I was sure I lost this. Now logging back here, and seeing my last post in 2014! What a kicker. It has been 12 years since I logged in.
Glad to have made it back. Here's to a continuation of my writing, for me!
Monday, June 29, 2026
Monday, September 1, 2014
The Drive
What drives us? I've often wondered how is it that some people are living and doing everything that they've ever wanted to do, while I'm so very often dreaming of a life that seems very far into the future.
Yes, sure i could go on about the opportunities they've had, that the rest of us may not have been presented it. Such is life; unfair. But at the same time, I SHOULD ask myself, have I given it all I've got? Have I tried, once then twice and FAILED? The answer to that would almost always be a resounding NO.
Motivation is something I think that most of us lack. If we are, then good for us. It's often that the motivated ones make it through this hard unfair life. If we were all equally motivated to achieve our dreams, this world would have no choice but to be a better place for all of us. We would be doing something we constantly love, how could life be bad?
It's hard though, sometimes to feel so motivated in this harsh cruel depressing world. It's a gift the way i look at it, to be able to see just a little ray of light amidst all the horror. I'm pretty sure everyone looks at this world with disgusting judgemental eyes and a part of them (no matter how small) hates it. But the problem is, we never seem to think that we would be able to change it. This world consists of us! Us; the disgruntled customer that beats the shit out of a grumpy KFC cashier. Us; the boy that no one gave a shit about that picked up a gun and shot kids to only kill himself. Us; the men the boys that chose to stick a rod into the vagina of a girl and brutally rape and murder a trangender girl because no one ever told them that that was wrong. We are to be blamed for sure for all the atrocities in this world.
If we looked into our sons and daughters eyes and told them that they could be anyone they wanted! That we encouraged them to live life everyday doing something absolutely beneficial either for them or for the people around them, we wouldnt have grumpy sales people. I've met some amazingly contented and happy and friends sales people who has made the whole shopping experience a really easy one for me. I've met some amazing doctors and some really crappy ones.
The point is, we all need a big wake up call. We need to start searching for that one thing that keeps us driving to achieve bigger better things. That one thing that makes us happy. And as long as that thing doesn't harm any other person, it's GREAT! And if you dont have that drive to get off your ass and do something that makes you happy, if you feel responsible to feel miserable in life and what is the point because life is as shitfaced as it is; then think about how you could be that kid holding that gun, that customer going ape shit on a grumpy sales person..or that grumpy person.
More than often, we all need an external driving force. We just do. The Beatles wrote amazing music when they were going through the hardest time in their career; as they were spiraling downwards. And the reason why their music was so exceptionally memorable as their career advanced, was because they decided to begin writing songs that made them individually happy and thus ...greatness! They of course broke up and kept making music that kept them happy till the very end of their lives. That is why The Beatles are such an inspiration because it's proof that you could be making all the money in the world, and it might seem like you have it all doing things that please everyone else but you, but until you realise your true potential and realise your dreams, you would just be like The Beatles; grumpy disgruntled people stuck around other amazing people losing hope and moving deeper into that black hole.
If it took Yoko Ono and Linda McCartney or the Maharishi to make each of the bealtes member step outside this great big perfect bubble, then that's what they needed. That is totally fine! If we needed a great movie, to make us pick up the phone and go for that interview that we always thought we dont deserve, if it took a girl or a boy for us to fall in love with to put things into a clear perspective of what we want to do with our lives , then fine.
The last sentence is a little tricky. Boys and girls and falling in love is all very nice, but as much as the only thing that would seem to matter is a life together to look forward to with a nice car and a nice house, it would never be complete without each person in the relationship having a sense of purpose of their lives, we would have a mother or a father with a fulfilled purpose in life who will pass these negativities to their children who very often don't stray away from their parents, not very much anyway. It is so important that we have that motivation in life, that someone or something drives us constantly to make bigger greater things of our lives, or the lives of the people around us.
First thing in the morning, I'm going downstairs to thank my family how much this has done for me. And I'm going to spend just a little more time to find for more DRIVE.
Yes, sure i could go on about the opportunities they've had, that the rest of us may not have been presented it. Such is life; unfair. But at the same time, I SHOULD ask myself, have I given it all I've got? Have I tried, once then twice and FAILED? The answer to that would almost always be a resounding NO.
Motivation is something I think that most of us lack. If we are, then good for us. It's often that the motivated ones make it through this hard unfair life. If we were all equally motivated to achieve our dreams, this world would have no choice but to be a better place for all of us. We would be doing something we constantly love, how could life be bad?
It's hard though, sometimes to feel so motivated in this harsh cruel depressing world. It's a gift the way i look at it, to be able to see just a little ray of light amidst all the horror. I'm pretty sure everyone looks at this world with disgusting judgemental eyes and a part of them (no matter how small) hates it. But the problem is, we never seem to think that we would be able to change it. This world consists of us! Us; the disgruntled customer that beats the shit out of a grumpy KFC cashier. Us; the boy that no one gave a shit about that picked up a gun and shot kids to only kill himself. Us; the men the boys that chose to stick a rod into the vagina of a girl and brutally rape and murder a trangender girl because no one ever told them that that was wrong. We are to be blamed for sure for all the atrocities in this world.
If we looked into our sons and daughters eyes and told them that they could be anyone they wanted! That we encouraged them to live life everyday doing something absolutely beneficial either for them or for the people around them, we wouldnt have grumpy sales people. I've met some amazingly contented and happy and friends sales people who has made the whole shopping experience a really easy one for me. I've met some amazing doctors and some really crappy ones.
The point is, we all need a big wake up call. We need to start searching for that one thing that keeps us driving to achieve bigger better things. That one thing that makes us happy. And as long as that thing doesn't harm any other person, it's GREAT! And if you dont have that drive to get off your ass and do something that makes you happy, if you feel responsible to feel miserable in life and what is the point because life is as shitfaced as it is; then think about how you could be that kid holding that gun, that customer going ape shit on a grumpy sales person..or that grumpy person.
More than often, we all need an external driving force. We just do. The Beatles wrote amazing music when they were going through the hardest time in their career; as they were spiraling downwards. And the reason why their music was so exceptionally memorable as their career advanced, was because they decided to begin writing songs that made them individually happy and thus ...greatness! They of course broke up and kept making music that kept them happy till the very end of their lives. That is why The Beatles are such an inspiration because it's proof that you could be making all the money in the world, and it might seem like you have it all doing things that please everyone else but you, but until you realise your true potential and realise your dreams, you would just be like The Beatles; grumpy disgruntled people stuck around other amazing people losing hope and moving deeper into that black hole.
If it took Yoko Ono and Linda McCartney or the Maharishi to make each of the bealtes member step outside this great big perfect bubble, then that's what they needed. That is totally fine! If we needed a great movie, to make us pick up the phone and go for that interview that we always thought we dont deserve, if it took a girl or a boy for us to fall in love with to put things into a clear perspective of what we want to do with our lives , then fine.
The last sentence is a little tricky. Boys and girls and falling in love is all very nice, but as much as the only thing that would seem to matter is a life together to look forward to with a nice car and a nice house, it would never be complete without each person in the relationship having a sense of purpose of their lives, we would have a mother or a father with a fulfilled purpose in life who will pass these negativities to their children who very often don't stray away from their parents, not very much anyway. It is so important that we have that motivation in life, that someone or something drives us constantly to make bigger greater things of our lives, or the lives of the people around us.
First thing in the morning, I'm going downstairs to thank my family how much this has done for me. And I'm going to spend just a little more time to find for more DRIVE.
Ambitions
When I was 7, I wanted to be a garbage collector. To hang by the side of that banged up truck that used t pass in front of my house and fling large black plastic bags filled with rubbish into a big heap of other garbage. To me, these men made our lives so much better, they were doing all the things no one else wanted to do. I used to run out every other evening to watch them at work. How noble and extremely styled they seemed doing it. Then at 8, I wanted to be a bus driver. Every morning I would see the lady driver turn the big huge wheel of the bus round and round and how easy she made it seem. She would pick us up all on time and deliver us back safely to our eager parents waiting every day at the end of the streets. For some time after that, I didn't quite know what I wanted to be. As i grew older, my ambitions changed many many times but there was always a similarity that existed between all of them. They were all driven by events that helped me or the people around me at the time;making it a lot easier for a lot of us to just live our daily lives.
So it's no surprise that as I grew up and watched more movies, and read more my ambition shifted from a human rights activist, to a rockstar to a genetic scientist then finally to a physiotherapist. These were all things that helped me throughout my life journey to be where i am here. And today, I am a physiotherapist helping people in my own way making their lives seem a little better every day.
I love my job no matter where i am, or who i'm treating but I have to admit that when I was in Zambia, Africa it was when i looked and touched the sexually abused kids that clinged to my baggy jeans that i felt an instant connection with. It was when I was in a rural clinic in Alor Setar, Kedah in Malaysia with hardly any physiotherapy equipment that I felt I finally belonged. These are the very little essential things that keep me going in this often cruel world.
It's hard to remain as optimistic for change as I would say I am reading what we all read in the papers, seeing all that we see everyday. But for some reason, probably out of sheer self motivation and by inspiring stories of the many individuals i live my life by , I've managed to salvage that optimism to want to bring some good to this world. To change what I think should be changed. Being a physiotherapist, I deal with too many "illnesses" that seem to be self inflicted either by lack of education, lack of motivation and the badly run systems in place governed by the state. Needless to say, I'm someone who wishes to achieve all that I possibly can! We need better policy makers, we need passionate people to put better systems in place.
I'm still always wanting to be something new, every day of my life and that's GREAT! I hope if everything else about me changes, that that does not.
So it's no surprise that as I grew up and watched more movies, and read more my ambition shifted from a human rights activist, to a rockstar to a genetic scientist then finally to a physiotherapist. These were all things that helped me throughout my life journey to be where i am here. And today, I am a physiotherapist helping people in my own way making their lives seem a little better every day.
I love my job no matter where i am, or who i'm treating but I have to admit that when I was in Zambia, Africa it was when i looked and touched the sexually abused kids that clinged to my baggy jeans that i felt an instant connection with. It was when I was in a rural clinic in Alor Setar, Kedah in Malaysia with hardly any physiotherapy equipment that I felt I finally belonged. These are the very little essential things that keep me going in this often cruel world.
It's hard to remain as optimistic for change as I would say I am reading what we all read in the papers, seeing all that we see everyday. But for some reason, probably out of sheer self motivation and by inspiring stories of the many individuals i live my life by , I've managed to salvage that optimism to want to bring some good to this world. To change what I think should be changed. Being a physiotherapist, I deal with too many "illnesses" that seem to be self inflicted either by lack of education, lack of motivation and the badly run systems in place governed by the state. Needless to say, I'm someone who wishes to achieve all that I possibly can! We need better policy makers, we need passionate people to put better systems in place.
I'm still always wanting to be something new, every day of my life and that's GREAT! I hope if everything else about me changes, that that does not.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Zero points if you don't believe.
Lusaka has been great to me. People are friendly and nice and extremely hospitable and humble. Pollution has to be at a minimum being although I'm living in a capital city. The weather is awesome, I love it! There are nice places to visit too although I've been only been to a few due to the unbelievable cost! =C
Over the weekend, my colleague invited me for a poetry slam here in Lusaka called Bittersweet. I've been to a few open mics/poetry slams in Malaysia and I am all up for any artsy event, so I was quick to say yes! We arrived at the Mulungushi Conference Center (I've been here once before for a friend's friend's wedding) only to discover like a whole bunch of people who seemed to be regulars with "Bittersweet" and "Please Don't Snap" T-Shirts. It was a nice cozy room with really good acoustics. We didn't wait long for the event to start. When it finally did, I was BLOWN AWAY with the talent that was there , on stage that night. The precision in what they said, their expressions, the poetry and the passion! There were also amazing singers, so young and just the most amazing voices accompanied with no music...I enjoyed that more than anything else that night.
It's been almost a year I've been in Lusaka, so by now I was used to the Jesus/Christian themed everything wherever I went. I told myself I'll concentrate on the deliverance of it all and that was what I did for the first 5 people that spoke about Jesus, being reborn, being saved, being loved.
People gave them standing ovations! Everyone stood from their chairs and oh no one clapped, too mainstream I think?...everyone snapped (their fingers)!
I'm no poet. I'm not a writer either. The most passionate I've been writing are on my blog and on Facebook. As I sat there watching these amazing young people recite their poems, what got me thinking was the passion that oozed from every single one of them , from their poems. They felt this deep connection with their religion/Jesus, sooo deep , something which of course I can't possibly fathom. Before taking the plunge to a full non-faith life, I never was very religious to begin with. But hey, I was cool with this. In a country with such a high unemployment and poverty rate, where people come from backgrounds of having no hope, of in fact a worst culture of voodoo and "black magic"...it's comforting that they have found hope, many have denounced such habits and feel loved and loved themselves. I was also happy to hear almost all of them condemn the churches for their greed in getting "donations" from the poor (If you want to open a church and make money, come to Africa. New churches sprout like mushrooms here). Almost all of them spoke about loving themselves too, which was awesome!
It was great till it neared the ending and a few people came up on stage and by now the atmosphere was getting more tense. People were fired up. The next act started off with condemnation of politicians, and I thought to myself, YES! I am going to love this. Then it slowly changed, they started condemning the women liberation movement. They called them "ungrateful". They questioned women who seek equality because they claim we were not made to be equal and that we should "shut up" and not be "stupid". The level of snaps around the room grew louder! Then they moved on to homophobia (of course this only seemed logical, Lusaka is way more homophobic than KL I think) calling homosexuals "fags" and asking why God would have made a man's seed full of life if it were to be wasted. MORE SNAPS! Then the final slash to my already beaten down consciousness, evolution. Scientists were filling our heads with lies they said, that there is no way we could have "come from monkeys" while still having monkeys around and that science had no explanation of how everything began. This was the final bit, everyone rose from their seats and snapped their fingers so hard and loud and were screaming in support!
Here we are again: from love and hope, to ending with hate. This was it. I wanted to go home. It was the end, thankfully for me. But at that moment, I felt completely alone. I looked around me and everyone was hugging each other patting each other on the back for the good job they've done. My colleague left with more hatred, more conviction for his hatred of the "gay kind" and the "believers of evolution"... I guess that included me.
I woke up the next morning to yet another whatsapp message he sent me on all the famous people who spoke openly about their atheism or made some joke about Jesus and then all died painful deaths. This has become almost routine for me, messages saying I'll be going to hell for sure. I take no offence to someone having so much faith in a God, I do however take offence when your faith promotes hatred towards others and you finding the need to condemn me and other people every chance you get. I might now need to search for the holiest people who all died horrible deaths too , I'll probably include a message like "How you die has nothing to do with how religious/unreligous you are. Now let's spend some time and think about how we have trivialised and used people's horrible deaths (which must have left plenty of people around them sad and devastated) to prove a ridiculous point. "
My closest friends here are my colleagues. I spend the most time with them and share the most with them. Obviously I did not tell anyone I was an atheist when they asked me, but this grew harder and harder to conceal. While it was easy to say I'm Hindu when people asked me (which they always do within 5 minutes of meeting me; What are you?) It was impossible to support someone, or be in agreement with someone who openly condemned homosexuals or supported the very common act here of spying into houses with more than one male resident so they could report them to the police if they were up to "no good". It was also impossible to stand by and listen as people spoke about women and their duties in societies and in families that must be given priority before education or any other choice a woman makes. Also, the crazy support of tearing "skimpy" clothes off of women to teach them a lesson.
So some time back, my colleague and I had the talk...of religion, women and gay-ism. I was honest about my opinions and he seemed respectful of it. He ended it by saying "The greatest gift I can offer a friend, someone I love is the gift of Christ, so here *he handed me a glass of water* take this if you want to be saved because it's inevitable that you won't go to heaven if you don't believe in Christ." I was disappointed that he chose to say this even after knowing me and the goodness within and although I was pretty thirsty, I chuckled and said "No Thanks!" but since then, his quest of showing me the light has not ceased. I am constantly invited to go to church although I've said I have no interest in going to one (unless they had an authentic African choir singing) and the "righteous" whatsapp messages and then the constant comments of something chauvinistic and absurd every now and then just to see me react.
In the past year, I've learnt to conceal my true self. Well, re-learnt. It feels like being back in school: when saying you supported women's rights and were an atheist was taboo. I spent a few years breaking out of that and finally found great people (regardless of gender/religion) to surround myself with and I got to be who I was.
Being in Lusaka has taken me back to THAT time, so many years ago. It must be hard for the non-religious people who live here, more so if you're alone. I never thought I'd say this but I especially miss being the atheist/feminist person I was/am in Malaysia, also not being hounded/provoked every other day just for a reaction.
Over the weekend, my colleague invited me for a poetry slam here in Lusaka called Bittersweet. I've been to a few open mics/poetry slams in Malaysia and I am all up for any artsy event, so I was quick to say yes! We arrived at the Mulungushi Conference Center (I've been here once before for a friend's friend's wedding) only to discover like a whole bunch of people who seemed to be regulars with "Bittersweet" and "Please Don't Snap" T-Shirts. It was a nice cozy room with really good acoustics. We didn't wait long for the event to start. When it finally did, I was BLOWN AWAY with the talent that was there , on stage that night. The precision in what they said, their expressions, the poetry and the passion! There were also amazing singers, so young and just the most amazing voices accompanied with no music...I enjoyed that more than anything else that night.
It's been almost a year I've been in Lusaka, so by now I was used to the Jesus/Christian themed everything wherever I went. I told myself I'll concentrate on the deliverance of it all and that was what I did for the first 5 people that spoke about Jesus, being reborn, being saved, being loved.
People gave them standing ovations! Everyone stood from their chairs and oh no one clapped, too mainstream I think?...everyone snapped (their fingers)!
I'm no poet. I'm not a writer either. The most passionate I've been writing are on my blog and on Facebook. As I sat there watching these amazing young people recite their poems, what got me thinking was the passion that oozed from every single one of them , from their poems. They felt this deep connection with their religion/Jesus, sooo deep , something which of course I can't possibly fathom. Before taking the plunge to a full non-faith life, I never was very religious to begin with. But hey, I was cool with this. In a country with such a high unemployment and poverty rate, where people come from backgrounds of having no hope, of in fact a worst culture of voodoo and "black magic"...it's comforting that they have found hope, many have denounced such habits and feel loved and loved themselves. I was also happy to hear almost all of them condemn the churches for their greed in getting "donations" from the poor (If you want to open a church and make money, come to Africa. New churches sprout like mushrooms here). Almost all of them spoke about loving themselves too, which was awesome!
It was great till it neared the ending and a few people came up on stage and by now the atmosphere was getting more tense. People were fired up. The next act started off with condemnation of politicians, and I thought to myself, YES! I am going to love this. Then it slowly changed, they started condemning the women liberation movement. They called them "ungrateful". They questioned women who seek equality because they claim we were not made to be equal and that we should "shut up" and not be "stupid". The level of snaps around the room grew louder! Then they moved on to homophobia (of course this only seemed logical, Lusaka is way more homophobic than KL I think) calling homosexuals "fags" and asking why God would have made a man's seed full of life if it were to be wasted. MORE SNAPS! Then the final slash to my already beaten down consciousness, evolution. Scientists were filling our heads with lies they said, that there is no way we could have "come from monkeys" while still having monkeys around and that science had no explanation of how everything began. This was the final bit, everyone rose from their seats and snapped their fingers so hard and loud and were screaming in support!
Here we are again: from love and hope, to ending with hate. This was it. I wanted to go home. It was the end, thankfully for me. But at that moment, I felt completely alone. I looked around me and everyone was hugging each other patting each other on the back for the good job they've done. My colleague left with more hatred, more conviction for his hatred of the "gay kind" and the "believers of evolution"... I guess that included me.
I woke up the next morning to yet another whatsapp message he sent me on all the famous people who spoke openly about their atheism or made some joke about Jesus and then all died painful deaths. This has become almost routine for me, messages saying I'll be going to hell for sure. I take no offence to someone having so much faith in a God, I do however take offence when your faith promotes hatred towards others and you finding the need to condemn me and other people every chance you get. I might now need to search for the holiest people who all died horrible deaths too , I'll probably include a message like "How you die has nothing to do with how religious/unreligous you are. Now let's spend some time and think about how we have trivialised and used people's horrible deaths (which must have left plenty of people around them sad and devastated) to prove a ridiculous point. "
My closest friends here are my colleagues. I spend the most time with them and share the most with them. Obviously I did not tell anyone I was an atheist when they asked me, but this grew harder and harder to conceal. While it was easy to say I'm Hindu when people asked me (which they always do within 5 minutes of meeting me; What are you?) It was impossible to support someone, or be in agreement with someone who openly condemned homosexuals or supported the very common act here of spying into houses with more than one male resident so they could report them to the police if they were up to "no good". It was also impossible to stand by and listen as people spoke about women and their duties in societies and in families that must be given priority before education or any other choice a woman makes. Also, the crazy support of tearing "skimpy" clothes off of women to teach them a lesson.
So some time back, my colleague and I had the talk...of religion, women and gay-ism. I was honest about my opinions and he seemed respectful of it. He ended it by saying "The greatest gift I can offer a friend, someone I love is the gift of Christ, so here *he handed me a glass of water* take this if you want to be saved because it's inevitable that you won't go to heaven if you don't believe in Christ." I was disappointed that he chose to say this even after knowing me and the goodness within and although I was pretty thirsty, I chuckled and said "No Thanks!" but since then, his quest of showing me the light has not ceased. I am constantly invited to go to church although I've said I have no interest in going to one (unless they had an authentic African choir singing) and the "righteous" whatsapp messages and then the constant comments of something chauvinistic and absurd every now and then just to see me react.
In the past year, I've learnt to conceal my true self. Well, re-learnt. It feels like being back in school: when saying you supported women's rights and were an atheist was taboo. I spent a few years breaking out of that and finally found great people (regardless of gender/religion) to surround myself with and I got to be who I was.
Being in Lusaka has taken me back to THAT time, so many years ago. It must be hard for the non-religious people who live here, more so if you're alone. I never thought I'd say this but I especially miss being the atheist/feminist person I was/am in Malaysia, also not being hounded/provoked every other day just for a reaction.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Living cheap in Lusaka
So I think I may have finally figured out how to live cheap here! The bulk of my expenses now are on chocolate milk shakes, eating out, CAKES! and all these small snacks that i just cant resist especially on weekends.
So if you ever find yourself in Lusaka, then these may help you out:
1) Meat is expensive! Like reallly expensive and I never buy meat unless it's on sale and the good news is that meat often go on sale BUT i recently found out that the sales in the grocery stores here don't last even for a few days, it might only be just for that one day. So if you go to a store and find sausages, polony or bacon on sale; get it! And then just keep it and use it when you want to. I did that just a few days back, and now my lunch for the whole of October is settled, and I only spent slight less than RM 20 on it!
2) CAKES are expensive! The bakeries here trample over bakeries in Malaysia in a HEARTBEAT! Every single bakery I've been too has been awesome! The cookies and cakes and pies are all so fresh and tasty and truly home made. But the normal price for a cake in bakery would cost 20,000 K which is about 4 USD which is about RM12. Now that's a little too much for me. Recently, I've found that Pick N Pay, a supermarket all over Lusaka, kinda like the Giant in Malaysia sells big pieces of cakes as well in their bakery and for a fraction of the price which is 4,950 K which is slightly less than RM 3 and if you go at the right time; usually on weekdays at night; you would find these nice slices of chocolate cake with raspberry jam which are absolutely yummy! But every now and then if you wanted to go for pieces of cakes which are slightly more pricey with better variety then the bakery at Kabulonga Shopping Centre has tonnes of really amazing cakes and also Mint Cafe in Arcades Shopping Mall.
3) Milkshakes are like Milo here. Hardly any shop/cafe/restaurant sells hot chocolate or iced chocolate. Coffee is huge here. So anyway if you wanted something chocolatey; milkshakes are the way to go! I've been trying out milkshakes all over Lusaka to see which is the best. Now, I've been following the Lonely Planet's guide to discovering Lusaka in trying restaurants and cafes and also going to nice parks. It's been good so far; all the restaurants I've tried based on lonely planet has been nice and all the parks I've been to based on Lonely Planet has also been nice! But they got it wrong with the milkshakes! They suggested this small cafe in Arcades Shopping Mall called La Mimosa. I tried the milkshake there but not only was it expensive; 17,000 K but it was also so not chocolatey. The best milkshake so far in my opinion is the chocolate milkshake served at Sandy's Creation (a garden/park) for 15, 000 K. If you want something cheaper; then the milkshake at Steers (the McD of Zambia) is not too bad for 11, 000 K.
4) Chicken Shwarma's are the best bargain yet. These are like kebabs in these Lebanese bread kinda wraps but the nicest thing about this meal is that although it's cheap; it's soooo filling! They stuff it with cucumbers, tomatoes, celery, FRENCH FRIES, 3 different types of sauces and lots of grilled chicken meat (they are not selfish with the portions). The local restaurants sell this for 10, 000 K.
5) Always the biggest dilemma for me is when someone invites me to dinner around here. Sometimes I don't mind spending that minimum 50, 000 K on a meal just to try it out, but some days I want to save that money for something much better over the weekend. Now in Malaysia, mamaks are cheap. Well you should be able to assume that you don't get anything close to a mamak here, well at least not when another foreigner invites you out for dinner. You'd probably end up in a fancy foreigners-only restaurant where Indian food, Chinese food, Korean food and Zambian dishes are just so unreasonably priced. So the best thing to do is order Tea. It's so far the best value; only 6, 000 K and you get a whole pot, not just a glass as opposed to ordering coffee or Coke (which both costs more than tea). They usually serve this local brand called Five Roses tea with fresh milk and brown sugar, and it usually lasts me throughout the dinner.
6) Veggies! Veggies are important. I need them anyway ever since I've been trying to cut down on my chicken meat, I've been trying to eat more vegetables. The only problem with vegetables are that they're harder to cook into tasting yummy, meat is easy! Also cause every month or so, my Korean doctor neighbours strangles a dog by the swing at the back of my apartment; in celebration of the month end I suppose but whatever the reason and however much I cant stand the thought of a poor dog suffocating to death and then being chopped up and grilled and eaten; that's not much worse or better in fact than the processed chicken meat we get from the store. At least they catch and kill their own meat. So with all of these reasons; veggies are now even more important!
Okay so, veggies are best bought straight from farms here which is totally amazing because it doesn't get any fresher than that. The best farm I've been to so far is Sugarbush Farm run by some white people. Their prices are very reasonable and they give you a whole big bag of each vege that you get. I bought from them once but it's really not practical if you're cooking for one so nowadays i buy veges from the other local markets around Lusaka. I just went for one called the Dutch Reformed Church Saturday Market that happens every last Saturday of the month. It's filled with veges, fruits, arts and crafts and glorious FOOD! I mostly sat down there and kept eating all kinds of things for the 2 hours, but on my way out I bought some fresh carrots, tomatoes and onions for a good price and they're fresh and they were sold by the locals!
Some other markets you can get fresh veges and spices are : Soweto Market, Tuesday Market and Thursday Market. It's like the pasar malam here just that they only sell stuff up to 6pm. This place goes dead at 6pm; after 6pm it's only the fancy foreigners that are out and about eating their fancy dinners at the fancy candle lit restaurants.
It's good to support the locals, so veges and fruits and all you could even buy them from the roadside vendors that sell pretty nice and fresh stuff if you spent some time looking.
7) Nshima (pronounced sheema) ! I can't stand beef, and I don't need to get hooked on another meat thank you very much but living here completely not eating beef is going to be a challenge so I've eaten my share of beef here. They seem to find requests of changing the beef to chicken somewhat rather strange. So anyway, the local cuisine here is Nshima. Now it's really not all that awesome; it's just a softer version of Idli and then they eat it with beef stew and some vegetable relish. If you need to try this, Pick N Pay sells it at a very cheap price (8,000 K). The portion is not that big but hey for a taste it would suffice. Now. for the real deal; I've found this awesome place nearby my place that has a Nshima buffet. They open every weekday from 1230 to 230pm but the food is usually only ready at about 130pm. It will cost you 30, 000 K but you get three scoops of Nshima (too much for me!) and then you get to choose your veges and from three different main dishes (village chicken, beef stew and fish). It's called Heritage Trails and it has my name written on it one of these days for lunch!
That's about all the cheap things I've discovered here. My hunt will continue for cheaper cheaper things!
So if you ever find yourself in Lusaka, then these may help you out:
1) Meat is expensive! Like reallly expensive and I never buy meat unless it's on sale and the good news is that meat often go on sale BUT i recently found out that the sales in the grocery stores here don't last even for a few days, it might only be just for that one day. So if you go to a store and find sausages, polony or bacon on sale; get it! And then just keep it and use it when you want to. I did that just a few days back, and now my lunch for the whole of October is settled, and I only spent slight less than RM 20 on it!
2) CAKES are expensive! The bakeries here trample over bakeries in Malaysia in a HEARTBEAT! Every single bakery I've been too has been awesome! The cookies and cakes and pies are all so fresh and tasty and truly home made. But the normal price for a cake in bakery would cost 20,000 K which is about 4 USD which is about RM12. Now that's a little too much for me. Recently, I've found that Pick N Pay, a supermarket all over Lusaka, kinda like the Giant in Malaysia sells big pieces of cakes as well in their bakery and for a fraction of the price which is 4,950 K which is slightly less than RM 3 and if you go at the right time; usually on weekdays at night; you would find these nice slices of chocolate cake with raspberry jam which are absolutely yummy! But every now and then if you wanted to go for pieces of cakes which are slightly more pricey with better variety then the bakery at Kabulonga Shopping Centre has tonnes of really amazing cakes and also Mint Cafe in Arcades Shopping Mall.
3) Milkshakes are like Milo here. Hardly any shop/cafe/restaurant sells hot chocolate or iced chocolate. Coffee is huge here. So anyway if you wanted something chocolatey; milkshakes are the way to go! I've been trying out milkshakes all over Lusaka to see which is the best. Now, I've been following the Lonely Planet's guide to discovering Lusaka in trying restaurants and cafes and also going to nice parks. It's been good so far; all the restaurants I've tried based on lonely planet has been nice and all the parks I've been to based on Lonely Planet has also been nice! But they got it wrong with the milkshakes! They suggested this small cafe in Arcades Shopping Mall called La Mimosa. I tried the milkshake there but not only was it expensive; 17,000 K but it was also so not chocolatey. The best milkshake so far in my opinion is the chocolate milkshake served at Sandy's Creation (a garden/park) for 15, 000 K. If you want something cheaper; then the milkshake at Steers (the McD of Zambia) is not too bad for 11, 000 K.
4) Chicken Shwarma's are the best bargain yet. These are like kebabs in these Lebanese bread kinda wraps but the nicest thing about this meal is that although it's cheap; it's soooo filling! They stuff it with cucumbers, tomatoes, celery, FRENCH FRIES, 3 different types of sauces and lots of grilled chicken meat (they are not selfish with the portions). The local restaurants sell this for 10, 000 K.
5) Always the biggest dilemma for me is when someone invites me to dinner around here. Sometimes I don't mind spending that minimum 50, 000 K on a meal just to try it out, but some days I want to save that money for something much better over the weekend. Now in Malaysia, mamaks are cheap. Well you should be able to assume that you don't get anything close to a mamak here, well at least not when another foreigner invites you out for dinner. You'd probably end up in a fancy foreigners-only restaurant where Indian food, Chinese food, Korean food and Zambian dishes are just so unreasonably priced. So the best thing to do is order Tea. It's so far the best value; only 6, 000 K and you get a whole pot, not just a glass as opposed to ordering coffee or Coke (which both costs more than tea). They usually serve this local brand called Five Roses tea with fresh milk and brown sugar, and it usually lasts me throughout the dinner.
6) Veggies! Veggies are important. I need them anyway ever since I've been trying to cut down on my chicken meat, I've been trying to eat more vegetables. The only problem with vegetables are that they're harder to cook into tasting yummy, meat is easy! Also cause every month or so, my Korean doctor neighbours strangles a dog by the swing at the back of my apartment; in celebration of the month end I suppose but whatever the reason and however much I cant stand the thought of a poor dog suffocating to death and then being chopped up and grilled and eaten; that's not much worse or better in fact than the processed chicken meat we get from the store. At least they catch and kill their own meat. So with all of these reasons; veggies are now even more important!
Okay so, veggies are best bought straight from farms here which is totally amazing because it doesn't get any fresher than that. The best farm I've been to so far is Sugarbush Farm run by some white people. Their prices are very reasonable and they give you a whole big bag of each vege that you get. I bought from them once but it's really not practical if you're cooking for one so nowadays i buy veges from the other local markets around Lusaka. I just went for one called the Dutch Reformed Church Saturday Market that happens every last Saturday of the month. It's filled with veges, fruits, arts and crafts and glorious FOOD! I mostly sat down there and kept eating all kinds of things for the 2 hours, but on my way out I bought some fresh carrots, tomatoes and onions for a good price and they're fresh and they were sold by the locals!
Some other markets you can get fresh veges and spices are : Soweto Market, Tuesday Market and Thursday Market. It's like the pasar malam here just that they only sell stuff up to 6pm. This place goes dead at 6pm; after 6pm it's only the fancy foreigners that are out and about eating their fancy dinners at the fancy candle lit restaurants.
It's good to support the locals, so veges and fruits and all you could even buy them from the roadside vendors that sell pretty nice and fresh stuff if you spent some time looking.
7) Nshima (pronounced sheema) ! I can't stand beef, and I don't need to get hooked on another meat thank you very much but living here completely not eating beef is going to be a challenge so I've eaten my share of beef here. They seem to find requests of changing the beef to chicken somewhat rather strange. So anyway, the local cuisine here is Nshima. Now it's really not all that awesome; it's just a softer version of Idli and then they eat it with beef stew and some vegetable relish. If you need to try this, Pick N Pay sells it at a very cheap price (8,000 K). The portion is not that big but hey for a taste it would suffice. Now. for the real deal; I've found this awesome place nearby my place that has a Nshima buffet. They open every weekday from 1230 to 230pm but the food is usually only ready at about 130pm. It will cost you 30, 000 K but you get three scoops of Nshima (too much for me!) and then you get to choose your veges and from three different main dishes (village chicken, beef stew and fish). It's called Heritage Trails and it has my name written on it one of these days for lunch!
That's about all the cheap things I've discovered here. My hunt will continue for cheaper cheaper things!
Friday, September 14, 2012
Is the grass greener in Zambia?
Not particularly. It is comparing job opportunities because I get to work as a physio here with a decent salary as compared to Malaysia.
But the hard unavoidable truth is that even with the salary, and the nice secure saved up life I would be coming back to in 2 years; being alone almost makes it all not worthwhile! I've come to learn quite a lot about myself living alone, away from all securities and familiar faces and places; I'm no good alone!
Maybe life is no life at all; with no one to share it with all the time all day everyday and being poor is way better when you're surrounded by just LOVE! I can remember all the awesome times I've had with my family and friends, it was when we were all broke talking about life and making jokes with the cheapest cup of tea in the cheapest mamak stall or a public park...and just laughing really hard!
The highlight of my days are coming home and skyping with my family back home; just some interaction talking about my day listening to their day! Thankfully my job serves me well as I do talk and listen to stories when I treat patients; but nothing like home i suppose.
Zambia has certainly been an experience; totally unexpected one that is. I pictured local Africans walking around in colourful festive clothing and street parties with loads of dancing and drum beating every other day and instead I am faced with what seems like a totally Westernised culture everything from clothing to restaurants to shopping malls. Ah, it's saddening really. The locals live in shacks beside the roads and the rich foreigners in ridiculously priced private home that employs these locals as maids or drivers or guards.
Its hard to imagine any local worker earning minimum wage which is about 700,000 Kwacha ( 140 USD) living comfortably in this city of Lusaka, where everything and I mean EVERYTHING is at least 2 to 3 times more than it is priced there in Malaysia. I was talking to the nice lady that comes to clean the Physiotherapy centre and as well as my temporary home, Carol and she walks for an hour every day to the hospital and back home just to save on transport money cause even the crappy van buses here are expensive and those are the cheapest, most dangerous way to get around town. She has 3 children, whom all go to government schools because they're free but very badly equipped with teaching aids as well as qualified teachers. She earns 700,00 K and with deductions for NAPSA (the EPF equivalent here) earns 500 000 K and support her children and herself and lives with her mother and her siblings in a small flat. She says buying rice, cooking oil and some beans takes up most of her money already which I can totally imagine being true as I faced a similar situation heading to the grocery store last weekend to pick up some stuff to cook. As I emptied my shopping cart for the cashier to scan, not even 1/3 through my cart, the bill reached 100 000 K and I only had 100 000 K in my wallet. I had to ask her to stop scanning more items, put my cart aside,pay for the items that she has already scanned , run to an ATM and withdraw some money and come back and pay for the remaining cart.
The problem according to Abraham, the hospital's driver that tells me where to get really cheap local food knowing i'm a hobo and teaches me all the easy routes to places I wanna visit, started about 10 years back when all of a sudden there was a surge of foreigners coming into the country and prices of all things went up double-fold and more. All the prices of groceries and everything else was priced according to the US dollar so a bottle of coke only costs about 1.5 USD but thats about 7000 K and about RM 4.50 for what costs RM 2 back in Malaysia. I am just not used to the prices here and will NEVER be! But foreigners find it all to be really cheap comparing the prices here and from where they came from, so it's all good.
Ah and it's the typical shitty cycle of all foreigners treating the locals like servants and lower class people, making them the help and nothing more; no opportunities for the local to build businesses or to make extra earnings; nothing. I'm probably the most hobo foreigner here because I refuse to eat in those fancy fine dining places I can find anywhere else in the world and would never spend so much for food I can get on the streets of Malaysia for far much less anyway. So I'm on a mission:
1) To buy local produce and fruits and vegetables from the roadside vendors
2) To volunteer my time to any local NGOs or voluntary organisations that may need extra hands! (I've found one; a patient of mine runs a local school for the children of underprivileged mothers!)
3) To show almost all other foreigner here that it IS possible to be nice and civil and friendly to the locals, and still be treated with respect and get things done as this is a two way process!
Africa I'm sure is beautiful and it's people even more so; if it wasn't for all the crazy money making advantage taking foreign employers here. Everyone complains about how laid back the local Zambians are; maybe it's just us who's overworked hyper senses cant rest knowing we're not making money every single second of the day. It's so tiresome this whole money making business, how everything is a business; healthcare and education even.
It's about time we took a step back and assess where all that money making has lead us to; to a lifestyle only adaptable for the absolute rich expats ; a widening rich and poor barrier and where the average person is not able to live off her monthly salary and buying groceries from the cheapest grocery store in the city is still ridiculously priced.
But the hard unavoidable truth is that even with the salary, and the nice secure saved up life I would be coming back to in 2 years; being alone almost makes it all not worthwhile! I've come to learn quite a lot about myself living alone, away from all securities and familiar faces and places; I'm no good alone!
Maybe life is no life at all; with no one to share it with all the time all day everyday and being poor is way better when you're surrounded by just LOVE! I can remember all the awesome times I've had with my family and friends, it was when we were all broke talking about life and making jokes with the cheapest cup of tea in the cheapest mamak stall or a public park...and just laughing really hard!
The highlight of my days are coming home and skyping with my family back home; just some interaction talking about my day listening to their day! Thankfully my job serves me well as I do talk and listen to stories when I treat patients; but nothing like home i suppose.
Zambia has certainly been an experience; totally unexpected one that is. I pictured local Africans walking around in colourful festive clothing and street parties with loads of dancing and drum beating every other day and instead I am faced with what seems like a totally Westernised culture everything from clothing to restaurants to shopping malls. Ah, it's saddening really. The locals live in shacks beside the roads and the rich foreigners in ridiculously priced private home that employs these locals as maids or drivers or guards.
Its hard to imagine any local worker earning minimum wage which is about 700,000 Kwacha ( 140 USD) living comfortably in this city of Lusaka, where everything and I mean EVERYTHING is at least 2 to 3 times more than it is priced there in Malaysia. I was talking to the nice lady that comes to clean the Physiotherapy centre and as well as my temporary home, Carol and she walks for an hour every day to the hospital and back home just to save on transport money cause even the crappy van buses here are expensive and those are the cheapest, most dangerous way to get around town. She has 3 children, whom all go to government schools because they're free but very badly equipped with teaching aids as well as qualified teachers. She earns 700,00 K and with deductions for NAPSA (the EPF equivalent here) earns 500 000 K and support her children and herself and lives with her mother and her siblings in a small flat. She says buying rice, cooking oil and some beans takes up most of her money already which I can totally imagine being true as I faced a similar situation heading to the grocery store last weekend to pick up some stuff to cook. As I emptied my shopping cart for the cashier to scan, not even 1/3 through my cart, the bill reached 100 000 K and I only had 100 000 K in my wallet. I had to ask her to stop scanning more items, put my cart aside,pay for the items that she has already scanned , run to an ATM and withdraw some money and come back and pay for the remaining cart.
The problem according to Abraham, the hospital's driver that tells me where to get really cheap local food knowing i'm a hobo and teaches me all the easy routes to places I wanna visit, started about 10 years back when all of a sudden there was a surge of foreigners coming into the country and prices of all things went up double-fold and more. All the prices of groceries and everything else was priced according to the US dollar so a bottle of coke only costs about 1.5 USD but thats about 7000 K and about RM 4.50 for what costs RM 2 back in Malaysia. I am just not used to the prices here and will NEVER be! But foreigners find it all to be really cheap comparing the prices here and from where they came from, so it's all good.
Ah and it's the typical shitty cycle of all foreigners treating the locals like servants and lower class people, making them the help and nothing more; no opportunities for the local to build businesses or to make extra earnings; nothing. I'm probably the most hobo foreigner here because I refuse to eat in those fancy fine dining places I can find anywhere else in the world and would never spend so much for food I can get on the streets of Malaysia for far much less anyway. So I'm on a mission:
1) To buy local produce and fruits and vegetables from the roadside vendors
2) To volunteer my time to any local NGOs or voluntary organisations that may need extra hands! (I've found one; a patient of mine runs a local school for the children of underprivileged mothers!)
3) To show almost all other foreigner here that it IS possible to be nice and civil and friendly to the locals, and still be treated with respect and get things done as this is a two way process!
Africa I'm sure is beautiful and it's people even more so; if it wasn't for all the crazy money making advantage taking foreign employers here. Everyone complains about how laid back the local Zambians are; maybe it's just us who's overworked hyper senses cant rest knowing we're not making money every single second of the day. It's so tiresome this whole money making business, how everything is a business; healthcare and education even.
It's about time we took a step back and assess where all that money making has lead us to; to a lifestyle only adaptable for the absolute rich expats ; a widening rich and poor barrier and where the average person is not able to live off her monthly salary and buying groceries from the cheapest grocery store in the city is still ridiculously priced.
Friday, July 20, 2012
The Woes of Unemployment
Recently graduated, it was shocking that the life we had all dreamed about; of a comfortable paying job, with a modest car to get around and enough money now finally to take AirAsia trips with friends and enjoy life -- had to DIE!
We (a few of my classmates and I) took a slight break, maybe about a month after our studies ended, to just enjoy ourselves a little, take short road trips, with the balance of the PTPTN money we had. Little did we know, that life outside that Harrier 9 of us squeezed into for our epic journey down south, was a web of frustrations and connections and impossibility for job prospects.
As soon as we decided to find a job, and started applying for jobs in hospitals since it was a dream of many to work in a hospital setting; everyone told us that's where the experience is! But as we sent the emails of resumes, and waited for the phone calls that would call us in for the numerous interviews we deserved; none did! Nada, Zilch, ZERO phone calls!
Then slowly, the worry in us grew, we thought ah maybe hospitals are all just waiting a little while more to employ us eager fresh graduates. But then, slowly as time went by, still....NO CALLS! And then, one fun afternoon, after a lunch with a lecturer of ours, we found out that we were alone in this battle of employment as a lot of my other classmates were in fact employed and even fought over by a few hospitals and institutions.
We had to sit down and analyse what was wrong with us. The one obvious reason came up; we just weren't very Chinese. Apparently all employers of major hospitals preferred Chinese employees. I remember we were told numerous times that it just gels with the majority of patients that the hospitals drew in. I'm sorry, but we apparently weren't on the train that changed the national language of Malaysia to Mandarin/Cantonese. If Cantonese/Mandarin was so important (nothing wrong with that!) but then it should be implemented to be a compulsory language to learn in schools, so everyone gets equal opportunity.
Then the small centres that we did apply for jobs at, paid us so little that it was impossible to buy a car to travel to the centre and then pay our heavy debt of ptptn and also to be able to LIVE! Centres wanted to pay us RM 1500 even for a full day 6 days a week job. What utter rubbish!
Then we also found out, that it was impossible to obtain an interview in major hospitals that would most likely pay you a fair amount of money, without some connections. We had to make sure connections were sought out and effort was taking in making connections. The whole thing became so tedious, that all we could talk about when we met up, was how frustrating applying for a job as a Physiotherapist in Malaysia was.
The problem is that our government, ministry of education and ministry of health, never screens, never denies new colleges that spring up like mushrooms all over Malaysia offering courses like Nursing, Physiotherapy and many other allied health science courses. With no control over the number of diploma graduates being produced every year in these fields; Malaysia has done what seemed to be impossible; saturated the field of allied health sciences so much that you see unemployed physiotherapist as well as NURSES. Two jobs that are highly in demand almost anywhere else in the world. Bravo!
With diploma graduates of nursing and physiotherapy being produced in the thousands only around KL; jobs are becoming more and more scarce and because it is so saturated, employers now know that they don't need to pay very high as much as a graduate deserves since jobs are so hard to come by, anyone would jump at the opportunity of the first job they obtain. So it starts; the payment of RM 1200 - 1500 for diploma graduates.
So now, what do we degree graduates do? We're all high and mighty convincing everyone we have to better than a diploma graduate but with no regulation in job designation of a diploma and degree graduate, why would any employer want to higher a degree graduate and pay you more when they could higher a diploma graduate and pay less? The set of skills we learn are almost similar in fact. But okay, so some employers have been hearing about a rumour of a Bill that might be passed station diploma graduates would be assistant physiotherapists and degree graduates only can be qualified physiotherapist, so to be safe, they hire a few degree qualified physiotherapists in hospitals and centres. But again because it's so saturated, and they need way fewer degree graduates than the ones that are produced; employers cap their pay at RM 1800.
So the vicious cycle continues, as we take these offers of RM 1800 and continue to go deeper in debts that we cant afford to pay off, cause cars take 10 years to pay off, ptptn loans take 20 years to pay off, houses take 20 years to pay off....we fall into the trap of leading a life full of debts till we finally die.
Dreams of travelling are slowly pushed aside, as we are now faced with a difficult question; to do what we spent the last 4 years studying and have grown to like and have passion for but earn peanuts, or to do something totally unrelated (like work in a call centre) and easily make twice the money and be able to travel and do things in our lives before we kicked the bucket.
I am saddened when faced with this question, as I feel no person should be but Malaysia has made this part of our lives. Many of my friends chose the latter, not by choice but by circumstances. We may get lucky breaks, but not all of us are that lucky. If this country does not change, we'd be stuck with our children and children's children worrying about the same thing and going through the same experiences as us, and unemployment would come to an absolute high that this economy and country would not be able to do anything else but crumble.
We (a few of my classmates and I) took a slight break, maybe about a month after our studies ended, to just enjoy ourselves a little, take short road trips, with the balance of the PTPTN money we had. Little did we know, that life outside that Harrier 9 of us squeezed into for our epic journey down south, was a web of frustrations and connections and impossibility for job prospects.
As soon as we decided to find a job, and started applying for jobs in hospitals since it was a dream of many to work in a hospital setting; everyone told us that's where the experience is! But as we sent the emails of resumes, and waited for the phone calls that would call us in for the numerous interviews we deserved; none did! Nada, Zilch, ZERO phone calls!
Then slowly, the worry in us grew, we thought ah maybe hospitals are all just waiting a little while more to employ us eager fresh graduates. But then, slowly as time went by, still....NO CALLS! And then, one fun afternoon, after a lunch with a lecturer of ours, we found out that we were alone in this battle of employment as a lot of my other classmates were in fact employed and even fought over by a few hospitals and institutions.
We had to sit down and analyse what was wrong with us. The one obvious reason came up; we just weren't very Chinese. Apparently all employers of major hospitals preferred Chinese employees. I remember we were told numerous times that it just gels with the majority of patients that the hospitals drew in. I'm sorry, but we apparently weren't on the train that changed the national language of Malaysia to Mandarin/Cantonese. If Cantonese/Mandarin was so important (nothing wrong with that!) but then it should be implemented to be a compulsory language to learn in schools, so everyone gets equal opportunity.
Then the small centres that we did apply for jobs at, paid us so little that it was impossible to buy a car to travel to the centre and then pay our heavy debt of ptptn and also to be able to LIVE! Centres wanted to pay us RM 1500 even for a full day 6 days a week job. What utter rubbish!
Then we also found out, that it was impossible to obtain an interview in major hospitals that would most likely pay you a fair amount of money, without some connections. We had to make sure connections were sought out and effort was taking in making connections. The whole thing became so tedious, that all we could talk about when we met up, was how frustrating applying for a job as a Physiotherapist in Malaysia was.
The problem is that our government, ministry of education and ministry of health, never screens, never denies new colleges that spring up like mushrooms all over Malaysia offering courses like Nursing, Physiotherapy and many other allied health science courses. With no control over the number of diploma graduates being produced every year in these fields; Malaysia has done what seemed to be impossible; saturated the field of allied health sciences so much that you see unemployed physiotherapist as well as NURSES. Two jobs that are highly in demand almost anywhere else in the world. Bravo!
With diploma graduates of nursing and physiotherapy being produced in the thousands only around KL; jobs are becoming more and more scarce and because it is so saturated, employers now know that they don't need to pay very high as much as a graduate deserves since jobs are so hard to come by, anyone would jump at the opportunity of the first job they obtain. So it starts; the payment of RM 1200 - 1500 for diploma graduates.
So now, what do we degree graduates do? We're all high and mighty convincing everyone we have to better than a diploma graduate but with no regulation in job designation of a diploma and degree graduate, why would any employer want to higher a degree graduate and pay you more when they could higher a diploma graduate and pay less? The set of skills we learn are almost similar in fact. But okay, so some employers have been hearing about a rumour of a Bill that might be passed station diploma graduates would be assistant physiotherapists and degree graduates only can be qualified physiotherapist, so to be safe, they hire a few degree qualified physiotherapists in hospitals and centres. But again because it's so saturated, and they need way fewer degree graduates than the ones that are produced; employers cap their pay at RM 1800.
So the vicious cycle continues, as we take these offers of RM 1800 and continue to go deeper in debts that we cant afford to pay off, cause cars take 10 years to pay off, ptptn loans take 20 years to pay off, houses take 20 years to pay off....we fall into the trap of leading a life full of debts till we finally die.
Dreams of travelling are slowly pushed aside, as we are now faced with a difficult question; to do what we spent the last 4 years studying and have grown to like and have passion for but earn peanuts, or to do something totally unrelated (like work in a call centre) and easily make twice the money and be able to travel and do things in our lives before we kicked the bucket.
I am saddened when faced with this question, as I feel no person should be but Malaysia has made this part of our lives. Many of my friends chose the latter, not by choice but by circumstances. We may get lucky breaks, but not all of us are that lucky. If this country does not change, we'd be stuck with our children and children's children worrying about the same thing and going through the same experiences as us, and unemployment would come to an absolute high that this economy and country would not be able to do anything else but crumble.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Soulmates.
I never believed in soulmates. I don't think there is the ONE for me, or I am the ONE for someone else.
Recently though, as the few last months of college life drew nearer something changed.Well a lot of things changed actually. 4 years suddenly felt like it had only been 4 days! And I started to realise as i looked around me, that i felt such an amazing closeness to my friends. It made me stop and think about these new feelings.
And in that short span of time, the bond that grew between us girlfriends was so overwhelming, so refreshing so unconventional. We did not hold back in expressing our affections, our love and our flaws. And surprisingly, as I heard them all, I only had love, true undying love for these wonderful women.
I quickly realised that these women, these talented potential amazing women were , had to be my soulmates!
Could that be possible though? I was always told that soulmates were your romantic life partner. Yes my partner would definitely be my soulmate, i cant think of a reason why i would want to be romantically involved with anyone who isnt, but would he be my only soulmate? I don't think so, and I don't wish that to be so.
But that's all that's different really, the romanticness. I love my sistas but I am not as romantic with them but in every other way possible, we're so compatible. We understand each other, we click. They are everything I see in a partner for life! PartnerS. It made me realise all my previous soul sistas that I wish i made the effort to express myself to.
Soulmates were not meant to be gender specific, they're just meant to be the most perfect, amazing people you can see spending the rest of your lives talking to, laughing with, laughing at, travelling, sharing and having a companion that understands you and is as compatible as anyone can possibly get! Regardless of gender, regardless of romantic-ness, regardless of physical/sexual attraction.
It's been an awesome journey these couple of months! Journey filled with self discovery and new found love for the amazing people around me.
I've learnt to always show and express how i feel about my friends, and i've learnt to accept new relationships or rather new types of relationships and to think that it is possible that there may be 101 different types of relationships in this world that my feeble mind may not be able to comprehend,
as it has taken me 24 years to discover this.
Recently though, as the few last months of college life drew nearer something changed.Well a lot of things changed actually. 4 years suddenly felt like it had only been 4 days! And I started to realise as i looked around me, that i felt such an amazing closeness to my friends. It made me stop and think about these new feelings.
And in that short span of time, the bond that grew between us girlfriends was so overwhelming, so refreshing so unconventional. We did not hold back in expressing our affections, our love and our flaws. And surprisingly, as I heard them all, I only had love, true undying love for these wonderful women.
I quickly realised that these women, these talented potential amazing women were , had to be my soulmates!
Could that be possible though? I was always told that soulmates were your romantic life partner. Yes my partner would definitely be my soulmate, i cant think of a reason why i would want to be romantically involved with anyone who isnt, but would he be my only soulmate? I don't think so, and I don't wish that to be so.
But that's all that's different really, the romanticness. I love my sistas but I am not as romantic with them but in every other way possible, we're so compatible. We understand each other, we click. They are everything I see in a partner for life! PartnerS. It made me realise all my previous soul sistas that I wish i made the effort to express myself to.
Soulmates were not meant to be gender specific, they're just meant to be the most perfect, amazing people you can see spending the rest of your lives talking to, laughing with, laughing at, travelling, sharing and having a companion that understands you and is as compatible as anyone can possibly get! Regardless of gender, regardless of romantic-ness, regardless of physical/sexual attraction.
It's been an awesome journey these couple of months! Journey filled with self discovery and new found love for the amazing people around me.
I've learnt to always show and express how i feel about my friends, and i've learnt to accept new relationships or rather new types of relationships and to think that it is possible that there may be 101 different types of relationships in this world that my feeble mind may not be able to comprehend,
as it has taken me 24 years to discover this.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Don't we all wish the world was You and I?
Everyone has their own opinions, I've heard. Some stupid, some reasonable, some exceptionally revolutionary! Ok i hear all the haters going who are you to say it's stupid? So this age old argument about people having the liberty to act as stupid as they want. say stupid things if they felt like it, do stupid things if they felt it was right, is a whole load of rubbish isn't it?
I mean, unfortunately, unless anarchy is to be achieved, and we all thought that if left rule-less and unregulated, human beings will be just A OKAY, we have rules for a civilised society. But the matter only arises because these rules differ according to the religion, and the culture we've all been through.
I sit here tonight soon to be the Eve of Deepavali, listening to Anthony and the Johnsons My Lady's Story and it has inspired me to write. I am saddened when i listen to such poetry in music, to such beauty in music that we live in a world with so much shame and many more repugnant voices.
It seems rather stupid that people with as stupid opinions as gay-haters, women discriminators, wrong do-ers in the name of religion...wait the first two has to do with religion too walk amongst such beautiful people and in beautiful places and amongst such amazing creatures of the land and the blue waters of the oceans. How something as simple as an idea, like religion which began centuries ago, has spread so widely that some of the worst crimes of hate and just pure evil has been committed in the name of religion. I want to coil into a hole where religion would not have made my life a struggling battle with the rules that keeps my mother in the kitchen and out of the senate, the rules that pushes the faces of my gay friends into dirt, the rules on how to lead my life in preparation for something none of us controls; death, and the rules that has lead the powerful to oppress so many weak and vulnerable that i think of as i read about their stories.
I would only have the inspiration till the end of the 10th loop of this song to write about something i wish if i don't get to experience, my children or their children will be able to. I desperately want to believe that we are capable of change, that poetry and music will thrive and reach to as many people as it has reached, touched and spoken to me so many times and given me inspiration and faith. If only people were to seek faith in something more physical, more lucid, more real so we wouldn't all hide behind this illusion called God as we relinquish all our responsibilities to this beautiful space we occupy in this universe.
Seems ridiculous that we dismiss drugs that causes even the slightest of side effects, or a hair product that damages our skin in the process to long straight hair, or vote out senators and politicians that make decisions that affect our unforgiving economy but with facts in our faces and history repeated a billion over times proving how religion has evoked animal sacrifices, human blood shed, genocides, more murder, discrimination and yet we turn a blind eye, a deaf ear and muted mouth and pray for change!
Why wont we be the change that we so want? The peace we hope for as we walk out our doors? 20th loop over --- I think of a few great people that are only ashes now and think of what an amazing world it would be with them around but concurrently it seems the frustrations of this world is better left unburdened for the dead.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35-RJ7NxFFY
I mean, unfortunately, unless anarchy is to be achieved, and we all thought that if left rule-less and unregulated, human beings will be just A OKAY, we have rules for a civilised society. But the matter only arises because these rules differ according to the religion, and the culture we've all been through.
I sit here tonight soon to be the Eve of Deepavali, listening to Anthony and the Johnsons My Lady's Story and it has inspired me to write. I am saddened when i listen to such poetry in music, to such beauty in music that we live in a world with so much shame and many more repugnant voices.
It seems rather stupid that people with as stupid opinions as gay-haters, women discriminators, wrong do-ers in the name of religion...wait the first two has to do with religion too walk amongst such beautiful people and in beautiful places and amongst such amazing creatures of the land and the blue waters of the oceans. How something as simple as an idea, like religion which began centuries ago, has spread so widely that some of the worst crimes of hate and just pure evil has been committed in the name of religion. I want to coil into a hole where religion would not have made my life a struggling battle with the rules that keeps my mother in the kitchen and out of the senate, the rules that pushes the faces of my gay friends into dirt, the rules on how to lead my life in preparation for something none of us controls; death, and the rules that has lead the powerful to oppress so many weak and vulnerable that i think of as i read about their stories.
I would only have the inspiration till the end of the 10th loop of this song to write about something i wish if i don't get to experience, my children or their children will be able to. I desperately want to believe that we are capable of change, that poetry and music will thrive and reach to as many people as it has reached, touched and spoken to me so many times and given me inspiration and faith. If only people were to seek faith in something more physical, more lucid, more real so we wouldn't all hide behind this illusion called God as we relinquish all our responsibilities to this beautiful space we occupy in this universe.
Seems ridiculous that we dismiss drugs that causes even the slightest of side effects, or a hair product that damages our skin in the process to long straight hair, or vote out senators and politicians that make decisions that affect our unforgiving economy but with facts in our faces and history repeated a billion over times proving how religion has evoked animal sacrifices, human blood shed, genocides, more murder, discrimination and yet we turn a blind eye, a deaf ear and muted mouth and pray for change!
Why wont we be the change that we so want? The peace we hope for as we walk out our doors? 20th loop over --- I think of a few great people that are only ashes now and think of what an amazing world it would be with them around but concurrently it seems the frustrations of this world is better left unburdened for the dead.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35-RJ7NxFFY
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Are we truly monogamous?
Monogamy, is tricky. I know no one, except for Samantha from Sex and The City (besides polygamy in religion) that is okay with polygamy, with multiple partners, with no REAL strong feelings towards one particular partner and doesn't mind that the other person is that way too. Well, you would have to be i guess.
So what is monogamy? cavemen and women werent monogamous. Can we truly be monogamous then? We try because it's been programmed into our minds, by society that we should only be with one person at a time. But then again, can we really ever be okay with boyfriends and girlfriends having another person to go home to, to sleep with, to share with? Not in my opinion. I like to believe I'm a monogamous person, and I'm pretty sure i am and would be. Do i think i can be with the same person for 30 years? I dont know, but i would not complain if i was, if i still enjoyed his company or still think he's awesome. Yes because its romantic, and its cute. But also because, of all the effort I've put into it, the compromises I've made, the characteristics I've found in that person that I have not found in the many other fishes.
The one argument i do not understand about polygamy, is that we hold ourselves back at loving another person. I dont think this is true. If loving someone else means, looking at how beautiful that person is, or thinking they have awesome abs, awesome legs, or wanting to get to know another person , then i would have loved a million people by now. I know love is the most subjective weirdest complicated thing around, but surely that cannot be all that it is. I dont think we can love two people at once. Definitely not in the same intensity, definitely not in the same way. Because being human, I think certain flaws that are present become more apparent and we then would have favourites.
For me, it's only when we LACK something in a relationship, do we really start seeking it from someone else, someplace else. Love to me is mostly the sharing, that connection. I get everything else from my family and friends. but intimacy is too complex to have with two people at once. When i share with my lover, deepest thoughts, ideas, secrets, passions, fantasies, i cant do that with another person.
I'm a true sceptic most of the time, but this funny little thing called L-O-V-E is a lot more complex than we give it credit. I believe we have evolved from chimps, from cavemen to the US that we are now. That somehow being with one person, is all our emotional capacity can handle. I LOVE a lot of people, and a lot of things and a lot of food, but i will only LOVE love one person, umm at one time that is!
So what is monogamy? cavemen and women werent monogamous. Can we truly be monogamous then? We try because it's been programmed into our minds, by society that we should only be with one person at a time. But then again, can we really ever be okay with boyfriends and girlfriends having another person to go home to, to sleep with, to share with? Not in my opinion. I like to believe I'm a monogamous person, and I'm pretty sure i am and would be. Do i think i can be with the same person for 30 years? I dont know, but i would not complain if i was, if i still enjoyed his company or still think he's awesome. Yes because its romantic, and its cute. But also because, of all the effort I've put into it, the compromises I've made, the characteristics I've found in that person that I have not found in the many other fishes.
The one argument i do not understand about polygamy, is that we hold ourselves back at loving another person. I dont think this is true. If loving someone else means, looking at how beautiful that person is, or thinking they have awesome abs, awesome legs, or wanting to get to know another person , then i would have loved a million people by now. I know love is the most subjective weirdest complicated thing around, but surely that cannot be all that it is. I dont think we can love two people at once. Definitely not in the same intensity, definitely not in the same way. Because being human, I think certain flaws that are present become more apparent and we then would have favourites.
For me, it's only when we LACK something in a relationship, do we really start seeking it from someone else, someplace else. Love to me is mostly the sharing, that connection. I get everything else from my family and friends. but intimacy is too complex to have with two people at once. When i share with my lover, deepest thoughts, ideas, secrets, passions, fantasies, i cant do that with another person.
I'm a true sceptic most of the time, but this funny little thing called L-O-V-E is a lot more complex than we give it credit. I believe we have evolved from chimps, from cavemen to the US that we are now. That somehow being with one person, is all our emotional capacity can handle. I LOVE a lot of people, and a lot of things and a lot of food, but i will only LOVE love one person, umm at one time that is!
Monday, May 2, 2011
Chocolate Cheesecake
My sister's birthday came around last April 9th, and everyone thought it would be a good idea if i baked a cake for her. I've never actually baked a whole cake so i thought it would be a nice experiment too.
I absolutely love baking FYI. Its hard i think but its definitely been growing more and more to a legit hobby and interestingly it has lead me to try out cooking as well. So I've made some dishes as well for lunch and dinner.
Ok so getting back to the baking, so anyway i recently used up my RM20 book voucher at BookXcess, which has the most amazing priced books! I decided to buy a Julia Child baking book that cost only RM 60 full price, and RM 40 after my voucher! Ever since Julie and Julia, I (and im sure many others) have been obsessed with her! I needed to get my hands on some of her recipes, and follow her lead. She's an awesome woman, just because in the time that she was baking, there were almost NO women in the culinary business, and she pushed through and was very "manly" for someone living back then and had revolutionary ideas to make it in the business. So how can anyone not love her!
But apparently all of her own books were sold out, and the closest i could come to getting one of her books was this book.
I modified the ingredients just a little because I'm not a HUGE fan of cheese, but my sister is. So the cheese was for her and the chocolate for me! I converted all of the pounds to grams, and only put in about 550grams of cream cheese when i think the recommended gram was about 650grams. If I were to do it again, i'd probably cut down a lil more on the cheese. The cake turned out awesome! It was more of a fudge like moist cake then a flaky cake. You have to refrigerate it, before serving because it melts a little if not. Ideally it says it keeps up to 4days, i kept it almost up to 3weeks, and was fine after eating it. Lesly was fine too, and he has the pansy stomach! But keep in the freezer if you want to keep it a while.
Baking it, I had to put the batter in a pan then put that into another bigger pan with water and then bake the whole ensemble. My mom helped me check on it, and take it out of the oven because I was late for tuition, and had to leave. When you take it out, just coat the bottom of the cake with some cookie crumbs. I had some left over chipsmore, so i crushed them and coated the bottom of the cake. Feel free to use whatever else kind off cookie crumbs you like. We didn't get a whole photo of the cake, but here's a photo of a slice. Please remember that I'm not a fan of the pretty ones, my cakes and cookies often turn out quite ugly, but taste just as awesome! =D Hah! In your face, OUTER BEAUTY!
I absolutely love baking FYI. Its hard i think but its definitely been growing more and more to a legit hobby and interestingly it has lead me to try out cooking as well. So I've made some dishes as well for lunch and dinner.
Ok so getting back to the baking, so anyway i recently used up my RM20 book voucher at BookXcess, which has the most amazing priced books! I decided to buy a Julia Child baking book that cost only RM 60 full price, and RM 40 after my voucher! Ever since Julie and Julia, I (and im sure many others) have been obsessed with her! I needed to get my hands on some of her recipes, and follow her lead. She's an awesome woman, just because in the time that she was baking, there were almost NO women in the culinary business, and she pushed through and was very "manly" for someone living back then and had revolutionary ideas to make it in the business. So how can anyone not love her!
But apparently all of her own books were sold out, and the closest i could come to getting one of her books was this book.
So the recipe I first tried from this amazing baking book was the Chocolate Marscapone Cheesecake. And this was an awesome recipe! I'm beginning to think that all the recipes in this book are as easy. The instructions and ingredients are made very easy for beginner bakers. Right, so here's the recipe:
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| This is the recipe. |
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| This is the instructions. I think you should be able to save this image a lot bigger than it is when you click on it. |
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| Continuation of the above. |
I modified the ingredients just a little because I'm not a HUGE fan of cheese, but my sister is. So the cheese was for her and the chocolate for me! I converted all of the pounds to grams, and only put in about 550grams of cream cheese when i think the recommended gram was about 650grams. If I were to do it again, i'd probably cut down a lil more on the cheese. The cake turned out awesome! It was more of a fudge like moist cake then a flaky cake. You have to refrigerate it, before serving because it melts a little if not. Ideally it says it keeps up to 4days, i kept it almost up to 3weeks, and was fine after eating it. Lesly was fine too, and he has the pansy stomach! But keep in the freezer if you want to keep it a while.
Baking it, I had to put the batter in a pan then put that into another bigger pan with water and then bake the whole ensemble. My mom helped me check on it, and take it out of the oven because I was late for tuition, and had to leave. When you take it out, just coat the bottom of the cake with some cookie crumbs. I had some left over chipsmore, so i crushed them and coated the bottom of the cake. Feel free to use whatever else kind off cookie crumbs you like. We didn't get a whole photo of the cake, but here's a photo of a slice. Please remember that I'm not a fan of the pretty ones, my cakes and cookies often turn out quite ugly, but taste just as awesome! =D Hah! In your face, OUTER BEAUTY!
The reason why it's not so smoothly cut is because it was advised in the book that when you cut the cake your knife had to be hot, after dipping it in hot water. But yes, I was too lazy to do that, so instead, i kept cutting the cake with remnants of the previous slice on butter knife, then scooping it up from the knife with my fingers and licking it after I'm done, it was a lot more fun and yummy that way!
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Bagan (Burma)
As magical as Bagan was, it was also filled with the most amount of street kids compared to Yangoon and Inle Lake. So that was a little conflicting, because it got hard to sometimes enjoy the place and let loose, when we'd talk to these boys and girls and hear about their stories of how they want to continue schooling or get into the university. It was absolutely saddening knowing that we didn't bring anything to give to them (they really wanted to trade something for our sweaters) in return for some art they painted which looked really amazing by the way. We had no more money left to spend (we were on a budget too!) so that was the only alternative. But these kids were all over Bagan, and not only kids, but almost every other sales person by the street tries to haggle and pester you into getting something. It wasn't TOTALLY unfamiliar though, so eventually we got used to it.
How to get there: So we took the "Bagan Express" bus from Inle Lake to Bagan. Only this bus goes to Bagan from there. And it's nothing you would imagine an express bus being. It broke down once, and we stopped to pick up people quite a number of times but i think what made up for all of that was that we were travelling in the day (also for 12 hours) so we could look out the window and see interesting sceneries. The trip from Inle Lake costed us 12000 kyats per person. You wont get it cheaper than the other shops. Maybe more expensive. But that should be the price, because we were there apparently at a peak time.
Getting around Bagan: It works for everything: bicycles! We rented two bicycles for 4500 kyats. That was for three days because we were cycling around as soon as we reached Bagan. We went into Old Bagan (where the amazing temples are) only on Day 2 and Day 3. We rented in from the hotel we were staying at. You can cycle EVERYWHERE with a bicycle! the old temples are just by the sides of the road, so its easy to stop by every single one of them while ur cycling! The map we had helped a lot in locating a few big ones, that was a must see! And we also had a lot of help from two girls that just randomly followed us around on their bicycle without us asking, and showed us around. On the last day, they tried to sell us some postcards. But they were awesome company! And it helps to ask anyone you can, about temples around you, because its easy to get them all mixed up. They have beautiful names though. And each temple, pagoda has a family that looks after it. So they will take you around the pagoda and temple and tell you about its history and significance. That was truly awesome! All of them sell loads of stuff in front of the pagoda, like lacquer wares and paintings and clothes. So feel free to buy something if you want, for the service they've just offered you. Everyone we met at every pagoda was really nice though. It was an absolute joy talking to them about the pagoda, what they've done for it and about their lives!
Where to stay: We got a reasonable price for the inn we were at. Our bus was filled with tourists, and the bus just stopped at that inn, so rooms were being taken up as we were deliberating on the price! We took our room for 12USD a night, we stayed there for two nights. It was quite nice, the inn. And the compound was nicer! They had a swing in the front, a cute dogs, that all looked alike in Bagan! They were like bigger versions of shih tzus, and there were all strays! The dog in the hotel, was really smart and would jump on you when you gestured like you had a treat. All the dogs looked like they needed a bath though. But yay! doggies anyway.
Food: Food is good in Bagan! There's a lot of places to choose from, mostly around Nyaung-U, where all the hotels are mostly situated. And a few on the way from there to Old Bagan. And there's a lot of vegetarian places! So that was awesome. I was mostly vegetarian for the whole 10 days that I was in Myanmar just because it was absolutely delicious and very varied the dishes and the uses of veges in their food! Oh and its cheaper! The food places in New Bagan (Nyaung-U) is very close by the hotel, so we jsut walked around and looked at the menu and prices and then decided. We only wanted to eat at places that offered "Myanmar food". On average for two persons, we spent on average 9000 kyats for lunch and dinner. Hmm i guess it was a little pricey here. But that's also because all the restaurants, came with fancy lamps and decorated table and chairs and an ambiance! Its quite hard to find road side food in Bagan. Breakfast is provided by the hotel. Breakfast was toasted bread (w always asked for more but the most they gave us was about 3 slices extra!) and eggs (a choice of scrambled, omelette and bulls eye) they were all very good, but then again i think you can NEVER go wrong with eggs.
I have to NOT recommend a place in Bagan though, although it was recommended in the Lonely Planet's Guide to Myanmar. It was called Golden Myanmar -- a buffet with about 20 different dishes for each of you for 3000 kyats per person. I have never ate so little at a buffet in my life! There were curries and vegetables , but almost ALL if not ALL were soooo sour! Like absolutely sour and bitter! So i only ate the rice, and one or two vege that was not sour or bitter. I soon discovered from eating at another rest stop (we crossed the road to eat in a family's small hut restaurant) on the way back from Bagan to Yangoon. They were very grateful because the bus stopped at the bigger popular rest stop restaurant just opposite their shop and i think they dont get as many customers as they would like. Anyway we ordered one plate of rice, with some curries and vegetable and it was also sour, the curry at least! So i think the curries in Myanmar when they have meat in it, are usually sour! Just the way its cooked there maybe. But this family was really nice, we met his wife who was pregnant and resting and his daughter. He was very hospitable and we had a nice conversation about Bagan and his little shop!
All in all, Myanmar was an amazing experience! To see these three places, 10 days is the optimal length of stay i would say. We had enough time to recuperate from the bus rides to enjoy the places! I hope a revolution is not far away, looking at the middle east and all the amazing revolutions that are happening there! The people there deserve as many opportunities they can get and to be free !
How to get there: So we took the "Bagan Express" bus from Inle Lake to Bagan. Only this bus goes to Bagan from there. And it's nothing you would imagine an express bus being. It broke down once, and we stopped to pick up people quite a number of times but i think what made up for all of that was that we were travelling in the day (also for 12 hours) so we could look out the window and see interesting sceneries. The trip from Inle Lake costed us 12000 kyats per person. You wont get it cheaper than the other shops. Maybe more expensive. But that should be the price, because we were there apparently at a peak time.
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| Gah! The toilets were horrendous! It was much much much cleaner peeing outside, which is what i did most of the time! |
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| The Sky as we left Inle Lake on that cold cold morning! This was Kalaw where we saw ICE on the ground! And we survived with our not made for winter clothing! |
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| Rest Stop! In the middle of nowhere! Time to pea. |
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| The Bagan Express! It broke down and the driver know exactly whats wrong . |
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| We sat on top of the bus for about 5 to 10 minutes with the Russian gang of tourists! They were fun and always had vodka ready to pour! Then the guards at the entrance to Bagan said we had to come down! =C |
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| There was a procession on the streets of Bagan, with cows decorated and kids on each cow and lots more walking, dressed up very fancily. |
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| Look 360 degrees around Old Bagan, and this is the view! |
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| We loved climbing up the outside walls of the temples,some get you quite high up to get awesome views! |
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| A view of a temple from another temple quite close by, this kinda views helped us planning our journey from one temple to another |
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| These HUGE golden buddhas were in every , almost every temple!The bigger the temple, the bigger the buddha! And a few parts of the buddha was made with gold flakes on them. And not one statue has been disfigured, or chipped off. |
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| More wall paintings, these were just so amazing! So well preserved and ALL OVER the WALLS! |
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| Original wall paintings in some of the temples still so well preserved. |
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| These were original statues of buddhas made from stone, very well preserved. But gated so no one could touch and destroy it. |
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| Preservation process in progress. They were employed and paid for by the UN. The government had no part in almost any of the preservation efforts. |
Where to stay: We got a reasonable price for the inn we were at. Our bus was filled with tourists, and the bus just stopped at that inn, so rooms were being taken up as we were deliberating on the price! We took our room for 12USD a night, we stayed there for two nights. It was quite nice, the inn. And the compound was nicer! They had a swing in the front, a cute dogs, that all looked alike in Bagan! They were like bigger versions of shih tzus, and there were all strays! The dog in the hotel, was really smart and would jump on you when you gestured like you had a treat. All the dogs looked like they needed a bath though. But yay! doggies anyway.
Food: Food is good in Bagan! There's a lot of places to choose from, mostly around Nyaung-U, where all the hotels are mostly situated. And a few on the way from there to Old Bagan. And there's a lot of vegetarian places! So that was awesome. I was mostly vegetarian for the whole 10 days that I was in Myanmar just because it was absolutely delicious and very varied the dishes and the uses of veges in their food! Oh and its cheaper! The food places in New Bagan (Nyaung-U) is very close by the hotel, so we jsut walked around and looked at the menu and prices and then decided. We only wanted to eat at places that offered "Myanmar food". On average for two persons, we spent on average 9000 kyats for lunch and dinner. Hmm i guess it was a little pricey here. But that's also because all the restaurants, came with fancy lamps and decorated table and chairs and an ambiance! Its quite hard to find road side food in Bagan. Breakfast is provided by the hotel. Breakfast was toasted bread (w always asked for more but the most they gave us was about 3 slices extra!) and eggs (a choice of scrambled, omelette and bulls eye) they were all very good, but then again i think you can NEVER go wrong with eggs.
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| This was a mid range place in Old Bagan, recommended in the Lonely Planet Guide. That's tanaka on my face! |
I have to NOT recommend a place in Bagan though, although it was recommended in the Lonely Planet's Guide to Myanmar. It was called Golden Myanmar -- a buffet with about 20 different dishes for each of you for 3000 kyats per person. I have never ate so little at a buffet in my life! There were curries and vegetables , but almost ALL if not ALL were soooo sour! Like absolutely sour and bitter! So i only ate the rice, and one or two vege that was not sour or bitter. I soon discovered from eating at another rest stop (we crossed the road to eat in a family's small hut restaurant) on the way back from Bagan to Yangoon. They were very grateful because the bus stopped at the bigger popular rest stop restaurant just opposite their shop and i think they dont get as many customers as they would like. Anyway we ordered one plate of rice, with some curries and vegetable and it was also sour, the curry at least! So i think the curries in Myanmar when they have meat in it, are usually sour! Just the way its cooked there maybe. But this family was really nice, we met his wife who was pregnant and resting and his daughter. He was very hospitable and we had a nice conversation about Bagan and his little shop!
And i think that's the most important thing for any place, to make it a nice holiday or vacation. The people. And I've truly not met a more friendly hospitable down to earth crowd that i did in Myanmar! It was absolutely amazing and nice talking and getting to know all of them. And I even got two email addresses of two english teachers that were "lurking" around one pagoda to talk to tourists to improve their english. That reminds me, I'm going to email them right after this!<
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| The two girls that followed us around to each temple.They were really like our guides! And postcards she was selling.We kept bumping into them, having stalkers never felt so good! |
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| These girls were selling some stuff in one of the temples and were so amused that we had tanaka on our faces that they commented on it as soon as we parked our bicycles. |
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| The old lady that smoked and kept asking us to pay her when we took her photo. She encouraged us to take her photo! |
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| We were never hustled as much as we were at this place! We didn't want to get anything else,but had to just because they were so good at making you feel like a monster if you didn't. |
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| These boys and their sister were playing in one the temples. They grew up in the temple and wanted us to take a photo of them! |
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| This cute couple was in Inle Lake! Isn't that cutest baby and the cutest old man EVER? |
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| Monks that come down to the temples in their robes,and a pot for left over food or anything else that is willing to give. They just stand still in the corners of the temples, and people put in food or money. These kid monks were hiphop influenced apparently! But had to pose in secrecy, before an older monk saw them and had a talk with them. |
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| The kind lady in one of the temple applying some tanaka on our faces. Burmese people wear them all the time, like powder to protect their fair skin from the harshness of the sun. |
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| Baby with face full of tanaka! Yumyum! |
All in all, Myanmar was an amazing experience! To see these three places, 10 days is the optimal length of stay i would say. We had enough time to recuperate from the bus rides to enjoy the places! I hope a revolution is not far away, looking at the middle east and all the amazing revolutions that are happening there! The people there deserve as many opportunities they can get and to be free !
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| Burmese kyats. The notes there looked like they've absolutely been to hell and back. Just shows how much the same money has been used again and again. Pretty sure the printing of money has stopped. You only see nice notes if you have 1000 kyats onwards. |
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Inle Lake (Burma)
Inle Lake in Burma was the first AWE that we experienced. That was mostly because I did all other research EXCEPT the temperature.
Transport: To get there, there is an afternoon bus (only one bus) from Yangoon and it costs about 12000 kyats per person, inclusive of the taxi ride to the bus station. It take about 12 hours to 15hours to the junction of Inle Lake. And then to get to the Lake , we had to take a taxi that costs 7000 kyats, for a 20 minutes ride. We would have walked, but it was so cold, almost 0 degrees! So we had no choice.
Getting Around: Getting around inle lake is easy! We rented a bicycle and cycled around the small village. Its a relatively small village so exploring it was quite a breeze. We cycled through some villages with huge pigs in the compounds of their houses and then went to a small temple that looked really nice.
Weather: The drastic change of weather in Inle Lake is something we would NEVER forget! Silly me for thinking no way, Burma had a cold season. So when we approached the junction, it just kept getting colder and we didn't come prepared. So we started wearing more and more layers of clothes. I had on two long pants and three layers of tops. Topped by a sweater with a hood. And a hat! When we arrived around 4am or so at the junction, the temperature was about 4degrees. We were shivering all the way up to the inn where we finally decided to stay. When we got to the inn, we quickly got under the covers and tried to sleep the cold away. AMAZINGLY, we woke up to a bright and sunny and cool morning. I could go out cycling with my sleeveless and my three quarters. So thats the drastic weather changes, for Burma at the end of the year. Its usually hot all around starting from February.
Food: AWESOME! Because its so cold in Inle Lake, so all food are hot and steaming and taste absolutely appropriate! We ate by the road side, and in town there was a row of stalls that open at night, about 7pm or 8pm (just when it starts to get chilly again) and they have really good food. A lot of fried bean cutlets and of course noodles. Prices are slightly more touristy than Yangoon. So neals for a whole day for two persons might cost to about 3000 kyats.
Accommodation: Remember Inn. This inn was actually very nice! and the people there were also equally helpful. We got a room for 12 dollars a night inclusive of breakfast. They also have hot water. Good stay!
What to do?: The only main thing to do here is to hire a boat, to take you around the Lake. This costed us about 12000 kyats per person. But walking further down , we could have gotten a boat ride for about 10000 kyats per person. The ride though was amazing! They took us to a few places, and villages , to see silver making, cigarette making, umbrella and paper making, clothes making and a lot others. The ride lasted from morning to evening about 6pm. So it was worth it. And is a must to do! On the way to these places, we saw the one-legged fishermen. They use only one of their legs to row the boat while catching fishes. We also saw miles and miles of tomatoes growing on the lake! The lake itself was huge, felt like a sea!
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Transport: To get there, there is an afternoon bus (only one bus) from Yangoon and it costs about 12000 kyats per person, inclusive of the taxi ride to the bus station. It take about 12 hours to 15hours to the junction of Inle Lake. And then to get to the Lake , we had to take a taxi that costs 7000 kyats, for a 20 minutes ride. We would have walked, but it was so cold, almost 0 degrees! So we had no choice.
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| This wasnt the bus we took to Yangoon but you would definitely see mostly these kind of old used cars and trucks and vans on the streets. |
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| Photos of some of the adventuring we did, and what we stumbled upon |
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| Small kids working hard collecting soil! |
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| The cycling paths |
Food: AWESOME! Because its so cold in Inle Lake, so all food are hot and steaming and taste absolutely appropriate! We ate by the road side, and in town there was a row of stalls that open at night, about 7pm or 8pm (just when it starts to get chilly again) and they have really good food. A lot of fried bean cutlets and of course noodles. Prices are slightly more touristy than Yangoon. So neals for a whole day for two persons might cost to about 3000 kyats.
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| They have water EVERYWHERE! for free to drink ! but they do use the same cup though. |
What to do?: The only main thing to do here is to hire a boat, to take you around the Lake. This costed us about 12000 kyats per person. But walking further down , we could have gotten a boat ride for about 10000 kyats per person. The ride though was amazing! They took us to a few places, and villages , to see silver making, cigarette making, umbrella and paper making, clothes making and a lot others. The ride lasted from morning to evening about 6pm. So it was worth it. And is a must to do! On the way to these places, we saw the one-legged fishermen. They use only one of their legs to row the boat while catching fishes. We also saw miles and miles of tomatoes growing on the lake! The lake itself was huge, felt like a sea!
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| Of course more temples, this was when we stopped by the floating market. The location of the market changes every week |
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| Things to see on the Lake! Nice structures of houses with BOATS in the 'porch' |
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| Lots of people selling vegetables and all, good food!! and very cheap! |
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| The one legged boatman. |
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| Silver making. All hand made goods. Earrings and necklaces and many others. very intricately made |
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| The making of lotus thread. Its about 10times more hardy than silk and cotton. They use this thread to make the monks clothes. |
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| The temple by the lake. |
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| The jumping cat monastery. The lady there had a hoop and when she called to the cats, they all took turns jumping into it! The whole place was filled with fatties! |
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