Abandoned

Mom and I went up Penang Hill yesterday. We took a train up, but decided to walk back down along a 5k jeep road. On the way down, we noticed an abandoned house. I went in to check it out and this is what I found. Pretty cool, eh?

Signs

You can't do ANYTHING fun in Penang. ;)

STICK NO BILL!


NO FOOT WEARS & CAPS!


NO PARKING!


NO HELMET!


NO NAKED LIGHT!

Penang

A few photos from my walk around Penang today...

Inside Carpenters Guild (Loo Pun Hung):


Inside the Goddess of Mercy Temple:




And some fishes...

I'm totally fertile.

I joked about doing this. When my mom encouraged the behavior, I went ahead with the plan.

The sign says:
"According to local believe, childless women can conceive by placing flowers in its barrel and offering special prayers.”

It should freak Kevin out. Right? ;)

Langkawi to Penang

Writing from Starbucks, where wifi is free. HOORAY!

Yesterday I said farewell to Langkawi and hello to Penang! (I still have more to write /post for Langkawi, though...)

We went to Kuah and had Starbucks and then lunch before taking the 3 hour ferry to Penang.

My first coffee since leaving home (photo by Mom):


Edamame, California Maki, and a Fish Sandwich. The plate of food with the sandwich was about $2.15.







Oh, yeah...and a banana shake! Yummmmy.


When we got off the ferry in Penang, we were immediately surrounded by taxi drivers wanting to overcharge us to get to our hotel. Finally we found one that seemed reasonable and as we were about to get in, he said "Oh, that hotel? They changed their name!"

So we thought this was a scam and he was getting us to a different hotel. We ended up taking a bus and then walking to the location.

When we got there, we discovered he was telling the truth. It DID change it's name.

Oops! :)

More later...

Fauxtobooth: Mom

Mom stepped into the Fauxtobooth for the first time!

Bought some new Malaysian backdrops...

Rubber Cement

Postcard from Langkawi

I took this photo on the bike ride with Mom yesterday. Looks like a postcard, no? I sent it to Matt via Flickr.

i miss you kibby

Wedding Crashers

Mom and I went on a very long bike ride today. Along the way, there seemed to be an event going on - cars parked along the street for a stretch. As we got closer, the father of the bride invited us to come in and be their guests. "You're just in time" he told us.

Outside, were lots of colorfully-clad guests, all interested in our arrival. They were feasting at tables.

We were told to take off our shoes and go in a small room to see the bride and groom. We did. And I took a few shots. I should have taken more!

The family offered us food, but we had just eaten AND we had a long way to go on our bikes still. We chatted for a little while, though, and they gave us gift bags.

I will take a photo of the gift bag contents and see if I can find information on the significance of the items.

We had such a great day overall, but this was a definite highlight. Malaysians have been so friendly and welcoming - I'm so happy to be here. :)

The Replacements

Turns out I can't go a week without my favorite boys. So they've been replaced with younger, more Malaysian versions.

Miguel, Doug, Hilary, Kevin, Matt (in that order for my own reasons):


;-)

Thanksgiving Dinner, Malaysian Style

Mom and I ordered our "Thanksgiving" dinner before Thanksgiving was technically over in the U.S.

We splurged! We rode our bicycles to Mutiara Burau Bay Resort and had a yummy lunch at the Seashell Cafe. It was right on the beach - beautiful view, cool breeze. We were the first ones to sit down for lunch, but several other tables filled up before we left.

When I went to the restroom, I heard they were playing a Cake album at the bar. Cool.

We started with fish cakes with mango/pineapple chutney.



Then I had a seafood platter - two crabs and three prawns. So good. Mom had prawns too, with veggies.

Mine:


Mom's:


Cheaper than preparing a traditional T Day dinner. No preparation. No cleanup. No over-eating (or...very little). No complaints. (Extra begging myna birds.)

Mom had been wanting to try the restaurant for a while. It was a real treat!

It reminded me of when I had a Christmas dinner with Mom & Jerry at Craters of the Moon in New Zealand in 1998.


I also got to talk to a turkey-stuffed Kevin on the phone for a little while before-hand. Yay!

One way to lose weight...

I weigh nine pounds less than when I arrived in Malaysia.

Must be all the vomiting and diarrhea.

(I'm better now.)

Monkey Love

Part way through a hike, Mom and I sat down to share a NY bagel. Within seconds I saw a monkey in the distance making his way towards us. Then 3...then 7...then a dozen! I watched as the army came up from behind my mother. As they approached, we put our food in our bags.

A few climbed trees and others sat next to our little picnic table. All eyes were on us.

One, obviously the dominant male, ventured right up to us and looked about ready to pounce and steal if we showed our food again. At one point he yawned and showed his giant pointy teeth.

It was a less than relaxing snack time, but at least I got some photos...

I met a boy.

I met a boy.

My mom and I went on a hike/walk to Seven Wells. Before getting to the point when we could walk on a real trail, we had to go up lots and lots of stairs. There were several benches along the way to rest.

At one spot, a boy started talking to us. And when we started walking, he decided to join us.

Boy: Are you in school?
Me: No, I'm out of school. Are you in school?
Boy: I'm a teacher. You think I'm a baby because of my face! I'm 24!!!
Me: I'm 34.
Boy: 34? Ten years difference.

After a little more chit chat, we got to another bench and he said he was going to rest. As soon as Mom and I had gotten a little farther, he turned around and went back down.

Love is fleeting.

Jetlag and stuff

I just woke up. Again. It's 6:49pm in NY and 7:49am in Langkawi. This is a good time to wake up and stay awake for the whole day, I think. I went to sleep at 3pm (local / 2am NY) yesterday. Got up for dinner around 9pm. Went back to sleep. Put up a blog post around 1:45am. Went back to sleep. And here I am.

It rained a lot while I was in bed, but now I hear birds and see the clouds disappearing.

My mom has some great ideas for things to do while I'm here. We're on an island that takes about 3 hours to drive all the way around. We're going to do it on bicycle in two days, stopping for various sights and things along the way. I'm gonna see water buffalo and hornbills and monkeys and stuff.

We're also going to go kayaking and swimming.

And we're on a diet. My mom was on one anyway and I thought it was a good opportunity to just eat what she eats and watch a couple pounds disappear. (She also quit smoking and started exercising more - good for her!!)

1000 calories per day. I wonder how much I eat usually? Probably that much just in candy and ice cream. I just typed a wink, but then realized I don't know how far off that is...

She has calorie charts and is very careful about portions and has a way of cutting 3oz of chicken into 50 tiny bites. Yesterday our meals consisted of half a bagel (which I brought from Brooklyn), salmon, hummus, 2 salads (lettuce, cucumber, tomato), bulgur wheat, chicken, and papaya. And I had one tiny square of chocolate. I don't really feel like I'm missing out yet. Of course, I've been asleep for the many hours between meals!

I hear her up now - must be just about time for some muesli and yogurt.

Gotta go! ;)

Pictures from the planes...

I don't have any photos from Seoul to Kulala Lumpur, as it was dark out. I wish I'd taken a photo of the gentleman next to me, though. An older man who grew up in Malaysia but is "of Chinese stock". We had a nice time talking during the flight (when I wasn't sleeping.

I also wish I had a photo of the flight attendant - he looked like a Korean John Cusack. And the female flight attendants were adorable. I think my favorite uniforms in the sky.

Anyway! Mostly from NYC to Seoul, but the last one is as we were landing on Langkawi. They're in the order in which hey were taken.







Over Russia:




Flying low - landing at Langkawi:

Tidbits from Glamour's December issue...

As I mentioned in my previous post, Glamour is my guilty pleasure travel companion. Here is some of the stuff I learned, read, thought about when reading it on the way to Seoul.

- I'm the same age as Heidi Klum (I thought she was older)

- I'm one year younger than Jennifer Garner (I thought she was younger)

- I've been spelling "hurtle" like "hurdle" for a long time

- You can find ways to volunteer/give back in your own zip code if you go to dosomething.org. I'll look at it when I'm not paying for my internet access. I'll also check out childsplaycharity.org and makingmemories.org.

- I'm gonna use the mango mimosa recipe for the brunch I'm hosting next month

- Toni Morrison was interviewed and was talking about banned books. I decided that when I have kids, I'm going to have a "banned book/shelf". And hope that the fact that they're banned will encourage reading in my household.

- I want to recreate a Macy's / "Go Red" ad - woman in red coat, beret, and shoes with red balloons in a park. Everything else is black and white. Fun.

- You can buy engagement rings at Sam's Club. Classy!

- Elizabeth Edwards' daughter Cate said about her "She's so independent--you cannot tell her what to do!--and at the same time amazingly nurturing. I can just curl up in a ball in her lap when I'm sad." I wanna be like that.

- My horoscope for December is "Your month: Blow your end-of-year bonus on something sparkly-or somewhere fun. (okay!) Your mission: Expect minor travel or relationship glitches; keep a sense of humor and you'll sail right through 'em.

- I might buy The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss, as well as Maybelline Expert Wear Blush ("pinch of pink"). But probably not.

- There was a 4 page informational ad on HPV and its vaccine (cool)

So now you don't have to buy it. ;)

On my way to Langkawi...

After a fun Friday (when I had afternoon tea with Lilly, did a photo shoot for Miguel's short film, had dinner with Kevin and Kurt, and went to Lilly's birthday celebration), I went to bed only kinda packed for my trip to Malaysia to visit my mom.

Kevin stayed the night and helped me think of stuff I might need for the flight. I've had several long flights in the past (2 to Australia, 1 to New Zealand, 1 to China) and each time I seem to get more relaxed about it, which doesn't really work to my advantage.

For instance, I used my laptop unplugged while waiting for my first flight, so by the time I got on the plane the battery was half dead. Or half alive, depending on how you look at it. ;) And I'm jotting down notes for my blog on random pieces of paper because I didn't bring a notebook. And I only have one pair of shoes. (Note: Kevin's questions about whether I had sandals and a journal were met with "oh! thanks!" and then forgotten by the time we headed to his truck. (He drove me to the airport. Wasn't there a Seinfeld about that?)

I chose seats a month ago, but didn't double-check before going to the airport. My seat was changed to a middle seat. (This actually worked out - they put me on a waiting list and I ended up not only with my desired window seat, but also one of the only empty seats right next to me. Much better for the 14.5 hour flight to Seoul - the longest leg of my three flight journey.)

I booked my flight through Delta, but it's operated through Korean Air. I opted for the Korean meal option - Bibimbap. The flight attendant (oh my gosh - so cute) asked if I'd had it before and, when I said no, she gave me an instruction sheet.

I brought photos to work on, but did a lot of that at JFK. I brought DVDs, but they did no good with my dead laptop battery.

Still, it was one of the most comfortable and fastest-seeming flight of this distance that I've made.

Next: stuff I read in my guilty pleasure travel buddy - Glamour Magazine. (I only buy it when I'm flying. But usually end up reading it cover to cover.)

Also, as soon as I get my sunrise/sunset airplane window photos downloaded from my camera, I'll add 'em!

Right now I am at the Kuala Lumpur airport - biding my time until my final hop to Langkawi.

Hope to blog regularly!

When traveling to Malaysia...

Keep in mind that admission is refused to:
- foreign ladies, who are in advanced state of pregnancy, i.e.
6 months or more;
- visitors, who do not comply with the requirements regarding
general appearance and clothing, e.g. "hippies".

Anyone else find this amusing?

Brooklyn Fun

Last night Matt and I met up at Franny's on Flatbush, thinking we'd have a yummy pizza and some wine. When we got there, though, there was a 45-minute wait. These weren't our only plans for the night and neither of us really wanted to stick around.

We jumped in a cab and went to Stone Park, where we treated ourselves to beers, appetizers, burgers, and dessert (two scoops of ice cream - one caramel and one apple - mmmm).

Great food, no wait...perfect!

Then we went to Mule to hear Jedediah Parish (who Matt and I know separately) play a few tunes.



His wife and new baby were there too. Matt said (and he was right) that the baby looked like the one from the Incredibles. So adorable!



Miguel joined us as well.



After, we went back to Matt & Miguel's and I tried to play Guitar Hero. I suck!! Oh, well. :)

Randomosity

Tuesday night, Kevin and I had dinner at a little Greek restaurant on Thompson Street called Snack. I loves me some avgolemono soup!!! Next time I might just order bowl after bowl till I'm full.

The poor waitress was having a bad night. My food came out on the cool side and I asked for it to be heated more. A man at the table next to us took a bite of his food and asked "Is there meat in this??" and sent it back. Then she spilled a beer on another man.

I gave her a 30% tip.

After eating, we walked to the PATH train, taking photos along the way. There was a beautifully placed puddle in Washington Square...



Then we watched Little Miss Sunshine, which Kevin hadn't seen. Love that movie. And we drank hot chocolate, topped with nearly an entire can of whipped cream.



Wednesday I went to the Columbus Circle area. Holiday decorations are starting to go up throughout the city. I photographed some at the Time Warner Center.



Later, my friend Brent took me out to OTTO for dinner. Oh, man, that was a fine cheese plate! We also had a nice bottle of wine and each ate a pizza. So delicious - I'll be going back there again soon!

THEN Kev came to Park Slope for the night. As we were walking in the neighborhood, he pointed out the interesting juxtoposition of these signs:



This morning we had a giant homemade breakfast before going off to do our own things. I had lunch with my friend Celeste and then found some pants!

And I spied this super-cute bicycle bell:

Pants.

I'm leaving soon for Malaysia to visit my mom. She lives on a boat. And is currently in Malaysia. :)

It's mostly Muslim and although many tourists wear whatever they'd like, I'm planning on doing what my mom does and keeping my shoulders and knees covered.

It's gonna be hot and humid there. I pretty much live in jeans. Today I decided I'd go to Atlantic Center and look for pants.

I opted to walk and take some photos along the way. Meandered over...looked at a few places, picked out a pair of pants that would do. Went to the register and realized I had forgotten to bring my wallet. I had every inch of my purse filled with three cameras, an extra lens, 35mm and 120 film...

But no wallet. And no pants.

Here are a few of the photos.