April 2009

April 2009

It's 4/20 in the American mode of numerical date formats.  April 20th, the date of my wedding anniversary (1989 Fethiye, Turkey) and would have been my 20th wedding anniversary today if I was still married.  It is also Hilter's birthday (1889) and the anniversary of the Columbine school shootings in Colorado (1999).  I lived in Colorado when that happened and had a physician friend in Vail whose sister was a teacher at the school.  After teaching for over 30 years, she left teaching after that and retired to an island off the coast of South Carolina.  I remember distinctly when it happened.  We left for El Salvador shortly after it happened and even in the most rural and remote areas of El Salvador, everyone had heard about it.  Bad news travels fast.  

You also may know of another fairly amusing use of 420 to describe a certain activity...wink wink.  

I've been in Malaysia over a year.  A truly amazing experience and one that has been exactly as it was supposed to be.  I will cherish the memories of the call to prayer from the majhids before sunrise, the distinct scent of frangipani amidst a busy city street, the beauty of the morning chants and smell of incense from the Buddhist temple I walked past on my way to work.  The colourful display of a Hindu ceremony with the rainbow of colours.  Of course, I could go on and on, and then, there is the FOOD!!!  This is certainly one of the best parts of all as it is so diverse and delicious.     

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind with time flying by.  I moved out of my apartment on Friday.  I've lost track of all my moves and have become almost numb to the process.  As always, each time I move is an opportunity to get rid of more stuff.  One of the best parts of my exit from the apartment was giving things away.  The cleaning ladies had come twice during the move process were the recipients of a lot of stuff.  It was moving to see the joy on their faces for the most simple of items.  Mrs L arranged the cleaning for me and shared some of her personal experiences with me in the process.  She has been through some very tough times and is currently caring for a husband who is very ill.  Mrs L is an extremely petite woman of Chinese decent who has lived in Malaysia her entire life.  Her name means "yellow carnation" in Chinese and I would try to put it in pinyun or characters but would likely not get it exactly right so will refrain.  She was so grateful for all the stuff I gave to her and her workers that she asked if she could come back the next morning when I was leaving.  I descended into a puddle of tears when she arrived at my door on Friday morning and proceeded to pull a small red velvet box out of her bag.  Inside was a gorgeous white jade necklace and medallion.  She explained how you can tell the jade is real as it always feels cool to the touch and on the skin.  She told me the necklace had been with her a long time but she never wears it anymore and wanted me to have it.  What a lovely lady.    

I have been watching a Bhaminy Kite from the window of my apartment for weeks.  As they are birds of prey (also called the red sea eagle) and normally found near large bodies of water, I found it quite interesting that he was hanging out in KL.  Of course, Bukit Nanas, the only designated rainforest within in the confines of a city, is a pretty nice place to hang out and no doubt has plenty of things to eat.  Each morning at first light I saw him soaring around the tree tops and venturing out into the open sky.  He seems to spend a lot of time at the level of my apartment, the fifteenth floor.  What a great treat to watch him soaring about oblivious to the chaos of the city below.  

A couple of weeks ago, I was doing my morning pool hangout thing on the weekend and oddly decided to use the jacuzzi tub.  I had been lying around reading and noticed that a couple birds were very loud right above me, almost as if they were trying to tell me something.  I rarely get into the jacuzzi as it is too hot out to want to get in warm water.  It was a great morning with a cool breeze and I was fighting a sore hip and thought the jacuzzi would feel good.  I turned on the jets and got in.  These jacuzzi tubs are huge and fully tiled, really a small swimming pool with jets.  Once I settled into the tub, I notice a big glob of something in one of the water level drains.  I immediately thought it was something like trash or plant debris but as I got closer, I realised it was a little bird stuck in the drain.  I scooped him up and set him under a bush in a huge planter next to the pool.  I sat and watched him for a long time concerned that perhaps he was injured.  He seemed to be a young bird and stood quite strong so I was hopeful.  I watched as his downy feathers began to dry and he kept puffing his chest up as if to help the drying.  After about 20 minutes, I reached towards him one more time and off he went, flying into the sky as if nothing had happened.  Almost immediately I noticed three or four other birds of similar size and type in the area.  Perhaps they were waiting for him.  It was a heartwarming moment and another memory to keep close to my heart.  

Next week will be the end of my assignment in Malaysia.  On 2MAY, my dear friends arrive from the US and we will be off on an exciting adventure around peninsular Malaysia, arranged by a great local travel agent...ME!!!  I know it will be a great trip.  

Peace and light.  

2009 and the year of the Ox

Back to the blog.  It's be awhile and I've likely forgotten many things.  The last couple months have really just flown by and it is hard to believe it is almost March.  I have also been sucked into the work void but now pulling myself out.  

I ushered in 2009 in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo and was surrounded by a sky full of stars and a cacophony of bird song.  I have never heard so many birds.  There was one little yellow bird that would sit outside my window and sing every morning.  Really lovely, I think it may have been some type of finch.  I took a day trip to the island of Sipa which is part of the national park.  I think it is 5 islands in and around KK.  It only takes about 30 minutes on the boat.  Sipa has no people living on it, just park staff during the day.  There were several boats of snorkelers but they mostly gathered around the pier.  Odd that people would even choose to snorkel at this time since it is rainy season and the water is quite rough.  I am always fascinated by people standing in 3 feet of water and wearing their life preserver.  Interesting and occasionally quite amusing.  

I hiked the whole island, it is NOT very big, but is quite steep.  I saw 4 gigantic monitor lizards.  One of them was easily 10 feet long.  They are so cool but quite shy.  I tried to get really close but they must have amazing hearing and sense of touch.  I imagine they feel the vibration of people even if they don't hear you.  I was glad to see the area away from the main pier in good shape with very little trash and a well maintained trail.  It was quite dry on this day so I didn't have to worry about slipping.  At the one the trail goes up to the top of the island and it is quite a long way down to the sea over very sharp rocks.  I don't think you would want to get stuck in a typical rainstorm while out here.  I found 3 different private beaches that seemed like something out of a movie.  SImply idyllic.  In fact, one of the islands off the Malaysian coast of Borneo was used for the Survivor show. I ended up crawling up in some rocks to get out of the sun and fell asleep only to wake up to the site of a wild pig on the beach.  I wish I would have had time to do more exploring on Borneo.  I found that is really quite difficult to get around as many roads are dirt only and you need four wheel drive.  During rainy season, it can be difficult to find a driver if you are not part of tour.  I really want to come back and go to the orang sanctuary on the eastern part of the island.  

Langkawi and the dusky langurs, the adorable monkeys in Langkawi.  I wasn't sure if Langkawi would be too commercial but it is actually lovely.  I didn't see that much of it but enjoyed every bit.  Langkawi is actually made of 99 islands and is called a Geopark.  I'm sure what that means, I think the Malaysians made it up to sound eco friendly.  You can see very good efforts at trying to preserve the unbelievably gorgeous natural beauty of this place.  Even the taxi driver from the airport talked about it.  The people here know that they must keep it nice or people will not want to come back.  Langkawi is off the western coast of peninsular Malaysia and is on the Straits of Melaka and the Andaman Sea.  It is quite near to southern Thailand.  I had a lovely little house on stilts out in the water.  The sunsets and sunrises are amazing.  Of course I had to do my spa gig, and had several treatments that were great but the best part was relaxing on the deck in the middle of the forest and opening my eyes to see I was surrounded by monkeys.  Macaques in this case and there were a lot of them.  I jumped a bit at first and one of the big ones hissed at me but then I slowed all my movement down and we all sat around and stared at each other.  There were several small babies in the group and they came quite close and one even reached out to me.  It was very cute.  

i spent a very relaxing couple days at the resort and even got to see the dusky langurs.  They are the most adorable monkeys with the white faces.  They are quite similar to the silver leaf monkeys I saw on Melawati Hill.  They are quite shy and stay in the trees all the time.  I just happened to see a small family in the forest one day at the resort.  There was one mom with a baby but you can't really tell by my pics.  I think they are also orange when very young like the silver leaf monkeys.  I took the cable car on Langkawi as well and it is quite an experience.  You are very high up and can see tons of islands and water.  The walkway at the top of the cable car actually made me a bit nervous as it was very windy and it seemed like you could just fly off.  I hiked between the two stations on the cable car.  There was this tiny little trail which I imagine was used during the building of the cable car.  It must have been quite a feat to build the cable car perched on top of a mountainous island.  Sometimes the engineering of things like that can be quite hard to believe.  I didn't really get to see the whole island but would definitely consider going back someday.  The sea is not as pristine as the east coast of Malaysia but the island is really gorgeous.  

The USA, what a concept.  I spent about 10 days in the US in January to early Feb.  Landing in LA was really quite heart warming to see all the excitement about the President Obama.  People with buttons, hats, scarves and lots of other remnants of this historic event in US history.  My flight was long but nice as I had a whole row to myself.  How nice is that?  I had the distinct pleasure of staying at a friend's house outside of Liberty in a rural area outside of town.  It is SOOOOO quiet other than the sounds of lots of birds.  Leaving the dirt and noise of KL behind for a big was a real treat.  I did lots of fun stuff while in Missouri including seeing an excellent production of the Glass Menagerie at the new HR Block theatre downtown, visiting the adorable town of Excelsior Springs, enjoying the gorgeous sunrises while doing my morning practice and playing with Walt and Church, the resident kitties.  I know I've said this before, and I'm sure I'll say it again, having pets is a wonderful thing and something that I miss very much.  Although I never seem to miss a chance to eat good food and there is certainly plenty of it in KC, my friend and I had the distinct pleasure of eating at a lovely place called the Justus Drugstore.  It is a great story where a young chef did his time in San Fran and now came back home to Smithville, MO to occupy the family pharmacy building that had been in the family for a long time and turn it into a restaurant that prides itself on local ingredients.  Ever had a pork rib eye?  I have now enjoyed this interesting cut of meat at the Justus.  The chef came over after our meal and told us about the locally sourced ingredients including some very unusual cuts of meat, like a pork rib eye which comes from an area around the clavicle and shoulder joint of the pig.  The restaurant is going to be written up in the NYT Sunday magazine.  In fact, that may have happened by now.  

There are pics of Borneo and Langkawi on the web link.  

It is the year of Ox and I hope a good one for all.  I know my 2009 will be filled with adventure.