Malacca Malaysia

My general plan for this break was certainly general: Go to Kuala Lumpur for Seth's birthday then see what happens. Spent about a week in KL, did a minuscule amount of research about Malaysia amounting to checking out Kieran's Facebook status about what he should do in Malaysia and copying and pasting the results onto my sticky notes on my computer. About a day or two before the guys were leaving KL for Indonesia and Burma, I asked them what I should do. Kieran: "Go to Malacca, I hear it's great." Done. Did a quick 10 min on Wikitravel then looked on hostelworld for a cheap place to stay and left on the Sunday. Malacca is a World Heritage Site, many temples, churches and museums that I can tell you I did not visit. I'm sure they are great though. 

My overall impression of Malacca was that I loved it. Fairly small town, very historic, interesting architecture, great weekend night markets, Chinatown, great for walking around, or taking one of these little devices that more often that not were playing Gangnam style:

It was a great place to walk around, got severely lost the first night (shocking) and is very safe. Malacca in my opinion is crazy romantic and would be a ideal place to go on a little getaway. They have a beautiful canal to walk along or take a small boat and tour the area at night. Lots of small little cafes and quaint restaurants. If I ever trick a girl into marrying me, I'd love to come back there.


This may seem insignificant to you but they have 2 movie theaters so I watched Taken 2 (7.5 out of 10) and Looper (7.89 out of 10), found a small little burger shop called Bert's Jr. Can you believe that?? 

So the first time I found this great little gem I of course ordered one lemonade, I love lemonade. Just before I was about to order, I thought to myself "Bert, don't tell them your name is Bert. They don't care. This is what your dad would have done and you would have been embarrassed. Keep your mouth shut, drink your lemonade, and walk away" 
"One lemonade please, oh and my name is Bert"
Employee: "Oh your name is Bert, ha",.....hands me my lemonade, "Thanks Bert!"
Made my night. I also went back the next day to have a cheeseburger and the girl is like you were here yesterday right? Bert? Then the guy in the back near the grill "Hi Bert" It's true that remembering peoples names is important. People love the sound of their own name. 

Stayed at a great little guesthouse on the canal called River View Guesthouse. Perfect for sleeping in and near this famous Chinese chicken and rice ball restaurant that made me pretty happy.

View from the guesthouse.

Spent three nights in Malacca, was a bit sad to leave but like leaving places a little early, wanting a bit more rather than overdoing it and being happy to leave. Last quick note about Malacca: 
Cab ride from bus terminal to my first hostel, which wasn't great.
Cab driver after about 10 minutes of silence:
"Where you from" 
Me: "Canada" 
Cab driver "I studied at York University in Toronto....they still have table dancers in Canada? 
Me: "Umm yep" 
Cab driver smiles: "I used to drink Blue Labatt"
Good to know Canada's reputation in Malacca Malaysia is table dancing and Labatt Blue. 


"Never let your memories be greater than your dreams."  Doug Ivister

Highlights from KL

1-Standing outside the Petronas Towers. Great.

2-We stayed at a hostel called BackHome. Real nice, pretty cheap and clean. On Seth's birthday, a lady who worked there took us through a few small back alleys to this amazing, cheap and really good Malaysian food that we definitely never would have found on our own. 

I may have forgotten my towel on one of these railings

3-Went to the Aquaria KLCC. Basically, just an awesome aquarium, not crazy big but a good way to kill an hour or two. Especially if you have kids (which I can't stand....) they would love it. You can walk through this tunnel and see all kinds of different fish, sea horses, sharks, turtles and maybe my favorite thing is their moon jellyfish: 

 

4-On the Friday night for Seth's birthday we went to a nightclub and this famous DJ was there, DJ Sydney Sampson. I was going to post his most famous song but it is grossly inappropriate. 

Don't really like DJ's that much but we got our dance on till about 4 and I was actually dancing like 90% of the time which is for sure a change of pace for me. Would it surprise you if I said I thought Malaysian girls are beautiful?

5-I may or may not have eaten at these places, numerous times. Don't judge me:

6-Ate about 3 pretzels and they have real Red Bull here. It's the little things that get you through the day.

I liked KL, not a ton of things to do, got lost a few times, nice hanging out with fun people, probably wouldn't go back and you aren't missing out too much if you don't go. I will post about where I have been the last week soon. Off to the Perhentian Islands tomorrow.

"Weekends do not count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless"

Appreciate the love

I read this article and I suggest you read if you have time: http://www.wanderingearl.com/everybody-told-me-i-was-a-useless-bum/ Wanted to share my experience. If you don't want or have time to read it, summary is a bunch of his readers have messaged him lately about people in their lives not being fully supportive about their decision to leave home, travel/work abroad for whatever period of time. He agrees and has had the same experiences of people telling him he is making a mistake, is wasting his life, not living in reality and needs to get a "real job". The fact that some people are like this doesn't surprise me, haters gonna hate, but it surprises me that so many people are having these challenges with their friends and family. 

First reason: I have not experienced this. Maybe that is because people just think it and would rather not tell me that what I'm doing isn't the best idea. Out of all of the people I have told and have found out about what my plans are, I have only had two instances of not 9838333% love and weren't even unsupportive. The second person I told was more just shocked and thought I was kidding. Not sure if he thought it was a bad idea, just something he wouldn't do. The other slight and in retrospect legitimate was concern from my older and wiser brother. In fairness, he has more reason to worry than anyone else. He knows I'm a monkey, is worried I will fall into a sewer and start looking for ninja turtles or he will be called at 2:30am asking him to bail me out of a Bangkok prison while taking 500 000 baht from his account. 


As a side note  Alain was the last person I told, maybe 4-5 days after I booked the one-way because I knew what he might think and only told my mom a day or  two before him because I was somewhat afraid, didn't want to make her sad that her favorite son was leaving her and wanted to tell her in person. 

Second reason: The people you tell are or should be the people that want the complete best for you. If someone is making a huge life decision, has put a ton of thought into it, has a plan and is genuinely excited about it, why would you try and bring them down? You think this will make your life better? Go for it and tell me all about it. I understand people have concerns about their safety, money, falling behind with their peers but friends and family should do their best to be happy for them, try and help them anyway they can, and give them all of your support.

This is sort of like a friend saying to me "Bert! I'm getting married this fall and planning on having a baby next year!!" Me: "Hmmmmm I don't know about all this. You should probably wait and think this through. Even though this is your life and you live it every day, I know what's best for my friends." Are you kidding? Be a good friend, voice slight concerns in a very supportive way and let people live the life they choose.
Don't have to tell any of you this because I have been shown nothing but love, support and interest. Just surprised about other peoples tales. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, now only 77 days till Christmas!!


"If you want to support others you have to stay upright yourself" Peter Hoeg

KL and parent teacher meetings!

Went to a national park with Kieran today after eating my first Indian dish completely by hand over a single, massive banana leaf. Not sure how I feel about eating with my hands. I hear the upside is you experience more flavor but the downside is it makes me feel uncomfortable and an inefficient eater. 

Super cheap and very traditional. However, I am trying to eat minimal rice while outside of Thailand. I managed it for my entire trip to Canada, Malaysia has been less successful. To get to this forest we needed to take this train like system. I am a man who enjoys sitting down so sat down in these empty seats. WELL, did I ever feel like a muppet when it came to my attention that I was sitting down in a ladies-only cart. Part of the train only for girls?? I find this to be mildly discriminatory. Probably for the best but still, made me feel cheap and inferior.  Won't make that mistake again. 

My other friends from Nakhon got here today so met up with them, will spend the next few days touring the city with people I really like. They leave on Sunday for Burma and Indonesia. 

Another quick thing I wanted to write about was I had my first ever parent/teacher meetings last Friday. I found this fascinating for a few different reasons:
 1-Strange being on the other end of that. I feel like I was in school my whole life and now instead of being the student who doesn't want to be there, doesn't study, review or want to learn French, I am now the teacher who is telling their parents their child needs to study more, talk less, read their English book every night and focus a little more in class. 

2-Not all of the parents come, some do and some of the students tag along as well. First, it sort of shows what parents take this seriously and which do not. I think you can tell a lot from how a student is doing by meeting with their parents for even just five minutes. 98% of the parents can't speak English or are too shy to talk to me. So I basically just sit there, try and play with my student or ideally a little baby brother or sister of one of my students while my Thai teacher and the parent talk. 

3-This might not be the best or nicest thing to say but some kids just tend to blend into the class and I don't really have anything great or bad to say about some of them. Some of my students are unbelievable, perfect students. Some kids need extra help for whatever reason, some kids don't listen. But a handful of my kids I really just want to say are doing alright, behave fine, do their homework and come to class. Is this mean? I try and think of creative things to say or use a thesaurus or google teacher comments for kids but I really struggled with some of them. 
Those are my thoughts as of October 3rd. Enjoy the rest of your week, don't forget to have a very Sexy Thursday (except you mom) and I will see you when I see you. 

25 days off

Right now I'm in Kuala Lumpur that has a population of about 1.6 million people, is the 6th most visited city in the world, and is Malaysia's capital. Finished teaching on the 28th of September and don't have to teach until the 24th of October. Left Saturday morning with Joey and Jennica, took about 13 hours from Nakhon to KL and cost about 800 baht, so $25ish. Went out with them on Saturday night to a place called Reggae Bar which might have been the exact opposite decor/vibe of this nightclub establishment. The only real downside to going out here is that people can smoke inside and isn't conducive to Bert's short or long-term health. Staying in Chinatown for the time being, close to the bus terminal and light rail. Tons of stalls selling I'm assuming low priced, high quality, long-lasting, warranty-approved items. 

Last night we checked out the Twin Tower buildings. Just in awe being at the bottom and looking up at these towers. Quick fun facts: 88 stories, 454 meters above street level, 765 flights of stairs, and cost about US$1.8 billion to build. 



After this little excursion, we asked a cab driver to bring us somewhere where we can eat cheap food and visit a few bars. 5 minutes later, dropped off at the exact spot from the night before. Which turned out to be great because we walked around until we found one of the top 3 things I've ever eaten in my life. 

Newsflash: Indian food is the best food in the world. 

I can't describe it well enough to do it justice just that I will be going back there this week. Hanging out in KL till about Sunday. Not really sure, don't have a plan other than meeting up with a bunch of guys from Nakhon on Wednesday, tour the city and going out for Seth's birthday. On my to-do list is to check out this massive aquarium they have, watch a movie or two, get on a hop-on hop-off tour one day, and just relax. Will slowly make my way back to Thailand and check out random, fabulous places Malaysia has to offer.

Right now the Cameron islands and the Perhentians islands seem to be in the cards. If you have any Malaysian advice, let me know. Have a few posts up my sleeve these next few days and weeks so stay tuned. Have a fun Monday!


"Treat yourself, don't cheat yourself" Joey.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3EpArAtGJQ

No more tubing?

Some short term bad news for Teacher Bert's life but probably a positive for the rest of mankind. As of now, tubing in Laos has essentially been shut down. Tubing in Vang Vieng has become a crazy popular backpacker party where you can rent tubes, jump off ropes and swings into the water. They say it is one of the craziest and dangerous parties around. Different stats say different things but I've read that last year alone 22 people died doing it and countless other people get serious injured by drinking too much, taking free shots of alcohol laced with opium and doing drugs while being around water and other insane party animals. It is probably a good thing to shut it down if it means saving dozens of people's lives.

However, I feel like this problem has gotten progressively worse and instead of monitoring the situation, dealing with bars that sell drugs or unsafe alcohol, shutting it down just seams easier. True, having backpackers getting out of control in your country, doing drugs and misbehaving gives us a bad rap to the citizens in Laos. However, doing this also hurts their economy and is an example of a few people who can't behave themselves ruining it for the rest of the group. My only real problem with this decision is timing. In 2 weeks, I have just over 22 days off to do whatever I like. Biggest things on that list were not working, Chiang Mai and tubing. This has put a mild damper on it. I have read that some people are still showing up for tubing but the laws have changed that people need to wear life jackets and tubing finishes at 6pm. How lame.

Not entirely lame

I've read that there is a conference in November and this is only a short term thing. I also read something about a Chinese factory being set up close by that might have some effect on the water. I don't know, or care really. I JUST WANT TO GO TUBING!



Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvP_N-QmfVc

News articles:http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-news/dangerous-party-town-vang-vieng-faces-clean-up-20120822-24lkr.html

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/8520588/tubing-bars-in-laos-shut-down-amid-deaths

PJ and Joe's wedding(s)!!!

That was fun!

So. I am friends with Joe. I am friends with PJ. These are the facts. Joe and PJ worked at the school I work at now and are moving to Abu Dhabi this week. PJ is Thai, Joe is from America. More facts. They had two ceremonies last Monday. One a traditional Buddhist ceremony early Monday morning and a traditional Catholic wedding in the afternoon. I have never been to a Thai wedding, was an event I really wanted to experience while in Thailand and was very grateful to both of them for letting me tag along in both ceremonies. I will do my best to explain. 

The Buddhist ceremony in my opinion was the highlight of the day. PJ graciously let me and Mare be a part of it. Last Sunday, I met up with PJ, Joe and Joe's family at the wedding shop to get fitted for the costume for the next day. Jacket fit great but had to wait until the next day to put on the pants. I use the term pants very "loosely". (Loosely, like pants are loose sometimes?? ahh nevermind) It was more like a very beautiful fabric that needs to be put on in a very specific way. It involves knot tying, going underneath your legs, a belt and looking a tad like Aladdin. I asked PJ what time she would like me at her hotel the next morning?: 5:30am. So I got shaved by my barber, set my alarm for 5am and get fairly excited of a day of love that was about to transpire.

Get to their hotel at 5:34am, right when Mare got there. The girls were getting their hair done by some Thai lady-boys. The men were on our own to figure out how to tie our own pants up. Luckily one of Joe's brothers was paying attention at the fitting and MacGyvered our way into looking fabuthai! (ha!!) Drove to school in my amazing Thai costume, signed in at school and went to the ceremony. Actually got stared at less driving because I resembled a real Thai person. In retrospect, I should have gone to our new McDonald's and ate a delicious (former grade 3 spelling word) breakfast. A hungry Bert is not a friendly Bert but I managed to power through it. I'm growing up. I will do my best to sum up my perspective of the Buddhist ceremony. I obviously will not do it justice and probably didn't understand most of it.

I got their around 6:55am, about 15 minutes before everyone else because I am very punctual and reliable (see growing up remark above). Once the wedding party got there we had to wait for 5 monks to show up. August 20th was picked by monks as a lucky day and more specifically 9:09. Once the monks showed up, PJ and Joe sat down on the ground while Joe's family, a few other Thai people, Mare and I looked on as they chanted somewhat rhythmically while blessing a white piece of string. This lasted about 5 minutes, after the monks were finished, a few more blessings and respectful offerings were given, the monks were given food. After that, very traditionally, DJ Phopon drove the monks back to the temple in his car. It was now closer to 8:30, Joe's and his family left and were instructed to come back to the ceremony, leaving where they were at 9:09 for good luck. Very superstitious and exciting. 

August 20th was a very popular day to have a wedding so the streets were busy with brides, grooms and monks. Just before the wedding party arrived, firecrackers were set off so scare away evil spirits. I'm not going to lie, it startled me but does make sense because I wouldn't want evil spirits around for my wedding, would you? Joe's big family arrives in a single file, all holding offerings and gifts. PJ is in a back room and Thai tradition is the groom has to go through gates of people, professing his love for PJ and bribing the gate keepers to let him pass. Mare and I are holding flowers and garland and acting as gatekeepers. Instructions were to make Joe profess his love loudly for PJ, why he loves her and so on. This was very cool. Joe gets to the gate and Mare and I make him tell us why he loves her. His answer: "She is a good time". I agree. He tells us how beautiful she is, why he loves her and make him repeat it louder so that she can hear. After about two minutes of this, Mare and I were satisfied with what we have heard, take his bribe and let him through.

Only close friends, family and some employees from the school were invited to the morning ceremony. I would say in total about maybe 30 people were there including Joe's pretty large family, PJ's family, some other Thai people I do not know, a very cute baby, the Director, his wife and other higher up people at my school. Offerings were given, a lot of Y ing took place, gifts were given to PJ's mother and to Joe's mother. Joe and PJ were sitting on their knees the entire time while the people involved in the ceremony were sitting on chairs. There was a Thai man speaking in Thai, I'm assuming very nice things about Joe and PJ, there were two other Thai people helping out with telling Joe and PJ when to Y, where to sit, who to give what to. A lot of procedures to cover so makes sense having experience and a translator. In traditional Thai culture and other cultures around the world, a dowry is given to the brides parents. I know that now it is a little less common and sometimes just for show. Essentially, a dowry is a reward for the parents for raising such a beautiful and well rounded daughter, which PJ certainly is. Unclear how that worked in this situation.

Next step was blessings to be given to PJ and Joe by every person in attendance at the wedding. This I was unaware of but was the highlight of my day. PJ and Joe are sitting down on 2 separate chairs, arms folder over a chair with their arms bent and hands cupped together with a little space in between them. Then our Director put the string that the monks blessed around Joe and PJ's head which was attached to something that resembles a halo but fits on your head. So they are joined by this blessed halo/string to symbolize how connected they now are. Each person takes a turn with a beautiful ladle filled with blessed water and pours a small amount into Joe and PJ's hands with the water falling into a small basin that had gorgeous flowers in it. I was asked to stand up and pour water into their hands next. I found this quite exciting. While pouring water into PJ's hand, she tells me I need to say a blessing. Well, apparently I don't listen when my mom sent me to church the first 13 years of my life so the best thing I could say was "PJ, you are very beautiful and I hope you have very cute kids". Could have gone worse. Regrouped and told Joe "Be nice to PJ". I'd say solid effort.

After everyone had blessed them and given them blessings of actual use, pictures were taken like a typical Western wedding, snuck my way into a few of those. Then that was it, first Buddhist Thai wedding in the books. Very fascinating to observe a different way of getting married and different traditions and customs. Very grateful and appreciative to Joe and PJ for letting me come to both of their ceremonies and reception. At 4pm was a traditional Catholic wedding with about 35 people at and it poured down rain 15 minutes before the wedding so I don't think I could have been more wet walking into that church. After that the reception had about 350ish people there, food was served, slideshows of Joe and PJ were put up, still not sure if the cake was real or not. A lot of Thai people I did not know, a lot of my current students were there because PJ was there Thai teacher last year. Overall great day that went by very fast and just kept thinking how much Stu, Kait, Emma, Jake and their other close friends would have loved to have witnessed it. Good luck Joe and PJ with life in Abu Dhabi.

I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-vZlrBYLSU