Malaysia Trip - Part 2

The next day was another Penang day. Part of Thomas's homework for the trip was to visit a temple, so it was decided that Kwan's car would go for a Hindu blessing to ensure safe travels for Elks Street and associates.

The temple gods.


A part of the ceremonies, with the Hindu holy man presiding.


Smashing the coconut.


Fixing the charm in the car.

Suitably protected, we set off for the day's activities. The first port of call was the Penang Flower Show (Pesta Bunga Penang). The day was hot and steamy, and consequently, the Finns wilted relatively quickly, especially Thomas, who is no fan of tropical temperatures.

Thomas trying to keep off the sun.

After the Pesta, it was time to look for something to eat.

As with all Penangites, Elks Street is extemely picky about food; everyone has an opinion and only the best is good enough. If you want oriental street food, the best place in the world in Penang, but whose Curry Mee, Char Kway Teow or Wantan Mee is best is always open to debate.

In the food court. Thomas still feeling the heat.

The pudding was Ais Kacang, which cooled everyone down and is an Elks Street favourite.

Making Ais Kacang.


The final product.

Later it was time to set off for Sungai Petani to see how Po-Po was doing. The journey was broken by a stop at Khuan-Hoong's workplace, GearMech, and the Snake Temple.

Tourists heading towards the Snake Temple. (From left to right, Kwan, the Cambodian maid, Henry, H-M.)

A burning joss stick in front of the temple.


There really are snakes inthe Snake Temple.


A door to...

On the way to Sungai Petani we were confronted with an all-to-familiar sight - a traffic jam.

On my first visit to Penang, I fell in love with the city (and not just one of its citizens). Yet, development has been such that visiting Georgetown is no longer so attractive: too much time is spent in traffic; there has beeb uncontrolled building of high-rises; and the humanity of the city has been sacrificed at the altar of motorisation and modernisation.

Penang traffic.

Malaysia Trip - Part 1

For a variety of reasons, Elks Street has been in hibernation recently but now the days are getting longer and Elks Street has woken up.

As Elks Street followers will remember, in December we went for a short trip to Malaysia. H-M left some days before the boys, and travelled a different route, but everyone ended up in the right place, although not without some thrills and spills.

Below a few photos.

Thomas and Pingu reading on the train.


The boys smiling in Frankfurt Airport.

And why the happy demeanour?

In Helsinki Airport the computer system claimed that Henry was only booked through to Frankfurt, while Thomas and I were going to Penang. The outsourced, poorly-paid (or -trained) workers in Helsinki were unable to deal with the problem, causing some increase in Peter's already high blood pressure. Luckily, the Singapore Airlines' staff in Frankfurt made two calls and everything was sorted out. Well done, Singapore Airlines!

We arrived in Penang on time and in good humour to be met by H-M and Kwan. And then it was off for a supper in one of Penang's many food courts. Fortified by noodles and soup we went to Khuan-Hoong's flat, our residence in Penang.

View from Khuan-Hoong's 17th floor flat over towards the Kek Lok Si temple. (As the cranes indicate, the view will soon be blocked by yet another high-rise.)


View towards Rifle Range.

The series of apartment blocks in the middle of the photo are the Rifle Range flats. The now-demolished house (161-B Jalan Padang Tembak) in which H-M was brought up is just to the right of the Rifle Range flats.

The next day was a sight-seeing day. With jet lag in mind, the plan was to do something relatively easy and relaxing - a drive round the island. We headed north, dropped by the 'thin aunt' and Lai-Ping in Tanjung Bungah for lunch, before heading towards Teluk Bahang and an educational visit to a fruit farm.

'Thin Aunt'

A photo shoot at the Teluk Bahang dam.

Our guide at the Penang Fruit Farm, Ali.

The trip to the fruit farm was interesting, although a little too much of an Ali show for your correspondent's taste. We were caught in a tropical downpour, which cut short our visit; a visit that ended with a fruit buffet.

Driving back to Georgetown we dropped by 'the old house' to see what had happened.

Where the house once stood. (In the background, some of the Rifle Range flats, and on the right, SMK Padang Tembak school.)

Despite our best efforts, jet lag managed to catch out some of the party!

Thomas taking an unscheduled nap.

Concerts

Regular Elk's Street followers will know that the little boys have music as one of their hobbies. Recently, there have been a couple of concerts.

For those of you who don't believe that Thomas really does play French horn, below a video as evidence.





Thomas was playing a Russian folk song (Korobeiniki) about an itinerant trader and was accompanied by Henry.

There were a couple of wobbly bits in the middle but for a first major performance Thomas did well. The boys are very different - Henry plays horribly at home but generally pulls off a good performance when under pressure; Thomas, on the other hand, plays much better at home than in public. Apologies for the lousy video quality, your correspondent is not the world's best cameraman, and the position of my seat meant the piano rather overshadowed the horn.

If you want to hear a more professional version of the song, click here for the song in Finnish, and here for the song in Russian. And the styles are very different!

For the little boys the next performance was at a concert on Fathers' Day in aid of diabetes research. The choir of the primary school's music classes, grades three to five, sang a few songs and some of the children in Henry's class had instrumental solos.

Below, a few photos.

The choir with Henry's teacher at the front. (Thomas in the front row on the far left.)


Henry standing tall in the back row.


Thomas in the front row.


Thomas one more time.

Thomas is really not keen on being in the limelight - and then they put him in the front row, poor chap!

(Close-up photos courtesy of Tuomo)

Floods

Followers of world news will have noticed that a few weeks ago northern Malaysia and southern Thailand suffered rather bad flooding. Although it is the monsoon season and heavy rain is normal, this year things were particularly bad.

Below a few photos of Kwan's house.

The entrance to the house.

The garden.


The road and the neighbour's compound.

Luckily, the water didn't enter the house, as it is slightly raised, but the compound was a mess. And the snakes fleeing the water were no doubt a little scary!

(Photos stolen from Kwan's FB)

Autumn Migration

Every autumn Elk's Street is a stopping-off point for waxwings (bombycilla garrulus) on their migration to warmer climes. They are very pretty with their dun colour, the yellow flashes on their wings, and their 'tufty' hair style.

Below a couple of photos of our yearly visitors.






The birds rest in our garden, snacking on any apples left in the apple trees and gobbling berries in the hawthorn hedges. After a some minutes' rest they then continue on their way. In the past they would arrive in their thousands, but recently their numbers have dwindled.

We wish all waxwings a safe journey and hope to welcome them back next year.

Mushrooms

There are many styles of management, for example, seagull management. The prevailing style at the Elk's Street workplace is mushroom management - keep people in the dark, cover them with compost, and threaten to cut off their heads.


In honour of that fraudulent art, management science, a couple of mushrooms:

In case you are wondering? Yes, they are poisonous.

Camping 2

Elk's Street followers might remember from the posting here that Henry found camping with the scouts rather tiring.

Thomas went on his first camp in the forests recently and the result can be seen below.

A clean but tired and cranky cub scout resting on the tiles of the Elk's Street sauna.

It's a tough business, this scouting!