My Malaysia Issue 2 (take 2)

Insight from Kuantan, September 2005 (issue 2)

After a long, hot summer, we are now into a long, hot fall, which, of course will be followed by a long, hot winter…you get the picture! Actually, I spent about 6 weeks with Jen in her Montreal apartment this summer (sans A/C with outside temps. reaching to 35C+ some days) and occasionally Pat would call and say it was cooler in Kuantan! Go figure! The monsoon rains come in November and our landlord has told us it will be cooler then...

Some funny sights I have noted: Muslim women in their head scarves and helmets on their motor scooters, scarf tails flying behind them in the breeze! One day, a Muslim woman, in full dress with head scarf, was working on her car engine by the side of the road…I wished I had my camera handy for that one! A Chinese girl at the MegaMall dressed to kill in a black top, mini-skirt and boots dragging a brightly coloured vacuum cleaner to her shop! Malay cats…mostly very scrawny, some with deformed tails (even bent at right angles!) or even no tails! At a coastal resort recently for the P&G Company Family Day, Pat was amused at how I had to use the handle of my fork to spread butter and jam on my toast at breakfast…for each meal, only a fork and large spoon were set as utensils.

Chelsea, aka “Crab Dog”, has now successfully caught three crabs on our favourite beach for fresh sushi treat during our morning walks! She is quick to see the crab scuttle into the ocean, races after it, pounces on it with her front paws and grabs it in her mouth to tear the soft fleshy part out of the shell. So far she has no idea what the pincers do…

First car accident: on my birthday in mid-August, Jen and I were leaving the grocery store at lunchtime when CRASH! We were hit from behind on the left side, smashing lights and denting the side and fender area. After we recovered from the shock (we were not hurt), I got out of the car to see what had caused it…there was a small pick-up truck (or lorry here) trying to squeeze between me and the curb on the left. He didn’t make it. A few minutes later the lady behind me asked me to move my car as we were blocking traffic, it turns out she, too, was sideswiped by the same lorry along the whole left side of her Toyota van, side mirror was bent backwards and smashed the corner front window, and, to add to that, the little car behind her had also been hit! I never did understand why the driver felt he had to squeeze by all three of us causing damage, but since my car was in the way, he couldn’t make a quick getaway! The rest of the afternoon was spent at the Traffic Police office downtown filling out forms and making a statement. Lucky for me, the Chinese lady (in the Toyota van) spoke perfect English and helped me to get through all the forms. She was especially annoyed as a similar thing had happened to her in the same van less than a year before! With the help of Pat’s trusty Admin., Erica, we were able to have the insurance agent come to the house later that afternoon with the body shop manager to take it away for repairs. It was all ready, looking quite brand new again less than two weeks later. In a society where graft is rampant, we were amazed at how quickly post-accident we were swarmed by representatives of the various body shops in town, who said they would take us personally to the Traffic Police office, they would take the car for repairs, etc. I just smiled, took all their business cards and said I would be in touch! In the end we had a choice of about five shops who would work with our insurance company. A lesson learned…driving is still a nightmare and one must be both aggressive and defensive!


Pat and I spent our 25th wedding anniversary at a lovely coastal resort about two hours’ drive north of here, called TanJong Jara Resort (www.tanjongjararesort.com). We enjoyed about five days there with Jen (who was able to visit us for about three weeks) and went snorkeling, swimming, enjoyed their lovely spa and delicious meals, and Pat resumed scuba-diving after a lull of over 30 years!






















We have a resident bat who likes to hang from the eaves in the carport, just above my car, so you can imagine what that means! The landlord has chased him away with his slingshot but that hasn’t deterred him yet! With apologies to Fred Penner, who used to sing about cats when the girls were little, “The bat came back the very next day…”!

We have a newly installed ceiling fan in our wet kitchen, which makes a big difference to the air circulation when making meals now! It’s not quite the same as A/C, but it helps! We have set up our old BBQ in the back yard and use it often.

I asked Jen to share a story which evoked much laughter from all who heard it:

On the way to Malaysia this summer, I had a 24 hour lay-over in Seoul, Korea. The first night, after showering and resting from the flight, I went to the hotel lobby for suggestions of where to go eat dinner. A very helpful older gentleman, with a moderate command of English, offered to show me a Korean restaurant across the street, which he assured me was quite good. We walked to the restaurant, and, after considering a seat at a floor-level table, he decided that a western-style table and chair would be more suitable. He then proffered the menu:

“Do you like pork or people?”

”I’m sorry?”

“Pork or people?”

This continued a few times, me frantically trying to figure out WHAT I was expected to eat (having already seen a rather tame, bilingual menu), until I finally said, “I’m sorry, but I really don’t understand what you mean.” At this point, he opened the menu to the pictures of the meals, and gestured at several dishes which clearly said (in English) “pork”—ribs and the like. He then gestured to the beef dishes, and similarly pointed and said, “See, people, people, people.” I ordered the people, but it really tasted like beef!
(addendum: after telling this story to a friend who spend 3 years in Korea, I understand that there aren’t sounds for “b” and “f” in Korean, leading to something more like “pee’l”, or, as I heard, “people”.)


On that note, I will leave you. Until next time…