BUSting Through...

Battle of the Buses

So Malaysia isn't exactly known for their strict traffic laws....or for strictly enforcing their traffic laws at least. I can't wait to hit the roads every day and see what kind of wild stunts these crazy drivers (myself included) are trying to pull behind the wheel of their locally made and manufactured Proton (the pride of Malaysia), their scooter, or most shockingly, their city bus. The buses here are absolutely out of control! I can't tell you the number of times we've seen one of them taking a left hand turn from the far right lane, cutting off 4 lanes of traffic along the way or the number of times they'll just pull over randomly without a bus stop anywhere in sight to either drop off a passenger or pick one up. My all time favorite bus story so far though, came from a friend of mine who said she just recently witnessed a city bus speeding down the highway and then all of a sudden came to a screeching halt, threw the bus in reverse, backed up at full speed (still on the highway, mind you), and then cut across the road to take the exit he apparently had flown passed just moments earlier. A city bus did this! Ooh, and just a couple of weeks ago, I was driving Will home from work, minding my own business in my own "lane" (and I use that term very loosely because lanes don't really mean anything to anyone around here), when all of a sudden we found ourselves literally in the middle of a bus vs. bus showdown right in front of us. One of the buses had just pulled out from a bus stop on the left-hand side of the street, the other bus was trying to make his way from the right-hand lane across traffic to make a left-hand turn, and neither one of them wanted to let the other one in front (and neither one of them cared anything at all about the fact that they were about to sandwich us in between them both)! We didn't know what to do so I just sat there laughing nervously and then managed to at least get my phone out and try to capture a photo of us trying to bust through the buses and not let either one of them in!! I'm not sure if the picture actually does it justice or not, but we were seriously wedged right in between these two big buses as they came head to head with each other! Well, as the old saying goes, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em," so I put the phone/camera away, started pounding on my horn, and honked my way right through the intersection, intent on letting them know that I/we (after all, Will was in this with me whether he liked it or not) could not be intimidated! In fact, after first seeing how people drive around here, Will and I challenged each other very early on to a friendly little competition of which one of us could pull off the most ridiculous, yet successful, driving maneuver while we're here. We'll let you know who wins!

Scooter pulling a lawn mower down the road

The Classic Malaysian Motorbike-and-Gas-Tank Side Car

I "Art" KL...

National Art Gallery, Malaysia

So after the last adventure day of getting lost in the jungle with leeches, we decided we'd head out for something a little more sophisticated and civilized this time around. Combing through our self-made list of Malaysian-musts, we immediately focused our attention on the "culture" category and all agreed that a trip to the National Art Gallery would be a perfect, climate-controlled way for us to immerse ourselves in the local art scene. I picked the girls up mid-morning (and by "girls" I mean my friends Lauren and Ela), and we headed to the gallery, conveniently located right on the edge of town. It was a quick and easy 10 minute drive for us....almost too quick and easy, in fact! So after circling the gallery a few times and driving the wrong way through the parking lot just to make our adventure seem a little more adventurous, I finally picked a place to park, and off we went to see some art. Upon entering the gallery, we learned that in conjunction with Malaysia's upcoming National Day next week (a public holiday in which the country will be celebrating 53 years of independence), the gallery is currently featuring exhibitions by local artists whose works revolve around themes of peace and patriotism. The museum was decked out with colors of the Malaysian flag (red, white, and blue appropriately enough), and paintings of the Bunga Raya, the national flower of Malaysia commonly known as the Hibiscus. We even got to paint our own Bunga Rayas after having talked our way into the children's wing of the art gallery and were able to bring our own personalized artwork home with us. I'm proud to say that my bunga raya is now on public display on the refrigerator door of our shiny LG fridge in the kitchen at 3 Persiaran Ampang (our address in Malaysia).

Malaysian Flags Hanging in the entrance of the Art Gallery

My very own Bunga Raya painting

Living in a Haze...

Life in the tropics can be great. With guaranteed warm weather, sunshine, and "seasonal" fruits that are always in season, we get to experience all the perks associated with the perpetual summer. With all of those perks, however, there is also one pesky, pesty little problem that leaves one....er...."itching" for cooler climates. Mosquitoes. These "dengue" mosquitoes here are out of control. The mosquitoes are such an issue here that instead of perfume, we pride ourselves on who wears the nicest smelling Off Spray or Skin-so-Soft (the best smelling folks here have all imported their respective sprays, by the way). Instead of ornate candlesticks, most restaurants use mosquito coil centerpieces to wow their diners. Instead of tennis or badminton rackets on game nights, our friends here all pull out their mosquito rackets for a friendly game of bug zapping. And instead of traditional mosquito repellent methods like simply lighting some citronella candles around the yard, we have a team of pest control guys that come out and fog the entire property, inside and out with their heavy duty mosquito-killing (and no telling what else kind-of-killing) chemicals. Imagine sitting at home just to look out the window and seeing a team of "Ghostbusters" swarming the property in full-fledged gas masks and uniforms spraying no-telling-what into the air around you. And you're in Malaysia. Yikes. The first time these guys came in and took the house by "storm" I was a nervous wreck. I mean, this crazy fog stuff was actually seeping in through all of the windows, doors, and various other cracks in the house until a nice, thick haze settled in all around the place. But once I made it through what I considered to be the most critical phase of fog-induced fear, and I was certain that I'd survived whatever chemicals they were spraying into the air all around me, I learned to really appreciate what they were doing for us and have even come to looking forward to their bimonthly foggings and to living a life as mosquito-free as possible until the next fog wears off!

Typical "Foggy" Morning in Malaysia

The Mosquito Racket (Zapper) - Maybe the best gift idea ever!

Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls...

The beautiful waterfalls at the "so-called" Templer's Park

Two of my friends (Lauren and Ela) and I have decided that Tuesdays should be "adventure day," so we've taken it upon ourselves to flip through all of our guide books, websites, and local magazines for touristy suggestions on what to see and do in these parts. We've compiled a big list based on what sounded like the most appealing suggestions to us and have broken it down into a few different categories, including, but not limited to the following themes: Nature/Sweaty/Outdoorsy Adventures, Cultural Adventures, Culinary Adventures, Shopping Adventures, and my personal favorite, Miscellaneous Adventures that could be a combination of any (or none) of the above. And to further complicate things, we've categorized them even more into "City Centre" adventures, outskirts of town adventures, day trip adventures, and even weekend/extended leave adventures. Some of these are pretty tame adventures, but some of them are actually adventure adventures. Last week was an adventure adventure, but we didn't know know until it was too late. We wanted to go on a simple little hike through a pretty little park with pretty little waterfalls and have a lovely little picnic afterward. We should have known something was a little off when the website described this place as the "So-Called Templer's Park" about 20 km north of town. So-called?!? What does that even mean? Is it so-called Templer's or is it a so-called Park? I really don't know. Anyway, this so-called 20 km drive to the so-called park took a little over two hours after the so-called GPS directions led us all over so-called Malaysia. But fear not, because one thing we've all learned about living and driving here is that you never, ever, ever leave home without a full tank of gas....and without going to the bathroom first! Even if you know exactly where you're going and exactly how long it should take to get somewhere, the traffic is so out of control here that a simple 5 minute or 5 kilometer journey could actually take hours!! So, with a full tank of gas and a full dose of enthusiasm on adventure week number 1, we didn't let the wrong turns or the missed exits dampen our spirits in the least. Nope, we just kept right on going until we finally found the park and then hit the trail with both feet running walking (the running didn't come until later). It started out simple enough. A nice, wide, flat trail with beautiful trees on either side and the relaxing sounds of trickling water from the falls somewhere off in the distance. Butterflies fluttering all around us, birds chirping overhead, rays of sun bursting through the canopy trees. A simple hike through the pretty park right? Uh uh. After we had been walking for a little while, the trails began to get a little more narrow, a little more overgrown, and the butterflies, birds, and rays seemed to have disappeared. Again, having already traveled so far just to get there, and for some reason convinced that this trail made a full loop, we weren't about to turn back. Yet. We were going to make sure that we were really in over our heads (as opposed to just kinda in over our heads) before having to swallow our pride and turn back around. We came to a couple of dead ends along the way, had to limbo our way under some of the branches and shrubs growing over the trail and waded our way through a stream or two before finally reaching a point where we literally couldn't have gone any further (not without a machete or chainsaw anyway). The trail had become so overgrown at this point that we were finally convinced we had somehow gotten off course.....or that the so-called course just hadn't been traveled by anyone in, well, years. So we turned back around, crossed the same streams, limboed under the same branches, and bypassed the same dead ends that all tried to stop us the first time around. Only this time, I felt a little something "poking" me in the ankle. What I originally thought hoped was just a thorn actually turned out to be......are y'all ready for this....a leech?!?!?! Wanting to remain calm, I quickly reached down and swatted it off of me and then looked up and saw one on the back of Ela's shoe in front of me. I walked up there and kicked it off of her so I wouldn't freak her out by screaming that she had a leech on her (yeah, so going up there and kicking her seemed like a much more normal thing to do). :) Anyway, we're all starting to hyperventilate a little bit at this point so after making it to the next clearing, we all stopped, kicked off our socks and shoes, pulled up our pants, and did a frantic inspection of each other to see just how many of these blood-sucking leeches had gotten a hold of us.I think I won. I had a couple of 'em on my ankles, a couple more on the back of my leg, and a couple more than are forever engraved in my nightmares memory of our "simple hike" that day. I'm not sure if it was the loss of blood from all the leeches or just the whole gross factor of knowing there were leeches on us that left us all feeling a bit light headed, but we were definitely feeling a bit queasy by this point! So we high-tailed it out of that place and made it back to the car in record time (or what I imagine to be record time for anyone trying to get out of there), and hosed off, wiped down, and did another thorough inspection of each other before finally regaining enough composure to sit down to our nice, civilized picnic lunch, complete with smoked salmon, cheese, fruits, sandwiches, juice, and even real plates and silverware (thanks to Ela's proper Picnic Bag from the UK)! All in all, not a bad adventure adventure!!

Dead End Number 1....not turning back! 

Dead End Number 2....still not turning back!

Looking for Leaches....thinking about turning back. 

LEECHES....They got me! Definitely turning back now!!!

Ahhh, a well-deserved, so-called civilized picnic at last!

Howdy Neighbor!

Welcome Basket of Bananas

 

 

 

 

So a few weeks ago I decided it was time to introduce ourselves to the neighbors and try to make friends with those Kingdom of Lesotho people on one side of us and the Chinese family on the other. After all, we're new to the neighborhood, we're amongst the few "westerners" on the block, and we have a dog (a very big no-no in most places around here). I figured I had to do something "sweet" to get on their good side and did what any typical housewife would do....I whipped up a batch of chocolate chip cookies, trying my best to convert tablespoons of butter and cups of sugar into the right amount of grams and praying that I would make the correct Fahrenheit to Celsius temperature conversions to keep from burning (yet another) tasty treat in our temperamental oven. Sidenote: I had just learned the hard way a couple of baking attempts prior to this one that the button I originally thought was the convection oven feature was in fact the self-cleaner button after I  ended up burning everything to a crisp. The crust on that poor little shriveled up key-lime pie seriously could have chipped a tooth. Live and learn, bake and burn, right?!? Anyway, I decided to put my best little Betty Crocker face back on and give it another go. I calculated, converted, and carefully mixed that chocolatey chunk of cookie dough and made sure everything was just perfect.....until it was time to actually put them in the oven. Um, so apparently we really do make things a little bigger back in Texas because the cookie sheets we brought with us are way too big to fit in our miniature Malaysian oven. Thank goodness for the sweet little grocery store on the end of our block that's bailed me out of many a last-minute cooking crisis, so off to Ampang Grocers I went for a pair of pint-sized cookie sheets that fit ever so perfectly in our pint-sized oven. 12 minutes at approximately 190 degrees Celsius later, I had my first successful batch of, well, almost anything here. :) Ahhhh, success is sweet! I baked up a few dozen cookies to split between our neighbors and took them each a little taste of what we consider to be the ultimate comfort food/welcome gift/let's-be-friends kind of gesture. I mean, a chocolate chip cookie is so much more than just a cookie. It's all of your happy, wonderful, perfect childhood memories and sweet thoughts of mom and after school treats and everything joyful all baked into a slightly crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside crumbly looking disc. Of course, these weren't even close, nor will they ever even come close to being as good as mom's! The good news though, is that neither one of our neighbors have ever experienced one of mom's chocolate chip cookies (and odds are didn't even know what one was prior to this), so as far as they know, I could have very well invented these things! I think they must have liked them because a couple of days later our sweet Chinese family neighbors brought over a big bundle of bananas....of local bananas, which are smaller and slightly sweeter than ones back home. Bananas, I have come to find out, are actually native to Southeast Asia (thank you, Wikipedia). Yep, Will and I really enjoyed those baby bananas (all 30 of them) and the fun little exchange we had with our new friends. I think I like this tradition. Next time someone new moves into the neighborhood I might just have to toss those cookie sheets out the window and pick up a bundle of local bananas instead!

Having a Bali...

Ahh, beautiful Bali. The Indonesian Island of paradise. It's the place where dreams (and weddings) come true! We were lucky enough to spend a few glorious days in this magical place recently and see for ourselves the kind of beauty and bliss that makes Bali such a legendary land.
A little background on why we were there:
So not only have we been blessed with some amazing travel opportunities while living on this side of the world, but we've also been blessed with some amazing friendships as well....and when these two things get together (travel opportunities with friends), it makes this crazy expat life that much more exciting...and worthwhile. Two of our friends in particular, Rob and Lauren, are a dear, sweet couple that we met the first weekend we arrived in KL. Rob, born and raised in Ireland and schooled in London, is a coworker of Will's, and his now-wife Lauren, is a sweetheart of a thing from Kansas City, Missouri. We've spent many a night, weekend, and dinner parties with them over the last few months and were lucky enough to score an invitation to their wedding....in Bali. YES!!! We flew down on a Wednesday night just in time to join them for an amazing dinner and cocktail party at a beautiful Balinese villa owned by Rob's Aunt and Uncle. What a great way to kick-off the wedding week! They literally had friends and families there from all over the world, and it was such a hoot listening to all of the different accents, picking up on all of the different mannerisms, and seeing all of the different fashion trends represented by so many different countries. It was an absolute blast! For a lot of these people (mostly our fellow Americans in the crowd), it was their vacation opportunity of a lifetime...something that they'd been trying to earn vacation time for throughout the whole year (and probably borrow some days into next year as well). So with that said, everyone's spirits were at an all time high this week. It was great being a part of this crowd where everyone was just so happy to be in some place as beautiful and tropical as Bali, and where the mood was always fun, festive, and full of energy. We spent the next couple of days walking up and down the beautiful Bali beaches and attending various wedding functions (i.e. bride's luncheon for me, and a waterpark adventure for Will with all the guys). By the time the actual wedding rolled around, we felt like we'd actually been friends with all these people for years and that it was just one great big reunion for everyone! And I just can't say enough great things about the wedding. It took place in a villa in the town of Canggu, Bali. The villa itself sat atop a gorgeous green hill which overlooked beautiful rice fields in the background and surrounded an incredible infinite pool and tropical gardens in the center.The wedding party had rented out all of the 5 private rooms at this villa, so the whole place belonged to Rob, Lauren, and their 54 wedding guests for the week (meaning that the wedding could last all night long without fear of being shut down, kicked out, or sent home). And being that the only wedding gift the couple requested from each of their wedding guests was to pick up a bottle of champagne at the duty-free airport in Bali to bring with them to the wedding reception, it was a good thing that this crowd didn't have a curfew! The bottomless flow of bubbly all night long, combined with the signature cocktails of the evening (some special Balinese Mojito and another refreshing rum-based cocktail of goodness), made for quite the festive environment. You throw all of that into a "room" (for lack of a better word of course...there really wasn't a "room" so to speak....just a beautiful outdoor garden and pavilion but you get the "picture") with a group of Irishmen, Scotsmen, Germans, Brits, and enthusiastic Americans, and you have the makings of one very unforgettable night...or forgettable for some but for all of the fun reasons. The wedding truly was, as they say, picture perfect. They couldn't have picked a lovelier setting, a happier crowd, or a more perfect place for their dream wedding, and for our dream vacation. Thank you, Rob and Lauren!!! :)

View from Restaurant on the Beach 

Pretty wind thingies blowing in the Balinese breeze

Rob and Lauren exchanging Vows

Rob and Lauren in front of rice fields

Wedding Villa and Pool