Nonchalant - word of the day

We are on a NOT-BREAK. The Institute, and all the schools, are on holiday but we are not. We are "working from home" ...

Maybe foolishly we chose this time to go north (up near the Thai border) and see the larger city of Kota Bharu - which we heard has big SHOPPING CENTRES ... and stuff like that.

So we went, right after work on Thursday (that's the weekend, remember?) Not really a long way, but fairly slow going through the endless villages (cows, goats, ducks on the road, not to mention obviously un-licensed drivers!) taking about 3 hours. [Coming back we came down that 'big' number 3 road inland, and it really wasn't any different except that there was less chance of getting lost.]

So we did find a couple of actual Shopping Centres:

That might not seem very exciting, but we don't have anything like that here in Kuala Terengganu. We have a "Giant" store which is like a big supermarket and there are lots of sort of little stalls kind of in the foyer of it - not separate shops like in a shopping centre as we know it.

So ... mostly KB was just more of the same as in KT, only more so.

More congested, people-more-unfriendly footpaths with steep steps, smelly open drains, and usually no footpath at all. To cope with the tiny streets and heavy traffic they have developed a fairly haphazhard system of one-way streets. And as a long-term prospect they are building a system of huge flyovers but they are still in the mud-and-mess stage of roadworks.

There were quite a lot of buildings like this here in the city centre and also in the countryside. The windows have all been bricked up, and there are little pipes inserted into the bricks. As you walk past the building there is a huge racket of birds squawking - outside the air is full of swooping swallows. We can only presume they are inviting them in and collecting their guano. This is an older building, but some of them are very new looking, with the glass windows propped open and bricked up.

The weather turned wet, and wetter, and quite miserable (still hot though), and we decided to go for a drive to find the beach - we thought that KB was a place to go to the beach, unlike KT where people only go there to fly kites and they are basically scared of the water, apparently. We were puzzled by the heavy traffic on the way to the beach, and even more by the number of people who were there on a Friday evening.

It was almost impossible to get a parking spot, and the little tarpaulin-cover 'restaurants' were packed with people chowing down ...

What seemed even more weird was the people sitting watching the sea ... This is definitely not how people normally behave down in Terengganu.

But the next morning when we were handed a newspaper (in English) it began to make sense.

We didn't know about the tsunami - but they did, and they were looking for it! Of course, Malaysia was basically protected by the Philippines in this case.

We were puzzled therefore that the police on the other side of the country in Kuala Lumpur were warning people. So in Terengganu state the police were turning people away from the beaches - all the way up to Besut, south of where we were.

What seems really amusing is the little comment right in the middle of this news report:

"While most revellers heeded police warnings, some appeared nonchalant and needed to be chased away."

Well, that seems to sum these people up. Nonchalant. That's how they drive and everything. Kind of relaxing really. Gotta love 'em!

Making a point

or at least pointing the finger.

It's just not done, unless you use your thumb like this ... or you can use your chin or lips. :)

Friday Morning Out and About

We returned to the wet markets - where the man with the gun was last week - and bought a bunch of fresh veges. Then Peter took the bags to the car so we could wander a bit more, and I wandered alone for a few minutes. I saw an interesting little stall / cafe-de-wheels.

Well who wouldn't be curious? I don't know any of the words, and although the things on the left look like pieces of fruit (Google Translator tells me it's 'mixed fruit') I couldn't see anyone consuming it. I noticed that people were queueing for the stuff on the right.

I saw a businesslike Chinese man and I asked if he spoke English. He was pleased to explain to me that on the right was some sort of coconut milk (with ice), the next one (with what looks like green worms) he simply explained as 'powder' and I still don't know. The third from the right is something else with coconut - that would be the long white strands ...

So then he bought me one.

It's a coconut-milky iced drink, with green worms (they tasted like jelly as they slid through the wide straw!) and brown stuff in the bottom which tasted like the (sweet) brown beans the Chinese like to use. It was actually quite pleasant!! :D

Oh yes, and 'air' means water - 'air batu' is ice, but Mr Google was unwilling to tell me what 'cendol' is. And 'pulut kacang' is glutinous beans - what a tempting treat! It's a learning curve.

Back to the Supermarket - Problems with the White Powders

I wanted some rice - there it is in sacks piled against the wall ... not the sort of quantities I'm used to, and there didn't seem to be any small packs (after all, why would anyone want that?).

I thought I would buy some flour ... this one is tapioca starch ...



... and this is glutinous rice flour ...

... but I just couldn't work out this one.

In then end I found a packet with a picture of a corn cob, figured I was probably buying cornflour.

Most other things are recognisable.

Like those are obviously chickens - and at least they are already dead and plucked (not like buying in Chinese market.) Yes, I am still vegetarian.

Home Sweet Home

We really like our apartment here in Kuala Terengganu. It is furnished, but we found we needed to add a few things like a new (bigger) fridge (to hold all my veges), and some desks for us to work at when we are not at work.

We purchased a water filter that delivers hot, tap-temp, and cold filtered water (no more need for a kettle) and the little men delivered and installed it at 10.30pm the other night.

We were also seriously lacking in bench space - the gas stove (with bottle hidden in the right-hand cubby space) has a drop-down lid which we had mostly been using as a work surface, but, obviously, there are times when that is no use.



So ... sitting comfortably now with this new bench that we bought, complete with a tiled top.