Salamat Malam, Terengganu.

(Goodnight KT)
A couple quick shots of our fair city just before nightfall.

"Malaysia, eat your heart out. Fo real!"

Here we are with our new (old), Malaysian Motorcycles. We leased these puppies from a couple of our animators. Crusin' around town has been a blast. Not pictured are our helmets, don't worry mom.

Left to right: Adam on "White Lightning," Me on "Ol Sally Blue Eyes."

Dinner of Champions

There is a Chinese dish here pronounced "Bah-coo-teh." Essentially it is stewed pork soup and is incredibly good. There is one place in China Town we often venture to for this delight. Along with the pork, they throw in some mushrooms, lettuce, some spongy stuff, and tripe (pig intestine) Imagine a hot dog minus the filling. Trust me, its great. Malaysians have a version substituting beef (daging) for pork that I've yet to try.

Below is my dinner served in a piping hot clay pot. (Say that 3 times fast). This is a classic Chinese table setting: A side of rice, soy sauce, raw garlic and diced chillies. One mixes the garlic, chillies and soy into a small dish for dipping or drizzling. And yes, that is ice in my beer. I don't remember when I started doing this but it's common here and I love it now. It really helps cut through the day's heat.


This is the outside of the restaurant. Most of these places look like holes in the wall, but serve marvelous food.

The pork is stewed in a big pot with spices and tons of fat, then ladled out onto the cutting board, chopped up and served immediately.

fun word

Pronounced, "EE- steem- eh- wah" this word in Malay means "special."
As in, Masakan Istimewa (mah's- a- con , EE-steem-eh-wah); special dish or Cengkerik Istimewa (Chen- cur- ick, EE-steem-eh-wah); special cricket.
It's very fun to say. Try whispering it to yourself.

Long Lost....

OK, wow - I just found this photo among other misc. pics of things here. I thought I posted it a while back. Anyways, in the middle there is Fendi. He was our guide on a fruitless excursion to see fireflies. He also explained how his best friend died because he ate watermelon, then ate honey. Apparently, Malays consider honey to be "hot" and watermelon to be "cold." If one accidentally mixes the two, disaster occurs. Or, "depending on how strong your blood is, you might just feel a headache." He said. He also told us how he used to be addicted to heroine and how polygamy in Malaysia is legal. "Only if your can prove in front of a panel of officials that your hero," he called it, "is strong by coughing and making it jump." Of course.
It was a great night.

left to right: Me, Fendi, Marty, Adam.

Jungle Fever

This past weekend we took a trip north to another of Terengganu's islands. Called, Pulau Perhentian, this lil place is actually two islands separated by half a mile of ocean blue. It was recommended to us by locals and friends remarking it for its inexpensive lodging and relaxed atmosphere. However true, the journey there is tough. A three hour bus ride, then waiting at a jetty another hour or more for a boat to take us to the island. All in all it's about the same price (when including additional travel costs) as Redang, which is just a quick boat ride from work. Still, we had a good time.


We took a trip through the jungle to get to the other side of the island.




A few rather large Monitor Lizards crossed our path. This was the only one I could snap a quick pic of, it was about four feet long.

This is a stock photo just to show you what they look like in detail.

Here's a crappy lil mural of Perhentian. On the right is the Flag of Malaysia. Seem familiar? I think Betsy Ross did some freelancing.



All the beaches on the island are independent inlets. To access the one next to where we stayed, there was a meandering wooden plank bridge over rocks and jungley hooha we had to use. Somehow the Indiana Jones theme worked its way in to my head whenever I crossed it.




The other side....