Letters From Malaysia

I've been a "visual reporter" for Finnish cultural web publication Satyyri since its beginning: creating "artistic" travel reports from the places I've visited. Since the start of the magazine in 2007 I've been reporting from Russia, Mexico, States... and now Malaysia. Please take a look at the freshly published 10th Satyyri here >>> www.satyyri.net/10/

My visual letters are to be found from the page 30. Enjoy!

Closer To Heaven

Dear Soon Heng invited me to come along with them on a family trip to the mountains to visit his cousin's home, family and garden.

His lovely cousin - lady in the red shirt - use to be a piano teacher and moved there to the hills about 10 years ago from KL. She lives there with her architect-vegetarian-fruterian husband and two teenage children of which the other one is autistic.

Her parents (charming couple in the left of the picture below) do live in KL but travel often up hill to spend time with the offspring. Her dad is a devoted buddhist and does layouts for buddhist publications. He also gave me two books to read. Left of Soon Heng is his dad who is a funny fellow. Their loving-arguing father-son relationship is cute to watch.

The views from their house garden were breathtaking. I felt it was a small paradise. So peaceful, fresh and beautiful.

Little sketch from the back yard.

The plants and flowers of garden were blooming.

The house was also home for two cats and some turtles. All their "pets" had wondered there looking for shelter.

No wonder that also I felt so like home cause in the front door it clearly stated my name: Elli. (= the apartment number E1.L1)

Monkeys by the road side.

At the time we got to the magnificent fruit stalls the battery of my camera run out. Luckily markers come in everlasting energy so I sketch down how the mini honey bananas looked like: cute bite-size bananas. Sweet and delicious!

Celebrations In A Row

Sometimes it feels like life in Malaysia is one everlasting festival. Maybe it has to do with the fact that three nations are living inside one so the amount of celebrations is tripled.

I week ago we had the Chinese Mooncake Festival. We ate mooncakes and burned incenses under the full moon. Kim (woman in the red shirt) told me it is important to choose either one or three. I made my own prayer with three incense, number 3 being my lucky number after all.

The night was cloudy so the moon was hiding most of the time. One traditional part of the festival is sending lanterns to the sky filled up with wishes. We didn't make our own lanterns but big red ones were sent from the neighbor's house (the red dots in the picture).

Part of the traditions of celebrating the muslim Hari Raya is to have Open House -parties for friends and family during the following month. We had PT Foundation's open house this Sunday and as you can see from the pictures it was quite an success. There was about 400 people visiting the PT's estate.

The guests came in colors of rainbow from all the communities of PT (Pink Triangle, Positive Living, Sex Workers, Maknyah, Ikhlas -programmes). Workers, volunteers and friends sharing a chat and a festive lunch.

One of the customs of Hari Raya is to give little money presents to the young ones of the families. Here the chairman Hisham is giving out the gifts to children of all ages.

As you can see violet was the colour of 2009.

I invited Veera to come along and we caused attention being the two blondes in traditional Malay Baju Kurungs. Oh, the amount of photographs people wanted to take with us! But I must admit, this time being compared to Nicole Kidman, I was quite flattered.

Smiles, friends, poses and some more photographs.

The same day but few hours later we were invited to celebrate a more private party: Raymond's dad's birthday. Again it was time for a ten course meal in the Chinese restaurant with the attendance of the whole family.

This cute pink teardrop shape cake represents longevity.

But of course Birthday wouldn't be birthday without a birthday cake of it's own.

It's always good to end the blog post to smiling group portrait. Selamat everything!

Tea Paradise

Cameron Highlands is a tea paradise located 5h bus drive from Kuala Lumpur. The scenic hills made us all (me and my enchanting traveling companions Missy, Paula and Vincent from the photo below) sing "the hills are alive with the sound of music" while we were wandering along the tea plantations.

They have also beautiful rose gardens with tons of roses and wide selection of other tropic and not-so-tropic flowers.

...and strawberry farms with little cafes selling strawberry milkshakes, strawberry ice cream, pancakes with strawberry jam, strawberry juice etc. and of course fresh strawberries. In Finland the strawberry season is usually in its peak exactly when I have my birthday (in the end of July). So for my birthday there is usually big selection of different strawberry themed desserts but this birthday I didn't yet get to have the strawberry flavor in my mouth, until our trip to Cameron where I was able to enjoy the sweetness of strawberries once again. 

I found Cameron Highland the most relaxing place whit its humming silence and the fresh mountain air. The air was so fresh that I got a cold as a souvenir which wasn't as fun but even still I did enjoy the Cameron experience very much. If my other tea-lover-friends from Finland or elsewhere would pay me a visit I think we should do additional hike to the Camerons once again. 

Once again I'm back in the PT office in hectic KL but I can still enjoy a piece of Cameron with a big cup of BOH tea and "share the Umpph experience" with you guys :)

P.S. My fasting has suffered from some setbacks: 

1st the travel to the place of the most fresh vegetables and tastiest scones with strawberry jam 

2nd getting stronger from the fever cold. 

But now I'm gonna get back to the track and continue the fasting experience at least in some intensity.

Ramadan

Yesterday, the 22nd of August, was the first day of Ramadan: the Islamic month of fasting from dawn to dusk from all the body pleasures like food, drinks, smoking and sex. In Malaysia Islam is the official religion and about 60% of the population practice it.

Hisham (my other "dad") is a muslim so fasting started also in our household. After asking lot of questions and doing some research in internet I decided to join the fasting experience. Not because I would be turning into muslim but to test out my own strength of will. Perhaps the fasting will teach me more about the "patience, modesty and spirituality" and in all it seems like healthy thing to try for a healthy young adult like me. But I cannot give up drinking the water so I am not completely following the rules. 

Fasting month is not only about fasting but also about breaking the fast after seven o'clock when sun has come down. I was invited to join the start-of-the-Ramadan-celebration-dinner with Hisham's family. The pictures are from there. Lavish dinner was served and even if I did not have lunch that day I surely doubled the amount of food eaten daily during the dinner. But it was exquisite!

P.S. He is the wise Uncle of the household.

Gratitude

It has been a long week. The question after the robbery hasn't been about surviving with the 5 stitches in my head, loan money and a new phone but coping with day-to-day life. While not being in my best emotional shape my tolerance to any kind of bad luck diminished completely. When a cashier at the 7-Eleven didn't have enough change from rm50 and I didn't have smaller coins to buy the tissues and bottle of water I burst into tears. And when I couldn't get home after work until a locksmith changed the locks cause my new key was a wrong one and in the end I got home 4 hours later than planned. I was tired, hungry and screaming to the empty hall way "I hate this country. Let me go home!" and few lonely drops of tears fall down my cheek again. 

But I'm lucky. Even if my "honeymoon" with Malaysia is now officially over I still can and will answer when asked "what you think of the Malaysia?" that "I like it a lot". The people are friendly and polite. I can do the things I most love: travel, design, theatre and art. The food is heavenly. I'm even getting use to the weather and the traffic. I've had plenty of  positive experiences here. Even in my greatest despair I was very lucky to meet the people who were willing to help. I don't have enough words to express my gratitude towards my good-hearted saviors. Instead I decided to draw them a Thank You -card.

To the Indian boy Saren who were the first ones to arrive to the crime scene. He got me help and calmed me down while I was still crying in shock.

And to Kien Lee and Soon Heng who took care of me after the accident. They for example treated me a Chinese vegetarian dinner (cause "good food is good comfort" as Kien Lee said) where I was able to taste vegetarian chicken! They also gave me a cute new sketchbook to replace the stolen one and even their own digital camera for me to borrow.

I might make one more card for the doctor. Besides the mentioned I have many friends to thank: Nic who borrowed me his phone - my "dads" Raymond and Hisham of their help and caring - Sam who took care of things in the Finland's end - Manis who escorted me to the police station to do the report - Pallavi who offered to be my bodyguard - Bettina who gave mortal support a good list of tips how to be more cautious. Just to name a few. The support of my family and friends has been important. I'm lucky to have such a  force to back me up! Terima Kasih!

Temples of Penang

Habitants, details and other views of Penang temples from the trip we did last week.

These are the last pictures taken with my lovely Vivitar camera. I'd like to dedicate a silent moment for my ex-camera. You were a good companion 2006-2009 from the wine yards of Argentina, to the top of New York and beaches of California until the butterflies and temples of Malaysia. You captured beautiful smiles of friends and made my unique memories ever-lasting. Thank you! Rest In Peace dear Vivi.

Holy turtles

Roof view