Malaysia | the argot of an eidolon

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Kota Kinabalu Trip

I’ve been to China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand, even Vietnam and Australia. Yet, I’ve never been to East Malaysia. Would you believe it? It’s really a shame. So it comes to the yearly trip Ann, Susan, Chin and me started couple years back, we’ve decided to go local-support Malaysia economy and reduce carbon footprint and what not, and go to the idyllic city of Kota Kinabalu at Sabah, East Malaysia.

So on 18 August, which is also the birthday of Susan, we happily got on to the cab to LCCT. On the way to airport though, I had a really bad tummy ache. To put it very ungracefully my shit is literally at the door and it has to come out NOW. The 30mins drive to LCCT is really excruciating and gruesome for me. Hah!

On the flight, it seems that the air stewardess is not prepared for the food serving. There’s the nasi lemak promotion that comes with a teh tarik and naturally most people will order it. Ann has to wait for 15mins before the food is heated – overheated actually and served.

Well, the KK airport is nothing to shout about and we immediately took a cab to the hotel – Best Western Kota Kinabalu Daya Hotel. A tad run down, but it’s centrally located and close to all amenities like 7-11 and KFC. Actually, KK is a very small city with well planned roads. This is not to say that the drivers are not driving as recklessly as KL’s!

For lunch, we stop by a local restaurant and have the best organic choy sam. It has less fiber and lots of juice in the stem, making it really crunchy and has a sweet taste.

So, first pit stop is Klias River, Beaufort to see proboscis monkeys and fireflies. Klias River is located on the Klias Wetland, a mangrove Forest Reserve which is 100km south of Kota Kinabalu, a mere 2-hour drive. It is a must to get a local guide to because the drive there is seriously tiring and you have a make a dangerous turn to reach the pier!

We got on to a double deck boat and it’s already filled with people. You can easily see families of Proboscis monkeys going on with their daily life from the banks of the river. They have huge and long nose – to attract the female species, and heavily promoting CK underwear that comes with a long tail.

When the sun sets, it is time to see the fireflies. As it just finished raining, there are not much fireflies but it is enough to take our breath away. They are simply awesome. However, due to development on the river banks there are lesser and lesser fireflies nowadays. Maybe if you go there 5 years later there will be none left.

By the way, don’t bother taking pictures with or without flash. It is simply not possible to capture the lovely image of fireflies dotting the tree like fairy lights unless you have a super duper ultra mega hyper sensitive camera.

I’m not trying to be prejudice here, but Taiwan tourists are LOUD! On the quiet river where one is supposed to admire the peace and beauty of fireflies, all I can hear was ‘WHOAAA!! Here got fireflies!!!” “WHOAAAA!! So beautiful” “WHOAA!!!” “WHOAAA!!” “WHOAAA!!!”. Very annoying. I’m very happy to see the back of them when we got back to our own little van.

Another 2 hour drive and we’re back to KK and thus conclude Day 1 of Kota Kinabalu trip.

Photos uploaded here! http://paganchee.com/photos/

*just click on the thumbnails and it’ll link you to the full album.

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Is it necessary to leave Msia?

Malaysiakini is running a four-part series where Malaysian diaspora are invited to share their reasons to leave the country.

There’s this one particular comment, which I think most of us felt it exactly the way he said it. So I’d like to share it with all of you below. The commenter is currently working in Australia as a consultant.

“When I fist arrived in Australia in 2007, the job recruitment agent told me that I am are highly skilled and a lot of people will be lining up to hire me.

This was just the opposite of what I was told in Malaysia, where people only looked at my weakness and looked for ways to put me down and exploit me the maximum that they could.

Fed up with all the racism I felt as an Indian in Malaysia, this motivated me to move to Australia, which I now proudly call home.

Unlike Malaysia, I can see great future for my children in Australia and have no worries about racism. I was very surprised when I found out that the former Australian rugby captain was of African descent while the vice-captain of the women’s cricket team was of Indian origin.

As for coming back to Malaysia, unless Malaysia is hit by a real tsunami which in turn makes Malaysians think that God created all human equal, then I don’t want to be part of a racist country called Malaysia.“

*The above paragraph is quoted from Article 129139, titled ” Leaving Malaysia A Necessity” , on 2.03pm 14 April 2010 at Malaysiakini newsportal.

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Review: The Book of Eli

Yet another one-man-show hero upholding Christianity faith and all that is good, while systematically disposing criminals and opposing all that is not good, in a post-apocalypse world movie…

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What about the men who had sex with these women?

Last year, Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno – a Malay Muslim lady who was caught drinking beer in a nightclub – was sentenced to six strokes of the cane by the almighty Shariah Court, a parellel legal system that applies to Muslim only.

You must have known that this sparked international interest and serious concern over human rights in Malaysia then.

Before the previous wave died down and while we are all busy celebrating the new lunar year, came another shocking news that three women were caned for participating in illicit sex. Of course this news refreshed the international concern over Malaysia, albeit for all the wrong reasons!

You can read more in: MSNNine, CNN, and now this issue even has its own page in Wikipedia.

If you are a non-Muslim female who lives in Malaysia like myself, your first reaction will be to let out a sigh of relief as you are not subjected to this inane draconian law!

Then, you will feel sorry for the fellow females who were but 1 side of a party committing this ‘SIN’. Then, you will feel OUTRAGED.

Does having sex before marriage really warrant caning? What about those THE MEN whom without them, the intercourse will not happened? Why they didn’t mete out the same punishment to these assholes? Why so bias?

And how many stroke of canes are given to thore rapists, which in Malaysia common law is the one of the few things that warrant caning? Is having illicit sex comparable to raping?

What about corruption, misuse of public funds, fanning racial hatred, murder, and all those far more sinful acts? Do they get caned? They should be caned!

And oh, by the way, gay/lesbian act is also punishable by Shariah Law. Most vividly displayed by the headline grabbing DS Anwar Ibrahim Sodomy II trial case. Also, the hospital/clinic will refuse to let you do Pap Smear if you are not married. PLEASE LAH, who is still virgin nowadays after the age of 21?

It is a sad state for Malaysia women.

welcome to paganchee.com

Dear all,

Happy New Year! Don’t know why the retweet button will only show if you click on a particular post. So, you know what to do if you’d like to retweet!

Cheers,
Pagan

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Your Services Suck: Dome @ Pavilion, Malaysia

Yesterday JC & me were walking around Pavilion to find a quieter spot to have drinks. Of course JC has an agenda – he needs me to be translator again! Not that I mind of course.

Starbucks and Coffee Bean are peppered with human heads so the only other sensible choice is to go to Dome. When we sat down, it was 10.30pm. Our drinks came at 10.35pm. By 10.40pm the bill came and we paid up. By 10.45pm the foreign worker waiter who speaks nominal English walked up to JC, pointed at his watch, and loudly announced: “We close at 10.50pm! CLOSE!” and then glared at us.

Ok, you know me, I was DAMN PISSED OFF and thinking of either flunking the glass or my hot hot hot teapot into the guy’s face. WTF? I only sat down for 15mins and you want me to leave? And for this freaking 15mins I have to pay $20 for some lousy juice & tea leaves?! Can’t you just tell me you are closing in 20mins time?!

Malaysia has seriously too many foreign workers with lousy attitude. But it’s seriously not their fault. It’s the management’s. TRAIN YOUR PEOPLE!!!!

**blacklist #1: Pavilion Dome @ 2nd floor**

pizza hut VS dominos

I have a lot of angst during the begining of year 2009, and this is but one of them… (Not very conducive for a good start but it’s not my fault!)

To cut a long story short, my brother and I decided to order some pizzas and be couch potatos for the rest of the night. Since Dominos did not see fit to open a store in melaka our only option is Pizza Hut – it really is a no brainer.

So after browsing quickly through the Pizza Hut website, I called to order some pizza. The receptionist wasn’t exactly rude but honestly, I would seriously recommend ANY companies who have high volumn of customers calling in to NOT use ANY receptionist with HIGH PITCH voice. It seriously drove me nuts!

I asked for Sensasi pizza – sorry, it’s for dine-in only. I asked for pizza with egg – sorry, it’s for dine-in only. I asked for rice – sorry, it’s for dine-in only. Why can’t it be on the delivery menu? It just boggles the mind.

Anyway I have always been biased towards Dominos, as the staff are usually friendly, courteous, and very diligent. A lot are left to be desired from the Pizza Hut team. So my views are skewed. No matter. DOMINOS, if you can hear me could you kindly open up a store in Melaka ASAP?

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