Gong Xi Fa Cai!

So I don’t speak Mandarin…yet, but I believe that means “Wishing you will be prosperous” in the New Year. Chinese New Year is January 23rd, and we’re welcoming the year of the dragon.

The only time the Chinese zodiac had crossed my mind was in Chinese restaurants when the placemat would help you figure out what your sign was (1980, year of the monkey). It’s impossible to miss it here! I’d thought they went all out for Christmas, but apparently that was just a warm up.

Both religious and commericial temples are bedecked with red lanterns, and giant dragons swirl in the middle of the malls. We asked if there would be any big celebrations for the holiday, but most people (even Malay and Indian ones) go home to visit family. Since there are so many people traveling, we’re planning to stick around here. There are dragon and lion dances in Chinatown and in some of the malls, and apparently the God of Prosperity will be wandering around so we’re off to look for him.

Special menus are on offer at many restaurants, and there are some unique traditions found in Malaysia and Singapore like “yee sang”. It’s often described as a raw fish salad, but I think that’s oversimplifying it. It’s presented as several small heaps of shredded vegetables on a platter with a small dish of (usually) salmon sashimi on the side and several dishes of toppings: oil, plum sauce, crackers, and whatever else has inspired the chef. Once it is served, the waiter (or someone at the table) adds the ingredients on the side to the main platter, and then everyone joins in to toss the ingredients together while saying auspicious things in Chinese. The higher you toss, the higher your fortunes will grow in the new year, so you’re really supposed to go for it. Grant got to partake in this during a holiday lunch for the team he’s working with, and now I’m jealous so we’ll be seeking this out this weekend.

Actually, he may be a little jealous of me and my new endeavor. I’ve signed up for Mandarin lessons, and will be taking an intensive course starting on February 6th. It meets every weekday from 9 – 1 for a month, so I might be spending more time hearing and speaking (or trying to speak) Mandarin than English. Wish me luck – I’m really excited…and a little bit nervous!

 

United Buddy Bears in KL

Shortly before Christmas we were walking past Pavilion, one of the upscale malls here, and were surprised to find lots of bears.

These are particularly well traveled bears; they’ve been on the road since 2002 covering five continents, and Malaysia is the 23rd stop on their world tour.

There are about 140 bears, one for each country recognized by the United Nations. Each is two meters tall (yes, I’m working on getting used to the metric system again), and they stand in a circle with their arms upraised, “hand in hand” to promote tolerance and living in peace and harmony. These begin with identical fiberglass casts, and each country has chosen artists to decorate the bear in a manner to represent that country. The US went with a pretty iconic choice:

But my favorites are usually the lesser known countries, like Moldova.

They are visiting here until February 15th, and it’s quite a sight to see!

Grocery shopping

I love grocery shopping. Wherever I travel, I always end up in a grocery store whether or not I need anything; I just think it’s neat to see what is sold in different countries.

One of the biggest surprises when we got to KL was how much from home is easily found here, even my favorite brand of apple cider vinegar is here. Lots of fruits and veggies, and even some organic choices are usually available. I had been shopping mostly at the grocery stores in Suria (the nearest mall, the one under the Petronas towers). One of them is a British chain, Cold Storage, and the other is a Japanese one, Isetan, so depending on what I’m looking for I head to one or the other.

That is, until I discovered my new favorite grocery store just steps from my front door.

He shows up once a week, Wednesday afternoons around 2:30, and unpacks his scale onto the sidewalk to weigh your purchases. There are several condo buildings in a little cluster here, and I see the same people show up at this truck each week. His produce is fresher than the grocery stores, and it’s a much more social experience with everyone recommending what they got last week and helping each other select the perfect pineapple or whatever.

Next week he’s on vacation for Chinese New Year, and I’ll be missing him!

Southern Cambodia

After touring all of those temples, Grant wanted a relaxing end to our vacation. We had searched for an island getaway in Cambodia, but since it is the high season everything we looked at was already booked. We decided to head to Sihanoukville for two days, and then to find peace and quiet in Kampot and Kep for the final two days.

Sihanoukville is a more modern town than the others we visited, having just been built in the 1960s. We had heard it was a popular stop on backpackers’ itineraries and could be a bit of a scene. After the 10 hour overnight bus ride to get there, we were pleased to find our hotel perched on top of the highest hill around, next to a temple. Peace and quiet! Unfortunately, we woke up the staff with our 6 am arrival but they graciously checked us into a bungalow right away. We slept off the bus ride for a couple of hours, and then were ready to hit the beach.

We have no pictures apart from the one above of Sihanoukville, but we had a great, very low-key time. I don’t doubt that if you’re looking for the party scene you could easily find it here, and there certainly are tons of guesthouses, bars and restaurants near the beaches. The beaches themselves were like powdered sugar, and we enjoyed just strolling down them. We spent most of our time at Ochheuteal Beach, which is one of the more popular ones. It’s lined with beachfront restaurants that set up lounge chairs and papasan chairs in the sand, and the purchase of a drink will buy you a whole lazy afternoon just steps from the water. Draft beer was super cheap, just fifty cents for a pint, and I was surprised at how laid back they were about coming out to take your order. No pressure here, we sat around for at least half an hour before anyone working for the bar came out.

There were plenty of local entrepreneurs passing by, most carrying fruit or grilled seafood on a tray on their heads, happy to squat down and prepare something fresh for you. We had green mango with chili/lime salt, and Cambodian lobster (looked like giant prawns) with a squeeze of lime. Yum! There were some kids selling pirated books and jewelry, and plenty of women asking if you wanted massages or mani/pedis on the beach, but a simple no was usually enough to get them to leave saying “Maybe later!”

On to Kampot, a sleepy little town located on a river and best known for producing pepper. We stayed in a “bungaroom” here, a tiny shack on stilts with just a bed, a mosquito net, and a fan. What more do you need? There really wasn’t much to do in Kampot itself, which was just fine by us. We did spend one day on a countryside tour, seeing limestone caves, salt fields, pepper plantations, and visiting the Crab Market at Kep, eating crab drenched in local green peppercorn sauce, and seeing the beach in Kep. What a day!

The caves were neat, but the highlight of that stop was our tour guide entourage. As the tuk-tuk slowed to a stop, it was surrounded by kids chattering at us in English. Five of them appointed themselves as our tour guides, and  they talked our ears off in perfect English as we walked through the fields (carefully marked as being de-mined). They were excited that I spoke more than just English, and so we chatted a little in French and spoke basic Spanish to each other too. It turns out that they learn English in school, but the only other languages they know they’ve learned from tourists, so they can say the same ten phrases in many languages. Then it was time for my Khmer lesson! Ok, now it’s your turn:

Hello = Sues dei

Goodbye = Leah sen heuy

Let’s go = Tuk tao

Thank you = Aw khun

Now you know as much as I do! They shepherded us up to a small booth, where we each paid a dollar, and then we followed them up 200 steps to the mouth of a cave. While they pointed out every rock formation that looked remotely like an animal, they delighted in playing jokes on us and using their favorite catchphrases: “I believe I can fly”, “Lovely jubblies”, “Same same but different”, and “You talkin’ to me? Bada bing bada boom!”  They took us into a dark shrine, pinched my leg in the dark, then hysterically warned me to watch out for ghosts.

There were a couple of exits from the cave: through a small, pitch-black hole, back down the stairs outside, or a literal middle ground, climbing down into another cave and winding around and through it. We went with the latter, and these mountain goat kids swarmed down over the rocks. They carefully pointed out each step to me with a flashlight, only to grab at our legs as we shifted our weight onto a new rock and then warn us to watch out for cobras. The final stretch was a surprise wade through an icy pond, and we ended up back at the ticket booth. We laughed a lot with those kids, and they bedecked me with flowers and made me practice my Khmer words all the way back to the tuk-tuk.

Kep was great fun too, and it was interesting to see how different the local beach experience is from the tourist show. The beach here was yellow and much coarser, and packed with locals. They were picnicking all along the beach, on the sidewalks, and on raised roofed platforms. These platforms were really popular, and everyone had at least four hammocks strung up to relax in and a small mountain of food in the middle. I think we should adopt this idea back in the US!

The last stop of the day was a pepper plantation, where our driver walked us through the fields and encouraged us to try everything we saw.

This is where I learned that Grant will eat anything that anyone hands to him; another driver walked up to him and handed him something and told him to take a bite of the top of it. He did, said “hmm, astringent”, and handed it to me to try. I asked what it was before I would eat it, and it turned out to be a cashew nut. I guess they grow with a soft fruit on top? I’m still not sure if that’s commonly eaten or if they just wanted to see if we’d eat it. I was looking this up while I was writing this post, and I found an article online saying that the reason cashews aren’t sold in their shell is that they are in the same family as poison ivy and poison sumac and there is an irritant in the shell oil. Well, we survived with no ill effects!

The fresh peppercorns were spicy in a floral way, and we bought big bags of black, white, and red peppercorns to take home in an effort to extend the memories of this trip as long as we can. I guess when they run out, I’ll have a good excuse to go back to Cambodia!

 

Cooks in Tuk-tuks

We were eating like kings, so I wanted to take a cooking class while we were in Cambodia. There are several cooking classes available, but the hot pink themed “Cooks in Tuk-tuks” spoke to me. When I got there, it was only me and another girl. We were lucky, because we got a much more personalized experience than either of us had expected!

The general outline was a market tour, followed by cooking, followed by lunch of whatever we made. It was all that, and a bit more…

Our first stop on the market tour was at a street side stand selling snacks. What kind of snacks? The finest crickets, water beetles, and snake you’ve ever tasted. Well ok, you’ve probably never tasted these delicacies, so you’re going to have to take my word for it. Only about the snake and the crickets though, because I couldn’t bring myself to try the water beetle. Too crunchy. The snake tasted smoky and like any jerky you’ve tried, and the crickets were sauteed with chili and garlic so they tasted like…chili and garlic with a bit of a nutty aftertaste. Not something I’m going to crave, but I’m glad I tried it!

We walked by a temple, and saw birds and turtles in cages. Apparently, if you “purchase” them, the seller will release them and all of your troubles will fly away with the bird (or swim with the turtle). The unfortunate part is that the birds are trained to return to the cage. Not sure what happens to your troubles at that point! We passed on this opportunity.

The market tour was great, and worth doing on its own. Our chef took us through all of the aisles, pointing out all of the different fruits, vegetables, meat and seafood on offer. They had four different types of eggplant, and a different word for each of them. Our food vocabulary felt quite limited at that point.

We saw frogs’ legs, live fish, cows’ heads, chicken feet, and everything else you can imagine. I was surprised to see the sellers crouched on top of the waist high tables; in wet markets in KL they stand behind their tables. We wandered down the street towards the guesthouse where the cooking class would take place, looking at all the food sold in the street: snails with chili and garlic, banana fritters (so good!), and fresh sugarcane juice (not as sweet as you’d expect).

The dishes that our chef had selected were the two dishes I’d been hoping to learn how to make: banana flower salad and fish amok (a non-spicy curry dish). We had a great time, chatting and chopping away. It’s definitely a prep-intensive cuisine, and we did everything the hard way in a mortar and pestle. I asked if we could use a blender at home, and the answer was yes, but it will taste different! Not as much sweat is what I think was meant, and I guess I’ll have to get a mortar and pestle.

The end result was delicious, and we dined on the floor in the traditional style. They did talk me into buying a pyramid shaped rice mold, so I can recreate some shred of elegance for Grant, even if his meals aren’t as finely prepared. I’ve got to find a cooking class in KL to try out next!