The mundane routine of work-shop-eat-sleep has cought up with us here, and both Marta and I are busy with our new and old projects, catching up with time lost. Yes, we spend more time in our offices than at the pool, folks, and we haven't seen a single tropical beach yet.
Marta's been on a business trip to Singapore this week (where she is delighted to note there are no rats and the streets are clean - though I maintain that their little over-controlled state is worse than communism). Now she has met all people dealing with her conference products and can get some new ideas to work - she's enjoying it. It's good we live close to her office - she gave her number to her team and asked them to tell her for any morning delays and now the sms-es that come in give us a pretty good idea of the traffic jams around town.
I'm slaving away at the first editions of the new Skopje (Macedonia) and Pristina (Kosovo) city guides for In Your Pocket, which are coming along nicely, though there are always a million more details to think of just when you though you were getting there.
Last weekend we visited a Philhamonic Orchestra concert in the new hall which is in the Petronas Twin Towers complex, a 10-minute walk from our flat. With tickets at about 12 euros and the full orchestra wacking out Shostakovitch it was a good deal. They played 'Fratres' by the Estonian Arvo Part which was beautiful, with one droning background note going through the whole piece - listen to it if you can. It's a very nice but small concert hall compared to the usual size in Europe which means that all seats are OK. They insist on people dressing up for the occasion and it's suits only - I didn't have a jacket of course so they gave me a nasty polyester one to wear for the event. A hall half full of frumpy polyester jackets didn't seem particularly posh to me though. Because it's Malaysia, you can also enter wearing a batik shirt, which is the silk national costume - but these really look awful as the designs seem to try to outdo one another in bad taste - black silk with a pattern of large red and orange triangles for instance, or Hawaii-style flowers... awful. Perhaps they're all members of the polyester jacket protest group.
Though a KL website we've found a group of people meeting up at different bar every week and that's been fun to go to - otherwise we're often to knackered to stay up long beyond 22:00 or flop on the couch with a pirated DVD.
The pirates here have a good little industry going. It's always the Chinese selling them (as opposed to the Malays and Indians living here), I guess because they have better contacts with the homeland factories, good business sense and no morals. The media in Malaysia is controlled to the absurd, with the government in control of most newspapers and all TV coming in (even the satellite channels - there's just the one state company and I hear it's forbidden to point your dish at any other satellite). And with them being politically over-correct that means everything on TV is shredded in order to cut out any swearing or scenes with flesh. Gruesome gory violence is fine, of course, but people kissing on screen is a threat to the local youth's morals (or perhaps the politician's votes). Some films like Brokeback Mountain are banned altogether. So this is where the Chinese shops come in handy. Stacks of DVDs, all uncensored, and for sale for 8 ringgit, under 2 euros, each. The selection is not too impressive with 80% Hollywood shit, but there are occasional gems, and once you make clear you may be a return customer, they will actually tell you which are the good copies and which were made in the cinema with a camcorder.
Some time ago we visited KL's famous bird park - the biggest in the world they say - which is basically a lush valley with a net slung over it. Some birds flap free through the area, other such as the large Brahmin Kites (which can swallow an Asian in one gulp) are behind bars in sometimes very small cages. Malaysia's speciality is the hornbill - birds with huge and weird beaks that are evolved to crack open nuts and fruit and toss it into their throats. The biggest was perhaps 75cm high - and a stupid kid whose stupid dad let him stuck his fingers through the bars nearly lost some of them. We've added the pics to this posting.
There's also a few pictures of the Bangsar pasar malam, or evening market. Bangsar is a middle-class residential suburb which is pleasant for expats as it has a good concentration of cafés, bars, bookshops and restaurants. It's not as exciting as it sounds though, but the Sunday evening street market is certainly fun - with lots of fresh food for sale of the point-and-eat variety; fish, Malaysian dishes, do-it-yourself street fondue (called steamboats for some reason), etcetera. Despite all the food there was little eating going on - most people seem to take it home in plastic bags.
Selamat tinggal, everybody.
More thumbnails ...
2 votes 
