Saturday, September 20, 2008

Monkeys, Mooncakes, and Mantras

The M's have it and keep coming back in my life to show me all kinds of interesting new things.

The Silver Leaf Monkeys of Kuala Selangor, more specifically Melawati Hill. I can't seem to find a specific reference to their grouping although it appears they represent a type of primate monkey unique in the swamp or mangrove habitats. This is something I've been wanted to do for awhile, i.e. get closer to wild monkeys, and was able to do it a couple weekends ago. Melawati Hill is outside of Kuala Lumpur in the state of Selangor and is on the boarder of huge mangrove forests on the west coast of penisular Malaysia. Melawati Hill is now somewhat of a tourist attraction as the monkeys migrate through here on daily basis.

They are incredibly gentle and yet the chaos and excitement of a free food handout has enabled a bit of agression among the large males. The park rangers assist by providing green beans as appropriate treats and discouraging aggression between monkeys. The most amazing thing was the orange babies! It must have been birthing season as there were quite a few babies. If they aren't the cutest thing ever!

I had the pleasure of staying at friend's house in a rural area about 1 hour from Kuala Lumpur. The area is surrounded by huge palm oil plantations and the biggest orchid farm you can imagine. I have never seen so many varieties of orchids. Really gorgeous. And speaking of gorgeous, check out my friend's house! The house is made from a special type of Malaysian hardwood that is used to make boats and the house is fit together without nails on the main beams, it is all a series of pegs holding the beams in place. The grounds are an amazing mixture of gorgeous plants and trees as well as a lotus and fish pond. The mixture attracts all kinds of birds and occasionally some other interesting animals like cobras, civets, and armadillos. I was happy just to see all the gorgeous birds including lots of hummingbirds.

Also went down to the river estuary area of Kuala Selangor where you can sit at a riverfront restaurant and eat yummy crabs. They had several different varieties of crab, I had the big mud crab again. YUM!!! This is the area where the huge firefly colony is, but alas, was raining was no fireflies today.

Spent another week in Singapore working on various sales opps and stayed over the weekend for a wedding. CS is one of my associates in Singapore and attending her wedding was a real treat. It was a typical Singaporean wedding including the wearing of two dresses. We also had a 10 course meal! The wedding occurred on on the Mid-Autumn Festival (zhōng qiū jié), also known as the Moon Festival, is a popular celebration of abundance and togetherness, dating back over 3,000 years to China's Zhou Dynasty. In Malaysia and Singapore, it is also sometimes referred to as the Lantern Festival or Mooncake Festival. The Chinese Lantern Festival is held on the 15th day of the first lunar month which happened to be 14SEP08 this year.

I had my first taste of mooncakes, which are actually the precursor to what became the fortune cookie in the US. Mooncakes are quite a mixture now and all have a simple message, in the form of a Chinese character, usually saying something about health, good fortune, and happiness on top of the cake. The traditional mooncake is filled with lotus paste made from the seeds of the lotus flower and very difficult and time consuming to make. The center also includes a salted egg yolk and outside is a pastry of sorts. My favourite type was the snow skin (no pastry) variety with durian filling. YUM!!! So here's the deal with durian, all you westerners with your love of stinky cheese, you love stinky cheese, why can't you love a stinky fruit? Once you think of that way, you won't be able to resist the silky, creamy, and custard like flesh of the durian. It is delicious!

I went to the Chinese opera in Singapore and really enjoyed The Feast of Han Xizai which is based on a 1000 year old Tang Dynasty painting. It was reallly lovely with lots of dancing and music but very little singing. The music was nanyin, which is a imperial court style of music that is rarely performed. The women played a type of drum and changed the tone with their feet. The costumes were designed by the guy that did Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Very enjoyable way to spend an evening. The Esplanade theatre looks like a giant durian!

Last word on small world/big world ideas. In the course of the mania that is my Inbox, I received an email about my 30th high school reunion. I replied that I would not be attending but wished those in attendance all the best. So then I receive an email while in Singapore from WM, the only member of our class to attend Harvard and super smart and interesting guy. I knew he pretty much disappeared after college as a member of the foreign service. So this email says, "hi from Singapore", what? I almost fell off my chair. Anyway, I met up with WM, his lovely wife, and two of his three daughters the next night in Singapore for dinner. We had a lovely time talking about all of our travels and where our lives have gone over the last 30 years. Pretty amazing stuff, eh?

OM Sri Ganeshaya Namah

http://picasaweb.google.com/hellokittyinlondon/KualaSelangorAndSilverLeafMonkeys

http://picasaweb.google.com/hellokittyinlondon/CarolynSWeddingMoonfest08

No comments: