Borneo's Big Nosed Monkeys

Posted by Matthew McEwen |0 comments

We went on a all day 'river cruise' which I thought was going to be pretty cheesy but it turned out to be a fabulously interesting trip. Here's the gist of what went on (click to enlarge):

1. Borneo has the largest flood plain forest in the world! (See our excited looks!)

2. I would never be able to make it in the wild or on Fear Factor for that matter (this guy never actually ate one either so I didn't quite feel that 'man' urge to have to follow him)

3. Most of the plants and fruits in the mangrove are poisonous, so the Proboscis monkeys have two stomachs: one is used to detoxify the poisonous shoots they eat. They also look like they are wearing tightie whities! (Our guide pointed that out)

4. The male eats some fruit or some other thing (i wasn't paying attention) that gives him a 24 hour erection (pay close attention).

5. Sunsets in/on a mangrove are breath-taking.

6. throw in the odd monitor and silverleaf monkey (only 200 left in the wild) and wallah!

Borneo

Posted by Matthew McEwen |0 comments

It's been a pretty relaxing trip so far and decisions have mainly centered around where to eat and when to get out of bed.


Here's the evening ... watching the sunset and drinking fruity drinks! Although the best deal is the bucket of beer (4 Stellas on ice) which I have to drink myself (Carrie's pregnant and refuses to believe me that a beer here and there will give our girl "the edge" (whatever that is)).

Consumer Warning

Posted by Matthew McEwen |0 comments

While in Thailand during Christmas break we purchased some new toothpaste in anticipation of the old toothpaste running out. PLEASE BEWARE! DON’T be fooled by the sparkly package and toothpaste that we thought was fortified with vitamins (E & C)…. BE VERY WARY!




After Carrie enjoyed the surprising experience so much, I tried it with full knowledge what was coming and it was still THE most disgusting toothbrushing moment of my life.

Karma to KL

Posted by Matthew McEwen |0 comments

Blindly tested this vacation from the beginning. We arrived at Zia International Airport at 11:00pm for a 1:20am flight to Kuala Lumpur. Being break and one of the first of relatively few major outgoing flights to the rest of the world there were plenty of teachers, parents, students, and migratory workers. Remember it was a full week of school and we are running on empty.
Here’s the time line of the night:

11:00 get in the checkin line with a few people in front of us
11:25 asked by service ‘person’ to move to a ‘shorter’ queue
11:40 watch as everyone behind us in the 1st line check-in'ed
11:50 finally check-in’ed
11:55 have some chicken wings (I don’t know why I even try) and ice cream and listen to Lee Ann vent about being on stand-by (hopefully she’ll blog that)
12:30 arrive at gate ready to board at 12:50
12:50 not boarding
1:20 not leaving
1:30 a spokesman says there is a small problem and we’ll know shortly
2:00 a spokesman says there a big problem and we might not take off, we’ll know in 30 mins and he stated that it was"unlikely" we'd fly
2:01 migrant worker takes off shoes and noxious odor fills gate area ..
3:00 a spokesman says they are talking with Kuala Lumpur and we’ll know in 20 minutes
3:40 waiting on a telex from KL on whether we can depart or not and we’ll know in 5 mins
3:50 the telex is out of paper

We figure the ratio of actual time stated to the real waiting time is about 2:1

4:00 the telex arrives, a wedge line forms with the migrant workers … I yelled “women and children first!” grabbed the first student I saw and then thought better of it and instead pushed Carrie yelling “pregnant woman coming through!”' We'll discuss migrant workers on airplanes later.

Apparently it was an equipment problem with the manual landing system. Sooo lame! Who needs that? All in good punch drunk fashion we are off to the last vacation sans kids!

All in good fun and spirits we arrive slightly more than three hours behind schedule and checked into a 5-star resort. Very posh! I guess it all comes round because there was a Blue Bayou Texas buffet in one of the restaurants. Not exactly my idea of a Texas BBQ but the lobster, shrimp etouffee, salmon and chile con carne were very tasty.

... see it all comes around! Kota Kinabalu in Borneo is awesome ... there's Carrie in the background and our swim up bar. So happy ...

Cable pains

Posted by Matthew McEwen |0 comments

So we just got satellite cable (with the fancy on-screen guide) and even though there's a ratio of Hindi/Bollywood/Asian/and other non-English channels to ENGLISH channels of 20:1. We get CNN, BBC World, Discovery, a bizarre version of Nick, and a HBO that seems to play mostly B-movies, made for TV movies, and after-school specials pretending to be movies (the even sadder fact being that they actaully have "the making of" shows for many of the later (I did watch The Making of Merlin: good stuff)).

I return to my original thought: Which was ..we do get VH1 (the MTV is painful to watch as they constantly switch between English and Hindi and they primarily show Bollywood) and this morning I was subjected to complete horror (link below) and honestly could not tear myself away. Watch then rate!

1. They have managed to get all the greatest 90's dances moves into the video.
2. Watch that kick in at 1:08!
3. It's sad to say it does have Beatle-ish sound to it.
4. Go Hammer! or Millie Vanillie?
   
5. If you are watching this in Dhaka sorry that we can't stream video (go 64kbs!)
   

http://youtube.com/watch?v=2OWUQh43WKo

If you need to recover from that:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=SwB9zg7Tbx8 (for Greg)

Knit Donuts

Posted by Matthew McEwen |2 comments

They are pleasant to hold, squeeze, and I'll admit to smelling them but who comes up with this stuff? In the marketing room ... "I've got it .... kids like donuts ... follow me ... so they are going to go ape-shit for KNIT DONUTS!!! We'll make millions!" I'm thinking they are made through some NGO doing THE 'good' work here in Dhaka with some cottage industry project and some wise ass expat is getting a laugh out of it ... "no really all westerners LOVE knit donuts ... especially in the heat of Dhaka" Well Carrie had her shower and we've got knit donuts, puppets, hats, booties, and other accessories. I guess I got my laughs out of it too. I still like the ones with sprinkles.

Warning Labels

Posted by Matthew McEwen |0 comments

I've been really trying to get rid of deep congestion, cough, and sore throat for weeks. I'm really not feeling especially ill but instead just slightly annoyed (I can't sing the Seymour parts without sounding like I'm going through puberty). I suppose I should actually do something more about it. Well a few weeks ago I bought several types of congestion, cough, and deep clogging medicines (give me them all!). Many of the type that should come with a small cup to help pour. In Dhaka they don't have the little cups so I've been measuring doses with the patented Matt McEwen swig (I think that's the first time I've typed swig ... cool) technique.

Yesterday I was feeling particularly congestion so I took a rather large swig and 5-10 minutes later I was fighting the urge to fall asleep at my desk in mid-conversation (This normal behavior depending on whether or not mosquitoes got into the net last night). I really thought nothing of it until this morning when I took a medium swig and instantly felt tired again. I have now deduced that this bottle is the "PM" kind but since the label is in Bangali I can't really tell. I'll discontinue use, not because I don't want to sleep during school hours, but because my students were whispering things about playing pranks (April 1st) on me next time it happened.