Battle Royale: Matthews Brothers vs. drunken, skinny Malay (at Reggae Bar)
This Christmas/New Years, my family came to visit. I was super-stoked as my time in Malaysia has been the longest period of time I've gone without seeing them. Before my parents arrived, I took my brother to Langkawi (as a little Christmas present for him). We had fun driving around the island on motorbikes, seeing sites, and chillin on the beach. It was a great time to have some serious convos, hang out, and generally to get reacquainted with the smells of brotherhood. One night, we both decided to hit up the Reggae bar. We had been biking around a lot and we thought some time to sit back and listen to some fine music was in order. We had fun dancing and met some cool and not so cool people. After dancing with some African friends we had met (who were studying in Kuala Lumpur), we confronted a Malay guy who was getting a bit too familiar. He was a bit out of it and after an unsuccessful attempt to get him to chill out, things got real. Dave's version: This Malay guy was trying to shimmy up to some of our African friends and Dave laid down the law...just making sure the Malay dude knew that the girls did not want to dance with him and were just there to enjoy themselves with friends. After sensing a primordial and territorial male rage, the Malay dude picked a fight. Dave, wanting to be a peacemaker, threw up his arms and did not engage but apologized instead. After subsequent attempts to fight, Dave and I decided to leave. We made our way to our motorbike but of course, he followed us and blocked the exit leading to the main road. I was driving with Dave sitting on the back of the bike and we whizzed past this guy just as his friend couldn't hold him back. He took a swing at Dave (just grazing his back) and the bike wobbled to the left then to the right. I cut both feet, almost losing balance and having a total wipe-out, but was able to keep the bike in control and safely get away. I had deep gashes on my left and right big toes for the next two or three weeks--pretty brutal. Andrew's version*: Dave was getting his groove-thang on, mad peeps diggin his vibe. Checkin out the scene, I scopes some trouble brewin. "Dave, we best be leavin," I say. But Dave found his niche; he was unstoppable. This mini-Malay (Dave guessed 14 years old; I think he was probably 16) gets too familiar with some of our newly-met friends. Dave, reaffirming his earlier-established alpha-male status (with the exception of my superior status), taps the dude on the head. "Step off," Dave says.** Things got outta control fast. Malay guys started pouring out of the walls with bow staffs and knives. Dave sticks a napkin in a bottle and lights it on fire, throwing it only to see a huge mushroom cloud of flame ascend into through the bar. Ninjas were flyin all over, reggae gangsters were firing gats, and Dave, our African friends, and I were ducking to get to the exit. Mini Malay blocked the road with flaming tires and as we raced out on my bike, he bit my leg. We safely got away and for some reason Dave couldn't stop talking about fighting for the rest of the trip. It got kind of annoying (seriously Dave, I'm just saying...) but we had fun laughing about the experience.

No clear winner was decided, but Dave and I were pretty confident of what would've happened had things progressed:-)

*this version did not happen
**Dave never said this

Sarawak
Recently I travelled to Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo to do some hiking. I had heard of the wildlife and great hikes in Sarawak so I decided to make this trip more of the eco-tourism kind. I went to Bako, Gunung Gading, Similajau, and Niah Caves national parks. Along the way, I saw a wild baby crocodile (squint your eyes at above pic:-), some beautiful views, cave drawings, birds' nest scaffolding (explanation to follow), proboscis and macaque monkeys, bearded pigs (the most hideous animal on the planet), a few caves (Fairy, Wind, and Niah caves), a beautiful sunset, and in the process almost killed myself while hiking....seriously.
The trail was well-marked but the map wasn't. Any three trails could've been the one I was looking for. Then again, my friends never let me forget that I've gotten lost plenty of times. Anyway, I was resting on my hike and decided to walk off the trail a bit and up a slippery creek, complete with rushing water, rocks, and loose roots. A perfect place to sidehike. Inevitably, I slipped and (mom, stop reading here) smacked my face on a rock (the pic above is actually a cut from a tree on a different hike). I sat up and just chilled for a second to check whether I was ok. A few cuts but nothing major...I decided to have lunch and it was pretty good :-)
Sarawak was my first trip alone--i.e. I wasn't going with or meeting someone--and it went pretty well. I was really able to relax by the middle of the trip (after I wasn't so concerned about seeing everything) and the hiking was really a great way to chill out. In some of the parks, the trails were not well-maintained--fallen trees, fallen bridges, ambiguous trail markings--which meant for probably the most rigorous hiking I've done. From what I've heard, Sabah (the other Malaysian state on Borneo) has a bit more to offer (I go there in February to climb Mt. Kinabalu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Kinabalu) and to scuba dive), but from my experiences, Sarawak offered exactly what I needed after sitting in my apt. planning my family trip to Thailand for two weeks (look for upcoming entry). Enjoy the pics and as always, I love to hear from you!

Also, I never saw the woman posted below. I merely sent the picture to my parents to get them excited for Thailand:-P

Have you seen this woman?

Singapura
In November (yeah a long time ago), I went to Singapore for a long weekend to see the city-state and hang out with Chrissy Malvasi, a friend from Pton who's working at Ngee Ann Polytechnic teaching creative writing and other disciplines. It was a great time hanging out around the city and catching up with Chrissy. In 3 days, I really felt that I did most of Singapore. I saw the zoo, went to a few museums, went to Arab Street (the middle-eastern section of the city), to little India, and went out to a chic bar with Chrissy and her friends one night.
Some highlights of the trip: I saw some orangutans in the zoo, saw thousands and thousands of indian dudes who were enjoying little India on a sunday night (their day off from work--and really, it was all dudes), stayed in an Apple Martini-themed bedroom one night (see picture above), got some Arabic food, and had a good time away from Penang. Enjoy the pics!

Cameron Highlands
After Hari Raya, I joined some friends in Cameron Highlands, a hill station in Malaysia with large tea plantations. Although I got sick from fasting from food for a few days and then stuffing myself for the following week and then eating some really spicy indian food, I had a good time and the views were spectacular. A mutual acquaintance on the trip brought his gravity bike to ride down some hills. A friend and I took pictures of him from the back of a moving truck--kinda ridiculous and I felt absolutely absurd. A gravity bike, for those of you who are intelligent enough to avoid such a thing, is a bike that has been stripped of its bikeness. It is a bike that has been robbed of anything useful. It is a bike, essentially, for those who have time to engage in athletic pursuits yet do not want to take the energy to do so (ok I'm exaggerating for effect). If you would like to buy a gravity bike: simply purchase the most expensive bike you can find, remove the pedals, lower the seat, and put on some other shiny metal parts to make it look fast. Anyway, my friend and I (as soon as we saw the bike) could not stop laughing and making jokes. We were tactful about it so as not to offend, but man, this thing was hilarious. All you do is sit on the bike and ride down a hill letting the gravity take you down. Thats it! And they couldn't even come up with a better name to hide the true purpose of the bike. Unfortunately, I have no pics of it (was using a friend's camera) but I felt it worthwhile to blog about it. 'Nuf said.
Enjoy these pics of the tea plantation!