Malaysian Musings

Happy December!

Malaysia

Malaysia -

Before the start of the trip, I was not sure what to expect, though my limited readings (mostly from the news media) led me to believe I would encounter a fairly sterile Islamic society with smatterings of ethnic Chinese and Indian culture intermixed. On the whole, I think that is what I found. In many ways, it was an incredibly welcome change. Our paranoia that everybody was out to scam us quickly subsided. People throughout the country seemed warm, friendly, and willing to help. And the majority spoke stellar English.

We started our trip on the island of Penang (which means Betel Nut in Malay and is the origin to the well-known Penang curry). We did not actually mean to stay in Penang at all - we had every intention of arriving and taking a ferry the same day to the Langkawi Islands. Unfortunately, the two daily ferries depart within 15 minutes of one another beginning at 8:15 am. The capital of Penang - Georgetown - is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, though I am not entirely sure why and have not yet been compelled to research the topic. It seems that everywhere we went on this trip, including in Bangkok, we happened unintentionally to wander into the Little India and Chinatown segments of each locale. Penang was no different. The island is (I am referencing a cab driver here) majority Chinese, with a minority Malay and Indian culture. The Indians, like in all of Malaysia, are primarily Tamilians, some with roots generations old on the Malaysian peninsula. Dosas, sambar, chutneys, etc. were flowing from every corner of the city. Penang was sort of a microcosm of Southeast Asia on a single island - night bazaars, beaches, ethnic foods (we had great Lebanese food here one night next to the beach), natural beauty (there is a small national park that we did not make it to).

Onward the next morning to Langkawi by ferry. This group of islands is fairly remarkable, though much to my chagrin, also quite tourist-filled as well. The main strip on the main island is where we stayed and is sort of the life of the island. Walking up and down the road, you might mistake the place for some small European getaway.

The natural beauty of the islands, however, was breathtaking. We took a boat to several of the smaller islands, replete with clear water beaches, wildlife-filled forests and coasts, zip-lining, scenic lakes, and the wonders of uninhabited places. Sadly, the combination of intermittent rain and aquacentric activities prevented great picture taking.

Kuala Lumpur was a great shopping destination, with a tourist-dominated night life. One night we went to one "Bollywood Club", which was actually just 6-8 girls dancing on a stage to Hindi songs (some karaoke, some played by a dj) while overweight, middle-aged Indian men (dyslipidemics, no doubt) swooned over and threw money at the girls. Petronas Towers was worth seeing because they are incredibly tall and shiny. Kobe got swindled by a Malaysian who sold him a ChiNokia (Chinese Nokia) phone outside of the towers - but he says he is happy with the phone and, to be fair, he did not pay much for it.

Easily, the single greatest part of KL was the food! Typically in the US (and India and the rest of the world), one does not associate good foods with shopping malls. But in Malaysia, we quickly realized (with the help of the Le Meridien concierge who assumed we were guests because we happened to be in the lobby) that some of the best food in the city can be found in the malls. I found two great fake meat restaurants in KL that served off-the-chain food - both located inside shopping malls. For those who have been to Cafe Sunflower in Atlanta or Red Bamboo in New York, think better tasting food for a fraction of the price!

Back in Chennai now, working like an Indian until next week, when I reunite with the family for wedding festivities in Jaipur.

Hustled in Thailand

Back from travels. Some thoughts I wrote down to share. I think the pictures speak for themselves, though these are only pictures from my camera. We took lots of pictures with Kobe's point-and-shoot camera that I will upload once he gets them to me.

Thailand

Thailand-

I have never met so many hustlers in one place in my life. It felt like our entire time in Bangkok was spent trying to evade scam after scam.

Our first day in the country we were stopped and patted down by the police as we were taking a tuk-tuk back to our hotel. We never received a real explanation as to why - it may have had something to do with the 8 or so handcuffed Indians we saw at a local jail a few minutes later. Thankfully, we had our passports on us. Indians are hustlers too, which is why in this case proving we were not Indian was useful. Speaking of hustling, thanks to Kobe, we stayed 3 nights in a 4-star hotel for a total of 36 USD.

The same night, we went to one of the big night bazaars to shop and get food. Because the Thai are not so proficient in English, many hotels give their guests cards with directions back to the hotel written in Thai. After some decent street food and a few drinks, we haggled with a tuk-tuk driver to take us back to the hotel for 50 Baht. We handed over the card that the hotel gave us so that he would know where to go. As soon as we sat in the tuk-tuk, he pulled out the card and started to tear it in half, saying he wanted 100 Baht for the ride. Of course, he had no idea that we each had another card with directions on us, which we then showed him. At this point, he was clearly peaved. He popped a minimum of two wheelies in addition to driving like a maniac on the way back to the hotel. But we only paid 50 Baht. Scam averted. It was fun!

I have never seen prostitution as blatant as it was in Thailand. Interestingly, most Thais seem to accept that it happens - it wasn't just the prime tourist areas that were teeming with prostitutes. According to one book I read, "most" Thai men are adulterers.

We managed to chance upon the gay bar scene in Bangkok, which for two guys with little interest in taking home a Thai woman for the night, was great. I suspect male prostitution may be just as common in that district as female prostitution is in other parts. Even though we sat as far away from each other as possible, never shared a martini, and never fed each through interlocking arms (as was happening at the tables around us), nobody doubted the legitimacy of Kobe and I as a couple.

Thai food was at times great in Thailand, though on the whole, rather disappointing. Maybe I have grown too accustomed to Top Spice in Atlanta to appreciate what genuine Thai food is. The street food was generally very good, but the restaurant dining left something to be desired. Street food favorites included pad thai, mango sticky rice, and Thai iced tea. The green curry pictured in the photo was pretty good as well, with plenty of spice as I asked for. All in all, still better than Tofu Tina's.

The infrastructure in Bangkok is off the chain. I should have taken more pictures of the infrastructural marvels. I can't remember if Kobe did. Public transport - including a skytrain, metro, and water taxi system - coupled with cheap cabs made getting around the city easy. The malls and shopping centers in the heart of the city are all connected directly to public transit stations. The airport was a neat architectural feat as well.

It was a novel experience being in a place where Buddhism is predmoninantly practiced. Looking closely, I noticed many cultural, religious, and linguistic similarities between Thailand and India, not the least of which are ancient and modern Hindu temples that are run and supported by Thais. Linguistically, there are many mutually intelligible words.

The local Bangkokites seemed to not have a very favorable opinion of Indians. One coconut vendor nearly refused to sell me a Thai coconut (which if you've never had one, go find one now) because I was Indian and "love money." He then asked me if my Prime Minister (referring to Manmohan Singh) also loves money. I bet the Indians in Thailand are mostly businessman and are likely frugal, but I am not sure what (if anything) they have done to earn this reputation.

Cabs in Bangkok run on a meter. As we were heading to the airport at 5am, our hotel doorman flagged us down a cab and assured us we only needed to pay what the meter said. He confirmed this with the driver. About 1 km later, the driver gestured that the meter was broken and that he wanted 500 Baht for the trip. We were too tired to argue, but even on our way out we couldn't avoid being hustled.

I will post about Malaysia soon.

indian english at its best

hi dear friend
how r u
i m fine & i m rj from jaisalmer(rajasthan)
i hope you rembber me no forget's
so dear now you where?
i hope you came again's
if you call me so my this number
94147*****
ok by have a nice days
your friend
raj harsh


anyways, i was amused. off to thailand and malaysia.

travel photos from the previous 2 weeks

2009-11-4 Ahmedabad

2009 Bombay

2009-10-28 Hyderabad

It's raining

There has been near constant rainfall in Chennai for the past 2 weeks. Though the rain is much needed, both for replenishing the dwindling water table and for its cooling effect, it is getting a bit annoying now.

I waited this morning for the rain to stop so I could scooter myself to work. After a 10 minute lull in the downpour, I reasoned I could safely journey for 10 minutes to work. Obviously, if I am writing about this event, I was wrong.

About a minute after I left, the rain was coming again. About half way through my trip, it was falling hard. I arrived at work drenched -- literally dripping wet (though my face and hair were spared thanks to the helmet).

Normally, this would not have been too big of a deal. I could have waited for my clothes to dry or put on scrubs. But my oozing water today was a problem. See, I had a press conference to attend as a part of this Indo-American collaborative health work I am doing. So I dressed semi nicely. And we were scheduled to leave for the conference about an hour after I arrived to work.

Going back home was not really an option either because the second journey was just as likely to leave me wet as the first. So, I did what all wet Indians do -- stood in front of a fan.

Ten minutes later, I realized wet Indians typically stay wet for a while. Certainly longer than the roughly 40 minutes I had remaining to dry myself.

I went asking around if anybody had spare clothes, but no luck there. Finally, somebody suggested I run up to housekeeping and have my clothes ironed. Now that seemed like a reasonable idea...

I ran (and slipped several times) up to the fourth floor where housekeeping has their office. I was given an iron and a table by an incredibly nice lady, who then asked if I knew how to iron. Of course, I said, who doesn't? Little did she know that I have probably ironed a total of 10 times in my life -- never successfully.

Even better, the iron and the table were in a room located off of one of the main passageways of the fourth floor with large, uncovered windows. Everybody from housekeeping staff, physicians, nurses, dieticians, and patients roamed those halls with what seemed to be reckless abandon. This was a problem (I thought) because I had no clothes other than those that were wet and on my body. But the lady assured me that "we are all brothers and sisters here." Translation: stop wasting time and dry your clothes. She even offered me coffee, which I accepted, to smooth the transition.

So I stripped down to my boxers and started ironing. First my shirt. I had no idea what I was doing, but I saw the water turn to steam and leave my shirt and slowly even some of the wrinkles disappeared! The pants weren't nearly as wet. The best part was that nobody seemed bothered by this! All of the patients, physicians, nurses, housekeepers, etc., were completely indifferent to the fact that I was standing nearly naked in a room and ironing my clothes. While I was expecting some sort of spectacular ridicule, all I got was people going about their regular jobs.

In summary, I love India.

By the way, pictures from Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, and Bombay to follow soon.