We All Follow the Chelsea Over Land and Sea and Malaysia! - Day 1

Chelsea FC Asian summer Pre-season tour - July 29 Malaysia
That has been in my iPhone's calendar for a few months. A day after my birthday, I'm off to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to catch the blues in action on their Asian pre-season tour. I got up at 3am, went through my luggage, just in case I forgot to pack something in. But as it turns out, I packed way too much stuff into my big pink luggage. I knew I should've used the smaller adidas one! but oh well.

After a few difficulties at the airport -regarding our boss who was very late to check into the plane- the six of us; me, Stara, Mita, Mas Agung, Anton, and Mas Sofyan were finally sitting comfortably in a small Air Asia plane. I got my Chelsea shirt out, just in case the flight attendants come around and try to sell me manu shirts during the flight. As it was still very early in the morning (our flight was at 6am) about 10 minutes after take off I dozed off to sleep, so did Mita and Stara. We slept almost all through the 2hrs flight while the boys were keeping themselves busy with food, and the fit birds that are the flight attendants.
Around 9.30am Malaysia time, we landed at the KLIA. I was all too excited to get off the plane, we were all excited. Not because it’s our first time in Malaysia, (it’s only my second time) but because we’re there to follow the Chels. I kept whistling and humming some random Chelsea chants while waiting for our bags to come out. As pathetic as it is, this is the first time for me to be able to sing (and it feels superb to btw) WE ALL FOLLOW THE CHELSEA OVER LAND AND SEA and mean it! Ah, the agony of being a Chelsea supporter thousands of miles away from Chelsea. But it doesn’t matter anymore as we were there to finally see our heroes live in action. Come on the Chels!

Outside at the airport lobby waiting were two of Stara’s mates from ESPN KickOff Quiz. A Bayern Munich fan Kumar, and an Arsenal fan Izzat –he’s actually quite nice for an arse— and we’re off to our hotel in KLCC, the Grand Continental. Despite its name, the hotel is far from “grand”. While yes, it is located in the centre of Kuala Lumpur it is fairly a shite hotel, with small rooms and small hard beds. And not to mention the brown water running from the tap in our mini bathrooms. An absolute nightmare. I couldn’t complain though as it was me and Stara who booked the rooms there. I was watching Chelsea TV a few days back and saw an ad on valuebookings.com, went on the site and looked for cheap hotels in KL for us to stay in the first night. So yeah, I guess it was my mistake aswell but oh well, we will only be at the hotel to sleep at night, for one night anyway and we will be out and about the whole time so it wouldn’t be so much trouble. Me, Stara, and Mita in one room, and the three boys in another one next to ours. After unpacking a few things and spent a few minutes deciding which top I would use, I settled with my blue and white top, that has “Big Phil’s Blue and White Army” written on the back.

After a bit of lunch at some foodcourt near our hotel, we decided to go shopping for a bit at the Suria Plaza, KLCC. That’s in the famous Petronas Tower for anyone who’s never been to Malaysia before. I had to go to the money changer first as I only had USD with me and not Malaysian Ringgit. My plan was to go to Zara first and buy some nice new clothes as there was a huge sale going on. but the sight of an Adidas store, with a huge Frank Lampard poster on display, stopped us in our track. We ended up spending about 30 minutes there just going through some Chelsea stuff and taking random silly pictures. As I walked out of the store I noticed a huge Kinokuniya signed on the top floor. Kinokuniya is an international bookstore, and KLCC has a huge one! I've been looking for Joe Cole's book, Cole Play. They don't have it in Kinokuniyas in Jakarta, nor in Singapore, but I was sure they have it there. And thank god they did. The shop assistant pointed out the shelf where I can find Chelsea books and I found Cole Play on a shelf, filled with Chelsea books that has a sign read "Discount on selected items. Chelsea Books; Chelsea FC back with a vengeance" You know how women go when they know something's on sale. I ended up buying five Chelsea books and spent about $150 on them. Well worth all of it.

Knackered and thirsty after walking around the whole day, we decided to go to a Starbucks downstairs to have a drink and meet up with our friend Banta, who's just arrived from Singapore to join us in KL. The Starbucks was nicely situated in front of a small lake and we sat there for quite a while, just chatting about what we’re going to do for the rest of the trip. We rushed back to the hotel soon after as we were all knackered. My feet started to kill me, and our hotel bed felt like heaven.
That didn’t last too long though as I received a text from our friend in MyChelsea, Ridzal, that informed us there will be a screening for Chelsea’s friendly match against Chengdu Blades at the Modesto’s Pub in Sri Hartamas. After a quick shower, a quick hairdryer and hair curler action, I slipped into my yellow dress and opted for my Ten Men Went to Mow shirt to wear to Modesto’s that night. Me, Mita and Stara were ready to go, but when we went into the boys’ room. They were still half naked and snoring. *sigh* it took us about 20 minutes to wake them up and get them to have a shower and get dressed. The game against Chengdu Blades kicked off at 7.45, but at 7.55 we were still yet to find two cabs to get us to Sri Hartamas

30 minutes later we arrived at the Modesto’s. We were greeted by Mei, the founder of MyChelsea (the official Malaysia Chelsea Supporters Club) and her husband Tommy. Our friend Ridzal was also there and we had a quick chat before taking our seats to watch the game that was well under way, 40 minutes and we’re 3-0 up. No more goals until the end of the first half, I went over to the bar to order a bottle of Guinness and talked to the barman who’s also a Chelsea fan! He apparently has been following the Chels since the mid 80’s a nice bloke, he bought me a drink and we sat down and chat for a bit, he gave me some useful tips on getting around KL and where to get cheap genuine Chelsea kits in Kuala Lumpur. Ace! I went back to my seat as the second half starts and found myself sitting next to Stephanie, Mei’s daughter. Had a little chit chat and got to know each other and we concentrated back to watch the game. On the 53 minute, JT was replaced by Joe Cole. A weird substitution I have to say as I thought it was Shauny or Malouda who was coming off, but I was happy anyways. Joe Cole’s my favourite player and it’s great to see him coming on for JT. Minutes after that Joe Cole got a lovely first touch, nipped the keeper, and scored our 4th goal of the night. I cheered the loudest then, along with Ridzal who apparently was also a big fan of my Joey ;) Stara, Mita and the boys just laughed knowing how chuffed I feel after seeing Joe Cole scored that goal. Just lovely. Soon after, a goal from our new Argentinean lad, Frankie Disanto, followed. All with the help from Joe Cole of course, teeming up with one Riccy Carvalho, the ball hit one of the Chinese defenders and bounced off to DiSanto, great finish from the youngster. Whom Stara comes to really fancy at the later stage of this trip ;p 5-0 up now, with about 25 more minutes to go surely we will have another, or maybe a couple more goals. And we actually did. Joe Cole scored another one! he’s here there and every fuckin where my Joey Cole! Another goal from Shaun Wright Phillips a few minutes before the end of the game made it 7-0 for the Super Chelsea FC. That’s not too shabby for a pre-season friendly innit?

After the game I had a little chat again with Stephanie and she took me, Stara, and Mita to a neat ‘Chelsea Corner’ at the back of the pub. We took a few pictures there and that’s where I met Jeff, a Chelsea fan from Surrey. Jeff was born a blue, his dad’s a Chelsea fan, his whole family are Chelsea fans and although he hasn’t been staying in England for quite a while as he has been traveling around because of his work, Jeff told me he has never missed a Chelsea match. Even though he could only follow the Chels through the telly. My favourite topic! I’m tired of being accused of not being a real fan because I can’t actually go to the ground and watch the match--yet (I live in Indonesia, what do you expect?) But I do watch all the Chelsea games –yes, only through the telly-- even though that means I have to stay up until very late at night or wee hours in the morning. And I do sing, even though it’s just singing in the pub. I also know the history and the culture of Chelsea, I do know what being a real supporter is all about and even though what we –the Asian fans- do to follow the Chelsea is a lot different than those of the local fans, we’re still Chelsea supporters non the less, and we’re as real as it gets. Ask Ridzal and the boys of the Blue Brigade! ;) We share the same dedication, the same passion that is Chelsea Football Club.

Jeff is a top bloke, we had a long chat and he told me all about his trip to Moscow to cheer on the Chels in our first Champions League final. Later on he told me about his life, being a Chelsea supporter who travels a lot; he has met hundreds of Chelsea fans from around the world. He also introduced me to his wife, and his two lovely little lads Sasha and Jason. Mei called us over and she gave us the match tickets and the training passes, she also got Ridzal to give us a quick briefing on the Chelsea team’s arrival on Sunday evening. We were to greet the team at their hotel, the Palace of the Golden Horses instead of the airport. And there will be no meet and greet with the fans, so we were told to just try our luck at the hotel as the players will surely hang around at the lounge on their first night. After taking some more pictures with our new mates from Malaysia, and Surrey, we realised it was almost midnight and we decided to part and head back to our hotel to get some proper rest. None of us could really sleep that night (though I’m not sure about the lads in the other room) as we were all too excited with the fact that we’re going to finally see our heroes, the boys of the Blue and white army, in person, tomorrow. I felt like I was 5 again. Just lovely.