Swindles In Malaysia (Part Two)

Singapore, our only non-Malaysian stop, was a wonderfully clean and enjoyable place. We stayed at a quaint hotel in Little India, and loved the area we were in, near many delicious little cafes.















Our hotel was also within walking distance of an unbelievable store. This place sold EVERYTHING – electronics, jewelry, vitamins, shoes, soccer balls, groceries, and then some. Dad even ended up finding a great new camera for a great price.



















Because our time in Singapore was limited (we were there for only two nights) tried to make the most of our time by squeezing things in. The first night we went to the highly recommended night safari, where we saw a nocturnal animal show and then rode through the zoo looking at various animals that are active at night. We all enjoyed it, and the nighttime element meant cool animals AND cool temperatures – a win-win!



















The next day we decided to take a city tour that Mr. Lim had recommended called Hippo tours, which turned out well because we were able to see a lot of the city in a short amount of time. We had two different guides – both very good – and enjoyed seeing famous Singapore landmarks, learning more about the city’s development, and being clued into housing options in Singapore.

























































After the tour, we had some time to kill before we were going to have tea at the famous Raffles Hotel, so we checked out a nearby mall (there are malls aplenty in Singapore, we quickly learned) and took advantage of the massage and exercise opportunities we found. Here is Dad working out his abs and Mom and me getting eye massages…or getting ready to join Star Trek.























































Before long, it was teatime and we were off to the Raffles Hotel. Tea was wonderful, and an incredibly special trip memory for me. The hotel itself has an old, majestic, historic feel, and we were served delicious cream cakes, sandwiches, and scones in the lovely dining room.





































































That night, full from our fabulous tea, we completed our time in Singapore by seeing the new Indiana Jones movie and then taking a moonlight walk along the quay. We left early, early the next morning to catch our train back to KL, where we would rent a car for the remainder of the trip. During our train ride, we stopped for just a minute in Kluang, only to find the entire Lim clan waiting at the tracks for us. We were so excited to see them! We hopped off the train and quickly hugged everyone, and they had gotten us drinks and kaya buns from the cafe. Those few minutes turned out to be some of the best of the whole trip. We love the Lims!

Swindles In Malaysia (Part One)

Well, my family's trip to Malaysia was a huge success, full of precious time together, many laughs, beautiful scenery, lots of rice, and glorious air conditioned hotel rooms. I think I'll have to split this into at least two installments, just to make sure I get lots of good details and photos in.

The trip began in the wee hours of the morning a little over two weeks ago, when Richard, Dorothy, and Susan arrived in the KL airport. (They had flown through Seoul and had been on a flight with George's parents, Dr. and Mrs. Jemison, on the way over. They were on the way to visit George in Korea, and we were thrilled that they were on the same international flight -- what are the odds?)

Because I have spent several weekends in KL, I was happy to play tour guide there and take my family to some of my favorite places. Our first stop on day one: shopping on Petaling Street. This turned out to be a huge hit, especially with Susan, who stocked up on tons of fake Polo, Lacoste, Coach, and Tiffany's stuff. Poor Dad -- we quickly ran through all the ringget he had gotten from the ATM that morning.

After our shopping spree, we headed to the Batu Caves so my family could see this impressive and unique Hindu temple-in-a-cave. We climbed all 272 steps to reach the cave's entrance, and had fun watching all the monkeys who live around the caves.



















Day two in KL started bright and early because we wanted to make it to the Petronas Towers early enough to get free tickets to the skybridge. Thoroughly nourished and extremely content after our amazing breakfast at the Hilton, we happily waited in line for our Petronas tickets and then had a little time to kill before our scheduled skybridge time.



















To help pass the time, we each got hour-long foot reflexology sessions, followed by 30-minute back massages. It was pretty glorious, and we were a relaxed bunch and ready to check out the view from the towers.





























Next up: a trip to the Lake Garden's Bird Park, supposedly "the largest bird park in the world." We enjoyed seeing the many interesting birds (some more hilarious looking than others) and even got to hold newborn baby chicks. We made it out of the park just before a huge rainstorm hit, too, so we were pretty fortunate.























































For our last dinner in KL, we chose the Coliseum Cafe after reading this intriguing review in Frommer's: "What can I say about Coliseum? Okay, the place is 86 years old, and so is the staff (seriously, some have worked here their whole lives). Located in the grottiest hotel I've ever witnessed, with stained white walls, worn tile floors, and threadbare linens, this is KL's authentic "greasy spoon." It sounds dreadful, but the place is legendary, and someday it will be gone and there will never be anything else like it." Sure enough, we found the staff to be, well, quite practiced, and the building to be smoky and grungy, but the food (steak!) was excellent and we had a great experience.















The next day it was time to head south to Kluang, Johor, but we had time to squeeze in a quick visit to the National Museum before we left KL. The museum only costs RM2 (about 60 U.S. cents) and gives a helpful overview of Malaysia's history as a colonized nation. Perhaps the best discovery the Swindle family made at the museum, though, was our love for the Malaysian "corn-in-cup," which is, just as it sounds, a little cup filled with warm corn mixed with salt and butter. We went on to enjoy many a corn-in-cup over the next two weeks.



















To get to Kluang, we took the train down from KL. I love riding on trains, and we were able to see lots of beautiful countryside (including countless palm oil trees) on the way. We were so excited the whole time to visit with Sharon Lim-Harle's family and to see the town she grew up in!















Arriving in Kluang, we were met at the station by Sharon's brother J.P. and her father, Mr. Lim. From the second we arrived until the second we left Kluang, the Lim family showed us nothing but genuine hospitality and wonderful companionship. We enjoyed eating at many of the Lim-affiliated Chinese eateries in the town, and were especially impressed by the kaya buns at the Kluang Railway Coffee shop.

Our time in Kluang was limited, but Mr. Lim was a thorough tour guide and so we made the most of each minute. We even squeezed in a short visit to Melaka, where we saw the famous Portuguese-and-then-Dutch occupied city, something I had been interested to see for a while.











































Although the architecture and history of Melaka was intriguing, I think my dad's favorite part of the trip was sampling some Indian vegetable fried puff things. He talked about them for the rest of the time he was in Malaysia!















Other highlights of our time in Kluang include a visit to Mrs. Lim's grave site, a tour of Sharon's old high school, and a great breakfast send-off when we boarded the train to Singapore.

Traditional Medicine

Ever since I got back from Lake Kenyir, my eyes have been bothering me. They have been red and watery and sensitive to the sunlight, and it's been annoying. I figured that I got some kind of germ when I went swimming in the lake, and maybe something got stuck in my contacts. Anyway, when I went to school on Monday I ate breakfast with a group of teachers at the canteen, and all of them were commenting on how my eye was red and looked "sore." Many of the teachers thought I should go to the doctor to get things checked out, but Hayati, my ever-entertaining foster sister, had her own unique solution to the problem.

She announced that she knew a non-medicinal way to help heal "sore eyes," and then began to explain her method.

Hayati: "So what you need to do is find a woman who has recently given birth. One who is producing milk. Because, you know, breast milk is full of antibodies. So you lay down on her lap and have her drip a few drops of milk into your eye, and then the antibodies will get in there and and heal your eye. No medicine!"

Wait, wait, wait, wait, let's just back up there for one second. She wants me to lay on some woman's lap and have her put her breast milk in my eyeballs. Wow, Hayati, this takes your craziness to a whole new level. Even if the milk was helpful with healing, why in the world would we use that particular method to get it into the eye? It seems like the accuracy would be so off, not to mention the awkwardness of the situation in general.

It's during moments like these that I'm especially disappointed to be the only Westerner at my school, so that there's no one else to share these priceless moments with.

As a bonus, we went to the doctor and my eyes are fine (I got some drops), but Hayati told the nurse to write me a medical excuse through Wednesday, so I don't have to go back to school until Thursday (I had my appointment on Monday morning). It's perfect because the students are taking exams from now until the end of the month, and so I'm missing nothing by not being there. All in all, the eye thing was a good experience because I got an amazing story and some free time out of it.

Field Trips Malay-Style

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve spent my weekends chaperoning school field trips. Two weekends ago, Gwynne and I planned a joint nature day for our two schools, where we each brought a group of 30 students to Sekayu Falls, a beautiful, tropical waterfall about an hour outside of KT. The day went fine, but it was definitely very Malay at times, which can be frustrating to us Americans.

For example, Gwynne and I both had other teachers come with us to help chaperone, since there were 60 students there. However, right when we arrived at the waterfall, Hayati (one of the chaperones from my school) came up to me and said, “Okay, Anna, all the teachers will be down by the river eating fried rice if you need us,” and that was that. So much for extra help. Luckily we had brought Michael along, and he was able to help up keep an eye on everyone, especially during the jungle trek (hike).















Even though we weren’t able to get done with all the activities we had planned for the day, Gwynne and I were pleased with how the nature day turned out. I think the kids had fun, too, and that’s definitely important. We were able to go on a nature hike, write nature haiku, make individual pledges to help protect the environment and sign a group banner. By 4 o’clock, though, Gwynne and I were ready to call it a day!





























Then, last weekend I went with eight other teachers and 130 students on a camping trip at Lake Kenyir, the largest man-made lake in Southeast Asia. We had a wonderful time and were in a beautiful location on an island. Here I am with a group of students and the other female teachers who went on the trip.


























The highlight for me was kayaking in the lake on Thursday. They separated the girls into three groups to do three different activities, and I liked kayaking so much that I was able to go twice, with two different groups.






























I was extremely impressed with the girls’ ability to be self-sufficient on the camping trip. Within minutes of our arrival on the island, they all had their tents set up and ready to go.















Then, for every meal, they started fires and cooked food in groups of about eight. Kids here are educated in “life skills” and learn things like basic mechanics, camping skills, and cooking. I feel like those are such useful skills, and wish American children were taught more things like that. Below is one of the 20 bags of rice we brought with us because, really, what's a good camping trip without pounds and pounds (or I guess kilos and kilos) of rice?















A few funny things from camping:

1. There was a wild boar that kept coming near our campsite, searching for food. Every time it came near, the students would start screaming and throwing sticks and rocks at it, and banging pots and pans to scare it away. I kept wanting to take pictures of “the pig,” and so every time it came near someone would yell, “Miss Anna, get your camera!” And so I would run in front of the mob of stick throwers and try to take a picture of the poor pig as it was running for its life. The kids were especially scared of “the pig” because in Islam, pigs are very forbidden; Muslims aren’t even supposed to TOUCH a pig. This made the situation funnier because they were already grossed out by the species.















2. No one would let me help with anything at the camp. They were doing it to be polite, and to treat me like a guest, but anyone who knows me knows that I need to feel needed and helpful. I would wander around while everyone was cooking, asking (begging, really) if I could help with anything, but everyone would just tell me to “sit down and enjoy.” Little did they know that “sitting down” would definitely not be the most enjoyable task for me. I know they were just trying to be kind, and I really appreciate that, but it was still hard for me to feel so un-helpful all weekend. Here I am trying to get a group to let me help them make dinner. My efforts were unsuccessful.















3. In Malay culture, things like burping and spitting are very commonplace, and are not thought of as rude. Obviously, this is a little difficult to get used to as an American where these things are so taboo. The funny thing is, not only are burps and spitting allowed, they are not even acknowledged by anyone. When someone burps, no one turns around to see who it was, or comments, “Wow, that was a good one!” or anything. It is virtually ignored. Well, one of the teachers who was on the trip with me was the biggest burper I’ve ever met. She burped during all hours of the day: while getting dressed in the morning (she hadn’t even eaten anything yet…where were these burps coming from?), during meals, during jungle trekking…it was really impressive. I had to try so hard, though, not to look in her direction whenever she burped. It is just an instinct, I think, to look for the source when you hear a strange sound like that, but here it would be rude and strange. Finally, by the end of the trip, I was good at hearing the sound and keeping a straight face and not quickly turning my head. I counted it as quite an accomplishment.

4. Before we could go kayaking, we had to take part in a “water confidence” test, which consisted of everyone jumping into a six-foot-deep pool of water while wearing a life jacket, and then basically just floating there. Easy, right? Well, apparently not if you grew up in Terengganu. Despite being a state with a huge coastline, hardly any kids in Terengganu learn to swim at ALL, and so the water confidence test was frightening for many of the girls. It was funny, too, because after kayaking a few people jumped into the lake (with their life jackets on) to swim and cool down, and I took off my life jacket and swam without it. I would just be treading water or something and all the students and other teachers would be so amazed, and asked me if I was an “expert swimmer.” Guess I passed my “water confidence” test with flying colors. Below are some girls pre-water confidence test.















Note: During the kayaking excursion, and for all other events throughout the trip, the girls wore long pants, loose, long-sleeved shirts, tudungs (head coverings), socks, and tennis shoes. It was a little extreme. Below is a photo of the kayaking instructor at the camp. Please compare his attire to the aforementioned girls’ clothing and tell me what is at all fair about the situation.

Form Five Friends And More

Things have been hectic at my school for the past week or so, because we are preparing for some upcoming English competitions. Students can participate in a variety of activities, including speeches, story-telling, and spelling, and I’ve been trying to help the girls prepare as much as I can. Sometimes it’s difficult because teachers ask for my help, but they forget that I have never been a part of a competition like this in Malaysia, and so they sometimes leave out important details. Then I complete a task only to find out I have to add to it or change it completely. I’ve been trying to get much more clarification up front lately, which has helped some.

The most fun part about this process has been spending time with four Form 5 girls who are going to compete in the S.I.R. (Spell It Right) contest this weekend.















We have met twice at the state library (just down the road from my apartment) to study, and then end up hanging out afterward.

(Side note: The state library has separate tables for boys and girls, because they aren’t allowed to sit together even to study. Wow.)















The first time we studied together, we went and got ice cream afterward and then I showed them my apartment. Then, yesterday, we studied for a couple of hours and then went to KFC for lunch and also shopping at Giant before they walked me back to my apartment. They are so much fun, and it’s different spending time with students outside of school. These girls are 17 years old, and so it’s easy to be with them and find things to talk about. Plus, they give me the lowdown on things at school, like who the coolest teachers are (Teacher Diana is the coolest, according to them, and I have to agree) and which girls have boyfriends and spend too much time sending text messages to them.















Weekend adventures have been going strong as well. Two weeks ago Zoe, Gwynne, Jackie, and I took a girls’ day trip to lake Tasik Kenyir and had a great time playing in a waterfall and feeding tilapia and catfish at the fish farm.















































Then, this past weekend, we had the first annual Cikgu Fest, celebrating the birth of Jackie Cruz, at the Perhentian islands. We had a wonderful time being together, spending time on the beach, eating birthday crepe/cake, and dancing the night away in the sand. It was a huge success, and everyone had a blast.



















Other recent events pictured below:

1. Gwynne and I learned to make nasi lemak (rice cooked in coconut milk and served with chili sauce and fish) at Puan Rakiya’s house. She is a teacher at Gwynne’s school, and is one of her host mothers. We had a great time learning to prepare our first Malay dish, and Puan Rakiya even showed us how to make fresh coconut milk by blending the coconut with water and then squeezing out the juice by hand. Delicious!















2. A couple of weekends ago Gwynne and I traveled up to Kota Bharu (a city in the state above Terengganu) to check out its famous night market (pasar malam). We found Kota Bharu to be a lively and bustling place, and the market was full of many treasures and delicious local foods. Since Kota Bharu is closer to Thailand, its food has more of a Thai influence.

Korea + Paradise

Sorry for the lack of recent updates. Things have been busy, which is good, so I’ll try to document some of my latest experiences and adventures.

Two weeks ago we had a week off for a national holiday, so I got to go visit George in Seoul! Even though he had to work a ton (thanks a lot, MES), I had such a fun visit and was able to spend lots of time relaxing. After being in Terengganu for so long, it was pretty easy to keep my happy in Seoul, a land where hot water and movie theaters and four seasons exist. I was just thrilled to be able to go outside with a coat on and not sweat!

Since George and I had already done a lot of the touristy Seoul things during my visit in December, this time things were much more low-key. We did go back to Insadong, which is probably my favorite place in the whole city. We just always seem to have magical experiences there. We had traditional Korean tea again at an amazing teahouse and I also got to try kim chi chiggea (kim chi stew) which was so good. Also, there was a parade of people dressed in traditional Korean outfits to promote the upcoming cherry blossom festival, so that was fun to see.

































Another highlight was spending an afternoon with Jenny (one of the receptionists at MES) and her husband Kyle. They are such sweet people, and the four of us went on a cruise down the Hahn River and then had a delicious meal of shabu-shabu near Olympic Park. Shabu-shabu originated in China, and it’s a meal consisting of very thinly sliced beef and tons of vegetables (mushrooms, onions, leafy greens, etc.). They put a big pot of water on the gas grill in the middle of the table, and once it starts boiling you add the vegetables and meat a little bit at a time. Since the meat is so thin, it cooks within about 30 seconds, and then you take it out and dip it in a tasty red sauce. It was so great that George and I went back for shabu-shabu again before I left!















Our busiest day was the day before I left to come back to Malaysia. In the morning, George’s friend Brad took George and me ice climbing at an indoor climbing gym. It was such a fun experience! It was similar to an indoor rock climbing wall, but with a huge wall of ice. George had been once before with Brad, but this was my first ice climbing adventure. After we put on our huge spiky boots and tons of layers of clothes (since we were essentially spending the morning in a gigantic freezer), we grabbed our rented ice axes and one by one took turns climbing the wall. Brad was by far the best, but George made it to the top of the wall, too! (I did not, but I made it about ¾ of the way.) I was nervous at first, but it turned out to be really fun and not as hard as I’d expected. Brad was a good coach and helped to let me know where to position my feet as I climbed. It turns out that the most painful part of the climb is once you come down from the wall and put your arms down. Because you’ve been holding the axes up for so long, and since it’s so cold, when you come back down and the blood rushes back into your hands it really, really hurts!





































After ice climbing, the three of us headed to the Cheonggyecheon River to check out the St. Patrick’s Day festivities. We had missed the parade, but made it in time to hear some wonderful Irish music played by Korean bands (pretty cool) and meet up with some other MES teachers. We finished our day with a wonderful meal of steak and ale pie and a glass of green beer (to continue the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations) at an Irish pub in Itaewon (an extremely Western part of town). We came home tired but so, so happy!



















Saying goodbye to George was just as hard as ever. It just never gets any easier! We left each other not knowing the next time we’ll be able to get together, and that made things hard.

Last week was a short week at school (thanks to Prophet Muhammed’s birthday on Thursday) and so on Wednesday afternoon Gwynne and I took a bus up to Kuala Besut to begin a weekend trip to the Perhentian Islands. We quickly discovered that we weren’t the only people in Terengganu interested in going to Besut for the weekend. The bus was so crowded that Gwynne and I had to stand up in the aisle for an hour and a half, being jerked around, as the bus made frequent stops to pick up even more passengers along the way. It wasn’t a terrible ride, though, by any means, and we kind of enjoyed our experience on the crowded bus. That being said, we certainly didn’t complain when we finally were able to sit down!



















On Thursday morning, bright and early, Gwynne, Jackie, Ellie, and I took a boat from Besut to the islands and proceeded to have an amazing weekend in paradise. We had been to the Perhentians once before, but this time the weather was better and the island was so much more lively and full. We made some good friends and are even planning to go back again this coming weekend to visit them.















Some of the highlights of the trip were a snorkeling trip on Friday and, for me, a dive on Saturday. Snorkeling was wonderful because we went with a group and were taken to four different locations, seeing different animals at each spot. We swam through beautiful purple and green coral and saw a stingray and countless fish. The best part for me was when our guide quickly stopped the boat and encouraged us to all get out and follow a sea turtle. We scrambled into the water and, sure enough, there was a huge turtle swimming up and down in the water, surfacing for air every now and then. Even though there were about ten people following him, the turtle gave no indication that he noticed us and just went about swimming as usual.

Scuba diving the next day was another wonderful experience. I got my scuba certification last fall in Birmingham, but was nervous to dive “for real” since my open water dives in the States had taken place in a murky, cold rock quarry. I summoned up my courage, though, and signed up for a one-hour fun dive with a friendly and helpful German instructor named Andy. I kept telling Andy how nervous I was, and it soon became very obvious that I was a beginner diver. (The best example of this was when I started to put on my wetsuit backwards. Andy said, in his German accent, “Actually, ze zipper goes in the back, but keep putting it on zat way because it’s funnier.” Oops.) He was so kind and patient, though, and the dive turned out to be incredible. There were five people in our group (all beginners) and the second I got in the water all my fear disappeared. During our dive we swam through beautiful coral, some of which were tall and white and looked a bit like all-white candy canes. It was like being in a world Dr. Suess had created. We were able to swim right up to sea anemones to see the little orange and white clown fish playing, and at one point a school of five foot long, three feet tall hump head parrotfish swam right by us. Now I can’t wait to dive again, and hopefully will be able to this coming weekend.















The best part of our time on the island, though, was the complete sense of freedom and happiness that we all felt there. I came back to KT on Sunday ready for my week, and with new energy and a positive attitude. Sometimes being in KT gets overwhelming, but I’m quickly learning that the secret is to get out and have time to recharge, because then I am so much happier during the week.