Fats, Vitamins and Minerals

December 26
Kuala Lumpur

After several days in and around the village, it was time to check out the big city, Kuala Lumpur. Jay drove us there and instructed us how to get back to Seri Kembangan via bus. The drive would normally take 20 minutes but with the traffic, it could take 45 minutes or more. This was what happened to us on the way in. Just like home in Manila!

Jay dropped us off at the Central Market, and from there we walked around the Indian part of the area and then crossed over to Jalan Petaling, the Chinese district famous among backpackers.

(Left photo) Jalan Petaling in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

What country bumpkins we were!

I certainly got dizzy and confused. Well, I should surely be used to city chaos but after being in Kerala for nearly 3 weeks, the sensory assault of KL was quite a big leap from the laid-back setting of Koliyoor.

Anyway, Trevor and I did mange to roam about  Chinatown, not really knowing what to look for - well except maybe for some crocheting threads. Unfortunately, because we took so long in traffic, it was already 5PM and the shops were starting to close. The street markets were just starting to open up, though, so the streets were getting more and more crowded.

So we decided to cross to the other side and visit a mall near Kota Raya.

Dinner was at an Indian restaurant from across Jalan Petaling. Quite good and certainly very filling. It was quite late when we took the bus back home. It got dark after 7PM, so one didn’t really notice how late it was…

Back in Seri Kembangan, I felt that familiar comfort again. We walked down Jalan Pasar several blocks to the house. It was a pleasant evening. Many of the village kedai kopi were still awake, but things didn’t feel harried or rushed - it was still very laid back.

Surely KL has its charms too. Especially that lively diverse part of the city. For some people, the anonymity of living in the big city is the attraction, and for others, it is the familiarity, intimacy and connection. Perhaps KL offers both. But in Seri Kembangan, like old Baclayon Town in Bohol, everybody knows everybody…

25 December 2008

Christmas Day, Seri Kembangan

Our Christmas lunch was at a home-based kedai just across Chuyuan’s parents’ house where we are staying. The kedai is famous for their curry noodle soup and their ABC, shaved ice with sweetened milk, beans, preserved fruit and jelly - a bit like the Filipino halo-halo. The curry noodle soup was quite good too - one gets a choice between two kinds of noodles and choice of ham, tofu, cheesedogs, sausages, dried fungus and other such things to go with the noodles. The curry soup , toasted sesame seeds and spicy sauce they put on it combine into a really nice tasty meal. The kedai is also good because they serve fresh fruit such as pineapple, guava, watermelon and papaya.

Our Christmas lunch! The colored plastic clothes pegs are like “price tags” computed after one has finished eating.

After lunch, we decided to take a walk down to a small river near the village. It was quite a pleasant walk, investigating the flora and fauna of the place. Along the way we saw a lovely blue kingfisher. There are also quite a number of species of birds - from crows to sparrows to several types of pigeons. We also saw a lizard (an Iguana, perhaps) and I was able to take some photographs.

The village iguana.

Shortly, we met a small plump woman who called out to us as if she knew us. We were so surprised and wondered if we knew her. Later we realized that she was rather mentally retarded and is known to many in the village where she is free to roam around, and then gets food, drink and some money from the villagers. She seems very well looked after. She was so happy to see Trevor specially, explaining in both Chinese and a bit of English and “sign language” how Trevor looked like Father Christmas! We were so amused - and we greeted her back “Merry Christmas!”

Along the walkway near the river was a playground and exercise place where Trevor and I stayed for a while. Afterwards, we returned to the house and prepared our gifts to Chuyuan’s parents - a fruitcake we bought at Carrefour yesterday afternoon, and three sets of materials for Churidhar that we got in a shop called Roopmilan in Trivandrum near Bhadra Homestay. Mr. T. Sasi Mohan told us that Roopmilan was a good shop, so hopefully, we got good churidhar materials!

Enough exercise for the day!

It was an excellent Christmas dinner at home with Jay, Chuyuan and her parents. Chuyuan cooked some lamb in a turbo broiler with the potatoes at the bottom of the broiler - which reminded me of my cousin grace who likes to cook a whole chicken in the turbo broiler. Except that instead of having vegetables, Grace collected all the chicken fat that dripped to the bottom and used that for making gravy! Super healthy!

There was some time over Christmas dinner to talk about the early life in the village, Trevor was particularly curious. Seri Kembangan is one of a number of “kampung baru” or “New Villages” (or Chinese New Villages) created by the British during the end of the colonial period in Malaysia in the 1950’s. The purpose of creating the settlements (or internment camps) was to segregate village population and cut the flow of support, food, materials, information and recruits to the communist guerilla army.

The re-settlement was a forced one, removing people from their land and housing them in partially fortified camps with round-the-clock police supervision. Some 440 new villages were created during the Malayan emergency. Completing the program was the hunger drive, to expel the guerilla army from the jungles, and a program of (re-)education. Anyone who is aware of social engineering knows the drill. Making people miserable ten winning hearts and minds …

This reminded me of a number of other re-settlements taking place recently, for example, in Bangalore. In discussions with the family at Bhadra Homestay, we learn more about the dark side of Bangalore’s status as the “Silicon Valley of India” and its development into a base for numerous public sector heavy industries, software companies, aerospace, telecommunications, and defense organisations. This “progress” is not without social costs, in particular, the social costs of re-settlements.

Byatha N Jagadeesh wrote in the Sunday Vijay Times, June 2006:

“The number of people in India displaced by developmental activities such as dams, mining and construction of infrastructure since independence is estimated at 33 million. The long history of forcible displacement and inadequate resettlement and rehabilitation of the project-affected people have created huge problems in our society.”

Jagadeesh calls for a more intelligent national rehabilitation policy. Personally, I am less optimistic of rehabilitation or resettlement programs and policies insofar as those implementing the programs are not directly affected by them, for as long as global society today maintains a system of perverse incentives …

December 23, 2008
Singapore and Malaysia

We arrived at Changi Airport early morning, around 5:30AM. It was roughly a 4 hour flight from Trivandrum to Singapore. We got our luggage and headed to the Singapore Tourism Desk to ask how to get to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia by bus.

While my friend Jay advised us to take the local Singapore bus to Johore’s Larkin Bus Station and take the bus there to KL, the Singapore Tourism Desk advised us to go either to the bus station along Beach Road or the bus station near Queens Street. We thought that the station near Queens was Johore’s Larkin, but it turns out that taking the bus near the border was much cheaper which was what Jay was advising. Ah, our misinterpretation!

Anyway, it wasn’t too difficult getting the MRT to Bugis Station and walking to the bus station. Two tickets to KL cost a little over 60SGD. The bus leaves at 9AM - there was still time for breakfast at a food court nearby.

Our final destination wasn’t really KL, but rather Seri Kembangan, which means stopping at Kawasan Rehat Serdang where our friends will pick us up. It was just 10-15 minutes drive from their house to the rest stop, a much better meeting point than KL which can be over 45 minutes drive because of the traffic.

Our bus driver was very good - a small jolly fellow from Malacca. He was so kind as to let us use his mobile phone so I could contact my friends and let them know that we’re on our way, and to lend us 50 RM (Malaysian Ringgits) so we could have lunch at our second rest stop. A funny driver too, with the task of a sheepdog herding a bus full of sheep through Singapore immigration and then Malaysia immigration. After we passed all the immigration, he told everyone to “stop talking, talking, talking.” It was so funny. Anyhow, he did manage to shut everyone up by running a DVD of Mel Gibson’s film Apocalypto.

The four-hour drive into Malaysia was mind-boggling: all we could see were acres and acres of manicured lawns, plantations of palm, interspersed with rows and rows of identical flats. Everything looked so amazingly clean and ordered, a fantasy land for the landscape artist.

Although I haven’t seen Jay and Chuyuan for almost 5 years now, I recognized them immediately as our bus drove into the rest stop. They haven’t aged at all it seems! It was so good to see them again, and of course, so good that finally they got to see Trevor.

We dropped by a bakery to get some bread and pastries, then had a bit of a look around the village until finally reaching Chuyuan’s family home. We got introduced to Chuyuan’s parents - quite a shock when I saw her mom because she looked so much like my own mother! Then we got introduced to the family cat and dog. After tea, Trevor decided to join Jay for a swim at the nearby recreation center. I joined them just to see what the place was like.Quite nice, actually, lots of kids swimming in the kiddie pool with their families, all enjoying themselves.

The family cat, Cheeky. A real tortie cat which reminded me of our own Kitty Kitty, a tortie calico cat.

Dinner was at a kind of food court nearby - a place where there are numerous food stalls and a common eating space. Quite good food and a lot of choice.

Hearty Hakka food. Hakka refers to a subgroup of the Han Chinese people.

Then finally, some rest! Tomorrow will be more time to explore the village.

(Photo below) View outside our window in the morning and (below) nighttime.

22 December 2008
Bhadra Homestay, Trivandrum

Front door of Bhadra Homestay

Our itinerary for today was quite simple - breakfast at the homestay, lunch at GG, post some letters, buy some fabrics and have some rest before we leave for Trivandrum airport for the evening flight to Singapore.

Everything went well, except for that much needed afternoon rest. The airline office in Trivandrum rang and told us to go to their office before 5PM to pay Singapore travel tax (over 900 rupees each).

While I haven’t been dwelling on them, we did have quite a few hassles throughout our stay in Kerala. The most annoying has been getting my and Trevor’s return flights synchronized; our tickets were booked by different travel agents - Trevor’s was done by our regular travel agent Tess, whereas mine was done by a travel agency in Trivandrum, an agency attached to the organization that paid for my travel expenses for my participation in the Free Software Free Society Conference.

A major problem was actually getting flights booked. It is always very difficult to get flights in December. In our case, December flights from Singapore to Manila were all full - apparently when Overseas Filipino Workers come home for Christmas.

We’ve had some assistance from the travel insurance in contacting the airlines for the synchronization of our flights. Yet, it was astonishing how it all became so complicated - plus trying to get some assistance for Trevor who broke a tooth while brushing, finding the accredited diagnostic center and dentist, later learning that the insurance company can only pay for pain and not for the rest of the dental treatment, etc.

Basically, almost all the hassles were for nothing, except perhaps getting the flights booked (although I’m sure we could’ve done it all ourselves by going directly to the airline office in Trivandrum). Well, I guess all the hassles gave Trevor something to fuss about, something which I am not very fond of when traveling.

Anyway, I’ve managed to contact some friends in Malaysia who were so generous as to let us stay in their parents’ house from December 23 while we wait for the final leg of our journey to Manila in January 3, 2009…

There is always something to discuss with Mrs. Vinodini and the family at Bhadra Homestay.

This is perhaps the first time that I’ll be spending Christmas and New Year away from home. Although I will be “at home” in a way by staying at a homestay and at friends’ home. So I guess that’s the beauty of staying at Bhadra - being with a family in Kerala, having very good conversation with Mrs. Vinodini, Mr. Sasi and their two very intelligent children. Certainly a much better experience than being in a hotel!

Red flags all over Trivandrum City in Kerala, India, marking the annual conference of the All India State Government Employees Federation (AISGEF).

Then finally, it was time to leave. Mr. T. Sasi Mohan drove us to the airport in Trivandrum in a vintage Ambassador, a lovely Indian-made car found all over the city, but this one was 40 years old and still in very good shape!

I will miss Kerala, its food, environment and its people. The same month five years ago, I lamented that I had only two days stay in India, in New Delhi, and those two days spent mostly in the symposium hall and the hotel. Since then I have half-heartedly wished that I would have another opportunity to return and stay longer in India. “Half-heartedly” because I didn’t really want to be disappointed.

Now I got my wish, and more than what I wished for.

I actually woke up quite early, though exhausted by our trip to Kollam yesterday. But I went back to sleep and so we had to be woken up for breakfast - quite embarrassing!

Edward and Maria playing hide-and-seek at Bhadra Homestay.

Bhadra Homestay is a truly lovely home. Our bedroom has a quaint round balcony facing the garden. The house itself has impressive and cool architecture and is very clean. In fact, all the places we’ve visited in Kerala so far has been very clean and almost all public spaces are clean.

The garden at Bhadra Homestay.

Earlier in the morning, a second guest arrived, a lady from London who will stay at Bhadra overnight and then move on to Kovalam for an organized cycling tour. So, suddenly, Bhadra is a full house! It also turns out that we are the first guests at the homestay - and I would definitely recommend Bhadra to those intending to visit Kerala and stay in Trivandrum.

We arranged to have breakfast and dinner at Bhadra and have a walk up to the junction for lunch. Mrs. Vinodini’s cooking was excellent and we are truly lucky to be able to have Kerala food with the family.

With Mrs. Vinodini Sasimohan and Mr. T.Sasi Mohan.

We also never run out of things to talk about - especially with Trevor around, and even more with Mrs. Vinodini’s son who talks just as much!

The advantage of living in a homestay with a family is that you also get very good advise about where to go for food, shopping and other such practical things. Mr. T.Sasi Mohan recommended GG for lunch, just a few minutes walk towards the junction, which serves excellent biryani. We were also given very good advise on ayurveda massage at a place nearby.

Mrs. Vinodini with Brum

At GG, I managed to buy a kilo of sweetened fenugreek which is served in a few places after eating. I was really intrigued by it. I do have fenugreek at home but didn’t really know what to do with it. Here in India I also encountered drinking water boiled with a bit of cardamom which I found really nice, so when we get home, that would be something that I’ll try.The cardamom also gave the potato curry this really nice smokey flavor. At GG the drinking water had this reddish color because it was also boiled in a kind of bark that had medicinal properties, especially good for the stomach. It is a pity that at home we don’t use herbs and spices as much.

There is still so much to learn and understand about Trivandrum, Kerala and its people. Tomorrow evening we will be flying off to Singapore, so we have started packing our bags. Quite sad when it is time to say goodbye again. But we won’t be heading home yet till January 3. Our plan was to take the bus from Singapore to Malaysia and stay at my friend’s family home (thank goodness for their generosity!)

Anyway, for tomorrow, there are a couple more chores to do …

20 December 2008

Early breakfast - 6:30AM - and all our bags are packed. Rameesh arrived at 7:30AM. We said goodbye to the wonderful and friendly staff at Gouri Homes. We shall miss them …

We met Rameesh, a taxi driver for over 30 years now, outside Masscot Hotel after the SPACE Free Software conference last December 11. Trevor had good conversation with him on the way back to Ginger Hotel and agreed to be in touch again when we return to the city from Thiruvallam.

Rameesh’s taxi, an Ambassador (above and below), typical Trivandrum taxi.

The plan for today was a visit to Kollam (has Portuguese name of Quilon) , some 75 kilometers from the city, a one and half hours drive. Rameesh was a very good driver, I didn’t feel sick at all. Earlier, we’d taken a taxi drive to Ponmudi Hills, 61 kilometers from the city, and the driver had the tendency to drag so Trevor got sick on the way in and I got sick on the way out!!

Rameesh, apart from being a taxi driver, also works with Good Earth Tourism. We drove to a place called Hotel Lakespot which their company promotes. The place opened barely a month ago. Located at Neendakara, Kollam, it is very near Ashtamudi Lake, gateway to the backwaters just before the more touristy Allepy (known in Kerala as Allapuzha).

Across the highway from Hotel Lakespot is the beach, the Arabian Sea. A rocky site, it is not suitable for tourism (swimming) but is more used for fishing and mining for titanium powder.

Trevor and Rameesh fcing the Arabian sea

Mining factories are mobile, it seems, they collect sand from a location and move on, but of course not without replacing the sands collected. Here in Neendakara is a wide area of orange colored sand across the original lighter sand of the beach.

At Hotel Lakespot, we had a chat with their marketing manager, Edmund. Rameesh had some breakfast, then our backwater guide arrived and off we went. It was just a short drive to the lake where we took one of the smaller houseboats. The tariff was originally 750-900 rupees per hour. But because we were with Rameesh (and as a promotional tour), we were discounted at 500 rupees per hour.

We got into a small motorized houseboat and had a few stops into the village. The journey reminded me so much of our boat ride along Loboc River in Bohol, but of course, this lake was much much larger.

The many Chinese fishing nets used by local fishermen was a truly fascinating sight. We also spotted a few eagles, and numerous sea birds.

An eagle on one of the Chinese fishing contraptions.

At one of the stops we visited a village where some people were making coir, an important industry (together with cashew nuts) in the district.

Making coir in the village

We also looked at one of the homestays also found within the village.

A new homestay in the village, a lovely house. The rate is 1,000 rupees per day.

A new shipyard is also located in the area. It was absolutely impressive, to see one huge finished fishing boat and another one still being constructed, in this small yard. Apparently, it was all being made by hand and not with cranes and such things. The degree of skill of boatmaking in Kerala is most amazing…

At a shipyard - the frame of a fishing boat, and behind it is a completed boat (photo below).

After the five-hour boat journey, we returned to Hotel Lakespot for lunch. Excellent meal as usual!

Lunch with Rameesh.

Then off we went to the fish harbor - we had to pay an entrance fee of 100 rupees because I was carrying a camera.

Boats docked at the fish harbor

At the harbor was where local people sold and bought fish and all sorts of seafoods. Rameesh got some prawns and sardines for his family, as we did to give to our hosts at Bhadra Homestay. Unfortunately, while paying, Rameesh placed a bag of prawns on the ground which promptly disappeared… Ah well, a free meal for someone else tonight, Trevor remarked.

Fresh catch being brought into the harbor.

It took a much longer time getting to Trivandrum City because of the late afternoon traffic. Rameesh was an excellent driver but Kerala driving can really drive one crazy! We had so many close calls it seems that these are typical of Kerala roadside manners!!

It was 8:30PM when we arrived at Bhadra Homestay. It turns out that Rameesh remembers driving foreign guests to the same location many many years ago where our host Mrs. Vinodini’s father the late Guru Gopinath, ran an Indian dance school..

We said goodbye to Rameesh and wished him and his family well. It seems that he has to work really hard for his family, there are now 9 people living in his home, and his sister has been diagnosed with cancer and has two children with developmental disabilities. Life is quite difficult for many in Kerala and tourism is one of their hopes for improving their lives. People in Kerala seem involved in very responsible tourism, which is good as it brings income without destroying the environment or the social organization of the communities.

Now we are in Trivandrum City again, and very honored to be staying with a family homestay. We had an excellent dinner prepared by Mrs. Vinodini and a real pleasure talking with the family. It was a really long day and good to be able to rest well tonight.

Sunrise over Vallayani Lake at Gouri Homestay.

One of many species of birds living near Vallayani Lake.

19 December 2008

We decided to visit Kovalam again - before leaving tomorrow for our new homestay in Trivandrum city. After breakfast we walked up to the main street to get the tuktuk, 90 rupees to go to Kovalam.

Along the way, we dropped by the small shop where we got Merriboy icecream a few days ago - this time to buy some chilli, chutney and chicken fry powder to bring back home.

Path from our lakeside homestay to the main street.

In Kovalam, we had lunch at a place called Punjabi Family Restaurant just across Hotel Reshma. Dinner was at Cocout Grove. As usual, food was absolutely excellent.

Our biryani and curry lunch at the Punjabi Family Restaurant.

A view of the lighthouse at Kovalam

I did go for a dip in Kovalam beach finally! The waves are really quite powerful so I never dared to go swimming out to sea. There were numerous lifeguards in the area, frequently blowing their whistles at people who were going into danger areas where the undercurrents were very strong. Trevor talked to one of the lifeguards who explained how they determine where the danger areas were which seemed to be where two surface currents meet. The lifeguard also explained that 90% of foreign tourists know how to swim whereas 90% of local tourists don’t. The lifeguard mentioned that tomorrow was his day off, when he goes diving with just a mask and snorkel over 25 meters into the sea.

Edward on one of many “banana boat” construction kits (above) and (below) the assembled piece!

Trevor got a new pair of sandals today, for 200 rupees, and two pairs of (Thai-style) fisherman’s trousers for 150 rupees each. I got a new top and trousers set for 250 rupees. We also got three elephants (carved and painted wood) to give to my family. At least all the gift duties are done!

One of several internet cafes in the numerous shops at Kovala. The place has domestic and international direct dial facilities as well. ATMs however are some 2 kilometers into town.

Prices have gone down in Kovalam beach because there are now very few tourists in the area - many have cancelled their bookings after the Mumbai attacks just a few weeks back. The Indian news is still full of talks about the attacks and now calls for anti-terror legislation. The English-language news, which resembles BBC and CNN-style broadcasting, is (as expected) mostly propaganda. Having access to television again I am reminded of why Trevor and I don’t have television at home.

Anyway, it has been another lovely day - although we’re still not certain of our flights back home, in particular the flight from Singapore to Manila. If we’d known about the house near Kovalam at 8,000 rupees a month we’d have planned on staying much longer! It was really really very tempting…

After dinner at Coconut Grove, we got help from their staff again for the tuktuk service. Our regular driver wasn’t around, his mother was sick and he had to look after her. Someone else came in for us, with a more expensive fare, 150 rupees, to get back to the homestay.

Sunset over Kovalam beach.

Fresh seafood at Coconut Grove, Kovalam. Prawns can cost up to 100 rupees per piece - the tourist price of course - whereas local people won’t even pay more than 20 rupees.

Back at Gouri, we had tea and biscuits by the lake - our last evening in Koliyoor…

Sunrise over Vallayani Lake.