The Impending Adventure Edition #1

NOW, I know what you're probably thinking. Something along the lines of "But Andrew -- you just got your haircut, what more adventure do you need? What's wrong with you? Are you crazy? I think you might have a problem." I know, believe me I know, but try as I might, I cannot avoid the constant impending adventure. So that having been said, here are some of the things that lie in my immediate future.

1) Tomorrow: Night train to Singapore for the weekend. Possible side adventures include: a postmodern hotel, Cable Car to Sentosa Island, drinks, and a train adventure mystery that looks like this: 2) October 22: CIJ goes Sarawak. More on this to come, but CIJ is holding a two day media training session in Sarawak for the indigenous people there. Topics include: writing press releases, using online tools like YouTube and Skype, and burning cds. Chances are, me and José will stick around to further explore Sarawak, and possible Sabah. You know what that means: Proboscis Monkeys for all!

Now I hate to regress, but in recap of adventures that I've had today ...
This morning I got up early to get legitamate DimSum with Miss Phang (lots of buns, and lots of pork), and then went to the Malaysian Bird Park to see some very very ( I can't stress this enough) silly birds. After that, I had some Coke (Iced) and sat down at the table at the Black & White Exhibit at the Annexe. It's empty, because its a national holiday. Alas!
Until next time!

Life Update. By Andrew (... age:20)

Well, it's Sunday afternoon, and I find myself sitting cross legged on the floor in a little nook just at the end of the hallway leading to the pool in my apartment (haha...my apartment. It sounds silly). Actually: scratch that, I just upgraded myself to chair. Okay, so it is Sunday afternoon, and I find myself sitting in a chair, outside, almost near the pool. The weather today has been pretty southeast asia: humid, with on and off showers... the sort of warm and light rain that you can wander around and ignore until it gets really heavy and you realize that you're quite far away and without an umbrella.

Today has been a rather successful day! I've been a little sick for the past three/four days -- I shant go into details, but I'm pretty sure it was strep throat-- but I seem to be mostly over it now, and it is a monumental occasion. In celebration of my returning health, I decided that it was time to shed my wings. Hair wings that is; I would never shed actual wings... that would be very sad. Anyways, in explanation, I had like these annoying wing-style tuffs of hair sticking just above my ears that needed liberating, so I took a trip to Pavilion to see what could be done. After wandering around a fair bit (I get really dazed in malls... very zombieish) I found that there was a place in Parksons department store that could do it for a reasonable price of 70 ringett (around 23ish CDN). It turns out that 70Ringett can buy a whole lot of haircut. I have never had such a long, and careful haircut ever. It was just over an hour -- and my wings weren't very long! Anyways, I'm not complaining at all, it was quite the experience. haha one fellow massaged my head for quite a long time, and a young chinese hairdresser made up like Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction told me she's always wanted to see the Niagra Falls.
I'm pretty glad just to be unsick, but guess I'm a stylish young lad now?


Other musings: Actually, that story reminds me, I've actually seen a lot of girls here sporting the Uma Thurman Pulp Fiction look. For instance, yesterday I was at SungeiWang Mall, and there was some sort of American Idol style talent show going on (it was awesome, btw. Some pretty ridiculous stuff), and one contestant I snapped a picture of had the same style going on... voila

A Lil Black and White Coverage

SO in the midst of sweating outside of Starbucks, using their wifi and drinking Coffee Bean (the cool kids do it all the time!) I came across a little coverage from New Strait Times of the Black and White exhibit that's been going on at Central Market Annexe since Friday. Here's a screenshot from the NST, and some pictures from the launch!

Good Idea... Bad Idea

Good Idea: Wearing light clothes, staying hydrated

Bad Idea: Deciding it would be fun to walk home a few monorail stops without water, while wearing heavy jeans and two shirts. 

Bravo, Andrew... Bravo. I had said bad idea yesterday. Result? Heat Exhaustion.

After passing out early, today I woke up feeling like Robert Downey Jr.

 

Though, I must say, I'm impressed at the fact that I instinctively bought an isotonic drink called IsoMax and had a cold shower while singing out of tune.

I Almost Forgot... Part Four

I was sitting in the Crystal Jade restaurant at Pavilion mall the other day, finishing up a report for my directed readings course while snacking on some fried bean curd and chili. While I was typing away on my laptop, wearing headphones, the rest of the restaurant was looking to my right. The Manchester United/Chelsea game was showing on a screen at the other end of room, and people were going nuts. Not being too much of a soccer fan, I was only slightly paying attention, concentration hard on finishing up the report (this proved to be a bit difficult, as a british fellow behind me continued to shout "Roooooney! Come on Rooney!" every few minutes). Anyways, during one of the commercial breaks, there was quite a long ad for McDonalds that I found really really interesting. I was hoping to post it up here, but couldn't find it online. The ad went like this: A little boy is sitting at home looking bored in front of a stack of books; it cuts to a few more scenes of him looking somewhat distraught, including one of him sitting with his head in the fridge. Finally, he calls his dad, who is stuck in traffic. "I'm suffering!" he tells the dad, "I have work to do, and its hot."
"Well, why don't you eat something?" the dad responds.
The kid makes a face. Finally it cuts to the dad arriving home. At the door, he leans in towards his son "Did you fast all day??"
The little kid nods. The dad smiles, congratulates him, and slowly brings up a bag of McDonalds in front of his face. And that's it! That's the whole thing! Such a huge difference from their North American advertisements. I found it really quite interesting, because I've often wondered lately how well fast food chains like McDonalds and KFC do during Ramadan in countries that have large Muslim populations. Hm!
Anyways, since I couldn't find it, here is the first ad for McDonald's ever. It's creepy. Enjoy... I know I did. And if you're bored, I suggest looking up "Kinder Surprise 80's advert". It is really quiet terrifying.

Batu Caves

Yesterday, Jose and I adventured out to Batu Caves.

So says Wikipedia:

Batu Caves is a limestone hill, which has a series of caves and cave temples, located in Gombak district, 13 km north of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It takes its name from the Sungai Batu or Batu River, which flows past the hill. Batu Caves is also the name of the nearby village.

The cave is one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside India, dedicated to god Murugan. It is the focal point of the annual Thaipusam festival in Malaysia and attracts over more than 1.5 million pilgrims, making it one of the largest gatherings in history.

Getting there was pretty much an epic adventure.
Well, it wasn't the actual journey itself that was epic, but rather the process of figuring out how to get there. Our problem was that we had two guide books giving two contradictory pieces of advice, and four people chosen at random told us different things (though the trend ended up being "Just take a cab there, la." ). After about a week of trying to figure out, we finally settled on taking bus 11 from Chow Kit. The bus was a classic experience -- It as only 2 Ringett, crowded, and it tended to open its doors as it slowed down, once or twice not even coming to a full stop. I think it was an effort in being dramatic, but since all the seats were taken, I headed to the back of the bus, sat on this dirty ledge, next to a broom and traffic cone, and listened to some music. To be honest, I pulled out my laptop and tried playing a bit of Pokemon but gave up due to general bumpy/swerve-ness. As seats freed up, and the bus got less crowded, the novelty of sitting alone in the dirty area in the back used for storage wore off, and I re-joined Jose and the general populace. Batu Caves are about 15 km out of KL, so the ride was about 45 minutes, but interesting and painless (albeit a bit dirty... but that was my fault). The caves were awesome – I find it interesting that while a lot of foreigners see it as a typical “touristy” thing to do, it is very much a place of pilgrimage for some Malaysians. So that having been said, there wasn’t much information there about what was there. In any case, on the way out, the steps were covered in monkeys looking for bananas and coconuts. Needless to say, I snapped a whole bunch of photos. These are my favorite:

272 steps

Raiders of the lost ark?

140 foot Murugan

Ginormous Little Things

The other day, I was eating.

It was in the central market foodcourt – I had in front of my a plate of Mee Hun from a little thai stand, and plate of Mango Rice from a Malaccan place. In terms of cutlery, the norm here is Fork and Spoon. Now, initially this just struck me as odd, being so used to the Fork and Knife entanglement of everyday western life. Nevertheless, it took no time to get over it, and I soon felt like a “pro” eating cutting meals with a spoon like it was nobody’s business. However, as I ate my Mango rice in the Central Market foodcourt, I had a huge paradigm shift (okay, maybe a little exaggerated? I can’t tell). As I used my spoon in my right hand to push the rice onto the fork in my left, somewhere in my head, I presupposed that fork and spoon technique was so limited in its possibilities that I just had to be doing the right thing. But alas! Something was wrong. Dead wrong. As I ate, I could feel a perplexed and curious stare from the other side of the table. Apsara, who has lived her whole life in Malaysia, was watching me eat the rice with an amused look. I asked what was so funny, and she explained that I was using my fork and spoon the complete opposite of everyone else. i.e. Its only common sense to hold your fork in your right hand (or left, if you are right handed) and use it to push rice onto your spoon in your other hand . For some reason this just seemed wrong, but I realized that it did make perfect sense – spoons are much more efficient for that kind of thing. Needless to say I quickly and shiftily glanced around to make sure no one was watching, and switched my fork and spoon. A disaster was averted, and a life changed forever.

(Totally not the food I'm referring to but the picture has a fork and a spoon in it! Unnecessary? Perhaps...)

I Almost Forgot... Part Three

Okay, so I bought this rad watch on the observation deck of Menara Kl last week.
I think of all the giant towers I've been too (just this one and the CN tower?), Menara KL has been the least insanely commercial. It was quite cheap to go up (less than the equivalent of $7 CDN), the telescope/viewers were free, and I was able to get a bottle of watter for 2 Ringget. Most importantly, I bought a 1995 Power Rangers digital watch that has the Green Ranger as a cover. Not only that, but the strap has "Tommy" written all over it. I know, it's really cool. I tried to bargain with the lady, noting that it has clearly been sitting there for 13 years, but she wouldn't have it. So I bought the watch for 20 Ringett. It was worth it, I think.

Only Lame Excuses?

"No List of MP names but only lame excuses"
Justification for CIJs existence?

Update: The politics in Malaysiatown are proving to be as interesting as ever. The government did not fall on September 16th, as some thought it would -- but today, opposition leader Anwar sent a letter to the Prime Minister calling for an emergency parliament session before next Tuesday to "deliberate on a vote of no-confidence against the Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Administration" (Jeffooi.com). According to The Star, Badawi responded that an emergency session would not be necessarry.

Annexe Update

Okay, so I've been eating a lot of food lately. Like lots of it. But its really good and everywhere, and cheap. Who wouldn't! Today I had a Tootsie Pop for breakfast (chocolate flavour), Thai Glass Noodles, a Banana Milkshake and water for lunch, and Rice and Coconut Curry Beef for dinner. Hmm looking at it written out like this doesn't seem very healthy. Pshh, there's a gym in the apartment -- I'm sure tomorrow-andrew will work it off.

The Annexe exhibit is going really well. While it seemed that we really didn't have much work left at all, we ended up working until 9:30 tonight, and still have just a little left. Hah who knew that carefully taping posters could take 10 hours?? Not I. But nevertheless, I'm really happy with the way it has shaped up. The Black & White show (comprising three exhibits) opens up tomorrow night at 8 (I think its 8 at least...), giving us plenty of time to finish up, and add finishing touches.

Important update! Jose and I saw a really big snail on the way back to the apartment. See picture below.

eeee

Things I Learnt Today

1. IT seems that I have arrived in KL at quite a crucial moment in time. To put it more tv/metaphorically, I have come in to the final five minutes of a 24 episode. It's approaching 7:59:55, 7:59:56, 7:59:57 ... etc. For reasons I don't fully fully understand yet, tomorrow is set to be an interesting day. It has in part to do with a feud between the dates August 31st and September 16th... Specific days have always been trouble.

On August 31st 1957, the Malaysian Peninsula gained independence from Britain, but Sabah and Sarawak, they were still under British rule until September 16th 1963. So some Malaysian's feel that tomorrow is National Day. However, I'm thinking this is a touchy subject -- I was reading a random blog entry I came across, where one blogger commented :
"hmmmm… it is not wise to argue on this la…".

Anyways, over the weekend, a number of controversial things happened. Things that are best summed up by a screenshot from Jeff Oois blog, Screenshots.A few notes of explanation: Raja Petra is the editor of the website/blog MalaysiaToday, known for being very critical of the government. According to a little wikipedia mission, RPKs stated goal for the blog has been to "test how far Malaysia under its new Prime Minister can honour, respect and tolerate free speech." The site was blocked in Malaysia for several weeks, before being unblocked a couple days ago, after which the editor was detained under ISA;
Tan Hoon Cheng is a journalist for Sin Chew Daily who reported racist remarks made by a politician; and the Show cause letters are for reporting the story.

As for exactly what all this is leading up to tomorrow? I'm not sure all of the details, but apparently former Deputy Primier turned Oppoisition Leader Anwar Ibrahim has been making threats about staging some sort of coup?
In any case, this little Aweir is totally safe in this 24 scenerio, but it should be quite the interesting development!

2. Apparently bribing is necessary if you are a teen doing your driver's test here.

3. One can buy Pocket Sandwiches



4. I can make friends with creepy plastic guys that are just slightly reminiscent of the Great Gazoo

5. You can see our apartment from the KL Tower.

Anyways, thats about it. Sweet post eh? ehn? -- Tomorrow, it's off to the Annexe to help set up this "Make Amends" exhibit. I hope the posters turned out well!

Some KL Photos

These are a few of my "fav" shots from the past few days. They're all from around KL and are really just things I've seen in my wonderings.

A toystore in Times Square

At "No Black Tie" (It turned out to be much fancier than the name implied)

Patronas Towers

Freedom Film Fest Awards

The Centre For Independent Journalism

On "Catching Them All"... from the roof

Okay, so before I write anything major, I feel I need to get this out of the way. I'm back on the roof of the apartment, looking down over Bukit Bintang, playing Pokémon on my computer, and creeping Facebook. Pretty much living the life -- roofs AND Pokémon?? Awesome, I know.

So, this weekend is looking to be pretty relaxed. Originally, Jose and I were to go in to CIJ today to finish up the Constitutional Amendment posters, but we ended up staying quite late yesterday to get the majority of them done in Illustrator. They're looking pretty good, and now I guess I know a lot more about the Malaysian Federal Constitution. My thoughts are that it is a really interesting istuation. For instance, Malaysia is still officially in an emergency period because of conflict thirty years ago -- this is because the original law that put a time limit on "emergency perdiods" was ammended to have them last indefinitely, until annuled by both house of Parliament. Or, even more interesting, under the Sedition laws, nearly everything Can be considered seditious, even if it isn't so explicitely -- something can fal under this law even if it exhibits a "tendency" towards sedition. Anyways, I think in the next couple days, if it is okay with CIJ, I'll post a few of the posters here in jpeg form.

Anyways, post-roof session, I think we might check out the KL tower, and maybe look into getting to Batu Caves tomorrow? Only time will tell.
Now... I have some Pokemon to catch.

UPDATE: We ended up going to KL Tower and I bought a souvenir Power Rangers watch circa 1995. It has a Green Ranger cover on it that you have to lift before looking at the time. It also says Tommy on the band. Soooo awesome

On My Brief Stint With Fast Food

So I was wondering through Pavilion Mall yesterday. Its one of the newest malls in the Bukit Bintang area, and is fancier than any mall I've seen in Toronto. It's also the closest place to the apartment to find legitimate wireless. Well, yesterday afternoon, work at CIJ was done and I felt it would be a good idea to really start working on a report for my directed readings course. The easiest place to sit down -- lounge if you will (I want to say perch... but it really has no place. darn) -- and start typing is the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on the outside of the mall (or really any of the 5 or 6 Coffee Beans within 5 minutes of it). Unfortunately, on my way over, I realized I had already spent a significant amout of time that day marvelling out loud about the price of a coffee at Coffee Bean or Starbucks relative to other things, and it would be silly to go directly there. On a side note: it really is interesting though... the price of an ice latté is about the equivalent of what it would be in north america: 12 Ringett. However, a lavish dinner can be 15 Ringett, a movie at an upscale western-style movie theater is 11, lunch is is 6. Anyways, so I wasn't entirely feeling Coffee Bean that afternoon (though it is an excellent place to get coffee and wireless occasionally). So I wondered around Pavilion looking for somewhere to sit.

I'm not sure how it happened, but I found myself in front of Pizza Hut, looking at the sign advertising free wifi inside. I thought about it... but then figured I'd probably have to keep it a secret if I went to Pizza Hut alone in the land of amazing food. So instead I went next door to KFC. Weird decision, I know. What can I say, I was under pressure!

So there I was. Standing in line at KFC, squinting at the menu a meter or two from the middle cashier. Though I chose the shortest line, is turned out to be the slowest. My mind raced as I tried to convince myself to run away and stay at the same time. Over the sound system, the evening prayer played, singalling breaking fast for Muslims. My mind was made up -- "this is an experience" I told myself, "they're broadcasting prayer over a loudspeaker in a fast food restaurant. I'm in."

About 10 minutes later, I got to the counter and ordered a Zinger Meal. i.e. a Chicken Burger, Potato Wedges with cheese and spicy gravey and a Pepsi Max. All for 9 Ringetts. I beamed as I realized that a coffee would have costed more. So, I took my tray to the table closest to the wall seperating KFC from Pizza Hut, in hopes to connect to their online service. Sacré Bleu! foiled again -- the service required a special Pizza Hut club-only password. I put my computer back into my backpack and set to eating. I bit down into the burger, and found it unusually... juicy? I looked down and saw it to be a suspicious colour of pink/red, and realized it was a sign. "this just wasn't meant to be" I consoled myself. I played with the burger a bit to make it look like I'd eaten some of it... you know, broke it up into smaller pieces, moved them to separate corners of the box etc. Picked up my bag, and turned my back on KFC forever.

About 20 minutes later, I found myself at Old Town White Coffee at LowYat plaza, drinking some white coffee, and reading Coming of Age in Second Life for my directed readings course. They didn't have wireless, but I was glad to be drinking a cheap mysteriously tasty coffee.

Later that night, Jose bought a soccer ball and learnt a valuable lesson: If you buy a cheap knockoff soccer ball, it'll probably be thrown into traffic by a monkey wearing a sleeveless hoody and get run over by a bus.

Black and White and Not So Black And White

So, it's Wednesday morning, and I'm just researchin away for interesting /not so interesting amendments to the Malaysian constitution. It has turned out to be quite the daunting task! I've found it easy to find a list of the amendment numbers and dates, but very tough to find an actual copy of the constitution as it stands now (it seems the version commonly found online is 1984/1986) as well as its different verious. However, Jose e-mailed a pretty well known constitution scholar about it, so I think things should pick up later on today. Anyways, I thought it might be a good idea to throw an example up here -- really the most well known, controversial amendment. It is Article 10, pertaining to freedom of expression. So Freedom of Expression has always been limited by the constitution here. It has never been the case where absolute freedom of expression has been guaranteed. It is my understanding that the original Article 10 looked similar to this:

1)Subject to Clauses (2), (3) and (4) -
(a) every citizen has the right to freedom of speech and expression;
(b) all citizens have the right to assemble peaceably and without arms;
(c) all citizens have the right to form associations.

2) Parliament may by law impose -
(a) on the rights conferred by paragraph (a) of Clause (1),such restrictions as it deems necessary or expedient in the interest of the security of the Federation or any part thereof, friendly relations with other countries, public order or morality and restrictions designed to protect the privileges of Parliament or of any Legislative Assembly or to provide against contempt of court, defamation, or incitement to any offence;
(b) on the right conferred by paragraph (b) of Clause (1), such restrictions as it deems necessary or expedient in the interest of the security of the Federation or any part thereof, or public order;
(c) on the right conferred by paragraph (c) of Clause (1), such restrictions as it deems necessary or expedient in the interest of the security of the Federation or any part thereof, public order or morality.

3) Restrictions on the right to form associations conferred by paragraph (c) of Clause (1) may also be imposed by any law relating to labour or education.

However! After an emergency period in the late 1960s/early 1970s, Article 10 was restricted even further with the addition of Clause 4, which prohibits the questioning of a number of sensitive issues.

(4) In imposing restrictions in the interest of the security of the Federation or any part thereof or public order under Clause (2) (a), Parliament may pass law prohibiting the questioning of any matter, right, status, position, privilege, sovereignty or prerogative established or protected by the provisions of Part III, article 152, 153 or 181 otherwise than in relation to the implementation thereof as may be specified in such law.

SO this is one of the major amendments to the constitution that hinders freedom of expression in Malaysia -- however, the exhibit on the 18th also looks at other amendments that have been positive, and puts it to the visitor to think about the (over 600) changes that have been made to the social contract in the past 51 years.

I Almost Forgot... Part Two

So I was cruising around Sungei Wang mall yesterday, in search of some local trendy things, when I came across a sweeet rack of T-shirts -- many of which seemed lost in translation. Anyways, I bought the two that I understood the least. A Mickey/Donald Duck Fusion? Mickey and a Ghost with Melting Ice Cream? I'm quite sure the writing is Japanese. Any ideas? Here they are:

Am I using the sentence "I'm going to go try and find some wireless" too often?

It's 11PM Malaysian time, and I'm just doing a little bit of msn-ing on the ground outside of my building (haha "my building"). I'm using the WirelessKL network, though I'm not too sure where its coming from... my original intention was to snipe wireless from the restaurant at the base of the apartment that I'm camped out in front of, but this works quite well! WirelessKL is a free wifi service provided by some faction of the government and seems to be available in a lot of cafés and restaurants. (Don't worry, I'm sitting on marble... not a street corner)

Anyways, quick update on my life. Day one of CIJ: Week Two, went very well. CIJ is holding an exhibit at the Central Market Annexe on September 18th, so me and Jose spent most of the day researching for that. The exhibit is called "Black and White, and Not So Black and White" and is a showing of some of the major amendments to the Malaysian Constitution since 1963, and well... some of the not so major amendments. The idea is to post up the changes on the wall on A4 paper and have visitors vote on whether the original Action or the amendment is better. A really interesting idea! Gaya was saying that the idea is not to make a statement but rather to just put it out there. So pretty much, I spent the day trying to find out out as many amendments as I could. Haha I couldn't find too many using Google alone, but nevertheless learned quite a lot. For instance, I actually never really appreciate the extent to which being Malay is fundamentally tied to religion. I mean, I understood that Malaysia is officially an Islamic state, I just never really understood how much Malay and Islam go hand in hand. In reading some online writings about the Malaysian Constitution (mainly by Shad Saleem Faruqi) I've come to realize how big of a role this has played in the country in the past 50 years.

So that was my day. However! It's also important to note that I took a bit of time off to run to the corner and pick up a Lotus Paste Bun (Figure 1, below)

Stealing Wireless at 18 Stories

I write this from the rooftop of 38 Bidara Condiminiums. As the title suggests, I'm at the top -- well, maybe 1 quarter of the way to the top -- of KL, and I'm surfing the net. To my left, KL Tower is looming, as it is want to do, and in front of me the Patronas towers are hidden behind the top few stories of Hotel Istana. To my right: seven or eight malls, some amazing food, and some scary food. It has been yet another busy few days. This weekend is the Freedom Film Festival at the Central Market Annexe. I went with Jose last night to check out a short documentary on Islam and freedom of Expression. It was a really interesting film, and it was done quite fairly. There was a long segment of Malay rap, but alas I couldn't understand it. Anyways, it was really cool to see Gaya form CIJ interviewed in it. She got quite the laugh when she said that the first thing that Malaysia should do is scrap the "Truly Asian" advertisement. The venue in which we watched the movie was a small room with a projector, pull down screen and plastic chairs. At first I was very surprised by the small size of the room, but found it very cool to be part of such a small community group -- but alas i was quite wrong. Turns out that the main theater was full, haha so we were in the spillover theater. After that, we headed to the club district and went to a bar called The Beach. My initial reaction was a strong comparison to Crocodile Rock in Toronto -- a much older crowd and early 90s music. However! What set this apart was the live band. I think its safe to say it was a motley crew of performers. It had three singers -- one woman who looked exactly like Tia Carrera in Wayne's World, another woman who looked and dressed exactly like Rufio from Hook, and a Malay hip hop singer. So I very much enjoyed that -- it seemed almost surreal. Especially with the tank of baby sharks above the bar. What I found a little weird was the staggering number of old white men with young skinny Chinese girls. hm.
Anyways, it is looking like tonight will be an intense post-ramadan food extravaganza (I don't know how I feel about that word) and another trip to the Annexe to see tonights movie. Below: The view from up top; some interesting roof wildlife; and a snippet frmo last night's movie