Perhentian Islands - A Cash Advance and Internet Hell...
I knew there was some reason I was delaying dealing with an island cash flow crisis until after my birthday. I soon learned why. There is no ATM on the Perhentian Islands. If you run out of Malay currency you can convert US dollars, losing about 6%. I had already done that and had no US cash left.

My only option was a very expensive cash advance. The person converting it charges you 15% of the amount and then my bank charges me another $10 (or 3%, whichever is larger) as a cash advance fee. For changing the equivalent of $100 US dollars it cost me $25 not including interest! The interest on a cash advance acrues as soon as it is taken out, there is no grace period. Knowing this, I planned to pay enough money into my credit card account to cover the balance via PC banking.

I tried doing this in the afternoon, but found that the internet building had lost it's air conditioning and was now the equivalent of a sweat box used as a torture device in prisons. I lasted two minutes in the place and wasn't even able to bring up a web page. I aborted but still had to pay 60-cents for that pleasure! The next morning I went in early and found that, not only was it cooler in the morning, but also that the air conditioning had been repaired. I spent 1-expensive hour taking care of the cash advance and other crucial internet things. Internet is $10/hour on the island.

After that, the rest of the day went much better!