Thaipusam – Extreme Acupuncture

(From February 9, 2012)

Well that’s not something you see every day. We got another four day weekend because of two holidays. The Islamic Prophet Muhammad’s birthday was on Sunday so we got Monday off. I celebrated by going to this big theme park/casino called Genting, but I’ll get to that in a minute. Tuesday was a Hindu holiday called Thaipusam. I went to the Batu Caves where the festival is held each year. One of the things people do for Thaipusam is pierce themselves and hang things off the piercings. The idea is to be a form of penance where one gains favor from the Gods. I opted not to participate.

Now on to something lighter. Monkeys!

The Batu Caves are also known for the large amount of monkeys that live there. And there are a lot. At least there were when I was there a few years ago. It appears the monkeys have also opted not to participate in the Thaipusam rituals and were all hiding or asleep.

As mentioned before I went to this place called the Genting Highlands on Saturday & Sunday. Basically it is a small resort on the top of a hill (about 6,000 feet up) that’s about 45 minutes away from KL. It’s a combination of about five hotels, a theme park, mini-mall type thing, and about four casinos. The best way I can describe it is “tacky”. Unfortunately Genting is aimed more towards families than adults and I happened to go on a holiday weekend so it was swarming with kids. The casino’s there weren’t anything to write home about. Although I guess in a way I am writing home about them… They had a bunch of games I didn’t know how to play. I should probably get familiar with Baccarat if only so I can be more like James Bond. They had Roulette as well and before some of you ask, no it was not that type of roulette.

I’ve begun the apartment search and seen a bunch of places. I’ve narrowed it down to my top choices and now get to have the realtors start negotiating with the different places. Let’s see how it goes. On Monday I walked around the area of my top choices to get a feel for where I could eat/shop/lounge. One of the stores I went into was playing “Getting’ Jiggy With It”. Good old Will Smith music. I had forgotten that song existed. Haha.

I also got up “early” (9 AM on a Holiday) to watch the second half of the Super Bowl. Wish the Niners were in it, they would have won. Oh well, I was glad to see the Patriots lose anyways. And for those keeping count of Super Bowl rings: Eli Manning 2, Peyton Manning 1. Now who would have thought that five years ago.

Last weekend we went on a jungle canopy walk where we got to walk on a series of rope bridges about 100 feet above the jungle floor. It was really cool and also gave a great view of KL off in the distance. Being in a jungle compound high above the floor I couldn’t help but wonder where the velociraptors were. Maybe I’ll see them next time.

The jungle walk was at a place called FRIM. Naturally the GPS on Joe’s car tried valiantly to take us to the wrong place. Before we knew it, we were at some random person’s house in a deadend on the wrong side of the jungle. D’oh. It reminded me of going to pick Zach up at the Navy base in Monterey and Google Maps told us to take a road onto the base that had signs saying “if you go any further you will be shot”. You just have to love technology sometimes.

Well that’s about it for now.

Regards,

-Chris

Oh, and I’ve also decided to start including random quotes from TV Shows/Movies/Actual Conversations at the end of my emails now. Today’s is from the new season of Archer. Enjoy!

(In the jungle and Cyril has just disappeared)
Archer: I looked away for literally one second.
Lana: Well where the hell did he go?
Archer: I don’t know it’s like he just…
*Archer tenses up and starts scaning the trees*
Lana: Mmmm. You’re looking for Predator aren’t you?
Archer: Yes.
Lana: A couple things: a) He’s invisible.
Archer: Not totally. He has a telltale shimmer.