Melaka

Dutch windmill - complete with palm trees.


I enjoyed Melaka, although it wasn't as interesting or as big as I had been led to believe by online and other sources. There was plenty of time to see everything I wanted to see in one day, so I came back on Saturday night instead of staying the night, and used Sunday for a Singapore picture taking day.

The influence of various groups of Europeans can be seen all over Melaka. There are some pictures that I took that really don't look like they're taken in Asia at all. Except for the flora, of course. The highlight of my day was going to St. Paul's church, which was really neat. It was delightfully ruined, lots of headstones, really dreary looks, with a cheerful, fun guitar player singing in Malay. Really the high point of the day, and I absolutely loved that and the Porta di Santiago, the leftovers from the Portuguese walls, saved by Sir Stamford Raffles, who really seemed to have gotten around in this part of the world. Other than that - Melaka is good for shopping, but I guess I'm just not that interested in Asian culture. My favorite parts of Melaka were the European parts.

I return home in a little over a week. It's close enough that I can just about taste it, but far enough away that I know it's going to drag. I have seen nearly everything I wanted to see (I still want to go to the Botanical Gardens and perhaps the Chinese and Japanese Gardens and take pictures - I'm told that the gardens are only of interest to botany and photography hobbyists, and I do like to take pictures - and it's free), I've done what I came to do, and I'm ready to leave. I think it would be more interesting here if I knew more people, but I don't particularly like hanging out with other Americans abroad, because they're annoying, and I haven't really been here long enough to meet many people anyway. So, I'll be glad to be back. But all in all, it was a alright for a summer job, I learned a lot, and I got to see and experience some really interesting and cool stuff. Chalk this experience up to more positives than negatives. :)

'Budget' vs. 'budget'

I am going to Melaka this weekend, and I have just booked my hostel for the night I'll be there. It cost me $5.39. No joke. It looks clean, has good reviews, and is on the studentuniverse site, so I figure it's probably a perfectly acceptable hostel. I've never had any problems with studentuniverse endorsed hostels, and in fact, when I had the opportunity to compare notes with other travelers about their hostels, the studentuniverse hostels usually were better for the same price.

When I was planning my trip, the boys' father suggested a nice hotel in Melaka that he called a 'Budget hotel.' He said, "I think you can get a room for under $50/night. Really quite reasonable." $50?? $50 is a lot of money! I will pay $50 for a good pair of shoes, or perhaps for a truly well-made piece of clothing. I might even pay $50 for a ticket (I would have shelled out $50 for Ian McKellan playing King Lear here in Singapore, but unfortunately, it was already sold out except for the $200 seats, which made it a moot point since I can't afford $200 seats at all). But, I will, under no circumstances, pay $50 for a hotel outside of the United States. Hostels are gross in the US, so I will spring for a hotel if I have to at home. But outside of the US, most backpacking hostels are perfectly acceptable, clean alternatives. And it's just sleep - my bed would probably be just as lumpy in the other hotel. I can sleep anywhere anyway.

Tomorrow, we're going back to Sentosa. We were thinking of doing the 'swimming with the dolphins' package. Then I looked on their website and realized that for 3 people, there is a Trio Package of S$425 to swim with the pink dolphins here. This is a savings of S$25 from paying for three people individually at S$150/per person. So, we're going to watch a movie instead.

Tonight at dinner, their father was talking about a new electronic Chinese language dictionary that he bought. He said the salesmen were trying to sell him the cheaper model, but he opted for the more expensive one. He said, "It was only S$100 more." I don't think I've ever said that in my life. What gets me about that sort of cavalier approach to money is that he's such a tightwad about anything the boys and I use, but it's okay to splurge when it's for his own use (seriously, he won't buy me the granola cereal I like because he thinks I should eat the cereal he buys for the boys. I hate shredded wheat).

Both of these brought me back to the question of budget, and what exactly it means in an individual context. To me, $5 is a fairly significant amount of money, but not enough to freak out over, and I've never been much for coupon cuttings. But starting at $10, I start getting antsy, and something has to be really worth it for me to shell out more than that. I will pay for good chocolate. The imported organic European dark chocolate at the grocery store costs S$6. I pay for that - Asian chocolate has the consistency of melting rubber.

But I hope that, no matter what job I get, or what happens to me in the future, I always remember how I used to laugh at a $50/night hotel being in any way 'budget.'

Accompanying Pictures for KL

Here's the dude in shorts with the woman in the black tarp

Yes, that's chocolate. A chocolate dragon. TWO chocolate dragons! Awesome!

Petronas Twin Towers (now the tallest in the world, thanks to 9/11 - this was pointed out multiple times by multiple people there) and downtown Kuala Lumpur from the KL Tower

KL Recap

My time in Kuala Lumpur was great, in spite of one big mistake initially that eventually worked itself out. I was a little worried about traveling there by myself, I ended up not going with a package tour, although I did go on a city tour while there, and walked around the city a lot by myself. I was thinking that maybe Malaysians would have a problem with Americans, since Malaysians are very proud about being an Islamic culture. However, everyone was really nice, and I was really impressed. The service there is fantastic, only one taxi driver tried to cheat me, and prices are dirt cheap.

A few comments about things I saw. The Petronas Towers are really nifty. I didn't go up on the bridge because the line to get a ticket up was too darned long. I got some good pictures, though. Malaysian women wear the prettiest head scarves! Some of them were simply beautiful, and they're all so well-coordinated. Still, I saw how sweaty their faces were - they are not particularly comfortable, especially when you're also fully covered in tropical heat. There is definitely a generation gap - a lot of the younger women wear jeans and t-shirts, or even short skirts. If any of you have heard about Gwen Stefani's concert in KL, where she will actually be wearing clothing due to protests, you can see why this is interesting. The Muslim men's organization that protested her concert said she would corrupt the morals of the young. By the time you're worried about things corrupting the morals of the young, you're probably already too late.

Most annoying thing I saw - women wearing burqas (the full covering with just the eyes showing) walking dutifully two paces behind their husband, who wore the traditional garb of shorts, Birkenstocks, and a polo shirt. Why does HE get to wear Western clothing that's comfortable in the heat, and make HER wear some horribly ugly and uncomfortable drape? If the Malaysian women wearing headscarves were uncomfortable, I can't imagine how a huge black thing that made me look as shapely as a barrel would make me feel. The whole concept that it is a woman's fault that a man can't keep it in his pants is beyond me. If they're so worried about moral corruption, maybe they should look in the mirror first - Mr. Shorts-wearing-Western-looking-man. Okay, rant over.

My hostel, Pondok Lodge, was reasonably clean and decent. My 'blanket' was a thin linen sheet, but that was sufficient enough for the climate. The bed was lumpy and so was the pillow, which was also rock hard, but I've slept in enough backpacker's hostels that I expected nothing else. The breakfast also was typical hostel fare - one piece of sweet bread, a piece of fruit (peach colored banana), two pieces of white bread toast, and jam/butter packs. I also asked for tea. Anyway, it was satisfactory. The thing that annoyed me was that it is directly above a club, and being Saturday night, they were open and loud until about 2am. So, trying to sleep was a bit of a problem.

All in all, I really enjoyed my weekend, which is good, because I haven't been enjoying my stay overall very much. I'm still looking more forward to Melaka, but that's because I find the history of Melaka interesting, whereas I find KL and Singapore of passing interest, at best. Singapore is so safe, and the toilets are real toilets, not squat toilets (which I was also expecting, so it didn't bug me as much as before), but it's also a little boring. So, if you're ever in East Asia, you should go to Malaysia. :)

Final note - Starbucks saved my sanity. Because I missed my first bus in the morning (the mondo mistake), I also missed my tour to the Batu caves, which I was pretty mad about. Then after I arrived, I started walking and got overheated, and then arrived at a shopping center with a Starbucks, whereat I immediately bought a caramel frappuccino. I love those things! Drink them no more than every couple months, though, piles 'o calories. Anyway, it was fantastic. There are so many Starbucks in KL that it almost rivals Seattle. And that's impressive. I still feel slightly ambivalent about the fact that I went to Starbucks only once in Vienna, and have already gone a good five times since I've been in Asia. I guess I've needed the homey comfort of a fattening coffee drink to keep me going. :)

Kuala Lumpur

For the next two days, I will be in Kuala Lumpur. I figure - I'm here, I ought to go see that cool building from 'Entrapment.' :D

My hostel is supposedly quite near the Petronas Towers, and I am definitely looking forward to going up to that bridge thingy that links them. Anyway, I desperately need a vacation, even if it's only two days. I was feeling so irritable today that I actually yelled. Well, not really a yell, it was more shrill than that. I think it was a combination of feeling so bored I was miserable (I keep myself busy, but I don't have enough money to buy books, and their father hasn't gotten a library card yet - if he ever does - so I can't check out any books to keep my brain from going stir-crazy) plus the frustration of teaching long division. Today, 3-digit long division started, which is not significantly different than 2 -digit long division, but it was treated by my charges as something horribly new and difficult. They will probably do very well in school this fall, but these topics aren't usually even covered until the 4th grade (they're starting 4th grade this Fall). And, unlike some kids who did deserve to move ahead in math, these ones are better at English and drawing and imaginative sorts of things than math.

So, I'm looking forward to my two days of freedom from the hated cartoons and long division.
And I'm looking forward to going on the two tours I booked, one a city highlights tour, and the other a tour of some caves with nifty Hindu statues and stuff near Kuala Lumpur. I'm hoping to get some good pictures there. I am still more excited about going to Melacca in a couple of weeks, but Kuala Lumpur isn't anything to sneeze at. Updates will come shortly!