Category Archives: Malaysia

Day 219 in Beijing: Lily’s Vegetarian Kitchen.

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Buddhist monk. Check. Blessed food. Check. Delicious. Check.

Buddhist monk. Check.
Blessed food. Check.
Delicious. Check.

Jill and I have decided it is time to start becoming more healthy and we’ve decided to try being vegetarian at this time.

It actually started on New Year’s Day, even though it wasn’t a new year’s resolution, and it seems to have been quite easy so far.

Strangely enough, we decided this before we went to a the Thekchen Choling Buddhist temple on New Year’s Day to hear the chanting that they perform for the new lunar month.  But that is blog post for another day.

Being that Buddhists don’t eat any type of animal, and I then read the wonderful book, Direct Expressions written by their Lama Thubten Namdrol Dorje, and agreed with his viewpoints on health, treating other creatures with respect, and not wanting to hurt others, and therefore not wanting to hurt myself, and it just all fell into place.

I’ve done stints of being a vegetarian for up to 6 months, and have found, when I set my mind to it, it is actually quite easy.

One of the reasons is that I was in a pretty horrific car crash when I was 4 years old and have no sense of smell because of my head injury.  I also believe that my sense of taste is probably at about 50% of what most people can experience.

The silver lining is that I’m not tempted by smells of food as I walk by stores and restaurants, and therefore, find the ability to follow through on this change easier than most people since they are usually tempted and it is harder to ignore those senses.

One of the restaurants we went to on our vacation to Malaysia was Lily’s Vegetarian Restaurant.  It was only 2 blocks from our hotel, The Sunway Georgetown, and it was fantastic.

We tried the local Penang style food, even though they had vegetarian fried chicken, which looked amazing, and were blown away.

Everything was fresh, delicious, with just the right amount of spices.  We also had soursop juice and lime juice for our drinks.  Jill has become addicted to lime juice and I’ve become addicted to soursop.  We have no idea how we will deal with the withdrawal symptoms when we return to Beijing in just a few days!

All I can say is if we can find vegetarian food in Beijing that is at all similar to the food we’ve found here in Malaysia, we will not have a problem staying vegetarian and being much more healthy in the upcoming year.

ps. If you’d like to read Direct Expressions, by Lama Thubten Namdrol Dorje, he has put it online in the form of a PDF.  I highly recommend it as it is a wonderful read and he has a fantastic sense of humor and humility.

Here is a direct link to his book:  http://english.thekchencholing.org/wp-content/uploads/direct_expression_eng.pdf

 

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Day 218 in Beijing: GONG!

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Doesn't really fit the Old West idea of a saloon.

Doesn’t really fit the Old West idea of a saloon.

I was a huge fan of the Gong show in the USA.

I was a kid when it was on and I loved the insanity, weirdness, and escape from all normality that would happen whenever a new act came on and tried to win the approval of the judges.

Well, this is a bit of a different type of weirdness and, as the judge, I truly approve of this act.

I think every person would agree that a saloon and beauty therapy are a perfect match!

Heaven is only a mani/pedi away!

Heaven is only a mani/pedi away!

Now, a salon and beauty therapy would be simplistic and obvious, so thanks the generosity of misspelling and translations, we have a saloon and beauty therapy all in one at GONG.

Being that there are so many Chinglish misspellings, I want people to know that this is from Melaca, Malaysia and not China.  Malaysians are raised writing and speaking English so there aren’t that many translation mistakes that we’ve seen but this one just spoke to us.

I am guessing they aren’t selling alcohol with men wearing 10 gallon hats and carrying Smith and Wesson pistols while getting manicures and pedicures, but a boy can dream, can’t he?

Day 217 in Beijing: Swimming With Sharks.

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The water.

The water.

When I received my license to be a Marriage and Family Therapist about 4 years ago, I went skydiving to celebrate.

I had made a vow that I would do something that terrifies me every year because I believe in overcoming irrational fears.

I love doing exposure therapy with clients who have anxiety and letting them realize that their anxiety is a lie.  There truly is nothing to fear except their mind’s perception of reality.

So, I feel it is only fair for me to do something terrifying, to prove that I can overcome my fears, if I’m going to ask them to overcome theirs.

Mark one more goal of my bucket list.

I swam with sharks today.

Yep, I actually swam with living sharks.

I wasn’t in a cage.

They weren’t in a cage.

We were at Payar Palau near Langkawi, Malaysia.

The longest shark was probably about 4 feet long.

The smallest about 1.5 feet long.

They were incredibly beautiful and I can’t believe anyone would want to harm or eat this magnificent creatures.

Sadly, many people do.

A little back story about the trip:

Jill and I had wanted to do some snorkeling on this trip but hadn’t found the right place or time.  A dear friend, Kean, who is from Malaysia, recommended we do this trip and go to this little island.

We can not thank him enough for the recommendation!

We took a ferry for 2 hours to get to the island and jumped off onto the docking station. We then were told the rules and regulations and put on our life vests and snorkeling gear.

We hopped in the water and were blown away by how many fish there were in the bay.  Also the color of the fish were incredible.

We didn’t take many pictures of the fish because we didn’t have a waterproof camera but here is the link to the for Palau Payar.

And here is a link to the wikipedia page that shows the Blacktip Reef Sharks.

We swam around for about 3 hours, had lunch, and then swam some more.  We also did the glass bottom boat and just lounged around for a bit.

If you notice, the water is green.   That is because it is “winter” here (and about 90 degrees with 70% humidity) and the algae grows in the water and turns it from blue to green.   If we were here during the summer, the water would be a perfect blue.

 

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Day 212 in Beijing: Truth in Advertising.

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The Octopus is taking over this bank!

The Octopus is taking over this bank!

I saw these two banks when I was in Kuala Lumpur and had to laugh at their names and mascots.

In Malaysia, “Agro” means “agricultural” so an “Agro Bank” is an agricultural bank.

That makes sense.

However, Agro also means aggressive so naming a bank, “Agro Bank” could be confused especially when you look at all the construction and aggressive lending that is going on in this country.

Side view of the Octopus.

Side view of the Octopus.

The second one is even more comical to me because I’m not sure an octopus is really a cuddly creature, to most people, that one would want representing their banking ideals.

To me, an octopus reminds me of the evil Ursula in The Little Mermaid.

Maybe in Malaysia there is a different interpretation, and I’m actually a fan of octopuses they are pretty cool creatures.  By the way, the plural of octopuses is octopuses and not octopi, as I found out writing this blog post.

One never knows what one will learn when one travels or writes a blog.

Either way, I enjoy how different cultures view the world and how they use icons and words differently than they do in the USA.

It allows me to see that my view of the world is constantly being challenged and I get to learn that my view of reality, and life, is limited and open to interpretation.

I'm gonna go agro all over you if I have to wait in line one second more!

I’m gonna go agro all over you if I have to wait in line one second more!

I appreciate this because I can continue to grow and learn about others, and myself, each day that I wake up.

At age 44, I believe this is a pretty rare occasion as many people are married, have kids, mortgages, debt, and other issues that keep them from being able to take a new job and move half way around the world on a moment’s notice.

I consider myself very lucky and do not take this gift for granted.

Day 211 in Beijing: The Sultan’s Palace.

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A guard and Jill and me.

A guard protecting the Sultan from Jill and me.

Jill and I decided to do the Hop On Hop Off tour in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Overall, it was a great trip and we saw a lot of different monuments and important places in Kuala Lumpur.  I would recommend it for anyone that is new to the city and wants to get a good lay of the land and have an basic understanding of the culture in KL.

One of the stops was at The Sultan’s Palace.

We were lucky enough to see the changing of the guards when we arrived.  They only change every 1.5 hours so it is hard to schedule your tour to arrive at the right time since it only takes about 5 minutes for the guards to change and it is basically the luck of the draw if you get there on time.

We just took a chance and got very lucky.  The guards were also nice enough to let us take pictures with them and were very gracious.

Again, that is something we’ve found to be fairly common with the people in Malaysia.  They go out of their way to take us to places, show us sites and make sure we don’t get lost or confused.  We’ve been warned where to go and where not to go and what is a safe place and what is not.

Coming from America, the “unsafe” places actually feel very safe and the crime is much less than what I’m used to living in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Maybe, because Malaysia is such a gentle and kind nation, their idea of crime is much worse than America’s idea of crime.  I also find this with China where people think an area is very unsafe but when we go there, we are amazed at how safe it is because we come from America where there are a lot of places that are not as safe for many different reasons that I won’t go into here.

Suffice to say, we have yet to feel unsafe either in Malaysia or China and it is a wonderful feeling to know that the chances of being mugged or attacked are almost nothing compared to back home in the USA.

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Day 210 in Beijing: Happy New Year!

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Happy New Year in a new country!

Happy New Year in a new country!

 

I wish everyone a Happy New Year and I hope that you are with friends, family and people you love.

Jill and I entered Singapore today to celebrate and since we are a “day ahead” of many of our friends back home, here are a few pics from the party we had here.

It is pretty cool to enter a country on the last day of a year and so I’ve added a picture of my passport here with the stamps as we left Malaysia and entered Singapore today.

Here is a video I shot of the celebration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2_JTIarEH0

Cheers!

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Day 209 in Beijing: I Scream. You Scream. We ALL Scream for Ice Cream!

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I love the different colors of hijabs and ice cream.

I love the different colors of hijabs and ice cream.

Kuala Lumpur is hot and humid.

Even during Christmas.

Even during the winter.

I have to say I love it.

I’ll take hot and humid over cold and windy any day.

So, in the middle of winter here, people eat a lot of ice cream.

Jill and I were visiting the Muzium Negara (National Museum) and we saw these women all getting some ice cream and laughing, smiling and having a wonderful time.

I snapped a picture, trying to be as unobtrusive as possible, but it didn’t work out.

The woman in the back noticed me and threw up the universal “peace sign.”  It was very cute.

By the way, there is a choice to have ice cream in a cone or in bread.  The girls all suggested I have mine in the bread.  I tried it and the ice cream vendor gave me green tea bread.  As you can see, the bread is actually green.  It was slightly flavored and quite yummy. Definitely worth a try if you ever come to Malaysia.

I then asked them if I could take a picture of all of them and they laughed and agreed.

In China, people often ask to take pictures with us when we are out and about traveling.

We find it rather hilarious and absurd because we would never think of going up to someone, in America, and saying, “Hi, we don’t know you but can we take a picture with you?”  We always agree and do our best to promote cross cultural relationships that will help people see us as fun loving and generous with our time.  It may not seem like much to take a picture with someone but during the holidays we are sometime asked 10-15 times a day and it can actually get a bit tiring because when you take one picture, people will line up and wait for their turn.  You end up having to run away from the crowds which is pretty comical in a way.

However, we find ourselves taking pictures of people here in Malaysia and they don’t seem to mind.  They seem to have the same sense of humor about being photographed here as we do in China.

And, with that, I wish you a Happy New Year’s Eve and lots of love, joy and ice cream in the New Year!

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Day 208 in Beijing: The Petronas Twin Towers.

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We have towers growing out of our heads!

We have towers growing out of our heads!

Petronas is the national oil and gas company in Malaysia.

Most people don’t know this but they do know that they have two huge towers in Malaysia.

These are the Petronas Twin Towers and they are impressive.

They were the tallest buildings in the world until 2004 and continue to be the tallest twin buildings in the world.

Jill and I visited them a few days ago and they left an impression on us of the upcoming changes and economic powerhouse that Malaysia plans to be in the near future.

Their economy is booming and the cost of land is rising.

They are going to have high speed rail from Kuala Lumpur to Johor Bahru, which leads to Singapore in the next few years.

They are planning to have a free trade zone with Indonesia, Singapore and Johor Bahru so that there can be more trade and people can move across borders more easily.  To give you an idea of the border issues, every time we went from Johor Bahru, which is about a 3 minute bridge ride, to Singapore, we had to have our passports stamped on each side.  This means 4 stops at customs per day for people commuting from one side to the other.  Great if you want to load up your passport and look like a world traveler, terrible if you want to get to work on time.

There are also major theme parks, gorgeous jungle retreats and amazing beaches all over this island.

Of course, this is not all good as a rising tide does not lift all boats.  There are people here that are getting left behind.  Hopefully it won’t be overwhelming and things will work out for the best.

I haven’t even mentioned the different cultures and customs which draws us to this country.  That is one of the reasons we’ve been here twice in 3 months.

The other reason is the people.  The Malaysian people are some of the kindest people we have ever met.

There are only two other people that I’ve met that seem to be as kind and one is a cultural reason and the other is for a reason that horrific.

The first are the Balinese people.  They are just friendly, humorous and kind.  I stayed there when I returned from Japan, and teaching English with the JET program, in 1997.  I felt these were the kindest people on the Earth.  They just might be.

The second were the Japanese people of Hiroshima.  I visited there when I was living in Japan and was amazed at the kindness and humility of the people who lived there.  I believe they saw the worst humanity can do and decided that they never want to have that kind of hate, and destruction, in their lives again.

I feel that The Petronas Twin Towers show the strength, power and drive of the Malaysian people and their determination to move their country towards a changing future.  I hope that the people continue to be who they are, even when economic tides change, and their incredible culture continues to thrive through it all.

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Day 207 in Beijing: I’m a Little Weird.

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One of the Petronas Twin Towers stands behind a row of houses that are falling apart.

One of the Petronas Twin Towers stands behind a row of houses that are falling apart.

Okay, if you’ve been reading my blog, you already know that.

However, this specific weirdness is in regards to architecture.

I love modern architecture, when done well, and in the right arena.

The De Young Museum, in San Francisco, is amazing.

The Petronas Twin Towers are amazing.

The Eiffel Tower is amazing.

However, these are pretty obvious to most people and I don’t think I’m going out on a limb stating that these buildings are amazing.

What I do find amazing, and this is where you might find me weird, is I like the destruction of architecture.

I love when Nature has its way and takes its toll on what we humans think will be indestructible.

I don’t mean that I enjoy when people die from structures collapsing, but I love collapsing structures.

There is a singular beauty in that, as Yeats wrote in The Second Coming, “Things Fall Apart;  The Centre Cannot Hold.”

When that centre can not hold, it brings with it the beauty of destruction, confusion and rebirth.

Without one, there can not be the other.

As I travel around Kuala Lumpur, there are many buildings that are fantastic and new, and many others that are dying and waiting to be reborn into something entirely different.

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Day 206 in Beijing: Just Another Day At The Job.

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He doesn't seem to be working very hard.

He doesn’t seem to be working very hard.

So, this guy has possibly the most boring job in the world.

All day long, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, he stands there, waving his flag up and down.

Also, for someone that is out in the hot sun all day long, and trust me, it is sunny and hot here in Kuala Lumpur, he doesn’t seem to have much of a tan.

He also seems to have a set smile that makes him look sort of like a silly mannequin.

Man, this guy is lazy!

Man, this guy is lazy!

Oh wait, that is because he is a mannequin.

Yep, they seemed to have figured out that the job of a construction site flag waver is about as difficult as sleeping here in Malaysia.

So, what do they do?

They have a mannequin do it and set it up so his arm raises and lowers slowly by a small motor.

Pretty simple and pretty ingenious.

I think it is something that could easily be used in the USA and maybe those guys sitting around doing nothing but waving flags could do something more constructive like…constructing something!