after 20 years away, it’s not likely that anything would be recognizable to me here, even if i remembered anything more than my childhood dog—Skippy—from when we lived here.
but Indonesia is a pretty cool place so far, and not so unfamiliar.. the Jakartan landscape from airplane view is definitely much different from Kuala Lumpur’s.. we had some wonderful Indonesian food, and i liked it all even though i’m still not great at eating spicy food—i like to think i’ve really really improved over the past few decades though, and that i’m at the very least a warrior about it.
we ran into issue at the airport.. they didn’t want to let my brother into the country because his American passport expires in less than 6 months. they seriously tried to send him back to Malaysia on the next flight out. i basically went into fight mode and could feel my the stress in my body and heartrate and such, as i stood between my brother and the 7 guys insisting that they had to take him to the airplane immediately. ultimately, mom was able to nice the man in charge into letting Lor through. if no is an unacceptable offer, then do not accept it.
very nice lady my father works with came to fetch us, and took us to lunch and such.. so nice to see the traditional handicrafts around.. i think more accessible and more authentic than stuff you’ll see in Malaysia these days. familiar and comfortable all at once.
internet at this hotel is not guaranteed. in fact, they told us we can’t have it without paying a few hundred thousand rupia, AND changing rooms to pay more, but only have two hours of access per day. oy oy oy. somehow i’m in right now.. but i won’t hold my breath for too too much.
i was told the flight over was going to be about an hour… it didn’t totally sound right to me, but i didn’t have the itinerary and i don’t have a watch and indonesia isn’t that far from KL, so i believed it was possible… thus the taking of my ‘ear pills’ much much much too early, and thus the intense pain upon landing that actually managed to persist a while after we landed. yay.
poor guy at nice restaurant seemed not to understand what i wanted by ordering “lime/lemon juice.” “lemon tea? tea with lemon?” “no… lemon juice.” he eventually got it. it was good juice. Lor has seemingly inherited my taste for starfruit juice, which used to be an Alicson favorite/must-order. it’s still quite good.
we had dragon fruit the past few days. i’ve not had this kind with the red (hot magenta pink) inside before… apparently this is the common kind… but i’d only ever seen the kind with white inside. this magenta kind leaves magenta EVERYwhere—fingers, tongue, teeth…. but it’s still yum, and it apparently doesn’t stain like mangosteen (white, but purpleish stains) does.
though it was very brief (but i’ll see them again in a week, at least, for CNY) was really really really nice to see my three lil cousins (there’s another two lil ones over in KL that i’ll get to see in a week).. really nice to see them, but also really sad—they’re getting bigger! kids get bigger! you go away a year, and you come back, and they’re not as small as they were before! i feel strange and old and very trite to be saying that.. but … well, i adore them as they are and as they continue to grow, but i’ll always miss them as the tiny kids they once were..
i lost my watch today. somewhere amidst the markets, my watch is either lying on some dirty street, or — far more likely — it’s in someone’s hand or on a stand being resold already. who knows. when i realized it was missing from my wrist (unlikely snatched.. it just fell off along the way, during some shuffling of bags on my wrist or something) i felt physically sick. for one thing, i rely on having a watch on my wrist — i always check the time consciously/unconsciously. but i also feel sick at the thought of just buying some whatever watch to put on my wrist now as replacement. i’ve always found it to be perfect, and feel perfect. and now it’s not where it’s been and i won’t see it again. i’ve had it for years, and it’s only ever ever taken off when i shower/immerse in water. i’m terribly unhappy without it.
while i’m in this mood, i’m going to go ahead and note how displeased i am about this unhealthy/unsafe/ungood thing that seems prevalent in Malaysia/Asia/the world these days. I can’t eat the fruits/order fruitjuice/have drinks with ice in it/order coffee, because: they spray pesticides, they put the ice on the dirty floor, they use poisonous coloring, etc.etc. and every few second’s i’m reminded to hold my purse close because it might get snatched from me. but holding my purse close to me doesn’t solve any problem as far as i see — if i act like the purse/contents are so valuable, they’re more likely to eye it.. and if I hold it tight, i’m more likely to get hurt when i hit the pavement from them grabbing it, or have my head smashed in so that i’ll let go.
whatever. none of that is new news. none of that is unique to this country/region.
and i miss my watch.
over in Melaka. never been here before. quite nice. lazy cousins could’ve come, but chose to miss out on enjoying incredible food, beautiful beautiful house, comfy cars, and particularly gracious hospitality of our hosts, extremely happy mangosteens and langsats/dukongs (again found despite out of season! booyah!!), very nice breezy weather, and again incredible food.
anyway, it’s good. and it’s fun talking with aunties and making plans too…..
after a huge steamboat dinner, and a whole happy baby coconut, i’m happily really full….
not getting to see eldeest cousin again tonight.. but was good to see him last night.. maybe get a bit more time later this trip too. never quite enough time..
Lor is happy with his Carlsberg. meh.
got internet to work over here at cousin’s house, where i couldn’t yesterday…
one of my cousins (not in Malaysia) is online, and going to start construction on an an online home (finally!)
had mangosteen and dukong/langsat today! yayyyyy! that was such happiness.
had wontonmee/kwanlomee also, but junhoe’s right—that stall isn’t quite the best. still, no one in the U.S. seems capable of making it, despite many assurances to me that it’s an easy dish to make.
got my new passport. yay Malaysian me.
cousin’s loft up here is very happy.
looking forward to seeing the younglings.. it’s weird to think of the cousins/kids as growing up too fast… but they are. i want them to stay little and pick-up-able and ridiculously adorable. not that i don’t love and cherish them when they’re big and distinguished-looking and stuff… but there’s a cousin i will always remember his tiny-fist-wrapped around one finger tightly, big chipmunk cheeked, pouty cute face, that he was back when he was baby of the famiily. now: off in europe becoming a doctor. i guess i’m okay with that. i don’t see him as a baby or a child anymore at all.. but i won’t forget that that he was so little once.
am i really that old? i am not..
i love my family, i love my cousins.. i’m just really hoping we all stay close over the next many many decades, and that our kids get a chance to be just as close if not more so.
passport stuff dealt with… both ready for pickup tomorrow.
we jumped all the queues.. it’s good to know people in useful places.
afterward, mom set up a new account with Maybank (some hassle there… the had issues with setting her maiden name as her account name, which was necessary to have them do. ...
went to visit place that deals with EPF transfer afterward… basically equivalent of U.S. social security.
now, going to move photos into flickr.
then i think i’d like a nap.
Ake Evans (originally by Maroon 5) – She Will Be Loved
Jonathan Kingham – Walk Away
Frou Frou – Maddening Shroud
djpretzel – Super Mario 64: Sunken Suite (OC ReMix)
Libertines – Music When the Lights Go Out
Ake Evans (originally from The Piano) – Big My Secret
David Gray – January Rain
As probably most who have flown it would agree, Singapore Airlines is comparatively much goodness. First thing that hits you when you walk in are the bright blue/purple seats (well, i guess the outfits of the stewardesses are quite catching, but that’s fairly familiar for me).. then there’s the matching flannel blankets, the many channels on the personal tv set, the bendy sides of the headrest, the icecream bars they offer you after meals, the decent airline food, the purple socks on flights, and the nice stewardesses.
if you manage a first class/”raffles” class seat, you get what look either like big cushy armchairs, or a-bit-overly-dramatic cushy thrones. i’ll give my verdict on those when i get to try them one day.
for now, i’m lucky i’m still small enough to bunch up and curl into my economy seat at the window, and climb over passengers sitting next to me by stepping on their armrests, so they don’t have to get up when i have to visit the restroom.
Singapore Airport is also nice, and the rest of the city is similar as far as my memory serves, but it’s certainly grown up in the past 15 years.
in the yard outside the living room in KL
those little shrew creatures squeak. loudly. at each other.
and that cat… for such a hideous roar, it seems to be a pretty sorry hunter. at least it’s kinda cute. but so are those shrew creatures.
i’m in KL at the moment.
arrived this Wednesday late morning, having begun journey from U.S. on Monday afternoon.
from DC—> New York—> Frankfurt, Germany—> Singapore—> Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Dashboard Confessional –
So Beautiful i heard that you were home again, but you don’t look like you’re back, to me.. it’s not the price that’s going to cost you, it’s just the weight that’s going to bring you down
Toshiro Masuda – Strong and Strike
(Naruto)
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