The obligatory vacation food post

You must be wondering, I know, whether we even ate in Malaysia, if it's been a whole three days that we've been back without posting about it.

Oh, rest assured, we ate.

First, unlike the Raffles in Singapore, the Eastern and Oriental Hotel in Penang did high tea right. Sadly, James did not do smiling right in this photo, though:


But all this colonialist hubbub made us look to the simple pleasures of a bowl of laksa from a street stall. I must say, I preferred Singapore laksa over Penang laksa, but this one certainly was colorful:

And my favorite simple and delicious pleasure of Malay cuisine: kaya toast. Kaya is coconut cream... it is sort of the Nutella of Southeast Asia, in terms of being something sweet and delicious to be eaten on toast:


In case you were worried we that we didn't drink, either, I put those fears to rest and say "cheers":

Bizarre serendipity

The last few days have, for me, summed up the best and the worst of life in Bangladesh.

First, the bizarre and stressful. Apparently, in Bangladesh, everyone knows to unplug their cable lines into their TVs when there's a storm, because unlike in the U.S., cable lines are exposed. So if it's not unplugged, the cable line can get hit by lightning and fry your TV--as I found out the hard way Sunday night.

Seriously??? I really needed a handbook to read before moving to this place.

But then, lo and behold, the situation is redeemed by the serendipity that is Bangladesh. Not sure what was wrong with the TV, I talked to Mazhar, our kindly teddy bear of an audio-visual technician (who explained the madness of the electrocuted cable lines to me).

He knows where I live since he's been in the car when Motorpool has dropped me off, and so told me that right across the street from my apartment there's a dry cleaner, and next to it there's an unmarked door leading to a TV repairman--who happens, he explains, to be his brother.

That is so Bangladesh. Only here would the brother of someone I trust on the topic of TV repair happen to be a TV repairman working literally directly across the street from me. Bangladesh giveth and Bangladesh taketh away.

And the good news is he's confident he can fix the TV. So let's hope for a happy ending.

Funny ha ha

Excellent metro signage in Kuala Lumpur:


AREN'T WE, DAMMIT????

Also, my first ever submission to Cake Wrecks, found in a bakery at the Pavilion mall in KL:


May this be the first of many.

[Hail Pun]

Ick. I woke up our last morning in Kuala Lumpur with a nasty sore throat, and things escalated from there, leaving me home sick and cranky. To make matters worse, my ability to distract myself in my cranky sick state was sorely diminished--our internet was out most of the day today, and our TV still is--all apparently the result of the massive HAILSTORM we had last night.

Who knew it would hail? It's not the rainy season, and it is insanely hot. But last night, there was thunder, lightning, pouring rain, and golf-ball-sized pieces of hail for a couple hours. Seriously, this was insane. It rained so fast that more than a foot of water accumulated behind my apartment--I thought there would be flooding. And the hail seriously looked capable of knocking people out.

At some point after this, we realized the TV would no longer turn on. It is plugged in (we've tried other outlets so it's not that), but just won't turn on. It was connected to a surge protector... could the TV have gotten damaged by the storm? The DVD player (connected to the same surge protector) still seems to function. Anyone electronic-savvy, please chime in here... no clue what happened.

Dammit, hail. You've won this time. But next time... yeah, you'll probably win again. Seriously, hail is terrifying! It's like rocks falling from the sky.

In other news, I felt this post needed a hail pun title (so many things to play on: Hail to the Chief, Hail Mary, Hail and Farewell, All Hail...) but couldn't think of one. Feel free to do so for me.

Malaysia on my mind

I just got back from Malaysia and am surprisingly not exhausted. It was an incredibly fun trip--I TOTALLY underrated that country last time I was there (understandable, given that all I saw was Genting, the Vegas of Malaysia--let's just say no other Westerners apparently found it worth their trouble to join the throngs of local tourists there--and Sunway Lagoon, a water park 10 km outside KL's city center--yeah, those were not my choices).

I must say, the AirAsia flight there, while delightfully cheap, did not exactly leave me cheery. When you get out of the airport after 12:30am and end up sitting on a bus for a half-hour NOT MOVING (but James insisted that it was so convenient! It goes right to the train station across from our hotel! It only costs $1!), sometimes it is a bit tough not to sulk about how we'd be halfway there already if we had JUST TAKEN A TAXI.

But then I had a revelation. I am too cool for this sulking, I decided. What happened to the girl whose idea it was to show up in Tangier without a hotel reservation? Who stayed in hostels in Egypt? Who wandered the streets of New York all night (well, fine, sat in a 24-hour diner for part of that) waiting for the first NJ Transit train to leave at the crack of dawn? I am way, way too cool to sulk about such nonsense.

So I stopped, and from then on, the trip was fabulous. We ended up arriving at the Hilton (government rate, baby!) around 1am, and since a suite was empty and no one had showed up to claim it by that point, they decided to reward this poor public servant with perhaps the awesomest hotel room I've ever stayed in. Niiiice. James likes (NOTE: Photo does NOT do it justice):


Anyway, we had a great time, and I'll need a few posts to get through it all. Stay tuned, unless you only want more Dhaka, in which case, don't.

Not lazy, and then lazy, all in one week

Some thoughts on the week:

We had a jazz group, the Duende Quartet, in town for five days, funded by the State Department program The Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad. It was a loooong week for me, but really rewarding to see how much audiences enjoyed the music. Also, I got sick in the middle of it with some sort of virus or something, which resulted in me almost passing out while talking to a contact at the big outdoor concert (I was all, "Um... I have to go. Right now." Oops--very suave.).

We also took the band to record a performance for television, which was quite the experience. Bangladeshi TV station staff have enthusiasm to spare, enough to make up for head-scratch-worthy moments (this recording studio had a grandfather clock in it that chimed every 15 minutes--while they were filming! So every 15 minutes, it was like, oops, there goes the clock again, let's start that segment over).

Anyway, let's just say that I am SO HAPPY that today is Friday and I have absolutely no plans whatsoever. James and I have been lazy all day... I am reading Michael Ondaatje's Anil's Ghost, which I like so far, and also my new Barefoot Contessa cookbook that he brought me. At some point, I will make some crab dip for the ELP gathering tomorrow and maybe watch a movie (Pineapple Express? James says all the other movies I have right now are too serious).

I love laziness.

New possessions

That I am very pleased with:


1. My new shirt I had my tailor (the tailor in the shack by the lake) make for me. I am very proud of it since I designed it... Now no one can say it is ugly or they will insult me.

2. New prayer cabinet thingy acquired in Kathmandu. Charlotte was very patient during the really long process of buying it, and now I am very happy it's home with me.

3. Map of Russia I bought for James for his birthday. I am all about the classiness factor of maps.

Village tourism

Not sure what to make of this article, about villages in India that are offering homestays to tourists. The article points out that one-tenth of the world's population lives in a village in India--so why shouldn't the other nine-tenths check it out?

As for me, I am not sure how I feel. I guess more power to people who are interested--the villages set up these programs wanting the cash flow they provide. I suppose now that the program is new, the first visitors won't disrupt the traditional flow of village life significantly--yet. But then, at least in Bangladesh, I've felt ambivalent about the pull that villages have on people.

For instance, my driver and his wife are saving up to build a house in their village. On one hand, that seems sensible--saving money to invest in something lasting. But on the other hand, they have no way to make their living there. All their livelihood is in Dhaka. Wouldn't it make sense to use funds to advance your life in the capital where you'll have to work for almost all the rest of your life? Of course, in this society, the idea is that after a point your children will take care of you--there is no concept of a nursing home here.

I am curious how South Asian societies will adjust to growing modern economies and their realities. I get the sense that the village home has lost more of its pull for city-dwellers in India than in Bangladesh. I wonder how long it will take for these tourist villages to become fetishizations of village life, while holding few clues to its harsh realities.

Not a loser. I swear.

Okay, so I've not been the fantastic-est blogger lately. By my standards, at least. Sure, I'm doing better than the people who have blogs to their loved ones updated on their lives, but then they decide they don't really love them that much, at least not enough to post more often than once every four or five months (always starting out, of course, with some comment about how bad they've been and how they swear to do better).

No, I write for strangers, and they're harder to please. I am sure all two of them are disappointed this week.

Anyway, assume I have a deep dark secret keeping me away. Really deep, I swear. Absolutely nothing to do with becoming completely addicted to a series of vampire novels aimed at the barely-teenaged set. Nothing like that, really. I swear I have not just read somewhere in the order of 2400 pages of what Beth mocks as "vampire erotica."

Never.

Anyway, at some point in the haze of the last few weeks, I went to Nepal. Nepal is cool. After attempting to answer my mother's questions about it, I realized I learned absolutely nothing about it while I was there, but they sure have some neat stuff. I think the durbar squares are really majestic looking. Here is Patan Durbar Square:


And the Monkey Temple had, um... monkeys. And cool eyes:


Okay, I have little else to say about this. James gets here very early Saturday (as in 1am), so prepare for me to be an even worse blogger as my one loved one/blog reader is nearby.

Back... better than ever?

I'm back from Nepal, and I definitely don't have my life in order yet. Someday, perhaps, I will post pictures here and be a useful person again. In the meantime, I leave you with one image from Kathmandu, which is apparently an irony-free zone:


Disclaimer: Yes, I am part of the Alanis generation. I have absolutely no idea if this is actually ironic or not. Sorry.

Best. Sign. Everrrrrrrr.

Had to post one more time before heading out--one of my traveling companions from Bangkok finally put up her photos, including one of my FAVORITE SIGN OF ALL TIME YESSSSSSSSSS SO WORTHY OF ALL CAPS:


"DO NOT TRUST WILY STRANGERS"

Also, um, culottes? This is worth treasuring on so many levels.

Word from my mother

Latest care package from my mother: a novel (Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje), a book and a decorating magazine both on choosing color schemes (I am still thinking of painting), make-up, Crunch-bar-filled chocolate Easter eggs, two needlepoint pillows, two CDs of my high school choir, and a Ziploc baggy filled with seashells. Oh, the randomness. Love you, Mom!

I leave tomorrow for a conference for five days--farewell, blog friends!