Andrew Learns Malay... ish

I'm sitting in one of my favorite wifi-tiefing spots -- the second floor hallway that leads to the pool of my apartment. Unfortunately, a few feet ahead of me, it is pouring, torrential style. To pass the time, I've been looking up directions to the Kampung Baru night market in one of KL's oldest residential districts... somewhere to go tonight if the rain stops? I'm eager to take more pictures with my new toy. And the rain seems to have just stopped. Argh. Malaysian downpours... so fickle.
Anyways, so here are a few useful Malay phrases/terms I've come across in my travels.

1. Andrew suka makan: Andrew likes food
2. Kopi Bing, take away: a bag filled with ice, home brewed coffee, lots of milk and lots of sugar. Not to be confused with Iced Nescafé, which is the same thing, only well with nescafé. Usually goes for RM 1.60 (ie 50 ish cents)
3. Nasi Goreng: Fried Rice
4. Ayam: Chicken. Can be combined with Nasi Goreng (as in Ayam Nasi Goreng) for tasty family fun.
5. Mee: Noodles
6. Lah: Eh. Used for any and every sentence.
   
7. Bodoh: Stupid
8. Terima Kasih: Thank You
9. Selamat Datang: Welcome
10. Blur: Out of it... just generally "blur." I'd equate it with the Andrewslang "Blah"
11. Chun: Coool

Kopi Bing... hanging from a nail

Nine Emperor Gods

So last night was the finale of the Nine Emperor Gods Festival at the Ampang temple. The Toaist event is nine days long, and celebrates the return to earth of nine emperor spirits that are worshiped as one deity, Mazu, the "Taoist goddess of the sea and queen of heaven who represents health, wealth and prosperity" (courtesy of Wikipedia). Jose and I found our way to the temple with relative ease, thanks to Google Earth and some reassuring yellow flags along the way. It was quite the scene, and as far as I can tell, we were about the only caucasians there. Heck yes, I'm unique...ish. We arrived at around 8pm, almost at the end of the fire walking. While those performers walking across the coals are dressed uniformely in white, they are not monks -- any one can participate, though it requires a week of fasting first. The gate surrounding the main square was completely lined with spectators, and large cameras shot blindly above the heads of hundreds. Surrounding the temple were stalls, with an almost carnival-ish atmosphere (many thanks to wikipedia again for making the comparison first). There were food stalls everywhere, selling both vegetarian and meat dishes, and there was no shortage to sweet goods like rice paste in crushed peanuts.
After the performers completed the walk (some carrying large cameras, one carrying a child), the gates were removed, and people began to move in towards to fire to pray. José and I felt that "participant observation" was the best tactic, and followed suit. Needless to say, I got some burns, and my clothes from yesterday are lying, smokey in my room. All in all, the event was very cool, and I'd say José and I got more smiles than laughs (and trust me, I get a lot
of laughs here, just for being). So here are some of my pictures from the night - I took about 300 :S, so these are just a few that stand out (tsk tsk, andrew... subtly implying that many stand out. When will you learn?)

Singapore, Part the Fourth

"Go on... take the phenomenon"
Sunday morning wasn't as early as we hoped. The original plan was to get up, do the typical tourist canal ride, and then make our way to china town -- but alas we ended up staying at the Ministry of Sound until closing the night before, around 4am-ish :S. The night was pretty fun, though it had an interesting end. When the club closed, they turned on the lights, and blocked the doors. The result was a pretty hefty buildup of drunk kids squished really close together, confused. I never did find out what it was all about - but I must say that the most interesting point was when the girl squished in front of me got into an altercation with the fellow in front of her. I'm not sure what it was about, but the guy ended up getting really worked up and yelling. It was all in Malay, so i just stood there watching, perplexed. He didn't make a move to hurt anyone or anything, he just stood there yelling in Malay with the most furious face I've seen. The only thing I could think of was the expression on Amrish Puri's face in Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom, as he chants "Kali Ma!" and rips out hearts. In any case, I think his shouting is what got them to finally open up the doors, and let out the flood of people.


So, that having been said, I didn't actually end up getting to bed until around 5am - so Sunday morning was a little bit more subdued. We grabbed some breakfast from yet another western-style place around the corner, and I ate something that would change my life forever. Well... at least the next meal I would eat at Old Town White Coffee. I got some Kaya Toast and coffee, and was delightfully surprised at the tastiness of Kaya, South-East Asian coconut jam.
After this, we took the canal tour, but it started raining soon thereafter. Nevertheless, it was a delightful tour, and the optimistic, taped commentary made me laugh. I think the highlight was when he talked about the statue on the side of the river of boys jumping into the water. After explaining the meaning of it, he chuckles and says "I bet you wish you could just go ahead and join them!" My second favorite line was when the tape introduced Chicken Satay and said "Go on... give it a try" with a huge implied smile.


After the boat ride ended, it started to rain in earnest -- and Jose and I were confined to Clarke Quay for the rest of our journey. We wandered into Royal salangor and were given a free impromtu history of Pewter, complete with two people demonstrating the process. I didn't buy anything, but assured the lady that I would pick one up back in KL. After that, we hoped into a cab, got back to the hotel and found ourselves locked out of our room because check out was at 12. Luckily, I was wearing a saucy v-neck and was able to persuade the maid to let us in to collect out bags. After that, we "booked it" to the train station, and after a little customs action, got onto the train, first class style.
The train ride was easy -- the best part was when we stopped in Johor because of flooding. I'm pretty sure that means that universe is on my side, because I was able to take some really cool photos. I wandered to the area in between cars to find an old Indian man smoking a cigarette and looking out at the scene. He saw my large camera around my neck and moved aside, so I could "take the phenomenon." These are some of the better pictures from that day:

Singapore, Part Three

Andrew experiments with his Nikon D40.
Saturday was a pretty delicious day. I got up at a reasonable hour -- though admittedly too late for breakfast, and ate a Singaporian grilled ham and cheese sandwich. It was quite similar to those back home. Coincidence? Maybe...
Anyways, post sandwich, Jose and I adventured to Sentosa Island. It is a bit of a tourist trap, but it was a nice place to rent a bike and ride around for awhile. I.e. Lots of beaches, tonnes of people playing volleyball, some great photo ops, and a louge ride. The day is neatly summarized in some pictures below:
This is the Gallery Hotel - a swank place to stay, with a post modern twist to one end. Over all, it was expensive, but most delightful; a good place to stay for just one or two nights.
MRTing to Sentosa Island. Such a ridiculously clean subway.
Ships off of Singapore
Sentosa Island, and portness
The track on which one takes part in the ritualistic louge (part of the cable car package)
Little India, getting ready for Diwali
Yeah... I think this is better without an explanation
We ended up spending a few hours longer than expected in this hostel in Little India
Clarke's Quay, in full swing. Swank.

Singapore, Part Deux

So, to resume the Singapore narrative from whence I last left off...
Jose and I found are way to the Gallery Hotel by around 9am on friday. The place looked quite nice from the outside, but alas our room wasn't ready, so it was a little while before we really saw the inside. But, we were able to store our bags inside while we wandered around in search of some breakfast (remember, I had had only a big mac meal in the past 12 hours). We found a western style place around the corner serving standard breakfast, so I munched on some fancy french toast. We wandered down to Clarke Quay, drawn by the amorphous canopy above it. Honestly, what I noticed most in the walk around was the extent of amorphous colourful plastic shapes around town. There was no end to yellow, green and red blobby plastic shapes! Clarke Quay proved to be very interesting: a covered district with giant fans systems that resemble magnified versions of the statue that Malcolm McDowell uses in Clockwork Orange to kill the cat lady.

I must say, the area is very well planned -- It consists of a number of restaurants and shops by day, and becomes a very lively (though expensive) club district by night. There's even an area dedicated to queuing up for taxis. Anyways, after sauntering around here, we returned to the room, and I had a much needed shower. Scarffing down a Big Mac meal for dinner and then getting only a few hours sleep in ones clothes leads to an unmistakeable feeling of general dirtiness.
After lounging a bit, we headed downstairs, and booked spots on the Singapore Zoo night safari tour. The original plan wasn't to do it tour group styles, but it turned out to be much cheaper that way. The pickup time was set for 5:45, so we had enough time to wander down to Orchid Street, eat, and just be overall really sweaty. I saw some funny signs, and some huge houses with guards.
The zoo was awes - the only downside was that transportation and lining up took up a big chunk of time. Included in the tour was an animal show. This was pretty sweet and I could identify with the captivated little kids. Oddly enough, I enjoyed the otters that recycled cans and bottles the best.
After the show, we headed over to the tram tours through the zoo -- this turned out to be a wise decision, as it started raining decently hard just after we boarded the tram. To sum up the next 45 minutes, I would say that the zoo is totally open concept, and at one point two elephants stuck their trunks in the faces of many.
Later that night, I fell asleep next to my computer, which was loading Clerk's the animated series.

“Go on… take the phenomenon” – A weekend in Singapore. Part One.

I write this from a first class coach back to KL. While this is one of the swankiest of KLM trains, it has only set me back about 20 Dollars… A comforting thought, given how pricey Singapore turned out to be! I was just looking out the window, listening to some Laura Veirs and Regina Spektor on my iPod, when it occurred to me just how jungle bound I am right now. I’m both entranced by the outside and conflicted by the restaurant train car behind me. Do I wait until Jalan Alor sprawls in front of me, or do I experience the joys of eating in a restaurant car (a pleasure so unjustly denied to most of us by via)?
Ah, but once again, I’ve gotten ahead of myself! I have an entire country to report back on. Well, the adventure started on Thursday night, on the 9:19 out of KL… sleeper class. Me and Jose arrived to the train station, burdened with bags and excess sky water. We hadn’t really done dinner, and after we got things figured out in terms of where to go, I gave into an itch that had been bothering me for some time. I left Jose in charge of the fort as I dashed downstairs to McDonalds and bought a Big Mac Meal. If I was going to go on a train, I was going to have to get greasy fast food – they go hand in hand, right? Right? In any case, I can justify it – it was an experience: They gave me spicy chili sauce for my fries! The downside, of course, was that I would soon find out that there were no garbage cans on the train, and I would have to live with the McDonald’s smelling garbage for the next 11 hours. The sleeper class train was very cool – it consisted just of an isle with bunk-bed style berths on each side. Me and Jose were on top bunks 9 and 11 – but I was sure it was 7 and 11, so I got into 7 and started munching my big mac. There were no areas for luggage so I hauled my bag and knapsack up onto the top bunch with me. My area was a mattress with a sheet, a window, a small light and some curtains. When the rightful occupant of berth 7 came around, I was busy sitting on her bed with wet jeans, and rogue lettuce, so we figured it would be best if I just stayed on 7, and she took 11. I really do think it was best for everyone involved. No one wants to get into bed and find Big Mac lettuce strewn about. Anyways, the train left the station, and I go my lounge on. It wasn’t long before I felt it was time for a movie, and started up a bootlegged copy of Atonement. To be honest, it really kept my interest up – and I watched it all, captivated. Oh that Keira Knightly… so misunderstood by her little sister.

The majority of the train ride is a bit of a blurr – a lot of passing in and out, being woken up by discussions in Malay, and by talk of various immigration forms. I started watching the second half of Usual Suspects after Atonement, but dozed off. We arrived at immigration/customs at 7 something in the morning. I, a groggy mess. Despite being generally dazed and tired, the process was pretty painless, and after a short continuation of the train ride later, José and I stepped out into the happy, clean Singapore … … sun? land? Air? –ness? Parking lot? We hoped into a cab, and I was startled by the fact that there had been no resistance from the driver about using the meter.

[Andrew’s computer runs out of battery, goes into hibernation mode, and he’s left to stare out the window listening to music and eating cookies for the rest of the train ride. Later, he gets a plate of Sin Chew Beehoon without knowing what it is and is pleasantly surprised. After a solid night of sleep, he finds himself re-visiting this blog from CIJ the next morning]

Andrew Gets a New Toy

So after much pondering and deliberating, I went out and bought a Nikon D40 yesterday. I finally decided to take the plunge into DSLR life when Miss Phang, from CIJ said she could take me shopping with her husband, who is into the KL camera scene. The camera wasn't exactly dirt cheap, but Mr Phang was able to get me an excellent deal that included a bag, a tripod, and a 4gig memory card along with the body and kit lens. So! I have much learning to do, and a lot less spending to ... do. Here are some pictures chronicalling the adventure!

(Update: I immediately regret uploading this. It kinda scares me?)