Last month we had a special visitor all the way from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Sister Nzingha with her mother and four children on their summer holiday. Part of her visit to Malaysia was two weeks in Sarawak, during which we were able to meet with her on a few occassions. Nzingha gave a […]
Tag Archives: sarawak
Grub’s Ready
In Sarawak, if someone invites you to come get some grub, be careful. They may be intending to serve you these lovely morsels. What you are looking at is a beetle larva that feeds exclusively on sago trees. They are about the size of your finger, though they may shrink a bit when fried up. […]
The Yard: Cekur Udang Gamit
Great, so that makes about as much sense as nursery rhymes can be expected to make. But what on earth is cekur, you ask? Maybe you’re not all that sure what turmeric is either, for that matter.<
Catching up
I’ve been neglecting my website of late. Two entries in 2 months? I won’t be winning any blogging awards that way. Well, in fact I did manage to split the win for Macvaysia‘s Best Malaysian Weblog by a Mat Salleh Award. (Mat Salleh?) That could only be because it wouldn’t be fair for the more […]
Strange Fruit pt. 6: Rambai & Tampoi
Some of the fruit here in Malaysia are so good I wonder why they are not marketed more in the US. Some of the other fruit though, you understand why. There must be a half dozen fruits here that are very different in shape and size, remarkable to look at. Inside though, there is just a small grape sized fruit that is a little sweet, a little tart, you suck on it for a second and then it’s done. Tampoi is like that.
Naming conventions pt. 3
One last thing about names here is the “bin”. Bin is Arabic for “son of”. Binti is “daughter of”. Although it does not appear on the birth cert itself, it is inserted between the first and last names of muslims, or more accurately, between the child’s name and the father’s name. (So in case you […]
Malay Contributions to English, pt. 5
Though I’ve been here in Kuching over a year now, I’ve barely been outside of the city. Partly because of that, I had the impression that all the “real” nature was to be found far into the uplands. So I was very pleasantly surprised when I visited Semenggoh just a half an hour’s drive from […]
Happy New Year x3
It’s been months since I last wrote, but it seems like years. Maybe that’s because we’ve entered 2004 AD, the Chinese Year of the Monkey, and, today, the year 1425 of the islamic calendar, all within two months. The first of Muharram is a public holiday in many states in Malaysia, including Sarawak, so I’m […]