Mon May 17, 2023

Sorry, light posting again

I'm showing two travellers from Sweden around whom I met at Perhentian Island.

I brought Hanna and Emilia to a few places that travellers to Malaysia usually never see. The national mosque was one of the places.

Travel agencies have been banned from bringing tourists there because it would just crowd out the Muslim pilgrims. And the path to the mosque is quite convoluted so only a local would know how to walk there. But locals would take a taxi which is what I did. That was when we found out that all the women visitors have to wear a shapeless gown or wear one of the bright blue prison-like uniforms at the main entrance. I don't think the girls were terribly happy about that, but we had a laugh when we discovered that we couldn't spot Emilia in a sea-full of blue gowns.

I find it's a bit of a loss when visitors come to Malaysia and never try the local food which should be the main attraction of Malaysia. There's fuck all to see here and the beaches and the natural attractions are crap. But food, ah! There's no better Asian food in the world -- none that has such a wide variety and none that are made with such a vast menu of spices.

I took Hanna and Emilia for a Chinese seafood meal of steamed garouper, garlic buttered prawns, lemon chicken and kailan in egg sauce. Also a couple of Indian vegetarian meals on banana leaf and spiced soup and spiced crackers. I of course avoided taking them for Muslim food. Despite its wide acceptance in Malaysia, the tasteless conservatism of Muslim food is our eternal shame.

COMMENTS

heya tim :D hope you are doing well. i see you had some fun taking those girls around! lucky them and you. i love asian food and am messing out on a lot, who knows when i'll ever be able to actually go there and taste the read deal.

best wishes,

Mar