The Religions of Malaysia

Malaysia is a country that has a very eclectic religious makeup. The largest groups of people in Malaysia are the Malay Muslims, the Chinese Buddhists and the Indian Hindus. My 2nd weekend here was the celebration of Diwali which is a celebration of lights for Indians. They celebrate on a night with a new moon and light candles. Diwali celebrates the triumph of good over evil. The first video is the Diwali decoration on the Mall's floor in Kuala Lumpur. The decoration is made out of colored rice.

Once we got back from KL, we decided to celebrate Diwali at our favorite Indian restaurant across the street from the Hotel. Renu and Shan own the establishment and have become family to me. They feed me well and every once in a while give me whiskey. My dinner was on the house this night!

Renu thought my video camera was a camera camera...little did she know!

Since the government of Malaysia is mainly held by the Muslim parties, there is always a large mosque in each of the state's capital cities (I am in Kuantan which is the capital of Pahang). Below is a video of the Mosque of Kuantan. Non-Muslims are not allowed inside. If you see a video of the inside, I either converted or snuck in.

Innocent Monkey?

Don't have anything to say about this one...still at a loss of words.

Purple Haze after the Storm

The 2nd week of my stay in Malaysia is underway. I survived my first week. It helps that the food is amazing, the people are incredibly friendly and the weather has been great...so far...

The people and food will hopefully stay conditionally good year round, but the weather is headed for a unfavorable turn. So far, we get a couple wild thunderstorms in the evenings (we had 3 last week). The first video I am posting is actually kind of embarrassing, but funny and awesome at the same time. I waited to see lightening then turned on my camera right after. With all the storms coming up I am hoping to capture both the lightening and the thunder in one clip.

Episode II is the house band at the hotel I am staying at. They are a Filipino band that have really impressed me. They play everything from local Malaysian pop songs, oldies like La Bamba, Top 40 US songs and songs by hard rock bands like Korn.

As a guitar player, I absolutely hate it when you can't hear a guitar solo. This clip of Episode II covering Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix was before I had a friendly chat with their sound guy. This clip would have been a lot better had I taken it after my sound advice!

Coworker and I watched them play Saturday night. The guitarist closed with this Eddie Van Halen-esque guitar solo complete with tapping and dive bombing the whammy bar (see picture to the left if you're not sure what a whammy bar is). This is another clip I am hoping to get before my time is up in Malaysia.

The singers are also something to brag about. There is one male vocalist and two female. The male vocalist was featured in the Jimi Hendix clip and the below clip features Vanna.

Into the Jungle

Well, I made it. The total flight time was 21 hr. In this time period, I briefly graced my presence in five cities. The fifth put me in the middle of the jungle...

My first stop after Chicago was Hong Kong. Who knew that the shortest distance between these two cities involved flying quite a bit north of both Alaska and Siberia? The roar of the four 747 jet engines must have covered the sound of sleigh bells.

After a 3 hr layover in Hong Kong I made it to Singapore at Midnight (the day after I left). This is all sorts of confusing for the body and mind. Singapore told me it is midnight, but in my mind, I thought it was noon. I only thought that I experienced jet lag before this experience...

After a night in Singapore, two flights later I ended up in my destination city of Kuantan. My layover was in Kuala Lumpur, but didn't get a chance to leave the airport. My coworker, hereafter known as Coworker, picked me up at the airport and we both decided a weekend trip to KL needs to be in the works.

There are other work crews in Thailand and Vietnam right now. Coworker and I will probably take a weekend trip to meet up with at least one of these other crews. Apparently there is an island off of Thailand that is incredible to visit.

I have videos of the hotel rooms I have stayed in, but I find the "outside the hotel room" environment to be much more descriptive of the location. There will definitely be video of wild monkeys, crazy scooter drivers and Chukka, the club which the Malaysian Sultan of Pahang frequents, in up and coming posts. The Sultan's palace is right down the street and Coworker is under the impression he "acquired" the hotel we are staying at.

For now, I'll leave you with these clips: