Tropical fruits

Durian
The favourite, yet infamous, fruit of Malaysians. It has a very strong pong. Many hotels have "No Durian" signs because of the smell. (I have only tried a Durian flavoured boiled sweet. I didn't care for even that watered down version.) People will spend a great deal of money to get the perfect Durian


Rambutan
This fruit is like a red spiky litchi. I prefer it to litchis



Coconut Stall
The vendor will hack off the top and stick a straw and some ice cubes into the milk. Some people even add sugar.


Mangos
These are sweeter than SA mangoes. Sliced mangoes on ice may be served as desert

Historic Georgetown

Hawker foodstall at night

Dim Sum Breakfast

My friend, Doreen, who runs the Sukhi Hotu Bookshop on Penang, took me for a Dim Sum breakfast. Yum!!!The place was full and buzzing.

Chopstick Heaven

One can eat very cheaply at "hawker" foodstalls. There is a great variety - Chinese, Indian, Malay and Thai, for example. Nyonya food is Chinese cooking that has been influenced by Malay cooking. It is spicy hot, but this can be said of all varieties of Malaysian food. Chilli is essential - as an ingredient and as a condiment. I don't have chilli-proof tonsils so I had to be careful.

The Menu at a street eatery

Foodstalls come in permanent and temporary varieties. Some famous local dishes are on the menu.

Family Butcher, Georgetown

Penang Street Market

Penang is famous for its cuisine. It is diverse - all varieties are spicey. The photograph was taken at a morning street market in the historic part of Georgetown.

Cape Town Saturday 26th November

I have been home since Wednesday. Right now I am at my second job at the Graduate School of Business Library.

My trip home was delayed at KLIA and Johannesburg International. Most of the people on the plane were going to Buenos Aires. This included a noisy team of boxers from Argentina. At Jo'burg International a team of South African student rugby players joined the plane. Also a very noisy and boisterous bunch. On the return trip I watched a film called "The Librarian: the Quest for the Spear of Destiny". It was a spoof of the Indiana Jones films, with a geeky klutz as hero, the librarian, of course. Quite amusing.

My sister and brother-in-law met me at the airport in Cape Town. I was glad to be home as I had missed my family, friends and my cat, but I was sad to leave my Malaysian friends. BTW. My cat slept on top of me most of Wednesday night.

The weather has been hot and sunny, though this morning was overcast and a little chilly. It had rained a little. I have spent the morning paying bills.

Monday, KL

My second last day in Malaysia. I am going to see my friends, Basmin and Leslie today. I haven't coped well with the public phones and long phone numbers. I think quite a few people around KL are wondering who this ferrenghi, Celia, is, who has left a message on their voicemail. Is it a CIA plot? :-)

Yesterday while I was at the internet cafe the two young men on the next machine were watching porn sites. I was curious, but also didn't want an eyeful of synthetic sex. I am glad I didn't understand what they were saying. I found the experience very unsettling and distasteful. A contradiction in a country where women are veiled.

Today I am wearing a white blouse, not a good choice when further encounters with chopsticks are in-store. It doesn't seem right to eat Chinese food with a fork and spoon. When I was staying at the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion in Penang they served Western style breakfasts. I felt it was kind of letting the side down. As a token of homage to the man who built the house, I could have had tea at breakfast, but I didn't.

I have tried eating a little chilli when eating Chinese dishes. A small dish of chopped chilli is served with most things. Chilli does make an important difference to the taste, but when it hits my throat, my eyes and nose run, and my mouth and throat burn almost taking my breath away.

I was walking around some food stalls last night. The man who was selling rambutan, a largish, red spiky type of litchi, was sitting back enjoying a tin of Guiness. I find it very odd that Guiness (Ribena and Milo) are so popular in a very hot country.

There is also a Chinese version of a braai (barbeque). Flat, square pieces of dried meat are cooked on a grill over a wood fire.

I travelled on the monorail again yesterday. It is fun because you can look down on the city streets. It is very cheap. The airconditioning in the carriages is fierce. Everytime I disembark my glasses steam up. There is also an LRT train system, which is like the London underground. Compared with Cape Town, public transport around the city and to some suburbs is a dream. The "Mother City" (i.e. Cape Town) Transport Dept must pay KL a visit.

Department stores and the malls were open on Sunday, "business as usual". KL is a vibrant city, partly because life encompasses the streets. This can be a nuisance in that one has to walk in the road because a food stall or business uses the pavement. People park on the pavement, just as they do in Cape Town, and the 4X4 is "the in" vehicle.

KL Sunday 20th November

I have at least met some of my KL friends, Chin Hock Soon and some of his family and Sue Kok.
Yesterday, despite pouring rain, I went to a Hakka restaurant with Chin and family. My chopstick technique has not really improved. I was wearing a dark green T-shirt, so accidents would'nt show. After breakfast on prawn soup with noodles, Chin took me to the Subang Jaya Buddhist Temple. He and others who had recently spent time in Myanmar (Burma) were showing their photos. It was fascinating. I really want to go to Bagan (or Pagan) and Manadalay. (Nobody is allowed to sing "On the road to Manadalay, where the flying fishes play..." I think you are all much too young to have heard Peter Dawson sing this.) I had another noodle soup with fishballs for lunch and some other things(but even for me, it was too much to eat).

I must sign off as my time is up.

Back in KL

I flew back to KL this afternoon. Unfortunately, my 28 minute train journey into the city took nearly 4 hours. The trains were disrupted by flooding. I, and many others, were stranded on Putrajaya station for hours, waiting for the promised bus to pick us up. Everyone was very good humoured about the long wait. That could never happen in Cape Town. I behaved myself and refrained from using what Alex calls "technical terms", the F... word.

It is late - soon it will be midnight. To quote Samuel Pepys "...and so to bed".

Penang Times

I have been enjoying Penang, trying different foods. I had Dim Sum for breakfast, and discovered why I have never mastered chopsticks. I use the wrong fingers - the second and third, instead of the third and fourth. I didn't drop everything down my front as usually happens.

I moved hotels today - from a down-at-heel 2 star to The Blue Mansion, Cheong Fatt Tze.

I am sitting in the Blue Mansion using the hotel internet for free. I have just come in from having supper with my friend, Doreen. We also walked around the Gurney Drive Mall. Of course, we ended up in a bookshop. This time I controlled myself.

The Blue Mansion was built by a Chinese millionaire at the end of the 19th century. It has many courtyards, stained glass windows and windows with louvred shutters. The courtyard outside my room is quite warm, but my room is almost chilly..

In my room called "Sinketh" there is a a big ceiling fan, a double bed with small tables on each side. The bed lamps are large ceramic pots with shades. There is hardly enough room to put my alarm clock and glasses' case on one of them. There is also a dark wooden table. The walls are so thick that there is a cupboad set into one. It contains yellow and blue china bowls.

I have my own bathroom, which is behind the bedroom.It has a big white bath (called a "long bath" here). There is a shower above the bath. And really hot water. It was lovely to have a hot shower.

I have a small fridge, with tea and coffee things (the instant kind) and a kettle, on top. There is also a sideboard with a large mirror, a vase of flowers and an old clock which stopped 2 o'clock aeons ago. All this is much more luxurious than my other accommodation has been.

I joined the 3pm tour of the house. The house is a traditional Chinese courtyard house, but has Western features too. The guide filled us in on classical feng sui principles which dictated the location and design of he house, the art deco stained glass windows, the gold leaf decorations on the carved wooden screens, the decorative exterior reliefs made of pieces of porcelain. (One of these includes Mary on her donkey on her way to Bethlehem with Joseph. Strange as the owner was not Christian.)

The central point of the house where the "chi" or its cosmic energy is strongest is marked by potted plants. Directing and balancing the chi of the house and its location is what classical feng sui is about, it is not simply interior design. The effect has resulted in a house which provided comfortable living conditions in a tropical climate, when there was no air conditioning or electricity.

There is a smallish ginger cat with a very loud miao. It has a malformed tail. It seems friendly and allowed me to stroke it. I don't know if it is part of the establishment or has simply wandered in from the street. (I am having cat withdrawal symptoms.)

For the first time since I have been in Malaysia I have seen a mozzie. I haven't put on an repellent so I will stop right now as I come up in itchy red bumps when I have been munched. So I am signing off.

KL TIMES I

I feel like a country cousin. In the two years since I was last in Kuala Lumpur (KL for short) things have changed a great deal. There is money about and this is a very internet connected and digital society.

As you enter the airport terminal after disembarking there are free internet stations. I sent a short email from there, but 06h30 is not my best time, especially having had very little sleep in the last two days.

The plane wasn't full. There were two empty seats next to me, but in sardine class that does'nt give you much room to stretch. The food was quite nice, much better than British Airways.

I travelled into KL by train - aircon and tv.; but the KLIA Ekspres didn't express for some technical reason. Everything is very green. Lots of palm trees. As the train got nearer the city there were the massive high rise flats. With or without embellishments, depending on your income. I think they are rather ugly, generally speaking. The trip took 28 minutes, much less time a taxi, and much cheaper. The new airport is an hour's drive from the city, that's not allowing for heavy traffic.


My homestay is a backpacker's establishment. The outside is weather stained, but it is clean, central and cheap. I have a bare private room with aircon. No window. I share a shower (a cold one) and loo. (There is also a shower in the loo, which I find odd and inconvenient.) One leaves one's shoes at the front door. There are commonal slip slops outside the loo and the shower.

I tried to get my cell phone unlocked and buy "pay as you go" access. I think the young salesman was offended by the antiquity of my phone. To get the thing working is not worth the cost.

The mall I am in is digital heaven, if that is your idea of heaven, - cell phones with video, digital cameras, laptops; the works. I noticed a hair dresser was offering "a digital perm". That has set me wondering.

I went into one of The Ladies in the Mall and was pleasantly surprised. (I won't tell any horror stories from my previous trip - like shoe prints on the toilet seat.) It was clean and did not stink of pee, nor was the floor awash. (Loos in Malaysia have a hose which serves the same function as a bidet.) There was one small problem, they were all squat loos. The lady who took my money (yes, you have to pay 20 sen and provide your own loo paper) very kindly unlocked the toilet for the disabled so I was able to be seated in the manner I am accustomed. Two pot plants in the hand basin inside the loo cubicle prevented me from using it.)

KL TIMES III

Well, I found KL Times I and have reposted it.

Yesterday evening I went to China Town. It is has changed a great deal in two years. The stalls are concentrated in Jalan Petaling. They are now under cover, a high metal canopy. There is also a fancy ornamental gateway; that I don't remember.

I took photos, and landed up in teashops after squeezing through the crowded stalls. Teapots and all sorts of tea making paraphanalia for all the tea in China. Brick tea, tea in small balls, loose tea, green tea...

I saw rugby shirts for the Lions, All Blacks, and the Springboks. Interesting as rugby is not played in Malaysia, as far as I know.

I travelled back from China Town on the monorail. Transport is convenient and cheap, even ordinary taxis.



Unfortunately, my camera has been stolen. I am angry at losing it, as much because of the photos of family, cats and my holiday, as at the monetary cost of the loss. I have asked my sister to contact my insurance.

I fly to Penang later today. I am spending four days there.

KL Times II

I don't know what has happened to my first posting, KL Times

I had Roti Pisang, a banana pancake, for breakfast in a street cafe around the corner from the homestay (homestay=backpacker type accommodation). I asked for tea and was presented with a mug of tea containing at least 200 mls of condensed milk at the bottom of the mug. Like Peanut butter, condensed milk is a pet hate, except when made into fudge. The homestay is near some malls and fancier hotels. I have a single room, no window, with aircon. Ablution facilities are shared. The shower is cold water only.


KL has so many contrasts. The Mall is full of the latest IT stuff - 3G cell phones, laptops, mp3 players, bluetooth... There are also booths for face and palm reading, accupuncture and traditional clothing and foods. There is a tiny cart selling Chinese delicacies, a metre accross the passage from MacDonalds. Glitzy hotels and malls and grubby weatherstained highrise flats. Malay girls in Levis and headscarves covering the head and shoulders.

People have been so helpful, and I bumble along the Big White Klutz. The Malls open around 10h30-11h00 and close @ 21h30. A late start suits me. The streetsc are thronged in the evening - foodstalls and street cafes, hawker stalls selling clothing, bling, cds and dvds. Quite sensible for KL people to be night owls as the evening is alot cooler.

Tomorrow I fly to Penang in the evening. 4 days there.

Now I am off to find a dobi (laundry).

Drum Circle

Last night I took my niece, Cathy, to a drum circle. A drum circle is a group of people who meet regularly to learn to play the djembe drum. The djembe drum comes from West Africa. It is a hand drum. It is played by hitting the drum with the whole hand, or slapping it with all the fingers. Here are links to web page about the djembe drum and drumming:
http://www.rebirth.co.za/african_drum_history_djembe_drum.htm

http://www.drummingsa.co.za/

My niece thoroughly enjoyed herself, but I didn't. It reminded me of the time I tried to learn to dance for the formal Matriculation School Dance. Then, I felt like I had had two left feet and no sense of rhythm. Last night I discovered I was still "rhythmically challenged". I couldn't do the simple version, I needed an idiot's version. As a two-fingered, right handed typist, my right hand tried to do everything. When my left hand tried to join in, I "lost the plot" completely. I hope my niece wasn't too embarassed by my ineptness. It was hard on the hands as well.

Birds about town

Here are some hyperlinks to information about some Cape Town birds:
Cape Sparrow
http://www.birdlife.org.za/fieldguide/book/species_info.cfm?id=134

Cape Turtle Dove
http://www.birdlife.org.za/fieldguide/book/species_info.cfm?id=109

Egyptian Goose
http://www.birdlife.org.za/fieldguide/book/species_info.cfm?id=12

Guinea Fowl
http://www.birdlife.org.za/fieldguide/book/species_info.cfm?id=43

LBJs [Little Brown Jobs]
http://www.birdlife.org.za/fieldguide/book/gp_info.cfm?id=10

Red-wing Starling
http://www.birdlife.org.za/fieldguide/book/species_info.cfm?id=9

Rock Pigeon
http://www.birdlife.org.za/fieldguide/book/species_info.cfm?id=105

Mossieblog

The Mossie is the local name for the Cape Sparrow, one of the many lbjs found in and around the City of Cape Town. This is not a blog about birds, but a blog for my friends and relatives in the U.K., Bhutan and Malaysia. I will use the blog to share my thoughts, curiosities and, maybe, some information.
Celia