Lantern Festival

Tonight is the 15th day of Chinese New Year - and it is kind of a big deal. It is the last hurrah of the holiday, and people are going all out, with a ton of fireworks outside. I hope we can get to sleep!

The weather was great today - in the 70s. We took a nice walk through the neighborhood. Lots of people were out, between the weather and the holiday. Old men were playing the erhu, kids were flying kites...just a great day!

-alan

Hot is the word of the week

The past couple days have brought heat, though not in the same ways.

Yesterday, we went out looking for dinner - so we decided on Baidu Kaorou, a chain restaurant where you grill your food at your table. We went there when the place opened last year, and had not been back since.

Apparently, we should have gone back earlier, because it was gone.

So instead, we went off to a nearby place we had never been to - but is notable for its year-round outdoor seating. It was crowded inside, so we took a table in that area. On one side of our table was a 4 foot glass wall facing the street; on the other, a walkway for servers and the window into the restaurant. The heat was in the table, literally; the center of the table was a flaming pile of charcoal, which kept us mighty warm throughout the meal.

The menu was diverse, and without pictures. We ordered a few things we knew they had, and then asked for a recommendation. In theory, I like asking servers, because they should know what is best. However, in China, that often does not work. Rachel asked for something not too spicy, and without many bones. So what did we get? Pork knuckle stew. It actually tasted pretty good, and we fished all the veggies out of it. But there was still a lot of pork knuckles in there when we left...

We are calling it the Shao Kao Date Restaurant - because it has food like you get in the night market, but in a setting that is worthy of bringing a date to. You actually get a real chair!

The second heat came in the form of weather - today the sun came out, which brought scrumptious warm air and a pleasant afternoon. I'm hoping that winter is breaking!

-alan

1st day back

If you can survive the first day back to school after vacation relatively unscathed, then it is smooth sailing from there.

Rachel is kinda sick, though, so I cannot speak for her day. She started out by going long at morning devos (bad move on a Monday morning before school, after break!) and spent much of the morning in a zombie-like catatonic state (from what I heard). However, she recovered enough to hold the first after-school meeting for MUN, eat some Korean (let's not order that spicy dish again, please!), and catch up on episodes of Lost (which is fading fast in my eyes).

I had a good day back, anyway. I was underprepared for most of my classes, but hey...some days you just have to wing it.

-alan

2 days in Kuala Lumpur (KL)

Flying out in the wee morning hours from Abu Dhabi (3am to be precise) we traveled to KL for a 2 day stopover. We stayed there with Anand, our Malaysian friend from Northwestern. Much of the time, he was quite busy - but we did get to spend some time with his family, which was quite fun. Like him, they are an outgoing, charismatic bunch.

Last time we were in KL, we stayed in a hotel downtown, and never really ventured out much into the city. This was mainly due to lack of time, energy, and knowledge - at the end of our trip last year, we just did not have much will left to go out and explore. So, we left the city with a lackluster opinion.

This time, we stayed in a real neighborhood, and did some real exploration of the city. We also ate some good food (traditional southern Indian, Malay, Japanese, American), which is always a plus.

One neat thing we did was to take a tour of "old" KL. Anand is thinking of starting a tour business, so he offered us a free private tour with his potential tour guide, Leroy, in return for our feedback. We gladly accepted :)

The city is not old - 200 years, if you go WAY back, but it has only been a true city for 100+. It is not an ancient city, but rather a colonial city, inhabited first by Chinese immigrants and their Malay landlords. So we wandered through what is left of the original Chinatown, and subsequent British-controlled colonial KL. We learned some interesting stories, and walked...a lot.

That afternoon, we went to the theatre to take in our annual Chinese movie - we cannot watch Chinese films in China, because there are no subtitles...but in Malaysia, they do. Unfortunately, the theatre was packed, so even though we bought tickets 2 hours ahead, we were stuck in the front row (they sell individual seats, like a sports event, so it is not first-come-first-serve). It was ironic, because the film, 14 Blades, was filmed in Mandarin but shown in Malaysia dubbed into Cantonese.

The next day, we toured some of KL's green spaces, starting with the Bird Park. There was a host of tropical birds all fluttering around. Thankfully, we were not pooped on - though the mosquitoes feasted on our bare legs. Bug spray would have been wise.

Here is one bird that sounded more like a dying cat:

From there, we traveled through some gardens and headed towards the Islamic Art Museum. Rachel marveled at the sky all day.

And of course, no trip to SE Asia is complete without monkeys.

The museum was of high quality. Rachel especially likes Islamic geometric patterns, which are a mainstay of their art.

From there, we went out to lunch - our last hurrah at Chili's - and off to the airport. The ride home was a little crazy - the AirAsia flight crew had some trouble controlling the rambunctious Chinese crowd (generally loud and noncompliant with "remain seated" requests). But we were in the relatively quiet front section of the plane, and we were home before we knew it.

So KL round 2 was MUCH more pleasant. Now, I think it is a fine city.

-alan

The house

In Al Ain, we stayed at what American would call a "mansion." Or a "McMansion" if you are a suburbanite. This house was huge. 8 bedrooms, 9 baths. Plus 2 kitchens, 2 living rooms, an office, a game room, and an awesome spiral staircase leading up to a stain glass skylight.

This place was a party waiting to happen.

The house is purposefully large, because it is used as a guesthouse. But since we were the only guests there at the time, its size was striking. The inside was nice, too - polished tiles covered all the floors, and Ikea was clearly the primary interior decorator (which I have no problem with).

The house is average size for affluent Emeratis, who tend to live with extended family plus servants. So for an average family of the UAE elite, the sizeable house is put to good use.

In the city center, there were more condos and apartments, though the city as a whole looked more like an American suburb (spread out, with wide avenues) than a city.

-alan

Home safely!

At midnight, we arrived home in Chengdu. Now, we still have 3 days to recover and prepare to return to work!

Closing thoughts are still to comes, and a recap of our time in KL.

-alan

look mom a tattoo!

While in the Middle East I felt like didn't have a great chance to see local women both because of their modest dress and coverings and also because there seemed to be less women out and about.

I was happy for a chance to go to an all ladies saloon and some interaction. Saloon is not a place to drink (as that is generally frowned upon) but how they spell salon on all the signs. Going in there was a bustle of activity with women getting hair done and henna. I guess women get really dolled up for weddings and there is a separate place for the women to all be together and dance without the veil or abaya. It was great to see the beautiful hair styles of the women and all the really cool henna designs on the hands and feet.

For those of you who don't know henna is a dye that looks like mud when applied and leaves behind a stain on the skin lasts well over a week. Below are pics :-)

-rachel