"Last night two men tried to steal our restaurant!"
We actually received an email with this subject line last week.
http://www.baanrimpa.com/hungfats/restaurant/gallery.html
This is the restaurant these hapless criminals were attempting to abscond with. Yes, yes the would be burglars were actually trying to rob said establishment, but the story is no-where near as funny when you hear it that way. Luckily the men were apprehended by the security guards and it turned out one of them was employed by the company who had been employed the previous month to set up the sound system in the restaurant... Such is the way of things in Thailand.
Thailand is still full of funny moments, I think I'm going to have a blueberry day but it turns out I'm having a prune day! You think your buying blueberry drinking yoghurt at the 7-11 and get outside to discover you have actually bought the prune flavor, hell they use the same colour packaging and both have all the writing in Thai, sigh, and move on while slurping your pruney beverage.
I often wish I carry my camera with me, as there are always those moments when you wish you had it, but still I never get around to carrying it i'm just not a bag carrier or it's always just that one extra thing that never makes it in anyway. We were at lunch the other day and parked outside of the restaurant was a mitsubishi so old the thing was held together by rust and an enormous coke sticker covering the entire bonnet (I'm guessing as an attempt to keep the engine dry in areas where the rust has eaten through the bonnet. The owner once so proud had gone to the effort of cutting out the letters to spell the name of his beloved car brand and stick them across the front of his car, Carefully he formed these foreign shapes out of the sticky material but apparently never once bothering to go to the rear of the car where Mitsubishi is emblazoned across the bumper, the front of his car proudly declares itself a "MUSTIFUSHI" .
For those of you who aren't sad tragic facebook addicts let me bring you up to speed on Pippi's adventures overseas.
Being an expatriot means living a life of unexpected jobs, and parties on luxury yachts, last weekend, we went to the "infinity yacht party" A youngish German guy who brings his yacht to Phuket every year had an onboard party, there were psychedelic neon sheets hung as decorations, there was a blonde dreadlocked guy spinning the discs, there was dancing and little dingys ferrying party goers to the dock and back. And then their is my current job, one does not get employed according to their qualifications or even suitability for a job, one gets employed because their is a limited number of English speakers and a transient community dropping through, so it's always the best person to do the job at the time it's available who gets the job. having said that working for the Phuket Has Been Good To Us Foundation has been great, it's been a really rewarding experience to work for a charity, and it's been interesting to have a taste of an office job, being so sedentary really makes me understand for the first time in my life why it is people go to the gym. It's also been interesting to have debates about the idea of essential self and whether gender is a social construct with your boss over the mornings emails. We have been heavily involved in finding two teachers for our schools, I am amazed at the standard of most people's c.v's, riddled with spelling errors (guys your applying for a job as an English teacher!) it becomes immediately apparent why these people are looking for work.
So I am currently doing my dive master which absorbs a tremendous amount of time, there is physics and physiology to learn and I also have to reach a whole new level of fitness to pass the practical tests, this goes some way to making up for my sedentary job, but again consumes huge amounts of time, walking up and down those stairs I appreciate what my Mum did before she climbed in the Himalayas a little more..
My friend Jaime has taken up learning to sail so I now spend lots of time at the yaught club (though I'm still not confident on the spelling). It's nice just to hang out and see a different beach, the beach at Pan wah is beautiful and sheltered, great for swimming, with a great big pearl farm slap dab in the middle, the whole area around the beach is owned by one old Thai guy, who in typical Thai fashion still collects all the plastic bottles and cans that accumulate at the club so he can collect the 3 or 4 baht he will get back for each one. Uncle scrooge's soul lives on.
Thai politics, a revolving door of charlatans and pilferers has got rid of the last Prime minister (who prior to his role as PM was a t.v. celebrity chef). by claiming that his appearance on a t.v. cooking show recently was a conflict of interest (or something). the new Prime minister in the true fashion we have come to expect is not a Thaksin crony but ... (wait for it now)... Thaksin's brother in law, on goes the farce, the protesting has at least stopped (for now) the airport is open and business as usual goes on
My friend Evie was here recently with her now husband Benno, they were staying in the Phuket laguna complex, I had never been there before, what a rabbit warren of ticky tacky hotels and houses, it's legoland for tourists. I spent half an hour riding aimlessly around on my bike looking for the particular hotel they were staying in. It is lovely though to ride the boat around the laguna too and from the various hotels and the beach front. I was telling Eve about the tuk tuk mafia, she wanted to know how they could be evil when they have such a cute name, a rose by any other name?
On my bike driving to work in the morning over the (at the best of times) perilous hill into Phuket, traffic had come to a sudden stop, i snacked my way through the backed up traffic to discover a huge parade at the head, oh yes, It is again time for the vegetarian festival, religious frenzy resulting in self mutilation of various kinds, the flinging of fireworks with gay abandon, the possesion of ordinary Phuket citizens by the Chinese ancestor gods, I'll try to remember my camera next time.
I currently live in beautiful Kamala, it's three minutes from the beach, I go down nightly to watch the sunset and play poi, the ride over the hills here from Patong is easily along some of the most beautiful winding roads. it's a fantastic way to start and finish your day.
The weekend before last we did a clean up scuba day, Dive shops all over the world had a day when they took out there boats and everybody gave their time for free and we went diving and pulled rubbish off the reef's. Here in Phuket we went to a local dive site, the whole thing was covered in a massive fishing net, it was really difficult, We were fighting the current at 5-7 meters trying to stay in place and delicately remove the net, I fear coral gets broken this way, As time ran out and meters of this net still lay all around us I gave up trying to remove it and just took to slashing the thing open so the fish at least could get in and out. There is still a lot more that needs to be done to cleanup our oceans! We need more than one day a year.
South America becons.
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Phuket 09/07/08
So here we are back in Phuket.
Haven't made it to Japan, Just couldn't find the job I wanted there, it's too easy to stay. Too many good friends and I have picked up a temporary job at the "Phuket has been good to us foundation". It's only till the end of October so I keep telling myself that I will in deed leave after that...
I have decided to do my Dive master, both my best friends here are dive instructors, it seems crazy not to do it, this will be my best ever opportunity to do so.
Currently waiting for Kate to get back from her latest job delivering a boat to Hong Kong and we will start house hunting.
Next week I'm up to Bkk to see Mum which will be great as it's been a few years, I would probably get to see her more often if I had a more sedentary lifestyle, but I just never know where I'm going to end up one year to the next.
Jaime's brother Matt was here for a few weeks so it was fun to have a tourist to show round, and spend some time at the beach with, must remember to take more photos, as I don't think I took one the whole time, did take some of on Matt's camera though so I guess they may turn up on face book some day soon!
Start my new job when I get back from Bkk so really don't have a lot else to report at this stage.
More soon, Love N.J.
Haven't made it to Japan, Just couldn't find the job I wanted there, it's too easy to stay. Too many good friends and I have picked up a temporary job at the "Phuket has been good to us foundation". It's only till the end of October so I keep telling myself that I will in deed leave after that...
I have decided to do my Dive master, both my best friends here are dive instructors, it seems crazy not to do it, this will be my best ever opportunity to do so.
Currently waiting for Kate to get back from her latest job delivering a boat to Hong Kong and we will start house hunting.
Next week I'm up to Bkk to see Mum which will be great as it's been a few years, I would probably get to see her more often if I had a more sedentary lifestyle, but I just never know where I'm going to end up one year to the next.
Jaime's brother Matt was here for a few weeks so it was fun to have a tourist to show round, and spend some time at the beach with, must remember to take more photos, as I don't think I took one the whole time, did take some of on Matt's camera though so I guess they may turn up on face book some day soon!
Start my new job when I get back from Bkk so really don't have a lot else to report at this stage.
More soon, Love N.J.
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Borneo 3 June
So, I just got back from Borneo, had a fantastic time, went diving off Sipidan Island, also spent two days diving Mabul and another at Sibhuan. The diving was fantastic, from mandarin fish at Sibhuan to tiny shrimps and garden eels at Mabul the oceans are so full of life it's like diving in an aquarium.
My favourite part of the dive is often near the end when you are just hanging out in the shallows hovering above the coral with the sunlight filtering down waiting for your decompression time to pass and watching the schools of pretty fish enclose you in their midst then lazily drift off again.
Sipidan was amazing from looking down to see a massive school of black tipped reef sharks circling below to floating past shelves of coral glittering in the suns refracted rays, a snoozing turtle tucked into each shelf, Jaques Cousteau was right to rave about the megafauna in this part of the ocean.
The town of Semporna itself is nothing much to write about but it has a shop that arguably sells the best Murtabaks in Malaysia... mmmm.
I went on a three day jungle trek which was also fabulous, saw so much wildlife, 4 different kinds of hornbill, kingfishers, warblers, eagles, and a buzzard. At night we saw bats and owls as well.
We saw long and pygmy tailed maqacs, proboscis monkeys with their unfeasably large noses and permanent erections, from behind they look like they are wearing fur coats comboed with white bikinis (Stella Mcartney take note, fur is in for some!). they leap from tree to tree with an apparent disregard for gravity, we were also lucky enough to catch some gibbons high in a tree and an orange fur ball we speculated to be an orangatan.
We stayed up one night to watch the civet cats prowl around the camp site, the got into the can of condensed milk after the camp boys had gone to bed. Monitor lizards and wild boars also came to visit, and of course the macaqs stole banannas off the children, half a loaf of bread and anything else they could get hold of, in fact we slept in wire cages so the animals couldn't get in. I was in the monitor lizard cage.
We saw a flying fox in flight, two kinds of scorpion, two different millipedes, a freaky long legged centipede, a big furry grey tarantula, a hammerhead worm and at least three leeches (euurgh), two crocodiles, 5 different species of tiny frogs, and a patridge in a pear tree, (o.k I'm lying about the patridge).
Unfortunately without a decent camera, and more importantly a good telephoto lens I soon abandoned any attempt to photograph the wildlife and just enjoyed seeing it rather than missing sometimes fleeting glimpses of things while hurrying to capture a moment one ironically hadn't allowed oneself the opportunity to enjoy. I see too much of this in my travel companions. One girl after expressing that she thought the day had been o.k. but not great, while looking retrospectively at her footage at days end commented to me that perhaps after seeing the pictures the day had been more special than she realised at the time, I refrained from comment.
Before heading to Borneo there was a big Hindu festival here in Melaka, which much like the vegetarian festival in Phuket, involved blokes getting heavily pierced and women dancing with pots of milk on their head (O.k so they didn't have the pots of milk at the Phuket festival) supposedly in a trance of excstatic holy meditation. All very interesting.
Off to Phuket next week and preparation for the Japan faze, I am looking forward to this, though chances of a job in Osaka are looking unlikely, it looks like it will be Tokyo, which will be amazing and crazy I'm sure.
My favourite part of the dive is often near the end when you are just hanging out in the shallows hovering above the coral with the sunlight filtering down waiting for your decompression time to pass and watching the schools of pretty fish enclose you in their midst then lazily drift off again.
Sipidan was amazing from looking down to see a massive school of black tipped reef sharks circling below to floating past shelves of coral glittering in the suns refracted rays, a snoozing turtle tucked into each shelf, Jaques Cousteau was right to rave about the megafauna in this part of the ocean.
The town of Semporna itself is nothing much to write about but it has a shop that arguably sells the best Murtabaks in Malaysia... mmmm.
I went on a three day jungle trek which was also fabulous, saw so much wildlife, 4 different kinds of hornbill, kingfishers, warblers, eagles, and a buzzard. At night we saw bats and owls as well.
We saw long and pygmy tailed maqacs, proboscis monkeys with their unfeasably large noses and permanent erections, from behind they look like they are wearing fur coats comboed with white bikinis (Stella Mcartney take note, fur is in for some!). they leap from tree to tree with an apparent disregard for gravity, we were also lucky enough to catch some gibbons high in a tree and an orange fur ball we speculated to be an orangatan.
We stayed up one night to watch the civet cats prowl around the camp site, the got into the can of condensed milk after the camp boys had gone to bed. Monitor lizards and wild boars also came to visit, and of course the macaqs stole banannas off the children, half a loaf of bread and anything else they could get hold of, in fact we slept in wire cages so the animals couldn't get in. I was in the monitor lizard cage.
We saw a flying fox in flight, two kinds of scorpion, two different millipedes, a freaky long legged centipede, a big furry grey tarantula, a hammerhead worm and at least three leeches (euurgh), two crocodiles, 5 different species of tiny frogs, and a patridge in a pear tree, (o.k I'm lying about the patridge).
Unfortunately without a decent camera, and more importantly a good telephoto lens I soon abandoned any attempt to photograph the wildlife and just enjoyed seeing it rather than missing sometimes fleeting glimpses of things while hurrying to capture a moment one ironically hadn't allowed oneself the opportunity to enjoy. I see too much of this in my travel companions. One girl after expressing that she thought the day had been o.k. but not great, while looking retrospectively at her footage at days end commented to me that perhaps after seeing the pictures the day had been more special than she realised at the time, I refrained from comment.
Before heading to Borneo there was a big Hindu festival here in Melaka, which much like the vegetarian festival in Phuket, involved blokes getting heavily pierced and women dancing with pots of milk on their head (O.k so they didn't have the pots of milk at the Phuket festival) supposedly in a trance of excstatic holy meditation. All very interesting.
Off to Phuket next week and preparation for the Japan faze, I am looking forward to this, though chances of a job in Osaka are looking unlikely, it looks like it will be Tokyo, which will be amazing and crazy I'm sure.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Melaka 30 April
Last weekend while wandering around little India and photographing the morning worshippers we came across a little temple down a side street (and across a paddock) which was looking a little neglected (like the day after tomorrow), one of the fish on it's entrance arch was falling off, looking like a salmon that had given up on the swimming upstream it had resigned itself to staring forlornly at the ground. As I took a photo of said fish on it's desultory swim south, the podgy and snaggle toothed old preacher beckoned us in to his temple. As we came closer it became clear that they were in the midst of rededicating the temple to Hanuman and as such were hoisting a statue of said God onto a pedestal out the front of the temple.
I was immediately reminded of my recent visit to a comedy club gig in Phuket where the comedian had wryly noted as a youngster he had chosen christianity (the only religon offered to him) But as a grown man when he had heard of Hinduism and it's blue monkeys he couldn't understand why everyone was not Hindu. (I mean come on, BLUE MONKEYS!!!). Anyway, it was great to have the opportunity to watch a temple dedication ceremony as I had not seen one before. The locals down here are so friendly it's almost scary.
The weekend market here is also class, from the guys selling cuts of meat off a wood slab on his motorbike to the dude selling chickens from a sack, not to mention the guy who refuses to take his motorbike helmet off all the time he's working, (he really wanted to play american football but this is as close as he can get or what?).
News coverage in Malaysia is not all it could be, papers too critical of the government are closed down on a whim, while other papers quite often happily report that black is indeed white, and the public seems to buy it. Not of course at the level of the Chinese media but I suspect a little aspirationally inspired by them. In regards to the olympics papers here are towing the line that sport and politics shouldn't mix, I seem to remember that argument being used way back when about Rugby and South Africa, idealism vs realism not that refusing to play a game of any sport with anyone ever changed a governments policies on anything as far as I can figure.
There was a Chinese ancestor day last week as well where people bought cardboard versions of everything anyone could want from designer handbags to cans of beer, from entire houses and cars (complete with chauffer) to computers, t.vs and footspas. Or if you don't know what to get, for the spirit who has everything, just some "hell money" it"s always good (it has pictures of the king of hell on it just so you know). Then they burned all these cardboard artefacts in the temple furnaces or just in the ones outside their own houses, amazing.
Traditional Malay architecture is single story wooden houses evocative of nothing else as much as the standard kiwi beach side batch, and most of the furniture in these houses matches what you'd expect to find at Otaki as well. I rather like it, though I suspect that's because it's so comfortingly familiar.
Melaka is an interesting little town literally divided up into it's different ethnicities, but they all superficially get on quite harmoniously, which I think is in no small part due to the governments ceaseless addressing of the issues, there are of course simmering tensions here which need to constantly be held in check, due in no small part to the fact that unless you are (ethnically)Malay you are not entitled to receive any government benefits or subsidies (including free education for your children, healthcare, cheap cars, etc. If you are Indian or Chinese (or any other race) forget it, even if your born here, even if one of your parents is ethnically Malay forget it, you need to prove yourself 100% Malay, no wonder inter racial marriage is unusual, how the Chinese and Indians who have been here generations cope with this I have no idea.
And on that note I'll depart.
Besos Nikki Jayne.
I was immediately reminded of my recent visit to a comedy club gig in Phuket where the comedian had wryly noted as a youngster he had chosen christianity (the only religon offered to him) But as a grown man when he had heard of Hinduism and it's blue monkeys he couldn't understand why everyone was not Hindu. (I mean come on, BLUE MONKEYS!!!). Anyway, it was great to have the opportunity to watch a temple dedication ceremony as I had not seen one before. The locals down here are so friendly it's almost scary.
The weekend market here is also class, from the guys selling cuts of meat off a wood slab on his motorbike to the dude selling chickens from a sack, not to mention the guy who refuses to take his motorbike helmet off all the time he's working, (he really wanted to play american football but this is as close as he can get or what?).
News coverage in Malaysia is not all it could be, papers too critical of the government are closed down on a whim, while other papers quite often happily report that black is indeed white, and the public seems to buy it. Not of course at the level of the Chinese media but I suspect a little aspirationally inspired by them. In regards to the olympics papers here are towing the line that sport and politics shouldn't mix, I seem to remember that argument being used way back when about Rugby and South Africa, idealism vs realism not that refusing to play a game of any sport with anyone ever changed a governments policies on anything as far as I can figure.
There was a Chinese ancestor day last week as well where people bought cardboard versions of everything anyone could want from designer handbags to cans of beer, from entire houses and cars (complete with chauffer) to computers, t.vs and footspas. Or if you don't know what to get, for the spirit who has everything, just some "hell money" it"s always good (it has pictures of the king of hell on it just so you know). Then they burned all these cardboard artefacts in the temple furnaces or just in the ones outside their own houses, amazing.
Traditional Malay architecture is single story wooden houses evocative of nothing else as much as the standard kiwi beach side batch, and most of the furniture in these houses matches what you'd expect to find at Otaki as well. I rather like it, though I suspect that's because it's so comfortingly familiar.
Melaka is an interesting little town literally divided up into it's different ethnicities, but they all superficially get on quite harmoniously, which I think is in no small part due to the governments ceaseless addressing of the issues, there are of course simmering tensions here which need to constantly be held in check, due in no small part to the fact that unless you are (ethnically)Malay you are not entitled to receive any government benefits or subsidies (including free education for your children, healthcare, cheap cars, etc. If you are Indian or Chinese (or any other race) forget it, even if your born here, even if one of your parents is ethnically Malay forget it, you need to prove yourself 100% Malay, no wonder inter racial marriage is unusual, how the Chinese and Indians who have been here generations cope with this I have no idea.
And on that note I'll depart.
Besos Nikki Jayne.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Melaka April 15th
No longer will I mutter apologies for the length of time between posts, it is what it is, a sporadically posted to blog, I have too much life to live, and to be honest too little internet access to post daily. I keep promising myself and resolving (like New year is a regular occurrence) that I will post weekly, but somehow, it just never happens, so on with the show.
Leaving Phuket was sad, we had a fabulous Vernal equinox dinner at Catriona's before she went back to Ireland (and then she is off to Korea for the next school year). Amy has already started her new job in Phuket, and always when, you leave a job where you have been asked to stay I reflect on how easy it would be to stay. How comfortable to be with friends already made... and then I pack. I have already turned down three jobs for next year so I guess it's nice to be loved and I can always go back.
I flew up to Bangkok, which is always a good opportunity to catch up with my friends there, and I was just in time to attend Ian's leaving party and Stephen's wedding.
Thai weddings, everybody came, the owner, headmaster and headmistress from Chockchai, my friend Poi, apparently the bride has to get up at 3 or 4 in the morning to begin getting ready for the wedding, it starts officially at about 5:30 6ish when the monks arrive and they bless and chant with the happy couple, then everybody recieves a bowl of rice that you have to go and dish up into the monks bowls, then the monks eat breakfast. There is another round of monk blessings and chanting and then the monks leave.
The grooms party then have to walk up the road toward the house amid much singing and shouting (and drinking whisky), they carry sugar cane palms (to ensure sweetness in the marriage) and lots of gifts (dowry presents). When they reach the gate of the property they have to sing and shout with the men of the brides family (and give them whisky) to be let in, (by this stage many of the men on both sides are already completely rat assed and it's barely 9;30am). Finally they get to the door of the house where the women of the house are holding a long belt made of silver and gold across the entrance space and the bartering for your bride begins in earnest, these negotiations are carried out with the women of the house, (what half a sheckle and a fattened calf for my favourite daughter, you must be mad).
Finally on getting inside the serious counting out of the money and gifts begins, (this takes ages), there is a ceremony where bits of string are rested on the heads of the bride and groom and their arms are tied together, (this bit was all in Thai so I really had no idea what was going on). Then everyone comes and pours scoops of water over the happy couples hands and gives them a wedding gift, and eating and partying commences. The bride and groom have to have their photo taken at every table, I will hopefully have some photo's of this soon to post, but as I was using Stephen's camera I have to wait for him to send me copies. At 6pm(ish) the happy couple are escorted to the bedroom (by his Dad and her Mum respectively) and given a little chat, while the party continues for two more days or till the whisky runs out. One is not normally required to stay all the time, Thai weddings are very drop in, drop out again kind of affairs for all but the major players.
Anyway, that was the wedding.
On the bus across town on my way home at about 6pm in the heart of Bangkok I saw the craziest thing, I don't know if I told you about the penchant of Thai (Also seen in Laos and Vietnam) people to go to these outdoor aerobic classes which are held in parks across the country. Fine, parks, aerobics at sunset after work, I get it, but these people were doing their aerobics (complete with woman and music on dodgy stage) on a tiny footpath beside a major 4 lane motorway during rush hour, honey I'm not seeing your health benefits here!
So flew into Kuala Lumpur and caught a bus straight down to Melaka, amazing the temperature difference, Thailand is humid and disgusting as it's rainy season looms, Malaysia is cool and moist as it's rains have just finished. Malay people are genuinely friendly if you say no you don't want a ride in their trickshaw they wish you a happy day, the Thai transport mafia have tainted everyone who works a tuk tuk (and half the taxi drivers as well, in fact all of the taxi drivers on Phuket) with their own mean spirit and tourists are beginning to notice.
Spending my time here brushing up on my adobe creative suite skills and relaxing, more later.
N.J.
Leaving Phuket was sad, we had a fabulous Vernal equinox dinner at Catriona's before she went back to Ireland (and then she is off to Korea for the next school year). Amy has already started her new job in Phuket, and always when, you leave a job where you have been asked to stay I reflect on how easy it would be to stay. How comfortable to be with friends already made... and then I pack. I have already turned down three jobs for next year so I guess it's nice to be loved and I can always go back.
I flew up to Bangkok, which is always a good opportunity to catch up with my friends there, and I was just in time to attend Ian's leaving party and Stephen's wedding.
Thai weddings, everybody came, the owner, headmaster and headmistress from Chockchai, my friend Poi, apparently the bride has to get up at 3 or 4 in the morning to begin getting ready for the wedding, it starts officially at about 5:30 6ish when the monks arrive and they bless and chant with the happy couple, then everybody recieves a bowl of rice that you have to go and dish up into the monks bowls, then the monks eat breakfast. There is another round of monk blessings and chanting and then the monks leave.
The grooms party then have to walk up the road toward the house amid much singing and shouting (and drinking whisky), they carry sugar cane palms (to ensure sweetness in the marriage) and lots of gifts (dowry presents). When they reach the gate of the property they have to sing and shout with the men of the brides family (and give them whisky) to be let in, (by this stage many of the men on both sides are already completely rat assed and it's barely 9;30am). Finally they get to the door of the house where the women of the house are holding a long belt made of silver and gold across the entrance space and the bartering for your bride begins in earnest, these negotiations are carried out with the women of the house, (what half a sheckle and a fattened calf for my favourite daughter, you must be mad).
Finally on getting inside the serious counting out of the money and gifts begins, (this takes ages), there is a ceremony where bits of string are rested on the heads of the bride and groom and their arms are tied together, (this bit was all in Thai so I really had no idea what was going on). Then everyone comes and pours scoops of water over the happy couples hands and gives them a wedding gift, and eating and partying commences. The bride and groom have to have their photo taken at every table, I will hopefully have some photo's of this soon to post, but as I was using Stephen's camera I have to wait for him to send me copies. At 6pm(ish) the happy couple are escorted to the bedroom (by his Dad and her Mum respectively) and given a little chat, while the party continues for two more days or till the whisky runs out. One is not normally required to stay all the time, Thai weddings are very drop in, drop out again kind of affairs for all but the major players.
Anyway, that was the wedding.
On the bus across town on my way home at about 6pm in the heart of Bangkok I saw the craziest thing, I don't know if I told you about the penchant of Thai (Also seen in Laos and Vietnam) people to go to these outdoor aerobic classes which are held in parks across the country. Fine, parks, aerobics at sunset after work, I get it, but these people were doing their aerobics (complete with woman and music on dodgy stage) on a tiny footpath beside a major 4 lane motorway during rush hour, honey I'm not seeing your health benefits here!
So flew into Kuala Lumpur and caught a bus straight down to Melaka, amazing the temperature difference, Thailand is humid and disgusting as it's rainy season looms, Malaysia is cool and moist as it's rains have just finished. Malay people are genuinely friendly if you say no you don't want a ride in their trickshaw they wish you a happy day, the Thai transport mafia have tainted everyone who works a tuk tuk (and half the taxi drivers as well, in fact all of the taxi drivers on Phuket) with their own mean spirit and tourists are beginning to notice.
Spending my time here brushing up on my adobe creative suite skills and relaxing, more later.
N.J.
Saturday, January 05, 2008
^th January 2008
The festive season has come and gone.
The christmas party for the kids at school was good, it was fairly chaotic but that's what I expected, thank god it was only half a day, then they were gone and once mid term exams were entered on the computer I headed home to pack.
The flight was fine though arriving in K.L. at 1:30 or something in the morning was a pain. K.L. was hot, hot and humid. Kuala Lumpur is much cleaner than Bangkok and seems less squalid, it's hard to put your finger on why exactly, the fumes still rise sweatily from the sewer, the exhaust still clogs the space between cars, and the beggars still frequent the sidewalks, but it just appears cleaner, less trash on the road side perhaps, though more public spitting and nose blowing (yes without a hanky onto the street) is indulged in.
Malaysia has more ethnic diversity than Thailand, the obvious races (Malay, Chinese and Indian with a smattering of Arabs) seem to co-exist quite harmoniously though reading the paper it is clear that this calm is relatively superficial, it makes for a more interesting visual landscape though most of these communities indulge in voluntary segregations and the maps of the city declare "China town" here, "little India" there etc.
K.L. is full of temples, mosques and of course shopping malls, there is lots to do and see there, I went to the beautiful Orchid and Hibiscus gardens where a large lizard and I scared the hell out of each other, I wandered through town and saw some fantastic old colonial buildings. I went to visit the national mosque which was great, I had to wear a purple(?) burka to go inside the grounds where the guide very kindly gave me a copy of the Quran to read. I haven't found the time to start reading it yet, but I'm sure it will prove an interesting read.
Christmas was a fairly quiet affair, I went to the Petronus towers and looked at the shops, it was just another day in K.L. for retailers. I had a nice view from my balcony and enjoyed contreau and orange there while watching the sunset.
Headed down to Melaka after that, an old port town which fell into redundancy after the British decided that Singapore and Penang were to be the big port cities for the East India company. With their history of being founded by an (Indian) Hindu prince who married a Chinese princess and was then for a while a major port to the arabic traders along the spice route, it was subsequently conquered and run by in succession the Portuguese, the Dutch, the English, the Japanese(during WWII) and then finally granted Independence some years later.
Melaka has a great old canal which worms it's way through the city, it has cool little pockets of old architecture and temple it has a night market on weekends which is a complete battle to get in and out of (not to mention through). Melaka is full of trickshaws, the gaudier the better they are (guild mandated, it would appear) obliged to pump out loud music as the rider cycles you round the city. To my immense annoyance I managed to wipe most of the pictures off my camera while in the Portuguese settlement one day, so most of my pictures are borrowed off a friends camera.
Back in K.L. for New Year, the kids were cutting edge fashionable, they take it incredibly seriously, unfortunately I didn't get any cool pictures of them, but the gear is a blend of gothic, neopunk, and 1980's kitch worn with ATTITUDE. It was fun to watch them wandering about the shopping malls with the swagger of teenagers everywhere. Out on the street the crowds were armed with cans (and that's a capital S) of snow and sticky coloured string there were wars going on as everyone sprayed everyone else while shouting "happy new year" as loud as they could. Then there were fire works all over the city and contreau on the balcony, it was fun.
The colours and craziness of festive season in Malaysia ended as I flew back to Phuket on the 1st and had to rock up to work the next day (so not ready for that).
Back here in Thailand the Kings sister has died (not unexpectedly) and the country is officially in 15 days short mourning during which we are required to wear black, extending from there will be a longer (till a total of) 100 days of remberance, the t.v. stations are all in permanent loops of footage about her may she rest in peace.
This week I am supposed to be mentoring the new girl who has just started at work to take on the terrors of P2 green so that should be interesting. Better go, in case my christmas cards never arrived I hope you had a fabulous festive season and a happy, healthy and prosperous year of the rat.
N.J.
The christmas party for the kids at school was good, it was fairly chaotic but that's what I expected, thank god it was only half a day, then they were gone and once mid term exams were entered on the computer I headed home to pack.
The flight was fine though arriving in K.L. at 1:30 or something in the morning was a pain. K.L. was hot, hot and humid. Kuala Lumpur is much cleaner than Bangkok and seems less squalid, it's hard to put your finger on why exactly, the fumes still rise sweatily from the sewer, the exhaust still clogs the space between cars, and the beggars still frequent the sidewalks, but it just appears cleaner, less trash on the road side perhaps, though more public spitting and nose blowing (yes without a hanky onto the street) is indulged in.
Malaysia has more ethnic diversity than Thailand, the obvious races (Malay, Chinese and Indian with a smattering of Arabs) seem to co-exist quite harmoniously though reading the paper it is clear that this calm is relatively superficial, it makes for a more interesting visual landscape though most of these communities indulge in voluntary segregations and the maps of the city declare "China town" here, "little India" there etc.
K.L. is full of temples, mosques and of course shopping malls, there is lots to do and see there, I went to the beautiful Orchid and Hibiscus gardens where a large lizard and I scared the hell out of each other, I wandered through town and saw some fantastic old colonial buildings. I went to visit the national mosque which was great, I had to wear a purple(?) burka to go inside the grounds where the guide very kindly gave me a copy of the Quran to read. I haven't found the time to start reading it yet, but I'm sure it will prove an interesting read.
Christmas was a fairly quiet affair, I went to the Petronus towers and looked at the shops, it was just another day in K.L. for retailers. I had a nice view from my balcony and enjoyed contreau and orange there while watching the sunset.
Headed down to Melaka after that, an old port town which fell into redundancy after the British decided that Singapore and Penang were to be the big port cities for the East India company. With their history of being founded by an (Indian) Hindu prince who married a Chinese princess and was then for a while a major port to the arabic traders along the spice route, it was subsequently conquered and run by in succession the Portuguese, the Dutch, the English, the Japanese(during WWII) and then finally granted Independence some years later.
Melaka has a great old canal which worms it's way through the city, it has cool little pockets of old architecture and temple it has a night market on weekends which is a complete battle to get in and out of (not to mention through). Melaka is full of trickshaws, the gaudier the better they are (guild mandated, it would appear) obliged to pump out loud music as the rider cycles you round the city. To my immense annoyance I managed to wipe most of the pictures off my camera while in the Portuguese settlement one day, so most of my pictures are borrowed off a friends camera.
Back in K.L. for New Year, the kids were cutting edge fashionable, they take it incredibly seriously, unfortunately I didn't get any cool pictures of them, but the gear is a blend of gothic, neopunk, and 1980's kitch worn with ATTITUDE. It was fun to watch them wandering about the shopping malls with the swagger of teenagers everywhere. Out on the street the crowds were armed with cans (and that's a capital S) of snow and sticky coloured string there were wars going on as everyone sprayed everyone else while shouting "happy new year" as loud as they could. Then there were fire works all over the city and contreau on the balcony, it was fun.
The colours and craziness of festive season in Malaysia ended as I flew back to Phuket on the 1st and had to rock up to work the next day (so not ready for that).
Back here in Thailand the Kings sister has died (not unexpectedly) and the country is officially in 15 days short mourning during which we are required to wear black, extending from there will be a longer (till a total of) 100 days of remberance, the t.v. stations are all in permanent loops of footage about her may she rest in peace.
This week I am supposed to be mentoring the new girl who has just started at work to take on the terrors of P2 green so that should be interesting. Better go, in case my christmas cards never arrived I hope you had a fabulous festive season and a happy, healthy and prosperous year of the rat.
N.J.
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