Teak, In Malaysia

Chilling Out Along the Pelindung Trail, Part 2

2012-01-23T17:28:00.002+08:00

At a trailhead of the Pelindung Trail one day, we talked with a gentleman who told us about a waterfall on one of the small streams that drain the ridge along which the trail runs. (My topographic map shows two stream systems draining the northern side of the ridge: Mengabang Tumpat and an unnamed stream draining into Teluk Tongkang.) Getting vague directions from him, we decided to tackle the trail down to the waterfall another day. In fact, we went the very next day.

I am reluctant to give explicit directions on the internet, however, as my experience with large groups using an area is one of trash and disregard for the natural environment. If you ever meet me on the trail, perhaps I will be as kind as the gentleman whom we met on the trail.

How the public-at-large treats natural areas

The upper part of the Pelindung Trail reaches an elevation of around 220 meters above Mean Sea Level, which is about 720 feet. The ridge along which the trail runs has quite a steep dropoff either side with small defiles (zero-order streams) cutting into it. These eventually begin to show surface-water flow which labels them as first-order streams. Two of these come together downslope and form a nice pool with a 3-4 foot waterfall.

Before we reached the waterfall, we came to very large granite boulders, which contained some interesting erosional features, and were populated with epiphytes.

Erosion channels under granite boulder

The boulder above shows an erosion feature that I had not seen before. I suggest that monsoonal rains, blown in or else running in from above, wicks and runs down the underside of the boulder cutting the tracks and speeding up the chemical degradation of the rock face.

Granite chimney; great for climbers

Epiphytes atop granite boulder

There was also evidence of the jungle boars using the space under boulder overhangs as sleeping sites.

Wild boar hotel

And "constructing" a mudhole nearby as a wallow.

Wild boar wallow

Leaving the spur ridge, we made our way down to the waterfall, which occurs just upstream from a pool where either two first-order streams meet, or a first-order joins a second-order.

Two small streams join below waterfall

Looking downstream at pool from lip of waterfall

The pool has coarse sand from the erosion of granite on its bottom, and is populated by small fish and prawns. If you sit for a while dangling your feet in the water, the fish will come up and give you a "massage", which is basically them picking at the dry skin on your feet. The prawns come along eventually, probably more to get the fish that are clustering at your feet.

Fish foot massage

The white noise from the waterfall is very soothing to listen to. I would love to have that sound for my bedroom so that street noises and the neighbors' nighttime karaoke sessions would have no effect on my sleep.

Talking a stroll down the stream channel brought interesting discoveries, including a small frog

Secret waterfall frog, notice the coarse sand from granite degradation

and exposed clay faces, scraped from the stream bottom

Clay scraped from exposed surfaces on stream bottom

stream bottom bedrock (no sediment cover)

and streamside fracture planes

Bedrock fracture planes

and bugs trying their best to stay hidden

Bug camo

Later, I tried to find these streams using Google Earth, but with near-complete canopy coverage over these first- and second-order streams, this is nearly impossible. One would need an infra-red scan or other method that "sees" past the vegetation.

Someplace Google Earth cannot reach

After a relaxing time at the pool and in the stream, we had to dry off the feet, re-shoe and head back uphill. The climb back uphill (and downhill for that matter) are not for the faint-hearted, lazy, weekend trash-throwers, and unappreciative, thus, I will spare you all the details and directions. But if we should ever meet, on the Pelindung Trail, and you are nice to me, and look fit, and don't appear to tossing garbage about ...

Chilling Out Along the Pelindung Trail, Part 1

2012-01-23T15:55:00.002+08:00

The Pelindung Trail is a well-known jungle pathway connecting the boardwalk north of Teluk Cempedak and the small road leading up to Bukit Pelindung. It runs through the Beserah Forest Reserve (Hutan Simpan Beserah). I have posted about it before here in August 2011. At that time the boardwalk was closed for repairs with the wooden posts and stringers falling apart from rot and tree falls.

From the ocean (paras laut) to elevation 220 meters.

I am happy to report that the boardwalk is open again and the rotten wood -in fact all of the wood- has been replaced with plastic posts and decking. While not the most exotic of solutions, it will keep the boardwalk open and functional despite the strong weathering climate of the tanjung (cape) around which it winds.

Plastic posts and decking replace the rotten wood

Plastic stringers to support decking on the observation platform

We have often walked this trail and did again this past weekend as we had a friend visiting us from somewhere else. If one is observant, you can see many butterflies, marching ant armies, lizards, birds, monkies and (occasionally) wild jungle boar.

Lizard along Pelindung Trail

Our friend noticed the above lizard along the trail and we were entertained by its ungainly running gait. When the lizard pretended to be one with a tree trunk, we had ample time to snap off some camera shots.

Walking stick

In my 16 years in Malaysia, I had never seen a walking stick (Phasmatodea) other than in a sanctuary and so it was a pleasant surprise to be able to see and photograph the one above. These insects are so slender that it is difficult to get a focus upon it unless one uses the vegetation upon which it rests for the focal point.

One insect variety that is quite common are spiders, in size from very small to quite large. It is amazing how quickly spiders can reconnect their trail-crossing web once we go by for the outbound leg. Coming back on the inbound leg finds us tripping the same snare setup, which probably irritates the spiders to no end.

Don't you dare touch my web!

The trail is also home to many varieties of mushrooms.

If you walk this trail, an easy 50-60 minutes one way, be sure to bring a bottle of water and a good camera. It is a relatively gentle path to walk except for the initial hike up from either the boardwalk, or else the access road that leads to Bukit Pelindung, which both strain the calf muscles on the uphill leg, and put a jarring pressure on the knees on the downhill leg.

End of Year Meetings

2012-01-02T18:34:00.003+08:00

As with many companies, the college and its parent body like to host end-of-the-year seminars and celebrations to instruct, motivate, encourage, and honour their workers. I am not always a fan of these, but participation is usually mandatory (DIWAJIBKAN!) and sometimes even interesting.

On Friday, the final day of work for 2011, all workers were called to a seminar at the parent body's nice new facility (KEHADIRAN DIWAJIBKAN!). Of course, not everyone went; if you are an Important Person, you can skip what you want; attend what you want.

Motivational Seminar

The seminar on Friday started off innocently enough. The presenters were both well-dressed and fairly professional in their presentation. Simple ideas were shown on the overhead screens; even some simple terms, such as the phrase "Accelerated Culture Transformation (ACT)", was Copyrighted, All Rights Reserved, which I find a bit over-the-top. Corporate consultants are at any level akin to the Snake Oil Salesmen of the past, presenting self-evident ideas in flashy packages, and charging high fees.

Not everyone tracked with the talk, however.

Not so riveting for everyone!

If these two presenters had left it at a presentation of some regurgitated ideas, I would have found it only annoying, but in fact, at the end they resorted to that loathsome tactic of making an emotional -excruciatingly emotional- appeal. It brought back painful memories of a similar situation two years back.

After the stated two-hour period was up, the presenter said something like, "Let me take just another five minutes of your time." Now, when someone says that, WATCH OUT!

All lights in the room were darkened, and he began to show a video of an important religious figure from history, who apparently was not too well received in one village at the time. The village leaders gave permission to the village children (we are told) to chase the important man out of the village under a hailstorm of rocks. This is portrayed by actors in a short video. Stopping the video at this point, one of the presenters began a long and tedious lament about how this hurt the feelings of the important religious figure. Okay; thought I; I would have felt bad too. But, this lament went on for ~30 minutes with the presenter seemingly feigning sobbing and crying into the microphone. What did he want from us? I nearly walked out, three or four times, but knew that it would not be looked at favourably.

Presenter appealing to emotions...they threw rocks at our Hero!

Finally, the long and painful lament ended, and a group of men were called up on stage to lead the group in a sing-fest, waving the national flag whilst singing a religious song and the national anthem. Clocking in at a 2 1/2 hour presentation, it could have been worse; like the 9-hour joke from January 2009 which has been alluded to already.

The saving grace, however, for Malaysian organisations is that they love to host meals, and thus, to the spacious cafeteria we went to eat away our lamentations.

Eat, drink and forget the lament...

The following evening, the parent body of the college (and other subsidiaries) gathered at the near-new Zenith Hotel in downtown Kuantan for the end-of-the-year banquet and awards ceremony. Held in one of the Zenith's massive ballrooms, it was a more festive affair with no appeals to the emotion.

A Zenith Hotel (Kuantan) Ballroom

Although also DIWAJIBKAN, I would have wanted to attend this one anyway. In addition to an excellent meal, and a set of dances from the parent body's dance group (with very colorful costumes), the parent body gave service awards to a large group of us. Yes, I said "US", because Teak has worked over 11 years at this college, and thus was awarded a 10-Year Service Award.

Not only did the Service Award consist of a paper certificate, in a nice velvet folder, but it also came with a 1/4 oz. gold coin, the Kijang Emas coin which is issued by Bank Negara Malaysia.

Kijang Emas, 1/4 oz. gold coin

Kijang is the Malay word for the barking deer (Muntiacus muntjac), which is found in Malaysian forests along with the more common Kancil (mouse deer, which often plays the hero in Malay folk tales). The national bank of Malaysia (Bank Negara) began to issue the Kijang Emas gold coin in 2001, making Malaysia the 12th country in the world with its own gold bullion coin issue.

The front of the coin shows the mouse deer (kijang) and the statement of 999.9 fine gold (99.99% pure). The back shows Malaysia's national flower, the bunga raya (hibiscus), and the legal tender value of RM50 for the 1/4 oz. coin. Of course, it is bought and sold at the prevailing world market price for gold with both a sell/buy spread, and a dealers premium of around 10% for the 1/4 oz., 8% for the 1/2 oz. and 6% for the 1 oz. All in all, a most excellent gesture on the part of the parent body to give us gold coin rather than fiat money!

Backside, Bunga Raya (Hibiscus) and RM50 as legal tender

Remember the Golden Rule : he who has the gold, rules!

Year End Travels

2012-01-01T11:34:00.021+08:00

Even though this blog is about Teak's experiences in Malaysia, sometimes a detour is taken, such as travel overseas or even to other parts of Asia. This post highlight just a few moments from a trip made to Arizona and California (USA) in November and December.

To many, travel is about R&R, aka 'Rest & Relaxation', and I am picking up a theme here, using the letter 'R'. For Teak, travel can be about seeing interesting ROCKS, such as this group of semi-precious stones found in various gift shops in Arizona:

Semi-precious stones

Starting at the bottom right and moving counter-clockwise, we have turquoise, various colors of quartz, hematite, jasper, and then beads and stones for jewelry-making. Finally, a ring with insets of onyx, coral, turquoise, and other stones sits awaiting my finger.

Of course, one needs to see the source of these rocks, and so we have ROCK OUTCROPS, for example the Superstition Mountains, outside Mesa, Arizona:

Superstition Mountains, Arizona

One of the advantages of the dry climate in Arizona (apart from LACK of humidity) is that it is easier to see the rock outcrops, unlike Malaysia where most are buried under a jungle of vegetation.

But, Arizona does have its own set of quirky vegetation that REACHES out to the sky, begging for a bit of moisture:

Saguaro Cactus Reaching Out for Any Amount of Moisture

Arizona, does, in fact, lead the world in RADICAL landscaping, meaning that Xeric landscapes are used to save on water and reflect the natural vegetation of the area.

Xeric Landscaping

Since many RETIREEs also settle in Arizona, it means less work to maintain the landscape. Only RETIREMENT villages plant grass sod since they have maintenance staff to take care of the high water demand vegetation.

Life in RetirementVille

One thing Arizona does lack are sufficient RIVERS to keep this water scientist interested long enough:

When Does the Water Come Along?

In fact, in one town (Bisbee, Arizona), I espied a "Monsoon Drain" beside the road. I asked a local, how many inches of rain makes for a monsoon rain? Apparently, they get flash floods from only a few inches of rain. So, these empty stream channels are called "washes" (wadi in the Middle East, arroyo in Spanish-speaking countries) which means that occasionally a pile of water will come washing along. Beware!

What would a vacation be without visiting some RELATIVES?

Niece with Her Chickens

And to get around to all of these relatives, and sites, takes a good RIDE. I was lent one such, a six-speed Mazda Miata that, although a bit lacking in the suspension, made for a fun trip. What could be more of a cliche than to drive through California in a convertible?

Mazda Miata, Great Ride!

Sunday Morning, Taman Gelora, Part 2

2011-11-13T15:56:00.003+08:00

But enough of politics. I find Taman Gelora to be a delightful place to spend an early morning walk. One must get going before the 10am heat hits, however.

The early bird gets to enjoy a near-vacant beach...

...with which you share with joggers and sand-castle-makers....

Taman Gelora beach, low tide

There are sea eagles flying above...

and assorted shells below...

Walking down the beach to the Kuantan River estuary, one can watch the fishing boats coming back from their early morning harvest.

Heading Up the Kuantan River Estuary

Peeking around the corner, you can see the new Zenith Hotel which brackets the Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Convention Centre, Kuantan's newest skyline icon.

Zenith Hotel, Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Convention Centre

As a scientist of sorts, I am also interested in "little things", like the black water that emits from Taman Gelora and its assortment of ponds and food stalls.

And the water flowing from high tide pools back to the ocean. These streams are examples of braided rivers in miniature.

Braided river in miniature

The shallow, sandy soil of Taman Gelora releases water quickly following a rain...

Water being released from bank storage

...and requires the Casuarina trees to have buttress roots to stand up against the wind in such poor soil.

'Tis truly a bucolic setting, Taman Gelora...

Where one can have a glass of milo tarik...

And share it with new-found friends.

"Adik! Nak milo tarik?"

Sunday Morning, Taman Gelora, Part 1

2011-11-13T11:57:00.004+08:00

Living close to Kuantan's premier park, I rarely take the chance to take a morning walk there. However, last night's rain and this morning's "thumping" from the park gave me impetus to enjoy the morning coolness and see what was thumping, errr, happening over yonder Taman Gelora way.

Thumping in the park usually means that some group has booked part of the park for a family day. And thus it was that I discovered not only overcrowded parking lots (more so than normal) ...

Overcrowded Parking

but also lots of police, FRU (Federal Reserve Unit) and RELA.

Federal Reserve Unit trucks

There were police checkpoints on the roads leading to the park.

Police Checkpoint, They Let Teak Pass

Being able to speak Malay, I asked some police why the heavy presence this fine morning in the park. Well, it seems that the local city council (Majlis Perbandaran Kuantan, aka MPK) was hosting an all-departments Family Day. And sure enough, there were the usual Family Day activities: like aerobics...

MPK Family Day aerobics class

and net-ball...

Netball at Taman Gelora

and volleyball...

Volleyball at Taman Gelora (Green Team vs., Well, Another Green Team)

and a futsal court surrounded by food and beverage vendors...

Futsal court surrounded by vendors

...and food for those en-hungered by the aerobics....

Come and Get It!

I was interested in some of the exhibits displayed by the various MPK units. Here, a fashion design group was neighbours to the coastal police, who showed off one of their outfits.

And the fire department.

Fire Ladder

And some government employees showed us how they most likely spend their work days.

Checkers In Large

And the stage where the rock-n-roll group produced the thumping that drew me into this party.

State Agency Recreation Program

Meanwhile, at the other end of the park there appeared to have been a different group meeting. By the time that I got there, most people had dispersed, but there were still police and FRU members hanging around. They were, apparently, more interested in this gathering than the one put on by MPK.

Police or FRU, enjoying the view

...to be continued.

November Neighborhood Wedding

2011-11-12T16:39:00.002+08:00

With school vacation beginning this weekend, it is time for the wedding kenduri season to heat up again. Typically, wedding kenduris occur in June, September, and December, when schools let out for break. The November/December season is notorious for clashing with the beginning of the monsoon season, and rain is not unknown during this most of festive family occasions.

Once again, a neighbour on our block hosted a kenduri for the wedding of his daughter. This kenduri was unsual in that it contained some elements not common to other wedding kenduri. To start with, rather than block just half of the street in front of his house, the canopy used in this kenduri was quite large and blocked the entire street.

Entire Street Blocked

As a result, those of us living on the other side in the photo had to use the alley behind the houses to the right side of the photo, since we are on a dead-end road. This is no problem, however, for we were all invited to this neighbour's kenduri (for free food!).

Another oddity (or better yet, nicety) was free ice cream!!

I scream, you scream, we all scream, for ICE CREAM!!

Malays typically don't seem to go after ice cream, but this stop on the kenduri tour was popular especially with the children. Of course, the servings were Malaysian size, not the humongous scoops that I remember from my (skinny) youth.

Another nice touch was the colour photo announcing whose kenduri we were attending. I scrambled the words of the address so that Teak's fans will not know where he lives. Anonymity is nice, but I am sure that I will be uncovered someday.

Where is it?

There was also, of course, the usual entourages of the groom's family marching in to meet the bride's family to the beat of the kompang (drum) group. I caught the tail end of the lineup as they marched through the eating area under the canopy. At the end of the line was a man who was, basically, giving a running commentary like a futbol match. My neighbour told me that he wanted a traditional Malay wedding, so I guess that a commentator is needed.

Commentator Follows the Kompang Group

Additionally, there was a Lady-in-White who appeared to be directing the proceedings, running back and forth and motioning with her hands.

Lady-in-White Giving Directions

After meeting, marching in, and getting seated, the bride and groom were entertained by first a silat group, three sets of boys. I caught the youngest pair in their faux sparring.

Youngest Silat Pair

And then, the bride and groom (along with the crowd) were entertained by a group of young ladies doing the Zapin dance.

Zapin dance

The young couple seemed quite pleased with the kenduri, as was I and the rest of the crowd. After attending multitudes of kenduri in my years in Malaysia, this one has to be near the top of the list for most entertaining.

Happy Couple

And, it was especially nice for the fantastic ayam berempah, prepared by Asa Caterers, reknown for their wedding meals, and for the fact that the kenduri was right in front of my house, entailing a walk of, oh, 3-5 seconds!

Unfortunately, this being November and on the verge of monsoon season, the kenduri was visited by a team of Cumulonimbus, which piled up and then broke forth. As I type this now, the kenduri is breaking up under a steady rainfall.

Here comes the rain!!

The October Post

2011-10-27T21:32:00.000+08:00

Teak has taken on a research project which consumes his time and pushes this blog to the back-burner. Still trying to find interesting topics upon which to expound, but ....

Classes are over; carry-marks are turned in; final exams begin next week; so, taking a break from the research, here are a few photos of some of the more interesting things seen this month.

The baju kabaya is probably my favorite Malaysian outfit that women wear here. It flatters nearly every figure and allows for nice embroidery and interesting designs. A colleague wore a pretty outfit today and obliged Teak's request for a photo. What do you think? Nice, eh?

Baju Kebaya on Colleague

I have also highlighted cute shoes, before, worn by students of mine. Here is the latest, cutest, pair aptly titled "Shoe of the Semester".

Shoe of the Semester

This week was the Hindu holiday of Diwali (Festival of Lights), called Deepavali in Malaysia. Some of our Tamil students prepared a kolam at the entrance to the main building, which is a design from colored rice.

Diwali Kolam at School Entrance

The students even included a sign to inform about their work.

Diwali Information

Walking to and from work allows me to see other things of beauty, such as this rainbow...

Rainbow Over the Kampung

... and a pair of Enggan (Hornbills).

Hornbills Looking for Breakfast

But, not everything is an item of beauty. Have you seen what they do with French fries in this country? Mayonnaise? Yuck!!

Yuck!! How to ruin French fries.

Bee Swarms, No Hives

2011-09-30T21:19:00.001+08:00

Several weeks (months?) ago, a bee swarm showed up in some bushes along the side of my house. As can be seen in the photo, it is the shape of an upside down tear-drop and is simply a mass of bees with no hive. If one watches for a few minutes, a shiver will pass through the bees as they fan their queen who must be in the centre.

Come On Guys, Build a Hive!

According to online sources, bee swarms usually only stay in a location for a few days before moving on. But, this swarm has stayed put and now I have noticed another new swarm forming high in the branches of one of our Tapak Kuda (Bauhinia) trees. What is going on here? Bee-keepers, advice please.

Something Old, Something New

2011-09-30T21:13:00.000+08:00

I thought about running a contest to see which photo could best represent Malaysia in one snap. Here would be one of my entries, which I have entitled "Something Old, Something New".

Something Old, Something New

A female colleague was eating breakfast at her desk one morning, enjoying Malaysia's national fare nasi lemak. Nasi lemak is certainly something old in Malaysia. In front of her was her notebook computer, which of course, represents the new. When I first started at this particular school several years ago, I was the only one with a notebook computer. Now everyone has one of their desk and it shows how quickly Malaysians will embrace new technology. But, Malaysians are not so quick to adopt new foods as can be seen by the number of people eating nasi lemak every morning for breakfast. And the same types of food are made for each and every wedding function, Hari Raya celebration meal and so forth. Why so adventurous with technology, but not with culinary fare?

Mackerel with Pistachio Pesto

2011-08-27T17:14:00.003+08:00

I love Spanish Mackerel (Ikan Tenggiri in Malay). It is probably my favorite Malaysian fish for grilling and frying. Here on the east coast of the peninsula, it appears that we get the Narrow-barred version of Spanish Mackerel, or Scomberomorus commerson in taxonomic nomenclature. I have the fish-seller cut the fish cross-wise into 1-2 centimeter thick steaks. The bones can be left in or removed fairly easily. I can also quarter the steaks into smaller pieces for frying, leaving the skin on.

Spanish mackerel steaks (see the narrow black bars on the flank?)

While perusing the Wall Street Journal one day, I came across a recipe for Mackerel with Pistachio Pesto. Since I live close to a fish market and my DW has frozen home-made pesto from when she grew TONS of basil, I decided that it was the perfect recipe to try one Saturday evening.

So, here is my version of the recipe.

1/2 cup pistachio nuts, shelled
Thawed packet of your favorite pesto sauce. My DW makes pesto in a large freezer bag, which she then squashes flat before freezing. Chunks can be broken off as the need arises. Rather than try to estimate portion size, take a look at the photo. It is, perhaps, 1/2 cup of each., or 1/2 cup pistachios and 2/3 cup pesto.

Thawed pesto from storage (1/2 cup) and pistachios (1/2 cup)

Zest of one lime

Juice of that lime (recipe calls for 2 TBS; I use it all.)

One clove garlic, grated

In a food processor pulse the pistachios until fine. Add the pesto sauce, lime zest and juice, and anything else you might like to zest it up (say, one or two Jalapeno slices). Pulse once, and then add 5 TBS olive oil before pulsing again. The goal is a smooth sauce.

Six oz of hung yoghurt. I have detailed elsewhere how to hang yoghurt, which is a way of removing the acidic whey and producing a nice, creamy mild yoghurt. This has to be made ahead of time, of course, by at least 4-6 hours.

Season the fish with salt. Set a large saute pan over medium-high heat and add 1-2 TBS olive oil. When hot, lay the fish in, skin side down. Cook 3-4 minutes or until skin is crips. Turn gently on each side and cook 1-2 minutes more. Do not overcook (change the color = protein denaturation).

Frying the mackerel, start with skin-side down

While the fish cooks (one could broil or grill the fish, also), arrange four pitas on a baking sheet and broil in the oven 1-2 minutes, flipping once or until warmed through. You also use roti naan, instead of pitas, whose baking I have detailed elsewhere.

In a separate bowl, mix the hung yoghurt with the grated garlic and add a pinch of salt.

To serve, spread 2 TBS of pesto over each pita and a dollop (1-2 TBS) of hung yoghurt in the center of each pita. Top with a mackerel chunk or two, and finish with a dollop of pesto and drizzle of olive oil. Eat. Enjoy. Subscribe to the Wall Street Journal (or this blog) for more great recipes!

Finished product; serve on top of warmed/baked pita bread slices

Another I-Love-Clouds Post

2011-08-27T16:15:00.000+08:00

I love clouds. Big ones, building up over the tropical South China Sea. Lots of evaporation going on and then they move inland to dump on the mountains to the west of us. Orographic uplift is the term used to describe what happens. Cool air cannot hold as much water as hot air, so when the mountains force the clouds to go uphill, they cool and have to dump some of their load. Rain. Runoff. Back to the ocean. Complete the cycle. Hydrology.

Cumulous being built by evaporation off the South China Sea

A Walk Along Pelindung Trail

2011-08-27T14:14:00.077+08:00

Now that the Hari Raya school break has begun, I will attempt to get caught up on some blogging.

Several weekends ago, some friends visited us from Hong Kong and wanted to do some low-level hiking. Pelindung Trail, beginning at Teluk Cempedak beach (TC) is one such easy walk and to the trailhead we commenced. The trail runs along the ridgeline between the Tanjong (rocky cape) just to the north of TC and Bukit Pelindung which is only a kilometer or so inland. The air photo posted below shows the approximate locaton of the start of the trail. The Majlis Perbandaran Kuantan has a parking lot behind the McDonald's restaurant for only RM1 and it is a short walk to the trailhead along the boardwalk.

Pelindung Trail Starting Just North of Teluk Cempedak (Hotel Hilton at bottom of photo)

The boardwalk out along the edge of the Tanjung north of TC has been boarded up due to (1) a large tree falling and destroying a section of the boardwalk, and (2) a failure to maintain the wooden structure evidenced by missing treads and railings. That does not stop people from by-passing the boarded-up entrance and climbing up onto the boardwalk further down the line.

Boardwalk currently boarded up (note missing railing)

Downed tree damage to boardwalk

After walking 50 meters or so along the boardwalk (and stopping to entertain the monkeys), it is time to find a short set of concrete steps which begin the hike up the hill. This is, technically, the beginning of the Pelindung Trail but really the trail starts at the top of the ridge. There are numerous paths up to the trailhead and I struggle this day to find the best one since there has been signficant changes since the last time I was here. (Obvious storm damage brought down a bunch of trees in the area.)

Before heading uphill, we stop and take a look at the South China Sea crashing into the rocks of the Tanjung and look back towards TC for the derivative postcard view.

South China Sea meets Granite

TC, the place to be

The hike uphill is a hard, 5-10 minute slog on a slippery-when-wet trail. But once on top of the ridge, the rest of the trail is quite easy, as it follows the gentle up-and-downs along the ridge. Granite is the bedrock and there are quite frequent outcrops along the way.

Yes, we can take this for granite!

An epiphyte clinging to life on a granite boulder

One of my favorite things to see along the trail are the epiphytes, of which I have documented previously. These feisty plants cling to life on the sides of granite boulders, and on the branches of trees, and in crevices, where they create their own soil and obtain water from mist and rain running along the boulder faces. Epiphytes benefit from having adventitious roots, which have suction-cup-like devices that help hold them to surfaces and provide structural support.

Adventitius root pryed off a rock for your viewing pleasure!

And, of course, there are trees, lots of trees to see. The tropical rain-forest has a greater variety of tree species than any other type of forest on earth, and is famous for its triple-canopy. Along the Pelindung Trail, the Forestry Department has even sign-boarded some of the major tree species.

Looking up a Shorea trunk

Balau Laut Merah produces "mahogany" lumber

Strangler figs are another tropical speciality. This genus (Ficus, yes, YOUR friendly indoor plant) climbs up trees in a spiral fashion, creates a scaffold-like structure around its host's trunk and then hangs on for life while the underlying tree eventually dies. Long, adventitious roots are sent down from above to help in the search for further victims, or else to mine water from the soil. It is these vines that provide the transportation system for monkeys and Tarzans.

Strangler fig (Ficus) climbing its host tree

Hong Kong friends hanging playing Jane and Tarzan

Of course, most non-scientists are more interested in critters than in rocks or plants, so we keep a lookout for the occasional snake, and the ubiquitous marching ant army.

Green snake

Ants marching (not the DMBand)

Termites are also quite numerous, being found in rotting tree trunks. Their nests and trails are found all over the forest.

Termite colony

Halfway down the trail, we stop to sit and chat in the cool, quiet of the forest. Well, not THAT quiet as the jungle insects chirp up a storm. The Forestry Deparment has provided several sites where stone benches are placed and they are great for just sitting and cooling down. If you are going to hike the Malaysian jungle, be sure to bring plenty of water, and a towel for wiping the sweat off the face and back of the neck. Unlike other trails that I have taken, the Pelindung Trail does not seem to have any leeches as I have not come across them in my multiple trips. The trail does end at a trailhead near Bukit Pelindung, which is reached by a road uphill near the JPJ office on Jalan Dato Bahaman. I never make it that far. For me, a walk is a walk, not a triathlon! I am always aware that I need to TURN AROUND and walk back the same distance that I came, so I limit how far OUT I go.

After a half hour of chatting, we head back to TC, where a Tae Kwon Do group is doing sessions on the beach. Iced Coca-Cola at one of the beach stalls refreshes us and we head back home feeling a bit more self-satisfied for having taken a hike.

Tae Kwon Do at TC

Teak's Last-Minute July Mish-Mash Post

2011-07-30T10:07:00.001+08:00

Wow, July has fled and I have nothing posted to show for it.

It's not that I have not been busy, quite the contrary.

A new semester has begun, four weeks earlier than normal, with a whole new set of students and then a bunch of returning students in new subjects. Here a group of Environmental Engineering students pose with the manager of Jabatan Bekalan Air's Semambu water treatment centre.

Environmental Engineering Field Trip to JBA Semambu

One of the surprising things (to the uninformed) is that to clean water, one must first make it more dirty. This tank shows brown flocculent being mixed with the suspended sediments in the water. After the violent mixing, the water is allowed to sit for a while so that the large blocks of floc and sediment can settle out, much quicker than if no floc were used.

Drinking water? After the floc settles, you betcha!

The Semambu plant treats ~68 million gallons of water every day. The water is sourced from the Kuantan River near Kampung Kobat and seven large-capacity pumps are used to send it the ~15 kilometers to the Semambu plant.

On a muggy, cloudy July weekend, the DW and I attended an engagement ceremony for the sister of a friend. Called pertunangan, the ceremony had the groom's family traveling from their home in Negri Sembilan -land of the Minangkabu- to Kuantan (3 hours) in a convoy. Everyone waited until the groom's entire family arrived and then they marched to the bride's parents' house carrying the gifts. After taking some photos, my friend had to race back to the house ahead of the pack.

Run Zack, run!

The future bride in her sparkling outfit

I didn't go into the house to watch the largely symbolic discussion between the two families, but rather hung around outside taking Teak-Style photos. Many Malaysian houses using artistic pieces in their metal gates, door and window grills.

Decorative window grill

And, finally, one can never see too many cloud shots and so here we get one of cumulous building over the South China Sea. Photo taken from Taman Gelora Park with the gelora (choppy water) in evidence.

Cumulous building over the South China Sea

Lentang Forest Recreational Park (Air Terjun / Hutan Lipur Lentang)

2011-06-20T20:37:00.008+08:00

Benus River in the Lentang Forest Recreational Park

Lentang waterfall is actually not a waterfall, but a stretch of the Benus River as it drops through a large section of granitic boulders. The Benus forms in the mountains above Kampung Janda Baik and picks up the Sum Sum River just downstream of the Kampung. It flows through a Recreational Forest Park (Hutan Lipur) before emerging from the jungle and going under the Karak Highway. The Karak is the major east-west roadway which carries people from the population centre of Kuala Lumpur to the east coast and north through Bentong and the township of Karak. It is a great place to stop for a picnic, swim in the slower, lower section or to enjoy a cooling soak in the upper boulder stretch.

If you are driving from Kuala Lumpur eastward, look for the exit sign after passing through the tunnel and going past Genting Sempah. It is several kilometers down the hill with an exit to the left and back under the highway. If you are going UPhill towards KL, then the exit is a simple left exit to the front gate.

Boulder Rapids (not a Waterfall)

The lower part of the Benus River is wide and shallow, with a sandy bottom, and is a picnic/swimming (wading) section for families and children. For the more adventurous (not that much more), there is a section further upstream of a boulder patch in which the water drops down through with small pools and great sounds. Boulder rapids are not true waterfalls, but if one has tinnitus, they are great at providing white noise to sooth the soul. (Put the following video on a loop and see if I'm correct!)

Benus River Suspension Bridge

Massive Leaves

Like a lot of Malaysian recreational areas, they have tacked signs up to several trees indicating the genus and species, and sometimes with more information like uses of the tree. I like that feature since the Malaysian rain forest has an incredible diversity of trees, bushes, butterflies, flowers, insects, birds, and trash. (Need I say it, this recreational park has its own set of food outlets.)

Another Shorea species

Walking up the road a short ways beyond the food stalls, I came to a side stream which has a wading pool built at the bottom of a diversion wall. Further upstream, I found a very sharp, steep, V-shaped canyon that has all of the features of a landslide-scoured channel.

Side Canyon With Channel Scour to Bedrock

The photo above shows water flowing directly on top of bare bedrock (i.e., no streambed gravels) with an isolated patch of forest in the middle. There is a true knickpoint (waterfall) in the background just visible as a patch of white to the left of the tree on the far right side. (Some day when I have more time available -i.e., no one waiting for me to stop my canyon climbing- I want to take a hike further upstream.) There is a story here.

Here is a closer shot of the flow over bare bedrock.

Flow Over Bare Bedrock

The regolith in this canyon is quite exposed along the edge, another indication that a pile of rocks and soil were flushed out of this section during some large rainstorm-induced flow in the past.

Exposed Regolith

The rocks in this area are full of feldspar crystals, which indicates rocks in the granite family, but these were somewhat low in quartz, thus, something like a diorite or gabbro. (I need a real geologist to take a look and tell me what the following photo shows.)

Feldspar Crystals in Bedrock Boulder

This side canyon is just uphill from the boulder stretch on the Benus River, so one can surmise that many of the boulders in the Benus (well-rounded) came down from this canyon and were eroded by the flow of the river.

But, hey, this blog post is getting a bit rocky now so I'll just say that the Lentang Park is a great place to stop off on a hot day, and there are a lot those in Malaysia!

Permanent Residency (PR) : How Can?

2011-06-18T18:23:00.005+08:00

Any expat who has lived in Malaysia for several years will receive inevitably the question from friends "Why don't you try for PR (Permanent Residency)?" Well, why not?

This question has been put to me many times before, but recently an added impetus came from my current employer when it was stated that I needed to consider PR if there was a chance of contract extension next year. Thus it was that I took it upon myself to research the PR process.

Last year, Malaysia seemingly relaxed its standards for PR as stated by the Prime Minister in his 2010 budget. There are now SIX categories of eligibility under which a person may apply.

Category One : Filthy Rich
An individual who puts US$2 million (current exchange rate = RM6 million) into a fixed deposit into any bank in Malaysia will be granted the opportunity to apply for PR status. This is still no guarantee, however, as it clearly states on the bottom of the PR application form (IM.4) "Even though you may have fulfilled all the conditions, your application may still be rejected if the government is not satisfied with your application."

But, hey, with RM6 million of your money available for Malaysians to borrow from your bank, your chances are probably pretty good. Fixed deposits currently pay around 2.75% annual interest.

Category Two : Expert (Highly Talented/Highly Skilled Individual)
An individual who is classified as "world class" in terms of talent, expertise, and skills will be granted PR within 24 hours after application if some international organisation recognises them as such. Huh? Who, praytell, could fit this category unless it was someone world-reknown (and rich) like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, or Jean Todt? Well, the latter has actually taken up Malaysian PR and it certainly helps that Formula One racing (of which he headed up Team Ferrari for a period) is quite popular with the Bigshots. And he is married to Malaysia's own Michelle Yeoh. (That qualifies him under #4 below.)

Category Three : Professional (Outstanding Skills in Any Field)
Similar to #2, this individual needs a Malaysian ministry to vet that they are a professional of outstanding skills, and also (like #2) requires that a Certificate of Good Conduct is obtained from their home country. Unfortunately, this category does not provide an easy path for the trailing spouse who must qualify for PR on his or her own merit, or wait five years, playing the Visa Run Game of which expats tire after several trips.

Category Four : Married to a Malaysian Citizen
Fairly self-explanatory, my darling non-Malaysian wife won't let me consider this avenue for PR!

Category Five : Returning Expert Programme
This is for the spouses of Malaysians who have been residing overseas for several years. It is part of the inducement for Malaysians to come back and help build Malaysia. This is the same as category #4 (married to a Malaysian) except that instead of waiting five years to receive PR, this category will give PR to the trailing non-Malaysian spouse in only one month! They really want you orang Malaysia yang tinggal di luar Malaysia balik cepat!

Category Six : Point System
This is the most interesting category since it gives hope to the seemingly hopeless, who don't qualify under #1-5. Basically, there are 120 points spread over 7 criteria:
Age (Max 10 points)
Academic/Professional Qualification (Max 20 points)
Malay language proficiency (Max 10 points)
Relationship ties with Malaysians (Max 30 points)
Length of stay in Malaysia (Max 10 points)
Investment in Malaysia (Max 30 points)
Employment/work experience in Malaysia (Max 10 points)

To qualify for PR, one must obtain at least 65 points from the seven criteria. This may sound fairly easy initially, but an online calculator (here) reveals the difficulty when you consider that 50% of the points are in two categories: Relationship ties and Investment.

I performed a variety of calculations using the online calculator and found that it is nearly impossible for someone to qualify under the points system unless:
1) Your father and/or mother are Malaysian citizens or PR themselves;
2) You employ over 31 Malaysians in a business that you establish.

Since neither of my parents are Malaysians, I looked more closely at the Investment option. Even if I nailed 10 points from each of the other five categories (which I couldn't; I don't hold the PhD), I would still need 15 points from the Investment option. Of these 30 points, fully 50% of them (15 points) are earned by employing Malaysians: 5 points if employing 31 to 50 Malaysians; 10 points if employing 51 to 100; and a full 15 points if employing over 100 Malaysians. (Clearly the government is looking for someone else to employ the thousands of graduates whom the government will not be able to employ.) In lieu of that, one would need to invest more than RM500,000 in a house, AND over RM500,000 in a fixed deposit, AND over RM500,000 in a business. It has to be the combination; each category has a maximum of five points with nothing to be gained over RM500k.

Wow. So the point is, unless you marry a Malaysian, travel back in time to force your parents to move to Malaysia and become residents, or have lot$ of $pecial $tuff, your chances of PR are pretty low.

Natural Batik Village, Balok

2011-05-22T10:42:00.001+08:00

Some friends visited us this week, so we took them out to the Natural Batik Village, where batik materials are produced, by hand, and local art crafts are produced and sold. It is located in Kampung Balok, about a 15-minute drive north of Kuantan along the beach road.

Batik is the Malay word for the wax-resist dying technique for coloring cloths and producing cloth paintings.

An earlier post highlighted the Adina Batik shop in Kuantan, and the Natural Batik Village is one of the other two batik factories which is known to us. To call it a factory, however, does not do the craft work justice.

At Natural Batik Village, teams of artists turn cotton and silk cloth into works of art, either for dress, wall hangings, paintings, or to be used in producing cenderamata (Malay for handicrafts) such as purses, bandannas, bed coverings and so forth.

Some designs are drawn free-hand, using copper canting (also known as tjanting) which enables a fix line of hot wax to be laid down. The cloth is then dyed with only the waxed portion retaining the color covered by the wax.

Free Hand Design Using Canting

Artist Applying Dye

For a regular, consistent pattern of wax to be applied, copper blocks are dipped in hot wax and used to lay out the design.

Copper Block Used for a Consistent Pattern

Large Selection of Copper Blocks

Material for Clothing Undergoing Dye Process

The Natural Batik Village also provides classes for tourists and other who wish to learn the art of batik. In addition to the production of batik cloth, there is a shop attached to the "factory" which sells a variety of batik material and Malaysian-produced crafts.

Batik Village Shop

Brilliant Colors...

Beach Wear...

Sensible Clothing...

And Souvenirs (Cenderamata)

Beside the main building housing the "factory" and shop are smaller shops selling an interesting array of items. I was intrigued by some of the wooden carvings, which included a giant spider and shore birds.

Giant Carved Wooden Spider

Carved Wooden Shore Birds

The shops also had a collection of "Huh?" items for sale: things that one would not affiliate with a tourist souvenir and clothing shop. My favorite was a brass cat door knocker that was probably produced to look ancient (and thus, more expensive). There was also a large painting of a nude (European?) woman that was completely out-of-place. Batik painting of village scene, batik painting of orchids, batik painting of scene from the Ramayana, LARGE EUROPEAN NUDE, Batik painting of a man fishing, .... The owner assured us that there had been TWO of such paintings and one was sold, so apparently there is (was) a market for that oddity.

Brass Cat Door Knocker

So, if you are touring through the Kuantan area, be sure to check out the Natural Batik Village. It is only a few meters from the turn-off to the De Rhu resort road in the village of Balok. Teak and his gang highly recommend it, just be aware that a European nude painting may surprise you!

Night of Incredible Energy

2011-05-15T13:08:00.001+08:00

Once a year, the various departments in our college are urged to have special events for our students. This semester, our civil engineering group planned a 'Makan Malam' (evening meal) at a local hotel and made it into a masquerade party. I mistook the instructions, thinking that it was a COSTUME party, when in fact, people were to dress up in dinner wear and then wear a mask. Instead, I dressed as a pirate and was the most under-dressed person in the entire hall! (For once, the students dressed better than I did.)

Girls in Masquerade

Lecturer (R) and Spouse, in Masquerade

There were the usual musical performances, some serious, some silly, with the added benefit of a Rickenbacker guitar, certainly one of the few in Malaysia.

How can a student afford a Rickenbacker?

Even us lecturers got into the act, either supporting student groups with our guitar-playing, or else attempting to sing songs ourselves.

Hard to remember those lyrics

Girl singers, my Queen choice on far right

Prizes were given out and a King and Queen of the Night were chosen. Each of the five lecturers were to go around and pick their King and Queen candidates. For my Queen candidate, I chose a lady whose attitude made a dramatic change over the four semesters (two years) in which I taught her. I could tell she was smart in the first semester, but her lack of effort meant that she earned only C marks. She began to hang around with a better crowd of girls and her marks began to improve. Finally, this semester, with only two subjects left to study, she took four former subjects over in order to get higher marks. As a teacher, it is a pleasure to work with such young adults and see them overcome some of life's speedbumps.

King of the Night (R) as Phantom of the Opera

Queen of the night (R) as an Arab

The evening was thoroughly enjoyable and even though the time went well past bedtime for the DW and I, we were able to cope with the increasingly manic energy expressed by the students and lecturers, all much younger than us. Interacting with students outside the classroom is very important for developing an ability to work with them.

BTW, the answer to the rhetorical question posed above is: He can't. He borrows it from his wonderful lecturer.

Szechuan Beef for Healthy Eating

2011-05-15T12:34:00.002+08:00

I tried out another recipe from the HPBooks series, this one being for Szechuan Beef from The Book of Light Chinese Dishes by Kathryn Hawkins.

It looks a copy can be purchased for the exorbitant price of $0.98 from Amazon. I picked up my copy from a used-book shop for a similar price, maybe all of $2.

Anyway, this recipe was quick to make and had few ingredients AND I was able to use my new $8 wok that I mentioned in a prior post.

Although the recipe was for 4 servings, I cut some in half since just the DW and I were eating. I will note what was halved, and what was full amount so you can make your own decisions.

1/2 pound beef fillet (halved)

1 TBS olive oil (for stir fry, who measures this out anyway?)

1 garlic clove (full)

1 cm piece freshly ground ginger root (full, we freeze chunks of ginger root for later use; still retains its pungency)

2 green onions, chopped (halved)

1 TBS hoisin sauce (full)

1 TSP Szechuan peppercorns (full; I can never find this so I used black peppercorns)

4 oz. vegetable chow-chow (??, so I used some freshly-cut green beans)

1 TSP sugar (full)

1. Trim the fat and silver skin from the beef. Cut into thin slices.

2. Prepare the peppercorns by dry-roasting in your brand-new $8 wok for 1 minute and then grinding into powder. This releases the fragrance unlike any other method.

3. Heat oil in your wok and stir-fry beef, garlic, ginger and green onions for 1 minute.

4. Add remaining ingredients and stir-fry 3 to 4 minutes until the beef is just cooked through.

5. Serve with rice. I use brown rice, loving the slightly browned (caramelized) bits from the bottom of the rice cooker.

Szechuan Beef Ingredients (green beans are in-season)

Yup, Hoisin Sauce

The hoisin sauce is the most interesting thing about this recipe. It is basically a Chinese barbecue sauce and can be used in many recipes as an added flavour. The sauce contains soybean paste, garlic, chillies, and other spices, and usually contains some sugar and vinegar.

Browning the beef, throwing in the seasonal veggies

A lump of Hoisin sauce (~1 TBS)

Ready to Eat (notice the small helping)

Recipes like this are so easy to prepare that I don't know why more people don't cook at home.

Beauty is All Around

2011-05-15T12:07:00.000+08:00

Just a few photos of the beautiful things in life here in Kuantan.

Teluk Chempedak Beach and Pelindung Point

Bug in Frangipani

May Storm Clouds

Shoes of the Semester

Enjoy!

Staff Club Family Day : Sempurna Resort

2011-05-01T10:02:00.000+08:00

Semporna Resort is where my school's staff club held our 2011 Family Day a few weekends back.

The Resort itself is not in an interesting location, sitting basically in the midst of a growing housing area, but it is strategically located close to the Kuantan airport, Gambang waterpark, and Pekan, from where the current Prime Minister hails, thus, targeted for growth and development. Room prices are reasonable (see here), and the resort -though small- has a nice pool area for adults and children.

Pools (Adults Background, Children Foreground)

And pool.

My school has a club for its staff members (none of the top administrators showed). We are all deducted a few ringgit monthly to the activities planned by a president and secretariat that are elected every other year. The Family Day this year included the election of new officers. I enjoy listening to the banter as different staff members submit each others' names for nomination. You quickly find out who is and isn't popular!

New Club President

Staff members are provided with a new jersey (lime green this year) and the opportunity to participate in silly and semi-serious games. I was drafted into the Old Guy's team to play water polo, and we won the 4-team tournament quick easily.

Pick Up Marbles with Chopsticks

One of the sillier games was Men-Putting-Makeup-On-Men, a game I had not seen before. It is apparently quite popular and I was reminded of the ease with which pondan (male transvestites) can exist in this non-confrontational society.

Men Wearing Makeup

At the end, winners of the various competitions are announced and everyone receives a prize or two and goes home happy.

Lining Up the Prizes

Announcing the Winners

Waiting to Go Home

Limau Purut for Cooking

2011-04-17T18:27:00.003+08:00

Daun limau purut, or kaffir lime leaves, is a common ingredient in Malaysian cooking. The bush can be grown quite easily in the tropics and my DW has two in our yard. The leaves have a lime flavour and can be used in place of lemon peel. I have already highlighted its use in one dish -Bombay Chicken- that was posted earlier and also photos of the fruit here.

Limau Purut Bush (Kaffir Lime)

The rind of the Kaffir lime (Citrus hystrix) is also used in Thai and Laotian cooking, and the juice used in some types of medicine.

Shoes of the Month

2011-04-17T18:01:00.000+08:00

I appreciate students who want to look nice and dress up occasionally. Several Fridays ago a young lady in another class was waiting outside for the prior class to clear the room. I noticed the shoes and came back later to photograph them, not wanting to embarrass her in front of her classmates.

The white men's shoes behind her's aren't too shabby either.

Bombay Chicken for a Quick Meal

2011-04-17T17:30:00.007+08:00

One Saturday several weeks back the DW was without an idea for dinner so I offered to whip something up using my new flat-bottomed, non-stick wok. Not being a fan of washing LOTS of dishes, I like the ease and convenience of wok cooking and, thus, have an array of cookbooks for such recipes. In fact, I picked up several books of the HP Book series quite cheaply years ago from a used bookshop and use them quite regularly.

The recipe that I settled upon is called Bombay Chicken Thighs and comes from The Book of Stir-Fry Dishes by Elizabeth Wolf-Cohen, and is part of the HP Book series of thin, narrow books made specifically to get one cooking lebih cepat, as the Malays would say. Here is the recipe as I modified it to fit in with the ingredients that DW and I had on hand:

2 TBS olive oil

2-cm piece of ginger, peeled and grated

2 garlic cloves, crushed so as to disappear from view (but not from taste)

several (5-6) dried red chillies, de-seeded and washed

700 gm or so (1.5 lb) of skinless chicken breast or leg/thigh meat cut in 2-cm slices or cubes
1 onion, coarsely chopped (I skip this because I hate onions, and they hate me)

1 chunk of Thai curry paste (I used red), probably about a TBS at least

14-oz can of chopped tomatoes

1 tsp of ground coriander

grated peel and juice of a lemon

2 bay leaves

freshly ground black pepper

2/3 cup coconut milk (I used a 200-mL box of coconut milk, or about 4/5 cup)

I took pictures of the process, of course, so that anyone can take a look and see how easy it is to do Asian-style cooking even as a last-minute option.

Chopped Limau Purut Leaves and Red Thai Curry Paste

Since we didn't have a lemon on hand, the DW suggested that I obtain some leaves of the limau purut bush (we have two in our yard) and add them in place of the lemon peel. The photo above also shows the chunk of red thai paste that I added from our freezer.

Ginger and Garlic, of course

Next comes the staples of ginger and garlic. One can either add these as large chunks, crushed a bit to release their flavours, or else grate/grind them so that they can be eaten without that sudden SURPRISE that comes when we bite into a large chunk of flavour.

De-seeding the Dried Red Chillies

Next comes the dried red chillies, which should be de-seeded first. I use a pair of scissors to cut lengthwise and then scrape out the seeds. The heat within a chili (chemical called capsaicin) is contained in thin ribs within the fruit and to which the seeds are attached. If you want a REALLY HOT dish, then leave some of the seeds.

Canned Tomatoes and Coconut Milk

We have had a hard time growing tomatoes here, so we keep canned tomatoes in the pantry for cooking. The coconut milk comes in 200-mL boxes which is 4/5 of a "metric cup", so close enough for cooking. Without a fresh lemon, I used lemon juice from one of those plastic containers shaped like a lemon, which we only recently found in the shops here.

Now the fun began.

I recently bought a new, 26-cm (10-in), flat-bottomed, high-sided (8.5-cm) wok that is just right for cooking for 3-4 people. It is perfect for our glass-topped electric stove and being non-stick, easy to clean. I love woks and try to do as much cooking as possible with one. This one cost only RM25 (~US$8).

The flat bottom makes for a much better transfer of heat from the stove-top to wok bottom than if one were to use a round-bottomed wok with a wok ring. Of course, for a gas stove, a wok ring and round-bottomed wok make sense.

Frying the Staples

First, the Asian staples (ginger, garlic, chillies) are fried to give flavour to the oil. The wok should be heated before adding the oil, and then swirled to coat the wok. I use setting 10/12 or 11/12 on our electric stove (12 in highest setting) because wok cooking should be over high heat, and done quickly. Stir the staples for 1 minute before the chicken goes in.

Browning the Chicken

Next, the chicken is browned, stirring every few seconds. I also threw some chopped green beans in at this point because we try to add some vegetables to our fried dishes.

Adding the Limau Perut Leaves and Thai Curry Paste

Once the chicken pieces are browned slightly, throw in the limau purut leaves (or lemon peel) and thai curry paste. If you are a fan of onions (I am not), you would add them at this point. Stir to coat the chicken slices so that it looks like the next photo.

Chicken Pieces Seasoned with Thai Curry Paste

At this point, everything else BUT the coconut milk goes in: tomatoes, coriander, lemon juice, lemon peel (if used), bay leaves and pepper. Stir to mix together and allow to simmer for 3 to 4 minutes. By this time, I turn my heat down to 8/12 or 9/12 as the sauce needs time to thicken (water evaporates).

Tomatoes and Nearly Everything Else Goes In

Finally, the coconut milk gets dumped in and stirred to mix. Again, the heat can go down a bit, but no lower than 6/12 or 7/12.

In Goes the Coconut Milk

The following two photos shows how after a few minutes (5-6) the sauce level drops as it thickens, meaning that water has evaporated.

High Water

Low Water and Thickened

Once the sauce looks thick enough for one's tastes, serve over rice. I like to do up a batch of brown rice in our easy-to-use rice cooker, which caramelizes some of the rice on the bottom much as what happens in a Spanish paella pan. Brown rice and caramelization makes for a nice nutty flavour.

Some Caramelized Rice is Good!

And EAT!!

It's even good as leftovers.

Great microwave meal!!

Rained Out @ Pular Ular

2011-03-18T14:20:00.028+08:00

Our second day at Lis Na Ree came after a long evening of rain. I went down to the beach early to see the possibilities of making it out to Pulau Ular on a day-trip as we had done two years ago.

Storm Over Pulau Ular

It didn't look good. In fact, the clouds were moving quickly towards me from the island beyond which was a black mass indicating rainfall. A little further to the south, the sun was beginning to poke out from behind the cloud bank that was coming my direction.

Red Sky at Morning, Swimmer Take Warning

As the weather poem states: Red sky in morning, sailor take warning...., this was a sign that bad weather was to be our day. Thus, we canceled our island trip for this vacation, and played in the pool instead.

Rain Day

Some Swimmers Were Rained Out, Not Us!

Dripping Eaves

Learning to Snorkle @ Lis Na Ree

2011-03-18T14:18:00.031+08:00

In our second vacation at the Lis Na Ree resort in Kampung Sungai Ular, we hosted a Malay family whose children had never snorkeled before. It was our intent to use the pool for practice, and then head out to Pulau Ular to view tropical fish the next day. But, we were rained out on the second day as the subsequent post informs.

Pools at Lis Na Ree

Our first visit to Lis Na Ree was on school holidays two years ago (June 2009 post), and we hosted the children of a colleague for an afternoon of swimming. This time, we convinced a Malay family with three energetic children (ages 8-11) to go along and learn how to snorkel before taking their first snorkeling trip to Pulau Ular.

Fitting the Mask

All three children took to the water confidently and were using the masks and snorkels within minutes. I had had some apprehension in that many are afraid of putting their faces in the water and breathing through a tube, but these children had no such qualms.

What Can You See?

The father and I spent several hours in the water with the children, part of the time with the snorkel sets and part of the time just throwing an inflated bladder around (rescued from a soccer ball). The mother, like many, simply sat and watched from the sideline.

Mother Watches

They can certainly appreciate that children and water go together like bread-and-butter, or more likely (in this culture) teh tarik and roti canai!

Where Does The Energy Come From?

And still, at the end of the day, these children still had the energy to go shell-collecting and star-gazing at the beach until late. So, how does a 20-kilogram package of child create so much energy?

Shell Collecting

Warung Mizi : Still THE Place to Eat @ Kampung Sungai Ular

2011-03-16T09:01:00.001+08:00

Cuti Sekolah (school break) is upon us this week and that means another trip to Kampung Sungai Ular for a family vacation. This time we went with a wonderful Malay family whose three children brought energy and excitement along. Life looks so much more interesting through the eyes of children and that is why we like to bring some along with. And, of course, a trip to Kampung Sungai Ular means eating at Warung Mizi, the best that KSU has to offer, and which was highlighted before.

Windthrow or Oops, There Goes Another Shade Tree!

2011-02-27T18:28:00.000+08:00

We seem to be losing a lot of trees lately. Most of the them are cut down by the City Council (called Majlis Perbandaran Kuantan - MPK) to make way for improvements to street-side drains. Sometimes, however, Mother Nature takes the decision to take one of her own in a process called windthrow.

Windthrown Casuarina

Early last month, a giant, beautiful Casuarina (Rhu in Malay) tree was knocked down during a heavy wind-storm only minutes before work let out at my school. It came crashing down across one of two popular access streets so that traffic was slowed down significantly until the tree was removed. But, of course, I walk to work so it was no big deal except that I lost a favorite shade tree of mine, that gave me precious seconds of shade at its corner while I waited for a break in traffic in order to cross the street.

Stump and Hole

Windthrown trees often break off above the stump, but this one uprooted out of the soil and had only minor breakage above ground. Moving in for closeup, I spied the culprits: termites. Yes, it seems that my magnificent friend had been taken down by the tiny white "ant" variety of termite. Too bad. Without the shade from my departed friend, it is a hot corner now so I don't linger as much as before.

Blame it on the Termites!

Tenun Pahang Diraja

2011-02-13T20:09:00.002+08:00

Tenun Pahang Diraja (Royal Pahang Weave) is one of the specialities of the cottage industry in Pahang, especially the Kuantan area. Up until recently, I did not know where to find it except for when an exhibition was being given in one of the local malls. But on my Sepat Highway trip last summer, I came across the factory/show-room in the small village of Sungai Soi.

With a relative visiting in January, I decided to return to the factory for a tour. The kampung of Sungai Soi is only 15-20 minutes from the centre of Kuantan along the road that crosses the Kuantan River and takes one through the area called Tanjung Lumpur (which is also where the Adina Batik shop is located).

The factory/show-room appears to be closed but one only needs to go ring the doorbell and someone will come and let you in. There is a "factory" in the back that is basically five or six looms where apprentice and experienced weavers are creating material in 2- to 4-meter lengths.

Cotton and silk are woven on the looms adding in gold, silver, copper and other accent threads. Unfortunately, I did not get any photos of the accent thread spools, but these are kept in a small basket on the side of the loom from where the weaver can grab and add in a thread from time to time. The apprentice weavers can take from 1- to 2-days to complete a 2-meter length of material (widths are a standard 45 inches). The most expert weaver in the factory that day was a lady with ten years of experience, and she could complete a 4-meter length of cloth in one 8-hour work day! Needless to say, she was the one weaver NOT willing to stop and chat with us tourists!

In addition to the factory, which is only two years old, there is a showroom (gallery and gift shop) whose opening was sponsored by Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah, the head of the Royal Family of Pahang (it IS after all, the Royal Pahang weave). In it were examples of clothing and other uses of the woven material.

All in all, the Tenun Pahang Diraja factory and showroom is one of the best tourist sites in the Kuantan, but unfortunately not all that well advertised.

Monsoon Chores : Cleaning the Drain

2011-01-29T17:29:00.003+08:00

Living in the tropics is not all about the exotic and the arcane, it is also about the plugged and the mundane. And few chores can be as dull as cleaning the drain.

In just a few weeks after the LAST drain cleaning, vegetation and toads had once again taken up residence in our open drain around the perimeter of our house. That the drain needed to be cleared was made evident by the increase in mosquitoes coming in nightly for a snack around our legs (watching TV) and heads (sleeping). Stagnant or slow-moving water is ideal habitat for mosquitoes and their larvae.

Before - Habitat for Toads, Frogs and Mosquito Larvae

So, with a bit of reluctance, out came the primary tools for drain-clearing.

The primary tools are a trowel for cutting plants along the inside walls of the drain (9 cm/5 in depth) and pulling muck and plants up off the bottom of the drain (22 cm/13 in width). A broom helps after the large chunks have been pulled down-drain for sweeping up the finer materials left behind. A steady stream of water is also required to keep things moving along. The "head-waters" of our drain is below the kitchen sink and dishwasher drain pipe. Thus, a steady stream of nutrient-rich water washes along and picks up sand and dirt from outdoor gardening activities. These all mix and become a sandy/muddy sludge on the bottom of the drain and plant seeds find this to be an ideal micro-habitat for growth and development.

Bathroom Drains, Home for Frogs and Toads

Along the way one will come to the bathroom drains which harbor toads and frogs. Being cold-blooded critters, they need cool, dark hiding places to wait out the heat of the day before resuming their nocturnal feeding. Often, while cleaning the drain, one of these pipe dwellers will come hopping out.

Where'd the Habitat Go?

With around 30 meters of drain to clear from behind the house, beside the house, and from in front (car park), a lot of mucky green rubbish is collected. Most of this is washed down into the larger drain out front, but some is picked up and used for garden compost.

Around 30 meters of Drain

Compost from Drain Dregs

Finally, one is left with a clean and clear drain that will handle high-volume rainfall runoff and grey-water (sinks, showers, and clothes washer) discharge from the kitchen and bathrooms. Only the black-water runoff (toilets) goes into the septic tank. In hydraulic terms, I have both lowered the roughness coefficient (Manning's roughness, n, or Chezy roughness, C) so that the velocity can increase, and increased the cross-sectional area so that total discharge is higher.

After - Clear and Clean

Photo of the Week: Empty Starbucks

2011-01-23T20:49:00.000+08:00

Empty Expensive Coffee Shop

I don't know why I get such a satisfied feeling everytime I walk by this perpetually-empty Starbucks shop. Located at one of Kuantan's major malls (there are only three), it is ALWAYS empty when I go by. This photo was taken on a Saturday afternoon, right around lunchtime, when you would think that it would be full of hipsters and other cool people hanging out to be seen. There was only one couple inside, and as you can see the outside is completely empty. And NO it is not because it is hot and humid here. This January has been nice and coolish and on this day, I would have sat outside if I were into overpriced coffee. Chalk it up to Starbucks' failure to crack into the east coast tea stall/coffee-shop culture, I guess. There are locally-owned coffee-shops that are nearly always full (Old Towne White Coffee, Kopi Kemaman, mamak shops), so it isn't because Malaysians typically prefer pulled tea (teh tarik). Credit the fact that for the price of one Starbucks (RM18-20), you can enjoy 5-10 cups of coffee or tea otherwise.

Holiday Open House

2011-01-03T10:01:00.000+08:00

One holiday tradition for my family is to host a holiday season open house (rumah terbuka) for friends and colleagues. Typically we hold these around the Christmas/New Year time although we did deviate one year with a Cheese Party at the end of one November. It is a good time to reconnect with former colleagues, and meet the spouses of present colleagues. This year our open house was set for 1 January 2011, a Saturday, 4-8pm, which meant that most people would be in town as the new school year started on Monday, 3 January.

So, what are the ingredients for a good open house?

Good Food

First of all, one must have both delicious and abundant food. Typically we get the main dish from a Malay caterer since we want to ensure the guests are both familiar with the food and comfortable that it is halal. One year we served a family turkey and they picked at it before asking for the chili sauce! In the photo you can see the main dish -ayam masak merah (red sauce chicken)- in the tin at the back left. In the left foreground is a tin of acar -pickled vegetables- which, with the nasi minyak (oil rice, but this version was more like confetti rice) makes the main dish.

Daughters of a colleague taking the rice

Nasi minyak, but looks like "confetti rice"

On the right side of the first photo can be seen the many varieties of baked goods that my wife makes. She is famous amongst my colleagues for her baking and this spread included apple bread (with pecans), zucchini bread, fruit bread (two varieties), cinnamon bread along with chocolate-chip cookies, chocolate cake, fruit tarts, tiny cupcakes and so forth. Drinks in the form of sodas (Coca-Cola, Vanilla Coca-Coal, Zappel, Root Beer, F&N Orange, F&N Fruit) and water were served. Usually we provide hot water for tea and hot chocolate, but this day Jabatan Bekalan Air chose to replace some pipes and thus the water was cut for the day.

Selection of sodas, but not drunk much by Malay friends

Secondly, after securing food and beverage, one must provide some entertainment for the children especially if, like me, you have many colleagues who are in the early child rearing stage of their lives. We like to play Santa Claus so up goes a Christmas tree with presents underneath for the children. ("What defines a child?" I was asked by a single adult hoping to score a present. "If they are under 6 feet in height, or more intelligent than me" was my reply.)

Daughters of a colleague in front of Christmas tree

We like to give healthy presents so typically we wrap up a selection of small, hard candies and a fruit drink, maybe a chocolate or two (Cadbury's Choclairs are perfect - support Kraft products!).

To assist with babies and toddlers, we put down straw mats on the floor with a selection of toys -washed between open houses- for "free play". The toys are all plastic as I discovered that metal toy cars were driven by the children (boys mostly) on the tile floor, not the mat, putting scratches on the cheap tile with which I had remodelled. (Note to self: buy better tiles next time.)

Toys on a matt

Even babies like Teak's open houses!

Of course, it is not just children who enjoy Christmas trees; some of the adults like to have their photos taken in front and we enjoy telling the history of the tree's ornaments. Some western families buy a new ornament or two each year (or receive such as gifts) and those ornaments tell a bit of the family's history.

Four Malay men from three different countries

Finally, one must provide comfortable and sufficient seating, whether on chairs or on mats on the floor. We have a variety of chairs -rubberwood table chairs, teak chairs and bench, rattan-cane settee and couch with cushions, and also a newly-purchase teak-and-jute screen to hide the clutter corner where rain jackets, tools, and footwear hide out.

Teak bench with teak-and-jute screen

Of course, my favorite furniture is built from teak (kayu jati) from which I derive my nickname. I even had a post about this beautiful wood back when this blog first began.

http://teakinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2009/02/teak-in-life-in-literature.html

So there you have it, the three main ingredients for an open house. Of course, what you do after providing the basics is up to you. So the final ingredient has to be great conversation.

Exams Are Over, At Last!

2010-12-30T12:02:00.001+08:00

Exams ended a little over a week ago, quite a bit later than usual. With the Hari Raya holiday moving 12 days earlier each year, the semester calendars change and we get moving dates for registration, mid-term breaks, and exams. With such a late end to this semester, the next one will begin later than usual also.

Exam Hall

Final exams for the program in which I teach are prepared by the parent body, a local Malaysian university that continues to do things the old-fashioned way, despite having a modern term in the university name. As such, the final exam counts for 60% of the class mark, and final exams are given in a large auditorium with walking proctors and strict control procedures.

Crowded Work Space

I wish I could say that the strict control procedures meant for high-quality exams, but that is not the case. Even though the parent body insists that all exam questions are sent to external examiners for quality verification, egregious errors are all too common on exam questions. As proctors, we have to inform the parent body representative of the errors and allow him or her to make a decision as to how to inform the students in answering the questions.

Confiscate Crib Sheets from the Toilet

On one exam that I proctored, an electrical engineering question (give in both English and Malay) had different values. In English, the values were something like this:

Voltage = 12V

Current = 2.0A

Resistance = 30 Ohms

Efficiency = 75%

The same question, in Malay, had these values:

Voltage = 15V

Current = 1.5A

Resistance = 40 Ohms

Efficiency = 85%

Since it is the same question, just in a different language, the answer will depend upon set of values you choose! It is clear that exam preparers do NOT proof-read their questions, nor are the external quality control examiners on the ball either.

One of my subjects has errors every semester on the questions. Typically, a parent body coordinator (who prepares the exam) will photocopy a diagram from a book -e.g., the one entitled 2500 Solved Problems in Hydraulics and Fluid Mechanics- and then write a question that goes with the diagram. Several times now, the diagram shows oil (specific gravity 0.85) flowing in a pipe. The question written out by the coordinator starts out, "Water flows in a pipe...." So, which is it? One semester, 50% of the questions were thrown out by the coordinator and not graded after I pointed out the errors on two and a half of the five questions.

Stamp the Date

As a proctor, in addition to finding this semester's set of errors, we walk around and watch students. One task for me is to go into the Men's Bathroom after about 10 minutes and confiscate the crib sheets that are inevitably hiding in the water tank of the bathroom stalls. Students haven't figured out yet that water causes ink and pencil to smear and disappear.

Another main task is to give students additional paper upon which to do calculations or answer questions. Each piece of paper has to be stamped with the current date so as to insure that the paper was not brought into the exam hall by the student.

But, exams are over now and we are enjoying our Monsoon Vacation.

Photo of the Week: Monsoon Clouds over My Kampung

2010-12-16T20:46:00.001+08:00

The northeast monsoon is in full swing here on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. We have had all-day rain several times now, and there are gigantic, beautiful dark monsoon storm clouds much of the day. I shot this one on the way home one day, arriving minutes before the deluge began.

Monsoon Clouds over the Kampung

Cuti Sekolah di Malaysia

2010-12-04T18:46:00.004+08:00

Vacation days....vacation daze. Malaysia has a lot of vacation days during the school year and it often makes both scheduling replacement classes AND covering the syllabus difficult. Just peruse the vacation days taken this year alone:

1 January - New Year's Day

14 January - Birthday, Sultan of Negeri Sembilan (for those in Negeri Sembilan)
17 January - Birthday, Sultan of Kedah (for those in Kedah)
30 January - Thaipusam (Hindu festival, all of Malaysia)
1 February - KL Federal Territory Day (for those in KL)
14-15 February - Chinese New Year (all of Malaysia; some places take a week off)
26 February - Malidur Rasul (Islamic holiday, all of Malaysia)
4 March - Birthday, Sultan of Terengganu (for those in Terengganu)
13-21 March - Public School Holiday
30-31 March - Birthday, Sultan of Kelantan (for those in Kelantan)

Oh yeah, "Let's YTRAP" on holiday

2 April - Good Friday (Christian holiday)
8 April - Birthday, Sultan of Johor
15 April - Melaka Holiday (they have no official sultan, but certainly a DAY OFF)
19 April - Birthday, Sultan of Perak (yup, Perak residents)
1 May - International Workers Day (but, NO work that day)
7 May - Pahang Holiday (called Hari Hol, literally "Holiday Day"; no apparent reason; thats for us Pahangers)
17 May - Birthday, Sultan of Perlis (residents of Perlis)
28 May - Wesak Day (Buddhist Holiday, all of Malaysia)
30-31 May - Harvest Festival (for Sabah and Sarawak, I think, not sure)
1-2 June - Gawai Dayak Festival (Sarawak)
5 June - Birthday, King of Malaysia (all of Malaysia)
5-20 June - Public School Holiday
10 July - Birthday, Sultan of Pulau Penang (Penang)
10 July - Israk and Mikraj (??, but its on the calendar!)
20 July - Hari Keputeraan Sultan Terengganu (again, Terengganu)
11 August - Awal Ramadan (beginning of Ramadan, all of Malaysia)
27 August - Nuzul Quran (all of Malaysia)
31 August - National/Independence Day (all of Malaysia)
4-12 September - Public School Holiday
10-11 September - Hari Raya Puasa or Aid-al-Fitr (all of Malaysia, most schools take a full week off)
16 September - Birthday, Sultan of Sabah
?? September - Malaysia Day (not to be confused with Independence Day on 31 August; I forgot what this day was, but it was in September and I have NO idea why it exists.)
9 October - Melaka (again) but not sure why since they have no official sultan
23 October - Birthday, Sultan of Sarawak
24 October - Birthday, Sultan of Pahang
5 November - Deepavali (Diwali), Hindu Festival of Lights (all of Malaysia)
17 November - Quran Holiday (some parts of Malaysia)
18 November - Quran Holiday (other parts of Malaysia)
20 November - 31 December - Public School Holiday
7 December - Awal Muharram (all of Malaysia)
11 December - Birthday, Sultan of Selangor
25 December - Christmas (Christian holiday, all of Malaysia)

Now, you might say "Well, not all holidays are celebrated in all states." That is true. But, if you have some students from, say Terengganu, they may want to go back to Terengganu for their sultan's birthday, whereas those from Johor will want to do the same, but on a different date (their sultan's birthday). And so forth. And if you need to contact someone in a different state during work hours, you need to check the calendar to see if THEY are on vacation that particular day.

Students are quite good about turning a one-day holiday into a one-week (or more) vacation. Witness the latest mid-week holiday: Hari Raya Qurban, 17 and 18 November (depending upon state). With this holiday on a Wednesday in Pahang, I had students take off on Monday of that week, and not return until Tuesday of the following week! They used a 1-day holiday to take leave of 7 days of classes!! Of course, they try to justify this by saying "Bus tickets were all sold out except for....". For this reason, we lecturers prefer holidays that are on a Friday or a Monday. It is harder for students to justify leaving on a Monday or Tuesday for a Friday holiday. (But some do.)

But, of course, those are the OFFICIAL holidays. How about unofficial Must-Cancel-Class directives from Administration? We get plenty of those every year also.

"Left, right, right...no, no...right, left, left?"

Example: our "sister" school is having graduation but they want a CROWD at the event, so they make the lecturers cancel their classes and attend! Great idea. Or how about this? "We need to ensure that lecturers behave properly at our own convocation, so let's make them practice. Yes, we know that they are only going to walk in and sit down. But have them cancel classes on BOTH Thursday and Friday afternoon to practice .... walking in and sitting down!"

The December monsoon has begun. Long live rainy weather!

Down the Sepat Highway - Part 2

2010-11-17T17:18:00.001+08:00

Returning to Kuantan along the Sepat Highway, I decided to get some information about possible overnight stays. The only two motels that I could find were 'The Saddle' and the 'Palm Suite Homestay'.

The Saddle looks to be an interesting place. Advertising itself as a Riding Center, Lodge, Camp Site, and Kelapa (Coconut) Shake, it is situated right beside the Sepat Highway and across from the Sepat beach zone, that strip of land that has coconut palms, penaga laut trees, and Casuarina trees.

Horses at The Saddle

The Palm Suite Homestay is a little ways down a small tar road and consists of a beautiful-looking home sitting amongst a small plantation of oil palms. Both were closed on this public (and religious) holiday, so I will have to make another trip down south to scout them out later.

Palm Suite Sign

Palm Suite Homestay

Like other areas close to Kuantan, the Sepat area has new housing developments going up seemingly in random places. Some look abandoned, but perhaps the work is only moving along slowly and not completely stopped.

Lembu Korban and New Housing

Also, there are some interesting looking signs indicating small, home-based businesses. Again, if this had not been a religious holiday, I might have looked in on what these businesses were doing out in the kampung. Entrepreneurial activity is being strongly promoted amongst rural people so it is interesting to see what is working for those brave souls who have already taken the leap into self-employment.

Small business, home business, near Sepat.

Still, despite the upgrading of housing (from wood to brick), I love the old-style, wooden kampung houses. They are beautiful and have larger compounds (halaman) in which the owners often take great care to plant flowers and raise small livestock (goats, chickens). Lumber is quite expensive relative to brick and concrete, but I would not want to see the wooden houses gone from the countryside, these houses define what a kampung should look like.

Down the Sepat Highway : Part 1

2010-11-17T16:35:00.003+08:00

Back in October I was invited to the wedding kenduri of a colleague's sister near the royal city of Pekan. Since I had never been down that stretch of highway before, I decided to take the leisurely route, passing through small Malay kampung along the way as opposed to the highway. Unfortunately, that day did not go well. I did get to the kenduri, but the camera battery died, my motorcycle quit three times due to failing carburetor diaphragms, and finally, I ran out of petrol. Still, I liked what I saw for scenery, and decided it was worth another trip, but this time with no time constraint (no kenduri), full tank of petrol, and a fully-charged camera battery.

Down the Sepat Highway

I chose to go on a rare mid-week vacation day, Hari Raya Korban (aka Hari Raya Haji and Hari Raya Aidl-adha). No, vacation days are NOT rare in Malaysia (that topic for another time), but having one on a day other than Friday or Monday is rare. Most families are busy at home preparing for the korban in the morning on this day, thus, traffic was light, except for the usual traffic.

Traffic Along Sepat Highway

The first kampung along the Sepat Highway is Kampung Sungai Soi, where several of my college colleagues live. Kg. Sg. Soi is home to the Royal Pahang Tenun factory. Tenun is a special loom-woven textile that integrates gold and silver thread with multi-colored cotton threads. (Topic for another post.)

Royal Pahang Textile Factory

The distance between Kuantan and Pekan along the Sepat Highway is 51 kilometers. Kilometer markers, therefore, show both the distance to Pekan (going in that direction) and the distance to Kuantan (on the back side, in the opposite direction). Thus, once one gets to around Km38-Pekan (Km13-Kuantan), the road swings up next to the beach and parallels the beautiful Pantai Sepat (Sepat Beach) for several kilometres.

Sepat Beach Looking North

Of course, once you are there, at the beach, you have to share with the local "beach bums".

Local Beach Bums

And other, normal folks, were having their breakfast under the majestic penaga laut trees. (See: http://teakinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2009_06_01_archive.html)

Breakfast Time

Penaga Laut

Continuing beyond Kampung Sepat, I came to a fork in the road at Kampung Kuala Penor. I took the left branch, towards the beach, and continued to the mouth (kuala) of the Penor River, where it meets the ocean. Just upstream of the mouth was a prawn farm with a sign that indicated I was not to enter.

Do Not Enter - You Will Be Shot

So, instead of getting shot, I looked at monsoon clouds out over the South China Sea instead. This is a beautiful time of the year for me, a cloud person.

Monsoon Clouds Over South China Sea

Backtracking, I met a man who invited me to the korban (sacrifice) of a lembu. He had seen me photographing another cow and invited me to the house of a friend.

Berkorban Lembu pd Hari Raya Haji

Children Watching the Day's Entertainment

His friend, named Mat Isa, invited me to stay for tea and cake despite my being an uninvited stranger. The Malays are one of the most polite and hospitable peoples that I have ever known, and they have time and again proven that hospitality. We chatted a while over the tea and blueberry cake prepared by his wife and then I took my leave since family members were arriving for their Hari Raya Korban day together.

To Be Continued...

Photo of the Week: Reflection in Spoon

2010-11-14T10:21:00.001+08:00

At the birthday party mentioned in the previous post, someone brought in a container of delicious chicken curry. They had a large spoon for serving and with my photo of the curry and spoon, fortuitously caught the birthday lady in its reflection.

Birthday Lady Reflects on Chicken Curry!

Office Birthday Parties

2010-11-14T10:15:00.002+08:00

In a college the size of mine, nearly everyday someone has a birthday. But not all birthdays engender a party. Parties are basically left up to the boss or the colleagues, and really, few people have birthday parties planned for them. For example, whenever it is my birthday, I usually bring cake in to share around with the colleagues sitting close to me (rather than expecting them to plan a party for me).

February 2009 Birthday Bash (Teak is on the left, out of sight!)

After a while, we discovered that within 20 feet of my cubicle were several people with February (or near-February) birthdays! Thus began an annual tradition of us all co-hosting The February Birthday Bash (TFBB). Basically, each brings in food or drink to share. In the first photo you can see the spread from the year 2009, with chocolate cake, donuts, chicken nuggets and grapes (someone ALWAYS has to bring something healthy, eh?). I take a photo each year, which we can send to former members of TFBB who have moved on to other locations. We also found, that by including a colleague with a birthday in March (we call it 32 February) and one from January (-15 February), we get a larger crowd and greater food on offer.

Birthday lady and boss

The parties in my section are inevitably held in the office of a particular colleague, who is extremely generous and friendly. This month she hosted a party for her young assistant, also of pleasant personality, and a good amount of food was served up with friendly conversation.

Bringing the food

As a foreign observer, and participant, in this office culture, I am both blessed and heavier as a result of this Malay hospitality!

No Shoes? No problem.

2010-10-30T11:30:00.010+08:00

Occasionally I get comments from readers who do appear to be interested in what life is like in Malaysia. Any of us, truly, have interesting lives, to someone else! Yesterday I gave an exam to 45 of my students and since I had no tasks to do while invigilating (overseeing the exam; 'proctoring' in US-jargon), I decided to take a few photos.

You might notice that the tables were scattered about, but I was in limited space and had to fit 35 desks into this particular room, and provide separation. You will also notice the shoes under their chairs.

Girls especially, kick their shoes and sandals off immediately after sitting down. I find this quite amusing since I come from a culture and climate where people have to wear shoes all of the time. Sometimes I go around the room and select the prettiest shoe and take a photo (with permission, of course). For this exam day, the Shoe-of-the-Day was a pretty brown pump with glitter on the toe end.

Shoe of the Day

Photo of the Week

2010-10-30T11:09:00.000+08:00

I take a lot of photos for which there is either no, or little, story. This photo was taken as I returned home one day for lunch. This lizard was stretched out across my front gate like a circus performer. Right after I snapped the photo, he (or she) shut his eyes and -like a child might- pretended that I couldn't see him. I rattled the gate with my payung (umbrella) and he fled.

Click on the image for the original sized image.

Hari Raya Fests - Private

2010-10-03T14:16:00.002+08:00

More relaxed atmosphere @ home

Yesterday I discussed public Hari Raya fests. Today, I want to describe those fests held by individual families at their houses. Of the two, I prefer the private ones since it allows me to visit the homes of colleagues and friends and, potentially, see them in a more relaxed setting. This is not always so, however, depending upon how formal the family makes their open house, and how many other people have been invited.

Children of a colleague

For example, this year I attended 17 different Hari Raya open houses of which only two were public fests. The other 15 were all hosted in different homes and varied greatly in the formality and the number of people attending.

For example, in the house of one older man with whom I use for Malay language practice, only three of us were in attendance (including a housemate of his). Despite their poverty, the two men had made an effort to make their simple abode presentable, putting out furniture that is normally in storage, and a simple set of snack items. We chatted amiably for around 40 minutes and then I left for another house.

Snacks

At the house of a female colleague, I got the date wrong. She had invited me for a Monday earlier, but then changed it to the following Sunday with me still thinking it was Monday. Still, they were polite and gracious and I didn't discover my mistake until about 20 minutes into the visit! Malays are very hospitable and easy-going and so the visit went well. My wife and I were later invited back to the Sunday get-together, which was quite formal and crowded, but I enjoyed myself more on Monday when the family was informally dressed, relaxed, and visiting with ME only.

Banana chips

Of course, unlike the public fests where multiple choices of food are served, private open houses offer a more limited set of food. Still there are some good eats, and usually include snack items - biscuits, banana chips, tarts, small pieces of cake - and simple noodle and/or rice dishes.

Hari Raya open houses begin on the first day following the end of Ramadan. Called Hari Pertama (First Day) and Hari Kedua (Second Day), these open houses tend to be the most formal. Politicians and Sultans host quite large gatherings that can run in the tens of thousands of attendees. Following the first two days, which are national holidays, further open houses tend to be hosted on subsequent Saturdays and Sundays. Many of my colleagues balik kampung (return to their home villages, i.e., parents' homes) for the first two days of Hari Raya. After coming back from their home villages, they may or may not host in their own homes depending upon whether or not they have a house to host in.

I particularly enjoy interacting with the children of colleagues. Hari Raya is a joyous time for most of them; fireworks are shot off or waved around (boys) or new clothes shown off to friends (girls). I like to bring balloons to some houses as these prove to be a big hit with the 2, 3, and 4-year-olds. I can see why Hari Raya carries such warm memories for Malay families.

Hari Raya Fests - Public

2010-10-02T17:35:00.118+08:00

Indoor Food Booths (and Entertainment)

Tents (with fans) for Outdoor Raya Fests

At the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, Malays in Malaysia will celebrate the end of Eid al-Fitr with Hari Raya open houses that consist of eating, visiting, and more eating. This year I attended 17 public and private hari raya open houses. The public ones were hosted by various organisations to which I belong. The private ones are those hosted by colleagues and friends at their houses, and will be detailed in a separate blogpost.

If one works in a Malay organisation or company, certainly the invite will come for that organisation's open house. Some are held outdoors, under tent canopies fitted with fans. Some will be hosted indoors, with food booths surrounding the VIP seating. Most will have some type of "entertainment", but it won't be rock-n-roll! Singers, supported by either "Music-minus" backing tapes or small ensembles of musicians, will belt out evergreen favorites, including M. Nasir's "Satu Hari, Hari Raya" and hits from Malaysia's sweetheart of singers Datuk Siti Nurhaliza.

Ketupat rice

Not Rock-n-Roll

The college where I work has a vocational branch that hosted a Hari Raya feast, prepared by the students. One might think -student cooks?- but in fact this campus produces excellent meals. Before the feasting began, I made a circuit around to photograph some of the items on offer.

Typically, the main dishes will involve the various forms of rice and noodles. Some different ways of serving rice are:
-nasi putih (plain white rice)
-nasi minyak or nasi tomato (oil or tomato rice)
-nasi ketupat (rice cooked in triangular pandan-leaf wraps)
-nasi lemang (rice steam cooked in bamboo tubes)
-nasi What is it?

Nasi What Is It?

Lemang rice

The noodles come in a wide variety, but I know them as white (plain wheat), yellow (wheat, but with added flavorings) and very thin mee hoon noodles, which can be rice or mung bean flour.

Toppings are many and range in flavours, covering the taste range of sweet-to-sour, bitter-to-tart, and back again. Meat can be heavily spiced, such as rendang, or simply grilled, such as satay. Satay tends to be a crowd favorite, and most other food is ignored until diners have stacked multiple skewers of chicken or beef satay upon their plates.

Rush for the Satay

Beef Rendang

Apart from the eating, it is fun to chit-chat with colleagues. Female colleagues come dressed in brand-new baju kurung, purchased especially for Hari Raya. Men wear the traditional Malay costume, with baju Melayu, songket (decorative blanket worn around the waist), and Islamic songkok (black or white cap).

Basically, protocol for these functions is to arrive and wait for the VIP (very important people) and VVIP (very very important people) to arrive. VIPs need to arrive before VVIPs, in order to greet the VVIPs and also show Who is Important. Once the situation of Importance Level has been established, eating commences along with the entertainment. ("Satu hari, Hari Raya.....")

Men's Outfits

Women's Lineup

I walk around, with my camera in hand. People eating intently, or chit-chatting, or taking photos of each other, are not always aware of other camera-people. This allows me to take photos of people in NON-poses. Some of the best photos are NON-poses. My favorite from the public Hari Raya fests that I attended are of a group of school girls. They spied me at the balcony railing overlooking the indoor fest and giggled as I took a photo. Smiling, I gave them the "thumb's up" signal, and they replied in kind. If pictures are worth a thousand words, then non-verbal smiles and gestures can be worth millions.

School girls giggle at the Orang Putih

World's Top Banana?

2010-09-26T22:53:00.003+08:00

My neighbor checks on the Top Banana

I don't know a whole lot about bananas. When I was growing up, I thought that there was only one type since we could buy only Honduran, Panamanian or Ecuadoran bananas. Then I went to the South Pacific and discovered that there is more than one variety, and that bananas are moist when fresh, not dry like those that have been picked green and shipped thousands of miles.

In Malaysia, we have seen and eaten a range of bananas, but mostly prefer the smaller ones that are only 7-8 centimeters long. But this week, while walking past the house of my agriculturally-industrious neighbor, I saw him reach up and check on a clump of Very Large Bananas, the largest that I have ever seen. He was impressed that I was so impressed, so he promised to give me the largest one when it was nearly ripe (yellow). I received it this evening, and the thing measures over 30 centimeters in length (~12 inches), with a diameter of 5.5 cm. This would give it a banana-volume of around 700 cm3! (More than half a liter of banana!) Which brings up an interesting question: What is (was) the world's largest banana?

30 centimeters in length; 5.5 cm in diameter (700 cm3)

Wiki.answers.com says that the world's longest banana is two feet, but gives no source, photos, or other information. Other websites list the largest man-made banana replicas, and biggest banana splits, most extensive collections of banana memorabilia, and leading banana-exporting nations, but not the World's Top Banana. So, readers; do I have the record in my hands?

The Top Banana?

I was informed by a Malay colleague that what I hold in my hands is a pisang tanduk. Tanduk is the word for horn (like those on a water buffalo). Here is a link to a description of pisang tanduk. There are other websites, in Bahasa Malaysia (Malay), and if you use Google Chrome as your internet browser, you can get rapid translations into English of any web page.

Traffic Accident

2010-09-20T12:31:00.001+08:00

I had a traffic accident last week. I was on my motorcycle, traveling at a normal rate of speed, when a car to my right -who had been stopped and waiting for me to pass, or so I thought- decided that it was his turn to use the road in front of me at the same time. Seeing that we were going to hit, I pulled around the front of his car but my right break pedal caught the left corner of his bumper and as I spun around the front, my bike pulled his front bumper completely off the car!!

Lunch Hour Traffic Accident

Falling on my right side, I got up and stood there waiting for the elderly gentleman to get out of his car. He did, but couldn't speak to me in either Malay (the national language) or English. He rather called his daughter who came by within 5 minutes, and she and I did the negotiating. Since her father had come out of an alley, and did not yield to traffic already on the road, he was clearly in the fault. In a case like this, the one in fault will usually settle with the offended party rather than filing a police report. Of course, if one wants to claim insurance, then a police report is required. Police rarely come to the scene of an accident, but rather the parties need to go to the stations and fill out report forms.

The daughter followed me to the motorcycle workshop where I am known and have all of my service work done. She settled up with the shop directly, paying the bill. (The bill to repair the motorcycle was probably less than 1/10 the price to repair her father's car.) Of course, some things cannot repaired, such as scratched chrome and scratches on plastic body parts. Physically, I was okay with just some scratches on the right arm and leg, but there are deep-seated bruises that are still sore a week later.

I usually take pride in being a very defensive driver, trying to anticipate what other drivers will do, but despite that practice, accidents can still occur.

The Fasting Month is Over

2010-09-11T08:40:00.001+08:00

The Muslim fasting month of Ramadan is over, and Hari Raya Aidilfitri (Eid al-Fitr) feasting has begun. One of the unique elements of the "fasting" month is that more food is available during this month than the other eleven. Yes, of course, my Muslim colleagues and friends fast during the day (between sunup and sundown), but once the sun sets they head off to eat and eat and eat.

A news item recently stated that Malay families spend 25% MORE on food during the fasting month and I would have a hard time understanding this fact until I had actually experienced the month for myself. One only needs to take a short trip around town, however, to see why that is so.

In many places around Kuantan, vendors line up to sell buka puasa (break fast) treats starting around 4pm. One of the largest concentrations of vendors are those that set up alongside the green sward fronting the State Mosque. Here many varieties of snack items are sold, such as kuih, pancakes, barbequed honey chicken (first photo) and lemang, a sticky rice which is steam cooked inside bamboo tubes (second photo). Thousands of Kuantan residents visit these snack vendors who make up for the lost revenue from not having breakfast or lunch business. Some food varieties are only available during the fasting month.

After purchasing their take-out buka puasa fare, Kuantan residents will go some place to wait until the Maghrib prayer call (at dusk) and then break fast before going to the mosque or surau for prayers. In front of the State Mosque, hundreds gather for prayers which are broadcast outside (third photo).

Following prayers, the crowd heads out to local hotels and restaurants for lavish Buka Puasa feasts. The prices of these have been rising rapidly in recent years, and places in Kuala Lumpur, for example, can get away with charging up to RM100-150 per person for the meals. Since Malay culture stresses family time together, I note that some families will go out and buka puasa together every night during the month at places that may be too expensive the rest of the year. Thus, it is easy now to see how they can spend 25% more for food during this season. I know that it sounds strange, but I have often suggested to friends back home, that if they really want to sample Malaysian food, come during the fasting month!

Buka Puasa picnickers outside State Mosque in Kuantan; note the vendor tents to the right.

Office Life in Cubicle Land

2010-08-28T12:41:00.007+08:00

Vacation is over; classes have started; the fasting month is in full swing; we are back to Office Life, as usual.

Office Life is lived out in Cubicle Land, where us ordinary lecturers have small desks demarcated by short wall boards. Since between 65-70% of lecturers are female, and Malay ones at that, Office Life revolves around issues important to Malay women. As a male I have really no option but to live in Cubicle Land and try to observe the multitude of unwritten rules about co-existing with Malay women.

Rule #1: Malay women are conservative. This means that they do not want a male squeezing into a cubicle with them, i.e., a man must keep his distance. The rule can be broken, however, if one is a man who relates only to women, kind of like a fly (lalat) who flits from desk to desk bothering the ladies. Flies can co-exist in this manner due to the non-confrontational nature of culture in Cubicle Land.

Rule #2: Cubicle Land is a place where recipes can be swapped; new handbags perused on internet shopping sites; and -especially- gossip can be shared. Whatever you do, however, do not clue the white male lecturer in the cubicle behind you into the latest doings of lalat and his madu. He will find out, after the fact, months later, prompting a response from the ladies: "What?! You didn't know??"

Rule #3: As Malaysia has numerous pasar malam (night markets) and pasar pagi (morning markets), it has even MORE pasar pejabat (office markets) whereby colleagues can show and sell any of a variety of items: clothing material (picture above), food, plastic foodware, jewelry, Condo timeshares, houses (yes, brochures of new housing developments are passed around) and etc. Note: the white guy is usually not interested in these things.

Rule #4: Cubicle Land is for personal discovery and development. No, NOT in technical or professional terms, but in personal hygiene, clothing, baby issues, and family affairs. Copies of Wanita are passed around with great recipes highlighted along with articles on "How to Get Your Husband Prepped for Great S**" (** because this is a G-rated blog afterall). The internet has been very useful also given the numerous shopping sites, for handbags, jewelry, and baby items. (Don't get me started on the baby items!)

Rule #5: Get work done?? Hahahahaha....please see Rule #4.

Rule #6: Food. Life in Cubicle Land -except for the fasting month- revolves around food. Many ladies keep tins of snack items at their desks and welcome others to partake. The fasting month finds order boards at a few cubicles where one can peruse (visually only) and order tins of snacks to be paid for and delivered in the 2-3 days prior to the Ramadan vacation. Tables where educational material might be found instead hold tins of fruit and stinky sauce (sambal) and crumbly cake and so forth. Goodness, one can't let education get in the way of eating!

Rule #7: Cell phone ringtones must be annoying. Crying babies, Japanese love songs, the Wail of Pontianak: these are all examples of acceptable ringtones.

Rule #8: Pregnancies are staggered so that there is always at least one pregnant woman in Cubicle Land. Right now, within 20 feet of my cubicle are three pregnant women. That is not a lot. Last year at this time, there were five preggies within 20 feet of me. My colleagues are mostly in their 20s and 30s, making our Cubicle Land one of the Centers for Reproductive Success in Malaysia. The women will actually discuss and schedule their pregnancies so as to be able to cover for those out on the 60-day maternity leave. (I even covered for an engineering colleague last year, taking one of her classes for 8 weeks until she returned from maternity leave). This fact of the scheduling is largely unknown to men. (I wish it were unknown to me...sigh.)

Overall, I have enjoyed my time in Cubicle Land. Malay women are very forgiving (save for I Know), cooperative and collaborative. Despite the chit-chat noise (and Rule #7), especially in the late afternoon, I can survive and will hold some fond memories of Office Life.

It's Durian Time...

2010-07-17T21:09:00.002+08:00

July is one of the best months in my year for there are no classes to teach, and much of Malaysia's fruit harvest occurs in this month. One fruit, about which I am quite ambivalent, is the infamous durian (Durio spp.), which is called The King of Fruit in Malaysia. It has been described many times by many western writers in such terms as "smells like the toilet; tastes like garbage".

The name 'durian' comes from the many spines (duri) that cover the shell of the fruit. A former Malay neighbor of mine said that elephants would open a durian by rolling the shell over dry leaves until the duri were covered and then step on the fruit, splitting it open. He also described observing -from a jungle tree hideout- a tiger rip one open using his claws and strong upper-body strength. For us humans, the task is best carried out with a cleaver knife.

On the inside are several partitions, each of which hold an oblong-shaped nut covered with a stringy, fleshy outer coat that has the consistency of a custard and a distinctive taste. Durian is said to be a "heating fruit" by the Malays, which means it is gassy. One ends up with durian burps for several hours afterwards, and my wife refuses kisses for the rest of the day!

There are 30 different species of durian (that is what "spp" means in the Latin name), and hundreds of cultivars: variations on species. The only type of durian that I have enjoyed the taste -and tolerate the smell- is the local kampung-grown durian that is probably a non-hydrid, and cut and eaten the same day. It is the longer-lasting and Thai-style durian whose smell and taste I abhor.

In addition to eating it fresh, Malays often mix durian into a variety of sauces, breads, and desserts. Indeed, yesterday, at a Doa Selamat at my college (Prayer for Safety), someone served a durian porridge. It was not enticing to me, but my colleagues sure loved it.

Yet, durian is loved by many in Asia. Witness this news report about a Chinese tycoon (Macau) who sent his private jet to Singapore this past week, just to pick up 88 durian (8 is a lucky number in Chinese numerology). He had to use his private jet because commerical airlines refuse to take the smelly fruit on-board. In fact, many places in Malaysia post "No Durian Allowed" signs similar to this one.

On my first-ever trip to Malaysia, my daughter (8 years old at the time) and I rode in the back seat of a car that had no air-conditioning AND had taken several durian into its trunk by the driver. The smell because nauseating after a while, and my poor daughter vomited in the back seat. To this day, she has never touched a durian, and I am ambivalent -unsure as to my true feelings about the fruit. I can "take it or leave it", but I am probably better off leaving it!

Mint and Cilantro Chutney

2010-06-30T20:26:00.000+08:00

What sauce does one use with roti naan? How about a chutney?

The word chutney comes from the Indian word chatni and is basically a condiment (sauce, salsa) which one uses with roti, naan, and meats. One of my favorites is a mint and cilantro chutney (Pudina Ki Chatni) that I came across in one of my favorite Indian cookbooks.

Pudina Ki Chatni
1 cup coriander leaves
1/2 cup mint leaves
2 green chillies, chopped
1 cm ginger, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 TBS plain yoghurt
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp chilli powder
salt to taste
1 tsp chaat masala (I substitute garam masala)
lemon juice to taste

Put all ingredients into a blender and process until a fine sauce. Serve with naan, roti, or any tandoori dishes (meats).

Roti Naan...in the Oven

2010-06-25T10:33:00.003+08:00

Teak is newly arrived back in Malaysia from a short trip "outside" the country. While visiting friends, I discovered that there is an interest in both preparing and eating Indian-style food. Despite not having access to a tandoori oven, I was successful in preparing roti naan and a variety of chutneys that went over well with American taste buds.

Of course, there are a variety of recipes out there, but I use one that comes from my favorite Indian cooking book: The Food of India.

The recipe is:
500 g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1 TBS sugar
1 egg
4 TBS oil

For variety, I try to substitute up to 25% of the plain flour with something flavoured, like almond flour. Above 25%, and the dough will not hold together as well.

Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and make a "well" in the middle. Mix the milk, sugar, egg and half of the oil (2 TBS) and pour into the well. Knead the bread, adding the remaining oil (and perhaps, water) to get a soft and springy dough. (I like to think of it as getting to the point of "spanking a baby's bottom". That's how the dough should feel when done.)

Cover with a damp cloth and allow the dough to rest for 15-20 minutes. Knead the dough again, and then cover for 2-3 hours with damp cloth. Pre-heat oven to a high temperature, best if over 500 F.

Divide the dough into several sections, 8-12, depending on how large you want the finished naan. I like to make dough balls a little larger than a golf ball (handball size?). Roll the dough balls out flat using a rolling pin on a flat, smooth surface. The thinner you can make the naan, the better. After another 2-3 minute "rest", put the naan into the oven and bake until you can see brown splotches, and the edges look done.

Since I use a regular oven -rather than a tandoor- I found that there are two keys towards making a good roti naan. First, the dough should be rolled out as thinly as possible. I use a rolling pin on a hard surface, such as the crushed glass (faux granite) countertop at my friend's house (see photo). Second, the bread needs to be baked at a very high temperature. I was successful using two different home ovens at temperatures in the 520-550 F range. At that temperature, a flat stone baking plate comes in handy. The dough will not stick at these temperatures, and will produce a flat bread with a crispy exterior and a soft interior. Eat with a variety of chutneys (to be covered next).

Hung Yoghurt

2010-05-30T15:23:00.002+08:00

I have been cooking several Indian recipes of late, and many of them call for hung yoghurt, which is apparently also called labneh.

Hung yoghurt is created by taking regular whole-milk yoghurt and removing the whey by "hanging" the yoghurt over a cheesecloth or coffee filter for several hours. The whey will drip through, leaving a thicker yoghurt with a more consistent texture for cooking.

The website Nourished Kitchen also encourages us cooks not to throw out the whey, but to use it to soak grains for bread baking, as a starter for fermented foods, and in smoothie drinks for added protein. The whey can be refrigerated for several months.

I first came across recipes requiring hung yoghurt in the book The Food of India, by the chefs of The Oberoi Group. The two recipes I was most interested in was for chicken tikka and chicken tandoori.

Kopi Luwak

2010-05-08T14:08:00.003+08:00

Kopi Luwak is a coffee made from beans which have passed through the digestive tract of the civet cat (Musang in Malay; Paradoxus hermaphroditus). It is a combination of the Malay words for coffee (kopi) and civet cat (luwak in Indonesian Malay). Since civet cats are nocturnal, they are rarely seen by humans. They also spend much of their time in trees (in the jungle), or in attics in towns and villages.

Civet cats that live in coffee plantations subsist upon a diet of coffee beans. Their scat (feces) are collected, dried, and sold, or else processed into coffee. The companies Animalcoffee and Paradise Coffee have excellent descriptions of the process used to turn this animal waste into a high-priced product.

Apparently, a 2006 article in Forbes magazine listed kopi luwak as one of the most expensive coffee in the world. Not being a coffee drinker, I don't care! It probably rates up there with Moose-Poop earrings for novelty value only.

Civet Cat (Musang) in the Attic

2010-05-08T13:26:00.007+08:00

There is a civet cat (Malay Musang; Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) that hangs out in our attic now. He doesn't belong to us exclusively, however, but is shared with the neighbors. After months of hearing noises up above at night, we had speculated that neighbor cats were somehow getting into the attic. But one morning, I spied a strange-looking critter out the window, on the fence between our front yard and the neighbor's. It was unlike anything that I had ever seen, but the words that came to mind were "civet cat". A quick perusal of our little booklet Malaysian Mammals showed it to be either a Common Palm Civet (Musang pulut) or a Common House Civet (Musang tenggalong). Although I opened the window to get a photo and ask his/her name, the musang did not stick around long enough for a chit-chat. He climbed up onto my neighbor's roof quite adeptly. Since then, my wife and I have seen him going across our front yard right about the same time (7am) as the first sighting.

Since we have no photos yet or our neighborhood musang, I am reduced to links to photos elsewhere on the internet.

Musang are not to be messed with since they are apparently a protected specie in Malaysia (under the Akta Perlindongan Hidupan Liar, 1972) and may have been the vector that carried the SARS virus in southern China a few years back.

They also apparently like chicken. While contemplating the musang the other day, I realised that I had not seen my neighbor's chickens which used to run around his yard and the street in front. It had been months since I remember seeing the birds, so common and unobtrusive they were. But now, in reflection, I realised that they are gone, probably incorporated into civet cat biomass!

In Malay mythology, an evil spirt known as bajang takes the shape of a civet cat (aka polecat). In an earlier post, I referenced a British author who had mentioned a game played by village children centering around the tree-climbing ability of musang (Winzeler, 1995).

Another interesting item about musang is that there is an expensive coffee (Kopi Luwak), which is made from coffee beans that have been passed through the digestive tract of the musang. This coffee sells for upwards of US$450 per pound! Cups of the coffee were first sold for US$33-100 per cup when it was first introduced to the western world!!

Adina Batik Shop

2010-04-30T21:45:00.007+08:00

While driving my motorcycle around one fine Saturday morning, I happened upon the following kampung house/shop. Adina Batik is a both a shop that dyes cloth using the batik method and a retail outlet in the Kuantan kampung of Tanjung Lumpur, across the Kuantan River from Kuantan town. Batik is one of the more famous craft skills in Malaysia, but there are few home-based businesses doing the craft, making my "discovery" a pleasant one.

I first got into batik when I moved to Malaysia. I purchased the book Batik in the Start-A-Craft series, written by Joy Campbell.

I also took a one-day class from a lady who showed me the basics and got me started. For our first (and only) project, my daughter and I took new white cotton pillowcases and made simple designs using hand-held copper wax pens (called cantings or tjantings) that allow for freeform design, and simple copper block stamps that provide a consistent pattern.

The Adina shop uses only cotton or silk, and as shown in a photo, the material is stretched out onto a wooden frame where the freehand designs can be drawn in hot wax. Dye is painted on, by hand, allowing for fine detail and a mix of colors. After fixing the dye with chemicals in a vat, the wax is removed through washing with hot water.

Inside the house is a one-room retail outlet with an excellent assortment of both material, and finished products, mostly women's outfits and men's shirts. The prices are very reasonable for such high quality work. A short-sleeve shirt is around RM85, while long-sleeve runs RM95-120. The material is sold in 4-meter lengths (typical) and around 1 meter wide, and runs around RM230 for silk, with cotton costing slightly less.

Thosai Telur

2010-04-24T13:25:00.005+08:00

Following on last week's blog post, I did successfully make thosai telur although there is GREAT room for improvement. I used the following recipe, from the book The Indian Spice Kitchen (Manisha Bharadwaj):

2 2/3 cup any variety of rice (1 pound)
2/3 cup split, skinless black lentils (5 oz; called urad dhal)
1 teaspoon salt
1 onion or potato cut in half (for greasing the griddle)
6 tablespoons corn oil

1. Soak rice and lentils separately for at least 4 hours in plenty of water.
2. Grind to a paste (separately) in a blender, adding water as required to make a thick batter.
3. Mix the two batters together, add salt, and leave to ferment in a warm place for at least 8 hours.
4. Heat an iron griddle or heavy skillet. Dip the cut onion or potato in oil and smear over pan.
5. Stir the batter and pour a ladleful into the middle of the skillet. Spread the mixture quickly with a circular motion starting in the middle, using the back of the ladle.

6. After a minute, pour the egg onto the top of the thosai. With a large griddle, one can get away with using an entire egg on a large (10-12 inch) thosai. With my wife's small pan, I could pour in a small amount of egg. Thus, I scrambled 3 eggs in a separate dish, and then ladled a small amount of egg onto each thosai (see photo).

7. Turn over and cook the backside. In restaurants, they will fold a large thosai over in half, not cooking the topside directly.

Some cookbooks suggest throwing out the first thosai as it serves to 'season' the pan, and may not be as good as the subsequent ones.

My thosai batter turned out alright, but I had to add water to get it to 'settle down' (the overnight fermentation produces a lot of gas bubbles), and make it thin enough to spread thinly. Still, I ended up with a thicker thosai than one gets at Tamil restaurants. I also ended up with egg that ran off the thosai mountain onto the pan. (Not so good.)

My favorite thosai maker suggested that I did not have a griddle that was hot enough, or big enough. Here is a video of his setup, which produces absolutely delicious, crisp and crunchy thosai.

Garam Masala

2010-04-17T18:49:00.011+08:00

I got inspired this week to try to make my own version of thosai (dosa, dosay, dosey) and tandoori chicken. I started off by collecting and grinding a set of spices for garam masala. I used the following recipe from the book The Food of India, but one can find many versions of garam masala elsewhere:

1/2 cup cumin seeds

2 tablespoons coriander seeds

4 cinnamon sticks (5cm each)

12 green cardamom pods, bruised

5 black cardamom pods, bruised (couldn't find; substituted more green pods)

10 cloves

1/2 nutmeg, broken

4 blades of mace (couldn't find; skipped)

1 tablespoon black peppercorns

4 whole star anise

5 bay leaves

All spices are dry-roasted in a pan (I use my non-stick wok) over low heat (I used 4 on my scale of 1-12). When the aroma becomes strong, but before any burning occurs, remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes. Afterwards, grind in a coffee mill or electric blender. Store the mix in airtight conditions in the freezer and it will last for months.

Indian Food

2010-04-11T15:24:00.037+08:00

Malaysia, with its three primary races (Malay, Chinese, and Tamil Indian), has a great variety of food choices on offer: Malay, Chinese (many styles), Thai, Indian (North and South), and the occasional western style. Having tried all styles, our favorite is easily that of Indian food, both northern and southern cuisine. Of them all, my favorite is biryani rice (nasi briyani in Malay; sometimes nasi minyak = oily rice) with spicy chili chicken (ayam varuval).

Eating out with a Malay friend recently, I had the nasi briyani with spicy chicken while he opted for what is called banana leaf rice (nasi daun pisang) because the white rice and condiments are served on a clean banana leaf. The briyani can also be served as such, but I opt for the steel plate for personal reasons (I don't want food spilling down into my lap!).

I also opt for a dried chili that has been marinated in yoghurt for two days, dried in the sun (or oven), and then deep-fried until crisp. One or two crushed and distributed over the rice adds a bit of heat, but more importantly a nice burnt flavor. I still cannot pronounce the name of the chili (though several Tamil have tried to teach me), but one of my Indian cookbooks calls it moru milaggai (marinated yoghurt chillies).

Several years ago I purchased a great book which describes how to prepare the South Indian style of food. The South Indian Cookbook (what else could it be titled?) by Devagi Sanmugam gives recipes for authentic Indian food. Although seemingly unavailable on Amazon.com, there are several alternatives.

South Indian Cookbooks

Redang Island Just Got Expensive!!

2010-04-09T15:53:00.004+08:00

There are several islands off the east coast of peninsular Malaysia that have been popular over the years, first with the backpacker crowd, then with the locals, and finally with the rich-and-famous, who typically want higher-end accommodations. Islands such as the Perhentians (Big and Little), Redang, Tioman, and Kapas have enjoyed growing popularity albeit slowly, which is good for sustainable development.

Thus it was with shock that I read this morning that the state government of Terengganu plans on setting a minimum hotel price of US$500 (~RM1600) per room per day! The goal, of course, is to close down low-cost beach cottage hotels that do not have sufficient sewage treatment facilities. This is understandable, but considering the high cost being implemented, the island -one of the finest in the world- will be off-limits to all but the rich. Is this really the road that Terengganu wants to take?

The knock-on issue, of course, is that pressure from the low-end of the market will be put on the remaining islands, and there will be motivation to put into place eventually higher-price requirements there also.

Pahang State Mosque

2010-04-07T15:20:00.023+08:00

The Sultan Ahmad Shah state mosque in Kuantan, also called the Pahang State mosque (Masjid Negeri Pahang) is an impressive structure smack dab in the middle of Kuantan. After living in the Kuantan area for several years, but only seeing the mosque from the outside, I had the opportunity this past week to take a brief tour inside. A visiting British couple were keen to visit a mosque and as we were near, we stopped by. A very friendly lady (a Hajjah, meaning that she has made the Haj trip at least once), brought us in and gave a fairly concise explanation of how the mosque is utilised for prayers, especially for Friday's prayers, the main prayer day of the week.

This mosque is huge, and has a very impressive domed ceiling. Looking closely, one can see Arabic calligraphy along the base of the dome's rim. There are also beautiful blue and gold stained glass windows. It was built over the period 1991-1993, and is easily one of Kuantan's most notable features.

Iranian Cherry Juice

2010-04-03T11:44:00.023+08:00

While looking for something interesting to drink at lunch time, I was pleasantly surprised to find a box of Sour Cherry Juice, something that I love but rarely find. After buying it, I read the labels all around (English and Arabic script) and was surprised to discover that it is a product of Urmia, Iran. As an American citizen, we cannot get Iranian products in the USA, but of course those items are available in Malaysia, which trades with all nations except Israel and (maybe) North Korea. In fact, most of the orange juice that we purchase comes from the Middle East, most notably Oman and Yemen. As people who were raised on orange juice from either Florida or California, it has been interesting to discover the non-USA sources for such items. In the end, trade benefits nations and brings peoples closer together.

A brief web search showed me that Urmia lies in the northwest corner of Iran, up against the border with Turkey, and is in a rich agricultural region. In addition to cherries (obviously), the region is known for its grapes, apples and tobacco. Just to the east of the city is a large lake -Lake Urmia- which probably helps to give it a mini-Mediterranean climate; thus the ability to grow fruit. This is not unlike places in the USA (Flathead Lake, Montana; Traverse City, Michigan) which, although in the snowbelt, can produce cherries due to the moderation of the winter temperatures by the large body of water nearby.

Sunday Lunch Delights

2010-03-21T17:11:00.018+08:00

Went for lunch on Sunday with the wife and a Malay friend. One of our favorite restaurants is what they call a Mamak stall, meaning that it is run by Indian Muslims. This shop uses a tandoor to prepare some of their food items (barbecued chicken, baked flat bread), thus the items are called ayam tandoori (tandoor chicken) and such. Normally, the waiters use the term roti naan, which combines both the Malay and Indian words for bread, but today my waiter called it tandoori naan, meaning that the flat bread is baked on the inside wall of the tandoor.

Tandoori chicken in Malaysia is usually served with limes (kasturi or nipis lime) and onion slices. Naan comes in different flavours (e.g., plain, cheese, onion, garlic) and one is usually offered a variety of dipping sauces. The typical are mint sauce, dal (lentil paste) and at least one kind of curry.

Although one sees both Malays and Chinese eating at the tandoori restaurant, not all of the colleagues that I have taken there have been keen on the place. I took a couple of female Malay colleagues once, and although they seemingly liked the food, I realised later that they were put off by the group of South Asian men -who frequent the restaurant- staring at us. There are many Bangladeshi, Pakistani, and Nepalese labourers in Malaysia these days, and Mamak stalls are focal points for the one day a week that they have free.

Mr. Toad-in-the-Wall revealed...

2010-03-19T11:54:00.016+08:00

A cursory search on the internet has shown Mr. Toad-in-the-Wall to be a Malaysian Painted Toad (Kaloula pulchra), and also known as both the Banded Bull Frog and the Chubby Frog. So many names!

Many images are available in a google search. Also, another expat in Malaysia has also posted comments and photos about this specie of toad in their backyard. Apparently, some people keep these toad/frogs as pets! No need in our case, since he is already well situated in the back wall.

I waited outside one evening, right after sundown, and caught my buddy crawling out of his meter-high hole-in-the-wall. He was able to suck in his gut enough to get out, and then turned around and crawled down the wall backwards, like a mountain climber who has decided to go down, not up. Half-way down, he dropped to the concrete and proceeded to search for dinner.

Critters in the Backyard

2010-03-07T19:55:00.018+08:00

When we remodeled our house right after purchase, we added a concrete slab and roof in the back so my wife could have a covered area for laundry. She has prettied the space up with hanging potted plants and a hedge border. The space tends to be cooler than the surroundings, thus, it attracts critters, not the least being The Cat.

While checking for termites this weekend (present), I discovered a toad peeking out from inside a hole. The brick-and-mortar wall was built by the neighbor behind, and he only finished his side with cement facing, which means somehow this toad is able to climb up the wall on our side to a height of around one meter, and pull inside a hole which appears to be smaller than he (or she) is. Toad-in-the-Wall.

Another critter, rarely seen, is this iguana or member of the iguana family. He was extremely fast and nimble during the heat of the day, but I was able to get one shot off with the little camera that I carry in my fanny pack.

February Has Fled

2010-02-28T19:20:00.009+08:00

Is February really over? Wow; that went fast.

Well, the sensation of speed might have to do with the fact that we were busy every weekend, with weddings to attend, a Chinese open house, and social visits for various other reasons. My employer also decided to take some of my weekend time with student activities.

Anyone working with young adults, newly graduated from university, will end up attending many weddings. In February, we were invited to six weddings, but only attended three.

Weddings are good for maintaining relationships, for those who are present colleagues, and also those who are former colleagues. As expats, we probably get more invitations than the average person (excepting politicians, who use them for press-the-flesh sessions) simply because an expat brings certain cachet, especially if able to converse in Malay. "Oh, you speak Malay so well," is a typical comment even after having only said, "How are you?"

My wife and I both love the Malay weddings for the beautiful and color-coordinated outfits worn by bride and groom. We also enjoy the family atmosphere: one can meet aunties, uncles, cousins, school mates, former colleagues, neighbors, and on and on. The food is usually quite good, with some serving my favorite: nasi briyani.

Wedding kenduris are quite easy to find, just follow this advice:

1. School vacations are when everybody gets married. Keep your June, September, December and late February/early March weekends available.

2. Kenduris are advertised with the use of bunga manga. These are plastic flowers of the streamer type, very reflective in sunlight and planted at key intersections leading up to the house where the kenduri is being hosted.

3. The road in front of the host house will be blocked by a large tent, and many parked cars. If you arrive late, you may even see a large procession moving towards the tent to the beat of a kumpang, a group of men or youth who play the Malay drum and sing wedding songs.

My former neighbor and I used to joke about eating our way across the Peninsula during the wedding season. One only needs to look out for bunga manga and then follow them to the houses. Once there, you eat. If someone asks you (usually they don't), if you are with the bride's or groom's party, you ask them the same question. After they answer (e.g., "With the bride's"), then you answer in the opposite (e.g., "We're with the groom's.") It may sound dodgy, but really I doubt that the people mind. Weddings are open to the entire kampung or neighborhood, and I seriously doubt that even strangers would get turned away. Such are the Malays with their culture of politeness.

Crazy Counseling Seminar

2010-01-31T17:39:00.012+08:00

Corporate training seminars have become a big item around the world, but no place seems more keen on group training than companies and schools in Malaysia. Our Student Affairs Department (Hal Ehwal Pelajar or HEP), in particular, is good at finding things to keep us lecturers busy on the weekends, since we have to teach everyday Monday-Friday. That they can laze about during the teaching week, while we oversee the students they are to care for, does not seem to register with them. So it was, another weekend was nearly wasted.

I say, nearly, because HEP had scheduled the lecturers to attend a Counseling Seminar for both Saturday and Sunday, 8:30am to 5pm. At the last minute the Seminar was changed to Saturday only, 8:30am to 6:30pm. Changed for technical reasons, said they. Changed to avoid a riot, say I.

Anyway, wanting to be a good fellow colleague, I went with an open mind. The Vice President for Academics opened the seminar stating that it was to equip us to be better counselors, and thus assist in lowering the failure rate, which to my opinion is quite normal. Our marketing department has done a good job in recruiting more students, but that usually means lower standards for entering students, and the first semester tends to weed out those that should not have enrolled anyway.

The Counseling Seminar was run by one man, assisted by a small group of men, all wearing the obligatory matching jackets, and the leader began with a 3-hour, non-stop jokefest covering the topics of (mostly) his family, his upbringing, and his current job. He was funny at times, especially when I did my utmost to concentrate on his rapid-fire Malay. But his style of delivery was grating after a while. Funny faces can be funny....for 15 minutes. For 3 hours....???? Also, many of the stories seemed to go nowhere, meaning they had no obvious link to the topic of counseling. Short videos were shown, including one of a monkey sticking its thumb up its rear end, smelling the digit, and then passing out. Relationship to counseling?? I didn't get it.

Running until 1:30pm, the leader eventually noticed people looking...well, hungry. So we broke for lunch. Back at 2:30pm, he went another hour with his rapid-fire jokes and humorous stories, with an occasional attempt to become serious. Something like this: "I took our cat to the vet, and he charged me RM70.....RM70 to fix it so it won't have kittens. When I got home, the children said, 'Dad, how is it you spent RM70 on the cat, when you only spent RM30 on taking Mom to the doctor?'" (This is true; vets cost more here than doctor visits.) Laughter. Then he would tell how one of his children died at an early age. Hang-dog looks; people fidget nervously. And then, seven definitions of counseling from Western textbooks. Connections??

At 3:30pm, we were asked to break into small groups of around 10 people. The small groups were then instructed to practice one-on-one counseling. One person was to ask insightful questions, and then practice those words that we use to encourage open sharing, like: Uh huh....yeah...I understand....please tell me more. The guys in my group decided at this time that the leader had basically exhausted his material, and was killing time. This practice counseling went on for 30 minutes, and then we were instructed to give affirmation massages, while telling the others in the group nice things about whom we were massaging.

Another hour was killed by forming a large circle, and then going around the room and giving individual hugs. Men were only to hug men, and curtsy to the women, while the women only hugged women. Interspersed in these sessions were inspirational songs, hand-clapping, and an occasional appeal to our emotions. Remember, one of his children passed away.

The final two hours were the worst. Again in the large circle, we were all instructed to close our eyes and hold out a pen. Then, with Mark Knopfler's "Sultans of Swing" playing loudly, we were to pretend that we were directing an orchestra. One of his jacketed staff went around and videotaped everyone, following which we were shown the video. It was funny to see how some really got into the direction, while some just swayed to the music. We were instructed to do it again, this time to a Malay dangdut song. Afterwards, he went around asked people the % effort that they gave each time. Most estimated that they gave a greater effort the second time than the first. And then he unloaded.

Shutting down all of the lights he went into screech mode, lambasting people for giving less effort the first time, but more the second time once they knew that they were being watched. Immediately, they began a song about a mother lamenting her deceased child. Another song followed with a video showing the Islamic burial ritual. A couple of dead (and decayed) bodies were included in the video. What is he trying to do, thought I? In fact, his counseling session seemed to have devolved into something more akin to a Hellfire-and-Brimstone sermon delivered by an oldtime pentacostal preacher. Didn't this guy know that there IS a big difference between swinging a pen in time to Mark Knopfler and teaching in front of a group of students?? Such a pathetic appeal to our emotions it was.

I didn't dally at the end. I lit out of that place at the 6:30pm ending along with everyone else. Thirty minutes of content stretched out to nine hours makes for a bad-tasting seminar. Most seminars here are run by locals who copy (plagiarise) material from western sources. But, they do not understand the material so they simply throw up the overheads and read through them. But to justify their fees, they feel like the participants need to experience some emotional change, thus the group activities, also copied from the West, but also misunderstood. Normally, my Malay colleagues are congenial participants since being together is one of the values highly prized. But it was clear from side comments and glances that this seminar went too far and too long.

Badminton, Malaysian Style

2010-01-17T18:52:00.025+08:00

Now that a new semester is starting, our Student Affairs Department (Hal Ehwal Pelajar) has been busy putting together activities for students to participate in, and for lecturers to oversee. We lecturers are not really keen on doing their work for them, but one must go along, for the sake of harmony.

(Right: Typical sport clothing for Malays)

This past weekend, I was drafted into being the announcer on the final day of a badminton tournament. I thought that I was doing my duty in overseeing a student activity, but it turned out to be a tournament for the staff members of five different colleges, including my own. That they chose me -the only non-Malaysian- to be the announcer, indicated that the post was not that important. Still, I thought that it would be interesting for non-Malaysians to see how popular badminton is with Malaysians.

(Left: For the more conservative, motion is restricted.)

Badminton has never been a serious sport for Americans, in fact, our leading players are sometimes fairly recent immigrants from places that take the sport seriously. Malaysians love badminton, and the sport that they most identify with. Certainly, football (soccer) is popular to play growing up, but Malaysia has never really excelled internationally at that sport. In badminton, however, Malaysian athletes routinely compete at the top-level against other nations that take the sport seriously (e.g., Indonesia, China, Denmark).

(Right: Maybe not that interested in playing)

One thing that stands out immediately, to the newby, is that Malays tend to be more conservative in their sport clothing than other races. Both men and women wear full pants, although a few men might wear long shorts (more like Capri pants, 3/4 leg). Additionally, the Malay women will cover (bertudong) their heads. Some wear the regular tudong; some bandannas; but the most conservative will wear the very large tudong that is associated with stricter Islamic sects. One of our staff members (in two photos) wore her large tudong, and watching her, it was certainly evident that it restricted her arm motions. But, as you can see by her reading at the sidelines between matches, I suspect that she had been drafted into filling out the roster and was not that into the sport.

In the end, Malays are very communal in that it is all about being together and participating in an activity. Who wins is not as important, it seems, as getting along, and that can be quite refreshing. As I told my colleague -who had drafted me into being the announcer- as long as it ends, and we can all go home safely, the scores were secondary.

Politeknik Sultan Abdul Shah (PoliSAS) hosted the event, and I was quite impressed with their bucolic campus. Set not too far off a major highway, they had retained enough forest cover and natural wetlands to make for a very pleasant setting.