Happy 50th Hari Merdeka!

[Friday August 31st]
Happy Merdeka! Today was a National holiday here in Malaysia, celebrating 50 years of Independence! No more British rule, though they still drive on the left, call it a bonnet, boot, lorry, car park, fly over, petrol, overtake... ;)
[P.S. The Orangutan Photo is one I didn't take or see, d'oh! But I though it iconic since Orangutans are from Malaysian Borneo..]

Today was an interesting day. I slept in a bit, much needed. After getting up I talked with Anna for a while, also much needed ;) After Anna went to bed back home, I headed down to the pool to do a little reading and try out my new Goggles.

I managed to get about half way through Fahrenheit 451, its a good read, pretty quick too. Well the goggles works good, unfortunately the pool was quite cloudy today for some reason and so it wasn't the best of tests for the goggles. I guess I screwed around to much diving and holding my breath as a blood vessel in my eye burst. I didn't notice until much later in the day. Its all fine and dandy, no worries. Just a little blood shot now.

Well after the swim I decided to head out to go get some stamps. Silly me! National holiday, the post office isn't open! Well I wasn't thinking and headed to TESCOs, its another mall like place up in Georgetown. Parking was non-existent. I drove through the parking ramp twice and finally gave up, drove across the street to E-Gate and got a spot there. Nothing too notable at TESCOs except the closed Post Office, d'oh!

I decided to drive up to Gurney Drive, maybe get some dinner, sit by the coast, read, catch a movie. Well I got parking, not too bad but took a while. They put their car parks up quite aways, I drove up six stories of constant spiral to get to the first parking level! I grabbed my book and headed to the seawall.

I sat down to read and heard some funny noises. I looked out to the sea, noticed it was low tide. Still, I kept hearing the strange noises. What did I find? Mud skippers, and a whole lot of them! It was really neat to see them scamper and scurry about. They even were challenging and fighting with each other! I was enamored by them. I spent probably 1/2 and hour just watching them. There were little crabs too. Every once in a while a crab would challenge a mud skipper and each time, the crab lost and ran away. [I figured out how to post videos now, take a peak at the video I put together. Let me know how well this works so I can think of putting some video up for the other posts!]

I saw another move, this time it was The Invasion. It stars Nicole Kidman as the protagonist. The Space Shuttle mysteriously crashes and the debris is spread from D.C. to Texas. Unfortunately for us, the shuttle wasn't alone... It was a good SciFi Thriller. Not over the top, not over-reaching. It was a believable and followable story. Good stuff. They had a lot of scenes from the DC area, and I kept thinking to my self, he Anna and I were just there. We stood right there. And there. And there... Another recommendation from me. (Are you guys keeping up!?)

Well I thought there was going to be fireworks at Gurney tonight but alas, I guess there isn't... So I left. On the way back to the apartment I did get to see some fireworks though. Kinda ad hoc. I was stuck in a jam, three cars in front of me a bus was waiting to turn. Just in front of that someone ran out into the intersection and lit 2 fireworks boxes. The kind we'd buy in the US for a Grand Finale at our private 4th of July Party. Up they went, middle of town, right there, in the middle of a jammed intersection! Pretty crazy indeed!

Well Thats it for today. Have a great weekend back home!
-Terry

Dinner and a Movie

[Thursday August 30th]
Tonight is the Eve of a long weekend. Here in Malaysia it's the Malaysian Independence Day Weekend (Merdeka). Most everyone is heading out of town to go visit their families. The traffic, even worse than a normal Friday night. Sounds like a great night to stay close to home and catch a movie. So I did!

Mei Fong and I decided we'd go see a 9 o'closkish movie. We fought through about 45minutes of traffic to get back to my apartment so I could drop off my Laptop. Seriously, the traffic is much more intense than normal. The Coastal Highway was gridlock. A total Jam. Finally I approached my exit and everyone was taking that exit just to try and merge back in a couple of hundred meters down the road! The highway is 3 lanes but there were easily 5 lanes of cars on it! All vying for position, driving down the sides.

Eventually we made it back, MF made it back before me (local driver...). I dropped of the laptop and we headed to Queensbay Mall. Just outside the mall we spotted some colleagues from work and I shouted out the window at them. I gave them a startle ;) We went to go get tickets for Ratatouille but all but the first row were taken. So we passed on that but decided to see Fracture. We went to go get dinner and the afore mentioned colleagues SMSed us to see if we wanted to get dinner. All four of us had dinner at a Dim Sum place. It was pretty good, I had pork over crunchy noodle. It was so-so, definitely different. Had a bunch of other stuff like wontons, scallops, cold white coffee.

After dinner we walked through a small exhibition of Thai crafts and food just outside the Mall. Some interesting stuff there. The others had to split so MF and I walked around the mall with about 1.5 hours to burn before the movie.

We ended up stopping at Toys R Us and I bought a new game. It Very similar to game game I already own 'Don't go to Jail' but its adds some new pieces and new rules. Its a dice game based on Monopoly where you roll the dice to try and gets sets. You can earn houses for extra points. Be careful of rolling 3x Go To Jails or you'll lose everything! Its a fun one. We played on a bench at the mall. Every stopped and looked at us, hilarious!

Well eventually the movie time was upon us, after dropping all the game pieces down the hall at the mall... We went to the movie. We of course had to get the obligatory Carmel corn and Coke (mmm, Carmel Corn and Coke...).

The movie was great. I really enjoyed it. I must confess though that I now have this strange desire to build a marble rolleroaster... The movie stars Anthony Hopkins. He Plays the Smart, Educated, and Calculated Antagonist. It keeps you guessing what is coming up next, what twist will unfold, how will this turn out. I give it a solid recommendation!

After the Movie, ~11:50pm, there was a large crowd of people gathering around the Mall. We decided to wait and see it there were going to be any fireworks at midnight, we had heard rumors. In the mean time we strolled around the carnival that is just adjacent to the Mall. What a odd place that was, old rides that seem a bit sketchy, group carnival games that are more simular to gambling than traditional US Carney games. The ferris wheel was driven by a massive chain. The chain looped around the entire wheel and was driven at the base. Huge car springs were used as chain tensioner. The noise of the chain rasping through the motor mechanism was loud and disturbing. Suffice to say, we didn't ride it ;)

We did get to see some fireworks in the distance at Butterworth (The other side of the bridge) but none at the Mall itself. We decided to leave, unfortunately so did everyone else! It took us an hour just to leave the parking lot! I didn't get back to the apartment until after 1am! Thankfully I have Friday off!
-Terry

Tropical Rain-Lawn of Neenah

[Thursday August 30th]
In the warm and rain filled late-summer of Neenah, there is a little known ecosystem. The Tropical Rain-Lawn. It lays dormant much of the summer as the annual drought keeps it hibernated. As the Monsoon season kicks in, the rain-lawn comes to life and grows at amazing speed. It growth speed almost exceeds the walking pace of a South American Sloth (A Sloth typically travels a mere 6 inches a minute!). It is not uncommon that in a few short days the lawn can grow upwards of 9 inches... The larger mammals inhabiting this ecosystem participate in regular 'reclamation' of the rain-lawn keeping the ecosystem in balance...

A big THANK YOU goes out to Debbie & Jeff! It has been raining quite a lot back home in Neenah and the lawn has been growing like crazy! Debbie and Jeff volunteered to come out to the house, and bring their riding lawn mower, to help Anna cut the lawn. Thats a huge help, thanks guys!

-Terry

Movies and Ender

[Friday and Saturday August 24th/25th]
Friday night some of us went to go see Evan Almighty. Oh man, was that funny! I got cracked up many times. I'm not ashamed to say I was touched during the movie too, I have a few tears, and not just of laughter either. I highly recommend seeing it. Strangly enough though it was rated 18+ here, not sure why, if anyone has any thoughts please share.

Saturday morning I finally finished the fourth Ender's book, 'Children of the Mind'. It was quite good. I got hooked big time today as I read over 150 pages this morning to finish it up, what a long haul that was for me! I get sucked in my the Ender books. I highly recommend them. I was excited to hear that a Ender's Game movie is planned! What my next read you ask? I'm bouncing between 'Slaughterhouse Five' by Kurt Vonnegut or 'Fahrenheit 451' by Ray Bradbury. We'll see ;) Anna and I picked these up at the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. when we were there of the 4th of July.

This afternoon Nick and I went to go see War/Rogue Assassin, its got Jet Lee and Jason Statham (Transporter). The title is a bit confusing at its different depending on where you are. We really enjoyed it. It kept me guessing through the film and entertained. It had its twists and surprises, again, other thumbs up!

Its starting to sound like I'm a movie (and book)critic. I guess, just call me 'Sherman' from 'The Critic'
-Terry

Mantis Prawn

[Thursday August 23rd]
Ok, so a group of us went out to eat at a restaurant just down from the floating Mosque by Batu Ferringhi. (That's a beach on the North side of the island). They are famous for their Fish Curry. They serve their food Chinese Style. (We'd call it family style). It all gets put on a Lazy Susan in the middle of the table. You wouldn't believe what I ate though...

Ok, so they have these fresh Mantis Prawn. As you all know, in the US shrimps are quite small, maybe a few inches for a jumbo shrimp. These things however, are huge! They're about 1 foot long! They bring a few of them out to the table so you can see them fresh and strutting their stuff. They get real aggressive with each other. You watch them attack each other before your eyes. Its intense and scary watching them and their praying mantis like arms! After a while you pick which ones you want, typically people pick the most aggressive as they're reportedly the tastiest. They take them away and bring them back, shell and all, laid out on a plate.

Oh , they are tasty! Ok, ok, you got me, that whole bit about the table fighting isn't true, but it'd be kewl right? Anyway, seriously they are 1 foot long! They are kinda scary sitting there on the plate, you can see their strange arms. You know how fierce a bug the praying mantis is, you start imagining that this thing is also fierce, and its not that small either! Yikes! Now talk about a jumbo shrimp!

We had the Fish curry, it was pretty good but hard to eat. They leave the bones in the fish so you've got to be careful eating it. We also has deep friend squid, quite tasty!

It was a good meal.
-Terry

There and Back again: A Mountaineering Tale

[Saturday and Sunday, August 18th&19th]
A Colleague at work invited me to climb Penang Hill last weekend. I never got back to him and when the time came to go I passed. The next week, he said he and some of his friends were arranging a trip to hike up a mountain near Ipoh. I had to signup and go for it!
So here I am in Penang, all I have for hiking is my trusty work shoes, one pair of engineered fabric camping pants, 2 Polypropylene shirts, and a Gortex wraparound brim hat. Incidentally all of which I used when I climbed Mount Doom (Tongariro Crossing) in New Zealand. So I was a little bit prepared but I didn't have anything else, no tent, no sleeping bag, no hiking backpack. Luckily for me, my colleague's roommate had said essentials and let me borrow them. Whew, no excuses, everything was set!
We started early Saturday morning with a car ride to Ipoh. The 9-person crew took two vehicles, a van and a car. On the way we stopped for breakfast at a rest area. Apparently many of the rest areas here have mini-hawker centers. I had Nasi Kandar which was quite tasty. After such a filling meal I was throughly full. Back into the car we went. A couple of hours later we stopped just inside Ipoh for Lunch. I was thinking to myself how could they be hungry, already! Well most everyone ate, except me, still quite full! WC and I ordered some chicken rice to go in a baggie for the hike.
We left Ipoh on our 45-minute drive into the mountains. The scenery was amazing, lush rainforests covering peaks all around. We got a glimpse of a tall peak off to our left and everyone said, there it is. I saw it and thought they must be joking, climb that in a day? Well they weren't Right up top we were to go, right to the peak. It looked foreboding to me!
Well all of a sudden we stopped at a construction area. I didn't think we were there yet but we were. Just Park along the side an away we go. We repacked our packs, got situated and geared up. The 9-person fellowship was about to begin their trek! We started at about 900 meters.
The entrance to the trail, was fairly grown over. Just past the start was a little hut, very run down and just a basic elevated floor and a thatch-like roof. To my surprise people actually lived there. The locals called these people aboriginals, just like the natives in Australia. We kept going. We were slated for about 4 hours of up-up-up, no flat spots, just up.
It was a fairly cool day for Malaysia, couldn't ask for better weather really. Not too humid either. We were going well, I was getting quite sweaty. You can take a peak at the picture of me on the hill, notice the small dry part on my shirt? Keep looking, its there!
Unfortunately for me I started feeling quite sick after only about 15 minutes. I stopped, some huffing and puffing but much more nauseous feeling. I was lagging behind the group (WC stayed behind with me the whole time, what a guy!). I had to sit and rest, thinking to myself, why did I agree to this? WC had me rest and walk slower. I kept feeling like I was holding everyone back so I kept pushing hard, trying go up faster, harder, to catch up! I just kept getting ill feeling. Soon I gave up on catching up, and just wanted to make it to the upcoming rest spot. I found a better speed in which I wasn't getting that sick feeling. I got to start enjoying the hike, looking at the beautiful surroundings, listening to the sounds. WC got a chance to have some nice talks and the time starting to go by. After about 2 hours we made it up to a resting spot. Everyone else had made it up there, setup their stoves, and were boiling some water. We ate some snacks and relaxed, laughing and sharing stories. Soon though, we were back at it. Our next stop was the 'water filling station'. I didn't ask any details about it but it was supposedly 1/2 way up. When we made it there, the 'station' was nothing more than a small crick flowing down from the mountain. People filled many jugs with the water flowing straight from the stream. Quite intense!
Here's where both the makeup of the forest and the terrain to a turn. The forest was more of a drier place below this point but it started getting wetter, denser, and steeper. I was now able to keep up with the group, and share in the hike better. As we were climbing these steeper grades, climbing, sometimes crawling over tree root, gasping on to trees, to pull us up the slopes I began thinking to myself, "How am I going to get down from here?". Getting up was easy, sure it was a little grueling, but you can see your next step, you can find a nice tree or root to grasp and pull your self up. Going down? How will I manage, that's a task for tomorrow! P.S. Be careful what trees you grab onto, some of the Palms have some big thorns, ouch!

We were getting much closer to the top. The temperature was dropping, we could start to feel a gentle breeze coming through. It was quite refreshing! Then drop, drop-drop. Uh-oh, its starting to rain! We put on our rain gear quickly and started scrambling up the rest of the way. It was already muddy and slippery climbing up the slopes with only the tree roots to use as a solid footing and grip. How hard would it rain? Would the trail become a stream? Will my glasses fog? Well it wasn't too bad, it got more slippery but all in all quite manageable.
It did stop raining and we finally made it to the top! WOOT! We finally made it. It took us about 5-6 hours. We were now at just under 2000m. Thats a little over 1000m accent, ~3300 feet! I did it, I made it! I felt empowered! And it was so worth it for the view, it was absolutely spectacular! The pictures just don't do it justice! I could see the entire valley below and the adjoining mountains! That is, when we weren't in the clouds! We could see the cloud come arose the sky an collide with nearby peaks, just roll over and disperse. We even shaw a 'mushroom cloud' hover over on of the peak, quite stunning.
We setup the tents, there was just enough space for our tents, all right at the edge, plus some space for cooking. (Thankfully no-one else was already at the site, what tough luck that would have been!)
We had some good home-made fresh food. I couldn't believe someone carried up eggs! But we had all sorts of stuff, some spicy tom-yam, fish, pork, mmmm! It was a fun evening getting to talk, and eat, and rest. It actually got quite cold, about 53 Fahrenheit! Very chilly for the people here.
The next morning we went on a mini-hike to the true peak, just a few more meters up, of course we had to go down a way to get up. The true peak doesn't have any room for a camp site hence we stayed at the 'false peak'. That last little bit of the hike to the peak though I think was the most spectacular. The ground we were walking on wasn't ground at all, it was moss and roots. It was a spongy and soft. You can bounce on it, it had to be atleast 3 feet deep. The trees were covered in moss and it was just gorgeous! Just like out of a movie or a National Geographic special. We reached the peak and in true fashion, there was a flag mounted on a stick up there. Felt a little like climbing Mt Everest ;)
We began our trek down. Much easier on the respiratory system but so much worse on the legs! I wasn't sore at all after going up but going down, whew, that hurts! The going was much faster, after a few tumbles, slips, and some sliding. We stopped part way down and listened, off in the distance there were a bunch of monkeys. They were making all sorts of noise. It was surreal to be in the jungle hearing it all!
Heading down, my legs starting feeling like stilts! It was the strangest sensation. I couldn't feel them very well, they felt weak. I'd put them in a good footing and they wouldn't always be there for me when I needed them. They'd give out. It just got worse and worse as I was going down. Very strange, like moving your hips to swing your legs forward but not actually using your leg muscles to move your legs. You'd hope they'd stay straight and hold you up as you swung the next leg. Not painful, just not like they were my legs. Eventually we made it to the very bottom, hurray! We did it, we went 'There and Back again'. At the bottom there was a pipe that was re-routing mountain water around the nearby dig site. We took showers there to clean up. Oh did we need it! Cold, clear, and refreshing mountain water!
After getting cleaned up, we headed back to Ipoh for some famous chicken rice and some Pork Balls. Good meals. Our fellowship broke up and headed back in our separate cars.
For the next few days my front thigh muscles on both legs were unbelievably stiff. I couldn't hardly walk down stairs! The stretching was too much, I was walking straight legged. After a few days though it got better and I'm nearly 100%!

It may sound like I had a rough time and didn't enjoy it, but it was a fun and exciting experience. It was empowering, and majestic. I'd do it again, though I think I'd plan a bit better, maybe do a little stair step training ;)

-Terry

The Hunt for the Perscription Goggles

[Friday 8/17]
Well I'm itching to go SCUBA Diving over here at some point. Unfortunately for me I don't have any more sample contacts to wear Diving. My buddy Mike has some prescription goggles though so I figured I'd see if I can get some here. The Hunt was on!
Three guys from work know of a SCUBA place up in Georgetown. We figured we'd head up there after work Friday and see if they had prescription goggles. We headed out of work shortly after 5pm. I volunteered to drive, I saw the guys get a bit nervous but they were ok. As we were cruising down the coastal highway for all of 300 meters, we came to a stop. D'oh! Its Friday on Penang! Everyones heading off the island to the mainland. The traffic is atrocious!
Well we suddenly had 2 hours on our hands to talk and listen to music. Nothing like jamming to Aerosmith's Walk this Way with the guys ;) We had some good conversations too!
Well we finally made it Georgetown, now to find parking! Our stomachs growling, driving down one-way streets, I came to a red-light and I wanted to turn right. Naturally I began to turn right on a red, ahhh, stop! Can't do that here! Not only can't you turn on red, defiantly not right! We drive on the left silly! Other interesting driving tidbits not in my renters book (which I didn't get by the way, just a set of keys and go!). It's Illegal to use your cell phone while driving. Illegal to eat and drive. Wearing your seat belts in the front seat is compulsory, wearing it in the back seat is not. Strange, but true!
We finally found a place to park, we found the SCUBA shop, it was still open! Whew! Well I managed to pick them up. A mear 270MYR ($77USD). I think thats cheap.
Now that our hunt was done, time to get some food. We found a quick place in an alley to eat up. Quite good! I had to be cautious with the food, as tomorrow was a big day for me. Hiking a Mountain!

Sally Yeh Live!

[Friday August 10th]
Ah, the last day of work this week. The sun rise looking out by balcony was amazing. I had to take a break, relax, gaze, and of course take a photo for you guys! It was quite a long week and getting to see a view like this just brightens the day!

Once I got to work, I found out about a concert going on that evening. I was invited to go, they had another ticket. I didn't really know what I was getting myself into but what else is new? I accepted, brave the unknown!

On the way there we all went out to eat at a western food restaurant. I had to take a quick snapshot for the Wisconsonites. Yes, if you can read it, it says Veal Bratwurst Sausage! And here I thought there wasn't any brats here! I ended up having some sliced pork with a nice apple sauce glaze. I also had some interesting scalloped potatoes... They were more Crayola brown then normal but quite good. Ohh, I almost forgot! I, for the first time ever, had a Coke Float! It was scrumptious! It was chocolate ice cream in a Coke, who woulda thought it was so good!? So much better than the Chocolate Coke I tried at Ella's Restaurant in Madison!

We went straight to the concert after dinner. It was crazy traffic getting there! Kudos to Yoke Mun for her creative 'KL' driving. (For those not up on Malaysia, KL is Kuala Lumpur, their Capital City, home of the Petronas Twin Towers, as seen in Entrapment with Sean Connery). After quite some time we were directed to just park just off the main road, not quite the norm in the US. We hiked up a hill to the venue. Turns out a new condominium 'park' was opening up and they were the sponsors of the event. We walked around a little looking at their main facility. It was quite nice. I heard prices in the 500k+ MYR.

Eventually the concert began. They had an interesting opening act, it sounded like a fiesta pop mix of music. They had people in full costume out dancing, much like you'd expect out a Brasil. Not soon before that I found out that all the musicians will be singing in Cantonese, that's a specific Chinese dialect. So I didn't understand a word! It was good music and dancing. Between acts they had people come up from the crowd and participate in contests for prices such as signed merchandise, etc.

After a while, Sally Yeh was performing. Apparently she's a famous Hong Kong Cantonese Pop music star from the 80's. The music was quite good, I have some video clips with audio that I'll have to try and get posted sometime!

To top off the night, there was a good fireworks show. Quite spectacular as we were just underneath it all as the explosions filled the sky.
-Terry

Tom's et Company are gone...

[Tuesday August 7th]
Hello, Hello! Today's big news was that Tom Ray and his family left to head back to the US. They've had alot of fun here for the past couple of weeks but I think they're looking forward to getting back home. Tom et all came into Plexus one last time to pick me up. We rode to the airport, one last crazy drive for Tom. Have a safe trip guys!

In other news My customer from Australia also left today! That leaves me alone :( Maybe all my sweating was getting to them ;)

I'm still trying to get my washer fixed! First off, for those that I haven't told, they don't have dryers here. With >90% humidity, it sure takes a long time to dry outside. My washer though isn't draining right so my cloths come out dripping wet! I can squeeze the water out like a big sponge. Count your blessings with your dryer! ;) Its taking 3+ days to dry, by them they are smelling like mildew, eww!

A weird thing I saw today was a large cloud coming out of the residential neighborhood below my apartment. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera. It looked like some big explosion had occurred. I asked around and found out they were publicly spraying for mosquitoes! Here's 2 stories high of thick, oily smoke rolling through a residential area. I don;t think that'd be legal in the US.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention the significance of the picture! Tonight I got my first Malaysian Haircut. 12MYR. Thats a mere $3.5. It was better IMHO than Cost Cutters! What do you guys think?
-Terry

Food

[Work Week August 3rd]
I had to take a snapshot of the buffet here at work. It shows you the cafeteria version of Penang food. There is some curries, rice, and fish. If you get a change open up the picture and zoom in on the fish to the right of me in the picture. You'll see its fish, the whole fish, and nothing but fish. How you eat it is you just slide the meat off the fish. When you're done you just have the head and the bones. Even then you can dig out the meat from the head and the eyes (Not something I have tried yet). One famous dish here is Penang fish head soup. Its curry with a bunch of larger fish heads.

Here some pictures of work. Its called 'Seaside', if you turned around, across the street is the sea separating Peninsular Malaysia and Penang Island. Its a pretty nice view. You can also see the various flags flying. The one in the middle might look like the US flag at first but its not, its actually the Malaysian Flag. Its modeled after the Stars and Stripes. It also has 13 stripes for its 13 states.

Tom and his family took me out to eat. We went to a Hawker Center called 'Super tanker', or as the local call it "Su-pa Tank-a". From the inside it is a long canopy with tapered edges, just like you'd expect the inside of a large oil taker to look like. I had some Pork Satay, mmm, Satay....

Oh, I almost forgot. We went to the grocery store to pick up some candy before we went to the theater. I saw this Cadbury chocolate and just had to take a picture for you guys... Thats right, its Blue Berry Chocolate, now who thought *that* was a good idea? ;)

We decided to go see the Simpson's. Going to a move here is a bit different than in the US. First off they have assigned seating, so if you plan to go on a busy day you should book early. 2 days early in fact. Tickets go on sale 2 days early. Fortunately for us though there was plenty of room. When you're buying your tickets you can choose which seats. They have a nifty program you use to select. Odd thing was that they have a different idea of what the best seats in the house are. Everyone prefers the furthest back seats! We got to sit square in the middle of the theater, prime seats in my book. The cost of a new movie here? 10MYR, thats a mere $3USD. Quite cheap! The seats are great, its stadium seating, and instead of a sticky concrete floor, they have carpet! Now its not a big Ultrascreen but its still big and great quality. I'm impressed.
I had to buy some concessions. A Coke and Carmel corn was $6.20MYR, thats less that $2USD! Who can pass that up? It gets better, on Wednesday nights the ticket price is only 6MYR ($1.75USD)! Thats cheaper than the cheap second run movies in Appleton!

Well I thought the movie was quite good and worth the $5USD I spent! Spider-Pig, Spider-Pig, Does whatever a Spider-Pig does...!

-Terry

Happy Birthday!

[Thursday August 2nd]
Happy Birthday Grandpa! I hope you have a wonderful Birthday.
I Love you!
-Terry

Getting lost on a Friday

[Friday August 27th]
Sandy (my Australian customer) and I took an impromptu drive up to Georgetown. We got lost on the way and stopped at a random restaurant. The food was pretty good but no one there spoke English! We didn't know what we were getting or how much. They were real nice though, they gave us just enough and the price was cheap so they didn't take advantage of us ;)

Getting to Georgetown at night in Penang when we were lost was quite tricky. Navigating here is so much more difficult than in the US. Things aren't laid out in a grid and you can easy get into a smal 'burb' type area with only a few exists. Now finding those exits... And then when you do find them you are usually dumped onto a one-way, of course going the wrong way ;) It sure keeps you on your toes, and your brakes. Don't forget about the motor bikes scooting in and out every which way!

We eventually made it to Georgetown and parked just outside of Fort Cornwallis. It was quite dark, poorly lit, and deserted so I felt a little uncomfortable walking around for a while. After getting by the jitters it became a nice comfortable stroll. We walked by the State House and City Hall, they look quite nice at night! We only went around a few blocks and decided to call it a night.
-Terry

First week of work.

[Thursday July 26^th] Well its my fourth day at work in Penang. Things are a bit hectic but all is fine. We went out for a bit longer of a lunch with Kok Soon and his wife. It was a fairly typical hawker center. Booths scattered about. We all ended up getting food at the same place. We didn’t know what we were ordering so KS took care of it for us ;). You can see a picture of Sandy and I. Sandy is an employee from our Australian customer. He’s came to Penang to work on my project with me for a while.

In one of the pictures you can see some of the strange fruits they have here. They seem quite aggressive in comparison to our fruits. They have spikes, etc. Quite strange. Also you can see what I see when I look down off my balcony. Its called a ‘village’. They have some huts and free roaming chickens of all things. Very strange to hear the local Mosque in the morning followed by a bunch a chickens!

Not far from my apartment is the Queensbay Mall, it is huge! Its not quite as big as the Mall of America but I’d say about 50% as big! They even have a small carnival out in the parking lot. The ground floor is primarily food places, their biggest place is actually a mall version of a Hawker center! Its pretty upscale and stands out quite a bit from the rest of the establishments here not as authentic or gritty but still quality local food. Their only anchor store is Jusco, they have a little of everything. It’s like a Super Wal-Mart but bigger. I went shopping there for a steam iron since the one they gave me here is a dry iron. I’m bad enough using a steam iron, just ask Anna :) So for me to use a dry iron is just not happening. I tried it and whew, there I went to buy a real steam iron. They ranged from 33 ringgit(MYR) all the way up to 270MYR. I got the cheap 33MYR which is about $10USD (US Dollars).

Buying stuff here can be a bit different. For example, they have a ‘testing counter’ here. When you buy something such as the iron I bought, you take it to the testing counter where they unbox it and try to make sure it works. After that they validate the warrenty to prove it did work. Its quite strange, I guess to keep prices down they skip the quality control that we’re used too! ;)

Well The weekend will bring quite a bit of fun I’m sure. Stay tuned!

-Terry