Fish spa

Fish spas are the rage all over asia, and Penang is no exception. This was said of our local Penang branch:
"At Happy Feet Fish Spa, you will experience a myriad of feelings – the warm ambiance, the friendly staff, the laughter and smiles, the relaxation as you sit and enjoy the sensation as the fishes feast on your feet. This wonderful experience also comes with an additional benefit which is known to human race as one of the essence of life – Laughter! When the fishes start to swarm your feet, you will feel the initial first minutes of ticklish sensation which will make you laugh and squeal or at least, giggles for the shy ones!"

It would be more appropriately called flesh-eating fish. "Known as Garra rufa, the silvery inch-long fish originate from hot springs in Turkey. It's there that they developed an appetite for the only food around — human flesh." But because they don't have teeth, they technically "kiss the skin" as one salon owner puts it, sucking off the dry skin. The spa "Dr. Fish" says this about maintaining its tanks and fish: "The fish stay well fed on a steady supply of human skin. Over the past few months, technician Le has watched them double in size." Oh man.

Singapore

Lonely Planet describes Singapore as the following:
"A fine cocktail of Western predictability and Asian enthusiasm." Ultra modern, immaculately organised, and a little snobbery thrown in, it's certainly the cleanest place you'll find in Asia. But whatever the case: if you like to shop, and you like to eat, Singapore is the place to be. There's quite a few parks and nature reserves to satisfy the outdoorsy type, NOTE: it definitely lacks in the beach department. Go to Thailand or Borneo.
If there is such a thing as a national obsession, Singapore's would be food.


My favorite fish was shredded chicken porridge. You have to taste it to believe it. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Although Singapore is known more for creating the artificial, they also create 'natural' pretty well. Unfortunately for me, all I brought were two flimsy pairs of flip flops. Not particularly great for hiking, but I managed the best I could. Six hour hikes in flip flops is fun!



They even manage to maintain a "lifeless earth"!

Lots of monkeys to be found!!


This is the proboscis monkey, only found in Borneo. The Singapore zoo is the only place in the world that these guys can be found outside of Borneo.



Crazy Singapore:

Crazy Trees

Crazy Christmas

Crazy street lines

Finding it hard.

I can’t get anything done these days. It’s impossible. Plans for the next two months have fallen through and now there’s not much to do around these parts. Nothing much except procrastination.

Case in point. Someone showed me this article on good/bad procrastination two weeks ago.

http://www.paulgraham.com/procrastination.html

It looked interesting and worthy of my time, and it’s been sitting in my Safari internet tabs since then, and only yesterday did I get around to reading it. I can’t believe it.

I procrastinated reading an article on procrastination for 2 weeks.

That is bad! Only to discover that I am a type B procrastinator, which means I put off the good things and spend all my time on the bad things. Big surprise. Which means that I put off reading this article by blogging and facebook and mopping my floor and working out more. Not cool.

I DO have worthwhile things to do, but with no set deadline it’s hard for me to get them done. I guess I need the pressure. The article suggests that the way to solve the problem of procrastination is to "let delight pull you instead of making a to-do list push you. Work on an ambitious project you really enjoy, and sail as close to the wind as you can, and you'll leave the right things undone." True.

Here's one thing to check of my list: finally take this article off of my computer.

Lost art

I love writing letters. No one else seems to share this passion with me, except my family of course. I believe that the Treece family contributes a great deal to the continuing success of the USPS. It's quite a distinguished Treece family tradition. Since my arrival in Malaysia one year ago, I have received dozens of letter, dozens of postcards (all from my mom and dads travels), and dozens of packages from family. And packages aren't cheap, but thank God that I am blessed with an especially generous and thoughtful family.
I love writing letters as a way to keep in touch (albeit one-sidedly, but I don't write with the expectation of receiving anything in return), and I know (assume, I guess) that people appreciate it. Call me old fashioned, but who doesn't like receiving a good ol' hand written letter? To know that someone was thoughtful enough to get unglued to their facebook account and sit down to write a letter that takes thought and effort. Maybe people just don't like to think. My grandma writes chicken scratch and I can hardly read what she says, but I still appreciate the letters. My mom writes really random letters about mowing the lawn, the window treatment installations, and the fact that they're having chicken for dinner tonight. It's the thought that counts!
Sure, it's great to hear someone say "Hey, how's it going?" -or via the ubiquitous text, perhaps- But to know that a person picked out a card or random piece of paper, sat down and carefully chose the appropriate words for the occasion, and concentrated long enough to create something legible (I give exceptions to people over 90 years old, as is the case of my grandma-and perhaps doctors) is so much more meaningful.

Oh, how I mourn the lost art of letter writing! (I'm on a Jane Austen kick right now, can you tell?) All of the cards and postcards and letters I have received since coming here have been tucked away and treasured. Not that I read them and re-read them every day, but it seems like such a shame to throw them away! Someone put good thought and time into it. Letters have so much more permanence to them than conversations or email. I have received letters that I know I'll keep forever.
Which reminds me, my sister recently returned to me some letters that I had written to her when I was 10 years old. My sister kept them all this time, God bless her heart. And written with the hand of a 10 year old, they are hilarious. When I was little I was taught that the proper way to start a letter was, "Dear ___, How are you? I'm fine." I used this format until I realized how stupid it sounds - which unfortunately wasn't too far in the distant past.

Koreans, marshmallows, and the British

I love Koreans. I was surprised to find many Koreans here and they are very hospitable, and very generous with their food. They also love barbecue, which is great because I also love barbecue. Last night we had a pool party. There happened to be a Korean party going on right next to us, and since I knew some of the people so I hopped right on over and they started stuffing me with me with pork. Yum. In exchange for the pork one of us Americans brought out some marshmallows. So, we ended up cooking the pork and toasting the marshmallows on the same grill. Koreans apparently don't toast marshmallows, or eat them either. But they sure enjoyed them last night. They couldn't understand why the marshmallow was taking so long when they were holding it a foot from the coals, but they were especially thrilled when they caught on fire. I like introducing people to new things, when they enjoy it. If the Koreans had hated the marshmallows perhaps I wouldn't have been so fond of the event. But luckily, it was a success.
Today I had yet another pool party (pool hopping is fairly common here among the expats), but this time it was with the Brits. I also have a lot to learn from these good-mannered and proper people. I learn new words and phrases from them all the time, like what it is to "have a tiff", and what they really mean when they say to "bring a pudding". Pudding is a general term for dessert, not just the Jell-o. Oh. This was my first "bring your own meat" party. I didn't really know what that meant, but I think I did the right thing by, well, bringing my own meat. I got to grill it, too, but I got distracted by the fellow grill-ers and burnt my chicken. Not that anybody cares or is particularly interested in this fact. Suffice to say, this was a delicious Korean and British barbecue weekend. Which reminds me, there is a Canadian barbecue tomorrow as well!! We'll see if I make it to that.

Makes me laugh

Chinese Temples

A photo tour of Chinese temples








I found this makeshift shrine in a parking lot in KL. These small shrines are all over Penang. They believe that big trees like this have spirits inside. Looking closer you'll notice that it's not just the Chinese that venerate this tree; it's also worshipped by Hindus.