Yesterday we went to the Art and Science Museum and saw two exhibits: Titanic: The Artifact Exhibit and Cartier: Time Art: Mechanics of Passion, both of which were wonderful.
This is Chinese New Year and both Monday and Tuesday are National Holidays. So, we have had to change our eating habits since most Chinese shops are closed. We are now having a lot of Indian food since they don't seem to care about Chinese New Year. Sunday we went to our usual little restaurant, and it was closed, but the owner, John, invited us in, and served us coffee at the one table he kept open for his friends, while he was cleaning his restaurant. Guess we have gone there a lot for the owner to recognize and talk with us. While we were having coffee, he sat with us and we discussed U.S. politics, which he was very interested in.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Back in Singapore
We were kicked off our cruise ship at 9am, and are now back in Singapore. This is the start of Chinese New Year so it is a fun time to be in Singapore.
So, our first trip was to the Marina Bay Sands Casino. It is a beautiful casino and complex of three hotel buildings, with a rooftop park across the top, connecting all the buildings. The last time we were here they were building the complex. We walked through the casino, had free coffee, which is distributed instead of alcohol to the gamblers, and left. The hotel complex has yet another huge mall of high end shops, Jimmy Choo, et al, and lots of watch stores, even a Franck Muller store, that was kept locked unless they liked your looks. The watches in the window were all diamond encrusted; we didn't even ask the price.
So, our first trip was to the Marina Bay Sands Casino. It is a beautiful casino and complex of three hotel buildings, with a rooftop park across the top, connecting all the buildings. The last time we were here they were building the complex. We walked through the casino, had free coffee, which is distributed instead of alcohol to the gamblers, and left. The hotel complex has yet another huge mall of high end shops, Jimmy Choo, et al, and lots of watch stores, even a Franck Muller store, that was kept locked unless they liked your looks. The watches in the window were all diamond encrusted; we didn't even ask the price.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Headset
Jim bought an Ear Phone with Mic to use with Skype. The fist call was to the credit card company to explain some charges, then Jim was ready to call his family to test his new toy. Unfortunately, it was about 3am in San Diego and Las Vegas so he thought better of it.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Laura's Pedicure
Today Laura went with Pat Jones to the Prangin shopping mall next to Komtar, the tallest building in Penang, with Pat Jones for a pedicure. This is where Pat gets her toes painted regularly. The pedicure shop is on the third floor, the same floor on which McDonald's is located. After the pedicure they went to lunch at Old Town White Coffee where Laura had the English breakfast, and Pat had curry potatoes with small pancakes. Not your typical Malay meals. Old Town White Coffee is a local chain of restaurants around Malaysia, that has quite good food.
Laura now has sparkly red toenails.
Laura now has sparkly red toenails.
Abu Siti Lane
We have observed Abu Siti Lane day after day from our window at the PP Island Hotel. Jim has booked at this hotel for past four years, since it opened. On our first visit we stayed for a month. The hotel is located on Abu Siti Lane, which is one way with a variety of Chinese business, a computer college, homes and an Indian coconut seller on it. The lane runs between Macalister Road and Burma Road
At 7am the coconut seller on the lane has only four cars lined up on the left hand side of the street. The lane is very slow with only a few cars on it until about 9:00am. Trucks deliver coconuts all day and night to the coconut seller. To serve the coconuts the top of the coconut is loped off with a machete and the top becomes a scoop for the coconut meat and a straw it placed in the coconut for the milk. The customers are out of their cars and lined to drink and eat the best coconuts in Penang. People also walk from blocks for their daily ritual. The drinker may be a near by employee running to the corner for a lunch break drink, or customer wanting a basket full of coconuts to take home. I love seeing the confusion this causes all day. It is especially bad from 5:00 to 6:30pm as the entire street slows to a crawl. At that time not only are people and their cars trying to leave for home from the many businesses in the area, but most of businesses are at least Twenty floors most more. Our Hotel has 10 stories. Our room is on the eighth floor.
Adding to the confusion of the street is the Ftz Group and a computer school. Some of the school parking is on concrete from the front door to the street. Four years ago the students would arrive on motorbikes around 9:00am, park and stay late. The bikes were neatly parked in lines to the streets. There may have been fifty bikes. Now the students have cars and this adds to the street confusion.
There is a municipal parking officer on a motorbike, wearing a yellow vest, who weaves in and out of traffic. He writes parking permits and tickets as cars park on the right hand side of the street. I think, this all looks a bit confusing.
My favorite store is at the end of the street, which is a piano store located in a Chinese shop-house that is painted hot pink and white. We saw a new shop house advertized as house with shop, four bathrooms and four bedrooms. The Chinese shop house is the traditional business and home. These shop-houses are side by side in long blocks and many of these are being demolished for high rises. This shop is such an interest to me is because it is a music shop. Penang is a very cultural city and there is a demand for pianos.
Here is a little note on the lane that we found on a Penang web site. Chines does not readily translate to English characters so often there are many different spellings of the same word. Such is the case with the name of the lane.
"Aboo Sittee Lane
Aboo Sittee Lane, or Lorong Abu Siti, is a road on the outer city of George Town. It was named after Abu Siti, the late 19th century leader of Bangsawan, a street opera, because his house used to be there. The name "Bangsawan", which means "nobility" is believed to have been given by Tunku Kudin. During an age where there was still no television, street operas and wandering theatres are a popular form of entertainment that drew a following not only among the Malays, but also the Chinese population.
The Bangsawan opera traces its roots among the Indian Muslims. Indeed Abu Siti was also known by the nickname Mamak Pushi. His Bangsawan troupe, the Kumpulan Pusi Indera-Bangsawan, was formed in the 1890's and staged a touring concert throughout Malaya and Indonesia.
Among the Chinese, Aboo Sittee Lane was known as Samseng Hang, or Gangster Alley, because it was where Chinese hooligans used to group there."
At 7am the coconut seller on the lane has only four cars lined up on the left hand side of the street. The lane is very slow with only a few cars on it until about 9:00am. Trucks deliver coconuts all day and night to the coconut seller. To serve the coconuts the top of the coconut is loped off with a machete and the top becomes a scoop for the coconut meat and a straw it placed in the coconut for the milk. The customers are out of their cars and lined to drink and eat the best coconuts in Penang. People also walk from blocks for their daily ritual. The drinker may be a near by employee running to the corner for a lunch break drink, or customer wanting a basket full of coconuts to take home. I love seeing the confusion this causes all day. It is especially bad from 5:00 to 6:30pm as the entire street slows to a crawl. At that time not only are people and their cars trying to leave for home from the many businesses in the area, but most of businesses are at least Twenty floors most more. Our Hotel has 10 stories. Our room is on the eighth floor.
Adding to the confusion of the street is the Ftz Group and a computer school. Some of the school parking is on concrete from the front door to the street. Four years ago the students would arrive on motorbikes around 9:00am, park and stay late. The bikes were neatly parked in lines to the streets. There may have been fifty bikes. Now the students have cars and this adds to the street confusion.
There is a municipal parking officer on a motorbike, wearing a yellow vest, who weaves in and out of traffic. He writes parking permits and tickets as cars park on the right hand side of the street. I think, this all looks a bit confusing.
My favorite store is at the end of the street, which is a piano store located in a Chinese shop-house that is painted hot pink and white. We saw a new shop house advertized as house with shop, four bathrooms and four bedrooms. The Chinese shop house is the traditional business and home. These shop-houses are side by side in long blocks and many of these are being demolished for high rises. This shop is such an interest to me is because it is a music shop. Penang is a very cultural city and there is a demand for pianos.
Here is a little note on the lane that we found on a Penang web site. Chines does not readily translate to English characters so often there are many different spellings of the same word. Such is the case with the name of the lane.
"Aboo Sittee Lane
Aboo Sittee Lane, or Lorong Abu Siti, is a road on the outer city of George Town. It was named after Abu Siti, the late 19th century leader of Bangsawan, a street opera, because his house used to be there. The name "Bangsawan", which means "nobility" is believed to have been given by Tunku Kudin. During an age where there was still no television, street operas and wandering theatres are a popular form of entertainment that drew a following not only among the Malays, but also the Chinese population.
The Bangsawan opera traces its roots among the Indian Muslims. Indeed Abu Siti was also known by the nickname Mamak Pushi. His Bangsawan troupe, the Kumpulan Pusi Indera-Bangsawan, was formed in the 1890's and staged a touring concert throughout Malaya and Indonesia.
Among the Chinese, Aboo Sittee Lane was known as Samseng Hang, or Gangster Alley, because it was where Chinese hooligans used to group there."
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Swap Meet Sunday
We are still in Penang, still having a good time. Yesterday was Sunday which means that we went to the swap meet. Our friends pat and Alan go to the swap meet every Sunday, so we met them for breakfast at the swap meet. 
Last night I had cuttlefish and Laura had sausage, mashed potatoes and corn on the cob. You can get any kind of food here you want. Although, we enjoy Thai food more than the Malay food. When we are in Malaysia we have mostly Chinese food for breakfast (Dim Sum) and then Indian for later meals. Last night along with our supper, we had a wonderful ocean view and watched freighters sail into the harbor.
We have found that Subway has invaded here with a daily 6" $2 special that is beginning to look good. Still the only place that has unlimited coffee and soda refills is McDonald's. Yesterday in the mall I looked around and we were standing at the corner of Chicago Rib House, Chili's, McDonald's and Manhattan Fish Company.
We had one lunch in Thailand, where Laura complained that her lips burned for the rest of the afternoon. Now, that was spicy. She only ate part of her mean and then gave it to Jim to finish. So, he ate, hiccuped, sweated, and ate more until it was gone.
We have a Giant supermarket near our hotel. We went in looking for wine and discovered that "Night Train" wine has made it here, and for only $10 US a bottle! They also had shopping bags for sale from Fry's Food Stores, which is part of the Kroger chain and mostly located in Arizona.
Last night I had cuttlefish and Laura had sausage, mashed potatoes and corn on the cob. You can get any kind of food here you want. Although, we enjoy Thai food more than the Malay food. When we are in Malaysia we have mostly Chinese food for breakfast (Dim Sum) and then Indian for later meals. Last night along with our supper, we had a wonderful ocean view and watched freighters sail into the harbor.
We have found that Subway has invaded here with a daily 6" $2 special that is beginning to look good. Still the only place that has unlimited coffee and soda refills is McDonald's. Yesterday in the mall I looked around and we were standing at the corner of Chicago Rib House, Chili's, McDonald's and Manhattan Fish Company.
We had one lunch in Thailand, where Laura complained that her lips burned for the rest of the afternoon. Now, that was spicy. She only ate part of her mean and then gave it to Jim to finish. So, he ate, hiccuped, sweated, and ate more until it was gone.
We have a Giant supermarket near our hotel. We went in looking for wine and discovered that "Night Train" wine has made it here, and for only $10 US a bottle! They also had shopping bags for sale from Fry's Food Stores, which is part of the Kroger chain and mostly located in Arizona.
Friday, January 6, 2012
Classical Feet
I have been regularly reading the Barnes and Noble free Nook book of the week. In one free book entitled "Curious Folks Ask" by Sherry Seethaler, there is a chapter entitled "Toe The Line". In this chapter someone asked about why the second toe was sometimes longer than the big toe. The longer second toe, also called Morton's Foot, occurs in women more than in men and in some ethnic groups. The author calls the foot with the longer second toe, the Greek Foot. The other foot, with the big toe the longest is the Egyptian foot.
The Statue of Liberty has the Greek foot. The sculptor for Miss Liberty was Frederic Auguste Bartholdi a classical trained artist. Lenonardo da Vinci as well as other Renaissance artists studied the Classical Greek rules for sculpture and drawing. Then the Romans copied the Greek rules defining the body.
The Statue of Liberty has the Greek foot. The sculptor for Miss Liberty was Frederic Auguste Bartholdi a classical trained artist. Lenonardo da Vinci as well as other Renaissance artists studied the Classical Greek rules for sculpture and drawing. Then the Romans copied the Greek rules defining the body.
T-Shirts
Asia is where the people want a t-shirt with a statement. Here are some of the messages I've seen recently.
"Pong is a Legend. I got Skills."
"Shut Up and Drink."
"I'm A Gorilla Man."
"I am not a Monkey, But I love Bananas."
"Dickies 1922 Redhawks"
"It is not about how you look. It is What you see"
"Chelsea"
"APPROVED for Sex. Clean Instrument."
"Hyannis Port Golf"
"IT ISN'T EASY BEING EASY"
I Miss Your Heart"
"A Heart Live More Than One Life"
"George Washington Abusing" This is across an American dollar bill.
"See Me" "You Are Under My Control"
Then there is Jim's jersey that he bought in Thailand. It is a semi-authentic Manchester United Jersey. It has the team's sponsor, AON, on the front, but it doesn't have the team's logo anywhere. The logo should be on the left breast, but it isn't there, and none of the shirts that the street vendor was selling had a logo.
"Pong is a Legend. I got Skills."
"Shut Up and Drink."
"I'm A Gorilla Man."
"I am not a Monkey, But I love Bananas."
"Dickies 1922 Redhawks"
"It is not about how you look. It is What you see"
"Chelsea"
"APPROVED for Sex. Clean Instrument."
"Hyannis Port Golf"
"IT ISN'T EASY BEING EASY"
I Miss Your Heart"
"A Heart Live More Than One Life"
"George Washington Abusing" This is across an American dollar bill.
"See Me" "You Are Under My Control"
Then there is Jim's jersey that he bought in Thailand. It is a semi-authentic Manchester United Jersey. It has the team's sponsor, AON, on the front, but it doesn't have the team's logo anywhere. The logo should be on the left breast, but it isn't there, and none of the shirts that the street vendor was selling had a logo.
Dim Sum Morning
We sat in the dim sum restaurant yesterday morning as we always do and read in "The New Straits Times" a newspaper article, "Boeing to close Wichita facilities."
When we have dim sum in the mornings we try to have pu-erh tea with our breakfast. Jim thinks that the tea is not ready to drink until it is as dark as coffee, only then you can get the good earthy taste of the tea. The teapots they serve the tea in have "Tie Kuan Yin" printed on their side. We can't figure out if this is a mis-translation of Tea Kuan Yin, or is a protest against the goddess Kuan Yin.
When we have dim sum in the mornings we try to have pu-erh tea with our breakfast. Jim thinks that the tea is not ready to drink until it is as dark as coffee, only then you can get the good earthy taste of the tea. The teapots they serve the tea in have "Tie Kuan Yin" printed on their side. We can't figure out if this is a mis-translation of Tea Kuan Yin, or is a protest against the goddess Kuan Yin.
Jim's Nose
Jim woke up at 4am, and realized that his whole nose had feeling in it! He was so happy. Since the skin cancer surgery, at first, all, them most, then some of his nose had been numb. Now he has feeling in it. Why he had to realize this is at 4am is another question. Dr. Glynn, the Topeka ENT that did the surgery said it would take up to a year to get all the feeling back.
In Bangkok we received free anti-acne foam which Jim has been rubbing on his nose before every shower. First it got rid of the blackheads in the seam in his nose that was created by the surgery. Now, the rubbing seems to have helped bring the feeling back. The furrow that was between Jim's eyebrows was removed by the surgery as well as the hair that used to grow between his eyebrows. Also, the patch of dry skin that was between his eyes was apparently moved somewhere and is no longer a problem.
In Bangkok we received free anti-acne foam which Jim has been rubbing on his nose before every shower. First it got rid of the blackheads in the seam in his nose that was created by the surgery. Now, the rubbing seems to have helped bring the feeling back. The furrow that was between Jim's eyebrows was removed by the surgery as well as the hair that used to grow between his eyebrows. Also, the patch of dry skin that was between his eyes was apparently moved somewhere and is no longer a problem.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
In Penang, Malaysia
We made it to Penang, only a day late. We left Hat Yai at 3:30pm, and by 8:30pm, were in Penang. We took a nine passenger minivan and the trip took four hours and one hour was added due to a time zone change. The trip was uneventful except in Hat Yai. When we were going from where we were picked by the minivan to the main bus station for more passengers, the driver found the road blocked by a river where a street used to be. The driver, backed up, then detoured and got to the destination. We did hear news of stranded tourists in Hat Yai on Asia News TV, and thought "We are them."
The night we arrived, after checking in at our hotel, The Tune Hotel, we went out for Tandoori chicken. After Thailand, the food here is a letdown, so we eat mostly Chinese or Indian. We generally have dim sum for breakfast and then Indian for supper. Anyway, Jim choked on the dinner and spent most of the night throwing up. So much for our start in Penang. Jim says it's a family trait, and that his mother had the same problem, which may explain why she ate so slowly. They both had the same basic cure, which is to drink a can of soda. Jim swears by Pepsi, while his mother preferred Coke.
We met with our Australian friends Pat and Alan. We had a wonderful lunch. Pat's sister is buying a house in Palm Springs, California. They’ve gone from real estate development to exporting stainless steel laundry parts from China to Australia.
“POTATOES TAKE CENTERSTAGE.” The Berjaya University College of Hospitality, held a potato workshop for chefs in the local hotels. The Black Box Competition gave the chiefs one hour to prepare a dish made from the American potato. The American Potato Board had provided the potatoes. The event was won by an Indian female chef from the Hyatt Regency with an Indian dish. Nobody seemed to care that the “American Potato” originally came from Peru.
We love reading the newspapers. The papers here are still providing news, both local and worldwide. There were articles in both Malaysian English language newspapers, “The Star” and “The Straits Times” on Romney winning the Iowa caucus.
The night we arrived, after checking in at our hotel, The Tune Hotel, we went out for Tandoori chicken. After Thailand, the food here is a letdown, so we eat mostly Chinese or Indian. We generally have dim sum for breakfast and then Indian for supper. Anyway, Jim choked on the dinner and spent most of the night throwing up. So much for our start in Penang. Jim says it's a family trait, and that his mother had the same problem, which may explain why she ate so slowly. They both had the same basic cure, which is to drink a can of soda. Jim swears by Pepsi, while his mother preferred Coke.
We met with our Australian friends Pat and Alan. We had a wonderful lunch. Pat's sister is buying a house in Palm Springs, California. They’ve gone from real estate development to exporting stainless steel laundry parts from China to Australia.
“POTATOES TAKE CENTERSTAGE.” The Berjaya University College of Hospitality, held a potato workshop for chefs in the local hotels. The Black Box Competition gave the chiefs one hour to prepare a dish made from the American potato. The American Potato Board had provided the potatoes. The event was won by an Indian female chef from the Hyatt Regency with an Indian dish. Nobody seemed to care that the “American Potato” originally came from Peru.
We love reading the newspapers. The papers here are still providing news, both local and worldwide. There were articles in both Malaysian English language newspapers, “The Star” and “The Straits Times” on Romney winning the Iowa caucus.
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