Monkey mayhem in Sumatra

Hi all,

A little post from Bukit Lawang, Sumatra.  I was about 4 hours drive from Medan, right in the jungle.  It was gorgeous, very quiet and beautiful.  I even managed to find a place where I didn't hear the Mosque call to prayer at 4am. Hallelujah! (Or whatever they say in Islam).   I stayed in a lovely little bungalow right on the river with a private garden.

Even by Indonesian standards the locals were extremely friendly - I literally had a queue of people asking me to come visit their families. However, I received a disappointing number of marriage proposals; not one!  (What's going on?  I thought I looked like Angelina Jolie to the Indonesians!)

Me looking strong, rich and pale.

 Maria has kindly corrected me by saying that I look more like the Gina Rinehart of Indonesia  -  big, white and rich.  I have to say I got tired of telling Indonesians that, 'Oh, you're so strong and so pale' doesn't quite cut it as a compliment in Australia. (By now I know better than to tell local women they look so thin and tanned, because they all want to look fat and white.)

 Osin, one of the women who worked in the place I stayed in, invited me down to the local village to meet her family.  Her house, and all the houses in the village were so basic - 5 people living there with just two rooms, no bathroom, no glass in the windows, and woven palm fronds for the walls.   

Osin in front of her house

The bathroom/toilet/laundry for the whole village is this canal, it's pretty much the social centre of the whole village - although I'm not sure how sanitory the whole thing is. I think the baby bath in the photo above was provided by a charity, probably because the infants were getting sick (or washed away) in the canal. 

So, onto the monkey mayhem.  This photo isn't very clear, but if you look closely you can see six of the little buggers heading into my room.  Agh!  I foolishly left my door open for a few minutes and they swung in off the trees.  In 5 minutes they broke a plate, pood on the floor, emptied my rubbish bins and took my food!

But, some of them look cute.

Finally, my two favorite photos.  This is the school bus - Indo style.  If the inside is full, just let the kiddies sit on the roof!  After all, what could go wrong??

And, this is a photo of the kids next door having their afternoon bath in the river. My fave photo.

A quick trip to Georgetown, Penang Island

I went over to Penang island on the ferry last Sunday and spent an hour or so just wandering around the centre of town.  It was an old Chinese and British trading post and has Chinese, Indian, and British colonial architecture – very beautiful, and remarkably well preserved.

 There’s hardly any modern development in the area, and its just been made a UNESCO world heritage site, which means that no more modern development is allowed. Unfortunately, it also means that the property prices are starting to go through the roof, and the locals are being priced out while old shop-fronts get turned into chic cafes and B&B’s.   Fortunately, that  process is at its beginning stages, so the place still has a very authentic feel to it.

Last night Maz and I were taken out for dinner with a couple of lovely (and very generous) people she works with. The guy, David,  is one of the founders of the school, and the woman, Yen, is doing the interior design for the new school.  Maria has met her Chinese twin in Yen, they are very alike. 

They took us to a seafood restaurant on the beach and the spread was amazing; the table was piled with places of food. We had cockles, clams, crab, prawns, shrimp, mussels and something  Yen called a 'praying mantis' - I think it was like a lobster with really long legs. 

The cockles were hands down the most disgusting thing I've ever tasted.  As I was putting on in my mouth I was thinking, 'that's strange, it looks raw and...is it covered in blood?'  then I popped it in my mouth and discovered why it was called a 'blood cockle'.  

I can't really describe the taste except to say that blood cockles make brussel sprouts taste like pavlova. I  was trying to be polite, because Yen and David were obviously excited about sharing all this food with us, so I tried to keep my retching to a minimum. 

Running a close second to the cockles was crab eggs; which look and taste like crab poo. (I was hoping they'd taste like caviar, but no.) Everything else was absolutely delicious. I have never had such a spread of sea-food before. And it is all so fresh. They have all the seafood in tanks as you walk in the door, so they just scoop them out and cook them. 

Me selecting my dinner.  Poor little crab,
it doesn't know I am about to eat its poo.

Butterworth, Malaysia

Hi all!  

I thought I'd post a few photos from here.  Maz's new apartment is really nice, and the view is wonderful. This is last night's sunset, taken from her lounge-room.  She has a nice little balcony at the front as well.  At any time there are usually 3 or 4 large tankers lined up to go into the docks, so we're also planning on getting some binoculars. 

We are looking right out over the Penang island.  If we had this view coming the other way (from the island to the mainland) it would cost about $2000 a month, but because we are in scruffy Butterworth, it is a bit cheaper than that.  (Ok, it's about 80% cheaper than that.  It really is scruffy over here).

I am Maz's interior design consultant, because the apartment is very neutrally furnished at the moment. Being a design consultant means that I spend lots of time on Ebay buying cheap posters, so I'm not sure how long my career will last. 

This is Maz's new school over here.  I couldn't believe how big it was, I'm not sure how 1.5 teachers are going to fill the 3 floors of that school, but they are obviously aiming high.  The first weekend was really busy, with lots of prospective students coming in to do placement tests, so they're hoping to get more teachers soon. The inside of the school looks fantastic; very professional and very orange.  It's a pity they didn't ask me to do their interior design because I could have got a great deal on some Friends and Seinfeld posters.  But, their loss I suppose.

 We are definitely NOT in a tourist zone here, I haven't seen another 'westerner' since I've been here.  The locals are a mix of Malaysian, Indian-Malaysian and Chinese-Malaysian. 

I was going to say it's a melting pot, but actually, it's the opposite because the 3 groups are quite distinct and even after they've been here 3 or 4 generations they don't mix that much.  Intermarriage  isn't common, and they all speak different languages and are different religions, so the differences between the 3 groups are quite obvious. 

They all seem equally prejudiced against each other - a Chinese person told us to be careful to lock the apartment because there were hordes of Indian youth delinquents around, then an Indian person told Maz to lock up her bike because 'those naughty Malaysian boys' would steal it.  So, everyone seems to think that everyone else is out to get them - which explains why this apartment building is guarded like fort-Knox.  They have 24 hour security guards, and everyone has these hideous grills in front of their doors, so you can't even knock on anyone's door!!  

Hideous grills - apparently you just shake them if you want to 'knock'.

The apartment building - looks quite good from a distance...

..but not quite as classy close up!

The food here is AMAZING, and ridiculously cheap - I ate for the whole day yesterday for $2.50.  And, it's just so tasty, they use fresh spices in everything and it all tastes quite different.  Poor Maz has had a big stomach bug so she's been eating stewed apples and mashed potatoes for a week.

OK, here's Mazzy signing off, Malaysian-style. Peace out. 

Lake Maninjau Photos

At last I have got myself organised enough to up-load some photos (although, since I sat on my laptop and broke half the screen, it is quite a task to use my laptop!  Agh.  I don't think I should be traveling with anything more technological than a ball-point pen.) 

So, here are some photos of Maninjau.  These first were sponsored by my 4 hour jet-lag...probably the only dawn I will see here. I took them right out the front of my bungalow, where the fisherman come to fish for little mussels.  I think this first photo is my favorite, I love it.

These are photos taken just behind my bungalow, in the rice paddy that you have to walk to to get to the road. 

These are the bungalows where I'm staying. Very cute (except for the barking dogs roaming the place).

 Afternoon tea...

 

And...sunset!  

Not bad for $10 a day!

Three creeks Lake

Hi all!

Well, I finally made it up into the mountains again.  Kelly and I went on a drive up to Three Creeks Lake, which is a  mountain lake.  (Gorgeous, but freezing).  Hard to believe there is still snow on the ground up there, even in August.

Here are a few photos:

Then, I went off to a local fair with Mary and our next door neighbor Michelle and had some delicious BBQ'd ribs.

The fair was at a local church, which had the best views I've ever seen. I'm not sure how well it came out in the photo, but the church was built so that its windows faced the mountains.

 

(Mary, who is Catholic, said the Catholic church also has windows facing the mountains but instead of putting plain glass in the window they put in a stained glass window with a mountain scene and a serpent. Go figure.)

Mary is flogging off her gun collection on Ebay to get a bit of money.  I have offered to be her model in the photos, so  my next blog post will show me modelling an 1890 Smith and Wesson.   Stay tuned!

Oh, I forgot one photo.  I opened the front door a few days ago and saw these cute little deers standing right out the front.

I have booked my ticket to Mexico for the 19th September...only a month to go!

Quilt Show and River Trip

I haven't posted any photos for a while, so I've got a few different things to tell you all about.  

My friend Kel has been doing a weekly art and yoga class for local kids who are on a summer camp program.  A few weeks ago I went out with her to the Metolius River and she did her yoga class in the forest. It took the kids about 20 minutes to do one pose, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves.

The river was gorgeous and I just sat by the bank while she did the class. 

 Last weekend was the Quilt show, which is the biggest quilt show in the WORLD.  Yeah!  Go Sisters!  Unfortunately I missed the big day, when 1200 quilts were hung outside all the shops, but I came into town the next day and got the smaller show. 

Some of the quilts were stunning - artworks more than quilts.  Here are a few of my faves...

The local coffee store had an exhibit of Kenyan quilts hanging amongst the antlers and stuffed animals...

...but still managed to serve up a healthy dose of guilt with each soy latte.

Kel and I went over to Bend, the next largest town, a few days ago.  It was an old mill town and the downtown area is now really cool, with all the old mill buildings converted into stores and residential areas.  We got our hair-cut, and then I went to try on some glasses because I stepped on my reddish ones a few weeks ago and broke them clean in two.  (Yes, they were on my bedroom floor and no, I don't know who put them there). 

Do you like either of these glasses?  Kel thought I should get something with a big more color although I like the first ones.