Malaysian Internet.....!!! At last.....

My last post was in August, and this is the first post since because things in Malaysia happen very slowly indeed, and it has taken 5 weeks to get online over here. Just for the record we have gone with Unifi (TM) and it costs out here for unlimited internet a land line phone and a small TV package (No English channels) 210MR a month, which equates to £31 a month so very much a UK price.

The issue is that in the last 5 weeks a lot has happen we have experienced a great deal and to play catch could be a timely process, where do I start...where do I start.....mmmmmm

The Streets when out and about....

 The streets look scummy at first glance due to the deep and unmanaged drainage system, it just looks dirty and full of disease etc, and god knows what creatures and bugs may be lurking in there, these are are 2 ft wide 5 ft deep street drains to cope with rain water run off. Behind all the streets where the real people and restaurant owners throw their rubbish out and clean their equipment and store all kinds of junk, the back yards essentially are filthy, they look terrible and make you wonder what it is you’re eating at the front when the back looks so bad. Some areas where hawker stalls are about you really do wonder if you will survive eating there. But I have not been ill yet. Maybe we have been too sanitized in the UK to the point of ridicule. When I worked as a chef years ago food hygiene was very important and rules dictated what and how you did things to make sure you kept your customers safe and well. But this is the weird thing, these hawker stalls would be unfrequented if anyone got ill and the rumour got out, they’d go bust, one of the rules I always stick to anywhere in the world is if it’s busy its probably ok and this seems to have worked out here to date.

As the night gets busy at Hawker stall areas they just pile up the plastic plates, cups etc and all of the food scrapings just get dumped on the street, in massive piles just a few yards away from tables. It is very hard to say to your British safe self that it’s ok, the food will be fine, it is after all a third world country that wants to be a first world one, but it has a long way to go – fix the sanitation and drainage and we’ll talk…But as said not been ill yet, so maybe we are over the top in the UK. But it does test your trust to be fair esp i this heat and humidity. 

I went to an Indian place once; open air no Aircon, asked the boy how to order, he gave me some chicken so and so and some rice and put some sauce on it for me and sat me down on the bench, I jumped in as I was starving and my first shock was that the meat is always on the bone, its not a nice chicken fillet from ASDA diced perfectly for you, when they cut a chicken up here they just lay the chicken down and hack the crap out of it just breaking it into smaller pieces, and sell every part of it and I mean every part of it, we’ve been to markets and watched them do it. So when they cook it they just cook it as it came…on the bone.

I looked around me at everyone staring at me and noticed they were all using their hands and so I did, this made it easier to get the meat off the bone but got me covered in curry sauce and I was wearing a white shirt too, the serviettes they give you run at the first sight of water and wimper and give up post first wipe…I needed a shower after that meal or a whole roll of kitchen roll may of sufficed… Eating with your hands is vey much a natural thing to be honest and I rather liked it very manly really. It was tasty so when finished I did my best with the water fearing serviettes  and went to pay, the guy would not take my now red dyed money from my now red dyed fingers and directed me to the next stage of the process the open air sink across the road to wash my hands before I paid, this sink was on the other side of the street…across from the restaurant? … after a washing and being grateful for it ( a shower would have been better if honest) I returned to pay 9MR (£1.40) for rice meat sauce and a drink (coke) … not bad…I ask to use the toilet but that’s another story….for another day......

The night markets for food are a boon and so much fun, and its where you meet the real people of Malaysia and get the best deals and can haggle and talk with them all, they are very curious of us, it is only the young who are less so, you get a lot of smiles and when your near people they start talking in English as if to show off that they can speak it, its cute and most peeps are very friendly, smiles abound and everyone tries to explain things to you when your asking questions. The markets are full of life and colour and crazy in a sense, I have a fold up plastic plate I carry with me so I can try food on the hoof...I also carry my own fork...

Rich and Poor side by side. 

There are of course millionaires here lots of them made obvious by the homes on show, we live in a very wealthy area a quick 1 minute drive up the gated and secure park we live in and I am outside millionaires homes, of which are under guard 24 hours and managed by a team of maids when they are not in residence, a million miles away from the back streets of down town and old town (which has more life and character to be fair).

But here’s the thing the diversity and clear as crystal split between the have’s and have not’s is stunning, go down nearly any street and they can be found rubbing shoulder with each other next door literally….making it all constantly interesting.

There are housing estates that to me look like modern futuristic coronation street type streets, these new housing projects look clinical and cold and the houses are huge too huge to be honest, they have been thrown up and look at first glance really swish, but stop and take a little more time over the viewing and you start to see the poor workmanship and finishing and you start to wonder. And devoid of greenery they look terrible In contrast to older buildings surrounded by jungle greenery.

The streets really are where its at as always I guess, so much life is going on it is a head spin sometimes and you have to just simply stop and take stock, let it in, let it wash it over you like a wave, trying to compare it to the UK will ruin your experience, its simply not home, but then home was getting rather boring wasn’t it.

Shop houses as they are called, are rows and rows of small units a few quirky things I have noticed is that most not all but most have buzzers, you have to be let in, you cant just walk in. They are very security wary, also this means that prior to going in you try to stare into the premises through the glass because your curious and nosey and want a look before walking in, but the glass is more often than not tinted due to the sun here and so you don’t see much if anything, but when you get inside you realise how much of a twat you looked staring in over someone’s dinner party right by the window, and they could see you squinting in….not looking your best. I now just walk in after buzzing.

From the outside a lot of these units are shabby and left un cared for, but when you walk in some of them, are like boom…swish contemporary modernity awaits, fitted out really nicely it takes you back for a moment as you expect them all to be shabby…but no and some of the malls are excellent very modern indeed and very airy as its so hot.

To sum up the streets is hard, but they are fascinating places full of life and contradictions but demand your attention and have a romantic old worldly feel to them, I hope they never change.