Ryan and Tom's 3rd entry - Battered and bruised in Kuching
Tom and I are both getting into the local sports scene here in Kuching. We went to see our home team, Sarawak play soccer against a West Malaysian team on Saturday night. The result was a 2-4 loss and the crowd was not happy! They became ripping the seats out of their foundations and throwing them on to the field. If the referee started made a call against the home side drinks and food would be thrown at the referee. At the end of the game these army guys brought out a temporary barricade for the players to walk though and surrounded it with riot police.
As well as observing, we have been getting involved ourselves. Tom is playing rugby and I'm playing volleyball. Yesterday I played volleyball against the Sarawak Police. The police seem to have a team in everything including the National Soccer league. Tom played rugby against a team of Malaysian army cadets last week.
So at one stage, we were two very healthy, very happy young exchange students. We now feel like battered and bruised old men.
I asked my coach where I could find a physio. He laughed and said that in Malaysia, they have a better treatment than physios. I was driven into the suburbs, walked though a whole bunch of cats, nodded to a guy at the door, walked to the back of a house, ducked under a curtain and went down some dark stairs. There is this old Chinese guy with a whole bunch of special creams, ripped forearms and massive, muscular hands. This guy then proceeded to inflict as much pain into me as he could.
Twenty-four hours later I am still hurting more than I was before I went to go see this 'specialist'.