+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | _______ | New Japanese restaurant for lawyers... | | ,--'.:::::.`-._ | Sosumi | | /..:::::::::::..\ | | | /..:::::::::_;::::| | | | || `---'----' _|:::| | | | || `;:::| | | | |' ==== ==== |-::| | | | |-( @ )-( @ )--|O):| | | | | ` | ` |/::' | | | . v |:/ jeremy@ | | | | ___, || malcolm | | | \ -- _/| .id.au | | | \_____.-'__/-.__ | | | _| _/|::.\.::-._ | | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | [*] news [ ] about [ ] writing [ ] journal [ ] images [ ] guests | | +->> last 5 | | |--- archive | | `--- search | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | "Kuching" :: [2010-02-08 02:05AM] | | | | We spent this weekend in Kuching, capital of Sarawak, which is the largest | | state of Malaysia. Like Western Australia it is the largest but most | | sparsely populated state, and is situated to the south of the other East | | Malaysian state of Sabah (with Brunei sandwiched in between), and to the | | north of the Indonesian part of Borneo. We stayed in the Tune Hotel, | | which is a chain owned by the same group as Air Asia, and with much the | | same philosophy - pay extra for the frills (which are meals for the | | airline, and towels and air conditioning for the hotel). But the bed was | | comfy and it was situated right on the riverfront - indeed, opposite the | | Hilton. | | | | On our first day we took in the sights on the waterfront, which included a | | colonial English courthouse and jail, a couple of brightly-coloured Chinese | | temples and an ethnological museum (Chinese of various ethnicities form | | close to a majority in Kuching). Then after lunch we took a tambang (a | | small, mostly oar-powered ferry) across the river to the spectacular | | hat-shaped legislative building, for a fare of 40 sen each (less than 15 | | cents). | | | | We then did a spot of shopping, and it struck me that there are some | | things commonly sold here that we will never, in a million years, buy; for | | example, margarine (I think) is sold unrefrigerated from open vats, beside | | mounds of preserved fish and over-ripe fruit over which flies buzz. In | | the more touristy pedestrian mall of Jalan India, sexual pills and potions | | are sold from open briefcases (for a quick getaway, I presume); most | | prominent is a botanical paste called Gambir Sarawak, but also knock-offs | | of the V and C drugs (I won't spell out their names here to avoid lowering | | my pagerank!). | | | | The locals are more friendly than in KL, with many of them greeting us | | (not only Doyle, which we're used to) with a cheery hello. In one case, | | admittedly, a youth greeted me with the more dubious "Hello, Orang Putih" | | (white person), to which I was sorely tempted to reply "Hello, Orang | | Melayu!" | | | | The next day we took a coach to the Sarawak Cultural Village. Sarawak is | | Malaysia's most multicultural state, where Muslims are in the minority, | | and a variety of indigenous inhabitants still live and practice their | | traditions. The Cultural Village showcased these minorities through | | recreations of their houses, inside which locals were practising their | | traditional arts: cooking biscuits, grinding rice or tapioca, blowing | | darts, threshing pepper, forging swords, dancing and making music. All | | this in a steamy rainforest between mountain and sea, where red-winged | | dragonflies hovered and wood-boring insects the size of birds buzzed. A | | cultural performance featuring dances from all the ethnic groups rounded | | out the attraction. | | | | It was a little sad to consider how much of this culture was lost when the | | country embraced Islam, which has certainly made as much of a mark on | | Malaysia as the secular West, and not all for the better. Indeed, the | | traditional practices of the local ethnic groups are still being | | marginalised by the government, which for example still has an active | | policy of resettling the nomadic Penan tribes into towns (why am I put in | | mind of Australia of the early-to-mid 20th century?) | | | | My lunch at the Village was Sarawak laksa, a noodle soup, slightly milder | | than the Penang variety, but fragrant with coconut milk and coriander, and | | brimming with shredded chicken, bean sprouts, strings of egg and prawns. | | Another specialty we tried on this trip was kolo mee: a noodle dish | | featuring both minced and sliced pork, a meat which is much rarer on our | | side of Malaysia. We also learned about, but weren't brave enough to try, | | Chinese birds-nest soup, which - yes - is a real birds nest, or rather the | | remains of which after the twigs and feathers are removed: to be precise, | | the bird's solidified saliva. Rather more appetising are the | | rainbow-coloured kuei lapis (layer cakes) that are a local speciality; real | | cake, too, rather than the glutinous jelly that is sold under the same name | | in KL. | | | | reply (0 comments) | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | "sadlittlewebjournal 2.9.2 released" :: [2010-02-02 04:35AM] | | | | Since it was a public holiday today, I put the time to good use by (a) | | fixing our front door; and (b) releasing another point version of the | | software that runs this blog, sadlittlewebjournal. This version fixes a | | few annoyances - that the facility to post by email didn't work with | | complex MIME emails (for example, mine are digitally signed), that the RSS | | feed didn't preserve the line feeds in the original post, and that special | | characters such as € didn't come out correctly. Additionally, I have also | | improved the comment spam filtering in this release. Download from the | | link below, and please let me know if you have any difficulties. | | | | [related link] reply (2 comments) | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | "The Netherlands" :: [2010-01-13 05:39AM] | | | | The last country we visited on our European holiday this year was the | | Netherlands. We stayed at the home of two expat friends from Australia, | | now living in Amsterdam but currently on holiday back home. One of them | | is an amateur interior designer, so their classy apartment looks like | | something straight out of a catalogue! | | | | Amsterdam is a city built around a series of concentric canals. Walking | | around them takes you around some beautiful old gabled buildings and | | churches, as well as the infamous Red Light District - which I encountered | | largely by accident when women in lingerie or swimsuits started looming | | out of the windows as I walked by. However the closest I got to seeing | | the inside of one of these red-lit apartments was a mock-up in a nearby | | museum (honest!). | | | | Amsterdam's inner city is, to be frank, probably a bit too touristy, | | without any free museums or galleries that we could find (even most of its | | churches have been converted to other uses), and it is overcrowded with | | "coffeeshops" (which sell more joints and space cakes than coffee - magic | | mushrooms are also legally sold). So after I'd had my fill of the inner | | city I ventured out to a nearby suburb, away from the tourist crowds, to | | soak in some warmth at a local sauna. | | | | Because we were staying in an apartment with a kitchen, we cooked most of | | our meals - but trying to choose local dishes and ingredients where | | possible. These included, on our first night, meatballs with stamppot, | | which is a mixture of mashed potato and spinach, and "bitterballen" which | | seem to be little crumbed and fried balls of a gravy-like mixture. (OK, | | we didn't make that at home; we had it at McDonalds.) | | | | We also had an unexpected taste of home in Amsterdam, because of the | | Indonesian culinary influence that was inherited from Holland's colonial | | past. This is found in the number of Indonesian restaurants, in the | | serving of satay sauce rather than gravy with meat (though it's quite | | awful compared to the real thing), and even in the name of one of the | | country's biggest seasonal markets - "pasar malam besar"! | | | | reply (0 comments) | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | "Denmark" :: [2010-01-03 04:01AM] | | | | Yesterday we ended our stay in Copenhagen, Denmark - our first time in | | Scandinavia. Perhaps not the best time of year to visit, with -5 | | temperatures in the day and many of the attractions closed or with shorter | | hours, but that just gave us the opportunity to spend more time indoors. | | Our first day was spent exploring the Rosenborg Slot and Frederiksborg | | Slot (no, not casinos - "slot" just means palace). Both are beautiful | | Renaissance castles brimming with rare furniture and art, including some | | particularly fine tapestries and carved ceilings. Rosenborg also | | displayed Denmark's crown jewels, including not only some magnificent | | crowns and sceptres, but also some amazingly intricate ivory and amber | | carvings. | | | | The next day I did a walking tour, leaving Dom at home, and took in | | everything from the Amalienborg Palace (where the Australian princess Mary | | Donaldson lives), to the famous Little Mermaid statue. I was frozen | | through by mid-afternoon, so finished the day in one of Copenhagen's | | heated public baths... mmm. | | | | As the home of Bang & Olufsen (and, uh, Lego), Danish architecture is a | | mixture of old European and modern design. Further out of the city, Danish | | houses reminded me rather a lot of those from New England and the other | | east coast states of America - though presumably the influence goes in the | | other direction, from the North European immigrants to the USA. | | | | We also had a day trip to Mälmo, the third largest city in Sweden which is | | a short train ride from Copenhagen. Again we spent most of our time | | indoors, wandering through the natural history and science museums, and the | | Mälmohus which is Scandanavian's oldest castle. The other Swedish food that | | we tried (meatballs and boiled potatoes) were rather similar to what we've | | previously had at Ikea! | | | | Danish food in comparison wasn't so well suited to the winter weather. | | Their speciality is the smörrebröd or open sandwich, and Danish pastries | | aren't really Danish - here they call them wienerbröd or "Viennese bread". | | The locals seem to prefer immigrant food - Turkish shawarma (which we would | | call kebabs) and hot dogs. However we did have a nice pork roast with | | potatoes, followed by a waffle and ice cream, at a Danish chain in Sweden. | | | | reply (0 comments) | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | "Germany" :: [2010-01-05 01:34AM] | | | | We saw in 2010 in the Bavarian capital of Munich. The old city is full of | | beautiful architecture, though much of is has been reconstructed after its | | destruction in the Second World War. We took a free walking tour on our | | first day in the city, which included stops at an enormous cathedral called | | the Frauenkirche, the elaborate gothic town hall, and the Hofbräuhaus, the | | most famous beer house in Munich. We stopped there for lunch of sausages | | and sauerkraut, before wandering down to the Hausderkunst, an art gallery | | opened during the Third Reich, but currently exhibiting a Chinese modern | | artist. | | | | I was last in Germany in around 1982 with my parents, and my two main | | memories are visiting the castles of King Ludwig II, and eating at an | | inordinate number of konditorei (pastry shops), with which my dad was quite | | obsessed. This particular obsession is one to which I can easily relate - I | | finished off our first day in Munich with the perfect torte - sweet | | chocolate cake, set off with tart raspberries in jelly, with a crisp | | shortbread base. Dom was hungrier than I and so started with a cheesy egg | | noodle dish with fried onions ("bergspätzle") followed with authentic apple | | strudel. | | | | As for King Ludwig's castles, the following day we took a train out to his | | family castle Hohenschwangau, and the "fairy tale" castle Neuschwanstein | | that the mad king constructed nearby and which is best known as the | | inspiration for the Disney castle. We took a horse drawn carriage ride to | | the gates of the first, and hiked from there to the second. Though | | neither castle was open for tours when we arrived, the exteriors were | | impressive enough. | | | | The next day we went straight to the airport, which is of little note | | other than that it gave us occasion to try a schnitzel and pretzel for | | lunch, but I should mention the saga of our illnesses. We've been | | suffering colds and flu almost over our entire trip, and my own symptoms | | have lately been getting worse. The pharmacist in the UK to whom I went | | for a remedy didn't want to sell me anything stronger than paracetemol. | | I'm glad to say his counterpart in Germany was much more enthusiastic: I | | walked away with one set of pills for congestion, another for aches and | | inflammation, a nasal spray, and a cough syrup, plus a set of tissues | | thrown in. Thank goodness for German efficiency. | | | | reply (1 comments) | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Links: portal / wedding / calendar / honours / phd / iq / igfwatch / random | | page generated in 0.241 seconds sadlittlewebjournal 2.9.3 | | content (c) its respective creator(s) web administration | | valid html 4.01 transitional foaf / rss feed | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+