up the road, ducking into a desolate side street with a load of rubbish strewn on the side. The 29x39m 250-ton elephant atop its pink pedestal hones into view once you round a corner at the top end, with a number of hawkers selling flowers and other offerings. You have to navigate the main perimeter a while to find the main entrance, but once there, it opens out into a rather large complex.

I paid the princely some of 500 baht for entry, but the audio guide was free. Alas, it wasn't working correctly, so the commentary sounded as if it were being given underwater. Still, it wasn't a huge issue as there were signs on most things and the place wasn't big anyway. There are a number of smaller temples dotted around the grounds, while there are huge statues of elephants under which a pathway runs. To one side, there are seats upon which I enjoyed sitting and soaking up the scene. At one point though, a small lizard skittered across the path, scaring the hell out of me. Underneath the giant elephant, there is a modest museum largely dedicated to pottery and metal crafting throughout the ages. Thai, Chinese and European pottery all feature. The temple itself inside the elephant is certainly impressive. The highlight is the blue painted room at the top with its astronomical charts mapped on the roof, in which stands eight statues of the Buddha in various reposes. The stained glass roof just below the blue room was similarly wondrous, while towards the bottom there is a shrine which formed the basis of worship. It was walking around here that I noticed the large number of Russian tourists who were visiting Thailand, something that was quite a common theme during my stay.

I spent a pleasant hour and a half here before making my way back the way I had come to Chang Erawan BTS station. There was a 7-Eleven just outside so I picked up another toastie and ate it outside while watching a group of about ten men getting excited over a muay Thai boxing match. This is Thailand's national sport and is definitely something I should probably check out whenever I next visit. Getting back to the city centre was another 45 minutes and I ended up exactly where I had gotten on at Asok. From here, it was a short walk to Benchakitti Park, during which I stopped to pick up some ice cream. This was served from one of the many little carts that dot the city and although the gentleman didn't understand English, it was easy enough to point to what I wanted on the menu. I opted for two scoops of vanilla ice cream and two of coconut, with coconut milk dribbled all over it. It was all very nice and a perfect balm to the warm afternoon. I was eating my ice cream as I entered the park. The first thing that strikes you is the huge lake sitting in the middle of it, while on the opposite side there was a thick line of forest through which people were walking. As with Lumphini Park, skyscrapers frame most edges of the park, making this something of a tranquil spot in the bustling and oppressive city.

I had entered the park on its north-eastern corner and headed west. There, I noticed a small crowd had gathered on a hillock. Upon closer inspection, there was a stage upon which an orchestra was sat. It looked like they were about to start and so I walked around the hill and climbed to its summit to see what was going on. It seemed to be a concert to celebrate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Thailand and Ireland. It was hosted by the Irish Embassy in Thailand so I decided to stick around and see what happened. I placed myself behind the mixing desk as unfortunately there was no place to sit on the hill itself, such was the high attendance for the concert. A few minutes later, a lady introduced proceedings, with a Thai government official and the Irish ambassador to the country welcomed onto the stage. Apparently, this was just one of the many events that had been staged to celebrate this anniversary and I was in for a treat. It was basically a 90-minute concert of orchestral versions of major Irish pop songs. The Cranberries' 'Zombie' was the undoubted highlight, while Snow Patrol's 'Chasing Cars' and U2's 'With or Without You' were also very emotional. For the 16 songs performed, there were three different singers, with one of the gentleman being particularly proficient. His rendition of 'Take Me To Church' still gives me goosebumps. Like the orchestra, all singers were Thai and they put on a fantastic show. Watching the sun go down while surrounded by wonderful live music was a big highlight of this trip and what made it even better was I'd just stumbled upon it randomly. Had I decided to go to the park first, I never would have done. The concert ended with the Can-Can song and we all dispersed shortly after 6:30pm.

It was around this time that I received a text from Atlantis, a Thai fur with whom I had gone travelling six years ago. He had seemed lukewarm about meeting me so I hadn't really pursued it, but had told him that I may be free on the Sunday. He got in touch to say he hadn't heard from me, so I hastily tried to work out how best to meet. I hadn't any real plans for the evening and invited him for dinner, but that reticence to meet was still there and there was a lot of back and forth. In the end, we agreed to meet the next day, allowing me to go and grab some food on my own.

I had spoken to Gao about places to go, both for food and craft beer, and he suggested a few good places. Unfortunately, he got a little confused and recommended places near railway stations at different parts of the city. As I walked past the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center - a large building very much typical of this type - I weighed up whether to go for food or beer. In the end, I opted for the latter, heading to Pijiu in Chinatown. Unlike the previous places I had visited the day before, this was near the old Bangkok Train Station. This saw me get a Metro from the convention center to Hua Lamphong. Here, in the underpass linking the subway to the railway station, there was signs detailing the history of transportation in the city. I found this fascinating and would have liked to have hung around longer, but time was pressing. I did get to look around the old station though, which at this time of night was pretty much desolate. It seems trains all leave and arrive in batches in Thailand with huge gaps in between. I peeked in to see the platforms and saw two very old steam locomotives parked on two of them, while there was some angle grinding going on nearby where a new line was being constructed. The main concourse of the station was nice enough with its vaulted ceiling and colourful tiled floor, and the whole thing reminded me of what I'd seen of railway stations in India.

Pijiu wasn't too far from here, but navigating my way out of the confines of the railway station proved to be tricky. I went over a canal, saw a colourful manhole cover with a train on it, dashed over a busy road, then darted down a narrow alleyway and entered a street replete with bars and restaurants, many of which in an oddly colonial style. Pijiu was pretty much in front of me so I entered and ordered one of the three Thai beers they had on draft. Pijiu is the Chinese word for beer yet most of their beers seemed to be from Vietnam. Aside from myself, there was one couple enjoying some beers too, and that was it. The ambience was pleasant enough though and the woman behind the bar friendly. Having not eaten, I decided to order some skewered meat to crave my hunger pangs. This was quite cheap, with 60 baht for the lamb (written lamp in the menu) and 20 baht for everything else. This included chicken, sweetcorn and bread, which surprisingly worked as the smoky flavours were infused into it. However, this wasn't enough to sate my hunger so I decided to try and find something more substantial. The bar lady suggested a Thai place down the road, but once I had gotten there, I didn't particularly fancy it. Doubling back, I ended up in Hongjiu Grill and Bar a few doors down from Pijiu. I realised pretty quickly that this was where my skewers had come from, so I knew the quality must be good. I ordered the thin strip steak which over the grill was cooked to perfection, with unctuous fatty meat and a smoky flavour. The craft beer they served with it wasn't as good as that in Pijiu, but the service was friendly and I did return back to the bar afterwards to have a second pint of a different Thai craft beer. I ended the evening with a bottle of Vietnamese craft beer which was probably the best of the bunch. The craft beer scene in Vietnam is first rate.

By 11pm I decided I should probably head off. As it was 51 minutes by public transport - it does seem to be rather inefficiently laid out in Bangkok - and just 45 minutes to walk back to my hotel, I did the latter. This allowed me to see more of the city, but late at night, it may have been foolhardy. Still, no-one bothered me and I stuck to major streets so it wasn't too dangerous, while I also walked with purpose. Walking by the canal was really nice too. It did also enable me to call at 7-Eleven and pick up another toastie before retiring back to my hotel after another busy yet tiring day.

lupestripe

I landed in Bangkok at ten o'clock on a Friday morning, meaning I had the whole day to struggle through the jet lag. The flight itself had been largely uneventful, but I did manage to watch The Bad Guys after wanting to see it for so long. It had been on my mind of late due to the presence of a snake in Zootopia 2, with Mr. Snake being the main reason why I hadn't watched The Bad Guys. For some reason, I thought now may be the time to rectify that, with me thinking that the small screen and ability to shut it off whenever I wanted without judgement made it an easier watch. As it turned out, aside from a few stomach-churning moments, I had no issues watching the film and even warmed to the snake character. Of course, Mr. Wolf was my favourite while I'll admit I have a thing for Diane Foxington, but I am glad I watched it in the end. On the plane back, I got to watch the sequel too. This wasn't as good, with the plot being particularly silly, but I still thought it was enjoyable enough.

I had only slept for about an hour on the plane, so I was in desperate need of some sleep. The immigration procedure was straightforward and I was soon in the long thin waiting area where the arrivals hall disgorged. I had booked a transfer to my hotel, the Asia Hotel Bangkok, as part of a Black Friday deal with Booking.com but my driver had failed to turn up. He text me pretty swiftly though, saying he was going to be late as he'd had another drop off. I was expecting this to be a few minutes, but the Booking.com app informed me it was nearer 45, so I just stood there desperately waiting for him to turn up. The wait wasn't too bad, and he was very apologetic when he arrived, but ultimately it wasn't a great start to the trip. Neither was the taxi ride itself, which was conducted largely in silence as we navigated the high rises and concrete jungle that is downtown Bangkok.

I really needed sleep so the last thing I needed was the hotel being unable to give me my room key. I had told them I was arriving at around noon - half an hour earlier than when I did actually arrive - but there was no room prepared and they told me to come back at 3pm. I pushed them on this and they said try at 2pm, which still left me with an hour and a half wait. The plush waiting area and huge chandelier was an opulent place to stay, but I decided to try and snag some lunch, going to the Monty's bagel house around the corner. This had bright yellow branding which did little to slap me out of my lethargy, while the salmon and cream cheese bagel was small and expensive for what it was. Still, it was food, and after about an hour I tried my luck at getting into the room. Initially I was turned away again until the lady behind the desk took pity on me and gave me my room key around five minutes later. This saw me finally enter the room, where I dropped my bag down and had a couple of hours of kip.

I awoke at around 6pm wondering what to do. I hadn't arranged to meet anyone, but it was a Friday evening and thus a shame to waste it. There were a couple of things I wanted to achieve in Bangkok and one of them was to visit the Brewdog bar on Ploenchit Road. This was just two stops away on the BTS Sky Train and so it seemed like a good opportunity to tick that off. I picked up my beer visas and stepped out into the muggy heat, which reminded me so much of my days of living in Louisiana. Navigating the BTS was pretty simple as the ticket machines were all in English and although I was tempted to go with day tickets, I thought getting a couple of singles (one there and one back) would make sense. Hanging on the platform, I noticed an advert for some tablets where being German was seen as a huge advantage, along with two advertisements for Zootopia 2 with that damn snake in it. I hear he's called Gary, which makes him less scary, but snakes will always petrify me.

I got off at Chit Lom BTS station and after initially going the wrong way, I easily found the bar. This was in the downtown part of the city that was full of shopping malls and twinkling Christmas lights. The fully golden frontage of the Dior shop was one cogent example of the bling of this area. As I approached the place, there was loud music coming from inside, and I realised at that point that most Thai bars are ridiculously loud, thus preventing a conversation. However, this was live music, with two gentlemen singing various Christmas hits. One was on keyboard, the other guitar, and it was quite a pleasant place to sit and nurse a beer. I got my visas stamped, while for some reason they had to take a photocopy of my shareholder's card to give me my 10% discount. Even then, the beer wasn't cheap, with prices being higher than they are in Europe. I do think they overcharged me here, with one 500ml and one 300ml beer coming to around €25 but I can't be too sure. By the time I came to leave, the band had stopped and some dreadful DJ music was blaring over the speakers, making the ambience much less nice. Still, the building itself is quite airy with a huge glass frontage, but you could tell you were in a Brewdog bar. They're largely the same everywhere.

It was still only around 9pm at this point and with a taste for beer, I decided to hop over the road to check out Taproom Chidlom. This took some finding as it's on the first floor of a food court inside a shopping mall. It turned out that it was really just a stand in the middle of a walkway and unfortunately, they were closing at 10pm. This still afforded me a short amount of time to pick up a beer though, and I noticed they had some interesting Vietnamese offerings. I grabbed one, paid the bill, and noticed that the handful of other people here were all Westerners. Indeed, craft beer does seem to be more of a Westerner thing in Bangkok, probably because the prices are similar to what you'd pay in Europe. In a country where a Big Mac costs a quarter of what it does here, I imagine craft beer is for the privileged. This sense only continued in my final bar of the night, which was Feat Lab. This was just up the road from my hotel, just beyond Ratchathewi BTS station and we had driven past this in our taxi earlier. This was my favourite bar of the evening as it was tucked away and intimate. The prices were a little cheaper and the barkeep clearly understood his beer and had passion for it. I would have come back had I been honest, but I ended up running out of time. Still, I had a pleasant pint of craft beer and lamented the empty chair opposite me, wishing Wolfie had joined me. Alas, his foot was still in pain and he didn't want to risk it.

On the way back to my hotel, I called in at 7-Eleven and discovered the delights of the ham and cheese toastie they sell. These are warmed in a toasted sandwich maker in front of you, with a special offer seeing them reduced from 29 baht to 27 or 25 baht depending on where you were. The sharp unctuous cheese was a real delight, as was the crispy bread, and I ended up having about seven or eight of these during my stay in the Thai capital. They made for a particularly good breakfast option as they were so cheap, negating the need for me to pay for whatever the hotel was offering. There were three 7-Elevens within a five-minute radius of my hotel so getting access to supplies was very easy indeed. As well as the sandwich, I also got some sweet potato Mr. Potato chips which were similar to Pringles yet purple. These were decidedly average.

The plan for Saturday was to head to ForFun, a fetish store on the outskirts of the city, for their Puppy and Fursuit Dressing Day. This happens once a month, usually on the first Saturday, and I had wanted to head to the store ever since I had bought my petsuit from them back in 2022. The flyer for the event said their Cafe 500, where the event was taking place, was open from 1pm until midnight with the ForFun store opening at 2pm. I therefore decided to go down there for two o'clock, thinking it would give people enough time to arrive. What I didn't realise was that the event was largely an evening affair, and thus once I had made the hour-long journey to the place, I was the only person there. Still, I got to look around the ForFun shop and chat to the guy who was serving, while I grabbed a Furry Unicorn Milk drink which was part of their Pet Play range for 120 baht. This was a pink and purple drink with cream on top. The gentleman serving behind the bar at 500 Cafe didn't speak very good English but he was pleasant enough, while I enjoyed looking around their BDSM-themed space. It was quite small, which made me wonder just how many furs would be able to fit into it, but that was something I was to discover later. There is also a studio you can hire on this street, with this end of the alleyway being dubbed the Fun District. There is a huge banner over the road along with a gay pride flag. I couldn't resist putting on my pup hood and taking some photos.

With no sign of any furries coming, I decided to cut my losses and head back into the city centre shortly before 3pm. This saw me retrace my steps, walking the 20 minutes down residential alleyways before getting back to Bang Yi Khan Metro station. The metro has a different ticketing system to the BTS and utilises tokens and not cards. However, you can use contactless card on the metro too. What I didn't realise is, unlike the BTS, you can't buy two tokens at the same station and use one for your return journey. They are tied to the place where you bought them, which made the return a little embarrassing. Anyway, I travelled back to my hotel via Chatuchak Metro and Mo Chit BTS, arriving back just after 4pm.

One of the reasons I left was I was due to meet up with Viki, a fur with whom CoVahr had put me in touch. He suggested going for dinner in the Chinatown area, with us meeting up shortly after 5:30pm. This gave me half an hour to charge up my phone, which was made more laborious by the fact I had broken my ultra-fast lightning charger the day before when I had dropped my phone on the floor while charging it. This saw the dongle snap off and get stuck in my phone - it was something of a miracle I could extricate it. Anyway, once I had got some juice, I got back on the Metro again and headed to Wat Mangkon Metro station. Upon reaching surface level, the sights, sounds and bustle of Chinatown hit me. It was only a short walk to Yaowarat Road, with its huge neon signs replete with Chinese characters. The bustle here was even more intense and with Viki running slightly late, I just hung around and took it all in. He suggested I get in the queue for the restaurant he picked - Nai Ek - and he arrived around five minutes later. The queue wasn't too long and soon we were seated, although we did have to move once the heavens opened. We ordered the specialty Double boiled soup with sliced pork, although we decided to skip on the liver, stomach and tongue that could have accompanied it. This was all incredibly tasty, while I enjoyed the street food canteen vibe of the place.

We didn't stay long though as the meal was simple and quick. Viki suggested we go next door to Laoteng, which proved somewhat difficult to access due to the people crowding around its entrance sheltering from the rain. This is a high-end dim sum place that Viki recommends and soon enough we were sampling pork and shrimp dumplings along with those stuffed with mince. I have never been a huge fan of seafood, particularly the crustacean variety, and the food here didn't convince me otherwise. It would have been much better had it been meat alone, but aside from this, it was pretty good. However, the main reason we were here was to visit the secret cocktail bar. This was hidden behind a door that just looked like part of the wall unless you looked closely. The handle was pretty obvious once you saw it and of course the people going in and out made you realise something was awry. With space for only about twenty people, Viki was getting a little concerned it was starting to fill up, so we downed our dumplings quickly and headed inside.

This, like the craft beer bars I had visited the night before, was another high-end place out of reach of many Thais. At 420 baht a cocktail, around €11, you were paying European prices again but the quality was very good. I had a strawberry cheesecake one followed by a cherry bomb, the latter coming at a time when Viki had to leave. He needed to head back home by 8pm to attend to a family matter yet clearly wanted me to hang in the cocktail bar longer. It had been great talking to him though about all manner of things, particularly life in Thailand, and I am glad he could afford a few hours to be able to meet me and show me around. While in this bar, we also both had a tarot reading, with both of us drawing The Fool. I am unsure whether all of the other cards were the same or not, but it was a nice touch to this rather good speakeasy.

It was around 7:40pm when I had finished my second cocktail and I had a choice - continue drinking or go back to ForFun. The problem with the latter was the hour-long journey and the fact I had dropped my petsuit back at the hotel. I did not have time to go back there and then to ForFun, as the event was due to finish at midnight and the trains would end earlier. I was still stewing over what to do as I picked my way back up the teeming Plaeng Nam Road and back to Wat Mangkon station. These looked quite different in the night, with the neon lights being particularly striking. In the end, I decided I had little to lose going to ForFun, even though there was a high likelihood I didn't know anyone. So, for the second time that day, I made my way back over there. The night market at Bang Yi Khan station was bustling but I decided to swerve going through the alleyways and stuck to the main roads. I was a little apprehensive being on my own in a strange outer suburb of the city, but seeing other tourists and women walking alone assuaged my fear. In the end, I had nothing to worry about and stumbled over the threshold of the 500 Cafe at around 8:45pm.

The barman immediately recognised me, saying 'I see you've come back'. The bar must have had about fifty furs by this point, although the majority were just wearing normal clothes. There were a few in petsuits and a few more in fursuits, along with the usual handful of pups. At one corner there was karaoke - which I was invited to try but turned down - while there were people sat in groups on the handful of tables around. I ordered a beer and loitered around the karaoke area, apprehension building. The truth was that I didn't know anyone there, or at least I thought I didn't. I tried to muscle my way into a few English-language conversations I could overhear, but in the end I didn't get very far. I was at the point of leaving when I started chatting to an Italian gentleman who turned out to be one of the big rope bondage practitioners in the city. He had two friends with him and all three wanted to know more about the furry fandom. I was happy to fill them in with context and ended up chatting to them for a good half hour before they needed to leave. This left me alone again, but then I learned something - Mr. S, the owner of ForFun, was someone I already knew and he followed me on Bluesky. He came over to me and we started chatting, while he introduced me to a few of the others too. I also got to meet Felix, who was one of the furs fully dressed. I had spoken to him on Telegram prior to coming to Bangkok so it was great to meet up.

I ended up hanging around for just over two hours, staying for the photo shoot and having a few beers as well. I left shortly before 11pm, knowing it was over an hour to get back to my hotel and not wanting to risk missing the last trains. I had been told they stopped at midnight and I had to change onto the BTS to get back to my hotel. In the end, I am glad I went down to ForFun, even though meeting people was challenging. It's a great little place and I'd love to head back there one day, perhaps in my petsuit. It was a shame I had brought it all the way to Bangkok to wear here and I didn't get the opportunity, but at least I went to the event to see what it was all about. I also ended up having another delicious ham and cheese toastie from 7-Eleven on the way home, so it was win-win all round.

lupestripe

I've just returned from a 12-day trip to Thailand and Malaysia, my first for six years. The second half of the trip was to attend FURUM, a furry con in Petaling Jaya, near Kuala Lumpur, that's very close to my heart. This was my fourth time attending FURUM, having visited in 2016, 2017 and 2019. Alas, in 2019, I had come down with some horrendous fever and had to spend most of the time in my room, so it was good to be able to rectify that. However, the con has also grown significantly since my first one nine years ago. Back then, we had just over 100 furs there. This year, that number had increased sixteen-fold.

Despite the huge numbers, this didn't make the con any less intimate. One of the reasons I keep going back to Malaysia is the sheer number of friends I have there and it was incredible to see them again, after six long years. The pandemic, of course, was one of the main reasons why I hadn't been able to go sooner, but living in Germany has significantly drained my finances too. I only went this time as I had some refunds from flights I needed to use, having been delayed by 24 hours by KLM upon visiting Chicago for MFF last year. I could have gone back there this time around, but the aggressive immigration policy of the United States meant a holiday there no longer appeals. This is a shame as I would have loved to have caught up with my writing friends over there, but the truth is I no longer feel safe visiting there.

I had spent the previous few days in Thailand with Gao, who had shown me around the southern parts of the country where he lives. He had suggested we drive to Krabi from Nakhon Si Thammarat, a three-hour journey, to get our flight to the Malaysian capital. Unfortunately, this necessitated a very early start, and despite the weather having held out for me, this was rainy season and it had reverted to form. The rain was lashing it down and driving was incredibly tricky, at least on the eastern side of the isthmus before we headed over the mountains. By the time we were approaching Krabi though, the rain had abated, which was just as well as the stair-rods made for some rather dangerous driving. With the weather now drier, it allowed us to stop off and grab some quick breakfast. I was going to go for another wondrous ham and cheese toastie from 7-Eleven until Gao suggested I tried local chicken chain Five Star. These are often small pre-fab huts in 7-Eleven car parks and although grilled chicken and rice was an odd dish for me at 9:30am, I went along with it. We ate in a local petrol station car park near a public toilet and a statue of a Buddhist snake god by a lake and I have to say it was fantastic. The chicken was succulent, the sweet honey coating divine and the sticky rice plus sweet chili sauce combo was the perfect accompaniment. It was far better than the rather dry KFC I had tried the night before, with the only downside being it was all quite messy. Still, there was a public toilet nearby, so I could wash my paws easily.

The airport experience was reasonably straightforward, although I did need to print off my boarding pass before going through immigration. The Air Asia experience is as it usually is - cheap, but significantly better than the European equivalents - while at the other side, I was shocked to discover that Malaysia now uses egates so that meant my passport was not to be stamped. This is a huge shame as I always get such a thrill when I get a new stamp in my passport and in some respects this is yet another sign of technology making life worse. However, I was through immigration exceptionally quickly, and I had to wait a while for Gao to get through the old fashioned way. Then, he ordered a taxi from the all-purpose Grab app and we were on our way to the hotel.

Driving up to the white tower in the shadow of other, taller skyscrapers, I got a familiar sense of being at home and this continued throughout the weekend. This did wear off a little though as it took nearly 45 minutes to check in. Yes, the lobby was rather busy, but the queue wasn't that long. Having had an early start and a busy day, all I wanted was a brief chance to decompress ahead of what would be a rather hectic weekend. Still, once I did get checked in and settled in my very familiar room (I had spent much of the 2019 con in one after all), I did manage to get a quick nap before the fun began.

I have known the chairman of FURUM, CT Wolf, since my visit in 2009 and he invited me out for a curry with around 20 other furs. I met with everyone in the lobby just before 6:30pm and we were divided into cars. Our destination was Tasty Chapathi, where we decided to share a Family Feast among the six of us at the end of the table where I was. Canis Enigmas was one of the furs here and he was someone else I have known for over 16 years. It was great catching up with everyone, and making new friends too, while the curries were similar to those we have in the UK. This was a wonderful sense of familiarity, not just after eating a week of (admittedly delicious yet unfamiliar) Thai food, but because these were curries we can't get in Germany either. The naan were undoubtedly the highlight though, with butter and cheese. Wonderful stuff. It was here that I also got a new phone adapter and charger, having broken my fast-charging one in Thailand. This meant I didn't have a viable three-pronged UK style plug, ironic really considering I'm from the UK, and I had asked CT to source a replacement. Considering I had been most worried about the power outlets in Thailand, as I say, this was most ironic.

After the food, we went back to the hotel and I went to the local KK Mart to pick up beer. As Malaysia is a predominantly Muslim country, this was rather expensive, with very little choice available. I opted to pick up a four-pack of 500ml Tiger for around €10, reasoning the six pack of 325ml Carlsberg for a similar price was less good value. On the way back to the hotel - which was a 10-minute walk over a dual carriageway - I saw fireworks being set off from the top of the adjacent Sheraton hotel. This was acting as our overflow for the weekend - something that was not necessary six years ago, highlighting how the con has grown - and although I am not sure whether the fireworks were related to the con, they sure were pretty. After this, I dumped all my goodies in the room and searched some people out. However, as this was day zero and most people had just arrived, and with some of my friends having early staffing duties the following day, there was very little going on. Ultimately, then, I decided to catch up on sleep and get fresher for the main two days of the con. This saw me head to bed around midnight and I didn't wake up for about ten hours.

After a shower, the next morning saw me head towards registration to pick up my lanyard. I had only gone for the standard ticket, having registered on the opening day back in July. I wasn't fully committed to this trip until late November, when the chance for an upgrade had gone, but I was happy enough with my lot. However, this did mean I didn't get into the Dealers' Den until day two and in turn this meant that many of the interesting things had already been sold. At least this made me save money though, with the only thing I bought when I did manage to make it on the Sunday was a Japanese-style tiger luckbox thing from my Taiwanese friend JC as a present for Wolfie. Alas, there were very few wolf-themed things there for some reason. Like most cons these days, entrance was staggered depending on which ticket you bought, and by the time it had gotten to the standard folks in the final two hours of Saturday, the queue was so long as to make it almost pointless visiting.

I had noticed this immediately after the water tasting panel, which I had attended on an account of some serendipity. While floating about with little to do, I bumped into Kaiyoki, who was carrying two bottles he had brought from Australia for the event. He told me about what was going on and I hadn't considered going, largely because the description of the event on the timetable was in Malay and I wasn't sure what it was. Only by consulting the description in the conbook did I get an idea. Anyway, one of the main reasons why I ended up in the water tasting panel was that Kaiyoki said he could print out a QR code for me related to my new Linktree account. I had realised pretty quickly that most furs in SE Asia carry business cards to give out. I had belatedly thought of getting some of my own in Thailand and am in the process of designing them now, but of course there was no way they would be ready for FURUM. I thought, though, that at least a Linktree account would give me something to link to, and as Kaiyoki had a portable printer with him, he told me he could print out the resultant QR code on a sticker. This turned out to be very useful as I could stick it on my badge and use that as a makeshift business card. Alas, he could only do this in the water tasting panel, for which he was running late and he didn't know where he was going. Fortunately, I did, and could navigate the labyrinthine floors of the Sheraton with its five level 3s (3, 3A, 3B, 3C and 3D) and multiple lower basement levels.

I have run beer tasting panels at other cons which have descended into free for alls, but this was something more along the lines of what I wanted to do. There were three people judging the water, offering both comments and ratings on each, while the rest was passed around the expectant masses. There were 16 bottled waters from various provenances to check and you would be surprised in thinking that they were all quite different. Yes, they were all water, but some were definitely better than others while the one that tasted like a swimming pool called G was particularly bad (this was the worst-rated one). There were three sparkling waters, but the one called 'Bubble' was ironically not - while I must admit feeling quite bloated and drunk on water by the time we got to about 10. I spent a fair bit of time lovingly taking the piss out of the whole thing on Bluesky, while Kaiyoki introduced Tohato Caramel Corn to provide some soakage. With how my stomach reacts badly to water in general, this was most appreciated and did avoid me feeling bloated and sick.

When constructing my Linktree, I had enlisted the help of Krado Lion, with whom I had spent a good chunk of time. We had lunch together on Saturday, with him ordering pork and noodles from Grab. This was served with a side of salty soup in a bag, which we poured into our plastic containers once we had finished our main course. This food was my choice and at RM13 was far superior to anything the hotel were serving up. They did have sausage rolls though, which made for a fine breakfast option, although the tuna puffs weren't appealing. This little food area just outside the main third floor area of the Armada proved to be a good meeting space, acting a bit like a bar does at a European con. It was here where I got to meet a lot of new people as well as see a nine-tailed kitsune fursuit struggling to get into a lift. I also had a pretty mediocre chicken burger here on the Sunday, but you can't have everything. Anyway, Krado suggested Linktree to me and he helped me create it in the seated downstairs area by the lobby before I went to the water panel, and I was grateful for his help.

Saturday evening I had been invited for dinner again by CT Wolf, but this was in the main restaurant of the Armada called Utara. Deemed as an 'old farts' meet, many of my SE Asian friends were there, including the aforementioned people and Gantos. There were a few people I didn't know too, including the Frenchman Yoshee, who has become something of a regular fixture here. The menu in Utara is extensive, but they only had four things on. One of those things was nasi goreng and as I don't really eat seafood, it didn't really appeal. In the end, I settled on the fish and chips, which were fine. CT kindly paid for us all, so this was another cheap day, while I didn't drink again either on account of not having been invited to any room parties.

After the meal, I went back to my room before having a visitor, after which I checked out the Motorfurs Meet. This takes place late at night, when it's a little cooler, and was in the basement of the Sheraton. Getting there was just a matter of walking over the road and into the car park, but there was a shuttle bus service that went up the ramp to the main entrance should you want to go to the third floor where the Dealers' Den and a few function rooms were situated. This was quite a pointless bus really as you could just walk to the car park and use the lifts, and I seemed to be one of the few people using it. Anyway, the Motorfurs Meet was fun, with quite a few impressive vehicles there. Each had their license plates covered with a special SEA Motorfurs branded plate, while each car had its history and owner details on a piece of paper under the windscreen wipers. This was a neat idea and meant you got to understand a little more about the car you were seeing. Of course, someone had brought a standard Citroen there too, while there were many fursuit pictures to be had. There was even a group shot in between two of the cars where all the fursuiters gathered, with around 25-30 overall. I wandered around this area for about forty-five minutes but didn't really engage with many people. Shortly after 11pm, I decided to head back to the main hotel, weighing up my options for what I should do.

There was a launch party for 'The Wideness of the World' anthology slated for 12 noon Pacific Time. Had I still been in Germany, this would be a sensible 9pm, but as I was in Malaysia, this meant the live stream was due at 4am. I was reticent to commit to it, but as this is the biggest thing I've been published in thus far, I did want to be there. I scouted around for room parties, but again there was little, while most of my friends were going to bed early. Consequently, at midnight, I was back in bed with my alarm set for 3:50am. It was difficult to rouse myself, but once I did, I logged into Discord from where we were conducting the stream. It was due to go out on Twitch and my initial plan had been just to lurk. There were plenty of other writers there after all, so you can imagine my surprise when 40 minutes later, I was asked to talk about my story. Fortunately, I had highlighted an excerpt I wanted to read out, although I panicked and ended up narrating one page further on. Still, I managed to set the scene well and the 30-minute Q&A was engaging and I felt I contributed. In a way, it was lucky I didn't try and stay up all night as had I been drinking, this could have been a disaster. In the end, I drank two cans of fizzy during the event and then went back to bed.

I decided to wear my skirt on the Sunday, although I was a little reticent initially as Malaysia is a more conservative society than most of Europe. However, upon seeing someone in a maid's outfit, my mind was assuaged and even though I did change back into jeans to go out and get some food, around the con space, I sported my kilt. I thought I could explain it away by being Scottish worst-case. In the end, it was received warmly, with even one of the security guards asking where my kilt was when I was coming back from my food trip.

Sunday was a rather quiet day initially, with a load of parties slated in the evening. This meant I again joined Krado Lion for lunch and darted to the Dealers' Den, being caught by the inflatable and balloon room in between. Here I met some more furs who I had met before - this was a constant theme throughout the weekend, so many people recognised me and wanted to chat - and I got to throw balloons at a cute fursuiter to head. After this, I bumped into Hollud and we decided to go to the auction and closing ceremony together. This lasted two and a half hours, with the auction taking up the bulk of the time. There were loads of cool things on sale and I was very tempted to bid on some of the con tickets for next year. There has been an explosion in furry cons and events throughout SE Asia with the likes of Borneo and Vietnam now having their own events. This was all very fascinating and I had a deep longing to go, but not knowing when these events actually were did stop me from bidding. The petsuit hoodies from ForFun went down a storm too, getting to silly prices, while I would have bid for the Borneo music instrument had I been able to fit it into my already cramped hand luggage. They ended up raising over RM42,000 for the cat charity and soon we were into the closing ceremony. My number wasn't one of the lucky four for the raffle - where three won tickets for the 2026 edition of FURUM and the fourth won a new Galaxy phone - while we got to see the animation that revealed next year's theme. Initially, this was a Final Fantasy X style as next year is the 10th FURUM, but we were told the theme was just the 10th anniversary. Speaking to random furs in the lift, many of them were excited for the Final Fantasy element and I hope they are not disappointed.

There are quite a few SE Asian influences going on, and the animations form a key part of the opening and closing ceremonies. Since 2018, these have been an ongoing narrative and graphic designer DragnAlexia hosted a panel detailing all of these on the Saturday. This was very good as we got to see the whole history as he showed us every animation. Some of these I don't understand as they are based on specific anime or TV programs (e.g. I didn't know what Furpiece was (it's based on something called One Piece) and I joked it may be some kind of furry jockstrap), particularly the opening credits. Seeing the originals running side-by-side with the furry creations was eye-opening. This also meant we could relive past con themes, while I got flashbacks to the 2019 FURUM when they joked that they needed to take a break from running the convention due to the stress. This was prior to revealing the 2020 theme, but then of course the con did not take place due to the pandemic until 2022. Charting the history of the con through the adventures of Sunny and Slappy was great, while they also have fursuiters of the two characters too. These were there during the auction encouraging bidding, while it was interesting to see that the auction was hosted by a fellow Brit. It was interesting to think that back in 2016, I was the only Westerner at FURUM, let alone UK national, and now it has very much become a multinational con. Again, the fandom seems to be forever growing.

Earlier in the day on the Sunday, I swung by Snares panel about Furries and the Media, which highlighted how the fandom has been portrayed in the media over the last 25 years. Some positive and some negative examples were highlighted, while Snares also talked about how to set the agenda should the media come sniffing. It was a very interesting panel with useful advice, as well as some tips on the pitfalls to avoid. The positive publicity generated by Anthrocon and their communications team were particularly highlighted and I recalled some of our own media run-ins as organisers of LeedsFurs. I was also reminded of the media pile-on that Scotiacon had to endure earlier in the year. I mentioned this to Snares after the event. Prior to this, I had also gatecrashed the plushie meet-up while they were arranging all their plushies into one giant photo. There was a huge bear here that seemed to be strapped to a trolley, which I nicknamed bondage bear. It was in here that I spotted someone wearing a Greggs bobble hat, so I had to approach him for obvious reasons. Considering the Malaysians do like a sausage roll, I wondered whether the Newcastle-based bakery would consider breaking out into the market. After all, they clearly have at least one fan here.

Sunday evening was party time, before which I went with Krado and a couple of others to KFC down the road. We thought this would be fast, but it turned out we needed to wait about 30 minutes for our inevitably disappointing fried chicken. I went for the yuzu box meal with the sauce admittedly being quite decent, but the chicken was as dry as it always is, while the mashed potato and gravy couldn't be tasted above the spice from the yuzu. Waiting here was all rather frustrating and although they did have a number of orders before ours, I was surprised with how long it all took. After this, I grabbed some Coke Zero from the store as I had been invited to a non-alcohol party. This Telegram group was the first to which I had been invited upon confirming my con attendance and so I thought I should stick my snoot in, despite not really knowing anyone. In the end, I got to meet a few new people and have Kickapoo (apparently pronounced keek-a-po) joy juice loaded with tartrazine. There was also mac and cheese on offer cooked by a fur who wants to be a chef and open his own furry-themed restaurant. The herb combination in this was delicious and punchy, cutting through the richness of the cheese. I hope he and his friends achieve their dream.

The main staff party was Sunday evening and I ended up heading up shortly before midnight. I had been told it would run from 11pm or midnight, but when I got there, they had barely started setting up. This was an invite-only affair, but a lot of people had been invited and we ended up taking over the whole 24th floor. Someone had made the Petronas towers out of pot noodles while one room was given over to cocktail making. It took a while to get my drink, which was somewhat too sweet for me, so I thereafter decided to stick with beer for the remainder of the session. I spoke to Gao quite a bit, as well as a Hungarian fur he knew who keeps coming back to SE Asia for cons. I wish I could keep doing the same. I also had to keep an eye on my watch as, again, an event elsewhere was demanding my attention. Registration for the fifth iteration of SinFur was at 7pm CET on Sunday, meaning it was 2am where I was. I snuck out shortly before. As I had already pre-registered and had answered the questions on consent and safe bondage practices, it was just a case of choosing which events I wanted to attend (there is a BBQ on the day prior to the main thing) then registering. My approval was done in seconds.

After this, I wanted to stay at the party, but I had promised a friend that I'd go drinking with him. He had not been invited, so I said I'd meet him in my room for a short while. In the end, this turned into two hours and it was good chatting with him about all manner of things before he needed to head off shortly after 4am. By this time, I suspected the party upstairs would be pretty much over, so decided to head to bed. I did have to check out later that day after all and the hotel were unwilling to grant me a later checkout.

The Monday was bittersweet and in the end, maybe it would have been easier just to have left early and saved the goodbyes. However, with a very late flight (23:50), I basically had all day to hang around. Gao and I headed to a local shopping centre for lunch, where we met one of his friends as we looked around a store selling second-hand items from Japan. Most of these had come from clearing out the homes of Japanese pensioners after they had died and it's fair to say that most of it was junk. Gao didn't find what he was looking for - knives specifically - and thus we retired for breakfast-cum-lunch at Seremban Station. I would have gone to the fantastically named and fantastically rude Chinese restaurant called Yaw Fatt but alas they were closed. Perhaps they had been too rude to customers. Anyway, at Seremban Station, I had a milky Milo drink and kaya toast, a local specialty that's just white bread, butter and kaya, a sweet, creamy spread made from local coconut milk, eggs, and sugar. I opted for the heartier option of these two for an additional 70 sen and it was a decent breakfast/lunch all told.

Alas, it was a bit rushed as we needed to head down to the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club, where the furs had arranged a bowling afternoon. We ended up in the wrong place and were urged by the concierge to wait for a golf cart to take us to the West Lobby. This took a while though so in the end we decided to walk the 200m, particularly when more and more furs started to join us. The KLGCC is an incredibly posh place and we looked a little out of place descending upon it, although the bowling area was definitely showing its age. This was in a basement down a staircase along which you had framed pictures of all the Women's PGA Tour golfers who had won at this rather prestigious golf course. The bowling event was a prior-registered thing, but the only payment option for non-locals was Wise so I had to chance my arm. Fortunately, there were still places for me, and so I was allowed in. I decided not to bowl and I regret this. Everyone else was having fun and I just felt a little left out. Furthermore, most of my friends weren't there, so it all felt a little lonely while the emotional hit of me leaving this region was starting to get to me. I teared up a little on a few occasions and while the afternoon got better with a bit of ping pong, some dry-ass noodles called Pek Besar upon which you pour a flavour sashay but no boiling water, and a nice chat with Junias, it was all still a little hard. There was talk about seeing Zootopia 2 and I was scared of being left alone - I wasn't going to see it on the big screen due to that damn snake - but I don't even know if there was any take up in the end.

The plan had been for Gao to order me a Grab from their to the airport. This would mean I'd arrive about 45 minutes earlier than their three-hour recommended time window, but there would be enough to pass the time, I reasoned. However, Gao decided he wanted to go to a mall for some food, which threw a spanner in things. As it turned out though, we were delayed as there was a closing fursuit photo and trophy ceremony for the highest scoring bowlers of the day. This meant that by the time we had finished, it was close to 7pm and so we resorted to our original plan. Saying goodbye was hard, particularly to Gao who had been with me for much of the past week, and on the way through the jungle that is Kuala Lumpur on the way to the airport, I resolved to come back much sooner than six years. After all, SE Asia does feel like a second home to me. I have always felt welcomed there and I know so many furs. Everyone is really friendly, the culture is vibrant, and there are so many cons to attend now. FURUM will always be special though and I hope I can return soon. It was a fantastic weekend.