now that i've been home for a little over a week and i think i'm finally over jetlag, i thought i'd share some fun facts, anecdotes, casual observations, and trip highlights from my short trip to kuala lumpur.
- first impression: when we were going through immigration at 3 a.m. on tuesday morning in an eerily empty airport, the officer was listening to guns and roses and happily singing the lyrics to sweet child o' mine as he examined and stamped our passports. hilarious.
- food: i ate pretty much everything in sight and it was all sooo good. a simple (but probably not 100% accurate) way of describing the food is that it's a cross between indian and thai. my favorite was otak-otak (or otah-otah). the literal translation is "brain-brain," but it's actually a very yummy spicy fish cake wrapped in banana leaves and grilled or steamed.
- agricultural products: rice, palm oil, and rubber. i read in the paper one day that there are plans for a new convention and exhibition center (the largest one in the country apparently), which will be shaped like a rubber seed.
- artisinal products: batik fabrics and pewter objects. we took a trip to the central market on wednesday morning and with a little more time and a larger suitcase i probably would have come home with way more stuff!
- government: constitutional monarchy, where the king changes every five years, as it rotates among the 9 sultans of the Malay states. the king is the leader of the muslim faith and the head of state, while the prime minister is the head of government. the current king is relatively young (in his thirties, i believe), so he may have the opportunity to be king a second time before he dies.
- other random facts:
- malaysians have a thing for desserts - the dessert buffet at the hotel was almost as big as the food buffet.
- borneo contains 60% of the world's species of flora and fauna.
- the petronas towers, aka the KLCC, were the world's tallest buildings when they were completed in 1998. now, at a mere1,483 ft they're tied for 4th and 5th place behind Burj Dubai (2,684 ft), Taipei101 (1,667 ft), and the World Financial Center in Shanghai (1,640 ft).
- it costs $1.75 to let little fishies eat the dead skin off your feet for ten minutes at the "cute fish spa" at the kuala lumpur central market. it tickled like crazy at first but then it felt like a massage. i have since read up on this topic and it turns out that the fish are actually called doctor fish (officially Garra Rufa) and not only can they exfoliate your heels, they can also alleviate the discomfort of psoriasis and other skin diseases. a fish spa pedicure or manicure in the u.s. can cost up to $60!
posted pictures from my vacation on picasa. click here if you'd like to see!
yes i am here, in kuala lumpur, that is... although the picture at left is from the shanghai airport where my coworker and i had a 5+ hour layover before hopping on the last of our three flights which arrived in malaysia at the lovely hour of 3 a.m. today, Tuesday (or 2 p.m., Monday for those of you on EST). i've been awake since then: first i took the essential shower (after 30 hours of traveling it was about time), then put finishing touches on my part of the presentation that we were giving to malaysian public works people at 9 a.m. now that the presentation is over, i'm just regrouping... it looks like i'll be visiting the Petronas towers this evening with some locals if i can stay awake until dinner time. if you look closely you might succeed in vaguely making one of them out in this picture, looking out from my 15th floor hotel room. the sky is surprisingly clear, since it's monsoon season and usually rains all of the time. 
when we were being driven from the airport to the hotel in the wee hours of this morning, i couldn't see much, but in the dark, the city reminded me of Florida because of the building shapes and the types of vegetation. in the daylight mountains appear as a backdrop to the cityscape (definitely *not* Florida) and from the limited view my hotel room window offers, it looks like a moderately sized, relatively modern city. the burnt orange colored roofs of the residential scale construction that appears scattered among the big buildings remind me of mediterranean france or italy. i can see five tower cranes from this vantage point, but i bet that if i were closer to the center city (i believe i'm about 8-10 km southwest) i'd see more. more cultural ruminations after i take a nap, or perhaps tomorrow... think i should probably rest considering 30 seconds ago i was literally falling asleep on the keyboard.
some co-workers of mine recently traveled to abu dhabi in the united arab emirates, and it reminded me that i had kept a trip journal of sorts during my month-long stint there in 2006 which included my impressions of the city and culture accompanied by a weekly photo album. as i've mentioned it to some other people too, i figured it would be relatively easy to republish it here, SO as i have the time i'll post the narrative and photos for y'all to read...
i can't believe i've been out of town for a week+ and that i'll be resuming work tomorrow (albeit at a conference so i'll have a bit of a transition back to being full-time in the office). pending a complete photo album documenting all of my adventures in Washington and Oregon, here are a few of the highlights:
halloween in Seattle(!): my friend dave's industrial designer buddies at general assembly threw a kickin' party and everyone had sweet costumes, including jake's and mine, if i may say so. much dancing (and roller blading for some) was done by all, my head hit the pillow around 4 a.m. (i *think*) and i still made it to the train station by 7:30 for my train to portland the next day (thanks dave!)
my nephew's fifth birthday party in Beaverton, OR: i can't believe he was born that long ago, that he corrects my french, and that he can play wii tennis almost as well as i can. his pirate themed party (see previous post re: the cake i made) was a hit! the younger of my two nephews is now a year and a half old, toddling around, and wrestling with his brother as if he could actually rough him up a little despite their significant difference in size. 
trip to Bend, OR to meet ella boyd: i got a chance to see melissa and aaron's new abode and their new bundle of joy. we wandered around downtown bend, checked out the obsidian flow, shared great home- cooked meals (yay for pineapple upside down cake!), and lovely conversations. i also discovered that some small town bus stations are found inside the local bowling alley! who knew?- road trip to La Push, WA w/jake: the olympic peninsula is like nothing i've ever seen before and the logs that have washed up to shore (some of which get carried back out at high tide) are enormous both in length and diameter. we stayed in a "resort" on a native american reservation that was cozy and serene. the sound of the crashing ocean waves and the majesty of the fallen trees reminded me how small and powerless i am in the grand scheme of things.
my nephew's 5th birthday was on sunday. it was a pirate themed party, so my sister printed out instructions for a treasure chest cake and it was my job to assemble and decorate it. here's the final product and here are pictures of the process. you can be the judge as to whether or not it turned out the way it should have.
