More Malaysia...

Just happend to get a glimpse of a Blue Mosque (I don't think it's THE blue mosque) on the way to the Airport: We stopped at a "Petrol Station" shortly after - the fumes were so overwhelming that I had to exit the car. It wasn't the normal gas smell, rather a paint thinner smell.

My best meal in Malaysia was at Le Bouchon - a French restaurant in KL.

Started off with a cold foie gras salad, with grapes. Quite rich and tasty (no pic). The main was a 3-meat grill of Lamb, Rib Eye, and Chicken:
Dessert - Cheese plate.

Look: America's Auntie Anne's pretzels:

In the far distance, you can see 2 (3 actually, but the 1st one moved to quickly) military helicopters with supplies hanging below:

Memories of an unpleasant hotel stay at the Renaissance:

(L) Smoking in the lobby; (R) a used ashtray on the non-smoking floor (why is there an ashtray on the non-smoking floor?)

Photo diary of my Tour of Duty to Kuala Lumpur...

Ah, the Petronas Towers... just about the only thing my ignorant self could identify with Malaysia before coming. Otherwise known as the site for Sean Connery & Catherine Zeta-Jones' film, Entrapment. It is an office building, of the Government Linked Company (GLC), Petronas, and also called KLCC - Kuala Lumpur City Center. Other interesting things about Malaysia are...

• Buses often have a sales person on the bus who helps the driver get customers - sometimes, drivers don't leave the bus stop until they get a full bus, thus delaying the "schedule".


• Cabs often try to rip you off - skipping the meter in favor of a verbal agreement. This was quite frustrating, in having to negotiate for a 2 minute cab ride home. Also, they are sometimes so lazy that they won't even stop to pick you up, even if it's 12 AM and they won't get any other business anyways.


• The Malay government heavily favors the ethnic Malays, also called Bumiputera. For instance, publicy-listed businesses must have 30% Bumiputera ownership, developers must reserve 30% of new developments for Bumiputeras, and there are huge affirmative actions in Universities. I went to the National Museum, and paid all of RM 2 (USD 0.57) to get in - the Bumi's got in free!
  
• They have the "World's Largest Bird Park" - yes, I went - upload photos some other time... it's big, but probaby not the largest. Pretty cool, and I escaped sans bird flu.
  

Pictures from the plane to KL:


Surprisingly, there's some innovative advertising ideas in KL - the Monorail (their above-ground subway) is sponsored by companies, who have adopted stations, and actually get logo sponsorship on the monorail map.

Singabore-Part 1

(Note: Message started in Singapore, completed in HK)
The government is probably monitoring this message as I type, as the ISP I'm using is probably government owned/invested. Even if that's not the case, it's monitoring the web for anything that might cause unrest in this ostensibly harmonious society.

In my fourth trip to Singapore, I've just now begun to see that all may not be idyllic in this uniquely clean-air city-country in SE Asia. As I wander around the streets at 10:30PM in downtown looking for a cab, I wonder why is it that it is so difficult to get a cab in a city that's supposed to be so well-oiled. There are no shortage of cabs flying by, and I believe that skin color is a non-issue, but none stop because they are supposedly "on call". This phenomenom is something devised by something-probably-called the Ministry of Transportation, and seems like a great idea - anyone can advance book a cab for a reasonable fee of SGD 2. However, attempting to advance book oftentimes is an excercise in frustration with a busy signal from all five Singapore cab companies (or they let you know with the automated big brother system that "there are no cabs available in your area). By the way, all five are owned in whole or part by the Singapore government. I've heard that cabbies often pretend they're on call, either to 1) just to pick up desperate passengers that are willing to pay the on call fee; or 2) wait until they do get the on call call. In anycase, my suspicion is that the government fosters this type of environment because at the end of the day, they believe it results in higher wealth for the country. I think my own experience, as well as a look around at the ridiculously long cab lines at the hotels and companies (even during off-peak times), would point to the fact that this belief is founded on faulty assumptions.

During the past weekend, I visited Sentosa (a man-made resort island, which is an amazing feat itself). On the way there, I tried a NYC-style maneuver in the subway. As we came down the stairs, the doors were beeping as they were on the brink of closing. As I've done in almost every city with public transportation which I've been to, I extended my leg into the doors in order to cause it to reopen. However, as 1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds passed, I realized that Singapore is different. There are rules, and if you don't follow them, you pay the price! I pulled my leg away from the two sets of doors (subway and platform), a few moments after which the train left. Needless to say, I will never try that again (in Sg).

COME ON!

My latest trip to City Super in Times Square revealed some more extraordinarily overpriced foods. Note the head of broccoli which costs HK$42.70 (~US$5.55)! The Dragon Fruit costs about HK$39 or US$5 (To put this into perspective, in Taiwan, a dragon fruit costs about $1, and in HK a meal at a local restaurant costs about HK$30). Paying a premium for quality fruit and veggies isn't that crazy, especially for organic or imported goods. However, paying about 500% for these goods is crazy. (That said, I bought some $7 romaine lettuce the other day for my salad, and about $4 for my red bell pepper). COME ON!

Went to Stanley Market this past weekend to get a bit of the non shopping side of Hong Kong. It was extremely hot, so I wasn't able to go kayaking ,but the views from the number 6/6x buses were nice. Below are a few of the more notable pics.

(The Boathouse restaurant, decent food costing 480 for 2 people with sodas)
Stanley Beach (fenced off for recent shark warnings)

This is how they roll in Hong Kong

You've got to have THE car, not just any car. It must be a luxury vehicle. You get bonus points for loud engines. Multiple vehicles, rare vehicles.

Anything else would be uncivilized.

Once you get it/them, you have to annoint it with all that shows that you are in the SAR game. Club plates, China plates (USD 50,000 gets you this right), a driver. Once you're there you can't just rest on your laurels, as the guy who's got the adjacent parking space in your building has told you about the deposit he's just placed for the 2008 lambo. You've got to get a package - Brabus rims, Chanel upholstery, German glass.... (yea, couldn't think of anything better).

Custom suits don't mean all that much, as they come quite cheap here. However, well-tailored name brand suits / custom-tailored high-end cloth will definitely get you on the list. Even if you only make 20K/year, you've got to get the thousand-dollar her outfit if you work in Central. You can't show up to work without the latest in heels either.

Everyone's an investor, and these days - everyone makes bank in the market (except me). A friend told me that he was recently at the well-known rich man's Chinese restaurant, and chatted it up with a waiter. The waiter ended up revealing that he'd invested his savings into one of the many Chinese bank IPOs in HK, and he'd netted HKD4mn (USD500K+)... yes, he's still a waiter.

You've got to have a maid... or two or three. Heaven forbid that you actually have to raise your own children! Feed them? Bathe them? Dress them? Not for any self-respecting HK-er. They'll just get a few Bun-Moy's or a few Nepalese. They're like US$600-$1000 / month for full-time live-in service. You can ask them to make you any food you want, anytime. Clean this, clean that!
.................

Bored of Happy Valley Food

I'm so sick of the food in Happy Valley. I've gone through my local HK cha can tang phase, where you can get dinner for US$4. That ended when I found a piece of twine in my bitter melon beef (they said it was from the veggies). The rice there is also pretty bad, kind of day old and wettish. Incidentally, I like to get Wat Dan (slimy egg) anything, or Chicken with Corn. Next I went through the higher quality Chinese food phase, (Pang's kitchen), where dinner will set you back about 10 to 15 USD (rice costs extra!). I've also (briefly) gone through the McDonalds phase, given that it's open 24 hours and costs even less than the US. I've most recently gone through the Western food phase, satisfying it with Il Bel Paese, the local italian grocer which thankfully offers ready made pastas and sides. The cheese there is actually priced competitively vs. City Super or the Great.



If I want to go upscale a little bit on the weekend with 1 or 2 of the friends I have in HK, I can go to Yakitori Tei and Barbarian, which are equally good yakitori places (Tei has better atmosphere, but I've never been upstairs at Barbarian which seems to be more happening than the small downstairs).

King's Palace Congee is another midend (my hyphen key broke) Chinese place, that features a BBQ pork dish called SIK SUN (or god of food/cooking, like the Stephen Chow movie). It's good but has a oddly likeable sauce on the rice. It also comes with a fried egg on it.

There's a famous roast meat place on Sing Woo Rd, but it's not that great. It's practically free, but the BBQ pork is not all that. It's actually not as fatty as you'd like it to be.

Note: Tonight I went to Times Square to find some decent food. Unfortunately, all I found was some discounted City Super spider roll. I trammed it back to the Valley and had a chicken sandwich and a big n tasty. God help me...