Cool Air Makes Me Want to Write (finally!)

That's Tanah Rata - in the blissfully cool highlands

I'm sitting on the open air porch in Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia and despite my ENORMOUS guilty conscience that I haven't even finished blogging about New Zealand and here I am in Malaysia, I've decided that I need to nip it in the bud and actually DO something about my conscience.  So, screw chronology - I'm blogging as the pictures and the words come easily to me.  And right now I'm so happy to not have sweat dripping down between my bubbies that I'll happily accept all reprimands for my inconsistency and blatant negligence of my blog writing duties.  So much for my new year's resolution, eh?

I've been in Malaysia for 3 days and the humidity is a killer.  The saying, it's not the heat but the humidity that'll kill ya, 'tis true, my friends, 'tis true.  I thought Singapore was bad, but Singapore had a breeze!  Kuala Lumpur is ridiculous.  I've been sweating like a man!  No joke.  I realize girls are supposed to glisten, not sweat, but I've been positively dripping.  At least my hair stays wet, I've always liked it better wet than dry!  

I arrived mid afternoon on Monday and took my sweet time getting from the airport to my backpackers.  The key is to not move quickly (never a problem for me, my family will attest), especially with 23kg on your back.  After climbing 3 flights of stairs to my room, I happily dropped it all and took a cold, but surprisingly welcome, shower before braving the streets for dinner.  Little did the shower help since I was sweating heavily once again by the time I'd walked through Chinatown's markets.  I found a restaurant where I got spicy chicken tandoori and roti.  My tastebuds have always been spice wimps but I'm slowly training them so I don't starve in Sri Lanka and Thailand!  Dinner, away from the touts trying to get me to buy things, was lovely and then I meandered through the indoor central market.  The shopping in Singapore and KL is amazing.  There's a store or a cart every few feet and if you buy something from one person/shop, the person/shop next door immediately invites you in to buy something from them - even though they're usually selling the same items.  How many Petronas Tower bedazzled keychains does one actually need?

Tuesday morning, about 9ish, I was on my way to FRIM (the Forestry Research Institute of Malaysia).   It was one of the "worth a trip" mentions in the Lonely Planet so I decided to earn all the food I intended to eat and go for a hike in Malaysian nature.  It was a bit of a mission finding a cab once I got off the train, but eventually I made it to FRIM and bought a ticket for the canopy walkway - a 200m suspension bridge.  The hike up to the canopy was quasi steep, but the humidity made it seem almost vertical.  At the bench at the beginning of the walkway I sat and dripped in pleasant company with a local KL man.  We chatted about New York and meditation and how he likes the western view to meditation more than the eastern view (the western view is more scientific).  We also chatted about the goal of meditation - to get rid of the ego so you're one with everything.  His theory is ego = problem.  Big ego = Big problem, SUPER ego = SUPER problem.  His theory made us both laugh, although I don't disagree!

I wobbled my way across the suspension bridge and then scaled my way downhill, periodically sticking my feet in the pools from the series of waterfalls that I walked next to all the way down to the cafe.  Despite cooling myself in the pools, I was sweating buckets by the time I found another cab to get me back to the train station.  This time I went further north to the Batu Caves.  There are a series of 3 caves, one you needed a tour guide, one had paintings and a dance show every 30 minutes, and the last had 272 steps and a 30meter statue leading up to it.  Guess which one I chose to explore...

Calves still hurt from all the dang stairs.

Once I got home, I was completely wiped, so I napped, and then the Belgian girl who was staying in the dorm with me, asked if I wanted to join her for a meditation class at a local Hindu temple.  Yup! So we had some veggie and cheese stuffed roti at a street stall, and then our Filipina roomie joined and we went to meditate for a couple hours.  My legs totally fell asleep...multiple times.  I have a loooong way to go with my meditation skills!

This morning I got up and walked to the Imbi market as it got rave reviews in Lonely Planet...but markets have always been an early morning thing and I have never been an early morning thing.  It didn't help that it was a rather long walk to get there, so when I finally arrived at 10 there wasn't much to see.  I bought bananas anyway, just so it wasn't a complete waste.  

I packed up and caught a bus to Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands.  I met an Irish girl being channeled by a tout to the same bus that I was being channeled to.  She was going to Penang, in the opposite direction of Tanah Rata, and yet they were trying to get us on the same bus.  My suspicions confirmed, we teamed up and walked away together and made our way, peacefully, to the ticket counters where we encountered another Irish couple also going to the Cameron Highlands.  That couple and I became travel buddies and we all commented on our excitement to escape the humidity!

Tea Plantation from the bus

As the scenery got hillier and hillier and the air mistier and mistier, I got happier and happier.  The road got ridiculously windy, reminiscent of the west coast of NZ, and I felt quite at home!  We passed tea plantations and a lovely little waterfall.  Now I'm actually cold, wearing a sweater, jeans and slippers (and the backpacker cat on my lap), but still sitting outside listening to the rain.  I'm getting excited to go for a cooler hike and get a closer look at a tea plantation tomorrow.  I'm loving this cooler side of Malaysia!

Retro Post #2 - Afterhours fun in Dudstown

My Bowling Get Up

Winter arrived.  We had been really lucky with all the sunny and warm weather up until Monday when it was legitimately chilly and snow was forecast (although fortunately did not appear).  After my experience last year walking around Dunedin in the ice and snow, Yak Trax are high on my list of "must-haves" and with the knowledge of how cold Dunedin can get in winter, blogging beneath the heat pump will quickly become my preferred way to spend the day.

The winter months (last year), where there was actually ice and snow, were July and August mostly.  I traveled very little and tried to stay warm doing things close to home.  The International Film Festival lasted from the end of July to early August.  I finally started going to films on my own!  This was a HUGE step for me.  I used to consider going to movies alone a clear sign you had no friends.  However, my horizons have been broadened and my narrow-minded-ness cured.  

The first movie that I went to alone was out of pure necessity - everyone else had already seen Black Swan and I hadn't so I went on my own.  Shockingly, I loved the experience and I didn't have to feel guilty about wanting to stay until the end of the credits!  I only ended up seeing a couple foreign films on my own.  One was an Israeli film, Footnote.  It was the first film I'd seen spoken in Hebrew and within the film they watched 'Fiddler on the Roof'.  Listening to a musical sung in Hebrew when I know it so well in English is a bit trippy!  My favorite films were actually an American and a Japanese film.  Melancholia, which came to mainstream theaters a few months later, I surprisingly liked a lot.  I saw it with Matt Tucker and Anna Penguin.  They thought it was crap but for some reason I really liked it.  I'm pretty sure I will make my Dad happy with my other favorite films: Gantz and Gantz 2: A Perfect Answer, Japanese films.  They're based on a manga comic and although long, like many a Japanese film my Dad watches, not slow!  All in all, an excellent foreign film festival experience.

Sary's shoes - my socks :)

After the excitement of the film festival, I needed something else to look forward to over the end of the wintery months. Fortunately, Ceire and Sary's birthdays are only a couple days apart so we planned a bowling night as a birthday party for them.  It was epic.  As were my socks and Sary's bowling shoes.  There was a large group of us from work donning borrowed shoes and rolling up our pants to show off our socks.  Pre-bowling stretches were performed, beers purchased and bowling commenced.  After the initial teaching moments for the first-time bowlers and the "it's been sooo long" bowlers, we got into a bowling groove and I do believe I won the first game (woohoo!!).  Then my arm apparently got tired...or the beer kicked in and I came in second in the next game.  Tragic, truly, but still a good time.  There was more excitement as our ball-retrieval system had some issues and had to be tended to a couple times.  Seeing the inner workings of the ball whoseewhatsit is rather interesting!  As the games progressed there was a marked dip in the "effort" department as alternative tactics were used to get the ball down the lane and more attention was paid to posing for the camera than aiming for the pins.

The Pre-Game Stretch - A True Teaching Moment - Ball Selection is CRITICAL

Our excellent bowling form plus trouble with the ball whoseewhatsit

The degradation of our bowling

Post bowling, we decided to head to Di Lusso for some birthday drinks.  Despite the fact that it was a Tuesday evening (possibly a Monday?) and therefore not a big night in town, we did manage to stay out past midnight and create quite the atmosphere for the other bar patrons that evening.  Guy, Ceire's husband, and I talked cars and music and worked on appreciating spirits on the rocks, sans mixers.  Ceire and Sary started appreciating the music and expressing themselves through the art of dance...good times :)  Our evening lasted much longer than I had anticipated, but good conversation and good friends will do that to an otherwise boring and cold winter's night!  Here's hoping there's a repeat this winter!

A Retrospective (retroactive?) Post - the first of many

It has turned to fall here and as I'm organizing my things and my thoughts (a fall cleaning rather than a spring one) I'm mentally prepared to get caught up on all my blog posts that I've been slacking on!  I believe I left you all hanging in regards to my winter adventures last year, so what better place to start my catch-up than July of last year...when all of my adventures REALLY started.  'Adventures' is not an overstatement and it's about time I fill you in on all the havoc I've wreaked.  

Winter started, for me, back in July at the All Blacks vs. Fiji match in Dunedin.  I actually pulled out my puffy winter coat!  Granted, it was a night rugby game and the stadium is outside so I wasn't being wimpy.  Thermals were worn by all, but the proximity of thousands of your closest friends you didn't know you had helped keep us warm.  I'd pulled together a big group of people to join me for the rugby game: Nicky, Doogs, Matt Tucker, J from work, Rinie and Kaya from Queenstown, and Nicky's friend Camille joined too.  It was great to be with some good friends and to see the dueling Hakas!! 

Rinie and Kaya had to pick up their tickets at the game and I needed (yes, needed) an All Blacks scarf... so we literally ran around the stadium to get inside in time to watch the dueling Hakas.  I was quite winded (I hadn't turned into a runner at that point in time) so I was catching my breath while the boys had the presence of mind to pull out their cameras and record the epicness:

Post-Hakas (coolest thing ever!), we found the rest of our group and the game commenced.  Fortunately this was not my first rugby game (my second), so I had a bit of an idea what was going on.  However I was still happy to have Matt there to explain things to me again.  I will say I spent most of my time talking to everyone, helping Matt drink his beers, and taking pictures.  I tried to get clear pictures of the players, but that was a big 'fail' so thank goodness for Rinie and Kaya who had better cameras!

Clearer pictures of the game then I was able to get

Matt, Rinie, Kaya & I - Doogs! - Me & Matt Tucker - Rinie & I w/ Cami & Nicky - Doogs & J - The Stewart Island Crew

Kiwis are big fans of the wave at sporting events.  They keep it going for ages and it's rather impressive.  However, there is one distinct difference in their execution of the wave: they throw up their beer bottles along with their arms.  A) I think this is a waste of perfectly good beer if you're not done when the wave comes around, B) It can make for a very wet second half of the game, and C) I caught it on film!!!

After the game (All Blacks won!!) we all had a long night out in town dancing it up.  The next morning we hit the Farmer's Market for bacon butties.  I had to share the fabulousness with the Queenstown boys because they had never had one.  Obviously they loved the fatty goodness when they tried mine so the boys each got one and then we wandered the market and relaxed in the winter sun.

Farmer's Market Bacon Gorging

Once we checked the Farmer's Market off our 'to-do' list, we hit the Otago Museum for a hot second and then continued on to Baldwin Street to try and walk off some of the bacon.  I only walk up this street when people visit.  It's too steep to walk up on a regular basis...plus it's not near where I live and I tend to be lazy.  But it's a must-see/must-walk for all newbies to Dudstown so I took the boys there and Nicky and I just chalked it up to much needed exercise.
Sadly, I had to work that afternoon so I left the Queenstown crew to shop in the city before they headed back home.  It was a great weekend and I got to see the All Blacks in person!  A great personal victory for my low standard of personal accomplishment.  The lower the standard the more I feel I achieve! 

Strut It, Honey!

iD Fashion Week just finished here in Dunedin again and seeing as I never blogged about my experience at last year's fashion show, I figured it was an appropriate time to backtrack.

Considering I lived in NYC for 4 years, the closest I'd ever come to a runway was 'Project Runway' or the impromptu runways my sister and I made up on dance floors, if those count.  Regardless, sitting at a runway show was amazing for me let alone being in the front row!!

Ceire & I - in the front row

Every March, the organizers put together a week's worth of fashion events, culminating in the Railway Show at the Dunedin Rail Station on Saturday night.  Earlier in the week they have a fashion show with awards for emerging designers, mostly students from universities here in New Zealand and some international schools as well.  This is the show that I attended last year.  It was pure luck that I happened upon these tickets.  One of the wine reps from No. 7 had 2 tickets for us to use.  Our owner and our manager both couldn't make it, a few other people already had tickets to the show so my co-worker Ceire got the two tickets.  Her friend couldn't make the show and I wasn't working that night so I got the spare ticket.  Pure dumb luck, but I'm not complaining!

A favorite pic - so close!

I met Ceire at the show, we bought a bottle of bubbly (it was the Quartz Reef rep who gave us the tickets...only right we support them by buying their bubbly!) and were surprised to find our seats were in the front row.  I felt all important-like and as though I should have score cards with me to write my comments on (a la Project Runway).  Instead, like a true neophyte, I pulled out my iPhone and started snapping photos just to prove how close we were to the models.  I was also pleasantly surprised to see the twins walking the runway.  I'd heard so much about them from my sister who watched "New Zealand's Next Top Model" that I was thrilled to see them in person.  And now I can say that their dad cut my hair.  Crazy how small this city is!

Each of the designers had a 4 or 5 piece collection.  Each model walked the runway and then stood together at the back of the runway until everyone had come out before they walked as a unit down the runway once more to pose as a full collection.  It was a nice system and gave me heaps of time to take pictures of the pieces up close when they weren't moving.  Below are some pictures of my favorite collections - or at least the really cool ones.  The orange dress I would buy in a heartbeat!!

These were just fun

The Orange dress I'm in love with!

I'm not sure what else to call these guys but Fashionista Ringwraiths

It was a really cool event and I had a fabulous time being there and making comments to Ceire.  Some were "I Want!", most just made her laugh.  Regardless, it was a great evening out and it was nice to be in-the-know about the fashion show and be able to comment on it with all the customers at the restaurant the next day.  Sadly, I didn't attend any of the runway shows this year, but I'm not sure I could have topped last year's experience!