April 27, 2008

I can't tell you how many times over the past two weeks I have sat down to try to write a blog because 'dah lama saya tak tulis' (already a long time since I wrote) and have had nothing to say for myself. I don't know why. I don't think that our lives have been particularly boring these last few weeks. In fact, we have been pretty busy with work and play. My efforts at harrassing everyone I have ever met in Malaysia to help me with my research have been paying off and I have been running all over the city at all hours of the day for interviews. Many nights I don't get home until after 9PM because I had to stay for a late aerobics class in order to recruit another interviewee. While taking a break from stalking people, I have also been busy trying to spend as much time with friends as I can before moving in a couple of weeks. This means accepting all invites and sending out plenty myself. I can't say Ben has been too pleased with my open door policy but he has benefitted some, as Malays never enter a friend's house empty handed. With all this activity, you would think there would be some blog material but I have just not been able to find it. My creative mind is apparently on hiatus. Oh well, at this point Ben tells me anything is better than nothing so I have got to come up with something.

The something I came up with was a review of the past few weeks based on the pictures on our camera that I had forgotten about. I figure this will save me from having to write too much but still get everyone caught up on our recent activities, although I have to admit some of the pictures are pretty dated. Also, due to time constraints they are not in chronological order either.

Charity Walk
Last week, the National Stroke Association here in Malaysia held its annual charity walk. The event attracted a turnout of about 1500 Malaysians and 100+ strokies. Ben and I were among the strokies at the event. We took a bus down super early in the morning with the rest of the crew from the Ampang branch of the association so Ben could get his race on. That’s right, there was a separate strokie race and the Ampang branch’s hopes were riding on Ben to bring home the medal. It was a short course, only .5km (the larger circuit was 3km) but it proved to be a pretty cutthroat race.

Right out of the gates, Mr. Yap proved to be the one to beat as he quickly put distance between he and the rest of the pack (he was normal person fast and it was no fair to even Ben that he was in the race, Mr. Yap actually kept walking right past the finish line and who knows where he would have ended up if somebody did not call him back to the group). Close behind him was Ben and Mr. Sudhari, a 63 year old strokie who seemed especially determined to win the race. He stayed on Ben’s heels the whole circuit but Ben managed to put on the burners in the last few meters and secure second place!

Although Ben was a little disappointed to take 2^nd place in a strokie race, we had a pretty fun day overall. Ben won some prizes and we were entertained by the Shanghia acrobats.

The Prime Minister

In the last post Ben posted a picture of me with a pretty big smile on my face but did not explain why. The smile was not simply the result of all the fun we were having at a local craft fair (though I have to admit it was lots of fun), we were actually goofing around trying to get a picture in front of none other than Malaysia’s Prime Minister. He is mostly a buffoon but still he was about three feet away from us and he is the head of the country. Pretty crazy, I have bumped into the Prime Minister and ex-Prime Minister while living in KL.

An Indian Wedding
We have not officially attended a Malay wedding yet (I am hoping we will have our fill in the kampung) but we managed to attend an Indian wedding a couple months back and it was quite interesting. It was a very long ceremony with lots of incense, flowers, chanting, and costume changes for the bride. Ben’s PT therapist helped explain a lot to us during the ceremony but I must admit the heat detracted some from our enjoyment- it was sooo hot and soooo long. Even the bride appeared exhausted by the end of the ceremony.

The best part of the day was the food. After the ceremony was over (actually even a little before it ended), they opened up this big cafeteria area to the guests. We just went in sat down at one of the long tables and placed in front of us was an empty banana leaf. Over the next half an hour, men with big buckets of curry and rice came around the room and piled our banana leaves high with all kinds of delicious food. Even better, we got to eat the mess with our hands. It was definitely my kind of wedding feast.

Art made of colored Rice.

Bukit Tinggi
On our way home from Cherating in March, we stopped by one of Malaysia’s popular tourist attractions – Bukit Tinggi. Because of the weather in Malaysia, the tall hills surrounding Kuala Lumpur have long been popular retreats to escape the heat. Since colonial times, the hills of Malaysia have been weekend attractions but today a number of large developers have staked claim to different hill tops to build giant tourist attractions. The most famous is Genting Highlands, which boasts the world’s largest hotel (based on number of rooms) and serves as Malaysia’s gambling capital. We have yet to visit Genting.

Bukit Tinggi is another of this built up tourist spots but it is developed to resemble a French Alps community with a castle and all. I think it is actually modeled on a true town. Its is a pretty pleasant escape, quiet, cool, and crisp fresh air. They also have Japanese gardens to wander in so it makes for a nice place to wander about and its only an hour from the city.

Well, that is it. We are off to Singapore this morning so I can’t dilly dally. At least now, Ben will let me go since he has been threatening to leave me behind if I did not post.

Have a great weekend!