It’s been quite a while since I woke up in my own bed with my familiar cat, Mama, lying next to me. It’s great to be back home and to vault again into my two-ring circus of a job. I did of course do what bosses often do and snuck […]
I want one of these for my house. This toilet in the Grand Millenium Hotel in Kuala Lumpur takes care of everything, Watch as the little spout pops out to spray water then goes back again. Just don’t use it if you’re not sitting down!
After twenty plus hours sitting in the back of a plane, I reached the familiar house where I grew up near Princeton NJ late last night. Nat and Val were eager to find out about the trip. What I love about my two parents is that they are always so […]
We took a walk after dinner and came upon a festival, with pulsing rhythmic Arab music flowing from a corner of two streets in the Golden Triangle. It was the Festival Sampah, and the people crowding the stage and dancing wildly were all Arab. The music was hypnotic, the pulsing […]
The Great Hornbill is among the most impressive birds that we saw in Kuala Lumpur’s giant bird park, located in the ‘green lung of the city,’ a series of parks and a giant mosque. Strolling down lanes under a huge green canopy, there were all manner of birds, from owls […]
Tonight about nine I took a stroll down the big boulevard in the Golden Triangle to get a bite. I wanted to get something simple, and continue my tradition of eating native, (cheap). So I strolled down past about four dozen men and some sexy young women waving laminated placards […]
“It tastes like the best tasting thing you can think of, vanilla ice cream, or chocolate cake, in the toilet.” This was how Sara described the fruit that is distinctly Malaysian…the stinky durian. “My grandmother used to buy a huge four-foot bin of these, and we’d eat every single one […]
We learned about the patterns that bring different nationalities to Kuala Lumpur from our guide, Sara. Each country seems to prefer their own type of relaxation. Each comes at different times–July and August are Arab times, and February is when Iranian visitors come to KL. The Indian visitors, she said, […]
We’ve just arrived in the Portuguese explorer city of Melaka, on Malaysia’s west coast. This city is famous for the Straits of Mallaca, where pirates lurk, and for being a UNESCO World Heritage Sight. I remember being here in 2006; we even stayed in the same hotel, which is called […]
In the Meleka Palace Hotel in Kuching there was a sign above the elevator, warning that ‘no durian fruits were allowed on the premises.’ I read the local paper today to discover a photo of a man wearing a motorcycle helmet, holding one of these famously stinky, spiky fruits. Durian, […]
Sony and I find the women behind these abayas to be both mysterious and frustrating. Mysterious because I keep wondering how they sneeze and how they drink coffee with that thing on…and how do their sunglasses not fall off their noses? At the buffet this morning a woman wearing an […]
You can judge a country by the way they eat…and Malaysia certainly tops my list of culinary wonderlands. It’s just that there are so many choices…and everything, almost, is really good. Ok, last night I did sample a ‘national dessert’ of shaved ice with three different syrups that I left […]