colourful Malaysia

-->

There are a lot of foreigners in Malaysia. Just get on any of the public transportation e.g. bus, light transit, etc and you may hear quite a number of different languages being spoken. Where some of them are tourists coming from euro or Middle East or just anywhere in the world, quite a large number of them are workers working in Malaysia.

Sometimes I feel like asking myself, where am I? But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I love seeing people coming from many parts of the world. Different colours, looks, styles and languages. All of them are coming here to experience Malaysian culture, lifestyle or places of interest.

When you see somebody that looks like a Malay or a Malaysian Chinese, or even Malaysian Indian, think again. Listen carefully to their language. Just now I saw a couple with a son sitting between them in the train. The husband looked like a Malay and her wife more like a (Malaysian) Chinese. Then when I heard them talking, to my surprise that they were talking a foreign language. It sounded like Thai, but not it. Maybe Cambodian or Vietnamese. Then there were another couple sitting beside me. I thought they’re Malays. But suddenly one of them took out a camera to capture a photo and they talked to each other in Indonesian. So they must be tourists from Indonesia. Then right in front of me were Arabs. Not far away were Caucasians not talking in English but in other European  language.

There were once I was asked by an Indian for direction. I thought that he was a Malaysian Indian that I gave the instruction in Manglish mixed with Malay. Then he looked confused and told me that he just arrived in Malaysia few days before that.

And nowadays you can simply see Africans everywhere. And most of them are students studying in Malaysia.

Without all those tourists and workers from outside, Malaysia is already a multicultural country consisting Malay, Chinese, Indians and a lot more other native tribes. We live next to each other, doing things together and sharing and visiting each other houses during major celebrations.

Being home for holiday (and being away during the rest of the time) really makes me appreciate more and thankful for living in such beautiful and colourful country. A country called Malaysia.

broke but happy

--> --> As I’m writing this, most of my friends are already back to Malaysia. It’s only three of us now left. Both are my housemates.

We’re all going to fly back this Friday. But I’ll be flying back a few hours earlier because I’m heading for Penang whereas they are going to Kuala Lumpur.

I don’t know how to type here what is exactly that I have in mind. I am very excited about going back to my homeland but I’m not going to write about that now.

Maybe I should just start by saying that I am so glad and thankful just for everything. Or in this case, for everyone. Staying my few last days here in Medan is great, especially with great friends. We do great things together, get bored together, just hanging around together or watch a movie together. Or simply get in the car and just wandering somewhere.

Few days ago we went to Brastagi highland, simply just to breath the cool air there (Medan is so hot), and then to Sipisopiso waterfall. They said it is the highest waterfall in Southeast Asia. We went there by motorcycle. And I love the breeze and the wind. And when it was too cold we just stopped at the food stall by the road side and had a sip of hot drink. Ah, nice!

I’m broke. I’m so damn broke right now. All the money I have in my wallet is just a few ‘thousands’ of Indonesia Rupiah, just enough to pay for the airport tax.


(from left: amir, syaf, and me)

Yes, I’m broke. But I’m happy. Thanks to my friends. They are not only being there for me and cheering me up, and turning everything into remarkably wonderful stuffs, but also paying for my food. God, I don’t know how to say how thankful I am. And hope that I’ll get rich soon enough, and I’ll be paying them back more than what they have spent on me! Haha.