Alright, I will do this quickly since it's midnight here and I am feeling a bit sick right now, so I want to hit the sack early (well, these days 1 am is early for me...)
Let's start with the Indian wedding I attended in Kuala Lumpur! I was invited by a Indian woman who had some sort of ties with WAO and invited my co-workers, and therefore I was invited as well! The other interns went with me as well, and we all dressed in the traditional Indian attire (as you can see from the pictures). Mine is bright pink. Yes, I know it's a bit intense. But this is what happens when I bring Kiat shopping with me. But that is a whole different story...and it ended up looking pretty good, so I won't complain. Although, I did have to go and buy a white blouse, when I actually had a perfectly good black one...but that is also something I will not discuss right now....sorry, I'm a little off topic again. My thoughts are constantly wandering these days...I'm starting to wonder what the heck is going on with me!
Anyway, back to the wedding. Ivy (the executive director) and Annie (my supervisor) helped get us ready. Getting a sari on is quite the complicated process..one in which you have to make pleats and there's a lot of tucking and pin sticking involved. Annie could not go to the wedding, so we went with Ivy and Aimee (the secretary). At the wedding, there wasn't as many people as I thought there would be, but there was still a lot-maybe around 500 people? They played traditional Indian music and the bride changed sari's twice through out the ceremony. I don't even want to know how much this wedding (especially the Sari) must have cost them. But at Indian weddings, I guess it is a tradition for guests to bring them money and gifts, which must help with the costs. I didn't understand a whole lot of what was going on, but there was a lot of Hindu prayers and a shirtless Hindu priest performed much of the ceremony...
After the ceremony, there was a banana leaf meal, which is rice with Indian curry, chicken, and random curried vegetables. It was good...although eating 2 banana leaf meals in one day (had one for lunch too,) did not suit well with my stomach the next day. I am starting to realize I am not as much into Indian food as I thought I'd be. Overall, it was a great cultural experience and I am really glad I got the opportunity to attend the wedding!
The day after the wedding, Chinese New Year started. I saw a couple dragon dances, but nothing too major. There were a lot of Chinese New Year sales going on around KL. I left to go to Hat Yai (southern Thailand) with Kiat. We took the bus (which we waited for 2 hours just to board because there were so many people at the bus station). We met a really nice Malay couple on the bus and they were going to Ko Samui for holiday. They asked us if were married and had kids! Haha...I didn't realize we looked that old...although, Malays tend to marry quite early, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised...but it was a bit awkward...
We went through immigration twice (for Thailand and Malaysia) and then got back on the bus which took us from Satun to Hat Yai. Once we were in Hat Yai, I had some kuey Tiow (noodles in a broth with fish balls, or Luuk Chin (sp?)-yes, thats what they call them...but it's not what you think...) and it was heaven! Kiat's sister, Jiap, met us at a shopping center and we went inside and got some food to take back to their house. We took the bus back to Phattalung, his hometown, which was about a 3o minute trip. Then we took his sister's motorbike and drove back to his house which is about 10 kilometers outside of the city. It's really beautiful there...lots of farms, mountains, etc. Sorry to say...I did not take any pictures. Why didn't I? Well, I don't really have a good excuse...but I will just have to take some next time! For now, you will just have to use your imagination!
I stayed there for 3 days-ish and it was very relaxing! People there eat ALL THE TIME. I swear, every 10 minutes they're eating something new like peanuts (which they grow themselves,) fruit (which they also grow themselves,) candy, chips, rice, etc. I think they eat all the time, because there honestly is not much else to do there. But Kiat's mom and sister are really good cooks and they fed me well. They were eating some sort of a big lizard...but that is one thing that i declined to eat...it looked pretty gross, I won't lie. Usually I am daring about what I eat...but that was a bit too much, even for me. I visited with a lot of his neighbors and we went to the local hang out, which is at a small waterfall where everyone goes swimming. We made a small BBQ there as well. We also went to a night market, which was located in a mostly Muslim area. Everyone was very interested that I was working in Malaysia. We also went into town because Kiat's mom is buying a new car, so we were looking around for one.
Then, it was time for me to leave and go back to Malaysia. I left once again (this time by train) and Kiat made sure that I took some sticky rice and BBQ chicken on the train with me, which the German guy who sat next to me seemed to not enjoy me eating it...maybe I have actually picked up my bad eating habits from Thai/Malay people..I'm not kidding! The train ride was almost 14 hours long...and unfortunately, I did not get a place in the sleeper car. Instead, I had to sit in a seat, which obviously had not been changed since the 1980's/70's. As more people got off the train, the German man was able to find his own row of seats, so I had two seats to myself, which was nice. But it was a bit hard to sleep since the arm rests were hard and you couldn't move them, plus the train stopped every 20 minutes, so every time I would wake up and hope we were in KL. But...nope. Finally, the train man (I don't know what you call them...) said to me, "Sir, we are in Kl Sentral now." I smiled to myself, because I have been getting called "sir" a lot lately...and I have absolutely no problem with it!
I got into KL Sentral around 5 in the morning, tired as heck. I took a taxi and he made me pay him 20 rinngit, but at that point I didn't care if he was overcharging me. I remember he started talking to me about hotel california (the song) because I told him I was from Oregon, which wasn't far from California (that's what I tell every person who does not know where Oregon is....haha). I crashed at my apartment, and obviously couldn't make it into work that day. Overall, it was a good trip! Kiat is now back in Phuket, working and I am in KL also working.
As for the Muslim celebration...that was interesting too! I went there on Saturday (took the LRT to the KTM and got a bit lost, but it turned out okay!) I went to Kajan, which is on the outskirts of KL to visit my friend (who used to work with me at WAO) Joanna. She got a great new job, so she was having a celebration for that. She picked me up at the KTM station and we went back to her house (after getting a cake for her mom's birthday). They had a LOT of good Malay food there (masala chicken, curry, jelly deserts, watermelon, etc). I talked a lot with Joanna and her sister. I can't really speak Malay, so I couldn't talk to a lot of people, but everyone seemed really nice. The men went inside Joanna's home to do the prayers and then afterwards they were able to eat. Everyone also ate with their hands-since that's the way Malay's traditionally eat. I spent the night at her house and we all slept on the floor in the living room, since that was where the AC was.
The next day, I ate some MORE good food (by the way, I am 51 kilos now-112 pounds. Not complaining at all, just saying it has only been two months!) Then her sister dropped me off at the KTM since I was going to go with Jessica to the Batu caves. But the KTM took a long time, so we decided that it would be better if we went to the caves next weekend, because we would have more time. Plus, I started not feeling well today, so it's better to take it easy anyway.
Now, about procrasination, I am starting to realize that I procrastinate way too much. I am really trying to change that about myself...because it's putting my in a bit of a stressful situation, since I am in charge of the newsletter. I have to write A LOT of stuff for the newsletter and for the director...so I am starting to feel some pressure. But, maybe I work good under pressure...? Jessica and I are going to interview some social workers at WAO and a women who became successful after staying at the refuge for the newsletter. I think we're also going to tour some other NGOs, which should be interesting! Overall, work is going well, though I really have to get cracking on completing my projects...but it should turn out okay. I hope everyone is doing great back home! Miss you all!
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Sorry for the late post! I have been pretty busy these past two weeks and haven't had much time to do anything else other than work and traveling.
As you can see from the pictures I recently posted, I've been doing a little bit of traveling and sight-seeing in Malaysia. Kiat has been visiting me here in KL, which has been nice since I have a travel buddy! I took a few days off work and went to see (finally) the infamous twin (petronas) towers and the KL tower. We went up the KL tower, which is pretty much the same height as the twin towers. We couldn't go up the Petronas towers because the tours were full. But I would say the KL tower was just as good, so it was okay.
We were contemplating where we should go (we couldn't decide between Langkawi Island and Sabah/Sarawak,) when my landlady recommended that we go to Pangkor Island since it was less touristy and closer to KL. So we took a 3-4 hour bus ride to Lumut, a coastal city on Malaysia's west coast and then took a half hour ferry to Pankor Island. Pankor Island has historically been (and still is today actually) mainly a fishing community. Supposedly it was named after a Chinese Pirate and it had a lot of Chinese graveyards. However, there is also a pretty big Malay community there as well.
We took a bright pink (yes, pink) van, which was the local taxi, to the other side of the island where the nice beaches were located. We stayed at the Seagull Bay Resort which was not a bad price (60 ringgit per night). The other people who stayed there (mostly from Europe) were really nice. We rented a motorbike and toured around some of the island and ate the local food, etc. Then, the day after we got there, Kiat got a bad toothache and we had to go on ferry to see a dentist in Lumut. A toothless (literally) taxi driver took us to the dentist and Kiat had to have one of his back teeth removed. Obviously a painful process...so that day we didn't do much. But he recovered really quickly and did not get an infection, so that was good!
Mostly we just stayed on the beach, went on a jet ski (which I proudly drove and it was really nice because there weren't any people to accidently run over, like in Patong...) and it was really relaxing. I kind of wish we had gone to Langkawi, just because it probably would have been more fun....more things to do...but it's alright. We still had a good time. The bus ride back took forever since it stopped a lot. There were also bugs crawlinga all over my seat for some reason...so yeah, it wasn't a very nice bus ride the second time around.
Yesterday (I will post pictures of this later) we took a day trip to Genting Highlands. We got to the busy bus station in KL, but the next available bus didn't leave until 3 pm, so we decided to take a taxi there. It took us about 45 minutes to get to Genting Highlands and it consisted of windy roads up mountains. The higher we got, the colder it became. I read that it would get down to 65 degrees in Genting, which is really low for Malaysia....
It was really nice up there and it kind of made me feel like I was in Oregon again...except it wasn't quite as cold as Oregon. There was a lot of fog and it was chilly enough to wear a jacket and long pants. We took a ride on the cable car, which I would say is a must-do if you go there. It is the longest cable car in SE Asia and the fastest one in the world (supposedly). It was really beautiful. However, the rest of the day wasn't as great because we had a problem with the security guard at the Casino (Genting is also home to Malaysia's only legal casino, which the Chinese use to go and gamble).
We went inside and there were two security guards. The second one asked Kiat really harshly, "HEY WHERE ARE YOU FROM?" He kept on repeating this and finally I said, "He's from Thailand." We had no idea why he was asking this and he started to try and speak to him in Malay, but we obviously couldn't understand him, so we tried talking to him in English. Then he walked over to Kiat and pushed his hat off his head, causing it to fall on the ground. Kiat picked it up and the guard continued ranting to us in Malay. So we just walked off into the casino and Kiat was pretty upset. We decided to leave the casino and go find the main security office to complain. That took forever because everyone was giving us different directions. Finally, we found it and the chief of security came with us and sat us down in this office. He brought in the two security guards and he asked Kiat, "Okay, which one did it?" And then he asked this one guard, "Did YOU do it?" The guy, obviously scared as heck, quickly pointed to the other guard. Kiat said, "Yes, that was the guy who did it."
Essentially, they all apologized (well the guy who did it didn't apologize very well though) and they said he wanted Kiat to take his hat off, but he couldn't speak good English. Of course, I told them before we left that even though he didn't speak English very well, they could have found some other way to tell him besides knocking his hat to the ground and speaking roughly with us. I think they also asked him where he was from because they though he was Malay (a Muslim) and muslims are strictly prohibited from gambling. Still, it did not give them any reason to be rude to us. After THAT unfortunate incident we ate dinner and then took a bus back to Kuala Lumpur. This week should be fun since I will be going to an Indian wedding on Thursday and going to Hat Yai on friday ( I will come back the next week). Anyway, hope everything is well back in Oregon!
As you can see from the pictures I recently posted, I've been doing a little bit of traveling and sight-seeing in Malaysia. Kiat has been visiting me here in KL, which has been nice since I have a travel buddy! I took a few days off work and went to see (finally) the infamous twin (petronas) towers and the KL tower. We went up the KL tower, which is pretty much the same height as the twin towers. We couldn't go up the Petronas towers because the tours were full. But I would say the KL tower was just as good, so it was okay.
We were contemplating where we should go (we couldn't decide between Langkawi Island and Sabah/Sarawak,) when my landlady recommended that we go to Pangkor Island since it was less touristy and closer to KL. So we took a 3-4 hour bus ride to Lumut, a coastal city on Malaysia's west coast and then took a half hour ferry to Pankor Island. Pankor Island has historically been (and still is today actually) mainly a fishing community. Supposedly it was named after a Chinese Pirate and it had a lot of Chinese graveyards. However, there is also a pretty big Malay community there as well.
We took a bright pink (yes, pink) van, which was the local taxi, to the other side of the island where the nice beaches were located. We stayed at the Seagull Bay Resort which was not a bad price (60 ringgit per night). The other people who stayed there (mostly from Europe) were really nice. We rented a motorbike and toured around some of the island and ate the local food, etc. Then, the day after we got there, Kiat got a bad toothache and we had to go on ferry to see a dentist in Lumut. A toothless (literally) taxi driver took us to the dentist and Kiat had to have one of his back teeth removed. Obviously a painful process...so that day we didn't do much. But he recovered really quickly and did not get an infection, so that was good!
Mostly we just stayed on the beach, went on a jet ski (which I proudly drove and it was really nice because there weren't any people to accidently run over, like in Patong...) and it was really relaxing. I kind of wish we had gone to Langkawi, just because it probably would have been more fun....more things to do...but it's alright. We still had a good time. The bus ride back took forever since it stopped a lot. There were also bugs crawlinga all over my seat for some reason...so yeah, it wasn't a very nice bus ride the second time around.
Yesterday (I will post pictures of this later) we took a day trip to Genting Highlands. We got to the busy bus station in KL, but the next available bus didn't leave until 3 pm, so we decided to take a taxi there. It took us about 45 minutes to get to Genting Highlands and it consisted of windy roads up mountains. The higher we got, the colder it became. I read that it would get down to 65 degrees in Genting, which is really low for Malaysia....
It was really nice up there and it kind of made me feel like I was in Oregon again...except it wasn't quite as cold as Oregon. There was a lot of fog and it was chilly enough to wear a jacket and long pants. We took a ride on the cable car, which I would say is a must-do if you go there. It is the longest cable car in SE Asia and the fastest one in the world (supposedly). It was really beautiful. However, the rest of the day wasn't as great because we had a problem with the security guard at the Casino (Genting is also home to Malaysia's only legal casino, which the Chinese use to go and gamble).
We went inside and there were two security guards. The second one asked Kiat really harshly, "HEY WHERE ARE YOU FROM?" He kept on repeating this and finally I said, "He's from Thailand." We had no idea why he was asking this and he started to try and speak to him in Malay, but we obviously couldn't understand him, so we tried talking to him in English. Then he walked over to Kiat and pushed his hat off his head, causing it to fall on the ground. Kiat picked it up and the guard continued ranting to us in Malay. So we just walked off into the casino and Kiat was pretty upset. We decided to leave the casino and go find the main security office to complain. That took forever because everyone was giving us different directions. Finally, we found it and the chief of security came with us and sat us down in this office. He brought in the two security guards and he asked Kiat, "Okay, which one did it?" And then he asked this one guard, "Did YOU do it?" The guy, obviously scared as heck, quickly pointed to the other guard. Kiat said, "Yes, that was the guy who did it."
Essentially, they all apologized (well the guy who did it didn't apologize very well though) and they said he wanted Kiat to take his hat off, but he couldn't speak good English. Of course, I told them before we left that even though he didn't speak English very well, they could have found some other way to tell him besides knocking his hat to the ground and speaking roughly with us. I think they also asked him where he was from because they though he was Malay (a Muslim) and muslims are strictly prohibited from gambling. Still, it did not give them any reason to be rude to us. After THAT unfortunate incident we ate dinner and then took a bus back to Kuala Lumpur. This week should be fun since I will be going to an Indian wedding on Thursday and going to Hat Yai on friday ( I will come back the next week). Anyway, hope everything is well back in Oregon!
Saturday, February 6, 2010
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