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Published: August 25th 2008
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Icon of Malaysia
The Petronas Towers Hi Everyone!
Hope you all had great weekends! Sadly, I missed ANOTHER wedding this weekend, my good friend who just got married in Atlanta! I can't wait to hear about it.
Things are going well in Malaysia, I'm actually making some progress on my project. For some reason it's been raining every day which is not fun....BUT i have a vacation planned for this weekend! I'm going to spend 5 days at the beach. It's malaysian independence day next week, and hence a holiday. it's really my only "vacation" this summer....It seems the weather may have actually turned, as today is sunny and HOT - though no humidity. the AC in the office is freezing, but I'm still looking forward to heading home and taking a dip in the pool!
It's been great having Cole around; we do a lot of stuff together and it's nice especially at night, etc. to not be alone and be less concerned for safety! He's a pretty quiet guy until you get to know him. Also, he is completely brilliant so I LOVE talking to him. I can ask him anything and he knows the answer. I've been curious about electricity since
I visited Morgan Stanley's commodities desk and learned how they trade it. So Cole spent about 3 hours trying to explain electricity to me, and it morphed into a conversation about the stock market, and as I talked I realized how much I learned at MS this summer, which is great to know I got something out of it.
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Today's pictures are actually a bit old, but I wanted to share some pictures from my visit to the city last Sunday. I had a great day just meandering and walking around for HOURS...perhaps longer than I intended, as I got to the city at 9:00am, immediately got in line for tickets to walk across the skybridge between the twin towers, and when I got my ticket, an hour later, it was for a 6:00pm slot...so I had the day to wander around. I started by having a cup of coffee overlooking the park outside the towers, reading my lonely planet and making a plan of action for what I wanted to see / do. A european guy with a big backpack came over to my table to borrow a lonely planet to see if he could find a
place to stay that night - I have to admit, I was slightly jealous not to be in his shoes, traveling around, having no idea where you will sleep that night, but it always works out and usually there is some adventure involved. It was a bit of worlds colliding, with the backpacker scene but also the safety and security of KL (meaning, it's a "comfortable" city like Beijing or Tokyo).
I think the pictures pretty much tell the story, I wandered around Chinatown, Little India, and Kampung Baru. Let me stop here because this is very relevant to my day-to-day life here, specifically in regards to lunchtime. Malaysia is a very unique country in its 3 distinct ethnic groups. This all has a big effect on politics, government, etc. Generally the groups all live seamlessly though there are very clear communities and distinctions within the groups (btw, the three groups are the Malays, Chinese, and Indian. Now, just to be clear, as much as I am Polish, these "chinese/indian" are Malaysians by birth and nationality and only chinese/indian by ethnic background, except that they live in communities that are very much chinese or indian. What do I mean
by this? I mean that the majority of marriages happen intra-community, and people walking down the street are clearly chinese or indian, they speak in their own languages, they each have their own religions (chinese = budhist, indian = actually divided between hindu/muslim, and malay = muslim) and if you walked into their homes you would think they were from their respective home countries. This is why it's easy to get around malaysia - inter group communication is done in english primarily (though "malay" is also an official language that everyone knows, and if you are not educated you can speak malay but not english).
How this effects my lunch - I work with Chinese Malay (Like i said, they stick in groups!) and I actually REALLY don't like true chinese food. Some of the noodle dishes are okay, but from my brief time in China, i coudln't find anything to eat! Yet i work with CHINESE, and they don't LIKE the indian food! in fact, as one minor piece of evidence as to the underlying ethnic tension, the chinese question the "cleanliness" of the indian restaurants. Once we went to an Indian restaurant for lunch and I was
Sidewalk Stores
In the shopping area of KL, they have all these (what seem like) temporary shops set up on the sidewalk - efficient use of space i guess? so happy. So, if you walk into a chinese restaurant you may see one or two indians, and vice versa. The division amongst ethnic lines is pretty interesting. I spend a lot of time in public observing how the two groups interact with each other, and also what happens when common ties cut across ethnic lines (mostly in the form of muslim women from different ethnic backgrounds. i say women because you know they are muslim - all covered heads.)
Oh - I've been mostly talking about chinese/indian. Why? Well, this are the majority of the "city" people, while "malays" tend to be known as the more traditional, rural dwellers, and therefore occupy more of other parts of the country - for example, it's almost DIFFICULT to find a "malay" restaurant (in fact, i haven't eaten at one yet!) but simple to find indian/chinese.
This of course begs the question of who runs the government, considering that these ethnic groups maintain their isolation from each other. The short answer is that the Malays essentially run the gov't, and though their is freedom of religion, it should be noted that if you are Malay, you are muslim, so it's
This one's for Jerm
He loves chinese food! basically an islamic state. I will just say that while people are far from OPPRESSED, there is definitely not total equality for the Chinese and Indian minorities. The Malay government basically favors Malays, which are called the "bumiputra" - basically the indigenous people. If you are bumiputra, for example, the gov't will pay for you to attend university abroad. But not if you are indian/chinese. That sort of thing.
You may be asking the same question I did - which is why they haven't revolted, or fought back? the answer I got was that the budhist chinese are peaceful people who don't believe in fighting. I wasn't 100% satisfied with the answer, I think that the roots in history and the fact that the malay are the majority doesn't leave much room for fighting. PLUS, i think it's often done quietly so that there is nothing to complain about - i.e. it just so HAPPENS to be impossible to get gov't contracts if you are not bumiputra...that kind of thing.
Enough of that, back to my day! As it rolled around 4:30pm, I literally had blisters from walking so much in my flip flops, and still a bit
of time to kill before my tower tour so i decided to stop in and go the "fish spa" - where these fish eat away at your dead skins cells or something. it was VERY weird!! It's like you are cringing the whole time because it stings a tiny bit, also feels very ticklish, and I kept feeling like one of them would swallow my big toe. After that, I just took my little tour through the skybridge - which was totally worth the wait. Hard to believe it's so "low" on the towers, yet you seem so high....see the pictures from the top.
That's about it from my end - another very rambly blog.....
I'm thinking of getting bangs, just for a change. Anyone have an opinion on this?
Jaime
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Bahar
non-member comment
Ha! look at the fish at your feet! so funny but about a week or 2 ago there was a craze about fish pedicures in VA. it was in the Post and on the news. my initial reaction was a cringe, too, james so i'm there with ya. but good for you...at least the blisters are off your feet :oP good to hear from you, xoxo.