10/10/97
Roadzilla- The Southeast Asia Tour - Chapter 17
Hello Breadheads:
Well, to start, it was another night of the living Bread.
Our departure time was 11:30 p.m. out of LAX for a 15 hour
flight to Hong Kong. It's a truly amazing and unique city.
After seeing Hong Kong at night, I think it must have been
the inspiration for the futuristic vision of Los Angeles in
Ridley Scott's film "Blade Runner". I almost expected Harrison
Ford to park his airmobile in front of the hotel.
If
you take New York, London and Los Angeles and put them all
together on an island, that should give you an idea of the
density and activity of Hong Kong.
This was the first concert of our Southeast Asian tour and
it couldn't have been better. A great sounding venue, a warm
reception from our Hong Kong fans and a near sellout crowd,
what more could we ask. It was a real thrill to be there.
Our second stop on the tour was Manila. I have to admit that
I was overwhelmed by our reception at the airport. Judging
from the amount of press, photographers and fans that greeted
us, you would think that the royal family or the Clintons
had arrived. No sooner were we at the hotel than we had to
leave for a press conference at the Hard Rock cafe, complete
with a police escort. Wow! It reminded me of the first time
the Beatles arrived in the U.S. At the end of the press conference,
we were presented with platinum records for sales of the "Essentials"
C.D.
The concert was a standing room only affair of well over 8,000
of the most enthusiastic and vocal fans we've had in years.
The people of the Phillipines, in general, displayed a spirit
and love of life that was truly inspirational.
Next stop, Bangkok! Our audience there was a little more reserved
and a little less vocal than in Manila but provided us with
a very warm reception. Now I don't want to say there's a traffic
problem in Bangkok but it took us over an hour to go from
the venue to the hotel - a distance of about 5 miles. One
thing's for sure, you can bet I'll never complain about rush
hour traffic in L.A. ever again.
After shopping at the famous (or infamous) Pat Pong road for
watches, laser pointers, road toys and other amusements, we
headed out for Kuala Lumpur. We were supposed to do two concerts
in Taiwan but due to circumstances beyond our control they
had to be cancelled. That was unfortunate but the plus side
was two days off at a beautiful Malaysian resort.
Malaysia is a beautifully picturesque country. Unfortunately,
the natural beauty of both Malaysia and Thailand was somewhat
spoiled by smoke from fires in Indonesian rainforests that
were raging completely out of control. The smoke polluted
the air so badly that, at times, it even blocked out the sun.
Another reminder that we must take care of our planet if we
expect it to take care of us.
We, too soon, had to leave our smoky little paradise by the
ocean and take the bus ride back to reality for our concert
in Kuala Lumpur. We had another warm reception by an obviously
appreciative audience of loyal fans. A good time was had by
all! Unfortunately, we were unable to see much of the city.
The smoke in the air had become even worse. In fact, to the
point of some of us having to wear surgical masks just to
go outside the hotel. At the K.L. airport, flights were being
cancelled because of the smoky pollution, which was bad enough
to require instrument landings for all incoming flights. But
worse than that, we all started smelling like cigarette butts.
BIGGGG !!!!!!! cigarette butts.
We
then headed off to Singapore, in hopes that our polluted lungs
and bloodshot eyes would get a break. Well it wasn't as bad
as our two previous destinations but it was still bad enough
to close the schools and curtail much of our tourist activities.
It was a shame too, because we were all greatly impressed
with Singapore's cleanliness and beauty. It's truly a model
city. And besides that, there's the 'Long Bar' at the historic
'Raffles' hotel, where the Singapore sling was invented. Mmmmm......tasty!
Unfortunately, the polluted air doesn't recognize national
borders so the people of Singapore had to suffer the same
smoky haze that we had been enduring for the past week. After
ten days of not seeing the sun and breathing air that felt
like we were inhaling ten packs of cigarettes a day, we regretfully
decided to leave Singapore a couple of days earlier than scheduled
and fly on to Guam.
We arrived in Guam at 6:00 a.m. and by the time we finally
cleared customs and got to our hotel rooms, we were able to
see the sun rise over a beautiful tropical island with a clear
blue sky. What a relief to see a spectacular view of Tumon
bay and finally breathe clean air.
After
a couple of days rest and respiratory de-tox, we were ready
to get back to work again. The enthusiasm of our audiences
in Guam was very reminiscent of our reception in the Phillipines.
They were so spirited that the energy level of the band was
automatically knocked up a couple of notches to high. They
were absolutely great!!
I'm now home again trying to catch up on my civilian life
while preparing for our next adventure in the U.K. Although
life has been busy and somewhat hectic for the past week or
so, I've been able to reflect on how wonderfully we were treated
by our many fans during our visit to Southeast Asia. It was
an experience I'm sure we will never forget and I would like
to sincerely thank all our fans throughout Southeast Asia
for their love and support all these years.
The
best from Botts!
:-)
