This
weekend I decided to take a different path than on other weekends and be active
in different ways. So
on Saturday I met up with some people for coffee and then
enjoyed an afternoon in the mall (so Malaysian of me lah!) and on Sunday I went
hiking with a MeetUp group (if you know nothing about MeetUp, here is all the
info you need: http://www.meetup.com/). What follows are some events and reflections from this
weekend.
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I never
thought I would say this but I had one my best burgers ever yesterday in the
MidValley mall. IT was huge, the meat was glorious and the fries were made out
of proper potatoes. Happiness is at times so simple!
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Whenever I
go in malls I wonder in the library. Mainly because the concept of nice small
bookshops is basically non-existent in Malaysia, so that’s the only way to see,
touch and feel books (so far I managed to find only one nice small bookshop in
Penang – on my last visit though there it was closed L ).
Malaysian
bookstores never cease to amaze me. Even the sections they have are quite
telling over the general reading behaviour of the nation (mind you, there is
not much of reading behaviour anyways but still). For example, in most
bookstores the largest section would be Fiction. Here however, the Young Adult section
is always the most sizeable, taking up at least one third of the exhibit space.
I would love to say that you can find in it every appropriate teenage read from
classics to contemporary, but unfortunately it’s either soapy romance or
Twilight type fantasy stuff. Sad. The next section that amused me was Women
Fiction. I doubt I’ve seen it phrased like this in other parts of the world J This was basically your run of the
mill Sophie Kinsella and so on books (that by the way, I have enjoyed
tremendously from time to time). I just love the fact that it just seems so
unrealistic that a man would ever enjoy such a book (though they’re probably
right on this one).
One quite
annoying fact about Malaysia is that books are expensive (basically, same as
European prices if not even more at times). With the exception of classics –
you know, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Scott F Fitzgerald etc. Those are dirt
cheap – However, for the whole duration of my staying there (which was about an
hour I guess), myself and one other lady were the sole visitors of the section.
Sad again. However, I got inspired and decided to buy as presents for my
teenagers some of these classic books. I tried to pick for each something that
fits their character and interests – I just hope that now or later they would
read them!!!
Last but
not least, the fact that produces most sadness to me in libraries here is that
the Malaysian literature part is so tiny. Seriously…2 shelves. You have the
Asian Fiction part that is huge (mainly occupied by Chinese, Indian and
Japanese in all fairness) and then the Malaysian titles are soooo little. I
find it really sad that the country does not have a culture neither of writing,
nor of reading. I am assuming that the former is because of the conditions also
– I wouldn’t go as far as saying that censorship is in place, but you’re not
going to find very strong outright criticism to current conditions either. So
far, I managed to find 2 books that are quite outliers in terms of being more
incisive and talking about current issues (both written by young contemporary
authors), but overall there’s not much to choose from. One of the books that
looked interesting on this occasion (a collection of newspaper articles written
by a young dude) turned out to contain in each of its chapters a “and this is
why Islam is the best religion on earth” caption.
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Sports
equipment here is cheap and good quality. Dangerous.
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I finished
reading “The Godfather”. I can now agree with Tom Hanks (“You’ve got mail”) –
that book has all the answers you need in life. My goal is to now have a “The
Godfather” movie marathon.
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This
morning I went hiking with an online MeetUp group – they organise hikes every
week (sometimes even twice a week). I kept wanting to go but schedules did not
work out. This Sunday was the day though! It’s really nice cause people carpool
also, so I could actually get a ride out (logistics is normally a serious
problem here).
Hiking in
Malaysia is a more difficult issue than in other parts of the world. Mainly
because it’s so hot and humid. So you need to hike early in the morning to
ensure you do not die of heat on the trail. MY alarm clock was set at 5.15 this
morning. What with driving and waiting for everyone to gather (we were in the end a group of about
35 people), we started hiking around 7:45 – 8. At 11:20 we were back at the
car.
The whole
experience was super nice. The trail was moderately hard – at times quite steep
and slippery, nothing extreme but enough to give the feeling of a bit of a
challenge. The people were very nice – lots of locals (mainly Chinese – I
reached the conclusion that the Chinese are anyways the ones doing most extra
stuff in Malaysia) and lots of foreigners also (who mostly live here and work
in everything from the UN, to oil & gas companies, to sales, to asset fund
management. And meJ). It was a large group but everyone was hiking
in their own pace so you could choose what rhythm was most convenient for you.
What I love
about Malaysian hiking is that sooner or later there’s bound to be a waterfall.
Which means that when you feel super wet and sweaty and basically disgusting,
salvation arrives! You go under it, get a shower with a massage (generally the
current is strong enough) and you get reborn with energy. Which is what
happened today also. It wasn’t the tallest waterfall but it was awesome – the
bathing and the splashing and the pure enjoyment! Absolutely LO-VE-LY!!!
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Have a
lovely week y’all! :)