Malaysia, 28 Sep 2006 --
Just because internet is cheap here…here are some pics from Kuala Lumpur (KL to the locals) before we head inland to the jungles of Tamara Negara.
September 2006
Monthly Archive
Malaysia, 27 Sep 2006 --
I’m working out some of the hard parts of editing and uploading pictures without a computer (portable software like Portable Firefox, FastStone Image Viewer, and Filezilla are godsends). So here at last are two more Galleries:
Pictures from Penang Island, Georgetown
Pictures from the Cameron Highlands, Malaysia:
Malaysia, 26 Sep 2006 --
Andris and I are now visiting the great city of Kuala Lumpur, which is about a four hour bus ride from the Cameron Highlands. It is smaller than Bangkok, with some of the same great chaos, but it also is much more Western in several respects. One explanation for this is that Malaysia was a British colony for a long time, which partially explains the English everywhere. However, that doesn’t explain the Starbucks, McDonalds, KFCs, the IKEA or the malls. The malls! There are so many malls here, and most of them feel like transplants from America. It’s very strange.
Anyway, Andris and I were in the National Museum here in Kuala Lumpur and there was a display about the push to get Malaysia classified as a “developed” country by 2020. This led me to think about what it means to be a “developed” country. I looked it up on Wikipedia, and it mostly has to do with money, and neither Malaysia nor Thailand are on the list. If all it took was to have an incredibly nice mall (or seven), or to have building so beautiful and impressive it could belong in any first-world county (Petronas Towers), or to have handful of BMWs trapped in the daily gridlock, Kuala Lumpur would easily be considered “developed.” In gereral, Malaysia feels more “developed” than Thailand, but I don’t think it is because the malls are so fancy. I think it is the little things like the fact that people here wear helmets on their motorbikes, there are wheel-chair ramps (sometimes), there are garbage cans on the street, and everywhere you go there are signs telling you not to litter, smoke, or wear high heels or evening gowns on escalators. The government is there babysitting you - and protecting you from yourself and others. I suppose it gives you a little bit of a warm-fuzzy feeling, but it comes at the price of some freedom to do what you want, and 30% of your income in taxes (in America).
Anyway, I don’t really have a point, and I like Malaysia a lot, but the freedom of Thailand was one of the things I liked about it, even if it was a little scary sometimes.
Categories MalaysiaMalaysia, 26 Sep 2006 --
It’s Ramadan here in Kuala Lumpur, yay. Those of you who have been reading my random bloggings for over a year will recall that I spent last Ramadan in Jordan, making this the second year in a row I’ve been in a Muslim country for Ramadan. Many things are the same: drivers have shorter fuses in dealing with traffic, late afternoon busses drive by full of people who are either asleep or look like they wish they were, and there’s a general air of sluggishness.
There are definitely some differences here, though. Obviously, with the large Buddhist and Hindi communities it’s a lot easier for a guy to get a decent meal in the middle of the day. You have to think a bit about your available choices, though. I mean, in Jordan if a restaurant was open (most were not) you pretty much figured they were fine with you coming in for a bite. Here, though, with the large non-Muslim communites, many Muslim restaurants stay open to make money. They’ll have the usual large trays of food out…but the tables will be completely empty. Additionally, many non-Muslim restaurants employ Muslim employees. I don’t know, maybe I shouldn’t worry about it…but I feel really bad making a Muslim woman in a hijab who I know hasn’t eaten all day serve me food. Employment in the food service industry during Ramadan if you’re Muslim has to pretty much suck.
At lunchtime today I found myself in Little India, which usually has lots of tasty northern Indian Muslim food. I considered my food options carefully…and ended in the only full restaurant could find: a KFC at a mall, where I was joined by many of the mall’s Chinese employees.
Speaking of malls, KL really likes it’s malls. For a variety of reasons (searching for free mooncake tastings, going to see movies from Hong Kong about asian boy bands, etc.) we’ve found ourselves in several of them, each more modern than the last. The MidValley Megamall had a HaganDaas, you could literally smell the paint drying at the Cineleisure Damansara, and the Ikano Power Center had…wait for it…an Ikea. I think it’s a bit scary to think of upper middle class Malaysians furnishing their homes with the same Poangs, Forbys, and Tindras found in post college ‘gotta get some cheap interior decoration going on’ homes across America and around the world. Thank you McGlobalization.
Categories MalaysiaMalaysia, 22 Sep 2006 --
I remember a concept that was getting popular a few years ago involving calculating your net individual environmental footprint including everything down to the emissions generated by transporting the food that makes up your meals from one place to another. I don’t know if this concept is still big, but it ocurred to me today that we’ve been making a pretty small footprint over the last few days.
I had this thought as I was sitting down at a strawberry farm to eat a strawberry sunday made with strawberries plucked from plants I could see from our table. Earlier in the day, my lunch at an apiary (bee farm) run by a Chinese family consisted of honey water (pretty much what it sounds like) and organic, vegetarian fried rice made with local veggies Before that I drank a cup of fantastic tea at the tea shop of the Boh tea plantation on which it was grown.
We took a bus most of the way to the tea plantation, walked the 8 km there, back to the bee farm, and on to the strawberry farm. Then we took the bus back to the town our guesthouse is in. Our primary activity for the previous two days has been walking (jungle trekking) and we’re staying in a guesthouse where the linens are only washed between guests.
Granted, I’m not going to undo the damage done by my years of capitalist, American lifestyle…but hey, it’s a start.
Categories MalaysiaMalaysia, 19 Sep 2006 --
Hey everyone - just wanted to quickly comment on the Thai coup. We are far away in the middle of peninsular Malaysia in the Cameron highlands and it is news to us. The Thais do love their king, and the military is in league with him I guess, but so much for democracy.
Anyway, we’re both safe and feel far, far away. It’s hard to imagine tanks in Bangkok.
Categories MalaysiaMalaysia, 15 Sep 2006 --
As I write this, I am in an internet cafe geared towards online gamers (they seem to have faster connections and computers). I’m surrounded by a bunch of 10 year old boys playing some first person shooter with the volume turned all the way up, and the lights down low for visibility. It sounds like a freaking war zone in here.
We’ve only been in Georgetown, Malaysia for a few days…but thus far I love it. Malaysia, and Georgetown in particular is a mix of Malay, Chinese, Indian, and Arabic populations. This, among other things, makes for some fantastic eating. Any town where you can eat breakfast in a dim sum joint packed with Chinese, have an Indian lunch served to you on a palm leaf, and eat dinner at a Malay hawker stall on the street has to be doing something right.
It’s definitely refreshing to be in such a heterogeneous, peaceful society after all the bullshit that’s been going on between Israel and Lebanon of late, and the wide gulf of political polarization back in our own country. I mean, some Malay guy we talked to yesterday told us that Malaysia elected it’s current Prime Minister by a 2%+ majority in its last multi-party election…and we can’t even do the same in our two-party, much more homogeneous country. I believe I quote Jon Stewart when I say: whaaa?
Categories MalaysiaThailand, 12 Sep 2006 --
We’re finally back to reasonably fast and cheap Internet…so here are a few pictures from our last few weeks of Thai island life. Note, in particular the picture of our beach bungalow bathroom. I just didn’t want anyone to read this and have any illusions about life on a shoestring budget in Asia 
. Amazing, though, what you realize you don’t need (hot water, flush toilet, a sink) when you don’t have it.
Also, this was a while back…but Cara wanted me to make sure to put up some pictures of our monkey experience in Prajuap. Those are here:
Enjoy!
Categories thailandThailand, 12 Sep 2006 --
Andris and I are back on the mainland and back to the world of 1 baht/minute internet, so keep checking for pictures - they’ll be up shortly.
The full moon festival was what one would expect - many crazy Europeans, a handful of Israelis and Aussies, and a few Americans drinking Sangsom whisky mixed with Red Bull out of buckets and then dancing until the sun comes up. The rumor out here is that the Red Bull contains some ingredients that are normally illegal, but after further investigation it turns out that while that may be true in France, it’s the same Red Bull we drink in the US. We stayed at the party until the tide went out (about 4) which made the walk back to our bungalow possible. The Red Bull made staying up until 4 possible:)
After leaving Ko Pan Ngan, we headed to Surat Thani and then caught a bus to Krabi, which is known to be one of the premier climbing destinations in the world. Andris and I are happy to report that the climbing is absolutely amazing. The multipitches are the most intimidating thing I have ever seen - the rocks rise straight up out of the beach and are almost all climbable and bolted. All the while you are surrounded by breathtaking scenery of jungle and beach, and cheap food and even cheaper accomdations.
Unfortunately, we only had enough time and money on this visit for one solid day of climbing, and it turned out to be awesome. However, we got off to a rocky (ha ha) start. (Note: for the non-climbers, please pardon the use of unexplained climbing jargon.) We woke up around seven and headed to the rental place to get a whole set of gear for the day. It runs 1000 baht, which is just under $30. You get two pairs of climbing shoes, two harnesses, 12 quick-draws, three slings, two ATCs with locking biners, two chalk bags, a rope mat, and a climbing guide. As soon as we got packed, sat down, and decided on an awesome first climb, it started to rain. We ran back to our bungalow to wait it out. Meanwhile, we figured out an alternate if-it-doesn’t-stop-raining plan, which is to go to the other side of the beach where there is a sheltered area (Ton Sai roof) and do one of the highly recommended climbs called Stalagasaurs. I thought, what a great route! First of all, dinosaurs are cool. Second, it is a 6a (that’s a 5.10a to us Americans), which is perfect for us. Third, it is dry. The guide book describes it as being at the point closest to the water on the roof, and it was very easy to find. Andris was leading it so he started gearing up and I started flaking the rope on our mat. As I was flaking I noticed that the water was rising, and then some climber walked by and went “Better hurry up!” Right. So, Andris was ready to go, we did our safety checks, and he easily got to the first bolt and made the clip. At this point, I’m ankle deep in water and the rope is starting to get wet. I have a bright idea and ask him to clip into the bolt and get off belay so I can climb up on this ledge about 4 feet up. He agrees and I pickup the mat and rope and shove it up on to the ledge, and then climb up myself. Clearly, others have done this, as there was a place for me to clip in. I put Andris back on belay, tell him as much, and climb on! He stares at the route for a while, makes a few attempts and is looking kinda stumped. Just then, an Aussie walks by and asks me if I’m clipped in. Yes, I tell him. Then, he asks what Andris is climbing and I say Stalagasaurus. He then says “Is that the climb that was a 6a until the stalagtite fell off and now is a 6c? It just missed the belayer!” I think, this is starting to make sense. I relay this information, and Andris and I decide he should rap off of two nearby bolts and we’ll move on to greener pastures. After all, the tide is in and it is no longer raining. We went on to have a very productive climbing day, but it was a very interesting beginning. That’s the first time the tide has interfered with my climbing.
Next, we’re on to Hat Yai and then Malaysia!
Categories thailandThailand, 6 Sep 2006 --
Transportation options on these little islands in the Gulf of Thailand are pretty limited. Moving from tiny Koh Tao (where you could pretty much walk everywhere) to much bigger Koh Pangyan made this particularly obvious.
Your A-to-B options here are pretty much limited to: walking, swangthew (pickup truck ‘taxi’ where the passengers ride in the bed of the truck), longtail boat taxi (looks fun, but pretty expensive), and rented moped.
We rented a moped for the last several days, and I have to say…it was nice to get a bit of freedom back. With the taxis you’re stuck having to find one, haggle over the price, and possibly wait until more people show up if you want to pay less…with the moped you just hop on and go.
I think I did pretty well, considering that this was my first motorized two-wheel experience. Granted, it was no Harley and I felt a little wicked-witch-of-the-east (that song from the Wizard of Oz kept running through my head) putting around on the underpowered little bike…but it made jungle hikes, waterfall visits, and yoga classes possible that would have been otherwise inaccessable.
Mom, you may want to skip this next paragraph…I know it’ll freak you out. We did have one minor fender bender. Really it was more of a controlled slow-motion flop. We were riding down a crappy rutted dirt road and I was a little over-eager on the front brake. (I should have remembered the ’speed is your friend’ mantra that’s so key in mountain biking.) We flopped sideways, neither of us any worse for the wear, and the bike’s rear view mirror shattered.
In arguably the best descision on this trip yet, we decided to take the bike to the island Honda dealership to get the mirror fixed (for 150 baht–roughly 4 US dollars!) before returning it and paying some massive fee. I heald my breath when I took the bike back, but they didn’t say anything about the few other scratches and we were home free.
Score one for good karma…maybe it was the afternoon we spent doing a volunteer beach cleanup!
Categories thailand