holiday

Hello all!
The long awaited holiday was good and I definitely needed the break! I
flew to Malaysia, spent a few days in Kuala Lumpur, got a train up to
Taiping, stayed there a week, drove to Penang, flew to China and
toured around Beijing for 9 days (attending a conference), flew back
to Penang and got a coach back to Kuala Lumpur. I got to see a lot of
family – it was especially important to see my Grandma and two of her
siblings. It was also nice that one of my cousins gave birth while I
was there.

Malaysia was relaxing – I saw a lot of things, but mainly I spent a
lot of time with family or alone. I got a lot of thinking done. I ate
loads of great stuff! It was relaxing.

China was hectic – early mornings, late nights, loads to see. I did
the standard tourist stuff there. The conference went well and was
very interesting. I was pleased with my presentation (and just wish I
could stop saying "um" all the time!). It felt good to be part of the
"academic crowd" again.
Anyway, some thoughts:

1. Beijing is really interesting but frustrating.

I guess the Olympics always transform a city and that's clearly what's
happening in Beijing. The streets were clean, the traffic was great,
there were flowers everywhere – and the history of the place is
amazing. But you can't stop the smog and you can't stop the creepy
feeling that there are certain things the tourists are meant to see
and many things left hidden...I wont go into it though – there's
nothing new in my thoughts and I do believe that there is a lot that
China can be proud of as well.

I did have a great time there, the tour was fun (the usual stuff –
Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, Temple of Heaven, Forbidden City – see
Lulu's post in my blog links – she's got pictures!). Oh – and
shopping in Beijing is brilliant – so cheap!

A few things though – being arrogant enough to be an English-speaker,
I expected everyone else to speak English to me and this is the first
city I've travelled to where people looked at me like I was an idiot
because I couldn't communicate in their language (oh, actually, I
forgot about going to Paris – it was just like that but worse!). I
guess I know how we make others feel when they can't speak *our*
language.

It was good that the tour I was on left from Malaysia – Malaysians are
very multi-lingual and plenty of them had Chinese backgrounds and
spoke Mandarin. I do believe I got to see much more of the city
because we could go out at night, knowing that we were with people who
could read signs and ask others if we got lost.

It was fun.

2. Malaysia is also really interesting but frustrating.

And since I'm half Malaysian, I can complain about all the frustrating things!

Malaysia has its own human rights issues – more along the lines of
discriminating against the huge 40% of the population who aren't Malay
(and therefore usually not Muslim). A Malay person has to be the head
of each big company, small businesses have to employ a token Malay –
even if they don't do anything, only a Malay can be prime minister,
Malays have easier entrance into University, they get discounts when
buying their homes, cars, – oh and to top it all off, there's no free
press so all the newspapers read like Malaysia is a happy
multicultural society where all the Malays, Chinese and Indians get
along really well and everyone feels equally Malaysian – not true –
those of Chinese and Indian cultural background might be proud to be
Malaysian, but are too often treated as second class citizens. The
problem is that you can't have a multicultural society where all are
equal if some are "more equal than others". However, although the
Malays benefit from affirmative action, although the men can have
multiple wives, although they are given many benefits – they are also
not allowed to stop being Muslim, not allowed to marry a non-Muslim
unless the other person converts to Islam, not legally allowed to
drink alcohol and have to observe, for example, Ramadan. Because of
this, there's no choice and no real religious freedom there despite
the inclusion of Muslim, Hindu, Chinese and Christian religious
festivals as public holidays. Unlike China and all the issues with
freedom faced by citizens there, Malaysia is supposed to be a
democracy and should be doing a lot better than that! Don't get me
wrong – Australia has her own problems and so does every country on
this planet, but as much as I love that part of my heritage, it's
crazy that the only real bit of critical news I saw while I was there
was a cable broadcast from ABC in Australia, interviewing a Malaysian
politician who was tongue-tied as she was not used to being
criticised. Okay, end of rant.

There are many great things about the country though – like the food.
Beautiful fruit, wonderful dishes – cheap as anything. There's plenty
of beauty, the people are very friendly, and I loved the humidity on
my skin after such cold winter in Sydney – I felt glowing.

3. I did a lot of thinking.

Yeah – I had too much time to myself without Hubby around. I decided
that I suffer from permanent "grass is greener" syndrome and need to
focus more on what I have rather than what I don't have or what I used
to have. And then after all that typical introspection, I thought that
being too introspective is actually really self-centred and quite
annoying – there's a reason why smart people get depressed – they
think too much. I'm not saying that it's not good to think, but it's
not good to obsess and it's not good to fixate on things that really
aren't that important.

So here's to focussing on the good I have in my life. I want to be
more like my husband – positive, driven, outward-focussed, relishing
all the small joys that come up each day.

You know, it was kinda weird at the airport, seeing him again after
almost a month. I kinda felt shy, like a teen on a first date. That
feeling lasted for about two minutes, but it was nice! This sounds so
cliché, but I'm glad to be back – life seems kinda empty without him.
I was happy enough, but I was missing my ball of sunshine.