archive for the “Malaysia” category
Cigarette boxes in Malaysia bear photographs of diseased persons and warning such as “Cigarette Causes Mouth Cancer”, “Cigarette Causes Neck Cancer,” and “Cigarette Causes Lung Cancer.” Yet Malaysians still buy cancer sticks, because nicotine is as addictive as heroin. A friend of mine is tapering-off his cigarette usage. Thanks be to God!
One of my frequent refrains in the Philippines was, “I’m wait-ing…” Today, in Panama City, Florida, I’m still awaiting the arrival of a parcel that I sent to this address from George Town, Penang Island, Malaysia on August 3! Was the package lost, or stolen, or stored for a while then placed on a ‘slow boat’?
After advertising on www.Mudah.My, I sold my 2007 Modenas Kriss 100. No more head-on accidents and somersaulting over handlebars for me …
my ordinary costs of living on Penang Island, Malaysia in July 2009
~ at 3.5 ringgit per U.S. dollar ~
my half of apartment rental in The OceanView: RM 425 or $121.43
my half of electricity bill: RM 43 or $12.29
food & bottled water; dining-out & groceries: RM 508.35 or $145.24 or $4.69 daily »→
We’ve had some rain here lately – days and nights. It certainly cools the ambient air. It also chills the water in the OceanView swimming pool and the rooftop water tanks. So my showers are as cool as they’ve ever been. I haven’t had a hot shower since I was in a hotel room in Kuala Lumpur on May 6. The upside is that I’m not spending money to heat shower water or to chill air in this apartment. Dominic operates an air conditioner in his bedroom every night, but I usuallly use a ceiling fan. I think that I’ve used the air conditioner in my bedroom twelve nights in four months. †
I didn’t arise early enough to go to the chingay championship on the George Town Esplanade and make photos of people balancing flag poles, but I went to Tanjung City Marina hoping to photograph a ‘dragon boat’ race to Butterworth and back. Well, it’s an athletic competition for the rowers, not an event that’s ‘made for TV’ or spectating. I couldn’t get a decent photo unless I were in a helicopter or on a boat out in the channel. »→
Monday, July 12:
In Hospital Pulau Pinang, I asked a nurse at the nurses’ desk if someone would raise my bed like a few others that I pointed to. I wished that I had known last night that the beds could articulate. My back hurt all night and morning, seemingly from the weight of my body on my spine. If I had my bed jacked-up to a 45° angle, it might’ve alleviated some suffering. I ambled back toward bed two, and while I waited for a nurse or orderly or anyone I looked out the south windows of C-block to the playground and the street beyond. Though several windows were tilted open and the ceiling fan above beds 1 and 2 was whirring at top speed, I began to feel very hot, as if I’d just hiked up Bukit Bendera. »→
Monday, July 12:
About 12:15 my bed was pushed to the radiology department again, and someone thrust another bottle of banana-flavored contrast medium for me to drink. Afterward I struggled to shift my body from the bed to the curved tray that slides into the CT scanner. I was glad that I had received an analgesic recently. I got several scans, from my groin to my cranium before inching off the tray onto my bed. I was returned to the multi-care ward at 1:00. I was too late for lunch, but I wasn’t very hungry. I just lay on the bed, wondering what’s next. I’d heard that the CT scan results would be available in the evening. I wanted to know if any damage showed in the new pictures of my shoulder and back. »→
Sunday night — Monday morning:
I was laid-up in bed 2 in ward C10, on the third floor of Hospital Pulau Pinang, not sleeping as I gazed at the white ceiling and a furiously-spinning ceiling fan — which dried my eyes.
I was there overnight because I felt too battered, pained and weak to go home. My upper back and lower neck hurt, where my neck joins my skull hurt, some ribs ached, I felt like my heart was being stabbed by a pencil, my shoulders were swollen and painful, the right knee hurt, my right hip and thigh were bruised and swollen, and I was rather immobile. I wasn’t breathing deeply, either. At home I wouldn’t have a health aide, so I thought that a hospital loaded with health care professionals which has strong pain medicines was the place to lay low for now. »→
……I have a headache, and I don’t feel like writing, but I’ll hunt and peck anyway. Sunday evening, as I rode my motorcycle toward home, another small motorbike collided with mine, almost head-on. I seem to have been thrown sideways, or I vaulted over my handlebars, breaking off the left mirror with my shoulder. I haven’t talked to a witness, I don’t have a video record of the incident, and I was knocked unconscious. »→
Today in Penang International Dental College, I had my teeth inspected and cleaned. What a bargain: I paid a 5-ringgit new-patient registration fee, 5 ringgit each for two x-ray films and RM 25 ($7.20) for teeth cleaning ( no polishing with abrasive, unfortunately). Examination of teeth and gums is free-of-charge, so I encourage anyone to visit PIDC’s clinics on the twenty-first floor of New Boy Tower in Butterworth.
Without straining too much, I hiked up Bukit Bendera (Penang Hill) in 52 minutes, shaving five minutes from my typical time, so I was pleased. I know that a time of 50 minutes is soon attainable. I think that aside from physical conditioning, the mild weather assisted me, rather than causing the usual heat stress. Usually my clothes are soaked, I’m dripping with sweat, and I feel quite hot, as if I’m glowing. Today I was almost dry when I reached the top, and I wasn’t dying for a bottle of water. Hiking later in the afternoon than usual on a breezy day was undoubtedly a help. †
……This morning hundreds of people walked uphill in The Penang Hill Climb. I had not read of it in a newspaper or heard of it via radio. Around 1 p.m., Dominic and I, on motorbikes, approached the Penang Botanical Garden, Rock Quarry Recreation Park, rifle range and the road that winds up Bukit Bendera (‘Penang Hill’), I saw scores of Chinese people or ethnic-Chinese Malaysians wearing “Penang Hill Climb” souvenir t-shirts on a sidewalk and on the road streaming away from the park. Some had competitors’ 4-digit number tags pinned to their shirts. So I surmised that I’d missed an activity that I’d enjoy … »→
Well, on two consecutive days I hiked up the vehicle road that snakes up the north side of Flagstaff Hill/Bukit Bendera. I hadn’t done hiked it two days in a row previously. So I was pleased with myself. I didn’t set any speed records, though. I marched up in sixty minutes on Thursday, never jogging. After a while of drinking water and gazing at the panoramic view of the eastern side of the island, I began the 5.1 km walk downhill, which I don’t enjoy. »→
Consular Service Visits in Malaysia
A U.S. Embassy Consular Officer will travel to Penang, Sabah then Sarawak to provide simple services for Americans in those states. The officer and staff will be able to provide notary services and take U.S. passport applications back to the embassy for final processing. »→
all my ordinary costs of living on Pulau Penang, Malaysia in June 2009
~ at 3.47 Malaysian Ringgit per U.S. Dollar ~
food & water; groceries & dining out: RM 391 — or $112.91 — or $3.76 per day
apartment rent: RM 425 — or $122.48 — or $4.08 per day
electricity: RM 62.50 — or $18.01 — or 60 cents per day
gasoline/petrol: RM 28.40 — or $8.18 »→
I felt that I was king of the hill after I hiked up Penang Hill/Bukit Bendera again in 57 minutes, because I’d never seen anyone else going as fast as me. As far as I knew, everyone else walks slowly up, even backward, or four-abreast. Many people wear long-sleeve shirts and long pants and towels around their necks, and some hold umbrellas aloft. So I’d thought that I was the fastest, as no one passes me, and I pass everyone. »→
