Eat, Drink and be (home)sick

(you can click on any of the pictures to make them bigger)



It would would be accurate to say that when it comes to food, I'm not very adventurous. My idea of "brave eating" is finishing all the green beans on my plate when we're at someone else's house. Malaysia, and particularly Penang, is a smorgasbord of new and exciting culinary choices - if you actually like that sort of thing. Anyone looking to try fish eyeball soup, cow lung, and green fish served whole in a black sauce - this is the place for you.

Don't get me wrong, I like to eat, but not eyeballs! If I was the type to make sacrifices for the love of my "blog art", I'd probably try that soup so that I could report on how it tastes, but I'm not quite that committed. Combine the odd sights and smells with the possibility of getting sick every time you eat in a public restaurant and you might start to understand why I typically eat at home.

There are some interesting drink options here, once you get past the standard Coke and Pepsi offerings. My personal favorite is actually pineapple juice, which is available in the US, but I never purchased it before coming here, so it feels like a local delicacy. That should give you an idea as to how adventurous I am.

There are 2 unique juice drinks here that I like quite a bit. One is a white grape juice and the other is blackcurrant & cranberry. By themselves, they sound uninteresting, but what makes both of them special is the inclusion of "aloe vera pulps."


If you click on the picture, you'll see that is a prominent selling feature on their packaging.



Think Orange Juice pulp, only larger and more jelly-like. Here are some pictures of the pulp floating in a glass and then a closeup of the pulp itself - you can click on them to make them bigger.



The first time I had this, I really didn't expect the pulp and it caught me by surprise, but now I like it. That's about how exciting my eating habits have become.

There is a special process used outside the US for preserving drinks (they use it in Europe also), most often used for juices and milk known as UHT (ultra-high-temperature) processing. You can read more about it at that link, but the short version is that they cook the milk at a very high temperature then package it quickly and it lasts for a long time without going bad (as long as you don't expose it to air). How long does it last? Well take a look at these pictures.



Now you may be thinking, "Wow, it's only Dec 1st so that means that milk is good for 3 months!" However, if you were to look at the properties on that picture file, you'd see i actually took the picture at the end of June. That means it's intended to last in that package for more than 9 months without refrigeration! That's not a typo - it is sold on regular supermarket shelves, not in the cold aisles. Needless to say, it tastes a bit funny, but it is real milk - not powder.

Chocolate milk (cold and hot) is quite popular here (perhaps to hide the bad taste), but it's almost exclusively Nestle's "Milo" brand (based out of Australia) - I can't find Hershey's syrup anywhere. You can buy Milo candy, cereal, drink mix, ice cream... you get the idea. No matter how much you cover it up, it still tastes odd (Nico's family was here this summer and his sons refused to drink the milk during the 3 months they were here). I tell you that milk (and other dairy products) is the thing that tastes the "most better" when I'm back in the US. That bovine growth hormone sure is tasty.

My final drink related observation relates to how drinks are served. If you go to a standard restaurant, you're served drinks in glasses as you'd expect. But if you buy them from a street vendor, they serve drinks in plastic bags with a straw (the Intel cafeteria even sells some drinks like this). On a construction site, you might see a dozen of these bags tied to a fence where people will just walk over, drink from the straw, then go back to work.

The only thing that makes sense about this is that it's probably easier to hold this bag while driving around on your scooter than a regular drink cup, but it still seems like a bizarre way to serve drinks.


Now about those odd food choices. I'm including a few of my recent favorites here. First, here's a newspaper ad selling fish. Whole fish with fins, scales, eyeballs and a nice garnish - yuck! Anyone interested in eating an over sized goldfish? They sell for about $1USD each.



Maybe you're not in the mood for fish and want to try some poultry. How about duck? You can buy a whole one for only $2USD. Here, whole means it comes with the head and beak still attached. Now you may wonder why it appears to have at least 3 eyes on one side of it's head - my response to that would be "AAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" Apparently, it's important for mutant ducks to be sold with the heads still attached.

But all of this is a big pile of yummy goodness compared to my final item this week - black chicken! That's right, I said black. I don't mean "dark meat" - this is actually a black chicken, sold like this intentionally. In fact, I took a picture of it still in the package at the top of this page so you could see this wasn't just me having a good time with some markers.


I actually bought this thinking I'd be brave and try to cook it, taste it, and tell you all about it - it's chicken, how bad can it be? But once I took it out of the package, it smelled funny and if you look closely, you'll see that the neck and head is still attached, which was too much for me. If you click on those pictures to take a closer look, it also appears that something funky is coming out of the head region - it was difficult for me to keep my lunch down. I hate to waste food, but this was $1.75USD that I just couldn't bring myself to eat.

Ok last note this week - I've always wanted to post something on youtube.com to see how it works, so I uploaded this video of a recent rainstorm and included it below. You should be able to watch it just by clicking the "play" button below (you may have to click twice). There was no noise in my apartment, all that noise was just the rain and thunder outside my window. It's "monsoon season" here right now, so we're having these sorts of storms at least once each day. I'm used to the rain in Portland, and this is pretty crazy even for me.



No other pictures this week. You can click any of the pictures above to see them full size.

Manzanillo detour

As reported a few months ago, Susan Jane came out to Malaysia to visit me back in July. It was fun to see her out here and travel the countryside, but 20 hours each way in a plane is a lot to travel every 3 months. So we decided to find a different place to go in October in order to share the travel time. We considered a variety of of places like New Zealand, Tokyo, even Egypt, but when it came time to actually make our plans, the only thing we could work out with our schedules was a relaxing trip to Mexico.

We chose Manzanillo, which is a small town on the southern coast of Mexico. We have previously visited places like Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas, so we thought going someplace new would allow us to see some new sites. Manzanillo is the sailfish capital of the world (you can also fish for tuna, marlin, and dorado). You can see from the map below that there are a lot of activities to do there, including an active volcano we planned to see. If you haven't had the chance to go to an all-inclusive resort, we highly recommend it!


Ironically, I was home in Portland for work the whole week before our trip, but Susan Jane was presenting at a conference in Arizona that week - so we saw each other for the first time a few hours before the flight out of Portland. The flight was quite long (10 hours in the air plus 3 layovers), but that's our only real complaint. We boarded at midnight and got to the hotel around 1pm the next day, so we took the first two days to recover from the flight and soak up some sun.

The resort was beautiful and our trip was in late October, right after their rainy season. In fact, some of the parts of the resort were still being cleaned and renovated when we were there (including one pool and one restaurant). Fortunately, they had several large pools, two open restaurants and their own private beach, so we didn't mind the ongoing renovations. Plus, there were no bugs at this time of year. The food was very good and you can never go wrong with free drinks. They even had a special drink they called a "Miami Vice" (about 2/3's Strawberry Margarita and 1/3 Pina Colada) - I don't know if they actually put any alcohol in it, but it sure was tasty!

On our third day, we took a trip to the Cuyutlan Eco-Paradise lagoon and turtle camp. This is a place where they breed three different kinds of sea turtles in an effort to prevent extinction. We learned that there were 8 species of sea turtle, but one is now extinct. Of the remaining 7 species, 3 are found in this part of Mexico. Most exciting was that SJ actually got to hold a baby turtle in her hand.

Next up was a ride in the Palo Verde estuary (which is a fancy word for lagoon, or possibly even swamp). There were lots of white herons, brown pelicans, iguanas, and other wildlife but unfortunately, we were either too slow with the camera or the pictures did not turn out very well. I included a few in the web album below, but it's hard to convey how it feels to be in a small boat when you realize a crocodile is right next to you.

We did get a picture of one swimming away from the boat, and that's the image I'd rather keep in my mind anyway.

The next day we decided to head up to see the volcano - after all, that was one of the reasons we chose Manzanillo in the first place. This ended up being a full day trek (mostly by car) from coastal Manzanillo up to the "Fuego" Volcano, about 13,000 feet above sea level. This is one of the most active volcanoes in Mexico, continuously emitting smoke and red-hot rock flows, most recently "erupting" in 2004 and 2005. Unfortunately, on the day we were there, it was clouded over. However, on the way back down we stopped in the town of Comala for lunch and picked up a few post cards to show how cool it can look (you can see more pictures here). It didn't turn out exactly as expected, but if we had been luckier with the weather it would have been worth it.

Our last stop before lunch was the Colima Coffee processing plant. Unfortunately, we were a few months early for their heavy season, but they explained that this whole concrete drying area is covered with beans in their busy months. We took some pictures of other equipment they had, but almost all of it was idle at this time of year. They did allow us to sample some of their coffee - we're not usually coffee drinkers, but it tasted pretty good to us. We did buy a bag, so if you're ever in the Portland area, we're happy to share (bring a grinder, we don't have one :).
We ate a tapas lunch at a restaurant in the Comala town square and were serenaded by a Mariachi band. The food was excellent and we were surprised by how much they brought out - clearly they are used to feeding Americans. From Comala, we went to Colima City (Colima is the name of the state in Mexico where all these sites are, Colima City is the capital). We posed for a dark picture in the popular Cathedral and then headed back to the hotel.
We had another day or two there, but we just used the time to relax and work on our tans. Overall, we really enjoyed Manzanillo. Susan Jane took 6+ years of Spanish in school, and I actually remember more Spanish than French, so we even attempted to communicate with locals and were able to read most of the signs. The weather was great, the food was great, and we both came home a bit less pale than we started out.
The only thing we'd change is that we'd pick a place closer to the US border so that the flight time was a bit shorter. On our last day, we left the hotel around 9am and got back to Portland around 1am (thanks in part to a 6 hour layover in Mexico City). Then I left for the airport at 1pm that day and headed back to Penang, arriving at my apartment about 30 hours later. After all that flying, I was ready for another vacation. :)

If you're interested, you can view more pictures from our trip by clicking the picture below.

Manzanillo Oct 06

Happy Birthday to me!

Like many American college students, my 21st birthday was a blur of bad free drinks (like the cement mixer), embarrassing behavior, and a fair amount of stomach upset. Clearly a night to remember! Since then however, my birthday's have been pleasant but uneventful. After a tough week at work where it was announced that I'll be coming home 6 months early from Malaysia, it was a perfect time to head out for a 32nd birthday weekend adventure.

Nico is another expat who is here in Malaysia and has quite a reputation as a tour guide even though he has only been here 2 months longer than me. In fact, just about everyone who has been to Malaysia during Nico's assignment has their own special "Nico story." I'd managed to find excuses for the past 5 months to stay locked in my apartment, but I knew if I wanted to get away and forget about my troubles for a few days, Nico was the guy to go with.

We decided to go to Langkawi Island, which is about a 90 minute car ride north to the ferry, and then a 90 minute ferry ride west. We arrived around noon on Saturday and were ready to let loose.

Having been there before, Nico recommended that we rent scooters to tour the island. What could be more fun? Unlike at home, we didn't need any complicated driving lessons or lengthy insurance forms - once they found two bikes that could start, we handed over about $35USD and we were on our way. Nico had a small scooter, but I was lucky enough to get a full sized motorcycle! Just look at the smile on my face:

I did find it odd when Nico was starting his scooter and ran into another scooter in the parking lot, breaking it's license plate and mirror, but I figured he was just goofing around. Surely he had enough experience on bikes and scooters that such an incident wouldn't happen by accident! Little did I know...

Nevermind that my helmet didn't fit, that I only had a t-shirt and swim trunks on, or that I'd never driven a motorcycle further than a few hundred yards - I was ready for my "Live to Ride" tattoo! No wonder people get passionate about motorcycles - this was exhilarating! It was only noon on the day before my birthday - what a great weekend lay ahead of us!

Next up was jet skiing. Fresh off the fun of riding a "hog", we skipped right past the 15 minute rental and signed up for 30 minutes each. Just look how ready and eager I am to hit the open water! They gave me the 30 second safety overview and as soon as the guy finished talking, I hit the throttle and didn't let go for 20 minutes.

Have you ever tried to ride a jet ski at full speed for 30 minutes straight? I'm sure there are people in much better shape than me who can do it just fine, but it is really tiring! Even though you're seated, your internal organs get bounced all over the place, all your muscles are tight the entire time, and you're sliding back and forth all over the seat. After 20 minutes I was exhausted and sore. I tried standing for a while in order to get the most out of my final 10 minutes, but all that did was tire out my legs and hurt my feet - a rugged outdoorsman I am not. I ran out of gas just as my 30 minutes was ending and I was clear in the middle of the ocean. They towed me back in and I checked to make sure no body parts had fallen off unexpectedly.

Incidentally, if you haven't been on a jet ski lately, the warning labels have gotten incredibly specific. You can click the link to see a picture of it, but i won't include it here in case you haven't had your coffee and toast yet today - not for the feint of heart. The woman in the picture sure looks happy that she has her wetsuit on. This is not a joke - apparently it's a real problem that has been happening more and more (highlighted in this news story).

So by comparison to some, I survived the jet ski in great shape, just somewhat stiff and shaken up. For future reference, 15 minutes on a jet ski is plenty. Right as we got back to shore, a heavy rainstorm rolled in, so we waited it out at a nearby restaurant and caught our breath.

Once the rain stopped, we hopped on our bikes for a fun cruise around the island including a brief stop at a secluded beach just before sunset.

With my clear glasses back at the hotel, we decided to head back before it got too dark.

It turns out that wet roads can be pretty dangerous, particularly on a motorcycle, in the dark, when they have oil on them and you can't see very well because you're wearing sunglasses at dusk.

About 5 minutes from being safely back at our hotel, we rounded this turn at about 35mph (we were traveling in the same direction as the car in the background). Nico hit a patch of wet oil. His bike immediately laid down and once he was detached from it, it flipped in the air and ended up in this ditch facing exactly opposite the way we were traveling. We don't have any pictures of it because we were worried someone else would crash into us, but it looked really crazy.

Nico's bike wasn't the cause of this guardrail being bent in half (his scooter only weighed about 100 pounds), but we suspect that the accident that ended in this guardrail was what sprayed oil on this strip of road. After all, why clean up spilled oil when you can leave it there for the next guy to slip on?

Despite my extensive experience (almost 2 full hours!) of motorcycle riding, I had no idea what to do in such a situation. I saw an accident in front of me, so I hit the brakes. Turns out that's the wrong thing to do - motorcycles don't have anti-lock brakes or airbags. My bike went down milliseconds after Nico's and was then sliding towards him in a flash of sparks across the oil slick (fortunately nothing ignited, although that may have made this story even more exciting).

It is a miracle that Nico and I were not seriously injured - mere scratches on our arms and legs. Turns out there was so much oil, it prevented us from serious "road rash" and we were going slow enough that there were no broken bones. Considering my father managed to break 4 ribs and his collarbone 15 years ago in a very similar accident, I could not have been much luckier! (more pictures are available in the attached Picasa Web Album) The same day that I realized why motorcycle riding is so great, I realized why it's so dangerous.

Neither bike was significantly damaged (although Nico's bike lost both it's mirrors in the process), so we pulled his bike out of the ditch and headed back for the hotel. We got cleaned up and went to dinner, still quite shaken up. The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful if you don't count the fact that Nico was served a steak still cold in the middle and then served chicken when he asked for it to be cooked longer - but hey, we had just cheated death, how could we complain?

The next morning we got up and went to breakfast and saw another couple with much worse road rash wounds that looked fresh. Nico struck up a conversation with them and it turns out they had the same accident as we did! Their bike was not driveable and the rental owner estimated it was going to cost them $600USD in damages (which may not sound like much, but for a $20 rental, it's a lot).

Nico assured me that we had to go to one more attraction on Sunday before heading back home. We drove over to a cable car that takes you from sea level to a viewpoint 700 meters up (2300 feet). After the bike accident, I was jumpy every time the car wiggled funny, but there were some incredible views.

It was a very cool final stop on the trip, but I was looking forward to getting back on firm ground. Just as we were getting in line to take the cable car back to the parking lot, we started to see black smoke billowing out of the intermediate station! This is not the reassurance I was looking for. After getting lucky with the motorcycle crash, now we were going to die in a fiery cable car accident hundreds of feet above the ground?!


Turns out we made it down ok. We drove cautiously back to the ferry and got the heck out of there before the sky started falling down on us.


On the drive back from Langkawi, Nico regaled me with tales of other friends and family he has endangered either through his bad driving or recommendations of dangerous activities. Now I'm starting to think that people don't have "Nico stories" because they want them - they have "Nico stories" because they live through them and want to share with other people the dangers of hanging out with him!


Just the same, we have a few more weeks before we head back to the US, so we might as well make the most of it. Nico says he knows of a place in Thailand where they juggle flaming torches on unicycles and we can sign up to do it for only $5. Sounds like fun I guess - at least I'll have something interesting to blog about if I live through it! It's been 2 days since the jet ski and the accident and I still can't walk right, but I sure had plenty to write about.

If you're interested in more pictures from our Langkawi adventure, feel free to view the web album here:

Langkawi Nov 06

Lazy Man's Blog Update

Hello friends in blog-land.

It's been almost 2 1/2 months since my last update. I don't have a good excuse for my lack of updates except that I've been living a pretty boring existence for the past several weeks. I went back to Portland in early September and SJ and I just got back from a nice trip to Manzanillo, Mexico (should have that blog update ready next week with pictures). But other than that, it's just been work, eat, video games, and sleep. It's pretty hard to make that interesting - unless I post some pictures of me sitting in front of my computer killing dragons. :)

This week, a coworker sent out a mail with some really funny pictures depicting life in Malaysia and I thought it would make a fun blog post, even if it's somewhat unoriginal. So I'll tell you in advance - I didn't take these pictures, but I have seen a lot of these things in my travels over here. Someone did the hard work for me - I'm just sharing them for your enjoyment.

You might recall a few months back when I wrote about driving in Malaysia. Scooters are a very common form of transportation over here - partly because cars cost so much. It's especially the case for small business owners or general contractors who don't have a lot of capital - they frequently use scooters in place of trucks.

What's funny about the pictures below is that they are really extreme examples of using scooters far beyond their intended use. I don't have a lot of comments about these pictures - they mostly speak for themselves. Hope you find them entertaining.

(You can click on any of these pictures to make them bigger)

First - here's some creative ways to transport food:























More food, including eggs, chicken, and ducks:

















The last of the food pictures - big blocks of ice and little pigs!

















A bunch of plastic products, some crates and what? Hula hoops???

















plumbers and fencing contractors - imagine if either of these had to stop suddenly!










Why drive your truck to get new tires when you can drive new tires to your truck?




One of my favorites - a full size mirror!



Finally - a response to the SUV. In the US, people are buying Expeditions to work by themselves. In Malaysia, they fit a family of *5* on a single scooter!



OK - that's all for this week, hope you've been well for the past few months!