Company

This was a big weekend for us. We had our first visitor. Bruce Mackenzie had business in Singapore and dropped in on the way back to London. Singapore is about a 3 hour drive south from here. It was nice to have a Canadian friend drop in and to catch up on old friends and family.
We managed to find Bruce a tennis partner to replace his wife Marilyn. Bruce and Maureen got thoroughly thrashed as per usual. Bruce left on Saturday evening and I got brave enough to drive him to KL Central where he could catch a shuttle to the airport. We managed to find our way there and back without getting lost once. We even stopped in at the market in Bangsar. We were hoping to find veggies and fruit but because this is Ramadam the only merchants there were food vendors. There are hundreds of different choices of great smelling and looking food. I've added photos of a few.
The tennis team. Bruce is on the left and Paul, a teacher at Mont' Kiara, is on the right. Paul's wife, Melanie, another teacher and former Aussie beach vb champ, joined us. With her as it partner it wasn't too hard to beat the old man and the cripple.

This is sort of a porridge wrapped in banana leaves.

The food is cooked right there. It all smells quite good. We had just eaten before going there so plan to go back and try things out.

Lots of different juices are also available. See how they are served in plastic bags. You slip straws in through the top and sip away.

On Sunday I went for a bike ride with the boys up the mountain again. Johnny, from the bike shop, talked me into putting slick tires on the mountain bike. It made for an even faster ride down the hill. Maureen took up a better offer and played tennis with a couple of teachers from school. I made it home just before the rain storm in the video. The storms are wild here. Being on the 29th floor we are in the middle of them.
Sunday evening we had Paul and Melanie, 2 of their 3 daughters, and another couple from the school for dinner. This was our first company for dinner since we've come, Maureen, of course, was in her element cooking up something from the Whitewater cookbook.

Here we are. We rode a few kms higher than last time so that we could get to the sign.

Life in KL

I can remember reading the book "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" to my own children and to students at school. There is one quote I remember Lucy making as she describes Narnia. She says that in Narnia it is 'always winter but never Christmas'. I feel it is kind of like that here only it is 'always summer but never holidays'. Oh well we have a week off 2 weeks from now.
I thought I tell about a couple of everyday adventures here. Last Thursday I got a flat tire. I changed the tire and then got directions to a place to get it fixed right away. We pulled into this little area with a bunch of shops. I parked in this marked parking spot on the street and right way a couple of guys came up to me and indicated I couldn't park there because it was the place where they did their car washing business. It didn't look like there was anywhere else to park so I asked how much was it to wash my car as it was a little dirty. RM13 was the response (about $4). For this they wash the outside and vacuum it throughout, even including the trunk. They pointed to another spot for me to go as I was in the vacuum area so I drove over to it only to be told I couldn't park there because there were about 5 cars in front of me. Maureen, of course, is laughing the whole time and starts chatting up all the guys I was trying to butt in front of. We found out it took about 45 minutes to get you car washed once they get to it because they are so thorough. The tire shop guy eventually took care of my parking problem. He fixed the tire and checked things over for the grand total of RM5 ($1.75).

Saturday morning we thought we head to one of the local malls to get some groceries and hit up Ikea for more stuff. I dropped Maureen off in front of Ikea and I went to park next door at Tesco to pick up the groceries. We knew Saturday afternoon was bad but thought we might beat the throngs. Wrong!! I drove around the parking lot for about 40 minutes to find a spot. I wanted to leave and look for another parking area but I had no idea where one was. When I finally did get into the store it was wall to wall with people. I fought through the lines to grab what I had on the list and then proceeded to wait for 30 minutes to get through the till. I met up with Maureen just outside of Ikea. She had run into one of the teachers at the school and was having a relaxing lunch.

Saturday night we went for a sail fish and chicken fish dinner. Both of them were very tasty. I have no idea what the real name is for chicken fish but it is very meaty and does taste a bit like chicken. We just had to get over the idea that the eye socket was located about where the dorsel fin would be in salmon. The restaurant was downtown. The street was crowded with restaurants that spilled out on to it. The fish we ate were either swimming around in tanks or laid out on ice. There were about 25 of us from the school there. We met a bar near the school and then grabbed a brace of taxis to take us downtown. It was lots of fun especially when the live eel come out. Tradition is that all the new teachers have to kiss it. After dinner we headed to a club. There were some teachers from the International School of Kuala Lumpur playing in a band so we went to dance for a bit. While we were wandering there my mentor teacher talked me into trying durian(I think that is what is called) It is this big bumpy fruit. It smells horrible and you just eat the pulp around the seeds. My breath is just getting back to normal but my sore throat is gone. Apparently the local saying is 'when the durians go down the sarongs go up.' One of joys of the whole experience is using the local toilets. I've added a photo for you to see.
The group at the restaurant. We're in the middle of street.
Lucas, one of the teacher's husband, is getting the eel ready to make its rounds.

Here's the toilet. Yup you squat, the water is for cleaning, no tp.

Biking Epic

Ramadan started this week. The frequency of the calls to prayer have increased a lot. There are a couple of mosques within hearing range of us. They all have PA systems on them so that the faithful know when it is time to head to prayer and now when the fasting starts and stops. Right now they have a wake up call around 4:00 so that folks can get a meal in before dawn. They are quite loud and can go on for some time. We've already learned to tune them out although both of us do get woken by the call. There are quite a few more street markets around ready to start up at dusk, the time when eating can begin again. We thought we'd go out for dinner last night. Mistake. We didn't get around to leaving till around 7:30 and with it being a Saturday and Ramadan things were even more crowded. We went to a place called The Curve. It really is quite an upscale mall. They have one whole section that has hundreds of restaurants, many with outside or patio seating. Lots of choices , all of them were packed.
Today we went with the gang for a bike ride. Maureen decided to join up this time. It was probably a bad choice for the first time out. We started out at the bottom of a mountain, Genting Highlands, and rode 22 kms uphill. It was long and steep but beautiful. We were in the rain forest the whole way. There were times when the monkeys were howling and the other noises of the jungle made it sound like an old Tarzan movie soundtrack. We were on an old highway so it quite quiet. It was very windy(curvy) and around many curves we ran into packs of monkeys. We ended up in a small village at the top of the hill. We ate lunch here. All of the guys we ride with are Chinese and since the village was Chinese they ordered breakfast for us. Very good. Both of us had a noodle dish with chicken and vegetables, coffee, and juice for a total of RM13.80, about $4.50 Canadian. The ride down was definitely easier and faster.

Merdeka Weekend

This weekend was the celebration of Malaysia's 51st year of independence. It was fitting, I suppose that we traveled to Melaka( Mallacca) to spend the weekend. Melaka is about 2 hours from KL on the west coast. It was one of the first states in Malaysia. It was a city state similar to Singapore for many years. It was first established by a Hindu prince in the 14th century as a stop-over for spice trade sailors. It was taken over by the Chinese in the 1400's, the Portuguese in the 1500's, the Dutch in the 1600's, the French for a tiny bit and finally the British in the 1800's. The neat thing about the city is that all the influences are apparent in the architecture, culture, and cuisine. There is a little India section of town and a couple of China towns. I've included a couple photos of the sights of Melaka.

Small Chinese temples like this are scattered through-out the town.

The were a number of shops selling wooden shoes. I imagine that's a Dutch thing.

This is Dutch Square.

Most sections of town have this type of architecture. Shops on the bottom with living quarters up stairs. The shuttered window and balconies face onto the street.

The only real Merdeka celebration we took part in was watching the parade. Very different from here. It consisted of dozens of groups marching down the street. They would be led by a couple people carrying a banner and everyone else would be marching behind. The signs were in Basa Malay so I couldn't really figure out what the groups were. Most just marched but some played instruments or sang.
This is one of groups in the parade. They were singing and beating drums. The women are wearing the head dress that most of the Malay women wear in Malaysia.

We went with one of the other teaching couples from the school, Christian and Cindy. They are originally from Arizona but have been teaching overseas for a bit and have just come here from Latvia. We took the bus. I didn't feel quite brave enough to try driving there yet. One of the highlights was taking a trishaw ride through the town. I'm trying to include a video of some of the sites and sounds.

There are a couple of big night markets in the town. Maureen had fun checking all the offerings out. We did manage to come home with a couple of batik paintings and carved masks. We will definitely go back to Melaka as it was a nice reprieve from the big city of KL.

We came back early today. We actually had no choice about that. The only seats we could get were on the 7:00am bus. It was nice to have the day here. We went for a bike ride, showered, went to the market, showered, played a little tennis, showered, and spent a short time at the gym. I think were are getting a little more used to the humidity and heat but that doesn't stop us from sweating. No lawn cutting or yard work to do unfortunately.