Funniest thing happened to me on Sunday night while trying to get something to eat for dinner at my local non-English speaking Malaysian restaurant. I was undecided while choosing my drink to come with my dish, first the waitress asked if I wanted mineral water I said yes but quickly retracted and said wait one moment while I browse the beverages list. I kept changing my mind twice then ordered my main dish and quickly trying scraping in before she left a thank you in Malay (seemed like she acknowledged it). Five minutes later she came back with three drinks and two meals, realising straight away what happened I just started laughing. I ended up buying a Malaysia to English dictionary, just trying to become familiar with conversational words that is useful from time to time and locals appreciate the effort. Most people around campus know who I am now so they just let me do what I want; yesterday I ended up meeting sanbib who comes from Napal, while walking out of the main uni building he just approached me asking what I had planned for the day and if I was interesting going to the city. I’m like yeah sure called a cab and spend a few hours roaming Kuching, most shops are closed because its still the Chinese new year holidays which lasts till tomorrow but it was interesting talking to him. Culturally there are big differences and lifestyle but for entertainment it’s pretty much exactly the same as Australia, he follows cricket & soccer and was interested about sports played at home ( trying to explain AFL). Also learnt more about his home country ( Kathmandu is the capital), differences between boarding countries china and India and what he plans to do while in Sarawak for the year. I’ve become good friends with the warden of the hostel, his actually a native of the area called ibans. He has obviously grown up around the city but I met his in-laws which are also natives and they are really strange people, unable to understand English which is expected but they seem to shy away from foreigners from just looking at their body language. He did promise that he would take me to his parent’s longhouse which is where they live on the river in a boat like house made from raw materials for a few days (which apparently is a must do for tourist). I’m happy to announce I’ve manage to do my first stupid thing while over here, went to an ATM yesterday that had the keypad reversed so I ended entering my pin number wrong three times, I tried going to an ATM with a normal keypad but I’m just totally confused and I’m not 100% sure if I remember my pin correctly.. Arrggh !

posted by Luca @ 3:15 pm   0 comments