Post the Fifth

Hey blogtown,
Okay, so its Monday morning here in Malaytown, and much has transpired since my fated KLCC park post. The day after that, I went on an exploratory journey of my soul and/or some of the less downtown areas of KL. Basically it was originally just an exercise in trying to find my way back to CIJ before having to go into work on Tuesday. Navigation-wise it was a ... cinch? Ugh I really don't feel right using that word. Anyways, i made it to TitiWang station in one piece, and made may way towards CIJ. However! I couldn't help but stop to "explore" (ie cautiously walk around taking picture) the old government housing buildings along the way. These are pretty intense abandoned apartment buildings that loom ominously and, well openly. Apparently they're condemned by the government, and have been empty for quite some time -- since the 1990s perhaps? Anyways, I snapped some photos. These ones are pretty cool:



Also, an interesting little tidbit: in one of the apartment buildings, the residents refuse to leave. Its all abandoned looking, yet has clothes hanging out of some of the windows.

Anyways, back to my wanderings. I think there are two main little lessons to take out of them: 1) I'm very very white, and a bit more aware of it now and 2) I shouldn't have eaten the $1 soup from the small discrete soup shop I found.
My realization about #1 came about when I went into a covered market in Chow Kit. I was pretty much just standard andrew-ing it -- bouncing about in my shorts and burkinstocks with a backpack on and looking around wideeyed at the various stalls. I think I got about 5 meters in before someone laughingly asked where I was from. Anyways, I took off from chow kit and went on to learn lesson number two.
Well, to be fair I didnt learn lesson two until the next morning. The origin of said lesson came in the form of this soup:

and resulted in this video being made:


(the actual video is not shown here... I think everyones better off that way. I was a little delerious after puking all morning, and I make some strange claims in it)

All that having been said, though, I quite healthy now. I managed to recover, pick up José from the airport later that evening, and get a solid nights sleep. Now I think for today, José and I are going to explore what kind of Cameras Sangei Wang mall has, and possibly make our way to Little India?

Entry Four And a Half; Entitled, I'm in a Coffee Bean and they keep playing La Bamba

UPDATE. I did something really silly. I won’t say what, but it gives me a little bit of time to continue this blog. Okay, so I last left off on the afternoon of May 26th, 2008. Alex and I headed to CIJ so that I could meet the team, and he could finish editing an interview he’d filmed the day before. We hoped on the monorail, and it started pouring. Like intense torrential downpour rain. So we took the train to Titiwangsa station, walked down the stairs and stood under the shelter of the monorail track for a few minutes , evaluating the situation. In short, the turned out to be no real alternative than getting really wet, as he showed me the way to the CIJ building. It turns out that it is located in an area away from downtown. It wouldn’t be right to say that it is on the outskirts of KL because KL, like Toronto encompasses a huge area made up of smaller…areas. So this part of town is dominated by ground floor family-ish businesses, some of which seem to sell a random assortment of stuff. Along the way we passed mostly restaurants, shops, and offices of sorts. CIJ is two floors above an auto-repair shop. There’s also a sketchy looking pet shop nearby. I might buy a pitty kitten in the near future. By the time we reached CIJ I was entirely soaked – the kind of soaked where you really just can’t get any wetter. So, Alex showed me how to open the cage, and I met most of the team. They all seem quite nice.
Uh oh, I’m feeling a brief digression. At Titiwangsa station there are a number of old apartment buildings that stand empty. They are white and blue and from the outside look to be full of very small apartments. It turns out that three of them have been condemned by the government, and as such stand as creepy playgrounds for well just general creepiness. What I found most interesting is that a larged number of residents in one of the buildings refuse to leave. So out of many windows you can see hanging clothes, satellite dishes and even BN flags. I suppose they still get power? Anyways, I realy want to
Just about as soon as we arrived, we went for lunch. This went down at Santa’s (pronounced Saunta) – a small, but apparently famous local place a few doors down. This is pretty much entirely Indian food – lots of chicken curry, spicy Vegetables, Roti Chanai and naan. Santa assured me that he’d take care of me. Was this the beginning of my adoption by Alex’ food family? Only time will tell. So we ate lunch – it was kind of a self serve deal, you just take what you want from the front, and sit down to order drinks and whatnot. Alex ordered me a lemon sugar water drink whose name escapes me. But it was good! Like all iced drinks here, I’m finding, this drink was heated up and then cooled with ice. Anyways, I took and ate way too much food – a factor that would soon only increase my jet-lag induced exhaustion. When we were done, I found out the delightful news that food is usually a set 6 ringget (2 dollars). Amazing.
We returned to CIJ, and I just kind of played around for awhile on my computer, not having anything to do yet. Eventually, Alex said his goodbyes to the teamand we headed back to the pad. By this time, I was pretty insanely tired, so I promptly passed out for a few hours. I had a strange dream about Helix Collaboration Commerce Accelerators.
I woke up at around 8:30, and Alex took me on a journey to explore the insides of the electronics mall. This was good for me, as I was quite curious about the prices of DSLR cameras here. I feel like it would be a solid investment early on in the trip. The mall was pretty mind blowing – think five floors with store upon store of electronics. I may just have to return there tonight to pick up an 8gig SD card for 25ish bucks. Umm the DSLR was a little disappointing, but it makes sense – there’s a big selection but they all of the major brands are the same price as back home. If I buy one here, I guess all that I really save is the tax. Oh well – I’m going to do a bit more research.
After the electronics mall, we took the monorail and LRT to the Chinese night market. Such an interesting place: basically a street lined with stalls, all selling counterfeit goods. Acutally “lined” doesn’t do it justice – more like jammed with stalls. Really it’s the place to get all of your fake Oakley, louis veton, and Rolex needs!
We picked up some MaPo bean curd and apple juice (ok this juice actually tastes like an apple. Have you ever had apple juice that tastes like that? Honestly I never had until I got to KL) on the street for like RM12


Okay, what the hell.
Weirdest thing just happened to me.
Honestly this is going to bug me forever.
So I’m sitting on a bench in front of the patronas towers in KL. Blogging away, surfing the internet (somehow I get wireless in the park behind the towers?)
When after about 45 minutes, two Malay guys – 30something come up to me, shyly and ask if I can take a picture. So I’m like okay for sure! When all of a sudden, one of the guys comes over to the bench and sits down next to me to pose.
So immediately I’m thinking that this is some scheme to distract me while someone steals my laptop or bag and I smile, and discreetly get a solid hold of my bag and computer. But, to my surprise, the guy smiles and his friend takes the photo of us – and mind you, I’m facing the towers, so there isn’t anything but park in the background. After that, they thank me and shake my hand (still I’m thinking “ok, their going to make their move….”) and leave happy. What?!
This is the second time that that’s happened to me.
Why?? Do I look like someone famous? I’m completely baffled. None of my stuff got stolen, and now I’m just confused. Note, I’ve since moved to a different part of the park, and I no longer get wireless.
If you’re interested, the first time that this happened to me, in 2006 – I ended up with this photo:

Entry Four. Entitled an explanation as to why I’m in Malaysia and a continuation of where I last left off in Blog Three.

AT this point, dear blog, you are probably asking a key question. Something along the lines of “But wait a minute sweaty Andrew, why are you even in Malaysia? You’ve been blabbering on about the shortcomings of new Simpsons episodes, KFC, and Bootlegged DVDs but have yet to even hint at why you are in KL in the first place.” Well said, blog – very well said. I commend you. The short answer is that I’m interning at the Center for Independent Journalism (CIJ) Malaysia for the next four months (the longer answer really involves me bugging Sandy Smeltzer for like 8 months). I’m thinking it would be prudent to write a few words on what CIJ is. A word of caution, though: I’m in the apartment right now, sans wireless, so all of this is off the top of my head, and may not be totally comprehensive. I have the feeling it’s going to be awesome though. Okay, (huge breath) CIJ is a non-profit, non-government advocacy-based organization that works towards greater media freedom and awareness in Malaysia. The first thing to know is that the media in Malaysia isn’t censored in the traditional sense – my impression thus far is that it is more a matter of a “learned self-censorship.” It is a very complicated system, and I’m sure that there are many factors involved that I currently don’t understand or know about, but at this point I would say that the state of media freedom is a result of 1) a history of racial “disharmony”, 2) tricky legislation (most of which spawns from 1969 and said disharmony), and 3) government(ish) owned media.
The thing about number one is that Malaysia’s population can be broken down into something like:
• 15% Indian
• 35% Chinese
• 50% Malay
Shortly after Malaysia’s Independence from England in the 1950’s there was some intense racial tension, resulting in the race riots of May 13 1969. These were pretty violent – I get the impression that it was very Gangs of New York. Anyways, the way that the government functions now has a lot to do with this conflict. The government is a parliament that puts emphasis on “harmony” and “asian values.” This is where number two comes in: there is a lot of tricky legislation that sacrifices human rights for the greater good; i.e. for the sake of harmony. A few examples of this are: the Printing and Publications Act (PPA), the Sedition Act, the Official Secrets Act (OSA), and the Internal Security Act (ISA – this one is sweet). The PPA ensures that every Publication and broadcaster has a yearly license; the OSA prevents anyone from releasing information that could be considered an official secret; the Sedition Act makes punishable saying anything against; and the ISA allows the government to arrest anyone who acts against the “national interest” (Okay, I had a source for that one) … without a trial, for a maximum of 60 days, renewable indefinitely. So the result is an inherent fear of publishing anything that could be considered anti-government because that could result in a swift removable of ones publishing or broadcasting license, a fine, or imprisonment. On top of this, all of the major mainstreams publications and broadcasters are in some way connected/controlled to/by a political party.

So, I’m spending the next few months in Malaysia, interning at an NGO that basically advocates for less of paragraph two. But, I have the feeling I’m spending too much time inside. Time to explore.

P.S. Damn! I’m going to have to bring my laptop and steal wifi from somewhere so I can post this.
Update --- I found some wireless in the park out front of the twin towers

Blog Three -- The morning of August 26th

Good afternoon, blog! I hope you are well. I’m doing pretty swell, blog, thank you for asking. I write this entry from the patio of Olé Café, a happy little coffeeshop on the street Alex aptly named “Restaurant Road” – I think I may try to find out the streets real name after I’m done my iced café late. I have a confession to make, and you may not like it. This is actually the second time I’ve started this blog entry. The first time occurred yesterday afternoon, and went a little something like this:

I start this blog from the third floor of the CitiBank tower in downtown KL. Alex Paterson is cashing a check for RM500 from DiGi, the main mobile provider, and I’m just kinda hanging. Its been a busy two ad a half days – truly a crash course in downtown Malaysian survival.

Oh but so much has happened since then! I was so young ad naïve then. I’m solo MalaysiAndrew now: Alex took off to Korea last night, giving me two and a half days to find myself in KL. So far things are going well. I’m still major (I almost wrote “mondo” there – can you imagine? Ugh) jet lagged. Like I’m holding up okay, but I woke up at 5:30 this morning. However! I’m getting ahead of myself. Where did we last leave off? Ah, yes – the fated “And now… the day begins.” And began the day did.
It was a day of exploration and discovery. After the morning Coffee Bean sesh, Alex took me around to show me the important stuff – i.e. rent, utilities, seven malls and where to get bootlegged DVDs. Rent and utilities are pretty simple and nearby – utilities get paid at the post office in Sangai Wang mall, and rent at a bank nearby. In the process of getting to these, I got to know the malls in the area. Many of them, like Pavillion and Lot10 are crazy western. Inside pavilion you could be anywhere in the world – they have luxury stores like Gucci and Prada, but also chains like Quicksilver, Gap, Starbucks (probably 2 or 3 of them, to be honest) and KFC (people love KFC here, its crazy. Do they have KFC breakfast back at home? Saw an ad for it on the monorail, it kinda made me feel a little dizzy). Basically stuff in the brand-y malls are just about the same price as in Canada. Sangai Wang is a whole other story. I found it to be a labyrith of confusing wonders and creepy manicans.

SG Wang is the Chinese mall and has all sorts of random local trendy shops, laid out in a way that I have yet to understand. The building is just straight up confusing – I went in there today, got lost, and then was spat back out again like 25 minutes later with a 10 dollar pair of brown pants and some juice. When alex took me there for the first time yesterday, he introduced me to a man named Bee. Bee works at a small electronics store (that I may very well never find again) and specializes in hooking people up with bootlegged DVDs. He has promised to take care of my pirated needs. His business goes down in a small office inside the shop. What Alex did for the months he was here was go in, browse his four categorized binders of dvd covers, order whichever movies/tv shows he wanted and then pick them up later on. Each disc costs 8 ringett (so about two dollars and sixty cents). And these high quality dvds too – they come in full box-like cases. In terms of image quality, I understand that it can be so-so, but Alex assured me that Bee is open about when quality is mediocre. After all of the mall/rent business, we journeyed to CIJ.

“If you think the spray might bother you,” a voice said over the Airplane speaker, “be sure to cover you eyes, nose and mouth. Also, if you think you might be allergic, cover your mouth and do no breath it in.” Two stewardess’, wearing black stockings, black pencil skirts, high collared red and white shirts and white gardening gloves, walked in unison down each aisle, spraying a constant stream of aerosol disinfectant above their heads. After two passes through the plane, the procession stopped and the voice over the loudspeaker said, “welcome to Kuala Lumpur. We hope you’ve enjoyed your flight”

Entry Two
25 august 2008
Sprawled in linen pants with the window open, trying to figure out what to with my new found jetlag. Last night was fun – but oh so much to take in. Alex picked me up at the airport at around 7pm. My plane was a bit earlier than expected so I won the race to the arrivals area. In my weakened state, I was easy prey for the 47 cab drivers and information services people. I found myself feeling like Stan’s dad in South Park; “I don’t have any change!!” So to escape, I sat down behind a large pillar at a coffee kiosk and grabbed an espresso. Soon, Alex showed up and joined me for a coffee. This was definitely in order – I needed some serious false energy to keep me going for the rest of the night. I was feeling very… crazy. We took the express train to the central station here. Alex explained how in KL there are three public transit companies with three different tracks the never really join up. There’s the commuter train, the monorail, and the LRT. So rather than switch to the monorail, come arriving the Central station, we hoped in a cab. So apparently the cab world here is… well a whole other world. And not the charming whole new world from Alladdin either. Apparently when it comes to people with white people and people with baggage, it becomes more of a pre-negotiated price, usually starting off insanely high. The cab we jumped into, upon hearing our location wanted to charge 25 ringget (so around $8.3 canadian) – alex got him down to 20 ringget, which is apparently pretty dece for a cab out front of the central station. So we headed to 38 Bidara Condiminiums, on Bedara street. To be honest I was super surprised. Very upscale-looking from the lobby. Also, very secure. You need a keycard to get into the building, then again to get in the elevator, then again to pick a floor, then two keys to get into the room.
I exploded my stuff into my new room and Alex showed me the pool and gym. Now I must say, Sandy’s description of the gym had me envisioning a damp broom closest featuring a stairmaster from 1986. That having been said, I was very surprised! A nice wee gym, with several cardio machines, and no shortage of weight machines/weights. So my thoughts here are that Toronto-Andrew hasn’t put in much regular gym time, so Malaysia-Andrew may just try to make up for it. After hanging out at the pool for a bit, we came back to the room and I called home, and Laura at work (“wait a minute – are you calling my cell phone from Malaysia?”), and let everyone know that I was alive and well. After this, Alex took my on a tour of the neighborhood. First, to the “times square” of KL – pretty much the intersection point of 4 (update: its actually 7) malls. There was a guy with two monkeys that were running around and climbing stuff. Apparently he’s there all the time, and just yells stuff to his them. And make no mistake, these are cute monkeys – like Phantom of the Opera symbols monkey. Wow, I suddenly just had a flashback of tearing up as an eight year old at the end of Phantom of the Opera when the stage is quiet except for the sad monkey with its symbols. Weird. Anyways, we made our way to Jalan Alora (?) a street lined with food stalls. Alex pointed out one he recommended and we took a seat at a plastic street table nearby. Basically he did all the ordering and stuff – I was pretty much useless at this point. We got like 4 dishes and a beer each – the food was amazing. So tasty, and incredibly spicy and garlicy. One dish was fried chicken top with spicy mango and onion in a very thai sauce. We also got various fried noodles, beef and Satays with peanut sauce. The bill came to the equivalent of roughly $21 Canadian. Is that not insane? In terms of how my body feels about it, however, well… only time will tell. So after food, Alex showed me around a bit more – we ended up taking up shop in a shisha restaurant. We chilled on red pillows out front of the restaurant with Jasmin tea and a hookah. I broke out my laptop soon and sniped wireless from the restaurant next store. After this, we headed back to the apartment, and I crashed. Jet lag has me in its icy grips, so I got up after only about 6 hours sleep, at 7AM, Malaysia time. And now… the day begins.

Note: I wrote an alternate first blog entry on the plane from Hong Kong to KL. Honestly, it’s just weird. I think the world is better off not reading it. I spend about a page ranting about a season 19 Simpsons episode I watched on the plane – except I couldn’t remember any specific examples of what bugged me about it so I just come across as crazy and like 70.