I saw on NomadList the best places to live and work remotely (HT: MR) and was surprised that Penang was in the Top 20. The Telegraph also reproduced the list.
The Internet experience I had when I was there last year was disappointing to say the least. Wifi was spotty in our residence - the signal kept getting dropped. Okay - it might have been an equipment issue. When it worked however, there was a significant slowdown in Internet speeds around 5 pm and after. I'm not sure if it was due to the pipe in our neighborhood or not but I suspect that people got home from work and went on the Internet and overwhelmed the network.
We're going again and perhaps we'll experience something different this time - hopefully.
Showing posts with label Malaysia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Malaysia. Show all posts
Saturday, November 8, 2014
Saturday, October 18, 2014
Teksi sapu meets the 21st century
Teksi sapu + Internet = UberX
I had been looking forward to this service coming to Malaysia especially Penang since public transportation there is virtually non-existent if you live in the Green Lane area. Even worse is the traffic which is comparable to being on the DC Beltway at rush hour except that in Penang it is everywhere during rush hour.
Unfortunately, like some jurisdictions in the US this is seen more as a threat to taxi companies than a way to alleviate congestion and perhaps even decrease pollution.
From the above link:
I had been looking forward to this service coming to Malaysia especially Penang since public transportation there is virtually non-existent if you live in the Green Lane area. Even worse is the traffic which is comparable to being on the DC Beltway at rush hour except that in Penang it is everywhere during rush hour.
Unfortunately, like some jurisdictions in the US this is seen more as a threat to taxi companies than a way to alleviate congestion and perhaps even decrease pollution.
From the above link:
The Maryland Public Service Commission has labeled Uber a common carrier. It’s a move the company says could make it impossible for them to operate here in Maryland.And from Malaysia:
Private vehicles offering a taxi-like service through the Uber mobile app are doing so illegally.
They would face the full brunt of the law during a nationwide crackdown by the authorities from Oct 1, Road Transport Department (JPJ) director-general Datuk Seri Ismail Ahmad said yesterday.
He said the service was akin to teksi sapu or kereta sapu as the vehicles were not licensed to carry fare-paying passengers.
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Condos in Penang vs Bangkok
I am surprised by the differences in the new condo market in Penang (Malaysia) versus Bangkok (Thailand). In Penang I am told, the condos are unfinished - no bathroom fixtures, toilets, or even floors! Presumably those who buy in Penang are more interested/vested in personalizing the place. In Bangkok, the market seems to be very different since not only are the condos completely finished, they are also completely furnished!
The obvious and perhaps wrong conclusion is that there is a larger foreign component in the Bangkok market who are buying for investment and income purposes by renting out to vacationers or the expat community whereas the Penang market caters more towards the locals who are more willing to deal with the added hassles of personalization.
But with the apparent never ending construction of new condos in Penang the local market might soon be tapped out. Will the Penang condo construction ever move toward the Bangkok model? With a smaller expat community, it is not likely, at least not all the way to fully furnished. But they may come with floors and toilets.
I wonder what the differences are in other places.
Friday, September 28, 2012
Malaysia thoughts
The violence in the Middle East due to the video made me wonder about the state of Islam in Malaysia. I did not hear of any protests in Malaysia about the film. In contrast to our time in Bahrain and Qatar when everything was closed because it was Ramadan, many Malays were seen walking about and even working in restaurants in the malls during the day. Is this the norm? Or is there a divide within the Malays with regards to how Ramadan should be observed? Where we were staying there were a lot of Malay stalls that were closed during the time. How would Malays feel about living the life that Muslims lead in the Middle East?
I’ve been away too long but think that these questions have some salience for the future of Malaysia.
I’ve been away too long but think that these questions have some salience for the future of Malaysia.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Penang food: malls versus hawkers
One of the biggest changes this trip back to Penang was the apparent demise of many hawker food stalls aka street food. Certainly many of my high school haunts have disappeared - casualties of property development, rising incomes and perhaps the trend toward celebrating Penang’s (or rather part of Georgetown’s) status as a UNESCO cultural heritage site.
The trend is apparent in malls where many local chains or otherwise have set up serving the same types of (but alas) mediocre food e.g. Old Town, etc. It seems that Penangites have partially given up good food for air conditioning and wi-fi. Perhaps this is just a result of wandering the malls on weekends when street food stalls are more likely to be closed but I can’t help wondering.
The trend is apparent in malls where many local chains or otherwise have set up serving the same types of (but alas) mediocre food e.g. Old Town, etc. It seems that Penangites have partially given up good food for air conditioning and wi-fi. Perhaps this is just a result of wandering the malls on weekends when street food stalls are more likely to be closed but I can’t help wondering.
Friday, August 31, 2012
WTF
In Malaysia, the license plates of cars vary by state just as they do in the US. Instead of state denominated plates, each state is assigned a letter of the alphabet so license plates from Penang begin with PA. The first car probably had the license plate PA 1 and on it goes until PZ 9999. Afterwards, it goes to PAA 1 and so forth.
In Kuala Lumpur. the license plates begin with W - and so now we have WTF all over the roads.
In Kuala Lumpur. the license plates begin with W - and so now we have WTF all over the roads.
Friday, July 6, 2012
Kiasu again
From NGM:
If there is a single word that sums up the Singaporean existential condition, it is kiasu, a term that means "afraid to lose." In a society that begins tracking its students into test-based groups at age ten ("special" and "express" are the top tiers; "normal" is the path for those headed for factory and service-sector work), kiasu seeps in early, eventually germinating in brilliant engineering students and phallic high-rises with a Bulgari store on the ground floor. Singaporeans are big on being number one in everything, but in a kiasu world, winning is never completely sweet, carrying with it the dread of ceasing to win. When the Singapore port, the busiest container hub in the world, slipped behind Shanghai in 2005 in total cargo tonnage handled, it was a national calamity.
The word has made it into the dictionary and has even become a dish:
… kiasu is a noun and adjective from the Chinese Hokkien dialect, meaning "extreme fear of losing, or of being second best". It's a notion the neurotically ambitious Singaporean and Malaysian professional middle classes regard as so self-defining that their sitcom character Mr Kiasu is a similar emblem of endearingly gruesome national character as Mr Brent is to us.
Having made its way to the Singapore-English hybrid tongue called Singlish, kiasu completed its trek across the etymological world in March when the Oxford English Dictionary included it on its quarterly list of new words, thereby qualifying it for Call My Bluff.
But enough of the linguistics and on to today's restaurant, which by way of an exquisite red herring worthy of Gogol happens to be called Kiasu. And which, by way of an enchanting irony worthy of a writer begging for the sack, need have no fear of being second best itself.
And on Singlish (again from the NGM):
… the government has maintained a campaign against the use of "Singlish," the multiculti gumbo of Malay, Hokkien Chinese, Tamil, and English street patois that is Singapore's great linguistic achievement. As you sit in a Starbucks listening to teens saying things like "You blur like sotong, lah!" (roughly, "You're dumber than squid, man!"), Singlish seems a brilliantly subversive attack on the very conformity the government claims it is trying to overcome. Then again, one of Singlish's major conceits is the ironic lionization of the flashy, down-market "Ah Beng" culture of Chinese immigrant thugs and their sunglass-wearing Malay counterparts.
A previous post here.
If there is a single word that sums up the Singaporean existential condition, it is kiasu, a term that means "afraid to lose." In a society that begins tracking its students into test-based groups at age ten ("special" and "express" are the top tiers; "normal" is the path for those headed for factory and service-sector work), kiasu seeps in early, eventually germinating in brilliant engineering students and phallic high-rises with a Bulgari store on the ground floor. Singaporeans are big on being number one in everything, but in a kiasu world, winning is never completely sweet, carrying with it the dread of ceasing to win. When the Singapore port, the busiest container hub in the world, slipped behind Shanghai in 2005 in total cargo tonnage handled, it was a national calamity.
The word has made it into the dictionary and has even become a dish:
… kiasu is a noun and adjective from the Chinese Hokkien dialect, meaning "extreme fear of losing, or of being second best". It's a notion the neurotically ambitious Singaporean and Malaysian professional middle classes regard as so self-defining that their sitcom character Mr Kiasu is a similar emblem of endearingly gruesome national character as Mr Brent is to us.
Having made its way to the Singapore-English hybrid tongue called Singlish, kiasu completed its trek across the etymological world in March when the Oxford English Dictionary included it on its quarterly list of new words, thereby qualifying it for Call My Bluff.
But enough of the linguistics and on to today's restaurant, which by way of an exquisite red herring worthy of Gogol happens to be called Kiasu. And which, by way of an enchanting irony worthy of a writer begging for the sack, need have no fear of being second best itself.
And on Singlish (again from the NGM):
… the government has maintained a campaign against the use of "Singlish," the multiculti gumbo of Malay, Hokkien Chinese, Tamil, and English street patois that is Singapore's great linguistic achievement. As you sit in a Starbucks listening to teens saying things like "You blur like sotong, lah!" (roughly, "You're dumber than squid, man!"), Singlish seems a brilliantly subversive attack on the very conformity the government claims it is trying to overcome. Then again, one of Singlish's major conceits is the ironic lionization of the flashy, down-market "Ah Beng" culture of Chinese immigrant thugs and their sunglass-wearing Malay counterparts.
A previous post here.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Malaysian Life
With apologies to This American Life and Lat.
- Some pictures of Malaysian life from MalaysiaFinance. As some of the comments indicate, the road names are probably faked. Some of these, well - you just have to be Malaysian to get it. The one that I found very funny was “Salesgirl” which translated to “Penjual gadis” which actually means seller of women. Fortunately, Google translate does better - translating “salesgirl” to “gadis jualan”.
- Memories of a kampung girl
- Discrimination - Malaysian style. Under Search Rooms - Click on the drop down box that says “Any Preference” to see the racial preferences of the renters.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
My tooth WAS handled!
An amusing post title (“You can’t handle the tooth!”) from MR kindled some memories. The post points to how some tasks can be handled by dental assistants much in the same way that physician assistants (PAs) now take over some care giving from doctors and how this is possibility is being opposed by the American Dental Association (in the same way the AMA fought against PAs.
When I was growing up all my dental needs (and there were many, but more on this below) were taken care of by women (usually from villages) who had come to study to become - well I don’t know what they were studying to become but they were being trained to clean, fill cavities and all other dental care (except extraction) and they were supervised not by dentists but by other graduates of the program. (And yes, they were all women who lived in dormitories near the college. I hesitate to call it a dental college but for all practical purposes that was what it was. I don’t know if this is still the case though but the college still exists.)
Not only later when I was in the United States did I learn that only medically trained dentists were allowed to fill cavities. My two opposing thoughts were and still are:
1. They need doctors to do this!?
2. Was I getting substandard care while growing up?
I had more than my share of cavities I feel and up till today I can’t be sure if it was my bad dental hygiene or the possible screw ups that happened while I went to the college for dental care. (Yes, it was free but at the cost of being a guinea pig.)
When I was growing up all my dental needs (and there were many, but more on this below) were taken care of by women (usually from villages) who had come to study to become - well I don’t know what they were studying to become but they were being trained to clean, fill cavities and all other dental care (except extraction) and they were supervised not by dentists but by other graduates of the program. (And yes, they were all women who lived in dormitories near the college. I hesitate to call it a dental college but for all practical purposes that was what it was. I don’t know if this is still the case though but the college still exists.)
Not only later when I was in the United States did I learn that only medically trained dentists were allowed to fill cavities. My two opposing thoughts were and still are:
1. They need doctors to do this!?
2. Was I getting substandard care while growing up?
I had more than my share of cavities I feel and up till today I can’t be sure if it was my bad dental hygiene or the possible screw ups that happened while I went to the college for dental care. (Yes, it was free but at the cost of being a guinea pig.)
Monday, October 10, 2011
Pulau Tikus
The following NGS article on the trade on exotic animals did not reflect very well on Malaysia and Penang in particular.
On September 14, 1998, a thin, bespectacled Malaysian named Wong Keng Liang walked off Japan Airlines Flight 12 at Mexico City International Airport. He was dressed in faded blue jeans, a light-blue jacket, and a T-shirt emblazoned with a white iguana head. George Morrison, lead agent for Special Operations, the elite, five-person undercover unit of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was there to greet him. Within seconds of his arrest, Anson (the name by which Wong is known to wildlife traffickers and wildlife law enforcement officers around the world) was whisked downstairs in handcuffs by Mexican federales, to be held in the country's largest prison, the infamous Reclusorio Norte.
…
For nearly two years Anson fought extradition to the U.S., but eventually he signed plea agreements, admitting to crimes carrying a maximum penalty of 250 years in prison and a $12.5-million fine. On June 7, 2001, U.S. District Judge Martin J. Jenkins sentenced him to 71 months in U.S. federal prison (with credit for 34 months served), fined him $60,000, and banned him from selling animals to anyone in the U.S. for three years after his prison release.
If the judge thought a ban on Anson Wong would work, he was mistaken. Shortly after his arrest, Anson's wife and business partner, Cheah Bing Shee, established a new company, CBS Wildlife, which exported wildlife to the U.S. while Anson was in prison. His main company, Sungai Rusa Wildlife, continued to ship despite the ban. Now that he's free, Anson has launched a new wildlife venture, a zoo that promises to be his most audacious enterprise yet.
…
Situated in the trendy Pulau Tikus ("rat island") section of Penang, Sungai Rusa Wildlife might easily be mistaken for a hair salon. No wider than a family garage and unidentified, it's one of dozens of units along a quiet strip of retail shops offering tummy reduction, skin care, and spa treatments.
…
One day in late December 2007, Anson's black Mercedes-Benz pulled into Penang International Airport and picked up two of Malaysia's top wildlife enforcement officials, Perhilitan's law enforcement division director, Sivananthan Elagupillay, and his boss, Deputy Director General Misliah Mohamad Basir. The officers had flown in from Kuala Lumpur for a press conference launching Flora and Fauna Village, now a joint venture between Penang's forestry department and Anson Wong and Michael Ooi's enterprise.
…
Anson had long boasted his government influence. Now he had the open support of both the Penang government and Malaysia's wildlife department. Misliah's presence was ironic. During Operation Chameleon Misliah had been the wildlife official in charge on Penang. She signed his CITES permits. Within four years of Anson's arrest, she was promoted to director of Perhilitan's law enforcement division, and by 2007 she'd been given the department's number two job.
I wondered what Misliah thought of the man who had smuggled so much endangered wildlife right under her nose.
"He is my good friend," Misliah giggled, sitting behind her desk in her spacious office at Perhilitan headquarters. She was a plump little woman, hardly more than a round head wrapped in a Muslim's white tudung scarf. She was swaddled in a sky blue shawl over a baju kurung, a long blouse and sarong, and wore petite brown sandals. Her voice was honestly the sweetest I'd ever heard.
…
Malaysia's second highest wildlife law enforcement officer speaks of her country's most notorious illegal trafficker like a doting aunt.
"People say, 'How can you give him his license?' " A smile wreathed Misliah's face. "He was a very bad boy, but if we don't give him a license, he would just do it anyway." This way, she said, they could keep their eye on him.
To this day Misliah vouches for Anson. "Anson Wong has carried out his business legally and complying [sic] the needs and requirements under the domestic law. He and his business in peninsular Malaysia have been monitored closely by this department," her office asserted in a written statement to the press in 2008.
She was also in favor of legalized tiger and bear-bile farming. "Why not?" she asked me.
Misliah Mohamad Basir, so inconspicuous, seemingly so benign, is one of the most powerful wildlife decision-makers on the planet. On her watch Malaysia has become a global trafficking hub.
…
Last August Misliah responded to allegations of a corrupt relationship between her department and Anson Wong: "As far as Malaysia is concerned, he abides by local laws and has the necessary licenses," she said. "What he does outside the country is not our concern."
After that article was published, a follow-up in Foreign Policy:
Things didn't begin to change until January 2010, when National Geographic published a profile I wrote of Wong, detailing his government connection and his new plans to exploit tigers. The outcry by both the public and journalists in the Malaysian press was immediate. (Malaysian newspapers and television are state controlled, which makes it difficult for journalists to criticize the government directly -- but they are free to disclose foreign reporting about Malaysia, such as my story.) In the course of the past year, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment announced a revamp of its wildlife department, promising to rotate senior officers every three years. It stripped the department of key powers and is in the process of transferring Misliah, who is now also under investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission. While international wildlife NGOs were cautious about causing trouble in Malaysia, they have provided invaluable advice to the country's government, including the parliament, which passed the first overhaul of its wildlife law in nearly four decades this summer.
As a result, when Wong was caught with a suitcase of boa constrictors, he didn't get away with it. The Malaysian government revoked his business licenses, shut down his zoo, and seized his entire collection of animals, including his Bengal tigers. In November, a judge sentenced him to five years in prison, an unprecedented term for a wildlife trafficker in Malaysia, and a stern sentence for animal smuggling compared to current standards anywhere else in the world.
Interestingly, Pulau Tikus was translated as ‘Rat Island’ I suppose to make the imagery complete although the Malay language doesn’t really distinguish between rat and mouse. I used to think of it as mouse. Some pictures of Pulau Tikus at above link. There’s a great Hokkien Mee place there - my mother and her friends refer to this place as the ‘soup miser’.
On September 14, 1998, a thin, bespectacled Malaysian named Wong Keng Liang walked off Japan Airlines Flight 12 at Mexico City International Airport. He was dressed in faded blue jeans, a light-blue jacket, and a T-shirt emblazoned with a white iguana head. George Morrison, lead agent for Special Operations, the elite, five-person undercover unit of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was there to greet him. Within seconds of his arrest, Anson (the name by which Wong is known to wildlife traffickers and wildlife law enforcement officers around the world) was whisked downstairs in handcuffs by Mexican federales, to be held in the country's largest prison, the infamous Reclusorio Norte.
…
For nearly two years Anson fought extradition to the U.S., but eventually he signed plea agreements, admitting to crimes carrying a maximum penalty of 250 years in prison and a $12.5-million fine. On June 7, 2001, U.S. District Judge Martin J. Jenkins sentenced him to 71 months in U.S. federal prison (with credit for 34 months served), fined him $60,000, and banned him from selling animals to anyone in the U.S. for three years after his prison release.
If the judge thought a ban on Anson Wong would work, he was mistaken. Shortly after his arrest, Anson's wife and business partner, Cheah Bing Shee, established a new company, CBS Wildlife, which exported wildlife to the U.S. while Anson was in prison. His main company, Sungai Rusa Wildlife, continued to ship despite the ban. Now that he's free, Anson has launched a new wildlife venture, a zoo that promises to be his most audacious enterprise yet.
…
Situated in the trendy Pulau Tikus ("rat island") section of Penang, Sungai Rusa Wildlife might easily be mistaken for a hair salon. No wider than a family garage and unidentified, it's one of dozens of units along a quiet strip of retail shops offering tummy reduction, skin care, and spa treatments.
…
One day in late December 2007, Anson's black Mercedes-Benz pulled into Penang International Airport and picked up two of Malaysia's top wildlife enforcement officials, Perhilitan's law enforcement division director, Sivananthan Elagupillay, and his boss, Deputy Director General Misliah Mohamad Basir. The officers had flown in from Kuala Lumpur for a press conference launching Flora and Fauna Village, now a joint venture between Penang's forestry department and Anson Wong and Michael Ooi's enterprise.
…
Anson had long boasted his government influence. Now he had the open support of both the Penang government and Malaysia's wildlife department. Misliah's presence was ironic. During Operation Chameleon Misliah had been the wildlife official in charge on Penang. She signed his CITES permits. Within four years of Anson's arrest, she was promoted to director of Perhilitan's law enforcement division, and by 2007 she'd been given the department's number two job.
I wondered what Misliah thought of the man who had smuggled so much endangered wildlife right under her nose.
"He is my good friend," Misliah giggled, sitting behind her desk in her spacious office at Perhilitan headquarters. She was a plump little woman, hardly more than a round head wrapped in a Muslim's white tudung scarf. She was swaddled in a sky blue shawl over a baju kurung, a long blouse and sarong, and wore petite brown sandals. Her voice was honestly the sweetest I'd ever heard.
…
Malaysia's second highest wildlife law enforcement officer speaks of her country's most notorious illegal trafficker like a doting aunt.
"People say, 'How can you give him his license?' " A smile wreathed Misliah's face. "He was a very bad boy, but if we don't give him a license, he would just do it anyway." This way, she said, they could keep their eye on him.
To this day Misliah vouches for Anson. "Anson Wong has carried out his business legally and complying [sic] the needs and requirements under the domestic law. He and his business in peninsular Malaysia have been monitored closely by this department," her office asserted in a written statement to the press in 2008.
She was also in favor of legalized tiger and bear-bile farming. "Why not?" she asked me.
Misliah Mohamad Basir, so inconspicuous, seemingly so benign, is one of the most powerful wildlife decision-makers on the planet. On her watch Malaysia has become a global trafficking hub.
…
Last August Misliah responded to allegations of a corrupt relationship between her department and Anson Wong: "As far as Malaysia is concerned, he abides by local laws and has the necessary licenses," she said. "What he does outside the country is not our concern."
After that article was published, a follow-up in Foreign Policy:
Things didn't begin to change until January 2010, when National Geographic published a profile I wrote of Wong, detailing his government connection and his new plans to exploit tigers. The outcry by both the public and journalists in the Malaysian press was immediate. (Malaysian newspapers and television are state controlled, which makes it difficult for journalists to criticize the government directly -- but they are free to disclose foreign reporting about Malaysia, such as my story.) In the course of the past year, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment announced a revamp of its wildlife department, promising to rotate senior officers every three years. It stripped the department of key powers and is in the process of transferring Misliah, who is now also under investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission. While international wildlife NGOs were cautious about causing trouble in Malaysia, they have provided invaluable advice to the country's government, including the parliament, which passed the first overhaul of its wildlife law in nearly four decades this summer.
As a result, when Wong was caught with a suitcase of boa constrictors, he didn't get away with it. The Malaysian government revoked his business licenses, shut down his zoo, and seized his entire collection of animals, including his Bengal tigers. In November, a judge sentenced him to five years in prison, an unprecedented term for a wildlife trafficker in Malaysia, and a stern sentence for animal smuggling compared to current standards anywhere else in the world.
Interestingly, Pulau Tikus was translated as ‘Rat Island’ I suppose to make the imagery complete although the Malay language doesn’t really distinguish between rat and mouse. I used to think of it as mouse. Some pictures of Pulau Tikus at above link. There’s a great Hokkien Mee place there - my mother and her friends refer to this place as the ‘soup miser’.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Wikileaks and journalism
In a previous post on Wikileaks about Thailand, the following sentence in the FP article undermines the credibility of the author
… Malaysia, is an apartheid state in which access to education and jobs depends on race.
Yes, it’s true access to education and some jobs depends on race, but apartheid? I’ve lived in Malaysia, I went to school in Malaysia, and I have even worked briefly in Malaysia and I have many Chinese friends who have done all three of these for all of their lives (unlike myself), and never in our minds would we classify our situation as similar to that of South Africa.
Unfortunately, it is this kind of rabble-rousing statement that journalists seem to thrive on that give them and their profession a bad name.
Unfortunately, in the 21st century opinions hide behind the veneer of “journalism” and reporting is not as glamorous as being part of the news and in the age of reality TV, if one isn’t part of something then one is nothing.
… Malaysia, is an apartheid state in which access to education and jobs depends on race.
Yes, it’s true access to education and some jobs depends on race, but apartheid? I’ve lived in Malaysia, I went to school in Malaysia, and I have even worked briefly in Malaysia and I have many Chinese friends who have done all three of these for all of their lives (unlike myself), and never in our minds would we classify our situation as similar to that of South Africa.
Unfortunately, it is this kind of rabble-rousing statement that journalists seem to thrive on that give them and their profession a bad name.
- It gives the impression that they don’t really know a situation.
- It allows governments of foreign countries to claim that foreigners are trying to stir up trouble (and yes, there is no doubt that some segments of the Malaysian government can be radicalized by Western journalists to make inflammatory claims that (mis)use words like “apartheid”.
- It reinforces the impressions of many Asians that freedom of the press really is a freedom to insult.
Unfortunately, in the 21st century opinions hide behind the veneer of “journalism” and reporting is not as glamorous as being part of the news and in the age of reality TV, if one isn’t part of something then one is nothing.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Penang as a tourist destination
I've been pondering why Penang remains a tourist destination – it used to be the beaches and it certainly isn't that any more. For a while now (apparently unknown to me), it has been street food and staying at Gurney Drive made me aware of this. Every evening tour buses would disgorge hordes of tourists to the end of Gurney Drive at the roundabout to Tanjung Tokong and they would descend upon the food stalls near our apartment.
We tried the food there one night – it wasn't all good – mostly miss than hit and the stalls didn't look particularly appetizing.
What used to be knowledge by word of mouth – where the best char koay teow was, etc. has now been formalized into guide books for foods as well as top ten lists in newspapers. I discovered all this on this particular trip and was slightly overwhelmed at how much things have changed. Of course, the Internet has been playing a big role as well. Try googling 'penang street food' and all kinds of web sites and blogs complete with mouth watering pictures of dishes appear.
Penangites (and its tourists) are apparently undeterred by the effect of emissions on the environment where food is concerned. They are willing to drive miles out of the way in search of the best hokkien mee or whatever seems to be on their mind.
We tried the food there one night – it wasn't all good – mostly miss than hit and the stalls didn't look particularly appetizing.
What used to be knowledge by word of mouth – where the best char koay teow was, etc. has now been formalized into guide books for foods as well as top ten lists in newspapers. I discovered all this on this particular trip and was slightly overwhelmed at how much things have changed. Of course, the Internet has been playing a big role as well. Try googling 'penang street food' and all kinds of web sites and blogs complete with mouth watering pictures of dishes appear.
Penangites (and its tourists) are apparently undeterred by the effect of emissions on the environment where food is concerned. They are willing to drive miles out of the way in search of the best hokkien mee or whatever seems to be on their mind.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Liquid chlorophyll
To drink! I saw a billboard for this in Penang. It's considered an anti-oxidant.
Coincidentally, I came across this article "Wheatgrass Juice and Folk Medicine" in the August 2008 Scientific American by Michael Sherman:
The recent medical controversy over whether vaccinations cause autism reveals a habit of human cognition – thinking anecdotally comes naturally, whereas thinking scientifically does not. ... On the other side are parents who noticed that shortly after having their children vaccinated autistic symptoms begin to appear. These anecdotal associations are so powerful that they cause people to ignore contrary evidence ...
Take wheatgrass juice ... if you can stomach it. The claims for its curative powers are bottomless.
While we're at this here are some other personal examples from my uncle who swears by the following:
1. Fruit wash when used on the skin can eliminate blemishes and acne.
2. The juices from discarded fruits and vegetable (when left to compost) is a very efficient cleaning agent (even for the skin).
Coincidentally, I came across this article "Wheatgrass Juice and Folk Medicine" in the August 2008 Scientific American by Michael Sherman:
The recent medical controversy over whether vaccinations cause autism reveals a habit of human cognition – thinking anecdotally comes naturally, whereas thinking scientifically does not. ... On the other side are parents who noticed that shortly after having their children vaccinated autistic symptoms begin to appear. These anecdotal associations are so powerful that they cause people to ignore contrary evidence ...
Take wheatgrass juice ... if you can stomach it. The claims for its curative powers are bottomless.
While we're at this here are some other personal examples from my uncle who swears by the following:
1. Fruit wash when used on the skin can eliminate blemishes and acne.
2. The juices from discarded fruits and vegetable (when left to compost) is a very efficient cleaning agent (even for the skin).
What I hate most about Penang
I came upon this realization rather suddenly – the kiasu (literally "afraid to lose" or roughly, "mine is bigger than yours") attitude in Penang is just as prevalent and pervasive in Washington. And the traffic in Penang is worse than Washington. Egads!
Penang
After Phuket, we were in Penang from July 30 – Aug 7. Stayed at a condominium on Gurney Drive found via Holiday Lettings. It turned out to be a very well stocked place with a lot of movies to watch (I only got to see 3) and close to the Cold Storage in Gurney Plaza which was essential for groceries. In a spurt of environmental activism that surprised me – the shops in Gurney Plaza do not use plastic bags from Mondays through Thursdays so we either had to bring our own bags or carry our purchases. One could argue that this was no skin off their backs since these are the least busy days in the mall but it was the awareness and the desire to do something about it that surprised me. (We won't see this in Bangkok malls!)
The touristy things we did: Kek Lok Si, butterfly farm and batik factory up in Teluk Bahang. The butterfly farm was impressive – probably on par with the collection we sometimes see in Wheaton. The weather was very mild and it only rained one or two days while we were there. It was even cooler than in Washington. There was too much eating on this leg of the trip (as expected) – it has probably undone a year's worth of exercise and diet. (And the reason I started on exercise and diet was because of last year's trip!)
One meal we had was at the Hollywood Restaurant at Tanjung Bungah next to the another defunct restaurant (Sin Hai Keng? I forget the name now but the food there was much better than at Hollywood.) Sad to say, the beach fronting the restaurant has not gotten any cleaner. We used to play at a beach where the Spring Tide restaurant was and there used to be a large pipe that discharged effluents straight into the ocean. (The site is now a high rise condominium!) We used to think it was so cool to see a river of 'water' come into the beach and would stand near the pipe and let the 'water' wash over our feet!
The memory that I will probably have of this trip is sitting out on the balcony of the rental apartment and enjoying the view of the hills in Penang and the coastline of Tanjung Tokong with the cool breeze on my face – while brushing my teeth or having coffee.
One thing of note was that at McDonald's I saw three women – a Chinese, an Indian, and a Malay together – who seemed to be friends and I thought of Rehman Rashid's A Malaysian Journey.
The touristy things we did: Kek Lok Si, butterfly farm and batik factory up in Teluk Bahang. The butterfly farm was impressive – probably on par with the collection we sometimes see in Wheaton. The weather was very mild and it only rained one or two days while we were there. It was even cooler than in Washington. There was too much eating on this leg of the trip (as expected) – it has probably undone a year's worth of exercise and diet. (And the reason I started on exercise and diet was because of last year's trip!)
One meal we had was at the Hollywood Restaurant at Tanjung Bungah next to the another defunct restaurant (Sin Hai Keng? I forget the name now but the food there was much better than at Hollywood.) Sad to say, the beach fronting the restaurant has not gotten any cleaner. We used to play at a beach where the Spring Tide restaurant was and there used to be a large pipe that discharged effluents straight into the ocean. (The site is now a high rise condominium!) We used to think it was so cool to see a river of 'water' come into the beach and would stand near the pipe and let the 'water' wash over our feet!
The memory that I will probably have of this trip is sitting out on the balcony of the rental apartment and enjoying the view of the hills in Penang and the coastline of Tanjung Tokong with the cool breeze on my face – while brushing my teeth or having coffee.
One thing of note was that at McDonald's I saw three women – a Chinese, an Indian, and a Malay together – who seemed to be friends and I thought of Rehman Rashid's A Malaysian Journey.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
The Malaysian Connection
I had known about the letter from Malaysia in the anthrax case, recounted very well here and about Stephen Hatfill. What I hadn't known was this titbit:
His girlfriend was Malaysian-born—and a hoax package had been sent from Malaysia to a Microsoft office in Nevada.
The article does not explain how the subsequent suspect Bruce Edward Ivins managed to mail a package from Malaysia though I suspect these kinds of things are easily done.
The article was enjoyable though it was hard not to see why the FBI considered Hatfill a suspect (unless he was being set-up - I may be watching too much TV). In the end, this is a tale of how we can all buckle when the weight of one organization (not just the government) comes down on us.
His girlfriend was Malaysian-born—and a hoax package had been sent from Malaysia to a Microsoft office in Nevada.
The article does not explain how the subsequent suspect Bruce Edward Ivins managed to mail a package from Malaysia though I suspect these kinds of things are easily done.
The article was enjoyable though it was hard not to see why the FBI considered Hatfill a suspect (unless he was being set-up - I may be watching too much TV). In the end, this is a tale of how we can all buckle when the weight of one organization (not just the government) comes down on us.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Borders in Malaysia
When we were in Malaysia last, we noticed that the Borders bookstore in Kuala Lumpur was selling books at market exchange rates which means that a US$10.00 was selling for M$35.00. Given that the incomes in Malaysia and U.S. are so different its hard to believe that the stores could sell that many books. Or could it be that they think they can make the sale because Asians value books/education more than other races? Could this post shed any light on this?
Or is this one reason why Borders is for sale?
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
American Shaolin
Read Matthew Polly's American Shaolin - the time he spent in China learning martial arts at the Shaolin Temple. It was a good read and I liked it better than some of the travel articles that he had written on Slate. It was good to have the chapters organized under his experiences (sometimes compared to his expectations as an American) rather than in chronological order.
It brought back some memories of growing up:
1. Wong Fei Hung shows on TV played by Kwan Tak Hing. See also here. The most recent version was I saw was Jet Li in Once Upon A Time In China.
2. The book also mentions Jet Li's first movie Shaolin Temple and how the movie craze then swept the Wushu world.
3. The One Armed Swordsman played by Ti Lung.
4. The many Police Story movies by Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung
It brought back some memories of growing up:
1. Wong Fei Hung shows on TV played by Kwan Tak Hing. See also here. The most recent version was I saw was Jet Li in Once Upon A Time In China.
2. The book also mentions Jet Li's first movie Shaolin Temple and how the movie craze then swept the Wushu world.
3. The One Armed Swordsman played by Ti Lung.
4. The many Police Story movies by Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung
Friday, December 5, 2008
Looking at Malaysia through American eyes
Bryan Caplan visited Malaysia:
I only spent three days in Malaysia. I suspect that rural areas would be less moderate than major cities like KL and Malacca. Nevertheless, I think that most Westerners would be shocked by the pluralism and tolerance that I saw.
A commenter note:
Re anti-Semitism, it is actually quite blatant in Malaysia. It's nowhere as public as you might expect, but that's primarily because there are hardly any Jews in the country, so hardly anything spurs a discussion of them. However, the leader of the opposition is often frequently tarred by the ruling party with a number of slurs which should give you an idea of Malaysian taboos - he has been called a homosexual, a Jew-lover, a pawn of the CIA, a pawn of the Chinese/Indians, and a Zionist. While racism is actually pretty blatant throughout Malaysian society, it's so blatant towards the Jews that it is taken for granted. Members of Parliament have frequently raised the issue of the opposition leader's fraternizing with American Jews in Parliament, arguing it clearly disqualifies him from any leadership position. The closest Malaysians have come to a political consensus is that Zionism (and by extension Jews/Judaism) is bad, and that the Iraq war was unjust. (And you'll find plenty of people willing to pin the Iraq war on the Jews/Zionists too.) Zhuge Liang is spot on re the Protocols of Zion, and as a Malaysian, I'm really quite appalled that they are such a staple in our bookstores. The trendy malls in the Kuala Lumpur city centre probably don't stock them, but most bookshops in the suburbs - even small niche operations - carry them.
When we were there last (2007), all I saw were divisions, divisions, divisions - Muslim/Chinese/Indian divisions.
I only spent three days in Malaysia. I suspect that rural areas would be less moderate than major cities like KL and Malacca. Nevertheless, I think that most Westerners would be shocked by the pluralism and tolerance that I saw.
A commenter note:
Re anti-Semitism, it is actually quite blatant in Malaysia. It's nowhere as public as you might expect, but that's primarily because there are hardly any Jews in the country, so hardly anything spurs a discussion of them. However, the leader of the opposition is often frequently tarred by the ruling party with a number of slurs which should give you an idea of Malaysian taboos - he has been called a homosexual, a Jew-lover, a pawn of the CIA, a pawn of the Chinese/Indians, and a Zionist. While racism is actually pretty blatant throughout Malaysian society, it's so blatant towards the Jews that it is taken for granted. Members of Parliament have frequently raised the issue of the opposition leader's fraternizing with American Jews in Parliament, arguing it clearly disqualifies him from any leadership position. The closest Malaysians have come to a political consensus is that Zionism (and by extension Jews/Judaism) is bad, and that the Iraq war was unjust. (And you'll find plenty of people willing to pin the Iraq war on the Jews/Zionists too.) Zhuge Liang is spot on re the Protocols of Zion, and as a Malaysian, I'm really quite appalled that they are such a staple in our bookstores. The trendy malls in the Kuala Lumpur city centre probably don't stock them, but most bookshops in the suburbs - even small niche operations - carry them.
When we were there last (2007), all I saw were divisions, divisions, divisions - Muslim/Chinese/Indian divisions.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Today and Yesterday
1. Three R's:
Yesterday: Reading, 'Riting, 'Rithmetic
Today: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
(Works better today)
2. Anwar Ibrahim:
Yesterday: A onetime Islamist student radical ...
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/world/asia/14malaysia.html
Today: Malaysia moved closer to a potentially momentous political transition on Tuesday as the country’s insurgent opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, asserted that he had secured enough votes to take power from the party that has run the Southeast Asian nation for more than 50 years.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/17/world/asia/17malay.html
Hope this works better today.
Yesterday: Reading, 'Riting, 'Rithmetic
Today: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
(Works better today)
2. Anwar Ibrahim:
Yesterday: A onetime Islamist student radical ...
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/world/asia/14malaysia.html
Today: Malaysia moved closer to a potentially momentous political transition on Tuesday as the country’s insurgent opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, asserted that he had secured enough votes to take power from the party that has run the Southeast Asian nation for more than 50 years.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/17/world/asia/17malay.html
Hope this works better today.
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