Bookfest @ Malaysia, September 2010

After more than two sleepless weeks of preparing for a midterm AND a group assignment (completed), I think I'm back at full strength.  Enough strength for me to write about the Bookfest @ Malaysia 2010, held from 4th - 12th September at the KL Convention Center.  If it wasn't for my dad, I wouldn't know about the event.  So, we went there on the first day, and I took a few shots with my humble 3.2MP cameraphone.  Quite a tough thing to do, considering the hellishly large crowds barging throughout the BookFest...the place was literally SWARMING with people. 

A brochure and a wrist band.  These are what you need before entering.

Managed to catch Amir Muhammad's session at 2.30 pm.  He talked about the book "Yasmin Ahmad's Films" (which, from what I know previously, was written around 1 month after Yasmin Ahmad's death from stroke in 2009), and it was followed by a preview of one of her movies.  I bought one of his books titled 'Rojak' and had it signed after that. :-)  Unfortunately, I forgot to take the book back from my brother, who borrowed it to read during the Singapore trip one week after the Bookfest. Noooo!!!

My one greatest regret is that I couldn't catch Russell Lee's sessions, at 11 a.m. - 12 p.m., and 7 - 8 p.m.  I've been reading his compilation of True Singapore Ghost Stories books since primary school, how long has it been, 12 years I think? Though I do doubt the authenticity of some of the stories in there, I love to read Mr. Lee's remarks (often witty and sarcastic) at the end of each story. Noooo (for the second time)!!!

A few more shots here.

This is only part of the queuing lines to the cashiers.

And now I end this post with a picture of the chicken bowls often used for 'mi kolok' in Sarawak. *Big smile*

Malaysia Day 2010

It's Malaysia Day today.  16th September has always been Malaysia Day for the past 46 years, but it took 47 years to actually have the first celebration.   It somehow reminds me of my download speed.  Starting from the year 2010, it has become another notch in my public holidays list (and on other peoples' lists too).

16th September 2010, 47 years since the formation of Malaysia (and 4 days since I returned from Singapore).  How have we progressed?

Some West Malaysians still fear the idea that the people of Sarawak and Sabah live on trees and that headhunting is still rampant.  Some East Malaysians always get pissed off when reading those stereotypes, but yet fail to improve their own knowledge of West Malaysia.  It's been 47 years.

We still call ourselves 'Melayu, Cina, India' (Malay, Chinese, Indian).  As someone who is neither one of those three, I am called a 'Lain-lain' (Other).  It's been 47 years.

A West Malaysian who has been brought up his/her whole life in Malay-Chinese-Indian West Malaysia will usually be unable to fathom the 30+ tribes/races (and more) of Sabah and Sarawak.  And neither will an East Malaysian usually be able to get used to living in another part of Malaysia with three main races, after a lifetime of living and studying side by side with Ibans, Kayans, Kelabits, Melanaus, Malays, Kadazans, Muruts, Dusuns, et cetera.

So maybe our main problem here is not racism.  Misunderstandings between West and East Malaysians seem to be the more obvious one.  I keep seeing pages popping up on Facebook, for example "Jangan Hina Orang Sarawak" and the like.  And whenever a West/East Malaysian makes demeaning comments about East or West Malaysia, people go around attacking the said person on his/her profile, to the point of spreading links here and there.  So the second lesson here is ALWAYS BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU PUT ON THE INTERNET.  What you say to a person in real life can be forgiven and forgotten, but what you put on Facebook/Friendster/Myspace etc. will NEVER be forgotten.

Back to racism...it will always be around, no matter where we are.  Tell me of any country that has zero racism/xenophobic tendencies.  Put that matter at rest for now.

If we can enjoy the different tastes of nasi lemak, mi kolok, sirap bandung, char kuey teow, roti canai, manok pansoh, satay ayam, tebaloi, umai, keropok lekor, ice cendol, roti kahwin and dodol, why can't we all look past our differences and even just for once, ACKNOWLEDGE the idea that these differences actually contribute to making Malaysia a very colorful and multicultural nation.

But do we acknowledge this on only Malaysia Day/National Day?  What about the other 364 days of the year?  

Signing off for now, in order to meditate on the wonders of Malaysian cuisine.

Kuey teow at Pappa Rich, Dataran Sunway

Beef rendang rice, somewhere in 1Utama

Brunei Pontianak Video

Last month, I blogged about the so-called [CLICK HERE TO READ] 'pontianak' of KM 42 Bukit Tinggi, a Youtube video that has been circulating around the Malaysian websphere and Facebook (and goodness knows elsewhere).  If you forgot (or don't know) what it is, a 'pontianak' is something like a Southeast Asian vampire.  To celebrate the one-month anniversary of that post, I now introduce to you the Malaysian pontianak's sister, the BRUNEIAN pontianak.  Watch the video below.

To those of you who don't understand Bruneian Malay dialect, here's the story: Two friends were deep in conversation outside at 4.05 a.m.  Another friend (let's call him 'The Narrator'), was bored to death and started filming things around them, complaining the whole time(boring eh! boring eh! surely you understand this part *wink*).  After greeting random footwear (hai selipar!), he interrupted the conversation to ask where Boy was ('Boy' is a common nickname here).  Turned out that Boy was already asleep somewhere inside the house.  The Narrator then continued filming before pausing when he saw a hovering white figure in the background, a few metres away from the conversing friends.  At this point he began muttering uncontrollably, even uttering a few religious words before urging his friends to enter the house as fast as they could.  When awareness kicked in, the three of them ran with all their might.  None of them had enough courage to close the door, and The Narrator still continued filming everything.  The video ended with a shot of Boy, soundly sleeping throughout the whole event.

VERDICT: FAKE FAKE FAKE.  The whole video looks very innocent when you watch it for the first time, as if the three friends were all caught unawares, sending them into a frenzy.  But the thing that alerted me was the fact that The Narrator STARTED his filming from somewhere near the spot the pontianak supposedly appeared.  Go ahead and re-watch the whole thing.  That means he, possibly with the help of another friend (maybe Boy), had the white figure all set up.  And the second thing that alerted me was that The Narrator seemed to be 'expecting' something while filming.  You can just feel it.

Language aside, I find the video to be kinda funny, in a sort of dark comedy manner (can't think of any other classification).  I love it!  This video is actually far older than the video I posted previously, probably three or four years old if I'm not mistaken.  Perhaps older.  The person who posted this video on Youtube has a disclaimer on the page saying that this is not his video.

Thumbs up for the non-existence of sparkles or glitter.

Burgers galore!!!

OK, I am finally back in Petaling Jaya to visit my parents and brother because of the tuition-free week.  Celebrated my fifth day here by having my car get hit from behind last night.  The bad part is that it wasn't actually my car...it was my dad's car, which I borrow to drive around every time I come back here.  Enough about that though, I'm not here to rant about accidents.  I'm here to rant about BURGERS.

One particular evening, a friend and I somehow decided to talk about food.  I don't remember the whole conversation but I'm glad he broached the subject of burgers.  The McDonald's Grilled Chicken Burger (GCB) was 'released' just a few weeks ago, and sometimes, rumours abound about the local McD running out of GCB burgers until new stock arrives.  Fellow blogger/"brother in engineering" Dzim is one of the few people I know who tried it earlier that week.  

Above is a picture of it unwrapped.  I won't say it's the tastiest burger around, but it was OK.  But in the future, I'd rather order my usual double cheeseburger combo meal rather than the GCB, largely due to the price.  Double cheeseburger combo is approximately RM 7++(around USD $2.50), compared to RM 9+(around USD $3.50) of a GCB a la carte.  You can call me thrifty or whatever, but I prefer to get more at a lower price, compared to a single meal at a higher price.

And then there is the Kinky Fat Chef Kitchen (KFCK) in Piasau.  The weird part is that I can draw maps and tell people the directions to get there, but I had never tried anything from that particular eatery.  My friend joked about wanting to punch me for admitting that  Thank goodness I finally had the chance to try something from there last week, thanks to Dzim once again (I think I might forever associate you with burgers).  So, along with our geologist sister Zura, we went to KFCK to order burgers.

KFCK, blurry pic taken by my cellphone

I think KFCK has no problem with advertisements and all that, because in Miri, word of mouth is still the best  method of spreading news.  When it comes to food, I trust my fellow Mirians *big smile*.  Ordered a grilled beef burger with homemade special sauce (don't know what it's made of, but it has a kinda sweet taste to it), and I must say, YUM! The patty is homemade, not the typical bought-from-a-store patties used by several burger stalls in Miri.  A few friends advised against ordering the black pepper sauce, but it's probably more to preference.  I might try it in the future.  Anyway, do check out KFCK's Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/KinkyFatChefKitchen . Support the Miri food industry. *bigger smile*

The final burger on my list is from Burger King, something with "XL" and "Supreme" in it, I've forgotten its full name.  Tried out the beef version at Desa Sri Hartamas a few days ago.

OK...so it's not as long as they claim it to be (I used to think that only guys do that *cough*).  Too bad I forgot to take a snapshot of this burger.  The taste was just alright, though I felt that it had too much onion in it, so I had to scrape most of them aside.  Had to 'rinse out' the onion-y taste by drinking lots of Coke, quite a bad decision.  

But the most traumatic aspect of this experience is, I believe, shown in the advertisement below:

GOOD GRIEF! *faints*

Pontianak at KM 42 Bukit Tinggi, towards Kuantan

Recently, there's this video of a 'pontianak' circulating around the Malaysian web sphere, especially (where else?) Facebook.  A 'pontianak' is, according to local folklore, the restless spirit of a woman who died in childbirth.  She is usually depicted with long, flowing hair and a white robe...kind of a typical garb for most restless spirits/creatures around the world, eh?  Go ahead and research if you wish to.  I've heard enough stories of pontianaks while growing up in good old Malaysia.

Skeptical me watched the video at 3 a.m. today, and below is the video, for your viewing pleasure.

Apparently the pontianak was affected by the laws of gravity.  The pontianak was also limited to flying a certain height, at which it attained maximum potential energy before slowly coming down to the ground, in order to decrease the effects of friction.  That may be hard though, since the pontianak landed on tarmac surface (they DID mention KM 42 Bukit Tinggi, didn't they? That's somewhere along the interstate highway).  But I'll give credit to her, because she didn't sparkle in the light like some vampires do.  Ewwwww.

What a faaaaaaake video.........

A sparkly 'pontianak' that unfortunately reduces people (and werewolves) to laughter instead of fear.