Malaysia, Truly Asia

Spent the last week in Malaysia. We had our company regional retreat on the island of Penang so I took the weekend before to visit with a friend from Delhi, Lu who now lives in Kuala Lumpur (KL). KL was what I expected (really all about the big buildings and shopping malls) but I didn't expect to be so excited by clean big roads, public transportation, driving within the lines, coffee shops and ... malls. It was great to see Lu and meet her boyfriend Eduardo. On Sunday night they headed off for some work in Dhaka so I stayed a day in KL by myself and explored the parks (really beautiful orchids) and bought everything in sight. I got a little carried away by the ice cream and good baked goods. In the afternoons, Malaysia has these wonderful thunder storms that soak you to the bone. And since it's incredibly hot/humid, it feels good.

Malaysia is interesting in that it is modern, and hard to label a "developing" country as it seems developed - Lu said she found it boring, and I can see that. Delhi may be chaotic, dirty and frustrating but it certainly has soul.

Then I went on to Penang. According to people living there Penang's beaches don't compare to the really nice ones in Malaysia and I think they are right - the beach was fine but not amazing. Which I guess didn't much matter as we were in a conference room the whole time. The retreat was actually really nice but the sun worshiper in me greatly missed the sun. We had one day off the Saturday after the retreat which ended up as a crazy random day. It started with parasailing. I had done it once before in Goa, and this wasn't quite as good as they dipped me in the water and then landed in the sand on my butt which is the magic formula for feeling gross and sticky. But unlike Goa, I didn't spend the whole time praying for the rope not to break! I then read
in the morning paper that there was a cheerleading competition in a mall so myself, my c0-worker in India, Krisila and two colleagues from Central Asia, Marty and Rob, went to the mall. The competition wasn't really cheerleading but small groups (3 or 4 people) of young girls - mostly - doing inappropriately sexy dances to the pussycat dolls and britney. This of course inspired us to learn a few stunts - my colleagues really missed their calling!

We then went into the main part of town, Georgetown, looking for a place for lunch and stumbled upon a good sports bar with wonderful hamburgers:) There was a NY Yankees/Red Sox game on the big screen TV - it really is a strange world. Krisila then wanted to hike up Penang Hill. We compromised by taking the 80 year old train up the 700m hill. It was a bizarre little place with fake lawn-type ornamental animals all around, including deer, lambs and dinosaurs. We get to the top which is totally built up with hotels and stands that do henna. The compromise was that we would walk down. The walk down was lovely with jungle-like trees. And monkeys! They appeared to be nice monkeys but I don't trust them further than I can throw them. Then the hill got really steep - to the point that I felt I had two choices; walking in tight s-curves as if I were skiing or walking backwards. We were lapped by a guy who did the hike up and down a few times a week and he was walking backwards so we surmised that was the best way. We had really underestimated the hill and it was dark by the time we got back.

The guy we met was in a band and recommended a place to go to see a jazz band his friends were in. It was in an old mansion that was stunning. And the band was really good. I regret that India doesn't have a better cover-band culture or at least karaoke! In contrast to the place, we were sweaty and backpacker looking. We had to stay until all the other customers had left so our attire wouldn't be noticed.

The following morning Krisila and I rented bikes and rode to see a fishing village. That part of the island was beautiful and did have more of a sense of a "developing" country. It started to pour rain. We saw a few four foot long lizard looking things sunning themselves on the rock (in the rain) which were totally prehistoric. And a family in the ocean holding an umbrella! But it was the relaxed pace of life, where cars would wait for each other to pull out instead of honking and racing around and everyone waved to us and each other. I guess it takes leaving india to remember how hard india can really be.