My Celebrity Look-alikes

My cool celebrity look-alike collage from MyHeritage.com. Get one for yourself.

Family

Wheel of Fortune, March Madness, or the Leafs?
Wine? What's up with that dude?

To anyone reading this from Canada, I should be home around June 18th. I'm planning a short golf trip to Cuba, but other than that you can find me at Tre Monkeys every night.

Peace

Mos Eisley Cantina

Obi Wan Kenobi once said, "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villany!" I think he must have been talking about the cafe across the street from my hotel. I really can't go into much detail, but imagine yourself in the Mos Eisley Cantina and you can get a pretty good idea.

I'd still rather be here than sitting at home.

A Dialogue with a Cabbie

I was exiting the Museum of Fine Art in Jakarta and I needed a ride back to my chateaux in Jaksa. Taxi drivers here are nothing like the evil drivers in Malaysia. Here is a brief example from my travels last night.

Saint: Good evening sir. I am wondering if you could give me a ride back to my place in Jaksa?

Cabbie: Of course I can sir.

Saint: How much?

Cabbie: Since you're a foreigner it's free.

Saint: Oh, god bless you and your ancestors.

Cabbie: God bless me? God bless you! I will hug you!

Saint: Then let's hug.

It's funny that at the end of this altercation I actually accepted a ride with this particular cabbie. We exchanged a few pleasantries on the way home.

P.S. If I ever go missing or something, I want the photo from this post to appear on the news.

Glorious City of Jakarta

Day One

I arrived in Jakarta yesterday. I was determined to get out of the airport without being ripped off. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be. My hotel is reasonably priced, but I didn't get any discount. I've lost a lot of my bargaining skills. Perhaps it's because I hadn't slept in over 24 hours when I checked in. What did I do on my first day? I slept till about 6:00 pm. After that, I walked around and realized that there really isn't much to see here. Finally, I decided relax in a cafe. To anyone reading this who may visit Jakarta in the future, please note that the Romance Cafe is the exact opposite of romantic.

Day Two

Woke up at 11:57 am and went for breakfast. It was interesting to see that one of the regulars from the Romance Cafe was having a beer for breakfast. In fact, I suspect that the party never stops for that guy. Now I'm at a PC cafe doing this blog thing. The computer I'm on was probably built in the mid to late 80's. I'm not sure how clear the web cam pic will be because everything I look at on this computer is almost completely black. Anyways, I'm going back to my hotel now to read and sleep some more. Sounds interesting, eh?

How NOT to Plan a Vacation

I searched Air Asia for the cheapest flight to a foreign country. My round trip flight to Jakarta, Indonesia cost $113 CDN. Some of my students seem puzzled as to why I'd want to spend my holiday in Jakarta. My reply, "No reason, I just like doing things like that!" Anyways, my flight is Saturday morning at 7:00 am. I'll be back on the 18th. I'll most likely be making blog posts everyday during my holidays.

Events in Indonesia this week:

- Plane crash
- Giant earthquake felt here in Malaysia

Oh, and Jakarta was flooded recently. Should be interesting.

Peace!

The Saint

Ali in Coma

This is Roger doing a kickturn on the wall in Markham, Ontario.

Here's Ali busting a blunt to fakie on the same wall. Gnarly!

If you've ever wondered who the dancing man is at the top of my blog, it's Ali Boulala. I just read this at www.skateboarding.com:

"Although Ali Boulala survived yesterday's motorcycle accident that killed his close friend and teammate Shane Cross, he's still in very bad shape. Ali suffered massive head trauma from the crash and the hospital staff in Melbourne have placed him in a medically induced coma. Please keep him, his friends, and his family in your thoughts and prayers."

The Nam

I just got back from Hanoi, Vietnam. Sandra managed to get me to drink snake's blood. The first shot is always the best. They cut the still beating heart out of a cobra and mix it with his bile. If you're as quick as I am, you drink the heart while it's still beating. Wimps like Sandra just drink the straight blood. I have some graphic photos of the event, but they won't appear on this PG-13 blog. They cook the cobra 10 different ways for you. It's really quite good. It cost us $20 per person. I think our moto driver took a big slice of that.

The non-snake photos are of the prison that held American POWs called the "Hanoi Hilton". I think the real name is Hoa Lo prison.

Another highlight of the trip was our visit to Ha Long Bay. We used Sandra's camera to take the photos. I'll post them if she ever e-mails them. Don't hold your breath.

The French used this on the Vietnamese.

The entrance to the "Hanoi Hilton".

Dinner

This is booze, not preservative.

Lizard Juice

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

I'm off to Hanoi tomorrow. I'll be back on the 26th.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Days 3 and 4

Beach Day

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day Comic

Click on the comic to read it. It's brilliant!

By Balqis

Day Two: Dress-Up Day

I have a strict dress code in my class. Students must dress and act professionally at all times.

Here I am closing a deal to buy 50 rainbow ties from Arron.

I really thought this picture would be cooler than it was.

Day One: Cool Shades Day

Today was "Cool Shades Day" at ICPU. I chose to sport a retro 80's punk pair of Ray-Bans. Tomorrow is "Dress-Up Day" and I plan on cleaning my desk.

What's up with the goggles dudes?

Malaysia Round Two?

I have until Sunday night to decide if I want to stay in Malaysia for another year. Although I made a depressing post a few weeks ago, I really like it here. ICPU rocks! I'm going to Hanoi next week and I get another week off in March. I'm not sure where I'll go at that time. I'm in a little bit of a fix because I only have two pages left in my passport.

Next week is dress up week. I think I can dress up each day except Friday because I don't have any traditional Chinese clothes. Maybe I'll dress up in traditional Canadian clothes instead. I'll be decked out in track pants, a touque, and a hockey jersey.

The Party Shacks

Some very expensive bungalows are being built right next to house. The cheapest is about $600,000 CDN. At first, I was a bit sad to see that the people who are building these homes are living in shacks. However, sometimes I walk past on my way to the store and it sounds like a full-blown party is going on. I can hear singing and something that sounds like bongo drums. Someday I’ll build up the courage to crash one of their drunken bongo parties. I’ll post some pictures when I do.

Great Success!

Forty hits last night. Was my post about the Batu Caves that great? I don’t think so.

I also got three new votes on my poll and they weren't for gangsta.

Thaipusan @ Batu Caves

I’m happy because this is a four day workweek. I get Thursday off. Malaysia is a multi-cultural country that reminds me a lot of Canada. I get all these awesome holidays. This week Thaipusam and just over two weeks from now it’s Chinese New Year.

Anyways, I thought I’d post some pictures about what makes this holiday so special. Unfortunately, I won’t be going because I don’t enjoy being in large crowds. It seems like it would be pretty cool to see though. Please read my cut and paste job below.

The Thaipusam festival.Every year, on Thaipusam, as many as 800,000 devotees and other visitors may throng the caves. As a form of penance or sacrifice, many of them carry kavadis (literally, "burden," such as a pitcher or jug). These are large, brightly decorated frameworks, usually combined with various metal hooks and skewers which are used to pierce the skin, cheeks and tongue. By doing this penance they expect some favours from their Gods.The festival is held in the tenth month of the Hindu calendar (mostly the end of January).




The procession starts on the evening before the Thaipusam festival at the Sri Mariamman Temple in the town centre of Kuala Lumpur.By doing penance they want to extort some favours from the Gods.
The kavadis is placed on the shoulders of the devotee. The kavadis represents a miniature shrine.Women carry a silver jug full of milk on their heads, some are pierced through their cheeks and tongues and others not. Chains are dropped from the central body of the kavadis and hooked onto the flesh of the bearer. The length of the spears had to be limited to a metre in consideration for other devotees. Others hook limes, oranges or coconuts onto their bodies. They are always accompanied by an entourage of relatives and friends to make them enthusiastic with dance parades, songs, musicians playing the drums and the flutes.As they arrive at the shrine at the Batu Caves, the Swami removes the hooks, spears etc. The vow is finally fulfilled.
Thaipusam is celebrated at Peninsular of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur and on PenangThe procession on Penang starts on the eve before the Thaipusam festival at the Chettiar Temple in Penang Street.

Ringgit Strengthens :)

1.00 CADCanada Dollars = 2.95979 MYRMalaysia Ringgits

On a positive note, the Malaysian Ringgit is on a tear against the Loonie. Keep up the good work:) Now I'll give you a complete analysis of the factors that led to this climb.

Rock Bottom! Rock Bottom!

Yes, I know that I haven't posted in a long time, but I think I have a good excuse. I may be in the deepest stage of culture shock right now. Either that or I'm just really bored. I should be golfing and travelling every weekend, but instead I find myself sitting in my apartment doing nothing. I think that a major factor has been the lack of internet access here. Sandra bought me an I-Pod for no reason (dowry) when she came to visit me and I haven't even been able to download I-Tunes on my computer. I know the key is to get out and do stuff, but I find it hard to do.

I'm Still Alive

The internet has just been sucking since around Christmas, so I haven't been bothered to post anything. Sadly, after all this time I still have nothing to blog about. I got four sections of International Business again, which is great because I have all of the lessons prepped. Some of the students here are quite entrepreneurial. When they sell their used textbooks, they include the notes and case studies from last semester. I'm proud of them, but they have made more work for me. When I first looked at my class lists, I was very happy because my classes seemed smaller than last semester. Period two had only 20 students in it. Well, after the first few days period two has exploded to 33 students. None of my classes has less than 31 students. The marking treadmill is currently off, but it should be on full speed by Chinese New Year. I’ll probably have to bring some tests with me to Hanoi. Aiyo!