Selamat Datang!
I'm pretty sure that means Welcome in Malay, but please don't quote me; I could be wrong. So, I spent last week in Malaysia, which is a developing nation, and then I was driven across a bridge (through an immigration control point) and into Singapore, which is a fully developed nation and have been ruminating ever since. Well, actually, I've been eating and sleeping and shopping and working and other stuff as well; but in the back of my alleged mind, I have been thinking about the differences between these two countries which are separated by a bridge shorter than the Rainbow Bridge at Niagara Falls (between Canada and the US).
Singapore was once part of Malaysia and separated into its own city-state sometime in the last century (the 20th). They have since become quite 'westernized' and are just as developed as Japan is as far as developed nations in Asia go, and English is one of their official languages. In contrast, Malaysia is still very much a developing nation whose roads are in need of repair, and whose basic sanitation and infrastructure are much in need of development as evidenced by the general smell of most areas in the cities.
I've been to Malaysia thrice now; to two different cities and three different hotels. While they boast many western franchises (Starbuck's, KFC, Pizza Hut & McDonald's to name but a few), many people still live in what we would consider abject poverty. I am driven to work every day and I pass large 'terrace homes' (houses with yards) but I also pass rows of shacks that look as though they have grown up out of the dirt almost. They are only one story and they seem to be all joined together: whether out of necessity from a lack of structural integrity or from a sort of psychological feeling that there is a sort of comfort in closeness, I don't know. Once again, though, it's the discrepancy that gives me pause. The space taken up by one terrace home (including the yard) is about the same as the space needed for at least 20 or 30 shanties. Maybe even more, I can't always judge the depth very well, despite the cars in front of them.
So, I've determined that a good rule of thumb to judge the 'developedness' of a nation is not only the strength of its currency, but also what you can get at markets and for how much. In Singapore, you can't really get good cheap stuff in markets like you can in the other Asian countries I've been to... even Hong Kong. You can't haggle with them as much, and you can't get knock-off stuff. In the other Asian, developing, countries, you can bargain, you can get local trinkets, you can get black market knock-offs and you can get them all cheap. You can't do any of that in Japan either by the way.
So, Malaysia is a relatively low cost place to stay, they have Starbuck's (a plus), they have a Muslim government but it's not a fundamentalist government so you can still buy alcohol and I can still wander about freely (neutral). You cannot drink the water, but you can buy bottled water relatively inexpensively. It is HOT and incredibly humid (expect to shower twice a day, partly because the smell of the place clings to you). I was told by one of my hosts that it is relatively terrorist safe, because the terrorists come from Malaysia to terrorize other countries, they don't seem to bother their own people. Isn't that nice?
I almost forgot to mention that I finally had a slight hiccough entering a country! I flew to Singapore from Hong Kong, then was driven through immigration across the bridge to Malaysia. Apparently, the last time I left Malaysia in June, the immigration officer did not stamp my passport correctly and the immigration officer at the bridge checkpoint asked me to remove myself from the car and accompany him to his supervisor's office! Never before has anyone had a problem with my passport! I was aghast! Not only was this happening to me, but I had just spent the past 24 hours travelling, and I had not slept the night before. Needless to say, I was awfully tired and my eyes felt as though they were bleeding! So, the driver pulled the car over (out of the way of traffic) and parked in the place for bad people, and off I went to the supervisor's office (luckily the driver accompanied me because I clearly do not speak Malay nor Cantonese / Mandarin). I told them my sad story about the lax immigration officer at the airport in Kulim in June and the supervisory staff (four of them) ultimately decided to let me in because 'Canada is okay' according to them. They made a note in my passport and told me to make sure that my passport is stamped properly next time and let me go on my merry way.
However, this whole episode took about half an hour. It was midnight before we got back in the car and got on our way. There had been much discussion in Malay back and forth between the supervisory staff during this time. The driver would chime in every now and then, and occasionally they would ask me questions when they weren't staring at me. The leader of the group was busy being official and did not stare at me very much; he was clearly more concerned with his official duties and took his responsibilities seriously.
So, once we were back in the car and driving through customs, the customs official decided he wanted to look in my suitcase; the one that was locked. So I had to get out of the car and go around to the back to open up my suitcase. I, of course, complied. It was just a cursory examination, he didn't touch anything, he just wanted to look. It was a routine thing and he had no idea that we had just had to get interrogated by the crack staff of the immigration department. It was amusing to say the least.
Malaysia is fun... as long as you can avoid the stray dogs running around everywhere that is.
Ciao for now peoples,
Lesle, The Artful Traveller
ps - the immigration cards in Singapore also say Warning - Death for Drug Traffickers under Singapore Law in bright red letters!
Showing posts with label asia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label asia. Show all posts
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Friday, November 19, 2004
Japan
Konichiwa,
I'm probably spelling that wrong, but I may never know. I have reached the home stretch of my journey. This is my last stop. Sendai is a place of about a million people that is roughly 2 hours by bullet train north of Tokyo. It is about an hour by bus from Miyagi which is where our plant is, but apparently this is where we stay (I haven't determined why yet; perhaps there are no decent hotels in Miyagi). The weather is considerably cooler than Hong Kong (which was between 24 - 28 the whole 9 days I was there), however, since there is little here that is in English, I have yet to find a weather forecast that has the actual temperature in a language that I can understand. I am required to wear my jacket and gloves though. I also bought myself a scarf this evening. I think it might get up to the low teens during the day, but it's definitly cool. Probably like Vancouver weather in November.
When I said that China was the most different place that I had been, I wasn't lying, but I had not yet been to Japan. Japan is much more 'civilized' than China (in so many ways), but it's not that: the culture is completely different. In several ways, they're more western than other Asian countries I've been to, but I think that's because Japan is developed and the other countries I've been to are still 'developing nations' for the most part (this is why we have plants there). The people here have retained their culture though. In the other countries, it's almost like they want to become like the west (and still eat their own food). In Japan, it's like they've adopted what they want of western culture but only where it doesn't affect their own. And let's face it, much of our technology comes from Japan.
They are, by far, the most polite people I've met. Even on the streets. Even in the trains and the train station (and I was in Tokyo station during rush hour on Monday evening). They took me out for tempura dinner on Wednesday night. You would all be very proud of me. I ate everything that was served to me, even the raw oyster (which is somewhat tricky with chopsticks). It was a place where the cook is in the room with you and cooks it right in front of you. You would not believe what I've eaten (and with chopsticks no less). Some of it was actually quite good (I shouldn’t say that, it was probably all very good because it was clearly a nice place, I’m just not used to the food). I also had a fair amount of sake because the Japanese apparently like to drink. I could not keep up with them, but they kept re-filling my glass when it got close to empty. They commented that I could drink; I mentioned my heritage. I did not point out that I needed it to wash down some of the food and I had no water for that purpose. I did mention that I wished I had brought my camera, and three of them brought out their camera-phones! They all carry two phones. One for work and one personal (these are the camera phones).
Tomorrow (Saturday here) they are taking me to see some temples. I think that's awfully kind of them (despite the fact that the president of the company told them to during our opening meeting; they were planning it already). The SCM director, two purchasing managers (one of whom is bringing his 5-year-old daughter) and our interpreter are all coming. I think it will be quite the excursion.
Have I mentioned that Japan is the only place I've been to where I need an interpreter? They don't speak English here. Of course, they know more English than I know Japanese because they take English classes at work, but they don't like to speak it because they don't want to make mistakes. It's not easy to make a presentation through an interpreter: you have to stop every few sentences. This throws me off my rhythm, but what the heck, I was just presenting to the president of the region and his senior staff!
Oh well, that's all for now,
Sayonara!
Lesle
I'm probably spelling that wrong, but I may never know. I have reached the home stretch of my journey. This is my last stop. Sendai is a place of about a million people that is roughly 2 hours by bullet train north of Tokyo. It is about an hour by bus from Miyagi which is where our plant is, but apparently this is where we stay (I haven't determined why yet; perhaps there are no decent hotels in Miyagi). The weather is considerably cooler than Hong Kong (which was between 24 - 28 the whole 9 days I was there), however, since there is little here that is in English, I have yet to find a weather forecast that has the actual temperature in a language that I can understand. I am required to wear my jacket and gloves though. I also bought myself a scarf this evening. I think it might get up to the low teens during the day, but it's definitly cool. Probably like Vancouver weather in November.
When I said that China was the most different place that I had been, I wasn't lying, but I had not yet been to Japan. Japan is much more 'civilized' than China (in so many ways), but it's not that: the culture is completely different. In several ways, they're more western than other Asian countries I've been to, but I think that's because Japan is developed and the other countries I've been to are still 'developing nations' for the most part (this is why we have plants there). The people here have retained their culture though. In the other countries, it's almost like they want to become like the west (and still eat their own food). In Japan, it's like they've adopted what they want of western culture but only where it doesn't affect their own. And let's face it, much of our technology comes from Japan.
They are, by far, the most polite people I've met. Even on the streets. Even in the trains and the train station (and I was in Tokyo station during rush hour on Monday evening). They took me out for tempura dinner on Wednesday night. You would all be very proud of me. I ate everything that was served to me, even the raw oyster (which is somewhat tricky with chopsticks). It was a place where the cook is in the room with you and cooks it right in front of you. You would not believe what I've eaten (and with chopsticks no less). Some of it was actually quite good (I shouldn’t say that, it was probably all very good because it was clearly a nice place, I’m just not used to the food). I also had a fair amount of sake because the Japanese apparently like to drink. I could not keep up with them, but they kept re-filling my glass when it got close to empty. They commented that I could drink; I mentioned my heritage. I did not point out that I needed it to wash down some of the food and I had no water for that purpose. I did mention that I wished I had brought my camera, and three of them brought out their camera-phones! They all carry two phones. One for work and one personal (these are the camera phones).
Tomorrow (Saturday here) they are taking me to see some temples. I think that's awfully kind of them (despite the fact that the president of the company told them to during our opening meeting; they were planning it already). The SCM director, two purchasing managers (one of whom is bringing his 5-year-old daughter) and our interpreter are all coming. I think it will be quite the excursion.
Have I mentioned that Japan is the only place I've been to where I need an interpreter? They don't speak English here. Of course, they know more English than I know Japanese because they take English classes at work, but they don't like to speak it because they don't want to make mistakes. It's not easy to make a presentation through an interpreter: you have to stop every few sentences. This throws me off my rhythm, but what the heck, I was just presenting to the president of the region and his senior staff!
Oh well, that's all for now,
Sayonara!
Lesle
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
Suzhou
Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2004 10:54 PM
Subject: Greetings from the People's Republic
Nee-Hau,
I am currently in my third week in Asia, and my second week in China. I am in a place called Suzhou, in the province of JiangSu. It is about two hours from Shanghai. I spent Sunday in Shanghai. That is a story in itself. Anyhoo, on to my current update... Suzhou is much more civilized than the last place I was in (for those of you with short memories, it was called Dongguan). This place apparently has a rich history of some sort (I've yet to determine what that is) and it is also the silk capital of China (or so I'm told).
So China is the place to go to buy contraband DVDs. You can get them, if you can haggle, for roughly $1 USD. These are brand new, current Hollywood movies. You can get movies that haven't been released in North America yet (as far as I know) on DVD. I think it's because they're actually made here and then shipped to North America for sale there at like 20 times this price.
On a different note, I'm getting much better with chopsticks. I don't drop things much any more. I even ate noodles today at lunch with them. The people don't laugh at me as much anymore, but I think I'm kind of frustrating... you know, like when you watch a child trying to do something that you know you can do with ease? Like tie their shoelaces or something... or use a fork? Anyway, I think that I will be an expert by the time I leave. Well, an expert in my opinion anyway.
Tonight I go in search of Starbucks. I've been told that there is one within walking distance of my hotel. There is also, rumour has it, a (brace yourself) Pizza Hut! The problem with getting Pizza Hut in Asia is that it's not the same. However, I will endeavour to locate it and test it out. I also need more milk. I already know where that store is. I'm getting quite the lay of the land here in Suzhou, which boasts both a university and a prison for 'white collar' and political criminals (I'd best mind my manners and keep my political inclinations to myself). I drive by both on my way to and from work. Isn't that exciting?
Toodles from the People's Republic!
Lesle
ps - did I mention that the People's Republic has toll roads? Does that not seem strangely incongruous to you or is it just me?
Subject: Greetings from the People's Republic
Nee-Hau,
I am currently in my third week in Asia, and my second week in China. I am in a place called Suzhou, in the province of JiangSu. It is about two hours from Shanghai. I spent Sunday in Shanghai. That is a story in itself. Anyhoo, on to my current update... Suzhou is much more civilized than the last place I was in (for those of you with short memories, it was called Dongguan). This place apparently has a rich history of some sort (I've yet to determine what that is) and it is also the silk capital of China (or so I'm told).
So China is the place to go to buy contraband DVDs. You can get them, if you can haggle, for roughly $1 USD. These are brand new, current Hollywood movies. You can get movies that haven't been released in North America yet (as far as I know) on DVD. I think it's because they're actually made here and then shipped to North America for sale there at like 20 times this price.
On a different note, I'm getting much better with chopsticks. I don't drop things much any more. I even ate noodles today at lunch with them. The people don't laugh at me as much anymore, but I think I'm kind of frustrating... you know, like when you watch a child trying to do something that you know you can do with ease? Like tie their shoelaces or something... or use a fork? Anyway, I think that I will be an expert by the time I leave. Well, an expert in my opinion anyway.
Tonight I go in search of Starbucks. I've been told that there is one within walking distance of my hotel. There is also, rumour has it, a (brace yourself) Pizza Hut! The problem with getting Pizza Hut in Asia is that it's not the same. However, I will endeavour to locate it and test it out. I also need more milk. I already know where that store is. I'm getting quite the lay of the land here in Suzhou, which boasts both a university and a prison for 'white collar' and political criminals (I'd best mind my manners and keep my political inclinations to myself). I drive by both on my way to and from work. Isn't that exciting?
Toodles from the People's Republic!
Lesle
ps - did I mention that the People's Republic has toll roads? Does that not seem strangely incongruous to you or is it just me?
Monday, October 25, 2004
Dongguan
Asian Update
Hi,
So China is loud, dirty and the air is so polluted that my throat is scratchy after only two days and my eyes are burning. The drivers in China are worse than the drivers anywhere else I have been (and that is saying something). They do not obey traffic signals, they do not stop at stop signs, they will back up on a street if they want to turn around at the street they just passed because they're stuck in a traffic jam... they will hit pedestrians if the pedestrian is in their way, and they are CONSTANTLY honking their horns.
This is the most alien place that I've been by far. I feel like an alien I mean... people actually stare openly at me. Not all of them, but some of them. Even the waitresses in the hotel restaurant surreptitiously stare at me. This is a sort of good thing, because when I want more tea, I don't have to wait long 'cuz someone is almost always looking at me. I imagine the novelty will wear off soon enough and I will have to wait longer for a refill on my tea, but currently it's a positive spin on being like the only tall (I am TALL here) white woman for miles around. There are a couple of white men at the hotel (I've seen them at breakfast) but I haven't seen any white women.
The hotel is nice, it's quite westernized. I think that you have two choices in Asia, western and 4 or 5 star, or not western (maybe this category contains a myriad of choices, but I have no experience with it). Some of the staff even speak a bit of English which is good because I speak absolutely no Mandarin (which is apparently the most common language in Dongguan).
Dongguan is in the province of Guangdong. Room service is capable of making a nice toasted tomato sandwich and their fries are pretty good too. Every time I get on the elevator though, everyone stares at me, and if they're all women, I am at least a full head taller than them. This morning I'm relatively certain someone said something about me because they all giggled and looked at me, but what the heck? What I don't know can't hurt me.
Anyway, just thought I would let you all know that I have no intention to move to China. Ever.
Ciao for now,
Lesle
ps - Malaysia was okay. Hot, humid (rainy season), developing, a little like Thailand without the depravity. There was a note (in red ink) on the customs & immigration form that said 'Be Forewarned - Death to Drug Traffickers in Malaysia'.
Hi,
So China is loud, dirty and the air is so polluted that my throat is scratchy after only two days and my eyes are burning. The drivers in China are worse than the drivers anywhere else I have been (and that is saying something). They do not obey traffic signals, they do not stop at stop signs, they will back up on a street if they want to turn around at the street they just passed because they're stuck in a traffic jam... they will hit pedestrians if the pedestrian is in their way, and they are CONSTANTLY honking their horns.
This is the most alien place that I've been by far. I feel like an alien I mean... people actually stare openly at me. Not all of them, but some of them. Even the waitresses in the hotel restaurant surreptitiously stare at me. This is a sort of good thing, because when I want more tea, I don't have to wait long 'cuz someone is almost always looking at me. I imagine the novelty will wear off soon enough and I will have to wait longer for a refill on my tea, but currently it's a positive spin on being like the only tall (I am TALL here) white woman for miles around. There are a couple of white men at the hotel (I've seen them at breakfast) but I haven't seen any white women.
The hotel is nice, it's quite westernized. I think that you have two choices in Asia, western and 4 or 5 star, or not western (maybe this category contains a myriad of choices, but I have no experience with it). Some of the staff even speak a bit of English which is good because I speak absolutely no Mandarin (which is apparently the most common language in Dongguan).
Dongguan is in the province of Guangdong. Room service is capable of making a nice toasted tomato sandwich and their fries are pretty good too. Every time I get on the elevator though, everyone stares at me, and if they're all women, I am at least a full head taller than them. This morning I'm relatively certain someone said something about me because they all giggled and looked at me, but what the heck? What I don't know can't hurt me.
Anyway, just thought I would let you all know that I have no intention to move to China. Ever.
Ciao for now,
Lesle
ps - Malaysia was okay. Hot, humid (rainy season), developing, a little like Thailand without the depravity. There was a note (in red ink) on the customs & immigration form that said 'Be Forewarned - Death to Drug Traffickers in Malaysia'.
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