Patrick James Coston Asian Adventures

Where does the water go?

2009-01-07T18:05:00.000-08:00

Because the drainage system in Malaysia is open canals instead of closed pipes, it is easy to follow the water trail. When I use the sink or bathe, the water goes down a drain and into a small canal which leads to a slightly bigger canal then a bigger one and a bigger one and so on. But where is the final destination for the sink and bath water? I decided to follow it one day.

When bathing, the water goes down this drain in the floor.

The water empties into a small canal behind the house. This canal is used for sink drainage too.

That small canal for the house empties into this slightly larger canal shared by two homes and a restaurant.

That canal empties into a street canal shared by dozens of homes and restaurants.

That canal passes under the street.

when it reaches the other side, it empties into a stream.

That stream flows through a field.

That stream flows under a wooden bridge and into a larger canal shared by a few neighborhoods.

This large canal flows toward a larger canal.

This larger canal is shared by dozens of neighborhoods.

This large canal flows into a larger canal which flows under the road.

After flowing under the road it flows into a river.

This river flows by many homes.

The river flows under the main road in Teluk Kumbar.

Fishing boats docked on the mouth of the river into the ocean.

The water then empties into the ocean.

More fishing boats docked along the beach near the mouth of the river where the bath and sink water empties.

American Money

2007-10-19T06:08:00.000-07:00

Kelly was having a hard time understanding how much each American coin was worth. It never occurred to me how badly designed the US coins are until I saw her confusion. Now where on a quarter, dime or nickel does it say many cents it is worth.

The quarter says QUARTER DOLLAR but if you have no idea what a QUARTER is, then you have no idea how many cents it is worth.

The dime says ONE DIME. Not helpful if you don't know what a DIME is.

The nickel says FIVE CENTS. Not helpful if you don't know English and do not know what FIVE means.

The penny says ONE CENT. Not helpful if you don't know English.

Canadian coins say 1 cent, 5 cents, 10 cents and 25 cents.

Malaysian coins say 1, 5, 10, 20, 50.

Another problem is that the US nickel is larger and thicker than the penny and dime. The penny is also bigger than the dime.

In every other country I've visited, the coins increase size and thickness with value.

American dollar bills are finally starting to get some color. Every other country I have visited has colored dollar bills. They can also vary in size and texture.

Malaysia money has one of the most advanced dollar bills in the world. There are numerous ways you can check a bill to see if it is real. They are all different sizes and textures. The Five dollar bill has a window you can see through and has a smooth plastic feel to it.

All Malaysian bills are the same height but their length increases with value.

RM 1 = 12 cm long
RM 5 = 13.5 cm long
RM 10 = 14 cm long
RM 50 = 14.5 cm long
RM 100 = 15 cm long

Colors

RM 1 is blue
RM 5 is green
RM 10 is orange
RM 50 is blue/green
RM 100 is green/orange

Every year they upgrade their money. The newest bills have a metallic hologram strip. They embed metallic shiny fibers. They have blank areas for water marks which show up when held up to the light. The thickness of the paper increases as the value increases.

Although Malaysia is behind the first world in most ways, they are ahead in some like money. This can be said of many third world countries. They have the opportunity to leap frog first world countries. First world countries can have slow progress because it is too expensive to change for example if the US changed all of its coins, all coin operated machines would need to be changed. The same problem exists with changing the paper money. The machines that read dollar bills would need updating.

Why hasn't the US converted to Metric yet? Money. It's too expensive to change.

Malaysia has National ID cards with computer chips in them. When the US tried to do this, there was a lot of resistance. People resist change in the first world. In the third world, people crave change. They want things to change for the better but in the first world they want things to stay the same.

Prediction of the day: Eventually we will have no third or forth world countries. Everyone will essentially be a first world country. This may take another 500 to 1000 years, but I believe it will happen.

Prediction two: Coins and paper money will also disappear and our own bodies will be used to identify who we are. We will use various ways to identify ourselves like finger prints, eye scans, voice print, etc. along with a password, to pay for things. The transition to using such a system 100% will be slow and probably take 1000 years but I think it will happen.

I only wish I could live forever to see these changes!

Back in the USA

2007-09-29T00:19:00.001-07:00

Our flight out of Penang was about 8 am so we awoke at 5 am and left for the airport at 6 am. Kelly's sister Chin drove us in the van with our luggage. Kelly's sister Ping and Kelly's mom drove in a second car. Kelly's sister Chu and her two sons, ages 10 and 12, also drove in a third car to see us off. It was both a happy and sad occasion so there were some tears.

I wore my USA socks which were a gift from the family.

Security asked me to check-in my PC which I had intended to carry on. That cost me an extra $115. It was not packaged to be checked. It was packaged to fit in an overhead compartment meaning it had no padding. Although they labeled the box fragile, it sustained quite a bit of damage and was not functional once I tried to get it working in the US. A technician troubleshooted the problem and after 15 minutes he determined that vibrations had knocked my RAM loose and it was fixed. That cost me another $65. I hope there is no other major damage.

We learned ahead of time that we were each allowed two bags to check-in which could total no more than 70 kg together so we used a scale to put as much as we could into each suitcase. We also knew the size and weight limits and number of carry-on luggage allowed so we had everything figured out and carefully packed. Kelly has been packing for months, literally. She started packing the day she got her US Visa. It was a long hard process to figure out what to leave behind, what to throw away, what to give to friends and family and what to sell.

We sold my big chair, PC monitor, speakers and UPS. I gave my mobile phone to my niece (age 20-something). Kelly left her laptop behind for the family. I gave my nephews the Age of Empires disks so they could play. I introduced them to the game two months ago and they have been addicted to it ever since. We had some really fun multiplayer games across the LAN. Things really got interesting when we started using cheats. We left behind the furniture and bed we bought. I threw away a huge stack of computer books. I almost never referenced them and when I did, they were almost never helpful. I had about 20 issues of Wired magazine which I gave my friend.

At first we were going to ship a lot of things to the US but after we learned that the cost of an extra carry-on is cheaper than shipping, we decided to pay for the extra carry-on at the airport. We also worked harder to purge things and made some hard decisions on what to leave behind.

Kelly and I flew to Bangkok where we stayed for a day at a hotel.

At the hotel I saw a notice that said ...

A Word of Caution

All big cities have their share of dishonest people who prey on foreign visitors. Although much safer than many other destinations, Bangkok is no exception, so please take a moment to read this, and protect yourself against such characters.

A handbag dangling from a wrist or shoulder is a tempting target anywhere in the world. Snatch thieves in Bangkok either operate on foot or on motorcycles, and are equally adept as their counterparts elsewhere. They will also grab valuables from open vehicles, such as Tuk-Tuks, particularly when stationary in traffic. Please take the usual precautions, and ensure that large amounts of cash, valuables, irreplaceable documents etc. are locked in the hotel's in-room safe or in the safe provided at the Front Desk - not kept in your handbag.

Bangkok's confidence tricksters come in a fascinating variety of shapes and sizes. They are all charming - from the smiling boy scouts who solicit generous "donations" destined for their own pockets, to the "off-duty policeman impersonator", the "university professor", the "taxi driver", etc. who will approach you in a public place and politely engage you in conversation. They will usually carry genuine-looking identification of some kind, and understandably, many foreign visitors see this as an excellent opportunity to talk to a friendly local - to mix with "real" Thai people. The truth is of course that "real" Thai people do not go out of their way to speak to tourists in the street. The golden rule to remember is that if somebody does, you can be sure they're up to no good - that helpful seemingly well-educated person is almost certainly a crook. If you go with him, or her, you do so at your own risk.

You may be taken sightseeing, then robbed, or coaxes into a game of cards where it seems you cannot lose. Most commonly, you'll be taken to a shop and grossly overcharged for inferior or fake goods. Be particularly careful of jewelry shops where the sales techniques are especially convincing, even to the most skeptical people. Many visitors have lost very large amounts "investing" in precious stones.

Proceed with caution. Most Thais are delightful and honest people, but naturally shy of foreign visitors. So should you encounter a well spoken and charming person out there, eager to know which country you come from ..... Beware.

The sign behind Kelly says NO DURIAN! The statue has a Durian fruit for a head. Durian is a smelly fruit whose smell offends some people. Kelly is making the sign for Durian which is imitating how you open it.

I have never seen water fountains in Asia but I saw this set at the Bangkok airport but they didn't work.

At 1 am we caught our flight to the US. The 16 hour flight felt very short since we were very comfortable, we slept a lot and each seat had a screen with a remote control to movies, TV shows, music and more.

There was also many maps showing where the plane was and they gave info like estimated hours to arrival, current air speed, altitude, etc. This shows our route from BKK (Bangkok) goes right over the North Pole to JFK airport in New York.

I was disappointed that the plane cam wasn't working which should have given views left, right and forward from under the plane but in reality there was not much to see. They had everyone put their window blinds down but we took a peak once in a while but all we saw clouds. After we passed the North Pole, we quickly transitioned from day to night.

Kelly and I arrived at JFK airport in New York at 6:40 am Thursday September 27, 2007. The sunrise out our window was amazing.

We passed thru immigration quickly, picked up our luggage quickly at the carousel, got a porter to help us transport our 4 large bags, my bicycle, my PC and our two carry-ons, to the curb where we waited an hour before we got picked up by my parents.

While waiting, Kelly tried to sit on some seats provided but found she was too short and experienced the opposite of my "I'm too big for Asia" feeling. She felt she was too small for America. Here she is trying to balance on these rotating chairs which are designed to discourage homeless people from sleeping on them.

Kelly also saw this street cleaning truck for the first time.

My sister and nephew also arrived in a second car. The temperature was a comfortable 70F (21 C) They had a 1 hour delay at the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge due to construction otherwise we would have had no wait. My parents had a van and everything fit neatly into the back and the ride home was very comfortable.

The ride home was only 1 hour and 15 minutes. Once we were within 5 minutes of their home, we stopped at Perkins for some pancakes (one of my favorite foods). My niece met us there.

Home sweet Holmdel

Kelly had never seen this type of mailbox before.

This is the first time Kelly saw a combination lock on a car door.

Kelly only saw one guy on a motorcycle up until that point. She would say the phrase "This is the first time I ... " often for example at the restaurant she ordered grapefruit juice thinking it was grape juice. She noticed her juice was yellow and not purple and gave it a sip and got a rude surprise that it was so sour and we all laughed watching her expression. She had never tried grapefruit juice before. She noted that the amount of food on everyone's plate was much more than you get in Malaysia.

Afterwards we arrived at my parents and unloaded our luggage then exchanged gifts. We began to unpack and Kelly and my mom spent some time looking at each other's photo albums. We learned that my parents, sister and niece had all enrolled in a sign language course and already knew how to sign A-Z as well as many other signs. Kelly was quite pleased she could easily communicate with everyone except my nephew Shane who is 7 year old but he started learning.

Kelly and I had a nap and managed to stay up late and sleep at a normal time USA time.

The next day we visited my sister's house which I had never seen.

We took a walk along the beach and walked to the end of this pier which is more than twice as long as the pier in Kelly's home town.

Kelly had never seen these outdoor showers before. They are used to clean sand off your body before you get in your car and go home.

English sub-titles on TV which can be turned on and off.

Kelly had never seen this type of shifter in a car before.

Kelly's first garage sale.

Kelly and I went to a dancing show with my mom and niece.

Welcome to USA balloons

Gang of bikers. We only see motorcycles. No motorbikes.

Bananas in the USA are much larger than those found in Malaysia.

Kelly drinking from a water fountain for the first time.

Visiting the park near my parent's house. They have many satellite dishes.

Kelly and my mom.

List of firsts for Kelly and things I haven't seen in over 2 years.

Seagulls
Squirrels
Lack of motorbikes
Driving on the right
Steering wheel on the left
Different plugs on the wall
Light switches that go up for On and down for Off
Car door that requires you type in a numbered pass-code to open
Trying grapefruit juice
Cranberry Juice
New Jersey Pizza
Americanized Chinese food
Dishwasher in the home
American style washing machine
Clothes dryer
Bounce anti-static strips for dryer
Washed clothes feel softer
Poison Ivy
Underground pipes for water drainage instead of open canals
MPH instead of KPJ (Kilometers Per Jam (Jam = Hour in Malaysia))
Tivo
Krimpets
Yodels
Ring Dings
Ding Dongs
Devil Dogs
Pop Tarts
Fig Newtons
Twinkies
Mt. Dew
American Milk
Quality Steak
American pancakes
drinking water from the tap
hot water from the tap
bread toaster
Cable TV
Cable Internet
Fast Internet
80+ channels on TV
Garage Sales
Yard Sales
American Christian Church
Beef hotdogs
Yellow mustard
Cheese
English sub-titles
Sub-titles on TV you can turn on and off
Leaves changing color for the fall season
Fireplace
Lack of privacy in public toilets (can see people's feet)
Paying car tolls by throwing coins into a basket at the toll booth
Static shock
Leaves changing color
Snow (not yet, but Kelly will see snow for the first time eventually)
V8 Juice (8 different vegetables in one)
Girls and boys playing soccer (football) together
Pollen
No Darlie toothpaste
Water fountains
Lots of 1 gallon milk bottles at the store
Lots of beef hotdogs at store
Snow sled
Halloween
No rice cooker in homes
Jug handle turns (turn right around loop to turn left)
Outdoor grills for cooking meat like hotdogs and hamburgers
Visiting Costco and seeing large quantities of products for cheap prices
Costco - lots of free food samples
Costco - upon exit compare receipt to contents of cart to prevent theft
Everyone always buckling in, even children in the back-seat ... especially children in the back seat
Hotdogs with mustard, sauerkraut, relish, diced onions
Free parking almost everywhere
Free refills
Pools in the back yard common
Vending machine with glass to see what it is inside. Press something like C4 to get your food drop so you can retrieve it
Burger King
Hummers
Groundhogs
Baloney
No Durian
Lockers
No squat toilets
Public toilets always have toilet paper
Salad
Salad dressings like Ranch and Balsamic Vinaigrette
Acorns
No cicaks (geckos) crawling on the wall inside the house
Houses closed to the outside world so no insects inside
Leaving food out overnight and not covered in ants by the morning
Maple syrup
Asparagus
Sparkling cider
Street cleaner truck
Mail boxes
Car shift lever different
Public outdoor beach showers
Auto check-out at the supermarket
Olives (black or green)
Auto-open doors that detect motion

Wheelie Boys of Teluk Kumbar

2007-09-18T21:51:00.000-07:00

I shot some video of the local boys doing bicycle tricks in front of their school.

The clips of this music video were shot August 22 and 23 of 2006.

Too Hot to Handle (Part 5)

2007-09-06T23:15:00.000-07:00

I'm exhausted. It's 8 pm and I left this morning at around 11 am to ride down Penang Hill. I also out-did myself. Both of my inner tubes went flat and both my tires got slashed. My bike also got quite a few more scratches on it.

I must wri3te it down now while the details are still fresh in my head unlike my post for Part 4 was delayed for weeks because I was trying to launch Truehome so I forgot most of the details by the time I wrote it.

As I approach the train station, I can see the top of the highest point in Penang in which I will be going. I can see the train station at the top.

I place my bicycle in this car in the front. It doesn't actually ride in the car with us humans.

Here we pass the train that is coming down the hill. There is one track for both trains and they share the same cable so they basically counter weight each other with the engine at the top controlling when they move. The track splits here so they can pass. Genius!

We are about to pass through a tunnel at the top.

And finally we reach the top station. What I didn't show you is that there is a mid-point station where you have to change trains. The reason for this is that the angle changes and each set of trains is built to match that angle. Plus the construction was started in 1906 so they probably didn't have a cable long enough or strong enough to go up the entire mountain at one time. Check out the Wikipedia page about Penang Hill.

Here I am about to go down the hill.

Rounding a turn at the rest stop. Yes this shot is staged. I went very slow for the picture. Normally I take the turns as fast as I safely can.

When I reached the bottom of Penang Hill, I gave my front disc brake a tap with my gloved hand and I saw smoke coming off the disc. Just a tap had singed my glove. I did a few more times. My poor glove. It has these rubber finger tips for grip which are now missing some rubber. But that's how hot my disc was. Had I tapped it with my bare-hand, the smoke I saw would have been burned flesh.

I was about 100 steps from the bottom when my front tire went soft. It's then that I realized that both of my inner tube valves were slanted. I knew exactly what had happened. I had let out some air earlier while riding a rocky trail in order to cushion the ride. My tires were at about 40 psi. They were soft but not too soft. Actually they were too soft for going down Penang Hill since it's obvious there was not enough force to hold my tire in place so it slid backward a few cm while I was breaking. This put too much strain on the inner tube presta-valve, which is held in place by a screw on bolt, and the rubber tore wide open.

This is my front tube. You can see the valve is hanging by a thread.

I examined my rear inner tube and determined that it was OK. I fixed its alignment but obviously it had been weakened and finally gave out about half-way to the bike-shop. I did have another inner-tube and I could have repaired it but I noticed Komtar (the tallest building in Penang) on the horizon and decided it was easier just to walk there. I regret that decision now. My bike-shop is near Komtar. Although the street I was on gave the illusion that it went straight to Komtar, that is never the case in Penang where you are confronted with one-way streets and dead-ends (but not both at the same time obviously).

It took me about 1.5 hours to walk to my bike-shop, usually walking in the street against heavy traffic.

The bike-shop was so kind to me. I didn't want my bike fixed. I just wanted them to pack it so I could ship it to the United States. They did not take my name or phone number and said the box and packing would be free. They even said they would give my bike a free inspection.

I'm not sure why they were being so nice to me, but it's probably because of my loyalty to them. During the 1.5 hours of my walk, I passed many bike shops. I will only give my business to CCI. They are by far the best bike shop in Penang and if you care about quality parts and service, then go nowhere else.

Let's start at the beginning. I tried a new route to Penang Hill. Every time I ride my bike there, I try a different route to see if I can find one that will get me in less time with less energy but now I'm convinced that there is no way to avoid going up over a big hill on the way there. My quest for the totally flat route has failed.

I bought 1.5 Liter bottle of a sport drink. By the time I got to Penang Hill, I had finished it so I bought another bottle. By the time I got to the bottom of Penang Hill, I had finished it so I bought another one which I finished by the time I got to the bike shop. So in total I drank 4.5 Liters of fluids today … at least! I'm still thirsty and drinking even more water.

My trip to Penang Hill was uneventful except for the time I rode between two parked cars. The car on the right was double parked (because they drive on the left in Malaysia) and I felt safer going between the cars instead of around the double-parked into traffic. I was travelling fairly fast … maybe 20 mph and it was a tight squeeze but I thought I could make it. Unfortunately the 1 cm of handlebar that stuck out past my right hand, hit the cars mirror. It hardly phased me. I heard a loud smacking noise but it did not yank my handle-bars and I kept going. Car mirrors are made to fold forward on modern cars so I figured I had just adjusted this guys mirror and nothing more until I heard something hit the ground.

Now I felt like a little child who had done something wrong. In my mind I imagined the mirror snapping off and falling to the ground. Then I heard the car horn start honking. At first I thought it was the car alarm but then I realized it was too uneven. The person in the parked car was trying to get my attention. I should have stopped, turned around and found out what happened but instead I kept going, totally expecting them to come after me.

Shortly after I hit the mirror, I came to a red light and had to stop. I thought for sure they would catch me then, but nothing. I continued on and I imagined a car pulling in front of me and cutting me off with some angry driver coming to beat me up. I began to imagine scenarios of what I would do in this situation and how I would escape from the angry motorist … but I never got the chance to put my plans into action. They never came after me and I'm sure I broke something.

I got to Penang Hill, took the train to the top and down I went. My goal was to explore this trail that was half way down. The locals told me that it is now the rainy season so it is washed out, muddy, rocky, roots exposed, slippery, wet and so there is no way for you to ride it. I was not deterred. I went anyway. It was all of these things and more. I was able to ride half the time and the other half the time I was lugging my bike up a hill.

Check out how many roots and rocks there are on this trail. I could actually ride this section which was a lot easier to do going down than up since I didn't have to pedal.

Water had eroded this section. It was so narrow that I had to walk behind my bike to get through.

It was hot and humid and I was constantly thirsty. I worried that I would run out fluids long before I reached civilization again. For some reason, the trail was going up instead of down the mountain. I stopped and thought about turning back for a long time then decided it was the smart thing to do. Besides, this trail wasn't going where I wanted to go, which was down.

I had glanced at a map of trails before going up and I noticed a lot of very long trails out here. I must have made a wrong turn and ended up on the wrong trail. Upon reaching the road again, a local told me that I had taken a wrong turn. Oh well. The ride back was a lot nicer since it was downhill and I got to do some serious hard-core mt. biking but I have to confess that I did not attempt some of the scarier sections.

Back when my bike riding skills were at their peak, I would have ridden about 90% of this trail not my skills are about 75% of what they were so I only attempted about 70% of the sections and I was quite pleased with my performance. I put my seat down really low so that I could get my weight back really far for those big drop-offs. For long rocky sections, I just went for it but unfortunately this is where both my front and rear tires got slashed. They were slashed thru to blow the inner tube. It was just surface damage. Layers of the side-wall literally peeled off. Later when riding down the hill I noticed my bike was wobbling. That's because both my front and back tire side-walls were now weakened and the tires were now bulging on one side. I was worried they were going to blow but they didn't but they are both destroyed.

My water bottles kept falling off on that rocky trail. That's how brutal this trail was. I finally stuck them in my bag.

At one point, my pedal hit a rock really hard and broke the rock! The last time my pedal hit something hard (a curb) it tore my pedal out of the crank! I had them replace my cranks with stronger cranks and this time the pedal and crank broke the rock! If you click on the picture to see the full-size version you can see how the reflective strip has been torn off my tire side-wall. Both my front and back tires had chunks missing and slashes and gashes. That's because I would side-swipe rocks and my tire would ride over then slip off the side of a rock. I got some major tire damage but this is not what gave me a flat tire.

Once again I was not happy with my disc brakes. They did their job but I had to squeeze really hard and once again, I was in a lot of pain from squeezing so hard. Also once again, either the cables slipped or stretched because by the time I reached the bottom, I had a lot more space between the disc and the brakes than when I started.

I saw a family of monkeys on the way down.

They were not afraid of me as long as I didn't threaten them. They came over and started looking through my bag. I thought it was funny until I realized they would probably take something I wouldn't get it back so I gently took my bag away from them.

This was my farewell ride. The bike is now at the shop and will be packed in a few days ready for mailing back to the US. Kelly and I are not waiting until the last minute. Instead we are packing stuff up and mailing it now so it will be there when we arrive. This room should get rather empty soon. Kelly has been packing for weeks deciding what to throw away, what to take to the US, what to sell, what to give to family and friends and so on.

20 more days and we are on a plane back to the US and my adventures in Asia will come to an end and this blog will simply be an archive. But Kelly will start her blog of her Life in the US so one blog dies and a new one is born. Plus I'm hoping we can visit once a year so perhaps I will add more adventures in Asia someday.

Too Hot to Handle (Part 4)

2007-09-06T21:03:00.000-07:00

I finally got my disc brakes so it's time to attempt the ride down Penang Hill from top to bottom without stopping. As we learned in parts 1, 2 and 3, it's pretty impossible for a guy my size to ride down Penang Hill from top to bottom without getting a flat tire using normal brakes because the brake pads heat the rim to the point the inner tube fails.

This was a new braking system and the first time I've used disc brakes so I was a little nervous. If my brakes were to fail, I could die. My plan was to go down the hill very slowly for safety reasons and if they failed, hopefully I could jump off the bike or slide side-ways and stop or something.

Here is what the weather was like this day. For those of you who only know metric it was 26C but felt like 29C since the humidity in the morning was 89%.

If you read my last post, you know that I gave my bike a major upgrade with new disc brakes, new cranks, new sealed bottom bracket, new forks, new stem, new sealed head-set and other new stuff. Here are some pics. Notice how shiny my disc brakes are. This will change by the time I reach the bottom of Penang Hill.

My nice shiny new disc front brakes.

Shiny new rear disc brakes. Notice that it's a lot smaller than front.

Pic of my bike showing off the brakes.

Pic of my bike showing off the new cranks.

Ready to ride!

Behind me is the main Mosque in Penang. You can see rain-drops on my visor. The rain felt good.

Picture of train that goes up hill.

Packed inside train.

The view up the hill from the train. I don't ride down this. There are many other trails and roads to ride down.

The view down the hill from the train.

View from the top looking down the tracks.

The cheap rental bikes they have at the top. Instant death if you attempt to ride down the hill. Those are for riding the roads that on top of the hill.

Panoramic picture #1

Panoramic Picture #2. This is almost 360 degrees.

When I got to the top of Penang Hill, I adjusted the brakes so they were tighter than usual. I wanted maximum stopping power. I lowered my seat so I could get lower for the sharp turns. I checked my tire air-pressure to make sure it was good … then I was off down the first hill.

The first section is very steep and after 30 seconds I stopped to feel how hot my disc brake was. It was already too hot to touch even with gloves on! Now this started to worry me because if it was already this hot after 30 seconds, how much hotter would it get after 20 minutes of this. Plus I smelled something burning and I figured it was the brake pad.

I wondered if the heat of the discs would transfer to my hub and heat the grease in my hubs. I imagined the grease bursting into flames and having flames shooting out of my hubs. Flaming hubs! Now that would be cool.

I continued down the hill and I liked that the braking was silent. Normal brakes make a scraping sound and as they heat up they can screech and make all kinds of scraping noises. Well the silence didn't last long and my brakes started making a sound and it didn't sound good and it was getting louder.

I started to worry that something catastrophic was going to happen like the brake cable would get too hot and snap or the disc would warp the stop my front wheel instantly. I stopped and I could smell something burning. I touched my front disc and I saw smoke coming off the disc where I had touched it. I looked at my glove and the rubber had been melted! The finger tips of my gloves have rubber pads for grip.

I thought of pouring water on the discs but then I remembered what the guy at the bike shop said about bike parts needing to cool slowly. I had poured water on hot rims to cool them and he said I probably weakened my rims. That is true in anything really. When I was like 10 years old, I remember touching the light bulb on this lamp and it burned my fingers so I went and got a cup of cold water and poured it over the bulb to cool it down. The bulb popped and I learned that when things cool quickly, bad things happen.

My goal was to go non-stop from top to bottom but I did stop a few times just out of fear that the discs were getting too hot because the screeching noise was getting terrible. Plus I noticed that my brake cables were stretching and resulting in less braking power but I still had enough. I don't know if the heat was causing them to stretch or if it was just because they were new and that's what new brake cables do. I just wish there was a brake cable that didn't stretch. When I squeezed my brakes, it felt very spongy and soft. I want a solid feel to my brakes. I don't like the spongy stretchy feelings.

Since this is my first time getting disc brakes, I simply asked for disc brakes. I didn't ask for any type of disc brake or any brand. I know next to nothing about them. I'm sure that in the near future I will probably be upgrading my disc brakes to something more robust and I'm sure there exists cables that don't stretch.

Take my grips for example. They were always turning and slowly sliding off my bars and if they got wet, it was like they were oiled and ready to pop off any second. After asking around and trying various home-made solutions like tape and glue, I finally found these grips. They bolt onto the bars at both ends of the grip. They do not move. No matter how wet they get, they are bolted down. There is no fear of them popping off at the wrong moment (like when you're jumping off a 3-foot drop-off).

Equipment failure leads to injury and death. For example, when I'm climbing a steep hill and my gears skip, it causes me to lunge forward and I end up spraining a shoulder from the down force. I just want reliable equipment because I'm putting my life in its hands and it cannot fail. If I lose control, I could get run over by a truck. I replace my chain every 6 months otherwise it will snap before the year is up, no matter how strong the chain is.

I continued down the hill and my fingers and forearms were really hurting from squeezing the brake levers so hard. My old rim friction brakes worked much better than these disc brakes! I did notice that the disc on the front is about twice as big as the disc on the back. I figure bigger is better. Next time I'm going to get the biggest discs I can find.

I also hear there are pneumatic disc brakes. That sounds like they would work better. I don't know how they work with oil pressure but it sounds like they might have a spongy feel to them as well. Plus if the oil heats up, what could happen? I have got do more research and order the parts I need instead of relying on whatever the bike shop gives me.

Back in my teen years when I would build a BMX bike, I would order every single tiny parts down to the anodized aluminum valve caps. I knew the brand and cost of every single part on my bike. It was a custom job that I built and maintained myself. Now I have the bike shop build and maintain it and even choose which parts to put on it. This has got to stop. I need to get back to my old BMX ways and take control of my parts.

I also need to learn how to adjust gears. They come out of adjustment often and when it happens on a ride, I need to know how to fix that instead of riding with skipping gears. That's bad for the bike and dangerous for me.

I finally reached the bottom and no flat tire! I had not gone non-stop but I only stopped three times and for a very short time so it was almost non-stop. Next time I would go much faster since I now had more confidence that the brakes could take the heat.

I did notice that my shiny discs were now discolored from the heat but otherwise they seemed fine. The screeching stopped once they cooled. I had to readjust the cable since it had either slipped or stretched. I felt the hub and it felt cool. Somehow the heat had not transferred to the hub or spokes which was amazing.

You can see how the discs are discolored from the heat

My rear brake is also discolored.

So the new disc brakes were a success. No flat tires!

Side note: You may notice in the pictures that my shirts changes color from Yellow to Orange to Red. You may think these pics were taken on 3 different days but they were taken all on the same day. I bring two dry shirts with me since I sweat so much. Once my shirt gets too wet, I feel more hot because the sweat on my skin cannot evaporate because the shirt sticks to my body. Once I change into a dry shirt, I feel much cooler and more comfortable.

Heat is a big problem. I would hate to die of heat stroke. I need to listen to my body and stop in the shade and take rests and drink a lot of fluids. It may be 95 but it feels 105!

Here is what the weather was like when I returned home. It was hotter than this during the mid-day. 30C but feels like 35C.

As you can see I'm a ball of sweat basically. I drank three large bottles of water. Check out the helmet hair.

Too Hot to Handle (Part 3)

2007-08-09T21:33:00.000-07:00

I went back to Penang Hill again but this time I wanted to explore one of the many motorbike trails that head down the mountain. I located what looked like a very new motorbike trail and down I went. I was warned that these trails would be mossy, broken, rocky, muddy, etc. but this was brand new. The hair-pins turns had obviously been recently cut into the hill. It wasn't long before I came upon construction. They were still building this path. The directed me toward another nearby path so I took that one instead. This one was old, over grown, narrow, mossy, bumpy, muddy, etc. … my kind of trail!

It was not that steep so I had no fears about my wheels heating up too much. Because I got flats the last two times I rode down Penang Hill, I thought maybe it was because of my tire pressure. My theory is that rim heats up and increases my tire pressure from 60 psi to like 100 psi. This time I decided to let out some air so my tire pressure was about 40 psi. As I rode down, I stopped occasionally and checked my tires to make sure they were still soft. I thought I could detect them getting harder as my wheels got harder but they were still soft so no worries.

There were many smaller trails leading off to the left and right going up and down the hill but I stayed on the main path which eventually dumped me back onto the road that I usually take down the hill. I was about ¼ the distance from the top of the mountain now.

So I decided to continue down on the road and find one of the trails that lead off the road. As I'm heading down the hill, I can hear my rim heating up. My spokes make a "Tink! Tink!" noise as it heats up and cools down. So I stopped and felt my wheels and they were too hot to touch, even with gloves on so I took a 15 minute rest and let them cool. I was determined not to get a flat tire this time, unlike the last two times I went down this road.

There is a rest stop half-way and that is where I always get a flat-tire and on this trip, I realized why. It's because it gets REALLY steep right before the rest-stop. I should have let my wheels cool before attempting this steep section because it happened again. My front tire suddenly got soft. I did not fall because I was going slow at the time. I thought if I go slower, it would give my rims time to cool.

I got a flat and walked down to the rest stop and fixed it. That was my last inner tube so I could not afford another flat. Note to self: always bring two inner tubes.

This time I tried a new tactic. I had bought more than enough water for this trip so when I stopped to let my rims cool, I flipped my bike over and spun the wheels and poured the cold water over them cooling them. I would later learn that this is a bad idea. Rapid cooling of your rims will cause them to fatigue faster. I could hear "Tink! Tink! Tink!" as the metal cooled and pulled at the spokes.

About 10 minutes after leaving the rest stop, it happened again. My front tire let out a loud hiss and went soft. I had cooled my wheel with water but they still got too hot and my brand new inner tube died. I noticed that all of my inner tubes rupture at the valve. It must be a weak-spot or perhaps there is a stress there.

As I'm walking down, I see other mt. bikers pass me and they all have disc brakes! Not one of them has normal rim friction brakes. It's time for me to get disc brakes. I'm sick of getting flats. I'm sick of taking several 15-minute rest-stops to let my rims cool. I want to fly down this hill from top to bottom without stopping.

It was a long painful walk down. It is hard enough walking down but walking down holding back your bike is twice as hard. I just wanted to let go of my bike and let it "ghost ride" down the hill.

At the bottom I tried to take a taxi to Georgetown to the best bike shop in Penang, CCI, but nobody wanted to take me. The police had put up road blocks to check taxis to make sure they are using their meter. About 90% of the taxis in Penang do not use their meter even though it is the law. They offered to take me to a closer bike shop but I refused. The quality of parts and service has always been too low at the 20 other bike shops I have visited. I'm loyal to CSS. They do good work and have the highest quality parts.

I took my wheels off and waited for the bus but finally one of the taxi drivers said he would take me for RM 20 and I agreed.

I report all taxis that do not use a meter so I secretly snapped a picture of his dashboard with his identification information to report him later. He used a meter on this trip even though we had agreed to RM 20. He took me on the most convoluted way to the bike shop to avoid the road blocks. I'm guessing his fellow taxi drivers reported where the road blocks are. I didn't know where I was half the time. When we arrived, the meter said RM 30. He had gone such a long route that the meter was higher than his raised price. If he had gone the normal route, the meter might have said RM 10.

Repairs and upgrades will cost about RM 1000. Here is what I'm having done.

Disc brakes - not hydraulic because I'm told it will get too hot with my kind of riding
New fork - I need it for the disc brakes
New stem - mine was bent
New head-set - mine was broken
New cranks - My pedal hit a rock with tore my pedal out of the crank half-way
New inner tubes plus spares

Too Hot to Handle (Part 2)

2007-07-31T02:44:00.000-07:00

I rode my mt. bike down Penang Hill again today. Penang Hill is the highest mountain in Penang. They have a train that takes you to the top which goes straight up the mountain. Last time I rode down, I got rear flat because my rim got too hot so this time I decided to try ride my front rim more to try to heat my wheels more evenly. Result: My front tire got a flat this time!

A front-tire flat is far more dangerous than a rear wheel flat. If you're traveling down a steep hill at 30 mph and your rear tire blows, at least you can still steer. If your front tire blows, you lose almost all ability to steer and brake. I'm talking from experience.

I was lucky. I passed the half-way point where you are supposed to stop and let your wheels cool. There were about 10 hikers there and it seemed like they all yelled to me as I passed. I didn't understand what they said and I kept going. My goal was to do this hill non-stop.

Then I heard a hissing noise. I stopped to see what it was, but I happened to stop next to a loud stream so I thought the hissing noise was simply the stream. I spotted this large turtle which also hissed at me. I hear there are a lot of King Cobras that like to lie in the road because the road is heated by the sun. They also hiss, I would imagine. I've heard stories about these large snakes in the road and how dangerous they are. Maybe that's what I heard? Naah.

After playing with the turtle for 10 minutes, I got back on my bike then I noticed my front tire was flat. Wow! I was quite lucky it went flat while I was playing with a turtle instead of while rounding a hair-pin turn.

This is the scary thing about rounding these turns ... you don't know if you can trust your tires. You might have sprung a leak and your front or rear tire could be really mushy so as you lean into the turn, it will won't hold you and down you go.

I've been wanting to get disc brakes but it was too expensive. My new brakes work so well, I figured I didn't need them but now I'm starting to justify the expense.

After replacing my inner tube, I continued down the hill. While I was repairing the tube, 5 hikers passed me on their way down the hill. Later I passed them but had to stop and let my wheels cool. Once again, my rim was too hot to touch, even with gloves. The hikers passed me back. Later I passed them but had to stop again and they passed me back and later I passed them again but this time I made it to the bottom so I just kept going and let my wheels cool as I rode.

With all those stops, I was descending down the hill at the same rate as someone walking down! The problem is my weight. I weight about 250 pounds. If I lost about 100 pounds, my wheels wouldn't heat up as much.

I wondered if maybe the heat was increasing the tire pressure increasing it from like 50 psi to 100 psi. I wonder if I started with like 25 psi, maybe the increase in tire pressure wouldn't blow my tire. I also wondered if it would help if I went slower. I probably get up to 40 mph then slam on the brakes to reduce to 10 mph for a turn, then back to 40 mph then back to 10 pm and so on, but I kept my speed at around 20 mph, it might generate less heat. I would generate the same heat but over a longer period of time allowing it to cool.

That's an experiment for next time.

Weird stuff I saw in Malaysia this week

2007-07-27T02:02:00.000-07:00

Wooden slide with peeling paint exposing splintering wood. If this were glossed over with paint, it would be fine although it might leave a paint smudge on your butt but if you attempt to slide down it now, you'll be in a lot of pain.

I can't tell if this is a land-slide nobody bothered to remove or if they made it this way but the left lane disappears into one lane so watch-out for oncoming traffic as you go up and over.

Everything is on a different level in Malaysia. They seem to have no concept of flat. Even the brand new mall has levels as you walk the ground floor from one end to the other. Is it so hard to flatten it out first???

This reminds me the Terry Gilliam movie, Brazil. This is something you might expect to see in a poor area but this is a wealthy area and there's a huge pipe coming out of the side-walk. I've never seen such a thing in the US.

7 escalators all connected. Now this is cool. You get off one escalator and onto the next one so you go up 7 levels fairly fast.

This car has not moved in the 2 years I've been here. They actually removed all of the shrubs at one point but they are growing back. I think those two trees sprouting can do some serious damage. It would be cool if they grew on either side and lifted it into the air.

Malaysia Sucks

2007-07-26T22:33:00.000-07:00

People in Malaysia often ask me "Do you like Malaysia/Penang?" They looked surprised when I say "No". They are obviously expecting a different answer.

Penang is beautiful but it is also ugly. It has a lot of tropical vegetation and some mountains but it is also over populated and polluted. This is the first third world country I have lived in so maybe what I've experienced here is common in most third world countries simply because people are poor and they must lie, cheat and steal to make a living.

Piracy is out of control. The government puts on a show as if they are doing something about it but I see nothing happening. I've been here 2 years and there has been no change and the amount of pirated movie, music and software you can buy and yet I here about efforts to stop piracy all the time.

The Prangin Mall and the Bukit Jambul Mall both have movie theaters. They also both have a dozen shops that sell pirated movies and the movies you can buy are the same movies that are showing so when Spiderman 3 came out, you had the choice of paying RM 10 and seeing it in the theater or paying RM 3 right for a pirated DVD which you could buy right next to the theater.

I don't understand how a dozen shops can remain open. Simply do not allow them to open. The source of the problem is the owners of the malls allowing such shops to exist. Arrest the owners, shut down the shops and keep them closed. How hard is that? I don't understand what the problem is.

Everywhere around Penang you see open markets selling pirated movies, music and software. It's not like they're underground. They are easy to find and easy to shut down.

Companies pirated logos. I saw two cafes at the mall recently that had logos that reminded me of Starbucks. In fact I thought they were Starbucks until I took a second look. Pensonic sounds and looks way too close to Panasonic. Again, I have to look twice in order to know the difference. Twiggies look just like Twinkies. Cream-O's look just like Oreos. The list goes on and on and these pirated products are not as good as the original.

It is obvious to me that the Malaysian government and police dept. are corrupt.

90% of the taxi drivers refuse to use the meters even though it's the law. They increase the price 1.5 to 2 times what it would cost with the meter. Some taxis do use the meter but it's very rare to find one of those.

Malaysia is very dangerous. People don't buckle their seat belts, back seats often don't have seat belts, people don't wear helmets when riding motorbikes and if they do, they often don't strap them on which is the same as not wearing one. I saw a motorbike accident where the woman's helmet went flying off her head. I see small children on motorbikes without helmets constantly. I see tiny babies on motorbikes. I see children standing on the front seat of cars without a seat belt. I've never seen a child seat.

Open pits on the side of the road with no curb. As I ride my bicycle just a foot or two away from a 3 or 4 foot drop into a sewage drain, I worry that a motorbike may knock into me forcing me into the drainage ditch. These sewage drains really smell bad in places.

The buses are death traps. The metal chairs will snap you in half if the bus ever has a front-end collision. The chairs and ceiling straps are falling apart. Luckily they are getting new buses next month so hopefully things will be a lot better. Yesterday the bus stopped at the gas station to fill up on some diesel but they left the engine running. I was sitting right next to the gas pump where it clearly said "Stop Engine" before pumping. The guy might as well have been smoking a cigarette while talking on his mobile phone.

People resist change. A gang visited the lot of new buses and smashed their windows. It's probably some kind of taxi-mafia fearing loss of jobs or maybe this new bus company is replacing the old one. I don't know but people resist progress when it causes job losses. They don't see it as an opportunity to re-train and find a better job. It reminds me of the Luddites who smashed factory equipment when automation was replacing the factory workers. In order to transition into a first world country, Malaysia will need to pass through many stages of change. People will resist and perhaps slow progress, but progress will happen. You can slow it but you cannot stop it.

Building standards are really low. I was at the mall and I heard some thumping behind the wall which sounded like the something was about explode. This was an old mall and I figured it was just steam passing thru pipes but then I visited the new mall and I kept seeing massive cracks in support structures. Scary stuff. It's new and falling apart already.

They must not measure things carefully because levels are always changing. It's like they'll build two sections at the same time but they meet, they discover they don't match up so there's a step up or down. At a different mall you have to step up or down before getting on the escalator because it doesn't match up. Somebody goofed. I'm constantly seeing these goofs where they have to make minor corrections with a step up or down. It doesn't give me much confidence in their ability to build safe structures.

People pollute. You can rarely find a garbage can when you need one. People toss their garbage on the street. I see it often. They have no pride. They are used to others cleaning up after them. When you are finished eating at McDonald's, you don't dispose of your own garbage. You let someone else do it for you. This is the mind set here.

I see buses and trucks spewing thick black smoke, choking me while I ride my bike. The police need to seriously pull them over and ticket them so they get maintenance. People drive with their windows shut and air-vents on circulate because they don't want to breath the smoke from the trucks and buses in front of them.

The three main populations, Malays, Chinese and Indians, are very segregated. The Malays and Muslims get financial assistance to build their temples while no one else gets such treatment. My wife's church is in the pastor's own apartment. The government will not help build a Christian church yet they will help build Muslim temples all over.

The Muslim temples like to blast their prayers over loud-speakers 3 or 4 times per day. The non-Muslims resent this. It's noise pollution to the non-Muslim. 5:30 am we are awakened by the morning prayer. No other religion is allowed to do the same. If the Christian church blasted their prayers over loud speaker, they would be fined for disturbing the peace. The citizens of Malaysia are not treated as equals. Muslims get more benefits and everyone else a second hand citizen.

There is no separation of church and state. This is quite scary since the laws of Malaysia are dictated by the Quran. Movies are censored, even at the theater. Many movies are not allowed to be shown in Malaysia for example "The 40 year old Virgin". It's sexual content is too high for Malaysia. No porn is allowed in Malaysia also though I have been offered porn under the table when nobody is around. Prostitution is not allowed but I hear it exists. Drugs are not allowed but they exist as well.

This is one crazy messed up country.

The good news is that things are getting better. I have seen a lot of progress in Penang in the two years I've been here. They are getting new buses. They will have a monorail eventually. They check my bag when I enter a theater to make sure I won't record the movie. I frequently see PSAs about how bad piracy is. They are trying hard to make Penang a better place but right now it is far from the Pearl of the Orient. I'm sure at one time it deserved that title but no more.

Once all taxis are using a meter and it becomes really hard to find pirated movies, music and software, that will be the day Malaysia becomes a first world country.

Law breaking lying taxi drivers

2007-07-26T20:34:00.000-07:00

I'm tired of the taxi drivers always ripping off the foreigner. They charge 1.5 to 2 times more than it would cost with meter. I saw an ad on TV that says if the taxi driver refuses to use his meter then call this number and report him so I decide to do this.

Tonight I was riding home after a long hard day of bike riding and I decided to take a taxi, but only if they use their meter. I hailed a cab and the guy said it would cost RM 40. I knew that with meter it would probably cost RM 20 so I said RM 30 and he said RM 35. I said that I only take taxi with meter so he said RM 30. I said no. As he drove away, I took a picture of his license plate with my digital camera and plan to report him later.

So then I bicycle to the mall knowing they have a line of taxis waiting to take people places. He only wanted RM 15 but I know that with meter it only cost RM 10 so he's increased the price by 1.5 times. I told him that I only take taxi that uses meter. He informed me that no taxi in Penang uses meter. He is obvious lying because I have taken many taxis that use the meter.

There was a line of 5 taxis and the 5 drivers were sitting and waiting so I asked if anyone will use their meter and take me? Nobody would, so I took pictures of their license plates. By the time I got to the forth taxi, they were yelling at me to go away.

So I rode up the road a bit and I knew a lot of taxis come to the mall so I waited there. I hailed a taxi and they pulled over but when I got close, they drove away so I hailed another taxi and the same thing happened. I will still in view of the taxi line so what I figure was happening was that they were calling this taxi and telling them not to pick me up.

So I rode further home and stopped on a major road with a lot of traffic and hailed another taxi. This time the guy wanted RM 12. I estimate that by meter it would only cost RM 8 so he was increasing his price 1.5 times.

This time I tried a different tactic. I agreed to the RM 12. We put my bike in the trunk and headed for home. He said that the chief of police of Teluk Kumbar (the city I live in) owned this taxi and he drives for him (probably another lie). Because of this, the police never stop him. I asked if he was Muslim and he said yes. Then I asked if it was OK for a Muslim to be breaking laws. Then he changed his story a bit and said that he never brakes the law. That's why he never gets stopped. A moment ago he was bragging about how he can break the law and never get stopped and now he claims to be a law abiding Muslim.

So then I asked if it was the law that he was supposed to use his meter. He says that he's been a taxi driver for 20 years and he's never used his meter. He claimed that no taxis in Penang use a meter (not true). He claims that taxis in the big city of Kuala Lumpur use meters (also not true).

Each time I confronted him, he evaded my question. I already knew the answer. I just wanted to call him a law-breaking lying Muslim taxi driver.

So I said, if it's OK for taxis in Penang to not use a meter then you won't mind if a I report you since you're not breaking any law ... right? I pulled out my camera and took a picture of his dashboard with all of his information … then his tone changed.

He got angry and said "How about I take you back to where I picked you up and drop you off?" I said that's fine. He said "I did you a favor and took your bicycle for you". I said that breaking the law does not seem like something a Muslim should be doing. It's wrong and a good religious Muslim should be obeying the laws. I asked if he was going to take me back and he said no.

We drove in silence for a long time.

I said that I appreciate him picking me up and taking my bike and that it is my custom to tip a taxi driver if he gives good service. I said that his taxi has great air conditioning and he let me sit in the front so I can be comfortable and buckle in (back seats in taxis never have seat belts). I said that I would give him RM 20 for the trip because of his great service but I would still report him for not using the meter.

Then he said that the trip is free. He says that he lives in that area anyway and he was just going home so it's on his way. It's probably another lie. These taxi drivers are expert liars. He dropped me off and I tried to pay him RM 20 but he said it was free and drove away. I'm still reporting him and the 6 other taxis that wouldn't use their meter.

The next day I took a short ride in a taxi. I accepted his price of RM 12 and snapped his info on the dashboard while driving but never mentioned anything about reporting him. This seems like the best approach. This means that I'll have to pay higher prices but there's no drama and no delays in getting where I'm going and I can still report them.

The taxis all have this sign on the window describing the meter fees and yet 90% of the taxis do not use the meter.

The claim that they cannot make a living if they use the meter and yet some taxis use the meter.

Obviously they can make a living on the meter but they are greedy and dishonest.

I told my Uncle Ron (here in Malaysia) about this and he said that it is close the 4 year election. At this time, the government does not enforce laws to make the people happy so they can get re-elected. After the election, they enforce the laws again. Now is the worst time to be reporting law breakers. I will also be calling about the movie/music pirates I see everywhere. I will post my results here.

Logo Piracy

2007-07-26T19:46:00.000-07:00

Malaysia not only pirates movies, music and software but they also pirate logos.

I rode my bicycle to the mall recently and I passed this billboard and at first glance, I thought it said Panasonic but then I realized it says Pensonic.

Compare the Pensonic logo to the Panasonic logo.

As I'm walking thru the mall, I saw a Starbucks but at second glance, I realized they had simply copied the font.

About 20 minutes later I spotted Starbucks again, but I was fooled yet a second time by this café with a similar logo. That round sign totally reminded me of Starbucks.

About 10 stores later I came across the real Starbucks.

I went into a convenience store and picked up a pack of Oreos.

Upon reaching the register, I realized that I had grabbed a package of Cream-O's. The store didn't have the "real thing" so I bought these, but they were horrible.
A cheap knock-off. Low budget imitation. They looked nearly identical though in packaging, logo and cookie.

As of July 22, I have been in Malaysia for 2 years and I have never seen Twinkies.

But I often see Twiggies, yet another cheap imitation Twinkie which appears very similar in packaging, shape, color of cake but it tastes nothing like it. Just awful.

Too hot to handle (Part 1)

2007-07-25T19:12:00.000-07:00

I got my bike repaired and now I have these really awesome brakes so I wanted to try them on the most extreme hill in Penang named Penang Hill. So today I biked to Penang Hill and took the train to the top. My goal was to ride down without stopping since before I had to stop many times because my hands and forearms were tired from squeezing the brakes hard. This time I would not need to squeeze hard.

At the top I adjusted my front and back brakes so they were always rubbing hard so I would have to do even less work. This meant that I would be breaking hard front and back the whole way down. This would also be a stress test for my brakes pads to see if they could take the heat.

Riding a bike with cheap-o brake pads would be suicide. Within minutes they would heat up and melt. You would either melt them down to the metal in about 10 minutes or the brakes surface would melt and go liquid and become like oil or ice and you would have no brakes essentially.

The hill is so steep, you can go from 0 to 60 in about 5 seconds with no brakes. The hair-pin turns are so sharp that you literally need to slow to about 10 mph to take them. It seems that they have designed it so that if your brakes fail you will either go into the woods, go into a pile of dirt or hit a dirt wall. There are 20 to 30 foot drop-offs but only if you can turn 90 degrees which you can't if your brakes fail. You're going to go straight and crash into a tree or a hill which is a lot better than launching off a 30 foot cliff.

After about 5 minutes of down-hill, I was rounding a hair-pin turn and my rear tire gave out. I was losing air fast! I had a flat! It was good timing because it happened right before the largest rest-stop so I stopped there. There were about 10 people there.

I discovered that my rear rim was too hot to touch, even with gloves on. I now knew why my inner tube failed. It got too hot! I actually smelled rubber burning. When I pulled the tube out, it was obvious where it had melted and failed along the rim. One of the men watching me repair my bike took a look at the tube and asked if he could keep it as a souvenir so I gave it to him.

One guy saw me struggling to remove my tire so he offered to help and ended up doing the whole repair for me. I kept trying to say that I know what I'm doing. He had as much trouble as I did removing the tire. It's a tight fit but I have 4 tire removal tools and lots of experience removing tires much tighter than this one so it wasn't a big deal but he somehow assumed I was some kind of newbie even though I expressed to him I'm an expert at this.

I'm glad that I got to talk with these hikers because I learned about the various trails down the hill. I only knew of this one road but apparently there are many ways down the hill so now I have a lot of new paths to explore. These motorbike paths or dirt paths will take much longer to get down. They said it will take about 2 hours by path so make sure you give yourself enough time before it gets dark.

They all left and I was alone. I was about to head down when a woman on a Mt. bike came riding up the hill. Her name was Zari (rhymes with Sorry). I told her that I had just gotten a flat because my rim over-heated. She told me that I must stop every few minutes and let my rims cool and that it is impossible to ride from top to bottom without stopping.

I followed her down and after a few minutes we stopped. My rims were too hot to touch even with gloves, once again! We waited 10 minutes and they cooled and we rode a few more minutes, then rested while our rims cooled. There were quite a few monkeys near the bottom. I skid to scare them away because they didn't seem afraid us and I was afraid of hitting one.

Finally we reached the bottom. I'm not sure what happened to my rear brakes but the spring on the left no longer worked so the brake pads were always touching and there was nothing I could do about it. The heat must have done something to the spring so I rode home trying to find a taxi. That turned into an adventure in itself but I'll save that for my next blog post.

Pirates of Penang (Part 2)

2007-04-24T07:09:00.000-07:00

Tonight I paid a visit to the police station which is right across the street from the Tuesday night Malay market. I invited Kelly to join me but she declined, still feeling a bit scared about the rumors she heard about the pirate gangs that kill anyone who tries to stop them.

I was greeted by a friendly Malay police officer who spoke good English. This is the gist of our conversation:

Me: I'm curious why you allow people to sell pirated movies and software. Across the street is a Malay market and I can see the people from here. Is it illegal to sell to pirated movies and software?

Mohamad: Yes.

Me: So why don't you arrest them?

Mohamad: I would have to instruct an officer to arrest them and ... (then he mumbled something I didn't understand)

Me: I am from the US and I work in the movie and software industry and these people are stealing from me. I'm angry. I want it stopped. I earn less money because of them. They are taking my money. They are criminals and I want them arrested. I want this piracy stopped. I see ten stores in the Prangin mall selling pirated movies and software. I see ten stores at the Bukit Jambul mall selling pirated movies and software. Every market that I visit, I see people selling pirated movies and software. The market tonight across the street has 3 different stands selling pirated movies. You can see one right there (I pointed and he looked).

Mohamad: I know but there is nothing I can do. I will give you some numbers to call so you can ask about this. This is not my area of concern. I know that the government has an agency that handles this problem. They fight the problem daily and make many arrests.

I wrote down 3 phone numbers and a name of someone to talk to, then we spoke casually for awhile about where I come from and why I'm here, then I left ... and there was Kelly waiting for me. Once again she had followed me.

I wondered if maybe the local police were taking bribes. I hear the pirates make a lot of money and can afford to pay off the police so they're happy, the people who buy the pirated movies and DVDs are happy, the pirates are happy ... everyone's happy.

We strolled into the market and checked out the pirated DVD movies. They had all the latest movies. Muslim woman were selling them and I thought to myself, these are religious people who are aware that they are breaking the law. I wonder how they justify being criminals and being dishonest when they pray 5 times a day and cover their hair and wear clothes that mask their figure. To be a Muslim in Malaysia is very hard-core and yet they have no problem making and selling pirated DVDs.

Would these woman take out a contract to kill me if they knew I was trying to shut them down??? If I do succeed in stopping the sale of pirated movies and software in my this small fishing village of Teluk Kumbar, will I become a target?

It's a good thing I'm leaving Penang soon! The rumors might just be true.

Pirates of Penang (Part 1)

2007-04-22T08:15:00.000-07:00

My wife wants me to change the title to Pirates of Malaysia but I like Pirates of Penang. It has a ring to it! Plus this is about my experience of pirates in Penang.

I cannot understand why I keep seeing articles in the newspaper about how Malaysia is cracking down on people who sell pirated movie DVDs, Music CDs and software and yet I see nothing changing. The Prangin Mall in Georgetown still has a dozen shops that sell pirated movies, music and software. It's been this way for the nearly 2 years I've been here. Nothing has changed.

I hear that shops get closed down and people get arrested and I've seen raids and yet a new store opens in its place.

Last week I went to the Malaysian market that pops up in my neighborhood every Tuesday and there are a few stands selling pirated movies and yet the police station is across the street. I was tempted to walk into the police station and point out the criminals breaking the law and see what would happen but it was only a thought ... until today.

After church today I was talking to someone and I asked how these pirates can operate in the malls and across the street from a police station. She said it's because there is a demand for the low cost pirate stuff. She did not think there was anything wrong. She said these people are making an "honest living" and besides, people in Hollywood are rich.

Reminds me of Robin Hood ... steal from the rich, give to the poor. So I pointed out that stealing is wrong even if it's a poor person stealing from a rich person. I also pointed out that she is a Christian and that when she buys pirated goods, she's breaking the law. She is a criminal and a sinner, I pointed out.

I also pointed out that if she knows that someone is committing a crime, it is her duty as a Christian to report them to the police.

I then said that this Tuesday during the Malaysian Market when all the pirates are selling their goods, I'm going to march into the police station and report their criminal activity.

She repeated herself saying that these poor people are struggling to make an honest living and asked if I would rather they rob people. I said that they are robbing people. They're robbing me. I consider the movie, music and software industries as my industries. I support my industries. They're stealing from me and I want it stopped now!

She got angry and left.

Kelly and I then went to the mall to watch the movie Torando then afterwards we met some of her friends at McDonald's. I wanted to know where security was so that I could report the pirates but her friends warned me against it. They said that the gangs will know that I reported them and they will kill me. They have lots of money and there's no way you can stop them because they bribe officials and the government is corrupt.

So now Kelly's freaking out and she's asking me not to report the pirates. I told her that if she's worried, I would go alone and call her after I'm done. They continued to try to talk me out of it but I said that I'm done talking ... goodbye.

After asking around I finally found the home base for security for the entire Prangin Mall ... a tiny hole in the wall office. The two people there didn't speak English so they called another person to come and speak to me. Kelly had followed me and was standing outside the office but at some point disappeared.

I pointed out that there are stores in the Prangin mall selling illegal movies, music and software. He said that he knows about it and that they try to close them down quite frequently but that the pirates have a lot of money and they are able to bribe the officials and stay open.

I asked him why he permits these stores to stay open. Can't he just walk up stairs and close them down? He said that he does not have the authority. I asked him who has the authority because I want to speak to them directly. He said the office name is "International Affairs".

So I thanked him for his time and left. I found Kelly and nobody tried to kill me. For Part 2 I will visit the police station Tuesday night across the street from the Malay Market to see what they have to say about the criminals across the street.

If I manage to contact and interview someone from International Affairs, that will be Part 3.

Phuket Thailand

2007-04-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

We decided to visit Phuket Thailand which is one of the shooting locations of the movie The Beach. You can read about the difference between reality and the movie on my movie blog.

The actual "beach" is on Phi Phi island which is 45 minutes away by speedboat.

It takes 3 hours to reach Thailand then another 6 hours to reach Phuket then another hour to reach our hotel. The island is quite large.

I see a lot of examples of bad English in Thailand so here is my version of Engrish.com. This sign says "VIOLATORS WILL BE EINED".

This magazine rack says "PLEASE KEEP BACK". I'm confused. Do they want me to stand back away from the rack, keep the magazine or put it back?

I had some interesting toilet experiences on this trip. There was the uni-sex restroom with urinals out in the open so women were walking behind me while I was peeing.

At one stop along the way there were these outdoor urinals so everyone could see you.

At this one bus station they only had squat toilets. I honestly cannot squat without being in a lot of pain because of my poor flexibility and multiple knee injuries to both knees so squat toilets are nearly impossible for me. I have to sit on them like a "sit down toilet".

This one toilet had a basket that could not hold water but was obviously used to filter feces. I'm thinking that drug runners swallow bags of drugs then poop them out here.

It is cruel to have dogs in the tropics. It is way too hot for them. I always see them sleeping or lying about panting heavily.

Porn is not allowed in Malaysia although it is offered under the table. You have to ask for it but it is illegal. I don't know what the laws are in Thailand but I did see some very sexy magazines like this one.

We got a taxi from the bus station to our hotel and it was the crappiest taxi we had ever seen. The doors were nearly falling off. It stalled a few and had trouble going up hills. It died for about 10 minutes one time. The driver had to get out and fix it.

Our hotel was beautiful. The view was amazing. We stayed at the Baan Nern Sai hotel.

We stayed near Patong beach. Here is view of the beach from our hotel.

Each morning they served us breakfast next to the spectacular view and the breakfast was the best we've ever had at a hotel.

They also had a nice pool which we enjoyed. That's Kelly on the left. I use a program called AutoStitch to combine many images into one.

Here is a view of the pool area. It had a pool bar. The deep end was over Kelly's head but I could still keep my head above water which says a lot about our height difference.

The first night we went to a Thai boxing. We got front row seats with the action in our face at times. We were so close we were getting splashed with their sweat at times.

We walked around the party zone after dark.

We saw a lot of prostitutes including these two. We think the one on the right is a lady boy.

Phuket was hit by a Tsunami about 3 times in the past 50 years I'm told. The last time it hit about 4000 people died, I'm told. We kept seeing stands like this selling booklets and videos about the Tsunami.

Motorbike taxis are a cheap way to get around but we later calculated it would be cheaper to take a tuk tuk taxi instead of paying for two motorbike taxis.

I don't think this would be legal in the US.

This tuk-tuks are open with no seat belts and you're surrounded by metal bars. Very dangerous in an accident.

We rented a two-seater go-cart with two steering wheels so we can both steer!

We took turns although I did most of the steering. I had control over the gas and breaks. There was a kid on the track ahead of us but I managed to catch up to him and pass him and leave him far behind. As far as power to weight ratio goes, there is no way I should have been able to catch him but I happen to very good at go-carts as well as fearless.

The second night we saw a show named FantaSea. It was quite amazing combining Thailand's mythology with stunts you would see at a Cirque De Sole like people hanging from the ceiling above the audience performing acrobatic stunts, combined with circus with animals like a dozen elephants, goats, chickens, birds, laser effects, massive battle scenes, magic and a set that rains.

Kelly is imitating that kid behind her who is imitating the statue.

This sign is in 4 different languages: English, Thai, Chinese and Japanese.

This is where we ate dinner.

The food was great! I had roast beef, sushi, tomato soup and so many other yummy things I have not eaten since I came to Malaysia.

There was a pre-show before the show that was nice.

This character would not be politically correct in the US.

Behind Kelly is the where the show was.

When Kelly and I were planning this trip I said that I wanted to visit Phi Phi island but when we looked at Google Earth it looked too far away but when we got to Phuket we saw ads and brochures to visit Phi Phi everywhere.

We took a speedboat to Phi Phi island where they filmed most of the movie The Beach. There were people from all around on the boat with us. I would guess they were from Turkey, Great Britian, Australia and Africa.

We made a pit-stop at a tiny yet beautiful island.

After that we made a stop at the tourist center of Phi Phi where two lagoons meet on the map below. The beach where the movie was filmed is just above that.

We ate lunch and I had the most awesome red curry chicken dish with coconut milk.

Afterwards Kelly went searching for sea shells.

We saw many amazing sites around Phi Phi like this cliff.

It was low tide and the lagoon was filled with coral so the boat was unable to reach the beach so we had to snorkel out in the middle.

I was told there are no sharks to worry about. The movie The Beach lied.

We finally got to see "The Beach" and I took this first picture. Compare it to the second picture which is a scene from the movie The Beach.

Kelly got in the water with fins, snorkel and mask but when she looked down and saw it was about 20 feet deep it freaked her out a bit. She had never swam in water that deep before. It didn't matter that she was wearing a life preserver, had fins and a snorkel and I was there to help … she could not overcome her fears and climbed back into the boat.

Another problem was that this was the first time she had ever used fins, mask and a snorkel so it was just too many new things to learn. She wasn't using the snorkel right and sucking in water. I learned how to use these things in a shallow pool when I was a child, not in 20 feet deep water so I had a chance to gain some confidence and learn how these things work.

I decided to snorkel to the beach.

It was a long ways away and I was told by the guide that it was too far for me to swim. I set out to prove him wrong. He also mentioned that it gets too shallow and that I should not step on the coral which is everywhere. I should also watch out for poisonous sea urchins.

He was wrong about it being too far. I could have easily made it but he was right about it being too shallow. I found a patch of sand and I stood up and the water was about knee level but there were places where it was too shallow for me to swim and the coral is like sharp rocks.

I started to feel like I was in some kind of maze … left, right, straight, left, right … I had to keep looking for the deepest spots but it just got too shallow and there was no way to walk on this coral without damaging it and my feet and perhaps get stung or bitten by something.

I was about 100 feet from the beach but I was running out of time and had to get back to the boat. I wasn't sure if I could find my way out of the maze of coral but it finally started to get deeper. I did manage to scrape my leg against some coral. The scrape on my leg looked a little red in the water but once I got out of the water it was quite bloody.

Kelly has an underwater camera that we forgot to bring otherwise I would have taken some amazing underwater pictures. Some of the coral I saw were like huge balls 10 feet high and 30 feet wide. There were giant clams, like the kind you see in movies in bright purple. Many were embedded within the coral as if the coral had grown around them. I swam down and touched a few but then wondered if that was such a good idea since I might get my finger caught in one. They would clamp shut as soon as I touched them.

Kelly took this picture of the fish from the boat.

That night we found a cool restaurant that had trees holding up the roof. The trees were fake but it still gave this please an interesting atmosphere. The food was also very good and the service was exceptional. Kelly looked at the prices and thought it was very expensive but when we got our bill it was very cheap.

I also checked out of Thai comic books. They were extremely violent and graphic. Most seemed to have themes involving magic, zombies, ghosts, etc. I saw no superhero or scifi comics.

In Malaysia the STOP sign says BERNHENTI.

Here is a STOP sign in Thailand. Much shorter! I'm making the sign for "stop" in Malaysian sign language.

Sidewalks are for walking right? Apparently not. Each store on this sidewalk partitioned off their section of sidewalk forcing you to walk in the street!

Thailand convenience stores have slices of bread with various toppings like butter and sugar. Here is one with kaya.

Local bus on Phuket. Check out that rotating fan on the ceiling. We were sitting for about 20 minutes waiting for it to go. I got too hot and had to get off and find something cool to drink and sit in the shade.

I noticed that the convenience stores all covered the cigarette displays with curtains then I remember visiting Bangkok and seeing these horrible pictures of what cigarettes can do to your health on the boxes. It was quite gross! So I bought a pack just to post to my blog.

The funny thing about this pack is that the mouth opens and closes with the box lid. This goes way beyond the warning labels American cigarettes get. I think it is a lot more effective. Perhaps they cover up the cigarettes because it was lowering sales!

As we were leaving Phuket I stopped by the ATM to get some money and my ATM card was gone. My other card had expired a couple of days ago and my third card wasn't working in Thailand so suddenly we did not have enough money to get home. You can read about that experience on my Tekalicious blog.

We both agreed that this was our best vacation ever! My only regret is that Kelly was too scared of the deep water to join me snorkeling and she missed out on all that beauty. Her parents did not teach her to swim growing up. I consider that a crime but I guess with 9 siblings, they had other things to worry about like feeding and clothing everyone. But Kelly wants to learn and I hope someday she can snorkel the deep waters with me.

Cedrick's Visit

2007-02-14T04:16:00.000-08:00

I was on my way home from Georgetown and I had just gotten off the bus in Teluk Kumbar where I live when my mobile phone rang. My phone never rings since Kelly always sends me SMS so I figured it was a wrong number. It always is. It was Cedrick and he was calling to let me know that he had arrived.

The airport is 15 minutes away by car so Cedrick suggested I meet them. The next bus came within 5 minutes and 15 minutes later I was there but I still had to walk 10 minutes so it actually took me a half hour to get there. I was drenched in sweat having walked fast and it was really hot out. I also had not shaved in days so I looked like crap but I didn't care. It was great to have a friend visiting me and it was nice to meet his friend Candy too.

We hopped into a taxi and took the 45 minute ride to his hotel in Batu Feringgi. His hotel was the absolute furthest away from me as one can possibly get on the island of Penang … about 1 hour by car assuming no slow traffic. Cedrick's hotel is on the North Shore and I live near the Southern tip where tourists rarely venture. In fact, I have never seen another white person in the area where I live even though I have been here for 1.5 years! I explained to Cedrick that all tourists turn right leaving the airport and locals turn left.

We checked out their hotel room then went for a taxi tour of the North Shore and ended up at a nice Indian restaurant for dinner.

Cedrick thinks he is an Indian King.

After a nice meal we walked along the strip where I bought Season 1 of House on DVD. Score! The DVD is pirated of course. Cedrick made some comment about "his industry". He's not in favor of pirating and neither am I but I justify it this way. I can't afford it otherwise plus I can't watch TV in this house because of the great demands placed on the TV by the family so I'm forced to buy my TV shows on DVD or download from the Internet. I would like to see an end to piracy but I don't see it happening any time soon when there is such a demand.

I see ad campaigns trying to stop people from buying pirated goods but I doubt they have much affect. It's obvious to me that Malaysia allows people to sell pirated goods 99% of the time. Sure they bust people now and then and publicize it and make all news announcements that they're trying to stop it but in reality nothing is changing. It would be so easy for undercover cops to arrest these pirates. They're selling this stuff right out in the open! Obviously the police are not even trying. So I have one thing to say ... Malaysia, stop talking and start doing. Stop trying to make me feel guilty when you're the one whose not doing anything.

Anyway ... where was I ... oh yeah ... it was late and I had to work so I hopped into a taxi and went home. For kicks the taxi driver turned on his meter. We agreed upon RM 80 but when we got to my house the meter read RM 23. I gave him RM 100 since I always tip my taxi even though in Malaysia you almost never tip. RM 100 is still cheap compared to a 1 hour taxi ride in the US! I know I can't compare but I always do which makes me feel good about tipping. Even with the tip it still feels cheap for me.

I support the use of taxi meters but I don't understand why the government keeps the meters so low. The taxi drivers cannot earn a living if they use their meters. RM 23 (USD 6.50) is not enough for a 1 hour taxi ride. A 1 hour taxi ride in the US would probably cost about USD 30 or more. I never understood how my friend in Indonesia would commute back and forth to work in a taxi but now I know that taxis in some countries are very cheap. I would like to know that a taxi driver is not cheating me out of money but I don't want to see the taxi drivers getting cheated either.

By the time I got home it was nearly midnight and I was tired so I ended up not working at all that day. I had the feeling that if I met Cedrick at the airport this would happen.

We had not planned on meeting the day he arrived. We were only planning on hanging out for one day and I had quite an adventure planned. We were going to rent motorbikes in Georgetown then head out where I live where the tourist do not venture. I was going to take them to a remote beach that you can only reach by motorbike and hiking down a steep dirt hill.

After that I was going to take them up to Genting Hill for a view in the middle of the day then take them to Balik Pulau, the real Pearl of the Orient, to see the rice fields and head out to the remote beach where only the locals go. After that we were going to head back up to Genting Hill for dinner during the sunset then head to the new Queensbay Mall for a movie then back to the Hotel.

This is what actually happened … Candy felt sick that morning so we canceled our plans to rent motorbikes. They were going to take a taxi to our house. But then I thought that we don't have a car or motorbike so I went to rent a car. I just missed the bus so I had to wait an hour for the next one so I was hoping to get a taxi but this old guy on a motorbike dropped off his wife and started talking to me and gave me a ride! His name was Mohammad and he pointed to his house as we passed. He has 9 children!

Nine is a very lucky number for the Chinese. Kelly's birthday is 9/9 so it is considered a very lucky day. The date 9/9/99 was obviously a very lucky day for the Chinese.

The only time I can recall being a passenger on a motorcycle was when I hung out with my cousin but the last time that happened I was about 19 years old. I was scared! Every time we made a turn I thought we were going to crash but we made it to the car rental place without an incident. I was much taller than the man so I could look directly over his helmet. He had a spare helmet for me to wear.

I rented the car and realized that I might as well start driving toward Cedrick. If they were running late I could pick them up at their hotel otherwise we could meet in Georgetown. I gave Cedrick a call to let him know that I'm heading toward Georgetown so we agreed to meet at Star Bucks and meet we did.

We were hungry for lunch so I suggested Mexican since I wanted some non-local food and the place I knew has Americanized-Mexican food that I love.

We rented two bicycle taxis and went there but they were closed. So then we went to this hotel with a revolving restaurant but they were closed too.

We walked around some more and saw this cool mailbox left over from the British rule.

So then we went to this nice Oriental hotel but the buffet had just ended. We were not having much luck but actually we were having a good time running around Georgetown and seeing a lot of different interesting things.

I wanted to eat inside where it was air-conditioned because I was hot and sweaty but they lead us outside to the back where we had amazing view of the water and the skyline of Gurney. There was a nice breeze and we were under tents so we were shaded so I felt very comfortable. We ordered all kinds of stuff and had a great lunch. I ordered my favorite drink of lime juice which was delicious.

Cedrick clowning.

Enjoying the breeze, the view, the food and good company.

Leaping into the water after lunch!!

We hopped into a taxi and returned to the Prangin Mall where I had parked the car then we drove back to Teluk Kumbar where they met Kelly for the first time. Cedrick checked his email but then we had to hurry to catch the sunset at Bukit Genting Hill. When we got to the top, Candy felt dizzy from the ride up. It does feel like a roller coaster but that's what's great about it. The tourists love it but the locals think it's dangerous.

Kelly taking a picture of Cedrick taking a picture of Kelly.

This is the picture Kelly took of Cedrick and Candy. Notice the picture on his camera is the picture above.

We had a beautiful view of Teluk Kumbar and Balik Pulau.

Cedrick and Candy glowing from the ever color-changing sunset ... yellow, orange, purple, pink, red ... I think they are shaded somewhere between orange and violet. None of us were hungry yet so we ordered some beers but then we really weren't hungry since beer is quite filling.

After the beautiful sunset we headed down to Balik Pulau to check out the remote beach at night.

Balik Pulau at night from Genting Hill.

Unfortunately for Candy the road over the mountain pass winds around making her dizzy. The road to the beach is always very curvy but she didn't complain.

The beach was well lit by the local power company or whatever that is located behind the beach. Nobody seemed interested on walking into the darkness so we hung out in the light playing with the cats, checking out the sand crabs and the stars.

Cedrick tried taking some time lapse pics of the stars that came out pretty good. This is my favorite Constellation, Orion.

I suggested we head back to their hotel but take the back way. I was hoping we'd pass one of the dozens of Malay restaurants that line the road but I took a wrong turn and ended up on the main road which is void of such local places to eat. Oh well, nobody was really hungry yet anyway.

We headed up into the mountain pass which was very curvy … poor Candy was probably feeling a bit car sick. I stopped at a nice lookout but Cedrick was getting tired and hungry and suggested we keep going so we did. We came to the dam where I suggested he could get a nice time-lapse picture but he wanted to keep going.

There's a 24 jam (hour) Indian restaurant right before you reach the tourist area and I never pass it up and I wasn't about to start so we stopped in for a quick snack of some of my favorite Roti Canai and ice Milo to drink. That filled us up pretty good even though it wasn't much to eat but I still felt hungry so we headed off to an Italian restaurant in the heart of the North Shore. We had officially just driven around the entire island of Penang.

Our bad luck with restaurants continued since the Italian restaurant was closing up as we got there so we walked to another local place and ordered pizza.

It was quite yummy and once again I ordered Lime juice but this time Cedrick decided today was "eat like Pat day" so he followed my lead.

We took them back to the hotel and Cedrick invited us up for drinks but I was feeling tired probably from eating so much pizza. By the time we got home an hour later I felt exhausted and went right to sleep.

So the day didn't turn out as I had planned but we all seemed to have a good time anyway just making up the day as we went along. The only thing we did that I had originally planned was visit Genting Hill for sunset. Although we visited the Balik Pulau and the remote beach, you couldn't really see much at night. Seeing it during the day is a much different experience.

Cedrick and Candy had fun learning some sign language. When its fun you learn fast and remember longer but I'm sure they forgot almost everything they learned already but Kelly enjoys teaching people sign language and they seem to enjoy learning it.

I have to leave Malaysia every 3 months because I have a visitor pass so hopefully I'll have enough money to visit Cedrick in Hong Kong soon although I really want to visit all of my friends in Jakarta Indonesia too.

If this long blog entry wasn't enough you can also check out Cedrick's cross-over blog entry about the same visit!

Genting Hill

2007-01-29T17:53:00.000-08:00

My favorite place in Penang is a hidden secret treasure that even most of the locals don't know about. It's called Genting Hill and it's located on a very large hill between Teluk Kumbar and Balik Pulau. The main attraction is a Thai restaurant but they also have a massage service but the main reason to visit is the amazing view from high up.

To get there you would take the scary mountain-pass road. When you reach the top of the mountain-pass there will be an obvious entrance then the real roller coaster fun begins. The road up and down from Genting Hill is steep and winds around but the view is amazing. Just make sure you take the advice of the signs and "Engage Low Gear". It's 2 km (1.25 miles) long.

The actual name is Bukit Genting Hill. Bukit means Hill so its actually named Hill Genting Hill. Bukit is for the locals and Hill is for everyone else who doesn't know what Bukit means.

Twice per week I ride my bicycle to Genting Hill to enjoy the view and get some reading done in a peaceful beautiful environment. I've lived in Penang for 1.5 years and I've made dozens of attempts to ride my bicycle to the top of Genting Hill I always failed.

Then I spent $500 overhauling my $300 Mt. bike which gave me new wheels and new gears including a really low granny gear. My front gear has 27 teeth and my rear gear has 34 teeth. That means for every time I turn the pedals 360 degrees the rear wheel only turns 79% around. That's about 5 feet 5 inches for each pedal stroke. To figure out how far you travel use this equation. Distance = (Front / Rear * Wheel diameter * Pi). In my case the equation would be (27 / 34 * 26 * 3.1415) = 64.8 inches which is 5.4 feet.

I thought this granny-gear would allow me to ride to the top but I failed again and again but I discovered my real problem … heat dissipation. Riding up generates a lot of body heat. My shirt gets soaked with sweat which causes the shirt to stick to my skin and prevents air from evaporating my sweat and removing heat. So last Friday, when I got to the bottom of Genting Hill ready for my ascent, I removed my shirt, helmet and gloves and stored them in my bag. I down-shifted to my granny-gear and drank a lot of water because there would be no stopping for water until I reached the top ... or failed.

Instead of spinning the cranks at a fast rate I pedaled as slowly as I could and still stay upright. Previously I tried going up the hill fast thinking momentum would help me plus reducing the time climbing would also help. But this time my goal was to keep my heart rate from nearing 180 beats per minute. If I could maintain 150 BPM or lower, then I'd be fine as long as my legs held out.

Everything was working great until I reached a steeper section and suddenly my front wheel was coming off the ground on each pedal stroke. My seat was too high so my center of gravity was too high. I was forced to lean forward a lot. This made it a little difficult to breathe. I was trying to take long steady breaths instead of fast short ones. I was breathing deep then exhaling deep trying to get oxygen into my blood and remove carbon dioxide.

I was sweating so much it was hard to see. I needed one of those wrist bands used to wipe sweat from my brow.

There are two routes to the top ... the Entrance and Exit. Of course if you go up the down then you risk a head-on collision with someone coming down. The Entrance route is twice as long but not as steep so I opted for the easier route since it's the steepness that gets me. I have pretty good endurance.

The sun was beating down heating me up so I kept trying to ride in the shade which meant zigzagging from one side of the road to the other depending on where the shade was.

Everything was working. I did not feel dehydrated. I did not feel over-heated. My heart-rate and breathing rate were not too high. My legs were not sore ... yet.

I was about 80% to the top and there were 2 major steep and long hills to tackle and that's when my legs started to burn. But I kept pushing and ignored the growing pain. I tried not to look ahead because it could be discouraging to see a long hill in front of me. I tried to look down and focus on that next pedal stroke. Focus on the next 10 feet, then the next 10 feet. I broke the climb down into hundreds of smaller goals. It's much easier to reach many small goals than one large goal so I kept my focus.

I could not believe it. After 1.5 years of trying I was finally going to succeed! And I knew the whole reason for my success was because I went shirtless for the first time. Another factor was that it wasn't that hot. It was hot but just not very hot as usual. It was maybe 30C (85F) and the humidity was low at about 80% instead of 90% or 100% as usual.

I finally made it to the top! Granny Gear + Cool Day + Shirtless = Success!

I sat and relaxed at the outdoor Thai restaurant (in the shade of course) and enjoyed 4 glasses of cold Chrysanthemum drink and some red curry Thai chicken while enjoying the view and reading my Wired magazine and talking to the cute Thai waitresses.

I also met the owner of Genting Hill who told me about his plans for the future and his struggled with the Malaysian government. He's Chinese and in Malaysia there seems to be two sets of rules … one for Malays and another for everyone else. The Malays get special treatment while the Chinese and Indians are limited and held back. He explained that when Malaysia got their independence from the British all citizens were supposed to be treated equal but the Malays run the government and have a slightly corrupt system where they give favor to the Malays.

I told him that I make web sites for a living so he hired me to create gentinghill.com him. He has left everything to me as far as design and content.

Then it came to time leave and I looked forward to amazing ride down but I discovered that my front tire was flat! How could this be? It was fine when I left it. They had an electric pump but the tube was losing air faster than they could pump it. That was a big hole! So then I thought that one of the workers must have punctured my tire. Later when I got to the bike shop, I examined the tube and discovered the hole was touching the wheel so it seems that a spoke might have punctured it. I also wonder if the higher altitude would contribute to a higher tire pressure because of the lower air pressure. My tires are rated for 65psi but I pumped them up to 70psi while in the shade. Once on the hot road the psi increases then increase the altitude and the psi increases more. Brake friction would heat the air increases psi even more. I went for ever a year without getting flat and suddenly I get two flats in four days. Strange.

So here I am with no way down the hill so I decide to find a short-cut path and walk home. I locked my bike, got a refill on my water and went searching for a path and soon found one. It was a nice path ... at first, but it slowly got more and more overgrown. This time of year there are giant spiders making giant webs. I was on the lookout so I didn't walk into one but I can't always see them and I walked right into one.

These spiders look extremely venomous as if one bite could kill you. So I backed up and the web stuck to me. I tried brushing it off me and I looked all over for that giant spider but I never saw it. Luckily I was not bitten.

Finally the path I was taking pretty much disappeared so I found a different path and tried that but it too disappeared so I tried another path and the same thing happened. These paths were on the side of a mountain so I'm walking up and down the steep paths sweating like crazy. Eventually I ran out of water even though I had about a gallon of water with me. So I had no choice but to return to the restaurant and get more water.

The heat of the day finally hit and I was dying ... literally. I was getting dehydrated and as a result I wasn't sweating as much so I was over heating and at risk of heat stroke. I got to the main road and rested in the shade for 5 minutes. I then walked a minute up the road and rested in the shade for 5 minutes. I kept repeating this since I didn't have the energy to walk more than a minute without becoming exhausted.

Finally I made it to the top where they refilled my water container with ice-water. I drank and drank but I started feeling ill like I was going to vomit and I couldn't seem to cool down so I started pouring the water over my head, arms, hands and legs. Wow, that felt really good. I used up most of my water pouring it on myself and that removed the heat and I felt much better.

I was still feeling weak so I called a taxi which took me and my bicycle back home.

Monday I got my front flat fixed at the local bike shop then rode back up to Genting Hill. This time my goal was to ride up the Exit which is much harder because it is much steeper. I honestly did not think I could do it. All previous attempts failed horribly. The furthest I got previously was half way and I felt like I was going to die. The only thing that saved me that day was cooling off from the breeze riding back down.

But this day was special. It was a very rare cool day ... maybe 27C (80F), low humidity around 70% and the biggest advantage was that it was very windy! This meant that I would have a nice breeze keeping me cool and that was the most important thing.

I got to the bottom of Genting Hill and removed my shirt, helmet and gloves. I drank a bunch of water and shifted into the granny gear. I lowered my seat. My tires were pumped hard to 70 PSI to reduce rolling resistance. It was cool, the wind was blowing. I honestly didn't think I could do it but I was willing to give it a try.

I went up slowly as before trying to conserve my energy. About 1/3 of the way up I reached the steep part and again focused on smaller goals. Pedaling was much harder this time. Previously I tried not to pull up the handlebars since that takes more energy. I tried to focus on pedaling but now I had no choice but to pull up on the handle bars. I focused on deep and slow inhales and exhales. The sun beat down on me and again I zigzagged trying to stay in the shade to stay cooler.

I also kept alert for oncoming vehicles.

I found relief in the turns where it wasn't as steep and I could rest while pedaling. Hill, turn, hill, turn, hill, turn and finally I reached the final straight away. It was a long and steep section to the top but at that point I knew I was going to make it so I went a little faster and basically sprinted to the finish line.

Success! Unbelievable! I conquered the hill two times in four days on two different routes. Previously I had thought only the most fit people on Earth could succeed at riding up this hill but now I know that an average person can do it with the right strategy. It's all about technique.

I drank my usual 4 cups of Chrysanthemum drink and had some more delicious Thai chicken dishes then I hopped on my bike and charged down the hill. First I put my seat way down so I could get my center of gravity low for the turns.

My brakes were really heating up. I know because they begin to make a different noise at higher temperatures. I came around one turn and my back-end felt a little loose and around the next turn my back-end started to slide out from under me! I knew exactly what was wrong. I had a flat tire. As the air left my tire the pressure dropped and it's ability to handle a side load diminished. The tire begins to fold over from the side force which results in sending me side ways.

I stopped and thought about walking the rest of the way but where's the fun in that? If the front tire were flat then it would be too dangerous but I can still ride with a rear flat tire so I did. I rode back to the local bike shop that had repaired my front tire in the morning and had them repair my rear tire. They thought it was funny that I would get two flat tires in one day.

Unfortunately I destroyed my rear tire so I had to get a new one. I also destroyed the tire rim strap and of course the inner tube. But the rim was perfectly straight. It's a high quality rim and it held up to the abuse of riding about 5 miles on it with a flat tire.

I would repair the flats myself but I lost my tire removal tools and none of the local bike shops sell them. I'll need to take a special trip into Georgetown to visit the best bicycle shop in Penang to get my tire removal tool.

I returned home and we had friends visiting so guess where we took them ... that's right! Genting Hill! Our friend Nori from Japan loved it. We had just gone up for a short visit but decided to stay for dinner and watch the sunset.

Here is Nori getting his picture taken with the cute Thai waitress Narween.

Here some more links about Genting Hill

My Photo Album
Review on sun2surf.com
Blog entry from My Malaysian way of life
Paul Ooi's Photo Gallery
Travel Channel Review
Review by Virtual Tourist
Blog entry from It's My Life
Off the beaten path Review

7 movies on DVD for $4.25

2007-01-08T23:55:00.000-08:00

I was at the mall and there were 5 stores side-by-side that sold pirated software and movies on CDs and DVDs. I stopped at each one and asked if any had any DVDs with American TV shows. None did.

One guy pulled out a private notebook he had hidden under his desk and opened it. It was all porn movies. This was the first time I had seen porn in Malaysia. I know its illegal but I heard that most of these pirate shops have porn, but you have to ask to see it. I'm guessing they only take out the porn when there are no Malays in the store.

The last shop I came to had a wall of these DVDs for RM 15 (about USD 4.25) each. They each had 7 movies and all had a theme like gangster movies, kung fu movies, sci-fi movies, or they were actor/actress based.

I bought the Best of Bruce Willis. It contains Die Hard 1, 2, 3, 12 Monkeys, The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and The Bonfire of the Vanities. It claims to have Digital Surround Sound. If you check out my favorite movies of all time you'll see that Die Hard, Unbreakable and Sixth Sense are there. I liked 12 Monkey's a lot but it doesn't quite make my all time favorite list. I enjoyed Die Hard 2 and 3 but they don't make the list.

Pirates have their own labels and this company is named Superbit. I click on Languages and see that the movies are sub-titled in English, Chinese (probably Mandarin), Korean, Malaysian and Thai. The DVD even has scene selection with each movie. Plus I can jump next/previous chapter. This is great. On other pirated DVDs the entire movie is one big chapter.

On the back of the DVD jacket was this logo.

I hit Play on the movie. I'm watching on my PC from my DVD drive. The picture is wide-screen and the quality is quite good but small. I'm guessing they scale it down to save space. I can tell it's not filmed off the screen. The picture and sound quality are good. I'm quite pleased actually.

I tried a few different DVD playing software and others displayed it full screen and it still looked good! They did a great job at squeezing 7 movies on a DVD without any major loss of quality or features. I'm quite amazed ... and all for $4.25.

I've seen the quality of a VCD with 5 movies on a CD. It's horrible. Think of saving a JPEG with too much compression. That's what its like.

It's easy to understand why probably 95% of the people in Malaysia buy pirated DVDs. Would you rather pay $30 for one movie or $4.25 for 7 movies? Most people can't afford to buy a $30 movie anyway.

What I find amazing is all of the news stories about how Malaysia is cracking down on piracy and yet it's not making a dent. I don't see how these shops can even open if it were illegal. It would be so easy for an undercover cop to walk into a shop and close it down and take all of their property on a daily basis. If they were really cracking down, the shops would not be open in the first place. The "crack down" is really a joke. A few people are arrested; a few stores are closed but re-open later and nothing changes.

TV on DVD

2007-01-04T23:54:00.000-08:00

I give up trying to watch TV around here. The family I'm living with refuses to buy a DVR and I refuse to stay up late just to watch my shows. I've never seen a family that needs a DVR more than this family. The TV is going nearly 24/7 and people have to miss parts of their shows to let other people watch. Last night Kelly and I are watching Amazing Race Asia and half way thru Kelly's sister changes and watches her program. What the hell!? I hate just watching part of a show. I want to see a show from beginning to end with no interruptions.

I don't know the rules but it seems even though Kelly is older, her younger sister's seems to have a higher priority when it comes to what gets watched on TV. I would make a big deal out of it except that I'm just a visitor here so I've gotta stay polite.

So now I will just buy my shows on DVD and watch on my PC. I'm quite excited because this means no commercials, no having to wait when your show suddenly ends and says "continued next time", no having to wait on cliff-hangers, and so on.

But it's a lot to buy since I'll want every season of most of my shows. These are the shows I'm currently interested. CSI, for example, is up to season 6! I've searched Amazon.com and these shows are there but I can probably get them a lot cheaper used on eBay. I'll have to first search eBay in Malaysia to save time and money on shipping.

CSI
CSI:Miami
CSI:NY
Heroes - not available yet
Lost
Grey's Anatomy
The Office
House
Survivor - only the seasons I've missed
Battlestar Galactica
Ghost in the Shell (made for TV)
Gilmore Girls - a guilty pleasure that my niece introduced me to
Grounded For Life
Scrubs
Star Trek: Enterprise
That 70's Show
The Tic
Northern Exposure
Sex in the City

Once I do move to the US and buy a DVR I'm getting one that will allow me to expand my hard-drive space so I can archive my shows. I want to record in the highest quality so I'm going to need plenty of hard-drive space for thousands of episodes.

Movies! Movies! Movies!

2006-12-01T19:22:00.000-08:00

Yahoo has the best site for viewing what's playing locally here in Penang Malaysia. I have 4 theaters to choose from but what is most amazing is the variety of movies I can see. American, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Malay, Indian and so on. Here is a sampling of the languages from the movies I have a choice from on this day.

Casino Royale - English
Deja Vu - English
Happy Feet - English
Ciplak - English
Cinta - Malay
The Red Kabaya - Malay
Nana Tanjung - Malay
Possessed - Cantonese
Heavenly Mission - Cantonese
The Battle of Wits - Mandarin
One Missed Call:Final - Japanese
Colic - Thai
The Host - Korean
Dhoom 2 - Hindi
Randu - Tamil

English, Malay, Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, Thai, Korean, Hindi and Tamil ... 9 different languages! Too bad I don't have the time to go see all of these movies! I think it would be really interesting. What I plan on doing is seeing Casino Royale again then probably either Deja Vu or Ciplak.

The plot of Ciplak seems more like a documentary than a movie. I don't know why anyone would want to pay go to see it which is exactly why I want to pay to go see it. Actually I'm interested in in the piracy issue in Malaysia. Piracy is everywhere. Here is the plot of Ciplak.

In a country such as Malaysia, piracy isn't just common: it's indispensable. Everything from clothes and shoes to CD's and video games are available in bootleg form. Piracy has allowed the underprivileged to afford over-priced sneakers, exposed the ignorant to the wonders of non-top 40 music and increased the cinema vocabulary of an entire nation through pirated DVD's.

I'm an Other

2006-11-07T02:11:00.000-08:00

Prologue: This blog entry started out as one thing then my mind wandered one topic flowed into the next.

I was filling out an online application for Astro TV here in Malaysia and I got to Race and for some reason I expected to see Caucasian, African, Hispanic but none of those were listed. Instead the list read Malay, Chinese, Indian, Others.

Whoa! That made it clear that I was no longer in Kansas. I'm now the foreigner. The outsider.

I have never once seen a white person in this remote village of Teluk Kumbar, Penang, Malaysia. Penang is filled with tourist but they never venture out this far. When Kelly first told me her family had a mini-market I thought it was totally supported by tourist traffic. The truth is they get their business from the locals.

Another interesting thing I saw on this form was the selections for Education.

Primary
Lower Secondary (Form 1-3)
Middle Secondary (Form 4-5)
Upper Secondary (Form 6)
College
University
No Formal Education

There is no mention of Masters, PhD or Post doc. In the US you would see

Grade School
Middle School
High School
College
Grad School
Post Doc

"No Formal Education" isn't even option and it assumes everyone finishes grade school. Reminds me of when I lived in the upper-class city of Holmdel, NJ. As high-school graduation approached people would ask me "What car are you getting for graduation?" These were rich kids and they were all getting new cars for graduation. It never even occurred to them to ask "Are you getting a car for graduation?"

Things are certainly different in the third world.

Today I was hungry for a Snicker's bar so I visited 6 different small mini-markets and none had it. So finally I visited a larger super-market and they had it. The Snicker bar is not a big seller in this village I'm told. Tastes are different obviously.

Speaking of tastes ... Kelly and I had lunch at Chinese restaurant this past Sunday and everyone there was Chinese. The place was jam packed and but I could not understand why the Malays and Indian population would not want to eat Chinese food. Whenever I visit a Chinese restaurant this is the way it is. But everyone wants to eat the Indian restaurants. I've actually never seen a Malay restaurant. Only the Malay hawker stands which barely qualify as a restaurant since its chairs and tables on the side of the road.

Kelly says the reason you only see Chinese at a Chinese restaurant is pork. Malays and Hindus cannot eat pork. They worry about contamination. Even if their dish has no pork it may have been cooked in a pot that was used to cook pork.

As part of some kind of Chinese celebration the Chinese stopped eating meat for about 12 days. This family had a completely different set of dishes, spoons and forks which they reserved for these 12 days each year. They had a small table set aside for those who wanted to eat meat but you had to use a different set of dishes and utensils. You also had to wash your dishes and utensils in the outside sink. All meat was removed from the house into the outside refrigerator.

Another reason the Chinese don't eat at Malay hawker stands is because of beef. Chinese tend to be Buddhist and the Buddhists do not eat beef. You might get a chicken dish but it was probably cooked on or in something that cooked beef so it would be contaminated.

So the Chinese don't eat beef and the Malays don't eat pork and this keeps them segregated. It's sad actually. The three populations, Malay, Chinese, Indian, live in peace but they like to keep to themselves and do their own things.

The Chinese refer to Malay and Indian as "the blacks" since their skin is darker. The Indians have the darkest skin of the 3 and the Chinese tend to be very light skinned. They are "the whites" in Malaysia. Malays are actually the "the browns".

Malaysia is definitely an interesting place with so much culture, food and language. It will be interesting to see how the countries evolves over time.

Festive

2006-10-23T09:17:00.000-07:00

It seems everyone is having a festival lately. The Indian's just ended Deepavali, the Malay's are having Hari Raya Puasa and the Chinese are celebrating Jiu Wang Ye. Colored lights are being displayed and fireworks are going off constantly.

Deepavali is the Hindu festival of lights which symbolises the victory of good over evil, and lamps are lit as a sign of celebration and hope for mankind.

Hari Raya Puasa marks the end of Ramadan. Ramadan is the name of the one-month fasting period when Muslims fast from dawn till sunset. During the period of fasting, apart from eating and drinking, Muslims are also forbidden from smoking and having sexual relations.

Jiu Wang Ye or loosely translated as the arrival of the Nine Heavenly Kings. It's a annual Buddhist event that takes place around this time of year, and those who follow it observe a vegetarian diet for slightly over a week.

On Saturday my Indian taxi driver invited me to his home for an open-house dinner. He lives near by so Kelly and I rode our bikes over and enjoyed some good spicy Indian food, beer and fun company.

Kelly's mom removed everything non-veggie from the fridge. They have all this veggie food that looks and tastes very similar to non-veggie food. Mushrooms that appear to be meat for example. I actually like the veggie food better than the normal food. They have a separate table for eating non-veggie stuff. They even wash the non-veggie dishes in a separate sink. Gotta keep it separated!

Night Rider

2006-10-07T05:23:00.000-07:00

Blog entries like this should be written shortly after the experience. If I wait a couple of weeks, all of the good details fade from memory so I decided to make this blog entry as soon as possible. Of course all of those little details makes the entry a lot longer. This entry has 12 pics for you to enjoy.

I wanted to ride my bicycle around Penang island at night because there would be less cars. I chose to go on a night when the moon when be full so I could see the road better. Unfortunately the next full moon fell on a Friday and a Holiday so the traffic was really dense late into the night with party people.

Kelly's family does not approve of my adventures. In that past when I've informed them of my plans they advise me not to go and tell me how dangerous it is. I usually do what I want regardless of the families concerns except for a couple of times.

One time I rented a car and I wanted to take Kelly up to this mountain top Thai restaurant with a fantastic view. The family thought the road up to the restaurant was too dangerous at night and they literally said we could not go.

Another time I asked Kelly to help me retrieve my bicycle from a cliff where I had left it the day before. The family said it was too dangerous so I was forced to go alone and roll my bike down the cliff which caused about $100 in damage.

I wanted to ride my bike around Penang island a week before our wedding. The family advised me that this is not their way and that I should avoid doing anything risky weeks before the wedding. I decided to respect their ways that time.

The family seems intent on making me respect their ways but shows no interest in respecting my ways. I'm independent and used to do things my way. I'm not used to others telling me how run my life. It's been a big adjustment. At night the house is locked up and I don't have a key to get in or out. It feels like a prison but I've adjust and dealt with it. It's only temporary althoug it has been a year an a few months so far.

So this time we didn't tell anyone and we still haven't told anyone where I went. The family is wrapped up in preparations for Kelly's sister's wedding in 2 days so they weren't paying much attention when I rode off into the night. Nobody noticed I was gone when they locked up for the night. I returned before anyone awoke the next morning and Kelly let me in and I slipped in unnoticed.

I had ridden around Penang before in about 10 hours but this time I wanted to take it slow and just enjoy the ride making lots of stops. I was shooting for a 12 hour ride leaving at 8 pm and return at 8 am just in time to see the sun rise.

Normally this is the view out the bathroom window.

Fires in Indonesia made the air thick with smoke so I could barely see the hills in the distance.

So the air quality was very low so anyone with allergies or asthma should not do anything physical. Lucky for me, I don't suffer from any lung problems so I braved the smoky air. During the first five minutes of my ride my eyes stung from the smoke. I thought that if it gets any worse, I would be forced to turn back but I got used to the smoke and it stopped bothering me.

In the past I had always ridden around the island clockwise but this time I was doing it counter-clockwise which meant doing the flat-city first then the hilly-villages.

I came across this sign showing the cities that were ahead of me. The time was about 1 am.

Batu Ferringhi - aka The North Shore. The shore-line is dotted with 5-star hotels. This area is mostly inhabited by rich travelers and foreign party goers. I arrived about 1 am. The name reminds me of the alien race of Star Trek, the Ferengi. Could it be this city is where the name came from?

Teluk Bahang - when you finally escape the tourist area you reach this area inhabited by locals. Life is much slower here. I arrived about 2 am.

Balik Pulau - my favorite city in Penang. Inhabited mostly by Malays. The Chinese and Indian population are very sparse in these parts. It's very flat and more than half of its surface is used for rice crops. Life here is even slower than in Teluk Bahang. It is very isolated. The only way in or out is over some big scary mountains. I arrived about 4 am.

Here is a pic of the southern tip of Penang island that I took from air when returning from Bangkok Thailand. The curved bay area is where I live. Teluk means Bay so Teluk Kumar means Kumbar Bay. You can see the airport we are headed to. The planes fly out over the ocean and make a 180 degree turn then head back to the island for a landing. I'm guessing they take this route to reduce noise pollution on the island.

As I approached the famous North Shore of the Pearl of the Orient (Penang) it suddenly started to down pour really hard. It was perfect timing since I found shelter under a large tree. After 15 minutes the rain stopped and I continued. The air had now been cleared of all of the smoke but I still could not see the moon or stars because the rain clouds had replaced the smoke haze.

About 30 minutes later the rain returned and this time I got stuck at a Happy Mart for one hour.

I could have ridden in the rain but I decided to stay dry and see if it was a short rain. No reason to get wet unless it was going to last a few hours. I was in no hurry.

I finally left the tourist area behind and got into the area mostly inhabited locals and I came across this 24 hour (24 jam as they in Malaysia) Indian open-air restaurant in Teluk Bahang. The time was about 2 am.

A Malaysian would ask "why are you emphasizing open-air?" In Penang about 99% of the restaurants are open-air and that is not exaggeration. In the USA it seems the opposite is true where 1% are open-air.

It is so hot in the tropics so I wonder why anyone would want to eat outside when it's 95F (35C) and 90% humidity but I think there are many reasons. Cost. It's cheaper to build an open-air restaurant and cheaper to run since you don't have to pay for air-conditioning. It's also tradition. People are just used to it. They are used to the heat. If you're going to build a new restaurant you are going to copy what is working for others. Malaysians like to copy what others are doing. I noticed they love to follow trends and fads the same way Americans do.

One trend or fad for women is to color their hair brown or red or even blonde. I guess it makes sense. By nature they all have the same color black hair but now they can stand out and be more individual. Personally I like the jet black hair the best. In the US most people have brown hair and it's actually rare to see someone with jet black hair.

These type of Indian restaurants are called Nasi Kandar and my favorite food is the Roti Canai. The cost was 0.60 Ringgits which is about 15 cents! It's amazing how cheap you can eat. A few days ago I had dinner at a local Malaysian stand for 3.5 Ringgits which is about 92 cents. Dinner for less than a dollar! Kelly complains about the cost of eating out but she has no idea. It's not even customary to leave a tip in Malaysia thus saving even more money.

Roti Canai is a bread that you tear pieces off then dip in a curry. Here the cook is flipping the dough similar to how pizza dough is flipped.

Here is a close-up of my roti canai.

I then left the Nasi Kandar and headed for the dam. The dam looked awesome looking up from its based. I rode to the top and took this picture of the wall separating the water from the city.

If this wall ever broke, thousands would die. I wonder how the people feel living below this dam knowing that a single engineering mistake could wipe them out.

This area had no street lights and as I rode into the darkness I realized that my tiny light was not enough. Luckily I had brought along another flash-flight so I used my extra t-shirt shirt to tie it to my handle-bars.

The fog was really dense. This sign says it all. Winding hills to follow.

A police car stopped me and three Malay police officers questioned me. The advised me not ride up thru the mountain pass at night alone because there were no lights so I may not see things like fallen branches, big pot-holes or wash-outs in the road. I showed them head-light system but then they warned me about getting mugged. I asked if muggings happens often and they said no. I said that I would take my chances and off I went.

Unfortunately their words did spook me. I had looked forward to this part of the ride more than any other because it was the most isolated. Late at night you might see one car every hour. There are no lights so I was hoping to see the full moon and the stars if the clouds every cleared.

But now I was scared of being mugged so I decided to ride up over the hill without stopping since stopping sounded dangerous. I also rode down the center of the road keeping my distance from the edges where a bad guy could leap out any second. I also kept my speed up going up the hill going about as fast as the typical person runs. The idea was that if anyone started to chase me, I would be going fast enough to out-run them.

The sky started to clear and the moon and stars began to show but I could not stop. I passed beautiful waterfalls but I could not stop. I passed many great views of the valley below but still I could not stop. About 3/4 of the way to the top I got very thirsty but still I could not stop. My legs started to burn but I could not stop. I was probably pushing 80% of my max-heart rate for at least 45 minutes.

This was supposed to be slow enjoyable ride but here I was acting like I was trying to keep the lead in the Tour de France. There was some flex in the t-shirt holding the flash-light so I could point it left, right, up and down which I did to keep a look out for any unfriendly people as well as any debris fallen from trees.

As I neared the bottom of the hill I approached the city of Balik Pulau and they had street lights so I turned off my head-lights. I finally felt safe so I stopped, drank some water, ate some food and enjoyed the view of the moon and stars since the clouds had cleared.

The time was about 4 am and I was impressed by the number of 24 jam (hour) restaurants. They used these color lights to indicate they were open all night.

I stopped at the 7-11 and got some coffee then laid on the side-walk and took a nap for about 20 minutes to gather my strength. I was quite exhausted at this point and I had one more big hill to climb as well as a scary dangerous downhill to descend.

At first I tried going up the hill in my lowest gear but after 5 minutes I was too tired and had to get off and rest. I decided to just walk up the hill which felt great. My pedaling muscles were spent but my walking muscles still had some life in them. Unfortunately I didn't have a different heart to use so my one heart kept telling me that I needed to stop and rest often which was fine with me since the moon and stars were quite amazing.

It took me about an 1.5 hours to walk to the top then I needed to plan how to safely ride down. The morning traffic was starting to increase. It was about 5:30 am and I noticed that 90% of the traffic was going down the hill which meant I could ride down the hill in the oncoming traffic lane. I just had to watch out for oncoming traffic which was easy. The plan worked great and in a short time I was at the bottom.

As I approached my home in Teluk Kumbar I noticed the moon was setting on the horizon. The haze from Indonesia was returning which gave it a nice yellow orange hew. It looked very large and beautiful. I've seen a lot of sunsets but this was the first time I had ever seen a moonset. And just like a sunset you can actually perceive the moon moving in relationship to the horizon.

It's amazing how fast its actually moving. Or are we moving? Lets see, the Earth rotates and the Moon revolves around the Earth. Hmm … in the same direction? I wonder what sets faster? The sun or the moon? Questions … questions …

As I was pondering these questions, the sounds of screaming chickens got my attention. I looked over and saw two men killing chickens. One man would remove a chicken from a cage and hang it upside down by its legs. The other man would grab its head then slit its throat. I suppose he was cutting the juggler veins on both side of the neck so it would quickly lose consciousness and bleed to death. The man holding the chicken's legs would then toss it into a large barrel of dying chickens. The barrel was shaking around and steam was rising from it, I'm guessing from all of the warm blood being spilled. The air was still cool from the recent rain.

Once the chicken's neck was cut it stopped screaming but I'm guessing that's because its wind passage to its vocal cords was severed. The chicken probably passed out 20 seconds later from lack of oxygen to the brain then bled out.

I've probably eaten these chickens before for breakfast, lunch or dinner. It seemed what they were doing was cruel but I don't know. They are raised for food and someone has to do the dirty work. But I can't help empathize with the chicken and put myself in his place and think about how it feels to have your neck slit then tossed in a barrel with other dying chickens that are thrashing about. It must be terrifying if only for a short time but still terrifying.

If you wanted to spare the chicken any fear you would kill it instantly and without warning. In the wild, death is often filled with fear and terror as animals kill each other so perhaps this is only natural. At least their terror is short lived.

I sent an sms (text message) to Kelly and she woke up and let me in around 5:45 am. The sun had not risen you and it was still dark but by the time I climbed into bed at around 6:15 am (after a nice shower) the sun had risen. I worse a pair of blinders to shield me from the light but still could not fall asleep for another hour. I was just too exhausted to sleep if that makes any sense.

I slept until 1 pm when Kelly awoke me for lunch. I looked out the bathroom window and saw that the smoke haze from Indonesia was back exactly as yesterday. I could barely see the hills in the distance once again. It was now time to make this blog entry.

Thailand Coup

2006-10-02T10:16:00.000-07:00

Thailand's military coup d'etat against the government of Thaksin Shinawatra happened on September 19, 2006 just 9 days before I was planning to fly to Bangkok. People were asking me if I was still planning to go. I had been following the headlines and it seemed peaceful enough. Plus my friends in Bangkok said it was safe. We are staying at Kelly's aunt's house in Bangkok and if she didn't think it was safe, I'm sure Kelly family would have stepped in and said something. Some of my friends were advising me to stay away.

The first thing I wanted to do after we got to Bangkok was go see some tanks and soldiers. There were many people standing around taking pictures and the soldiers seemed to like the attention and were even taking pictures with tourist. They allowed a small boy to cross the line and take a picture next to the tank.

Later they started their engines and took off down the street, tearing it up in places where they turned.

The military owns the TV and radio and each day they take over for a broadcast of every channel and every station.

The people clearly love their King. They say he is not like recent kings who only cared about wealth. This King, they say, works hard for their people and really cares. The King endorses the coup. Everyone seems to believe this will lead to a better Thailand.

All over Bangkok I saw pictures of the King like this huge picture at the mall.

Speaking of the King, Kelly and I saw the movie World Trade Center. Before the film started they showed a short documentary about the King. Everyone in the audience stood up like it was the pledge of allegiance. I spoke to someone later about age 50 and he said that they've been doing that for as long as he can remember. He also said that for foreigners its optional. I stood up out of fear really. Fear of what someone might say or do if we didn't stand up.

Getting back to the coup ... everywhere we went we saw soldiers, Tanks, Humvees, etc. but at no time did I feel threatened or in danger. I read that this coup is the most peaceful coup in the history of Thailand. I also read it is the sixth coup they've had.

Bread and Butter

2006-10-02T10:06:00.000-07:00

If you tried to sell bread and butter in the US people would laugh at you but in Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore, bread and butter products are popular. The one I'm eating here is quite tasty since it is sprinkled with sugar.

Censored Asia

2006-10-02T09:15:00.000-07:00

Censorship. The US has it for prime-time TV. If they show an R-rated on television they will cut out the sex, nudity, profanity and even some of the gore and violence.

But if you are watching a pay movie in the US whether it be in the theater or on TV for example on HBO or Cinemax there is no censorship.

But in Malaysia and Thailand, pay movies are censored. I was watching Thai TV and they were showing the movie "Catch me if you can" dubbed in Thai. Obscene language was replaced with silence and apparently they can't show cigarettes on TV because anytime someone was smoking, their cigarette was blurred out.

Recently in Malaysia I saw the movie Miami Vice and the F-Bomb was dropped repeatedly. Instead of silence they actually cut it out. There was lots of sex and nudity and that was cut out. Extreme violence was cut out. It almost felt like half a movie.

I was eating lunch in Malaysia and flipping thru a National Geographic because I knew there was nudity in some of the issues and I was curious to see if they would allow it since porn is not allowed. The nipples on the woman were struck out with a marker.

A few days later I'm watching the National Geographic TV channel and they were showing some tribe in Africa and the women were topless and they showed their breasts so I'm confused. I've never seen topless women on TV on public television in the US and yet they allow it here in Malaysia where all nudity seems to be banned.

Bangkok Taxi

2006-10-02T07:47:00.000-07:00

I just returned from my first rip to Bangkok and I was impressed by the multi-colored taxis.

Click to see larger version.

Half of the vehicles on the road were these brightly colored taxies so it felt like watching NASCAR. I'm only showing 16 variations in color but I'm guessing there were about 25 different colors. Many were a variation on the solid colors for example combining pink on top with orange on bottom (bottom left) or purple and with orange stripe (bottom).

Taxis were cheap so we took them everywhere. Finding a taxi couldn't be easier. They were all air-conditioned and metered unlike in Malaysia where the goverment says all taxis must be metered but the taxi drivers ignore it and charge whatever they want.

We took a taxi to the airport which was about a one hour trip and it cost us about $20. The trip in the US would cost about $100.

The drivers didn't speak English very well so the trick was to find a friend or family who would do the talking for us and tell them where to go. We carried the address in Thai with us so we could show them where to go when it was time to go home.

No Rice Day 23 of 30

2006-09-17T04:34:00.000-07:00

I've quite enjoyed not eating rice. I much prefer a sandwich or noodles over rice anyway. The only drawback has been buying my own food. It takes time to go shopping since I have to ride my bike 45 minutes to the nearest decent supermarket. It also cost more money since I'm not eating the food provided by the family.

I've decided to go beyond 30 days and end my "rice fast" on my birthday September 29. I will actually be in Bangkok Thailand from September 28 to October 2. I will finally get to visit my e-friends Sri and Pim Pim. I'm visiting Bangkok because I have to leave the country every 3 months because my visitor pass will expire.

I'm looking forward to trying a dish you can only really get in Bangkok (I'm told) called Papaya Pok Pok. See my previous blog entry about that.

I still miss beef hotdogs. Chicken dogs just aren't the same.

I saw the movie Click and Twinkies and Ring Dings had good product placement which made me hungry for them but you can't buy them here! In fact ... Malays don't seem fond of soft cream-filled cakes although you can get Swiss roles.

I was in Kuala Lumpur recently and a new Dunkin Donuts had opened in the bus terminal. I have not had my favorite glazed donuts since I got here and once again I was disappointed. Not only did they not have glazed donuts but they also didn't have milk or coffee.

I informed them that the reason it’s called "Dunkin" donuts is because you can dunk your donuts in your coffee. I said it was sacrilegious to not server coffee at a Dunkin Donuts. They had no idea what I was talking about.

So I bought a Boston Crème but felt like that guy in the "Got Milk" commercial who gets hit by a truck and thinks he's in heaven when he learns he surrounded by delicious cookies but then realizes the milk contains in the fridge are all empty.

Pray Wrong and go to Jail

2006-09-17T04:11:00.000-07:00

I was reading The Star, an English newspaper here in Malaysia and I was shocked when I read that you can actually go to jail for praying wrong. Click the article to read.

No Rice for 30 days!

2006-08-25T06:48:00.000-07:00

I asked a 10 year old boy "can you go 30 days without rice?" and he replied "No, I would die!"

At dinner tonight I refused rice and everyone had a fit. They said "you cannot eat food without rice!" My wife tried pushing rice onto my plate but I refused. I ate my dinner without rice and apparently I offended everyone. Later they said they made rice for me and it would go to waste. So I replied that I would it eat it plain. They yelled "You cannot eat rice plain!" and I replied "Watch me" and I did.

Then I said "Stop making rice for me. I no longer want rice." They could not understand what I was saying. My words were not making sense. How is possible someone does not want rice??!!

I said "For 30 days I will eat no rice". The boy said "But you will die!"

Let's find out what happens when you live with a Chinese family who eats rice at every meal and you refuse to eat rice. Let the experiment begin!

digital camera! finally!!

2006-07-10T06:30:00.000-07:00

I don't have pics yet but they are coming. I keep writing "blog worthy" stories in email and it's a pain to re-write them for the blog so what I'm going to do is just start copy/pasting my emails to my blog to save time. Here's an email I just wrote. I deleted all of the non-blog worthy stuff.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Patrick Coston
Date: Jul 10, 2006 9:28 PM
To: James Lee

We just bought a digital camera ... Kelly's first digital camera. She's so happy. We even got a printer that prints real prints on real photo paper. She's real happy and so am I. Expect far more pics from me and far better pics.

I plan to sit in front of their house and take pics of people on motorbikes as they ride by. You will not believe what you see! Children 1 or 2 years old standing in the basket on the front of the
motorbike with no helmet and nobody holding them. One quick stop and they're gone! There's a helmet law and yet more than half the people around here don't wear helmets. And if they do, I often see them holding it and trying to put it on while they're riding.

Then they don't bother strapping it on so when they fall, it's just going to fly off their head right before their head impacts the pavement. It's basically useless. I also see children as young as 12 years old riding motorbikes but more often they are 14, 15 and 16 but still not legal. We are right next to a police station so I don't understand but I almost never see any police.

Reader's Digest

2006-06-20T20:22:00.000-07:00

I purchased a copy of Reader's Digest here in Malaysia and it looks exactly the same. It's in English but once in a while I'm reminded this is the Asian version of Reader's Digest.

They use Metric so I'll read cm instead of inches or km instead of miles, centigrade instead of Fahrenheit.

Of course they speak about Ringgits instead of dollars.

They also use words like tyre instead of tire, petrol instead of gas, kilojoule instead of calorie, favourite instead of favorite.

An article about Podcasting mentions you can download your "favourite" Asian music or video from a yoga teacher in Tokyo.

I get the feeling that the American version of Reader's Digest is re-edited for Asia. It still has a very American feel to it.

Malacca + Melilea + Taxi + Health + Size

2006-06-18T07:43:00.000-07:00

I have no idea what to title this post. I start out talking about our trip to Malacca to visit Melilea HQ, then I talk about getting ripped off by a taxi driver, then go into changing my health which ends up talking about Asia is too small for me.

Kelly had planned a trip to Malacca for many weeks now. I just let her make all of the plans. I didn't pay much attention to the dates or details. I figured Kelly had it all figured out and we would have a good time with her friends. I didn't even know which friends we were meeting or what we would do in Malacca.

The day we were planning to leave I learned that we would visit the corporate headquaters of Melilea. Kelly and I enjoy their organic products as a way to help us stay healthy. Kelly told me that we had planned to visit them but I honestly don't remember. Perhaps I thought she meant we would stop at one of their stores.

Usually Kelly and I discuss the details of travel by writing notes since my sign language is note the greatest yet. It takes many years to become fluent in sign language and I've been learning it for 1 year now.

At midnight we hopped a bus to Kuala Lumpur with one of her friends. At 5 am we arrived in KL and met up with about 10 of her friends and had breakfast. Hours later we met the group of about 30 people, all deaf, all friends of Kelly. We hopped the bus to Malacca and two hours later we arrived.

There was one hearing adult with us besides me and she was the interpreter. We were given a tour of the headquarters then treated to lunch then we had many long meetings talking about their products and services, then we met the president and vice-president of Melilea who gave long talks.

I was sleep deprived from working so hard the week before and I don't get much sleep on the bus because I don't fit well in the seats so I slept for part of the talk on the couch in the back.

I learned that this is all we would do in Malacca. We weren't staying at a hotel overnight. We would take a bus there, visit Melilea all day, take a bus back. OK, fine. It wasn't the vacation I pictured but it was still pretty cool to visit the HQ and meet the Prez and Vice-Prez.

I was the only non-Asian hearing person so I stood out the Prez, Vice-Prez and many other people working on Melilea wanted to talk with me. For dinner we went to a satay restaurant where they deliver dozens of different types of Satay to your table. In the center of this round metal table is a boiling pot of spiced water. You dip your satay in the secret special sauce and eat it. It was a Thai recipe based on peanuts and tasted very good! If it was raw chicken, you let it cook for a few minutes, but if it was something bread-based, you gave it a quick-dip.

This was definitely 3rd world eating. We ate outside next to sewage pit. We all sat on plastic stools. The president was inches away from falling into the open sewer pit.

It shouldn't be long before I finally purchase that digital camera I've needed for the past year so I can start fully documenting my adventures. I wish that I had a camera that night but others were shooting away so I should be able to score some pics from someone.

After dinner we were saying our goodbyes and the president gave me his card and said "keep in touch". It was really cool seeing someone that I've seen in newspapers, magazines, videos. He was like a celebrity to me in a way.

We took the bus back to KL then hopped a bus to Penang which made it in a record 4 hours! Normally we make two pit-stops for bathroom/snack breaks but this guy sped there non-stop and I do mean "sped". I was awaking many times being jerked in my seat as he rounded corners at high speed. There were handles on the seats in front of me to hold onto. I joked before we got going that I would be hanging on for my life and I ended up using the handles in some turns.

We arrived in Penang and 4 am and Kelly sent an sms to her sister to pick us up. After 30 minutes she didn't show so I called her and woke her up. The sound-tone for the sms was not loud enough to wake her up. I told her to go back to sleep and that we would take a taxi.

The taxi man said it would cost RM 13 for a ride to Teluk Kumbar. When we arrived I gave him a bill for RM 50. He gave me two bills of RM 10 each. I realized that he had charged me RM 30. I realized then that the word "thirteen" sounds a lot like "thirty" and that he may have actually said "thirty" and I misunderstood him. I was too tired to argue but it is possible that he ripped me off with some kind of scam. No biggie. Next time I will be more clear on the price for example say "one three" to make sure we are clear.

RM 30 is about USD 8 for a 20 minute taxi ride. Even though he probably ripped us off, the price is normal for the USA. I keep telling Kelly that taxi's are very very cheap her compared to the USA. She'll see what I mean eventually … hehe.

I awoke today and decided to change my ways. I've been drinking large quantities of coffee and Milo (hot chocolate) take it thru the day. All that stops cold Turkey and I'm now suffering from caffeine withdrawal. I figure that I won't get much work done in the next couple of days as I recover. My goal is to have enough energy from enough sleep and proper diet. I'm not into diets but Kelly and I enjoy the organic products from Melilea and think that they really do make a difference.

As I was typing the words "hot chocolate" above the song "hot chocolate" was playing and the lead singer sang "hot chocolate" right as I typed it. The band is a Japanese girl band named Shonen Knife.

The Asians love to have boiling hot water on tap. This family has this nice dispenser where you push a button and out shoots boiling hot water. They have delicious powdered coffee and milo along with cups and spoons so it's more than easy to get a nice hot steaming cup any time I want but all that has to stop. I really don't need the calories and I could do without the caffeine.

They are expanding to the USA soon. They just need to find the right leadership there. I'll have to take my "before" pics now so later after I lose 30 pounds I can have great "after" pics.

I weighed myself at the doctors office and I weigh 111 kg (244 pounds). Kelly weighs 46 kg so I'm roughly 2.5 times heavier than she is! I don't think it's fair to say you can fit two of her inside me. I think the truth is, I think my body is more dense. I have more muscle and bigger heavier bones so by volume I'm probably only 2 times more than Kelly.

Back in 2003 I weighed 276 pounds so I've lost more than 30 pounds since then. I probably have 30 more pounds to lose. I won't know my best weight until I reach it but it's certainly won't be any where near what the charts say I should weight and especially not what the Asian charts say I should weigh. The last time I looked, the charts were telling me I should weight 180 pounds. My optimal weight is probably more like 210 or 220 pounds. I'm heavier than I look which may be one reason why I've had knee problems. The extra wear and tear took its toll. The tallest people in the world tend to have joint problems as well. I am jealous of the Asian man. I think they have perfectly sized bodies. I really wish I was more like 5 feet 8 inches (172 cm) but I'm sure if I was short I would be wishing I was tall not knowing about the disadvantages like head-bumping dangers in Asia.

Actually this is a serious danger for someone 6 feet and higher in Asia I've noticed. Everything is designed assuming you're no taller than 5 feet 11 inches it seems. The bus seats do not have enough leg room, the bus ceiling does not have enough head room. I can make a long list but I won't. I've said it before and I'll keep saying it … I'm too big for Asia.

Why can't you understand me?

2006-06-04T19:35:00.000-07:00

I've been living in Teluk Kumbar, Penang, Malaysia for almost a year now and up until yesterday I had no idea why no one could understand me when I said "Teluk Kumbar".

When you get on a bus in Penang, there is a person that collects your fair while the bus in motion. They don't have a nice computerized system like Singapore which probably used RFID tags. In Singapore you pass your card past a reader when you get on and off the bus. It beeps to let you know that it read it.

But in Malaysia, you get on the bus and sit down and someone collects your money while the bus is moving. The woman in front of me was also going to Teluk Kumbar so when she spoke it, I heard her say "Telukumbar" very fast. She merged the two names into one which makes sense.

We do it in English all the time.

jeetyet?
djaeetyet?
didjaeetyet?
didyaeatyet?
did ya eat yet?
did you eat yet?

If we say something enough times we begin to say it faster and faster and we begin to drop letters and merge words.

But as a visitor I was saying "Teluk Kumbar" slowly with a nice big ole pause between the two names. I was saying it correctly but nobody understands correctly.

If a word ends in "K" and the next words starts in "K" then obviously you're going to merge those two words when you speak it fast ... "Teluk Kumbar" becomes "Teloo Kumbar". You basically drop the K from Teluk and say "Teloo" followed by "Koombar". The "u" is pronounced "oo" is in gooey not "u" as in "just" which.

If you pronounce the "u" like "just" you'll really throw them off! They only way they're gonna know what you're saying is if you say "Telookoombar" really fast. You almost have to slur and run it all together like you're trying to say as one syllable.

Malaysian Mystery Magazine

2006-06-02T00:44:00.000-07:00

The local market had these Mystery magazines in view for all children to see. The covers were quite shocking. I wish I could have bought them all. There were like 20 different magazines to choose from.

Porn is illegal in Malaysia but this comes pretty close.

I discovered why they wrap them in plastic. So you can't open it up and find out how boring it is. Inside is simply pictures of people telling a story. Many of them have their faces blurred or they are shot from the back.

The pages that are in color always feature underage girls. Hmmmm

Muslim TV

2006-05-25T22:57:00.000-07:00

I accidentally changed the channel on the TV to channel 1 and there was a Malaysian Muslim worship. In the corner was a woman who was doing sign language when ever someone spoke. Only the men were worshipping. They separate the men from the woman during worship. Maybe only the men gather like this for worship. I honestly don't know.

Kelly had no interest in watching so she started flipping but found nothing of interest so she left and I flipped back to channel 1.

Today is some kind of Buddhist holiday and the family is performing various Buddhist prayer rituals either at the family alter or at the road side burning pieces of prayer paper. There is a special table setup with fruit that has been prayed for.

As I am watching the worship on TV, Kelly's sister Tee comes over the mutes the volume. The volume was at a normal level. She has never done this before while I watch TV but I'm guessing that the sound of Muslim worship is inappropriate during a Buddhist worship period.

The Buddhist Chinese are annoyed by the local Muslim mosques who broadcast their worships over loud speaker twice per day, the first time at 6 am then again at 6 pm.

As I'm watching this worship service in silence I see Kelly's father walk by and he gives me a really strange look as if to say "what the hell???"

I family member from Thailand is visiting and she sat on the couch reading her book while I was watching. Sometimes the camera focused on this young boy who seemed worried the camera was filming him instead of praying. It made me laugh each time and the Thai family member just looked at me strange. She thought I was laughing at the Muslims and I was actually just laughing because the boy looked so worried about the camera.

Later everyone dropped to their knees and prayed then when the prayer leader said a certain thing, everyone bent over putting their hands and forehead to the floor. Everyone but a few people ... but one by one the stragglers bent over until everyone had their head to the floor.

Each time a straggler bent over I laughed. I thought it odd that hundreds of people would bend over at the same moment except for 5 people. Then 1 by 1 those 5 people bent over. Each time I laughed the girl from Thailand looked at me like I was doing something offensive like laughing at the Muslims again but I was really laughing because I didn't understand why these 5 people should deviate while the other 500 people were all in sync.

She finally couldn't take my laughing anymore and left. She doesn't speak English and I don't speak Thai so I couldn't explain myself.

Each person had their own matt to sit on. Of course it is not that comfortable to sit on the floor but I have to say that it seemed like good exercise. You stood up, bent over, kneeled down, bent over, sit up, then repeat. Good for stretching out your legs and back!

Christians like to go out and convert other people but apparently Muslims and Buddhist have no interest in increasing their ranks thru conversion. I once asked my Muslim friend if I could join him to his Mosque. He got angry and said "What are you going to there? Just stand there and watch us pray??!!" He was very against it. I had never seen Muslim worship so I was visualing something closer to Catholic mass. My Catholic friends love when I join them to church. The Jahova Witness love for new people to attend their Church. It is the same with Mormons and other types of Christians ... unless it's like a Chinese Christian Church.

I had a Chinese Christian roommate once and I asked if I could visit his Church with him but he said it was only for Chinese. That made sense. I would be out of place especially if they spoke Chinese. I didn't think Christians would discriminate by race but obviously some do. I'm guessing there are all black Christian churches that only accept black members.

All of the people at this Mosque on TV were Malaysian by race. I saw no whites, no blacks, no Asian. I wonder if they discriminate against race too. What would they think if their Mosque was suddenly filled with black Muslims, Asian Muslims or White Muslims? I'm guessing they wouldn't like it and would move to stop it.

I see a lot of Chinese Buddhist alters. I wonder what would happen if I was Buddhist and I tried to worship at one of these alters with the Chinese. I'm betting they would get angry. They are just not used to seeing a white Buddhist.

Next I would like to figure out the meaning and rules of women covering their hair. I have a friend who owns a local Malaysian hawker stand. I like to go there to eat sometimes. She's about 45 years old and a Malaysian Muslim but she does not cover her hair. I asked her why and she said that she will someday. She's just not ready yet.

But I see girls as young 5 years old covering their hair. I wonder how many women cover their hair for a while then decide its not for them and stop doing it.

I worry a little about the covering blocking their peripheral vision while driving.

Violence, Death, Suicide

2006-05-21T22:06:00.000-07:00

I was shocked by this Chinese comic because it was filled with anger, mocking, violence, death and suicide. Plus there some cartoons that I didn't understand. Follow the numbers in the panels. They go different directions like right to left or top to bottom.

ANGER - I thought this one was funny

VIOLENCE

VIOLENCE and REVENGE

DEATH - why is this funny?

DEATH

WHAT? - I don't understand

LUST

INJURY - I don't understand

MOCKING

DEATH and MOCKING

VIOLENCE and REVENGE

REVENGE

SUICIDE

VIOLENCE and SUICIDE

SUICIDE and VIOLENCE

SUICIDE

VIOLENCE - I don't understand

VIOLENCE

VIOLENCE - I don't understand

VIOLENCE

VIOLENCE - I don't understand

WEIRD - I don't understand

2006-05-15T00:42:00.000-07:00

I was just watching a German movie called Anatomy dubbed in English and sub-titles in Chinese and Malay.

IE7

2006-04-28T21:01:00.000-07:00

I installed Internet Explorer version 7 beta 2.

I have been using Foxfire since version 1.0 and I love it but there are things I love about IE7 more.

First of all, tabs are great and IE7 does it better than Foxfire.

A new tab will open to the ...
IE7: right of the current tab
FF: far right of the browser (inconvenient)

To close the current tab I click an X located ...
IE7: on the current tab
FF: on the far right of the browser (inconvenient)

When I get too many tabs open ...
IE7: they scroll left and right
FF: they off screen and I cannot access them

IE7 has a thumb view of each tab and a drop-down menu for my tabs. FF does not. I can close tabs from the thumb view.

I still cannot re-arrange tabs and when an audio or video starts playing in a tab I still have no idea which tab it's coming from.

1 GB of RAM was plenty but lately I've started to need more. I open up so many tabs that I run out of memory and I can no longer open things. I can seriously see myself having 100+ tabs open at the same time.

I still open multiple browsers to keep my tabs organized by type for example work tabs and fun tabs and there are pages like my gmail that I don't like to go hunting for so I keep them in a browser with no other tabs.

If I visit link sites like metafilter or memempool I will open them up in their own browser because I will quickly create 20 or 30 tabs just from one site.

IE7 seems to display fonts more clearly than FF but IE7 is slow to open and beta 2 is a little buggy but that's to be expected. I like it's shiny glass buttons and tabs. Everything is smaller. I remember in the early days with Mosaic and Netscape 4 and IE 3 and 4 the buttons were HUGE! Actually I had a hard-time finding the Stop and Refresh buttons on IE7 because they're so small and moved out of the way. I thought for a few days it didn't have those buttons.

I'm forcing myself to use IE7 now. For a few days I was only using FF to access my favorites but I finally exported them and imported them into IE7 so lately I've had no reason to use FF.

Conclusion: I think Microsoft has succeeded in leap frogging the competition evolving the browser to a whole new level. I just found a new favorite browser.

Kung Fu TV

2006-04-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the mis-leading title. This post is not about Kung Fu TV but I do mention Kung Fu and TV mainly because I strayed from one topic to another. The two topics are not related. This is what you'd call a ramble post where one thing leads to another ... just like sex ... except there's no climax at the end but you can think of this as the foreplay. Just don't expect to splooge.

Sister #8 (Tee) is a TV-holic and watches it morning until night. I would guess she watches over 8 hours of TV per day!

Sister #2 (Chin) doesn't watch TV. She watches her fish tank ... just sits there for like 30 minutes at a time staring at her fish.

We have now renamed the TV as the Tee-vision and the fish tank as the Tele-fishon.

Although Tee and Chin hardly speak any English they both understood my joke perfectly and we had a good laugh. I was relieved because I've tried to tell jokes before and they completely fail due to lack of understanding.

I joke with my deaf wife sometimes. Afterwards I tell her I'm joking by spelling JOKE in sign. I should just ask her what the sign is for "joke" so I don't have to keep spelling it, although it is really easy to sign.

You know how certain words or syllables just flow together like onomatopoeia or boogily-oogily. Well the letters J-O-K-E flow nicely together in sign language.

I've come up with my own marital arts based on sign. I call it Kung-Sign. The goal is to sign slowly and smoothly exaggerating your movements like you're doing Thai Chi or some Kung Fu steps. You attempt to make each sign flow in the next like it is one motion ... and you do it with style and throw a little body language and Kung Fu stance into the mix. It always gets a good laugh.

Each deaf person makes up a sign for their name so you don't have to spell their name. The lazy way is to sign the first letters in the first and last name. Since people know me by my middle name, James, here and my last name is Coston, they suggested I sign J-C as my sign-name.

J-C actually flows very nicely together but picking a good sign name is like picking a good domain name. It should be ...

* reflect your personality
* easy to remember
* quick and easy to sign

If you have a mole on your face or neck you just point to it. That uniquely identifies you and is easy to remember and sign. I don't have a mole or scar or anything to point to.

Kelly and I brainstormed for at least 3 weeks before we chose a sign that both she and I liked. She shot down all of my ideas so I trusted her judgement.

I frequently brush my hair back out of my face so that's my sign. Brushing my hair back out of my face. People immediately get it and remember it.

Coitus-Interruptus! Sorry, you don't get to cum. Was it good for you?

La

2006-04-24T03:03:00.000-07:00

OK, la, the Chinese in Malaysia, la, use the word "la" at the end of a sentence, la, or phrase, la.

It drives me nuts, la!

When I ask them, la, why do you put "la" at the end of your sentence, la, they don't even know what I 'm talking about, la. They're not even aware they're doing it, la.

Sister #1 has a son whose name is La so I asked her this morning at breakfast, when you call your son do you say "La la"? She just looked at me puzzled not knowing what I was talking about. I was cracking up on the inside. It's a big joke to me.

If you're listening to someone talk you must also say "Haa" once in a while to indicate you agree or you are listening so if I'm speaking to you, it might sound like this ...

me: I just got back form this long ride ...
you: haa
me: ... and it was really hot!
you: haa haa
me: I had a flat tire ...
you: haa
me: ... but I was able to repair it.
you: haa haa

I cannot even pronounce "haa" correctly so when I point out they are doing it, again, they have no idea what I'm talking about. Haa, La.

Tabs

2006-04-23T19:03:00.000-07:00

I think tabs are great on browsers because it allows me to open up many links from a single web page then continue looking at the current page while the tabs load.

I think we can thank Amazon for making Tabs popular. They become a favorite navigation feature for web sites and finally for web browsers.

Here is a screen shot of Amazon that I took April 16, 2001 back when they only had two tabs!

The problem I'm having is that I lose tabs!

I have to open up several web pages because if I open up everything in one window it's not only too cluttered, it's not organized. My work stuff will be mixed in with my play stuff.

I need one browser window just for my tabs for Metafilter alone. I typically open 20 to 50 tabs before I start looking at them. Then I have another problem. I'll hear a video start playing but I won't know which browser or tab it's coming from! Then the hunt begins. I just have to start clicking until I see some playing video. If the video is off-screen then I'm really in trouble.

Or in this case, I had so many tabs open I couldn't even access the tab that was playing the video because the tabs do not scroll.

Before tabs I would have to open up each page in a new window and this meant my task bar had to be 3 or 4 levels thick!

But then Windows XP came out with a smarter taskbar which consolidated all programs of the same type under a single icon with a pop-up menu.

But sometimes I would have some many windows open my screen couldn't handle the size of the menu!

I do like how some programs do not occupy any space in my taskbar. They are simply tiny icons in my tray like my instant messengers like my instant messengers for example.

I don't understand why I can't re-arrange my tabs or re-arrange the icons in my taskbar. I simply want to drag and drop so that are in an order that makes it easier for me. I've been asking for this feature in Windows since I started working at Microsoft.

I don't understand why I can't search my favorites. I put way too many links in my favorites then I can't find stuff. I just a Favorites Search. Is that too much to ask? Why don't browsers have this feature? Am I the only person who wants this?

When I worked at Microsoft they would have an annual company meeting at a football stadium. They would always show what future versions of Windows might look like. They have a research group that develops ideas that are 10 or 20 years out. Their goal is to make Windows easier to use.

Operating systems will continue to evolve and get easier to use. They still have a long way to go. We are still in the computer stone age.

Rush

2006-04-20T18:50:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been listening to Rush all day while I work. I have every album (not counting live, compilation albums and their last album) saved as mp3s from when I left Washington on my road trip across America September 2000. It took me about a week to save 100+ music CDs to mp3s so I could listen to music from my laptop which was connected to my SUV stereo.

From 1987 I was pretty bored with Rush but I continued to buy their albums anyway out of loyalty and curiosity. I was into their early stuff but not the later stuff. I found their later stuff timid and boring unlike their early stuff which exploded and was full of energy and magic. The spark that I liked was gone.

But I'm gaining a new appreciation for their later work. It's "easy listening" for work. The early stuff is too distracting and too noisy for when I'm trying to concentrate. I was never one to pay attention to lyrics much. I was more into the early rush for the music and the energy it filled me with. The later Rush seemed to focus on meaningful lyrics and less on kick-ass music. It was more cerebral and less emotional.

As I sit here listening to the lyrics for the first time of their older stuff, I'm realizing that they had a lot of interesting things to say. I'm surprised to find myself starting to like the later Rush!

I was into Rush long before I knew who they were. At about age 12 I heard "Fly by night" about 1976 on the radio and loved it. The next song I heard was "Closer to the heart" about 1977 and I loved that too but I made no connection. I saw kids wearing Rush t-shirts but I still made no connection to the music I loved.

I used to record music to tape cassettes off the radio then one day in 1979 (age 16) I recorded most of a live concert and yet I still didn't know who they were. Some of the songs I recorded were Xanadu and YYZ.

In 1980 the album Permanent Waves came out and the songs Freewill and The Spirit of Radio hit it big. I heard the DJ say that the band was Rush and I finally made that connection. I rushed over to the music store and bought the album and thought it was brilliant from beginning to end. My dad had an awesome stereo so when my parents weren't home I would put the record on the turn table and crank up the volume to shake the walls.

I loved to shake the house with the song Natural Science from Permanent Waves. It represents the quintessential Rush song. It starts out quiet and slow then slowly builds until it explodes! This song is over 9 minutes long and most of it is hard rocking! It's like sex. You have the foreplay in the beginning, the build up then the intense intercourse followed by the orgasm then you can can relax.

I loved that formula! So many songs follow that like Cygnus-X1, A Farewall to Kings, Xanadu and so on. But after Red Barchetta on Moving Pictures in 1981 that formula was gone. For me, that's where the magic was.

It was then my goal to buy all of the Rush albums. Below is a list of the albums in the order I bought them along with the year they came out, what format I bought them on (Record, Cassette, CD, Download) and how I felt about them.

1980 Permanent Waves (1980 Record) - Brilliant!

1980 Fly By Night (1975 Record) - Awesome! It has the song Fly by Night, that I loved back in 1976

1980 A Farewell to King (1977 Record) - Good Stuff! Deep! SciFi! Part 1 of 2

1980 Hemispheres (1978 Record) - Good but not into the Greek Mythology. Part 2 of 2

1981 Rush (1974 Record) - Crude. It had the Geddy Lee shriek but the music wasn't unique and the lyrics were horrible. John Rutsey was the drummer so I blamed it on him.

1981 Caress of Steel (1975 Record) - Again Crude. Bad lyrics and a fantasy slant which I'm not into. Two back to back albums I didn't like. I was losing faith in Rush then Moving Pictures came out.

1981 Moving Pictures (1981 Record) - This album restored my faith in Rush with songs like Tom Sawyer, Red Barchetta and the long instrumental YYZ. In my opinion, this is when Rush peaked.

1982 Signals (1982 Cassette) - By this time Rush had "jumped the shark" and would never recover. This was the first album I purchased on cassette tape and I actually wore it out by listening to it too much. The sound quality got so bad that I went out and bought it again. I still loved the entire album especially the songs New World Man, Subdivisions, Analog Kid and The Weapon but it seemed to lack some of the magic of Moving Pictures. The Geddy Lee shriek was gone. He was no longer screaming lyrics. He was now just singing the lyrics like any other singer. A disappointment but yet their music still moved me.

1984 Grace Under Pressure (1984 cassette) - The albums start to blend together now. This was a lot like Signals but slightly different. I still enjoyed this album a lot but I felt like the magic was gone. They were still good ... just not great. This album was kind of creepy for me. It had an eerie message that made me feel paranoid. It didn't fill me with energy the way Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures and Fly by Night did.

1985 Power Windows (1985 casette) - Now I was certain Rush would never return to the previous glory. I liked it when Rush was more conceptual but now they were just telling stories. I liked the energy from the Geddy Lee shriek but I'm guessing as he aged he decided to save his voice. They were getting older and it showed. I saw Rush in concert once and it was when they were touring for this album. I had good seats in the 11th row and my ears rang for a week. I'm sure I lost some hearing from that concert. When I came out, I was half-deaf for a few hours.

1987 Hold Your Fire (1987 CD) - Forgettable. Yawn. More of the same. I miss the old Rush. But I decided to continue to buy every Rush album that came out for many reasons. (1) Loyalty (2) Curiosity. They were continuing evolve. This is a band that likes to experiment and I can respect that. I didn't listen to this album much.

1989 Presto (1989 CD) - same as above. Rush made the change from Mercury to Atlantic records on this album. I begin to wonder what comes first ... the music or the lyrics? Do they write music then add lyrics or write lyrics then write music to fit the lyrics? In the early years I think the music inspired the lyrics but in these later years I think the lyrics came first and the music was a second thought.

1991 Roll the Bones (1991 CD) - still no magic. I barely listened to this album.

1993 Counterparts (1993 CD) - as always there were some good songs but nothing great. Nothing that moved me.

1996 Test for Echo (1996 CD) - same as above. They used to put out an album every year, then it was every 2 years and now every 3 years.

2002 Vapor Trails (2002 CD) - 6 years have passed since their last album. Obviously they have better things to be doing.

Feedback (2004) - I never knew this album existed until today. It seems that I have another album to buy!

It is interesting how over time the platform has changed. I started with records, then cassette tapes then CDs then creating mp3s from my CDS then downloading mp3s from Napster then using the legal Napster and iTunes. I wonder how will I purchase their album Feedback.

I also wonder how many more albums they will put out. Geddy Lee was born July 29, 1953 which makes him 52 now. It seemed like the time between albums was getting longer ... 1, 2, 3 and 6 years apart but there was only a 2 year wait for this last album. Maybe they are on the come back for one last blast. I honestly expect at least 3 more albums out of Rush. I think they will be rocking at age 70!

Long Live Rush!

Sweat

2006-04-20T04:49:00.000-07:00

I like the fall weather in New Jersey because it's cool outside and you can exercise and push yourself hard and not sweat.

Here in Penang Malaysia, I step outside my air-conditioned room and I begin sweating immediately. I just returned from a 20 minute leisure bike ride and I'm dripping in sweat.

When I go on long all day bike rides I bring two dry shirts and a bag to put my wet sweaty shirts in. A wet shirt holds in the heat better. It sticks to your skin and doesn't allow air to flow thru to cool you. When you change from a sweat drenched shirt to a dry one you immediately feel much cooler.

On a long ride I can sweat out 4 liters (1 gallon) of water!

I miss the dry air of Arizona where you would stay cool even at 100 degrees (37 Celsius). When you step out of a pool you're freezing cold because of the rapid rate of evaporation.

Ultimately I'd like to live where there are no extremes hot and cold, dry and humid. I just want nice weather. I just want to be comfortable.

Your next language is ... Chinese!

2006-04-16T20:58:00.000-07:00

I'm reading this article in the April 2006 Wired

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.04/mandarin.html

about how China is pushing Mandarin to be the language of choice in the world. It's already the most popular language in the world.

Here's a quote: "The days of everyone trying to be American are over"

I've been trying to learn some Mandarin but it's hard and I'm just trying to pronounce simple things like "Good Morning" which sounds something like "Chow On". I can say the "Chow" part right but I have trouble saying "On" because it sounds more like "Awn" or "Aaun". No matter how many times they correct me, I can never get it right.

I'm planning to buy a book to help me learn some Mandarin but I'm wondering how a book is going to teach me how pronounce the word correctly.

Sometimes the Children like to have me say Chinese words. They get minutes of amusement as I mangle the words. They repeat, I repeat, they laugh.

I think Asian languages are inefficient because each word a symbol. I think letter-based languages are more efficient. Chinese uses different tones for different words. That's confusing and very frustrating to me when I pronounce the word correctly but in the wrong tone.

Letter based languages are certainly easier to type.

I was wondering how the Chinese type. Here is an example of a Chinese keyboard.

When I got my new PC I could toggle between Chinese and English keyboard input and sometimes it toggled on it's own and suddenly I was typing in Chinese and I saw that I got a pop-up showing many choices. This type of typing seemed quite slow to me.

I wonder how Chinese characters are stored in the PC. You cannot use ASCII (8 bits) since that only offers 256 choices. 16 bits offers 65,536 but is that enough to hold every Chinese character? I'm pretty sure the answer is no so the next step is 32 bits per character which gives you over 4 million (4,294,967,296) combos. I'm guessing there are less than 4 million Chinese characters and I'm wondering how the Chinese solved this problem back when we were using 16-bit computers.

The thought of learning Chinese actually frightens me. It's just so different to read, write and speak. But of course that's what the Chinese have to deal with when learning English.

English is not a great language either. If we're all going to speak one language, we should all speak Esperanto. That language has many advantages.

1. It is a neutral language, being the property of no particular group of people and therefore the equal property of everybody.

2. It is relatively easy to learn. It would appear from personal experience and anecdotal evidence that, for an English speaker, Esperanto is perhaps five times as easy to learn as Spanish, ten times as easy as Russian, and "considerably" easier than Chinese, Japanese or Arabic.

3. It's rules are very simple. Everything is spelled how it sounds. Letters only have one sound. There's one way to make a word plural or to make a word female or male gendered.

Strangely enough there are people who are against Esperanto. Here is a web page that explains why Esperanto is bad.

Here is a fun Esperanto tutorial. Here is The Tower of Babel (Genesis 11: 1-9) written in Esperanto.

Here are the languages I've tried to learn. Esperanto has inspired me to invent my own language just for fun. I work on it in my free time. The words in my language will be generated from my simplified alphabet using a program I plan to write. The most common words people use will be the shortest words and the least common words will be the longest words. My language will be designed for speed of talking, writing and typing. It will be very condensed.

For a long time I've been coming up with a simplified version of the A-Z alphabet for English. For example I would get rid of the letter "C" since the letters "K" and "S" can replace it. The Malaysians seems to agree with me. They love the letter "K" and "S" but hate the letter "C" it seems. Instead of "Clinic" I see "Klinik". They also do not like the letter "X" hence Taxi is spelled Teksi. "KS" can replace "X". In a simplified language, vowels would only make one sound. There would be no silent letters. No exceptions to the rules. No ambiguity.

Just because we can make the sound with our mouth does not mean it needs to be a part of our language. There are many sounds we can make that are not a part of languages. Imitate the sound of someone farting for example. That "fart sound" is not a part of any language as far I know.

It is my wish and prediction that we won't have to learn each others languages in the future since computers will do the translation for us. There is currently hand-held devices available for doing translation between the 10 most common languages. I saw it featured on the TV show Beyond Tomorrow but it is very expensive. You tell it what the source and destination language is then you speak into it and it display what you spoke in the source and destination language on the screen then it speaks the destination language.

A Pirate Story

2006-04-16T20:04:00.000-07:00

I was at the mall yesterday shopping for a Pirate version of Visual Studio.NET 2005 Professional Edition. The actual version cost $800 but I could probably buy it on eBay for $300 but I a pirated version may cost $25 and right now I'm unemployed and I need Visual Studio.NET 2005.

As I was browsing thru the "Visual Studio" section the lights went out and suddenly everyone in the store quickly walked out. The vertical sliding metal gate was quickly shut to close the shop and lock it and the people running the store quickly blended in with the crowd.

A raid was on!

All around me stores were closing. Kelly and I walked around and there wasn't a single software store open but 20 minutes later we walked by the first store we were in and they were just opening the gate and turning the lights back on so we were the first to enter. Unfortunately the latest version they had was 2003 and I need 2005.

The other stores eventually opened and I went to each of them but they all had identical content. They must all go to the same supplier. All had 2003 but none had 2005.

I saw a lot of free Software for sale too. I saw various browsers like Opera, Netscape and even IE for sale. I also saw Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition for sale which is what I'm using now except I downloaded it for free.

Malaysian Shampoo

2006-04-14T09:31:00.000-07:00

I just saw a TV ad for shampoo aimed at Malaysian Muslim woman who cover their hair.

I foget what brand it was and I don't understand Malay but I could still understand the message was they could attract men by the smell of their hair. A man walks in the room and immediately notices the woman because of her great smelling hair!

It reminds me of the 70's TV commercials for the shampoo with the long name Gee your hair smells terrific.

Cafe with no coffee

2006-04-08T23:00:00.000-07:00

In the USA a cafe restaurant serves coffee but here in Malaysia I've found that 90% of the time a cafe does not serve coffee.

One Look defines cafe as

A coffeehouse; a restaurant; also, a room in a hotel or restaurant where coffee and liquors are served.

but Ask Oxford says

a small restaurant selling light meals

I like to mention to the workers at these coffee-less cafes that the word cafe is derived from the French word for coffee (or Kopi in Malay). They're really not interested.

It's like when I told the people at the A&W restaurant that their Coney Dog was far from a the real Coney Dog on Coney Island in New York. They honestly could care less even though they're serving a chicken dog with chili sauce and mayo when the real thing is a beef hotdog with spicy mustard (they don't have it), relish (they don't have relish), ketchup (they don't have that either), diced onions (this they do have) and chili (they have it).

I have to confess they did get right the vanilla ice-cream in root-bear in a giant mug. Yum!

Muslim woman flips me the middle finger

2006-03-02T06:49:00.001-08:00

Last night I went for a bike ride over the mountain pass via the road. I attempted to find a path thru the forest back over the mountain but the sun was setting and I ran out of sunlight so I was forced to take the mountain pass road back.

Unfortunately this is very dangerous because
1. there are no street lights
2. it's very fast and windy and narrow
3. there are pot-holes that could cause me lose control
4. losing control could be fatal because of other cars, trucks, motorbikes, cliffs, ditches
5. on-coming traffic often cross over the double-line to straighten out curves
6. I have no lights so I'm not that visible
7. there is no shoulder so I'm forced to ride in the road with the vehicles
8. sharp-turns at high speed with sand and rocks can cause me to crash
9. head lights of oncoming vehicles blind me

My strategy is to wait at the top for a slow moving vehicle like a slow bus or slow car. I rode down the hill a little and stopped at a safe place in the road and awaited my "pace car". After 15 minutes I spotted a slow car. I know it was slow because it had vehicles piling up behind it.

I waited until the train of vehicles passed and I joined the train. Little by little I started passing cars, trucks and motorbikes working my way to the front. Finally I was two cars and a motorbike from the front but as I passed the motorbike, the female passenger screamed at me "Slow Down!"

Ten seconds later we rounded a hair-pin turn and I shadowed car #2. Cars can whip around these turns faster than bikes because the bike is on the outside where there is gravel but somehow I managed to keep my speed up thru the gravel.

The speed of the traffic picked up as we hit a straight section and the motorbike sped past me and again she yelled "Slow Down!" As they slowed for the next sharp turn I started to pass the motorbike but it moved over and attempted to block me from passing. I kept my speed up and he noticed I wasn't slowing down so he let me by and again she yelled "Slow Down!"

I wanted to get away from this motorbike so I passed car #2 and got into tight formation with the lead car. I stayed on it's left bumper (remember that in Malaysia they drive on the left side of the road) so I could see the upcoming road and watch out for pot-holes and gravel.

I become one with that car. If it sped up, I sped up. If it slowed, I slowed. I was literally a shadow riding about two feet from it's left rear bumper using it's head-lights as my personal flash-light to see where I was going.

We averaged about 30 mph. My bike has 18 gears and I was in gear 18 the whole way down. This was definitely a day of extremes as I spent a lot of time in gear 1 grinding up long steep hills then gear 18 flying down them.

Finally we reached the bottom of the hill and the road was well lit and straight with a big shoulder once again. The vehicles picked up speed and started to pass me since it was now flat and I was slowing down as they were speeding up.

As the motorbike passed me the Muslim woman looked back and flipped me the middle finger.

I've noticed that people on motorbikes are annoyed when they get passed by a bicycle. People also get frightened if you go very fast or down a very steep trail.

Earlier in the day I was headed down a steep and windy cement motorbike trail. There were some very sharp turns. I passed a Muslim couple and the woman was gasping each time I rounded a turn as if she thought I was going to fly off the cliff and die.

But this was just a normal day at the office for me.

Big & Tall

2006-01-22T20:25:00.000-08:00

I buy my clothes at the Big & Tall store here in Malaysia. I have a 42 waist but the largest average size is 38. In USA I like XXL t-shirts. Here the same size is called XXXXL or Sumo Size. The same goes for my underwear which is size XXXXL in Malaysia. I wear a size 12 or 13 shoe. The largest average size they carry here is size 10.

They had a good laugh at the Big & Tall shop when I told them that their clothes were average sized in USA and the USA has Big & Tall shops with even bigger clothes!

It must be hard for a D-cup woman to find bras in Malaysia. Asian women typically have A or B cup bras. C is considered big here. I know that bra sizes are not standardized world-wide. What some countries call a D, DD, DDD and DDDD or referred to as D, E, F and G in other countries. And to confuse things there are EE and FF sizes. C in Asia is different from a C in USA which is different from a C in Europe.

I'm just happy that I'm not bigger and taller. If I was, I'd have to special order my clothes from the USA like I did my bicycle frame. I could not find a bike long enough for me here and I tried over a dozen bike shops including some really good ones. Finally I special ordered a frame from USA and it fits. I'm not sure who is going to want it after I leave.

I constantly feel to big for this country. The bus seats are not big enough for me. The chairs are too small. I have to duck my head coming down stairs sometimes or I'll hit my head. Cars are too small for me. The list goes on and on ...

Friday the 13

2006-01-22T06:35:00.000-08:00

I had the worst bad luck day ever on Friday January 13, 2006.

To begin with, I got out of bed left leg first (bad luck). As I took a shower, I broke the mirror (7 years bad luck). Later that day a black cat crossed my path (bad luck). Then I walked under a ladder (bad luck).

Later I sneezed and nobody said "god bless you" so the evil spirits that entered by body stayed there. I got the hiccups which made it clear that I was definitely demon possessed. I yawned but did not cover my mouth so my spirit left my body.

To top it off, later that day I saw 3 butterflies together (bad luck) which sealed it as the worst bad luck day ever.

Chinese English

2006-01-04T19:08:00.000-08:00

Prologue: This post was intended to be about English spoken by the Chinese in Malaysia but I went off on several tangents so it lost it's point but I decided to leave my random ramblings "as is" for your amusement.

You have some idea where someone is from by their accent. For English there is a distinct Australian accent, Chinese accent, German accent, Spanish accent and so on. I assume the same goes for any language. If you are from Germany you can tell if someone has an Australian accent, Chinese accent, Spanish accent, American accent and so on.

An American knows if someone is Canadian because they'll pronounce any word with "out" as "oot" so instead of saying "about" they'll say "aboot".

You can tell where someone is from in America by their accent. You know if someone is from Boston because instead of saying "park the car in the yard" they will say "paak the caa in the yaad". There is the Southern Accent and the California accent as well as the New Jersey accent. New York city even has different accent for different boroughs. You know if someone is from Brooklyn, Harlem or Queens by their accent.

Here in Malaysia, the Chinese have a Chinese accent obviously but beyond that, they also speak English differently because they have transliterated their Chinese phrases into English.

If I were to ask someone "can you help me?" instead of answering "yes" or "no" they would answer "can" or "cannot".

They also have phrases like "I do not want!" or "Why like this?"

They also have a filler word "Haahh" which I cannot pronounce very well. When I try to use it people look at me funny. It's used by the listener to indicate they are paying attention. I'm not in the habit of using this feedback so when I'm talking to someone on the phone, they'll pause mid-sentence and ask "are you there?" because all they hear is silence when they are talking and I'm not giving them the feedback they are used to.

In America we have filler words too like "mmm" or "uh-huh" or "yaa", etc. We make sounds to let the person know that we understand, agree or are paying attention while they are speaking. It's just that the sounds American makes are different the sounds Malaysian Chinese make.

They also have a word they use to indicate "surprise". An American might say "oh my" or "wow" or "yikes", etc. but they say "Ayooooo". I think this is a common Asian phrase because I've heard it on TV from shows from Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong.

They also tend to end sentences with "a" for example when addressing me they would say "Uncle Jamesa" instead of "Uncle James".

There are also words they have trouble pronouncing like "world".

They also have a problem with gender and mix up his/hers, him/her, she/he but they usually correct themselves.

They also over use "nevermind" saying it in places most native English speaking people would never use it for example using it to replace "no". I may ask "Would you like some carrots?" and they would reply "nevermind".

It's no wonder they speak this way because it is reinforced not only by others around them but TV and movies as well.

We were driving in the car with some children and the mother was playing a music CD of Chinese children singing in English and they had the heavy Chinese accent as well as the bad pronunciation and other mis-uses of English. The parents were unaware that they were teaching their kids bad English.

We've all mis-heard lyrics but I've discovered that with Children's songs the lyrics get mis-heard and new versions get created all over the world in different countries. I don't know what the original lyrics for this song was but I learned it as ...

Ring around the Rosies
Pocket full of Posies
Ashes Ashes
We all fall down

The Chinese children in Malaysia sing

Ring around the Roses
Pocket full of Poses
Asha Asha
All fall down

I also found this version on the Internet

Ring around the rosies
A pocket full of posies
A-tishoo!
A-tishoo!
We all fall down

In Old English they sang

Ring a ring o' rosies

There is also

Ring around the Rosy

or

Round a ring of roses

It will forever change and nobody is right or wrong.

I have searched Google and found dozens of different versions from many different countries. You may have heard that this song refers to the Black Plague in 1347 but that's just a urband legend. This site says it is part of Hindu mythology.

And of course the song is sung in many other languages like French

La ronde des roses,
Ma poche est pleine de sauge.
Atchoum! Atchoum!
Tout le monde debout.

Pim Pim & Pok Pok

2005-12-30T18:28:00.000-08:00

While living in the USA I met online Pim Pim from Thailand.

I told her that my favorite food is Thai food, specifically the red-curry chicken in coconut milk.

She told me that her favorite food is Papaya Pok Pok.

So I visited a Thai restaurant but they never heard of it.

Later I moved to Malaysia where Thai food is very popular because they are very near Thailand. Once again I asked for Papaya Pok Pok but they never heard of it.

Finally I visited Thailand and I asked for Papaya Pok Pok but still nobody heard of it.

I was starting to think Pim Pim made it up as a joke so I searched Google and I found over 650 results. Pim Pim's sister Sri sent me this pic of her and Pim Pim about to enjoy some delicious Papaya Pok Pok.

She also sent me this pic. They are too cute so I had to include it.

I asked Pim Pim why nobody heard of it. She says that it is only famous in Bangkok. I visited a southern city in Thailand near the border of Malaysia where they cater to the tastes of Malaysian tourists.

I was warned that if I moved to Bangkok that I would love Papaya Pok Pok so much that I would eat it constantly and get very fat. If I love it as much as the Americanized Thai curry chicken in coconut milk, I can believe it.

If I had to choose between eating my favorite Americanized Thai red-curry chicken in coconut milk ... or sex, it would be a difficult choice.

I searched Google and found a Thai restaurant in Portland, Oregon that is named Pok Pok. Here is how it describes the dish.

Papaya Pok Pok - Green papaya salad with tomatoes, long beans, thai chili, lime, tamarind, dried shrimp, naam plaa, garlic, palm sugar and peanuts made to order in the pok-pok (mortar and pestle). $4.95

Wikipedia has a nice picture of it.

I also found the recipe and learned that it is also called Somtam.

Green Papaya Salad aka: Papaya Pok Pok (SomTum)

Ingredients

* 2 c Finely shredded Thai green papaya (note: When papaya is not available, carrot can be use as a substitute)
* 1 tomato cut into wedges
* 1/3 c roasted peanuts
* dried shrimp (as desire)
* 2 T sugar
* 2 T fish sauce
* 2 Large clove garlic
* 2 Lemon juice
* Fresh chili pepper (as desire)

Cook'em!!

* Pound together chili and garlic until fine. Add papaya, tomato, sugar, fish sauce, and lemon juice.
* Add peanuts, dried shrimp.
* Taste as desire. Serve with sliced cabbage
* Enjoy it!

I found another web page that says

Som Tam (Papaya salad) Affectionately known as " Papaya Pok Pok" this spicy salad originally from the northeast, is now a national favourite. Made from sliced green papaya, peanuts, dried shrimp, and raw vegetables, it's usually eaten as with sticky rice and fresh grilled chicken. Very tasty but spicy, so ask the cook to make it "my pet" (not spicy) if you don't want it too hot!

My quest for the "better than sex" orgasmic taste experience of Thai Papaya Pok Pok continues.

The Beach

2005-12-08T09:23:00.000-08:00

The short version ...

attempt to carry bike over boulders to beach
decide to leave bike on boulder and continue without it
find path on beach up hill to road
take road back to where I started on boulders
climb over boulders to get bike
get idea to take bike apart and take it to beach
take front wheel to beach
take rear wheel to beach
no water, get dehydrated, ask fisherman food and water
take frame to beach
assemble bike
return home

Map to go with story. Open this image in new window or tab so you can refer to it.

The long version ...

I told Kelly's sister #9 (Ping) that I was planning to go to the top of the highest mountain in Penang and ride my mt. bike down. She advised against it. She said that it is their custom to take it easy the month before the wedding. I'm trying to do my best to follow their customs so I tried taking it easy.

For the next two weeks I did nothing and I got very bored. Then one day I checked the tide tables online and I noticed that there was an extremely low tide at 11:30 AM. I had been waiting for such a day to make my third attempt to reach this remote beach. The plan was to leave at 9:30 AM and get there about 11 AM while the tide was still going out.

Many weeks ago I made two failed attempts to reach this beach because I went late in the day and ran out of sunlight. I waited for a day when there would be a very low tide in the morning and Dec 7, 2005 was that day.

I need exercise and I look forward to these adventures where I can push myself hard. I look for activities where I can use my entire body and run, jump, climb, lift, roll, stretch, bend, throw, catch, kick, punch and so on. I want to improve my cardio endurance as well as flexibility. Activities should involve balance and reflexes. This adventure would certainly involve strength and endurance as well as overcoming fear so I would be tested both mentally and physically.

This trip would also be a mind game. A puzzle to solve. I had a goal and a constantly changing environment (rising tide) and rain. It was a race against the clock as well as a chance to work smart, not hard. Intelligence and muscle as well as the will to push oneself and take risks with as much safety as can be expected. This is my kind of adventure!

I got off to a late start at 10 AM. I decided to buy some energy drink instead of water for energy. I bought 4 bottles of 100 Plus energy drink and poured it into my Thermos to keep it cold. I obviously wasn't thinking clearly because 100 Plus is carbonated and after a few minutes of riding, it blew the top off my thermos and all of it spilled into my bag.

So I had to go back and this time I bought two large bottles of water. More than enough ... or so I thought. The energy drink was my substitute for food but now that I was just bringing water, I needed to bring some food too ... but I forgot.

When I got to the end of the road I attempted to ride up the large hill. I had done it once before a month ago with great difficulty. Last time required 100% effort but this time only required 80% effort! This shows me that I'm getting in shape. Click on the pic to see the big pic and check out the large boulders.

Once to the top I rode down the other side. It's a cement path that winds back and forth thru a fruit tree plantation on the side of the hill.

the path leads to some boulders next to the sea. I arrived at 11:45 right at low-tide so the tide was starting to rise. I wasn't happy about that since I'd have less options for boulder hopping. There were some fisherman there. They were very curious to see me. They don't see someone like me very often and they had lots of questions.

In the distance I can see some remote beautiful sandy beaches. I've attempted to find paths down to them from atop the hill but failed so I figured the only way to reach them was over the boulders.

My plan was to carry my bike over the boulders to get to the beach. Then I was going to continue on around the southern tip of the island climbing over boulders with my bike until I reached the path on the other side, then I could ride home.

Carrying my bike turned out to be a lot more work than I expected. The boulders were covered in barnacles which were perfect for no slip grip. I continued to wear my bicycle gloves to protect my hands from the barnacles. It's a good thing because I ended up tearing up my left glove. Better my glove than my hand.

Moving from rock to rock sometimes required total commitment. A half attempt would simply fail and you'd fall down a large hole. These boulders are quite huge and the space between them is very deep. It is much safer to scramble over the smaller flatter boulders that get exposed at low tide. But as the tide came in, my options disappeared and I was forced to climb over the much bigger boulders.

I'm grateful for all of those days I spent doing indoor rock climbing. The techniques I learned climbing rocks definitely helped me because this was definitely rock climbing.

Cats get stuck up trees because it is easy for them to climb up a tree but hard to climb down. The same can be said for these boulders. Going up a boulder is often easier than going down a boulder and I often had to go both ways.

Often times there was no way to step from one boulder to another. You simply had to leap which meant full commitment. If I was climbing up a boulder the only way to get up it was full commitment. You had to lunge up. Momentum is your friend. If you do not fully commit to the lunge or leap, then you fail and fall which could lead to serious injury or even death. This was not a place for fear or self doubt. Hesitation in the middle of a lunge or leap would end in painful failure.

Sometimes it took me as long as 2 or 3 minutes to get up the nerve to lunge up or leap down. I had to make sure that in my mind I would be fully committed to going for it.

I was almost to the first beach when I decided to scout ahead and find the best path. I quickly realized there was no possible way I could carry my bike since there was only one route and it involved leaping over a large hole about 10 feet deep (305 cm). The space was tight and there was no way for me to fit me and my bike so I left it there and continued onto beach 1 without it.

Beach 1 was small and beautiful. I noticed concrete stairs going up the hill. I continued on over more boulders to beach 2. It was small and beautiful as well. I noticed a path leading up the hill. I continued over more boulders to beach 3. Beach 3 was much larger than beaches 1 and 2. It was also very steep. I've never seen a beach at this angle. If you went swimming, it would get very deep very fast.

This was the west coast and the water was clear. On the east coast the shorelines tend to have muddy bottoms and the water is cloudy. I was thinking about how great it would be swim here but then I started worrying about the Gila monsters that swim in these waters.

Next I continued over the boulders to head around the south side of the island and back to the west coast where I knew I could find a path back to the road and back down to the boulders to get my bike. But I didn't get far because the tide was coming in and my only route was now under water.

So I headed back to beach 3 and took the path up the hill to the road then walked back. On the road back I saw a trail which might lead to beach 1 so I took it. I knew that this trail had not been traveled in a long time because I kept getting a face full of spider web. Each time I would quickly locate the tiny spider hanging from his torn web and place it on a leaf and continue.

Then I came upon a large web with a large spider. I'm lucky that I saw it in time. This spider had legs that were about 1.5 inches (4 cm) long! It was black with a small body. It looked very poisonous. I wouldn't want that spider on my face so I picked up a stick and walked around the web and continued on waving the stick in front of me to clear my way.

I see some amazing sites when exploring these tropical forests for example this tree growing atop a giant boulder with it roots growing down on all sides.

This dirt path connected with the concrete path in the fruit tree plantation. I continued down the hill to the fisherman on the boulders. I left my bag with the fisherman and went to get my bike. The tide had come in some more and my lower easier routes were gone. I was forced to scramble over the large boulders which took more effort and of course was more dangerous.

When I finally got to my bike I realized it would be too hard to take the bike back over the larger boulders. So then I got the idea to take the wheels off my bike so that I could throw them over the hole and take them to beach 1. They would land in soft dirt on the cliff-side. I could then take my bike to beach 1. I was now regretting my decision to leave my bag with the fisherman since now I had to go back for it.

I made two trips and took the front and rear wheels to beach 1 but I bonked. It hit the wall as my energy levels fell. Every time I exerted myself my heart raced and I was breathing hard. I sat down and put my head between my legs and felt much better. Every two minutes I tried to sit up but couldn't. I just felt dizzy.

I then realized that I was dehydrated. I had run out of water on my walk back to the boulders. I brought more water than I thought I needed and I still didn't have enough. I sat for a long time gathering my strength then I headed back to the fisherman and offered to pay them money for food and water. They were kind and offered me half of their food and water and wanted nothing in return.

One guy even gave me his iced-tea with cream and sugar. The cold fluids and caffeine and sugar really picked me up. One fisherman had 5 roles and gave me 3. I took a bite of the first roll and some of it crumbled to the ground. I cursed myself because I knew I would need every crumb and here I was wasting crumbs. The next two I popped in my mouth so as not to waste a single crumb.

As I was leaving I put RM 10 (USD 2.70) into each of their bags when they weren't looking. They don't realize how much of a help they were. They were both poor and fishing for their dinner to feed their families and they gave me food for free. It was the least I could do.

I noticed they both left their bags open and walked away so I get the feeling they wanted to accept my money but Chinese etiquette did not allow it.

By the time I attempted to return to get my bike frame, the tide had risen cutting off my path completely. It was now impossible to get there over the boulders so I climbed up into the woods and found a path back to the fruit tree plantation. I remembered that I saw stairs leading down to beach 1 so I started searching and it wasn't long before I found them.

I had been hearing thunder for the past hour and large dark clouds were starting roll in. Finally the rain came. It was an incredible down pour and I sought shelter under a large boulder. I decided to wait about 20 minutes to see if the rains would slow or stop.

The path to the boulders was slowly disappearing as the tide was coming in. Eventually I would not be able to reach my bike frame without getting very wet.

As I'm sitting there relaxing I saw what looked like a large log come floating around one of the boulders. It turned out to be a Gila monster about 5 feet (150 cm) long. I was expecting it to come ashore. I had a little fear about that since they can run faster than me. This one was big enough to take me down. I'm not sure who would win in a fight but even if I did win, I would come away quite bloody since I believe they have sharp claws and teeth as well as a large tail with spines that can be used as a weapon.

The Gila monster was looking for food and he submerged a few times but finally he went under but I never saw him surface. I got a little nervous that he might be swimming under water toward me and was going to come out of no where and rush me. But then I remembered that every Gila monster I've seen regardless of size runs from me. So unless I have it cornered and its survival instinct kicks in to fight me, they are afraid of me.

Finally the rains subsided a little and I waited for the waves to withdraw so I could jump up onto the boulders but now they were wet and slippery so I went slower with more caution. The wave crashed back onto shore hitting the low boulders I was on getting my feet wet.

I continued back to my bike frame. I tossed it over the hole and jumped over and took the frame back to the beach, assembled my bike and went home.

Now that's my kind of adventure. A test of body and mind, strength, endurance and skill.

Motorbike Madness

2005-12-01T05:51:00.000-08:00

Here in the village of Teluk Kumbar on the island of Penang there is a common site that I find quite shocking: adults riding motorbikes with children with no helmets.

If I had a digital camera I would sit by the road side and take pictures of this for a few hours until I had a few hundreds pictures then I would select the 4 best but unfortunately I was using film so I couldn't waste a few rolls just on this. I did not manage to capture any truly shocking pictures but this will give you some idea. I've seen 2 year olds standing holding onto the handle bars. If the adult were to stop suddenly, the kid would be thrown. I see people holding babies and as many as 4 kids and an adult on a single bike! I've seen some crazy stuff. When I get my digital camera, I will have the freedom to take hundreds of pictures and show you that one truly shocking picture.

I'm told there is a helmet law and that anyone riding a motorbike must wear one but half of the people I see on motorbikes here do not. I also see underage kids as young as 12 riding motorbikes. Obviously the motorbike laws are not strongly enforced. I also see teenagers drag racing down a long straight hill on motorbikes reaching speeds of 70-80 mph (110-130 kph or kpj as the signs say in Penang). There is a motorbike shop where they supe up there bikes for speed. I hear that a lot of teenagers get badly hurt or even killed on motorbikes here in Penang because they are so reckless.

After many months I've concluded that so many people break the law mainly because they are poor and they don't have a choice. The motorbike is their only form of transportation and they have 3 kids and when they have to visit Grandma, the 2 year old stands in the basket holding onto the handlebars, the 4 year old sits between mom and dad and the baby is held by mom sitting on the back. I've actually seen this! And none were wearing helmets. And I'm not making this next part up ... I saw them ride over a misshapen part of the road and lose control for a second. Nobody seemed shaken and it was business as usual.

On the day I arrived, the first thing I really noticed driving back to the house was how crazy the motorbikers were. They shared the lane with the cars and weaved in and out of traffic like maniacs. It was quite insane. At stop lights the cars would stop but the motorbikes would continue to the front and pile-up. When the light turned green, everybody starts moving in one mass of motorbikes and cars and slowly start to spread out.

After months of being here I've started to get used to it and I realize now that motorbikes are very convenient because there is very little parking space on this island. Traffic is bad as it is and motorbikes take up very little space compared to cars, trucks and busses. If everyone drove a car, there would be massive traffic jams everyday.

Here in Malaysia they like to have open drainage ditches on the side of the road instead of underground pipes like in USA. My guess is because it is cheaper to make and maintain but it seems to me that it is very dangerous. If you lose control and drive into one of these ditches, you could be severely hurt. Some of these ditches are quite deep.

There is one stretch of road where the buildings are right up against the road. There is no shoulder and there is a drainage ditch with the occasional cement bridge. During rush hour, traffic comes to a stop but the motorbikes continue a narrow path driving between the cars and the ditch. Crazy! But just part of life in Penang and people here are used to it.

10 hour bike ride

2005-11-26T00:06:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I rode around Penang island which I'm told is about 50 miles. I did it in 10 hours so I averaged 5 miles per hour. I made many stops along the way to rest, take pictures, eat and get my bike repaired.

The trip was quite uneventful so I don’t really have any great story to tell as I had hoped so all I can really do is ramble on and on about nothing.

I left Teluk Kumbar at noon during a rain storm. Sister #1 warned that I cannot ride in the rain and that I should wait for another day but the forecast showed rain everyday for the next week so there was no point in waiting. Plus this is a warm rain. I’ve ridden in much worse. I’ve ridden in the cold November rain of the East coast of the USA where it’s near freezing and windy. I’ve ridden in -10F (-23C) in snow and on ice. I can handle a warm tropical rain.

Kelly wanted me to wear a rain coat so I did but it was so hot that I got soaking wet from my own sweat! I would have been better off getting rained on because that rain-coat was too hot. She was afraid that I would get cold but when you’re riding up a mountain, that’s not really a concern since you generate a lot of body heat. After I got over the first hill, I removed the rain-coat just in time for the sun to come out!

When we go on trips, we always forgot one thing and the thing I forgot this trip was to wear sun-screen and carry some with me. For the uphill climbs I did not wear my helmet so that my head could vent the heat otherwise the pads in my helmet get so soaked with sweat that it literally pores out when I squeeze the helmet against my head. The downside to this is that my face got sun-burned.

For the down hills, I lowered my seat to lower my center of gravity. I also put my helmet back on and tightened up my brakes so the pads rubbed so when I squeezed the lever I simply made them rub harder. There is little traffic on this side of the island so I had the road to myself. There were 180 degree hair-pin turns … switchbacks. I leaned into the turns hard and fast. Flying down the mountains was the most fun. By then the roads had dried so I had good traction. I just had to watch for oncoming traffic since vehicles like to cut corners.

Once at the bottom, I removed my helmet, put my seat up and loosened my brakes so they wouldn’t rub. My face started feeling sun-burned so I put my helmet back on since it had a visor that could provide some shade for my face. By the end of the day my forearms and face were slightly sun-burned.

The first third of the trip was over some big mountains and thru many small towns including Balik Pulau which is a valley surrounded by mountains. The only way to get there is to drive over a mountain.

As I came out of the mountains I passed a new impressive looking dam then I hit the North shore, aka The Pearl of the Orient. Finally it was flat as it wound around the shoreline and I hit the big city starting with Gurney.

Realizing it was 5:30 pm and that the bike shop probably closed at 6 pm, I had no choice but to hail a taxi for a 15 minute ride into Georgetown to the bike shop. Yes, I cheated but because my bike needed repairs. I had no choice. The taxi ride cost RM 15 (USD 4) and the bike repairs cost RM 25 (USD 7) and Kelly complained about my spending. Oh well. I explained that I had no choice.

The bike shop I stopped at is the same bike shop I bought my bicycle. They are the best bicycle shop in Penang by far. They not only sell high quality bikes but offer high quality repairs. I’ve had my bike repaired by other bike shops and they always do a half-assed job. I need it done right the first time. I push my equipment to its limits and beyond. I need for it to work.

In a poor bike shop you can buy a bicycle for as little as RM 125 (USD 30) and the most expensive bike they sell is about RM 600 (USD 160). This one bike shop is rare because they only stock high-end bikes. My bike cost RM 1,100 (USD 300) which was one of their low-end bikes. They have bikes for as much as RM 20,000 (USD 5400)!

I don't like to spend less than USD 600 on a bike because the quality tends to be too low for my type of riding but I had to save money for the wedding so I got a lesser bike but now I'm paying for it since it constantly needs repair. Over time I'm upgrading the parts but I’m wishing I had spent about RM 2000 (USD 540).

As I left the bike shop it was getting dark. I stopped by the bridal shop to make the final approval on our wedding photo album pictures then it was time to head home. It was rush hour so traffic was dense.

I discovered that a bicycle can take turns faster than a car and motorbike. It makes sense since it is lighter. So when we came up to a turn, if there was room, I flew by the cars and motorbikes but of course they flew by me seconds later but it just felt cool to have the advantage if only for a few seconds.

When I got to the highway it was quite dusty and I was wishing for rain since it was also quite hot even though it was about 8 pm. But no rain came but eventually I got past the dusty area. My energy levels were starting to drop near the end of the trip so I stopped at a park bench and slept for 20 minutes.

Finally the night cooled but it was still very humid and it reminded me of how it feels in New Jersey just after a rain-storm at night around September. These moments that remind me of the USA are nice. I'm actually suffering from a little home-sickness for the first time in my life. Things are so different here, that I'm starting to miss the way things were.

There was one last hill to conquer so I stopped at the “Happy” convenience store. It’s like a 7-11 but it’s called Happy. I had my heart set on a Snickers bar but when I got to the candy bar section, it was quite full but the space for the Snickers was completely empty! Obviously Snickers has done some good marketing because everyone else is buying Snickers too.

Although this store is on a main strip, there is no way to easily get to it. There is some concrete poured at the curb so motorbikes can ride up but then they must cross a crappy bridge over the drainage ditch. There is no official place to park so motorbikes park anywhere and any which way. I don’t understand why they would build a building so close to the street with no room for parking for cars. They would get a lot more business if cars could easily stop but this is not the case.

I bought myself a Twix bar for some quick energy which really paid off because I was able to get up and over the hill without much problem and before I knew it, I was back home. I looked at my HP (mobile phone, aka hand phone) and noticed it was 9:59 PM. I had been gone about 10 hours.

The gate to the house was closed and I didn’t have a key but lucky for me, Kelly was in the store taking inventory so I waved and she was glad to see me. She clapped in appreciation of my difficult feat of riding around the island.

When Kelly saw the wrapper to the Twix bar she gave me a look of unapproval but I explained that I needed the energy for one last push. I needed my second wind. I hardly ate much the whole day I must have burned thousands of calories so a small Twix bar was actually a good thing.

Now it was time to rest, bathe and get some food, then sleep for the night.

Sorry, no near-death experiences to talk about today.

No Pancakes

2005-11-23T23:27:00.000-08:00

I really miss my normal diet. They have pancakes here but not the kind you get at IHOP. They are more like crepes. I went to a restaurant that advertised Western Food and ordered pancakes and got crepes. I told them these are not the type of pancakes typically eaten by Americans. They had no idea. I asked for butter and syrup but they only had margarine and honey. The margarine doesn't taste like margarine in USA and the honey is very runny and not because it's hot. Even at room temperature it is still runny.

I found an A&W stand so I had high hopes since food at McDonalds and KFC is the same with perhaps a few additional local food items added to the menu. I saw they were advertising an authentic Coney dog. I've been to Coney Island in New York city and I've had a real Coney dog and they are delicious but this was nothing like them.

First of all, it's a chicken hotdog, not a beef hotdog. Second there's no spicy mustard or yellow mustard and no sauerkraut, relish or chopped onions. Instead they but hot-sauce and mayonnaise on it. It tastes OK but it just makes me miss the real thing even more.

Speaking of beef hotdogs, when I lived in Phoenix Arizona, I lived next to a Sonic drive-thru and the chili-dog supreme was so good it was evil. It called out to me everyday to eat it and I crave it even now.

I did manage to find beef hotdogs tucked in the back corner of a huge frozen food section of all chicken hotdogs. When I brought them home to eat them, Kelly's mom asked that we remove them from the house. Buddhists do not eat beef and she wasn't about to have her microwave contaminated. Sigh.

They don’t drink milk here. They also don’t like things to be too sweet for example the popular chocolate milk is called Milo and it’s less sweet than cold or hot chocolate in USA. Instead of Gatorade they have 100-Plus which is less sweet.

I miss all of the snack cakes like Ding-Dongs, Ho-Hos, Ring Dings, Yodels, Krumpets, etc. I can find none of them here. I ask for them by name and they look at me like I’m crazy. I also like soft and chewy cookies. Here they like their cookies hard and dry.

Tomorrow is November 25 and it will be Thanksgiving but they don’t celebrate it here obviously as it is only a USA holiday as far as I know. They also don’t eat turkey. Kelly has never had turkey.

I also don’t like eating fish for breakfast. Here they’ll mix fish, chicken and pork in one meal. Obviously there is nothing wrong that but it’s not typically done in the USA. You choose one meat for your meal and stick with that.

I’m also getting sick of eating rice everyday.

I also miss my Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream! I have not had decent ice-cream since I got here over 4 months ago.

Today I had a craving for New Jersey pizza, the best pizza in the world (so I'm told) because it is made by immigrated Italians so it just like the pizza in Italy (so I'm told). Oh sure you can get pizza anywhere in the USA and there are even gourmet pizza places but I still prefer the flat crust and stringy greasy cheese of good ole NJ pizza. There is pizza here in Malaysia but only in the big cities and only at Pizza Hut as far as I can tell.

The foods you will find in Penang Malaysia are primarily local foods. You'll have a hard-time finding other international foods such as European (Italian, French, Spanish) or South American like Mexican, Australian or any other food besides Asian food.

You will find western food here but for the most part its flavor and recipe has been assimilated into the tastes of Malaysia. They don't go a long way into finding out how to make western food properly. They may just have a picture and try to create something that looks like western food or maybe someone who visited North America comes back with a vague recollection of what they ate.

I had fries today at a local hawker stand and they served them with chili sauce and some kind of mayo sauce. They didn't even have ketchup. Ketchup is yet another thing that is hard to find here. I wonder what they would say if they saw me put ketchup on my scrambled eggs?

I have never been home-sick until now. I really do miss my usual diet. I’ve adapted a little to the climate and food but not entirely.

When I return to the USA one of the first things I'm going to do is have a meal with all of the foods I've missed starting with Ben & Jerry's ice-cream, beef-hotdog with yellow mustard and sauerkraut/relish/chopped onions, pancakes with butter and syrup, whole milk and ring-dings. Oh and let's not forget the Turkey sandwich.

Rush Hour

2005-11-16T00:48:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was bicycling home during "evening rush hour" which I'd estimate be between 5 pm and 8 pm here on Penang Island.

I have yet to find a road in Penang that isn't crowded during rush hour. I'd like to think the remote hilly area far from the big cities isn't affected. One day I will venture out that far during rush hour just to see.

If you were to come from the USA and experience rush-hour traffic your first day here, you'd think everyone is crazy. You'd wonder how there aren't dozens of fatalities everyday from the insanity. If you've ever driven in New York City then you have some idea of what it is like.

But somehow the density of traffic moves along in all of the chaos as if everyone has a force-field that repels others and nobody can get hurt. Busses, trucks, cars, motorbikes, motorcycles, bicycles, people and even animals are part of this crazy flow.

I've slowly learned how to go with the flow and become one with the traffic. Riding in slow moving traffic is actually one of the more thrilling things a person can do on a bicycle. A bus may stop because there is not enough room, but a small truck could make it. Where a truck would have to stop, a small car could fit through. Where it is too narrow for a car, a motorbike could fit and where it is too tight for a motorbike, a bicycle can fit. Bicycles have their limitations too and people have the ultimate ability to move thru tight spaces.

I was in the crowded city and up ahead the light turned red and everyone slowed to a stop ... except me. I kept my speed up (about 15 mph) and jumped on the side-walk which had these fun dips where I could get some air. Finally I ran out of side-walk and had to jump back onto the street where a motorbike was unable to squeeze between a parked car and a truck but I zipped right through.

Finally I would pile up at the intersection with the other motorbikes and await the green. You would know it was about to turn green because the roar of the motorbike engines would grow as the anticipation grew. Little by little their impatience with the long red would grow and they would start to inch forward. By the time it turned green, the front of the pack was already half-way across the intersection.

I'd stand and start pedaling hard to keep up with the acceleration of the motorbikes but eventually they'd get going too fast and I'd have to move over and let them pass, quite out of breath from pushing myself too hard.

I was moving at high speed and coming up to a parked-car so I glanced behind me and saw that I had enough room to move into traffic and go around the car. When I did, the motorbike behind me beeped at me. After passing the parked car, the motorbike came up next to me and matched my speed. As we came up to the next parked car, he did not allow me to move over so I had to back-off and get behind him. He felt I cut him off and slowed him down so he got me back. They have road range here too.

I was passing another parked car and the door opened. I narrowly missed it. People lack common sense even here in Malaysia. Obviously if it's rush hour, you don't just open your door into traffic without looking but some people are idiots and I almost got hurt because of it.

Animals also lack human common sense. A large dog leaped out in front of me while I was going about 20 mph. I skid and the noise startled him and he jumped out of the way. That was another close call I could have gotten injured.

I came along side a bus and matched it's speed. I grabbed onto the high rear bumper and got a free ride for a while. It got going too fast for me so I let it go and later regretted it since I had to climb this long steep hill. It would have been awesome to have been pulled up this hill which took me about 30 minutes to get over. I ended up walking the upper half.

It took me 2 hours to ride home and the traffic never let up. It's a good thing most people ride motorbikes otherwise the congestion and pollution would be much worse if everyone drove a car. At first I was annoyed by so many motorbikes. It seemed so dangerous the way they weave in and out of cars but now I realize it's a necessity. Many people here cannot afford a car and besides, there's not much parking and with a motorbike you can park almost anywhere.

No Tivo

2005-11-15T06:55:00.000-08:00

In the USA in 1999, Tivo and ReplayTV where the first DVRs (Digital Video Recorders). Back then they called them PVRs (Personal Video Recoders). A couple of years ago they began adding writable DVDs for archiving shows.

The DVR has just come to Malaysia 6 years behind the USA but they do not call it a DVR. The way they are marketing it is a DVD player/recorder with hard-drive. DVRs had a difficult time gaining acceptance in the USA. The concept was so new and people had a hard-time understanding what they were and why they would want one.

Now Tivo is a verb like Xerox. It has finally become a household name. I'm surprised because I thought ReplayTV would win since Tivo was like the Mac of DVRs and ReplayTV was the Windows of DVRs. I clearly liked the Tivo better but it required a monthly subscription and ReplayTV didn't. But Tivo had a catchy name. Even with such popularity, nobody has heard of Tivo in Malaysia and probably most of Asia. The DVR has yet to hit it big in Asia.

I just find it funny how the USA markets it as a hard-drive with DVD and Malaysia markets it as a DVD with hard-drive.

The Malaysian approach to marketing makes sense to me. They avoid the market confusion caused by the first DVRs. Take a product everyone knows, the DVD player, and add onto it. The makes sense.

The first DVRs in Malaysia are lacking in features even when compared against the first DVRs in the USA. But once again, I think this is a good thing. Keep it simple to begin with. The first DVRs in the USA were jam packed with features and it overwhelmed the consumer. They did so many things it was scary.

Keep the new features small to begin with and the consumer will understand what it does. Then you can add features slowly over the years as the consumer becomes more comfortable and familiar with the product.

Keeping the number of features low also reduces the prices. Newer features can become selling points in the future.

Here is an example of the latest DVR available in Malaysia. It's the RDR-GX310 by Sony. Below is a list of features that DVRs in the USA have that it does not have.

Internet connection
Automatic Software upgrades
Automatically figures out the day, time and channel of the show you want to record
Automatically reschedules if a conflict with another show
TV Listings
Record multiple shows at the same time
Peer-to-Peer file sharing over Internet with other DVRs
Rate shows so it can record shows it thinks you will like
Ability to record types of shows like all Kevin Bacon movies or all ice-skating TV shows
30 second skip-ahead to skip over commercials

The salesman had no brochure the details on the web are scarce so I don't know if it has these features.

Pause live TV
Ability to watch, pause, rewind, fast-forward a show while it is being recorded
Different quality settings

Here are features no DVR has that I'm aware of

Ability to order your shows in sub-directories
Ability to add more hard-drive space by purchasing external hard-drives
Ability to automatically cut out commercials
Ability to edit a recorder show and save part of a show or combine shows into one show or delete parts of shows

I’m surprised the Malaysian DVR comes with a 250 GB hard-drive. That’s quite large and increases the prices. Perhaps one of the biggest complaints about DVRs is the lack of hard-drive space. I personally would love to archive my favorite shows recorded in the highest quality. I would love to have all 110 episodes of Northern Exposure in a folder ordered by episode number so that I could finish my Northern Exposure web page someday.

Honestly I wouldn’t be happy unless I had at least 1 TB (Terra-Byte) of disk space (1000 GBs).

Movies! Movies! Movies! (and TV)

2005-11-14T05:14:00.000-08:00

Today I saw my first Malay movie called Salon. The ticket seller asked “Are you aware this is a Malay movie?” I answered “yes” with no further questions like “are there English sub-titles?” I have never seen a Malay movie so I didn’t care either way.

I missed the first 10 minutes and sat down. Two people were talking in Malay and there were no sub-titles. I thought to myself, now I have some feeling of what Kelly feels like when she’s watching a movie without sub-titles (my fiancé Kelly is deaf).

Then I noticed they would throw in some English words here and there like “hi”, “OK” or “bye”. In the next scene two people were speaking English but this time there were Malay sub-titles. It turns out that half the time they would speak in Malay and the other half in English even in the same conversation and even mid-sentence. One person might speak English while the other is speaking Malay.

I wondered to myself “is this what Malaysians do in real life?” Do they really toggle between Malay and English as they speak? I don’t really know since I hang around Chinese and they like to speak Chinese unless they have to speak English. Actually this may not be entirely true. I saw two Chinese people speaking broken English to each other and I thought “why are they struggling with English when they could communicate better in Chinese?”

Last week I saw a Hong Kong movie called “Tsoi suet yuk chi ngo oi nei” (all about love). Again the ticket seller asked “Are you aware this is a Hong Kong movie?” To my surprise it had sub-titles in English, Malay and Chinese. They spoke Mandarin Chinese in the film so why have Chinese sub-titles? Because there are hundreds of dialects of Chinese but they all use the same written language. If someone spoke Cantonese Chinese, they would have to read the sub-titles. The Chinese TV shows here in Malaysia often have Chinese sub-titles too. Kelly's parents speak the Hokkien dialect of Chinese.

Kelly did not join me to see this film but if she did, she would be able to read all three sub-titles since she can read English, Malay and Chinese. She also would have loved this love story. The cinematography was awesome and it was a pretty good story.

When a movie comes out you can also buy a pirated copy at dozens of stores at various malls. They only cost about USD $2.00 so you would think that I would have a giant collection by now but the quality is so poor that it annoys me. I’d rather pay full price for the real thing and get full quality.

They also have something called a VCD (Video CD). The quality on these is even worse since CDs hold less than DVDs. The quality is so low on these that they can squeeze 6 movies on a single CD! It looks horrible but Kelly is used to it and doesn’t seem to mind.

I think Kelly will be blown away by HDTV. Her digital Satellite TV is also low quality. I’m not used to having my TV be low quality unless I recorded it onto Tivo using the lowest quality.

DVRs similar to Tivo are just arriving in Malaysia for the first time but they are a high priced item for early adopters. Tivo is not sold in Malaysia yet. Sony has a player that cost about $2000. The salesman knew very little about it and had no brochure describing it's functionality. I searched the web and could not find much info on it.

I have described DVRs to various people but they just don't get it. This household watches TV morning 'til night and would greatly benefit from a DVR, especially a DVR that could record 3 shows at a time since during prime-time at night, many of their shows are on at the same time and they end up flipping channels during commercials.

They live their lives around the TV since they schedule their day so they can watch their favorite shows. One thing that would be lost if they got a DVR is that the family would no longer gather to watch shows together. Each person could watch it separately at a time that is convenient to them.

Perhaps this is not true. I know that my family would all wait to watch certain shows together like Survivor or Amazing race. Perhaps they would do the same thing.

No Dish Washing Machines

2005-11-05T03:15:00.000-08:00

I have been to many homes here in Malaysia but I have never seen a single dish washing machine. So I asked Kelly if people have dish washers in their homes. She seemed very confused and eventually she said that she didn't know.

Next I asked the maid. She was even more confused by my question. It is as though they never saw a dish washing machine before.

So then I asked Kelly's sister Mimi and once again, total confusion ending in the same answer ... I don't know.

I was determined to find out so then I asked Kelly's sister Chu and she finally knew what I was talking about. She said that in Malaysia, people do not have dish washing machines in their homes. Only large restaurants have dish washing machines.

America has had dish washing machines in the home since the mid 1950's. It is now 2005 ... 50 years later and Malaysia is literally 50 years behind America in this respect. Amazing.

They do have space-age clothes washing machines though. I've seen nothing like it before. At the mall, I just see these cool looking washing machines and see nothing resembling the washing machines in America. These washing machines are very quiet unlike the loud machines in America.

As Malaysia moves from a 3rd world country to a 1st world country, they have the opportunity to leap-frog the rest of the world for example they are coming out with a smart card that will replace most of the cards they carry. One card will be their ID card, driver's license, passport, credit card, ATM card, toll-booth card, etc. It will carry their identification and have the ability to purchase things.

An all-in-one card with a smart-chip! America has nothing like this so in some ways they are ahead of many 1st World Countries.

2005-11-01T11:30:00.000-08:00

What has happened so far ...

I met Kelly online May 25, 2005. Kelly is Chinese, lives in Malaysia and is deaf
We chatted on webcam for a month and fell in love
A month later I moved to Malaysia to be with her
I've been here for 3.5 months
In 1.5 months on Dec 14 we will get married

I created this page as a blog but it wasn't chronological and my readers had trouble figuring out what was new so I decided to go chronological. Instead of making one big update once a month, I wanted to make smaller daily updates.

Now to answer your Frequently Asked Questions.

How do we communicate? I'm learning sign language. When I first got here we wrote notes 99% of the time. Now we use sign language 99% of the time. I still cannot keep up when she signs with her deaf friends but in time I will.

Am I working? I am doing what I've done since 2000. I'm creating web pages from home for a living. This allows me the freedom to work when and where I want.

Are we moving back to USA? That is the plan but plans change. We plan to live in Malaysia for a while since the cost of living is very cheap. I can save up some money and we plan to travel around Asia, Europe, Australia and who knows where else. Once I have a large sum of money saved up, we'll leave Malaysia but only time will tell where we will end up.

Where am I living? I live with Kelly at her parent's house. It's a crowded house with many of Kelly's sisters and their kids. I have my own room with air-conditioning where I sleep and work.

Do I like living in Malaysia? No. It's a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live here. The tropics are too humid for me. I don't mind the heat. I lived in Arizona where it often reached 100F (38C) and I liked it but that was a dry heat and it felt good. I've lived in on the east coast of USA where it reaches 90F (32C) and 90% humidity and I hated it. Besides the humidity, this is a third world country and lacks the conveniences of a first world country. I don't like squat toilets. I also miss my normal diet. Over time I am adjusting though.