Kangaroos, Kualas, and Dingos, Oh My!

So I have been off in the great down under for the past week and a half: Sydney, Australia. I have been slightly obsessed with visiting Sydney since the 2000 summer Olympics. I came to the conclusion that Malaysia is way closer to Australia than Michigan and decided to treat myself to an early 24^th birthday present.

My Sydney tour has been the family friendly route. My first few days included visits to the Aquarium, the Opera house, the zoo, the Australian wild life exhibit, and the Royal botanical gardens. Lots of school kids on field trips and lots of animals, which has actually been a lot more fun than my original expectations- I’m not really an animal person. I have also been reading the book series “Clan of the Cave Bear” which is a well-researched fiction book about the lives of cavemen, cavewomen, and the origins of humanity. I think the combined efforts of seeing these really unique animals and reading these books has given me an intense desire to go back to school for biology. And that’s just weird; I’ve never been a science person. However it does fit into my typical pattern in school of wanting to know everything and not being satisfied with only studying one thing. I want to figure out how everything in the world works weather it’s the reasons that lead one country to develop while others stay stagnant or the mysteries of the first people (and yes as I type the words “figure out how everything works” I’m realizing how science geek it sounded. Maybe I am a science person deep down). Anyways the first half of my vacation definitely led me to the conclusion that I never have an excuse to be bored- there is just too much cool stuff to learn about.

Feeding a kangaroo at the Sydney zoo.

My first day was extremely overwhelming. It was cold, rainy, and oddly familiar; everything that Malaysia is not. I kept forgetting that people could understand me, and the market near my hostel had everything you would ever need. In Malaysia I’m lucky enough to live near a large super market, which is fairly rare in Terengganu. When I’m in KT I have a hard time articulation what I’m missing from home. I don’t really feel like I’m missing anything (except maybe good Mexican food), but being in that super market made me feel like I’m missing so much.

One of the coolest things in Sydney was called ‘Vivid’. It was a month long event happening at the harbor where the opera house and the modern art museum are located. At night the whole harbor was turned into a light show. Meanwhile the opera house was hosting techno inspired performances and the local restaurants turned themselves into faux night clubs. The harbor was packed and the energy was high, definitely one of the highlights of my trip.

View of the harbor from the Rocks during the Vivid light show.

Opera house tour- check

Aquarium visit- check

Forced to buy a winter coat- check

Stay a night in a Olympic village hotel- check

Spend a lot of time sketching and reading- check, check

Sketching on the back of an old reciept from the Royal Botanical Garden.

Now it’s time to get back to school and prepare for the second half of the year. Time is going to move so quickly the next few months. I already have every weekend booked through September, starting this weekend. My dad has arrived in Malaysia for a work trip and this weekend I’m making a trip out to KL to celebrate Father’s day with him. I am beyond excited and life is good.

Talking about FOOD

This post is in dedication to my dad who will be joining me in Malaysia for the month of June and especially asked for information on eating in Malaysia.

Sooo here’s the thing. If you love fish you’ll be in food heaven. They put in everything and you can usually count on it being very fresh (especially where I live on the coast of the South China Sea in a small fishing village). Malaysians usually fry their fish, along with the majority of their food, but they have also perfected the fish sausage and various other processed fish varieties. At our local night market you can even buy processed fish in the shape and color of angry birds just waiting to be placed in the deep fryer.

However, if the only fish you eat is tuna and the occasional piece of salmon, and you grow ill at the thought of a whole fish head and all, like me, Malaysia can be a little difficult food wise. For a typical meal I usually go for my standbys of sup sayor (vegetable soup), nasi paprik (rice with a red pepper and onion sauce), or roti cani with dal.

There are not as many varieties of fast food places in Malaysia as compared to the US but Malaysians take it to another level. Take McDonalds for example. In Malaysia, you have the typical McDs menu, but you also have their doubles menu which takes any sandwich already on the menu and doubles it. You can order a quadruple burger and the Mega Mac is a sight to be seen. Additionally, here Mc Donalds has a delivery service. I can only imagine how my college all nighters would have been different if the Alma McDonalds delivered. Finally is their reward program. I’m not exactly sure what joining the McDonalds reward system gets you but I know in must be good because you get a large sticker to place on the back window of your car and every car in Malaysia has a huge McDonalds sticker on it. That was really shocking to me when I first arrived, because in the US eating at McDonalds is not something people usually brag about after the age of 17 and here it is plastered all over their cars.

Now as you might notice, it’s a bit difficult to eat healthy here which is reflected in Malaysia’s high diabetes and obesity rates as compared to other South Asian countries. Many of my fellow ETAs have been complaining about gaining weight. I however have been losing weigh which I think is in large thanks to my avoidance of all things fish, in ability to eat more than one meal a day with rice and my addiction to their delicious fresh fruit.

So if you ever make it out to this region, here are my top 5 foods you should try.

1.       Chicken Satay with peanut sauce

2.       Roti Cani with dal

3.       Nasi Goreng Paprik

4.       Sup Sayor

5.       Tom Yam

…and top 3 foods to avoid, even when the locals try to force feed you

1.       Durian (a local fruit that is out lawed in hotels do to its horrible smell)

2.       Karapok (fish sausage)

3.       Rose Water (it’s a red juice that they serve at celebrations, super sweet)

Top 3 foods to eat at home before you leave, because they’re just not the same in Malaysia

1.       Mexican food (it’s not available, but if you do find a random place offering it stay away the Malaysian version I had replaced sour cream with mayo)

2.       Alfredo pasta ( They don’t do a lot of pasta here, and even less dairy based meals)

3.       Bacon, peperoni, basically any ham based foods that you enjoy. (It is a Muslim country after all.)