Malaysian Experience

Thus far, it's been a fun trip to Malaysia, and it's been fun re-experiencing Malaysia through the eyes of Sarah and Micah. Experiences include:

• We were allowed to bring our wonderful pram with us, but we had to check it with the rest of the luggage. As a result, Micah had the loan of an extremely dignifying pink stroller.
• Flying on an airplane with a baby. All things considered, Micah was very well behaved, and charmed the people sitting behind us. One lady in particular was enthralled.... we realised that her husband was Chinese, and she was Caucasian, which explains the cluckiness, no?
• Arriving at Kuching at midnight, local time = 3am Sydney time. Zombies disembark from the plane, and nod dumbly before crashing into strange beds.
• Glad to see my Ah Ma (grandmother) in ruddy good health. Catching up mainly involves a lot of head nodding, being fed food, guessing at what she's trying to say in Hokkien (one of the five non-Mahjong related words I know is: "Jia" = eat), occasional translation from my Dad, and lots of doting over Micah.
• Felt nostalgic playing Mahjong with Ah Ma. I basically get to play Mahjong once every few years when I see my grandmother, (from playing... well, ludicrously often in high school). The frisson of the first half-hour of playing was hard to describe. Probably a good deal of nostalgia flooding in.
• Re-introducing Sarah to (a small cross-section) of my large and wonderful extended family, who would all like nothing better than to feed you.
• A bombardment of wonderful local foods: Roti Chennai, Satay, Laksa, Kolo Mee, Char Kuay Teow, Char Ju Mee, Kueh of all varieties, and then fruits: miniature bananas, rambutans, lychees, papaya (paw paw), mangosteens, lang sat, and varieties of crazy jungle fruit, picked from the jungle and brought straight to your local fruit seller.
• Pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying driving in Kuching. Lonely Planet notes that Sarawakian drivers are a good deal more sane than the rest of Malaysian drivers. In Australia, maybe 5-10% of the people on the road are P-platers and/or hoons, but in Kuching, everyone drives, on average, 10% more dangerously. Which means that everyone's expecting you to drive a bit crazily, and nobody horns you when you cut in front of them, because they're sorta expecting it. And three-lane roundabouts are fun.
• Amused by street names in Kuching. In a town where street-names are long (Jalan Tun Ahmad Zaidi Adruce, Jalan Datuk Amar Kalong Ningkan, equivalent to naming a street: Brigadier-General Sir Walter Henry FitzWilliam), there's a major road called Jalan Rock, which translates to Rock Street, or perhaps: Rocky Road.
• Impressed by the speed at which Ah Ma, unbidden, produced pants for Micah, "to protect him from the mosquitos"
• Still fascinated by James Brooke, the first White Rajah of Sarawak. Sarah and I enjoyed an afternoon at the Sarawak Museum, reading up on Sarawak history, and all the ins and outs of how an Englishman ended up being appointed Rajah, and his short dynasty.
• Appallingly bored by the Sarawak Museum's Petrified Wood exhibition. The only exhibition we needed to pay to get into (RM4 each), to see a large collection of... rocks. Rocks that look like wood. Placed on actual wood, to hold them up. Petrified wood fetches a fair price in Malaysia (a small chunk can be worth RM30, large chunks probably hundreds or even thousands), so it must have cost them a fortune to acquire the collection, but what a boring collection! I'm sure it's fascinating to the right people who can recognise the different bontanical markers, and which extinct tree is which, but to me? Chunks of wood-shaped rock. Meh.
• Surprised, then charmed, then annoyed by the maid who comes in and tidies our room. Ah Ma has an Indonesian maid who's supposed to help her with household chores. Except my Ah Ma wants to do everything herself (and is still capable of it), so she frequently sends the maid to my uncle's house (where we're staying) to tidy and sweep the floors. She also tidies the rooms, folding all our clothes and bedclothes. The first time it's surprising, then charming, but after the tenth time of not being able to find something in the place where I left it, it's @#!% annoying.