To be able to embrace the breakfast experience in Asia, you have to think outside your usual European breakfast box and just think "food", any kind of food, all kinds of food at the same time. If you are the "just coffee and toast" type, it's too bad for you. Of course, you'll find both coffee and toast here, don't worry, but what you will miss is tremendous. The Asian morning spread is breakfast, lunch and dinner all in one: curries, roti canai, soups and noodles in addition to the regular French toast and omelet.
So for my breakfast today I had… soup! The way you create your soup is also worth mentioning. You fill your bowl first with noodles, meets, and greens you pick on one food station and then you proceed to the next, where they usually offer three different kinds of soups: a mandatory curry, a mandatory chicken soup, and a "surprise" broth of some sort. It may sound strange, but noodle soup for breakfast is delicious! I will definitely miss that back home… But for now I'm hoping that all hotels will have a similar buffet and I'll take advantage of it to the fullestJ.
Stop 1 – Feeding of monkeys
A couple of hours out of KL a little picturesque hill is the host to a lighthouse and a strange, Christmas tree looking, telecommunication tower; at the same time, it serves as a canteen to hundreds of starving monkeys. Twice a day, at 11AM and 4PM, they come out of the nearby forest to treat themselves to green beans (apparently, it's a first-class monkey delicacy) and tiny sweet "lady finger" bananas.
- Monkeys are cute.
- Monkeys are very warm.
- Monkeys are quick, weightless, and have sharp nails.
The proper way of feeding them is to hold one treat high up in the air (and hide the rest in your pocket, otherwise it'll be a one-time feeding deal) and let them climb on you, quickly take it, and jump off. If you close your eyes, you won't even feel it climb on you. Beware though, if you don't let go of the treat in time, a sudden quick sharp "hug" will remind you of the purpose of your standing there with your arm stretched over your head.
- Monkey's hunger never seems to be satisfied.
So, in my opinion, the expression "hungry like a wolf" should really be changed into "hungry like a monkey".
Stop 2 – Feeding of self
Seeing other people eat usually makes me hungry, even if I ate a second ago. Apparently, seeing monkeys eat has the same effect on me. So we had to make another stop, to have early dinner. It happened to be in a fishing village, at a Chinese seafood restaurant. Apparently, the same simple rule we use for choosing a Chinese restaurant in NYC, apply in Malaysia: the crappier looking the place, the better the food.
The meal was absolutely spectacular! Steamed crabs, butter prawns, fried rice, snow pea leaves – it was too much food and my guide / driver couldn't help me a bit since he had recently started his usual diet (interesting by the way, once a year he becomes vegetarian for a month; he claims that he loses quite a lot of weight this way), so I had to devour every single bit of this salty deliciousness by myself. I honestly cannot believe that once upon a time I used to dislike Chinese food with passion. In fact, it was only 5-6 years ago when the Chinese girls in our team at work conspired to change my mind about their beloved native cuisine and started to unobtrusively introduce me to awesome dishes: they would bring their home-cooked lunches to the office and invite me for a bite, knowing that I would definitely try it out, unable to say "no" out of politeness. They are all such great chefs and the Chinese cuisine itself is undeniably amazing (as I finally understood), so in the end it didn't take long to convert me. I guess my previous dislike for the Chinese dishes was not the cuisine's fault but rather some bad experience in a non-authentic restaurant (speaking of which, for example, in Chinese restaurants in Russia 15 years ago they used to serve bread – no comment). Anyway, the point is that I have to say a huge "thank you" to Junchao, Ren, and Yanran for their quiet persistence in easing me into the wonderful world of the extensive, diverse and delightful Chinese menu!
The bonus was an amazing sunset view opening up from this shabby yet delicious place:
And finally, when it became pitch-black immediately after the sun had set (I can never get used to how quick this process is in the tropics – apparently, it's because the sun sets more perpendicular to the horizon at and near equator), we embarked on our mysterious firefly tour, a magical journey along the mangrove forest decorated with… Christmas lights! I think this is the most accurate description of the firefly eating process: apparently, they feed on mangrove tree leaf juice and while they eat, they flicker; and flickering garlands of tiny 6-mm creatures on tree silhouettes in complete darkness look exactly like Christmas lights to me. The view is mesmerizing!
In the attempt to share the experience with everyone, I tried to look for a good video of a firefly "show" on www.youtube.com, but unfortunately they are all pretty bad. This one is the best I could do (still not doing any justice to the magic though). But don't fret, I have a technique that will help you imagine this beauty: close your eyes and transport yourself into the dark room on that night some time before Christmas when the lights are already flickering, but all the other decorations are still waiting to be carefully and joyfully placed on the tree. See it? Now add about 20-30 more trees to that picture, and for the background music select complete silence, occasionally interrupted by barking of unseen dogs muffled by distance. Got it? Great! Now stay there for 30-40 minutes and enjoy…
P.S. My horrible jet-lag from yesterday completely evaporated, and I was full of energy all day. Strange, because they say that it takes as many days to get over a jet-lag as there are hours in the time difference. Not that I'm complaining that this "rule" has been ignored in my case, of course.
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