FURUM - Back To School

One of the main reasons for heading to SE Asia this month was to attend FURUM, the annual furry convention in Kuala Lumpur. I went last year too and had such a good time, that it was always in the back of my mind to travel out there again. However, I hadn't expected it to be so soon but with me having a minimum of seven days annual leave to take and Wolfie being unable to travel with me due to his own leave situation, I was left with a choice of either go to MFF (without a room in the main hotel) or FURUM. Concluding that I probably new more people in SE Asia than I did going to Chicago, I opted to travel east. It was the right decision.

I travelled down to Kuala Lumpur from Penang with Geoffrey on the Friday (8 December), who I had visited for a couple of days in his home city. The queue at Penang station for the 1:30pm service to the Malaysian capital was quite lengthy, snaking as it did around the ticket office, but they soon let us onto the platform, where the train was waiting for us. It was the sort of modern intercity service that would make a Brit ashamed of the delapidated crap that is still running on our own network and indeed I was genuinely surprised with just how advanced the train was. The air conditioning was great, the seats comfortable and they even had TV screens showing The Hunger Games, where I thought they had mis-spelled the word Peter in the subtitles until I was told that it was meant to be Peeta. I watched a bit of this, but spent most of my time playing a guess the logo game with Geoffrey on his phone. It was a little cheating though as it was broken into sections and there were quite a few British ones which were easy for me to guess. Halfway through the journey, we were given a free packed lunch which consisted of some pretty rancid tasting soy milk, some biscuits and some crackers. Not having had lunch, the food was welcome and indeed it was quite an unexpected treat. I had gone down to the buffet car but there wasn't anything nibbly, just curries and nasi goreng and I didn't really fancy that. As we made our way south, I had intended to look out of the window at the Malaysian countryside but it was all much of a muchness really and predominantly farmland. We stopped off at some interesting places en route, but even then it was all rather suburby, with very few points of interest visible from the train.

The journey certainly did not feel as if it was four and a half hours long, and I was quite surprised when the verdent countryside gave way to the sprlawing metropolis of KL. The train trundled its way between the skyscrapers, confusingly stopping at Kuala Lumpur station before its terminus stop, KL Sentral. I had been here before, having arrived on the KL Airport Express a year earlier (even eating in the McDonald's) so I knew my way around. However, this time instead of being picked up outside the airport, we were heading for the MRT light railway system to Asia Jaya, seven stops to the west, which was where the Hotel Armada was based. As I was only doing a single journey, I paid for a token from the machine to enable me to board the MRT but Geoffrey needed to head to a 7-Eleven to top up his card, which was similar to an Oyster card in London. It was at this point that my boss tried to ring me as I had established wifi connection in the station and he had been texting me constantly. He needed clarification with an urgent work issue so I slunk around the corner and took the call in a quiet alcove. After all, it was 6pm on a Friday thus the peak of the rush hour and I needed somewhere quiet to talk. Unfortunately, this meant that Geoffrey thought I had already boarded the train and headed to the hotel so, once my call had finished, I waited around for a while like a lemon. Fortunately, he got in touch through Facebook messenger to tell me that he had already met his Air BnB partners at A&W and told me to go to the con hotel myself. With hand luggage and a large suitcase, battling my way through the rush hour throngs proved to be tough, but fortunately the trains were frequent and there was enough space for me to clamber on. The MRT ride itself felt longer than it probably was, and upon being deposited at the other end, all I had to do was cross a road and the tall edifice of the hotel was in front of me.

While I was checking in, I was told about a 7pm dinner meet-up, which gave me very little time considering it was only ten minutes away. Still, I was able to drop my things off in my room before hurtling back down to the lobby area, where there was a group ready to depart for one of the local shopping centres. Last year, I was something of a novelty at FURUM as I was the only Westerner there but this time around, there were six Australians present, all of them from Perth and all of them having been encouraged to attend by Singaporean fur Arkemdus who has been studying in the Australian city. I was going to spend an awful lot of time with them on this trip, making some firm friends in the process, although I must admit that their brusque humour definitely brought out the more smutty side in me, with my SE Asian friends even commenting that they had never seen me like this before. The truth was though that I was incredibly relaxed, like I tend to be in this part of the world, and so cracking jokes and laughing just came naturally to me. In many respects it's the person I would like to be, one that I have sadly lost when being in Britain these days, and yet the frustrating thing is that I KNOW I can be that person.

Anyway, the plan for the Friday night was to go to Korean BBQ so we all bundled into cars - some of them taxis and yet others driven by local furs - and about fifteen of us were deposited in the main entrance of this rather generic shopping centre. It was here that I first saw Hollud and his boyfriend Smales walking towards me, and we embraced heartily, this being the first time I had seen my good friends in a year. The couple got together just after last year's FURUM and it was good to see the relationship was still strong, although it did result in me seeing less of the horse over the course of the convention. This was to prove to be the case here too, as the numbers were too large for the Korean BBQ of choice. This saw us split into two groups - one of six in the upstairs place (which was basically me, four of the Australians and Arkemdus) and about ten downstairs. It was a shame we had to split as it would have been good to have all caught up, but at least it gave me the opportunity to get to know the Australians better. And the food was exquisite, with it just coming and coming. It seemed to be unlimited sides - with the kimchee and the lettuce drenched in mayonnaise being my particular favourites (and the anchovies with nuts certainly not) - with a wide range of delicious meats too. These we cooked ourselves in the little stove at the middle of the table, and the sound of the sizzle accompanied with the smell of the food just made its flavour even stronger. As we ate, we told stories - anecdotes of army life for Arkmedus, various Australian schenangians with the others - and it was a thoroughly pleasant evening. Granted I didn't get my beer and had to stick to water, but this was a minor inconvenience in the general scheme of things.

After this, we went down to the basement where there was a supermarket, enabling us to stock up on supplies. There was a modest selection of alcohol, but with Malaysia being a Muslim country, there wasn't an awful lot that was any good. In the end, I settled on two six-packs of Tiger, and bought some strand potato chips and some Dill Pickle flavour Pringles (which were absolutely disgusting yet I couldn't stop eating them). The others picked up various liquors in all shapes and sizes in anticipation of room parties and yet, in the end, there wasn't an awful lot going on. This certainly was the case on 'day zero', the Friday, and with me having not stopped since arriving in SE Asia a week earlier, I decided to take advantage of other people's early nights and headed off for sleep too, heading to bed shortly after midnight. With the con registration not opening until 12 noon and opening ceremonies a few hours after that, I reasoned I would get a fair amount of sleep and be fresh for the main event and indeed this is what I did.

I woke up slightly later than intended on the Saturday (9 December), shortly before noon, and quickly remembered that the snack exchange was slated to take place from 12:30pm. This wasn't an official event and wasn't listed in the conbook, but it had been circulated on Facebook during the preceding week and my friends knew that I had brought a range of goodies (admittedly purchased at Manchester Airport as I was so busy with work I didn't get chance to buy anything beforehand). Indeed, being the only British person there meant I felt quite obligated into attending so accepting I was going to be slightly late, I threw myself in the shower, packed all of my supplies and headed down to the third floor, which is where the conspace was. Upon arrival, I noticed a few people in a queue for registration and the vast majority of others milling about. This was my first opportunity to see many of my friends from the previous year and it was so easy to speak to people that the next couple of hours simply flew by. The Australians were there again, having commandeered the vast majority of the sparse table space with all of their stuff, including a 'vintage blend' jar of Vegemite which I sadly didn't get to try. I had piles of food of my own so I had to clear a space for my Walkers Shortbread (which went down incredibly well), Jelly Babies and Hula Hoops. The Snack Exchange wasn't really an event, it was just two tables groaning under the weight of global produce, but I did get to try an interesting range of local snacks (particularly spicy flavoured chips or obnoxiously strong fish skin for some reason) and at least it did give a talking point for many a conversation. In the supermarket the day before I had bought a jar of Marmite, having discovered it at the checkout as I was paying for my lager, but with a lack of anything to dip in it, I declined to put that on the table.

I donned my fursuit for the Opening Ceremony, which took place in the main event hall at 3pm. It was rather short and sweet, the best way really, and afterwards I got to check out the Dealers' Den. This was slightly larger than last year, but in some ways less diverse, although the concept of people bringing back loads of goods to sell from faraway lands they had visited was a good one. There was a lot of Taiwanese and Japanese stuff there, giving the Den a different feel to that at American or European cons, while a number of my friends were again dealing. I bought a few Wolf Brothers comics for Wolfie like I had done the year before from Krystle Kuan (and got a few free postcards for my purchases) while later in the day, when I had taken my suit off, I was reacquainted with my Vietnamese friend Graffiti Rabbit, who was also dealing some local merchandise. On the Sunday, I picked up a fantastic Vietfurs T-shirt that she herself had printed up, while I also bought some raspberry scented alcohol disinfectant spray for my fursuit from the dealer next to her. She had gotten me to try the spray while in fursuit the day before - and indeed I sampled three scents from memory (raspberry, strawberry and chocolate) - and although the alcohol perhaps becomes a little over pungeant after a while, overtaking the actual scent, I was impressed enough to pick some up.

This was the first time I had donned my full suit in SE Asia, with me having brought a partial the year before, and it was far harder than I expected it to be. Not aiding this was the diarrhea I was experiencing - it wasn't a rush to the toilet affair, it was just any time I went it was watery. This meant that I had to be exceptionally careful regarding dehydration and I spent quite a while in the fursuit lounge cooling off. However, as is often the case at cons, the lounge is often one of the best places to be to socialise and so it proved again, with me swapping fursuit stories with other suiters and even hugging a troupe of four young artists who really loved the puppy's pinkness. Part of the problem was that the hotel's aircon wasn't particularly great, and this made suiting so much harder. This inability to last longer than about half an hour was one of the reasons why I didn't participate in the fursuit games this year, failing to defend the crown that I had claimed the year before. They did look fun though, with different games to last year (the football one looked particularly fantastic and I really wished I could have joined in), but at least I got some good pictures to post on social media. Furthermore, with a 30% increase in attendance (from 140 to 202) and far more fursuits here than in previous years, the fursuit games were over-subscribed so I was happy to give others the opportunity. Anyway, there was more than enough other stuff going on, including the Photoshoot area which was set up like a Malaysian school, with a huge blackboard and typical wooden school desks. I just invaded and some people took pictures anyway. Indeed, I had clocked this as soon as I had entered the room, which is why I spent a fair bit of the opening ceremony jabbing people and generally acting up with an oversized novelty pencil. I also mananged to nab some tongs from a serving station, sneaking up behind other furs and snapping them behind their ears, shocking them. This amused me, but didn't amuse the hotel staff much.

Our Saturday evening meal was back at the shopping centre after a number of our party were beguiled by the KFC down the road. We didn't really fancy fast food you could get back at home, nor were we lured by the bus stop outside the hotel which looked like a KFC but was actually an advertisement for the one 400m up the road. This was a very busy thoroughfare but we were further up it now, thus we decided it would be a fantastic idea if we risked our lives and just crossed it where we were rather than walk back down the pavement and use the pedestrian crossing. Judging the right gap in the traffic was tricky, but we were successful, and soon we were back in the mall, where Chili's was the restaurant of choice. We had picked up another two furs en route, both in red T-shirts, but they slunk off once we got to the shopping centre, which was a shame. This may have been because Chili's is just a bog-standard eatery of similar ilk to Frankie and Bennie's so it wasn't particularly fantastic. With my dehydration and bottomless soft drinks, I opted for Coca Cola to go with my burger, which was adequate enough while nearly everyone else ordered cocktails. We were largely the same group who had eaten at the Korean BBQ the night before, plus a couple of other Singaporeans who had tagged along. Ultimately, despite the food being a little underwhelming, it was a rather pleasant meal.

The Fursuit Dance was slated for 9-11pm and I already knew I was going to be late. I didn't mind too much as the music at these events is rarely my sort of thing, but I did want to experience some of it. By the time I got into suit and onto the dancefloor it was shortly after 10pm (and everyone was doing a conga for no explicable reason) but the DJ was surprisingy good and the acoustics in the hall were strong too. Yes, it was still incredibly hot and I had to take breaks every twenty minutes or so, but I did dance with some gusto and really did enjoy myself. As I had to take my head on and off a fair bit in the fursuit lounge between breaks, my bandanna started to become something of a nuisance so I used it as a prop, waving it in the air as if it was a handkerchief or doing a sexy dance between my legs like I was drying my scrotum. The tunes kept banging but towards the end, the tracks did slow down somewhat, plateauing the evening then drawing it to a natural conclusion. 'Try Everything' was the penultimate song and it was absolutely exhilarating dancing to this, jumping up and down with all my friends and singing along. I would have been happy to have ended the night there, but the final track was 'Never Gonna Give You Up' during which we all got into a big dancing circle, arms around each other, and gave it one last dance. It was a nice way to end the evening, and the lighting in particular gave it a magical ambience. It was largely dark, but some furs had glow-in-the-dark light-up polystyrene wands which, when waved, were pretty cool.

The talk in the fursuit lounge afterwards was great, particularly as I bumped into a Taiwanese fur who I met during my visit to the island in 2013. Unfortunately, her English isn't particularly strong and soon the conversation switched to Chinese, which proved a little difficult for me to follow. Toothless was there, advertising his new convention Furrypinas (pronounced, Furry Pee-nas) while a couple of Singaporean furs felt comfortable in Mandarin. I felt a little emasculated as, despite knowing five languages, this was one in which I was clueless, but with the help of gestures and modest interpretation, I managed to follow what was going on. The conversation closed at around 11:45pm, roughly the same time we were kicked out of the fursuit lounge, and soon I was back upstairs showering after another sweaty fursuit experience. There was talk of a later room party once the Australians had gotten back from a karaoke bar just down the road, but this was over an hour away and with my diarrhea meaning I didn't think it wise to drink, I started thinking of bed. I watched a little of the fascinating Kuala Lumpur infomercial channel on the hotel TV while I mulled my options but with quite an early start for the fursuit walk the next morning, I decided to call it a night shortly before 1am and save my energy for the next day, the final day of the con.

The Group Photo was scheduled for 10:30am, meaning I had to be up and in suit by then. The main issue not sharing with Wolfie at a con is that I have no-one at hand to zip up my back, meaning I frequently had to find some poor sap to do it who was just loitering around con space. This saw me head down to level three again, where a large number of people were congregating. Once I was fully inside my fursuit, we waited for the lift to get down to the lobby, where the photo was to be taken. In the end, due to how long the lifts were taking (there was only three of them for a twenty-four storey hotel) we decided to walk down the stairs, getting to the photo area just in time. The photo was being taken from the first floor balcony, affording a rather excellent view of all the suiters, and I was surprised by just how many there were in attendance. We were all made to stand in the centre carpeted circle while the photos were being taken, which as usual seemed to take an age. Still, due to the excellent vantage point, it did mean that all of us were clearly visible and that I didn't have someone's paw in my face as often seems to be case. The cameraderie and banter during the photo shoot was at its usual best and I even got some awoo in, which probably perturbed the locals. Some of the hotel staff wanted selfies, which I was happy to oblige, before we all filed outside and onto the buses bound for the very same shopping centre that I had already visited twice previously during this con.

It was beholden on us to sort out a spotter, something I had forgotten to do until the very last minute, but Lexi, one of the Australian furs, agreed to look out for me. I did warn him just how much of a handful I can be when out in public and so it proved to be, with me darting into shops, using a massage chair and messing around in a bakery being particular highlights of the fursuit walk. Before we walked up to the third floor of the shopping centre and then back down again - which basically is all the walk entailed - we had our picture taken on the main concourse next to a Toys R Us concession which seemed to be a temporary fixture. The staff working here looked a little uncomfortable but took the furs in good spirit and soon we were off, greeting the locals on our way to a little play area consisting of colourful plastic houses on the third floor of the complex. This afforded another photo opportunity and was also the place we were given some water in an attempt to combat the oppressive heat. The air conditioning in the mall was rather good at least, but water was vital. As usual, I struggled to get it in my mouth but Lexi was a great help here. After a short break here, we then headed back down to the ground floor of the mall, unfortunately avoiding Mr DIY, which, with its anthropomorphic hammer logo, was a place I really wanted to visit in fursuit. Alas it wasn't to be. On the ground floor, we spent a good fifteen minutes waiting for the buses, which saw me waltzing with a teddy bear which was part of a Christmas display at Starbucks. It was all rather beautiful. Oh, and before this I think we also took some pictures on the Christmas stage the mall had set up although I am yet to see these pictures. While we waited for the bus, there were a fair number of children who wanted to meet us, and I introduced them to a number of my friends after I had given them a hug. This is always the most rewarding aspect of suiting and it was great to have had the opportunity of suiting here once again. Certainly the mall was more up-market than the place last year, with far more to do, plus there were also many more people, making the walk more enjoyable. Some of the restaurant staff particularly enjoyed meeting us and this will definitely stick in the memory.

I had to de-head while on the bus, what with it being so hot, but soon we were back at the hotel. Most of us were pretty dead so went off to desuit, myself included. After showering, I then popped back down to the main area, where the plan was to enjoy the afternoon panels. The first was the Guest of Honour panel featuring JC. I had hoped to meet JC in Taiwan when I visited in 2013, but unfortunately she was busy, so this was my first opportunity to say hello. Her panel was very interesting, particularly regarding her artwork as she showed some of her techniques and tips on how to become a good artist. She drew a furry character within about twenty minutes, a talent at which I could only be in awe, but I did learn a great deal from watching her create such beautiful artwork. She is also the chairperson of Infurnity, and this is what interested me more, as this is a con I really would like to go to. In the Q&A session afterwards, I asked her whether you needed to speak Chinese to enjoy the con and she assured me that you don't. Furthermore, she said that, like FURUM, it's going to become a two day con in future, which certainly makes it more viable for me.

Afer JC's talk, the next one was on photography and videography skills, which was led by Hollud and two other furs. I split my time between this and the Dealers' Den, where Graffiti Rabbit was still selling her Vietnamese wares and I was encouraging people to buy them. As part of Hollud's presentation, he showed a heartwarming video they had filmed in Kota Kinabalu involving three fursuiters and a young boy. It was a short video about make-believe, a child having animal friends, and it was very touchingly done. Certainly something that will live in the memory, aided of course by the fact this was a place I would be visiting during the subsequent week.

It was around this time that I was alerted to the Canteen Talk panel, which was to take place after the Photography 201 one. This was dubbed as a round table discussion, but CT approached me and said he was looking for a panel of people to talk about their school days. He was particularly interested in the different systems from around the world so I was roped into being on a panel with an Australian, a Singaporean, a Malay and a Thai person. I'm not sure why anyone would be that interested in my schooling, but there were tales to tell and my fellow panellists all had amusing anecdotes of my own. I am not overly confident with public speaking but it did start well - when asked 'what was the most memorable thing that happened when you were at school?', my answer of 'well, in 1994 it burnt down' certainly captured the interest if nothing else. I also got to talk about my Episcopalian schooling in Louisiana when I used to live there and perhaps it was more interesting than I gave it credit for. One of the furs, Smyles, is a teacher and he too was on the panel, with some of his stories being particularly amusing (I definitely liked his tale of one of his students who thinks she is a cat). The hour-long panel passed very quickly and I could have gone on for longer - with five of us talking, we only really got to answer three questions each - but I was pretty pleased with how it went. I also got a small plush bear for my efforts after choosing him from a carrier bag of cheap toys (I initially got the pink monkey, but I preferred the ursine wearing a duckie T-shirt and no trousers as it was kinkier).

After this it was the lottery and closing ceremony. Alas, unlike last year when I won a box, I didn't win anything this year. There were a number of great prizes that I really wanted to win but my number didn't get drawn out, which was a shame. The lottery also functions as a thank you to the staff, who get to draw the numbers, meaning that this and the closing ceremony are one and the same thing. Yet the length of time the lottery takes also means you get to prolong the con experience. At the closing ceremony, a three-minute con of the video was played, which was amazing considering the turnaround the producer must have edited it in. It summed up all of the events perfectly though and it was a nice way to bookend the convention.

Once the con was officially declared closed, people started to drift away. Monday was a national holiday in Malaysia as it was the Sultan's Birthday, but people wanted to head back. Meanwhile, we had to hang around for a couple of hours as the staff cleared the con space, with the plan to go for a meal afterwards to celebrate the success of the con. The Murni Discovery was again the location for the meal, the same place we visited last year where we had such a long table that it obstructed the entrance to a cosmetic shop next door and they weren't particularly happy. This time, we had the entirety of a back room on the first floor along with the tables nearest to it, which was important as there must have been about sixty of us there. The portions at this place are huge and Hollud and I had learned our lesson from last year when we had mistakenly ordered the 'Special' meals (i.e. large). However, even with the standard meal, the size of the portion was too much for me, and I hadn't had any lunch either. Noodles AND chips was way too many carbs for me, and it did get a little sickly after a while. The quality of the food here isn't the greatest in all honesty - I got two thin steaks stuck together with poor cheese - but as it was a treat from the con, it wouldn't be fair to complain. The cocktails were fantastic - I got my gay traffic light one again - and the nooddles were very good to be fair.

After this, we all headed back to the hotel, where there was a room party in one of the rooms on the top floor. This was quite fun, my only room party of the con, and I ended up staying until 4am as I was having such a good time. Another factor was that this was my last night with most of these people and I really wanted to prolong it as again they had been so friendly and accommodating to me. Some furs played a video game where you cooked things on a space station while others tied someone up with a seatbelt for some reason. Meanwhile, I spent a while speaking to a Mexican fur who had been based in Taiwan but who was now heading back home. He was sad but philosophical to be leaving SE Asia and had only discovered the fandom over the course of the last year. This was only his second con and while he had always been into mascotting, he didn't know about furry until he got speaking to some random people who liked a mascot he had designed and played. He was very interesting, and it was great meeting him over a beer, some rose wine and some Black Cock grain spirit - as featured on Top Gear. My only regret was that the night had to end, but with a lunchtime flight necessitating a rise of 8am, I needed to get some sleep and so sadly headed to bed.

Summing up, FURUM was a blast again this year. The hotel was significiantly better but there was a charm in the crappiness of the old one which was sadly missed. Also, I did miss the courtyard around the pool. There were fewer room parties this year, but it was just as easy to meet people as it had been the year before. Everyone was really friendly and while I was less of a novelty this time around, I was still made to feel special. Someone even called me a 'world famous fur' which is wide of the mark. I can comfortably say that this is one of my favourite cons and I really hope I can come again soon. I would like that very much.