So friday morning was a bit too early, but was excited to see some more Formula 1 action non the less. Got on the shuttle to the track. On the highway I noticed that more than 90% of the trees I saw, were palm trees. I have seen palm trees in Australia, but not so many. A whole forest of them. Not a real surprise if you look at the climate, so hot. Anyway, while I was dozing off while staring at palm trees, we made our way to the track. Got on a bus and I got dropped off at my gate.

There I was encountered with something I labeled as stupid. They were searching bags, I can get into that, weapons and all. The rules at the Malaysian Grand Prix state that you are not allowed to bring in outside food & drinks. Again, not a fan, but sometimes that’s the case. What I was surprised about is that water counts to that as well. It’s so hot here that you have to drink a lot of water. But my water got confiscated. I told him that it was ridiculous, which his response was that it was just his job. I told him it was still stupid but got on with my day. So we get ripped off on water since the price went times 5 at least, but that means it’s still only about a euro for a bottle, so can’t complain too much.

I promise, this will be the only negative point in this whole post, even though I might have already lost you here. If you are still reading, I did have an amazing day at the track. All the grandstands were open, so I managed to catch a whole set of different view of the track, and it is an amazing complex. The whole circuit has been build mainly to host Formula 1, and it shows. Great complex, good transport, well trained marshals and a logic layout for the grandstands. Really worth going there.

After this great day, I had to get back to my hotel. The shuttle bus wasn’t running, so it was time to grab a cab. First taxi driver walked up to me, asking where I wanted to go. I showed him the address and he told me to get in his cab. I asked him how much the ride was. He was ignoring me first then acted like he didn’t know. This is a trick, you have to set on a price first or you know for sure that they will rip you off. So I asked him “Barapa?” which means ‘how much’ in Malaysian. He told me 150 ringgit. Which is a total ripoff, it should be about 30-40 ringgit. So I told him I would prefer to walk.

The next few cab drivers weren’t keen on taking me. They either said that they didn’t know where it was, or just gave me the card back and said something in Malaysian. The hotel is pretty close to the circuit, I think they preferred rides to the city instead of wasting their spot in line. Fair enough. So I took a shuttle bus to the airport for 10 ringgit and from there took a cab to my hotel for 30 ringgit. The cab driver had a toilet refresher in his car, which made it smell like a toilet. Better than sweat I suppose?

At night I met up with my two new mates Matt and Luca. Matt is an American IT nerd who works for Intel here in Malaysia. Luca is an autograph hunter who asked if we were interested to meet some drivers. He knew where the drivers were staying. So in the morning we got up quite early and took a cab to the airport. Then we got on one of those annoying beeping cars which took us to the hotel. There was lots of security around, but we just walked into the lobby and positioned ourselves near the elevator on a comfy couch.

After 20 minutes we saw the first drivers walk by. First Kimi Raikonen incognito. He was wearing glasses and a dorky sweater. Then I saw David Coulthard. So I walked up to him. He just came back from a run with Martin Brundle. I asked him if I could have a photo with him, and he didn’t mind at all. Martin took that opportunity to bolt into the elevator though and yell to Coulthard “see you at the track”. Already felt like such a stalker.

In the next half an hour, many drivers followed. Pedro de la Rosa, Nico Hulkenberg, Vitaly Petrov and also Paul Di Resta. Paul was with his girlfriend, but since I know no shame now, I just asked her if she could take a photo of me and Paul, she didn’t seem to mind. After I found Stefano Domenicali, team principal of Ferrari, and Martin Whitmarsh, team principal of Mclaren. I managed to go on the photo with both of them at the same time. After that we were still waiting for Sebastian Vettel. Unfortunately he seemed to have skipped the lobby and have taken the elevator to the car park, so we headed off to the track.

The qualifying session was a good one. Schumacher on third position seemed very promising. We also enjoyed a nice lunch at the restaurant at the circuit. Even though the prices had gone times three since the day before, we still had some good lunch there. It was now equivalent of what you would pay in Europe if you’d eat at a cafe like Rotown. So about 15 euros including drinks and desert. Very expensive by Malaysian standards though. But we also had the privilege to cool off in the airco. After all the F1 action was done, Luca wanted to try and get some more stuff signed. So we headed for the paddock.

We had to walk around the track in the burning sun and encountered a security station. Luca did the talking and made up a lie about our friend meeting us with our passes, and the security guard found it a valid excuse and let all three of us through. We walked through a tunnel under the track and ended up seeing the F1 personnel parking lot and the gates to the paddock. The paddock is the part behind the pit lane where all the motorhomes and media is located. We were at a good spot cause every driver leaving the circuit has to pass us first. And so the waiting began.

The waiting wasn’t the most exciting but luckily there were plenty of well known drivers and media presenters to keep me occupied. I can’t write about every encounter, but one of the first was Damon Hill. He is a world champion, so I grabbed the opportunity and a simple “Damon, how’s it going? Can I go on the photo with you.” resulted in a friendly “Of course mate, where you from?” and after some small talk he set off again.

After the world champion I met some of the BBC crew. I already met Ted Kravitz the other day, and while we were enjoying some cold drinks at the terrace outside the Paddock, he walked by and greeted me. Started to feel like part of the circus now! Then Jake Humphrey walked by. Had a short chat about the excellent BBC broadcasting. After I saw Lee Mckenzie. The only one I missed from the BBC crew was Eddie Jordan really.

The first drivers started to get out. I tried getting a photo with Jenson, but he just walked to his car and simply said no. Which was a bit of a letdown. Schumacher pulled the same thing. But I did manage to get on the photo with Fernando Alonso, Daniel Riccardo, Christian Horner and finally Sebastian Vettel. It was a long day, but it was nice meeting most of the drivers up close. Most of them are friendly laid back guys.

After bargaining with a Malaysian cab driver we got back to the hotel. Andy, our top chef who gave me an awesome tour through Kuala Lumpur, cooked us some great fried rice with complimentary chicken curry on the side. I love Malaysian food. Not only is their food great, also their soft drinks. I love 100 Plus. It’s a soft drink that rehydrates you. Which, trust me, you definitely need here. You will sweat like a pig, and 3 showers a day is more like standard than excessive. After that third shower I checked into my flight online and picked some good seats with extra leg room. Which means the flights were already less than 48 hours away. Still didn’t feel like my trip was coming to an end.

So Sunday was finally race day. We got to the circuit and enjoyed some of the support races. The first support race was rather boring with Proton race cars. Which is a Malaysian brand. After the GT cars were up. There was a massive crash at the start which I had a good view off. It did take a while to clear that up, so not too much racing left, but definitely entertaining. The GP2 race wasn’t the best I’ve seen, but it did involved a car flipping, which was quite impressive. Luckily no one got hurt. After all these support races I have gotten hungry. When I got out the gate, I got this UV stamp. You can only see it under black light.

The lunch was good, nice to cool down in some airco for a bit. You keep forgetting once you are in air-conditioning that it’s freaking hot outside. So every time you get hit by it. It’s a bit of a luxury problem, I know. But after walking through the heat to my gate, I had to go into this closed off area where they check the stamps and mine had faded. The security guard said “it’s probably cause you sweated.” He made it sound like I had some say in the amount I was gonna sweat. So I told him “It’s Malaysia, what do you expect?” He didn’t laugh but the older couple behind me did. Should have seen the face of this security guard, priceless. He just let me through though. Taking my water and now accusing me of sweating, they absolutely have no idea in what country they are in it seems.

Getting back into the grand stand, I saw the lightning in the distance followed by a loud thunder. The weather was definitely turning for the worse. Half an hour later it started raining. The grid was already build up and the formation lap was about to start. After the formation lap it had officially started pouring down with rain. Nothing like rain at home, this was a proper down pour. It definitely made for an exciting few opening laps.

Unfortunately after a few incidents, the safety car came out to slow the pack down. After a few laps the race got red flagged, which means it gets suspended. After a good half an hour break it seemed to be dry enough to race again. So after three more laps behind the safety car we had a good amount of racing on our hands. The rest of the race was hectic and hard to follow. I had a great view of the first corner but I couldn’t read the times of the drivers, so this made it difficult to follow. I just decided to enjoy the overtaking moves into the first corner and watch the race again once I’m back home.

During the day I had plenty of chats with Matt about software development, since he is working for Intel here. Also about Agile project management and the like, all very nerdy but it did get me excited to start working again. I guess that’s a good sign.

So after a great race and a few good days in Malaysia I’m quite sad to leave the country. So far it has really impressed me. I actually think that we, as in Europeans or even the western world, have no clue what Asia is like. I reckon it will be booming sooner than we think. I can’t wait to spend a good few months traveling through Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and whatever other country of Asia I want to explore. It’s definitely high on my wish list.

So far every country has treated me very good. All have been very different. Tomorrow I will head to the airport to fly to Hong Kong followed by a 13 hour flight to Amsterdam. I will arrive on tuesday morning early on Schiphol. Please bare with me and give me a few days of rest, I’m knackered. But I am looking forward to see everyone again and sleep in my own bed again. Erik out!