Happy new year from my friend Cherry!

[Photo by Cherry]

2008 is finally over!

I'm sure all the bloggers are now writing their personal resume of 2008. Well, I won't. You can browse through my previous posts to see how it was in 08 for me. I never expected I would still be writing this blog now, becasue I started blogging 2006 and I lost my interest after few posts.. This time is different. I've changed. Sometimes I have something on my mind, I just love to bring it 'on digital paper'. Anyway, I know this blog is not very famous or has many followers. But hey, the title is 'nino talking to himself'. So I don't really care who reads it. Not even my friends read it or my girlfriend. Ok, because I keep it 'under the radar', I haven't really posted many links to my blog on other websites. But..., I prefer it that way. I think there's so many blogs that are yet to be discovered. I hope mine will be something like that, too. Especially if one day I have children of my own. Let's say my children become teenagers somewhere between 2020 and 2030 (I persume) and one day they browse through their father's blog and say: Wow, dad, you started to write this blog so long ago, in 2008? Wow… That's like… ancient.

Because I'm someone who loves to look to the future and imagine how will life be in 2020 or 2050. I even wonder if I'm going to make it to 2060s. Will I still have this blog? Will it remain online? Will we actually still have internet the way we know it now? I mean, when I was a teenager, there was no 'ringtones', 'text messages', 'digital cameras' or 'laptops'… The most advanced thing was the TV. So sometimes I wonder how will we, as grandparents, somewhere in the 2050s, explain to our children, that we grew up without all these gadgets? I guess they won't be able to imagine an 'analog life'. Beacause frankly, I can't imagine it myself anymore… Sometimes I look back in the year 1997, when some people got their first cell phones. I thought they were just trying to impress others, trying to appear as very important. We used to make fun of them… One year later, more than half of the people had their cell phones already. I was resistant until the late year 2001. I don't regret it… Because frankly, I didn't need it at that time. But who knows, if I really need it these days…

So, we can't know, what will be in 50 years, but I'm happy I was there at the beggining of the digital era. I will have many stories to tell my grandchildren... Hmmm... But if I think, I guess they may check Wikipedia instead :-)

Western guy living in a Chinese family

Let me share my experience

Let me share a unique experience with you. I happened to live in a Chinese family for three months and I wanna share my observations with you. This may be useful for those Westerners, who don't know a lot about Chinese culture and wants to know more. First, the facts:

How big is the family?

Ok, first I must say, I live in a quite big family for these modern times. It's a middle class family, consisting of parents, grandma, 1 grandchild and 5 daughters, of which the youngest is 17 and the oldest 25. Three daughters are already married and live on their own, but visit every day. So all together there is 8 daughters (between 17 and 30 years old). Two of which have already children, so sometimes there's 4 grandchildren at the house.

What did I notice?

A Chinese family of this size and consisting of so many women can be very noisy. But that's only at the first glance. Soon I realized that they are very friendly and hospitable towards me. Food is the central part of the family. For Chinese in general, the food is the most important thing. I saw them spend a lot of money on all kinds of food. They would even travel more than 100km just to go eat into a restaurant that has some unique and delicious food. Chinese are very genorous. They treat me so much, I stopped counting and I accepted it as normal. In my country, you always remember who treated you and you seek to treat him back. I can't keep up with my new friends here. They are too genorous. Even when I tried to treat them back, they refused by saying: When I'm in your country, you treat me. It's very unlikely that this will be the case. But I accept it and if really that was to happen, I would gladly return the hospitality at home.
Besides food, Chinese are very traditional. When it comes to family values and friendships, Chinese tend to have very good relations and they respect the elderly more than the Westerners. They also respect their ancestors by lighting sticks every day at the domestic temple and by praying every day and following all other traditional celabrations, of which the most important is Chinese New Year.
Chinese here (Johor, Malaysia) don't have many encounters with Westerners, probably because it's a small town and a rural area. That's why they are curious to see me. Most of them are not fluent in english. The few who are, have many questions. The first one is usually 'Where are you from?' followed by 'Have you eaten already'? As mentioned before, food is very important in the daily life of Chinese. That's why when they have 'small talk', usual question would be: Have you eaten already? ( 你吃了?)
If you consider all the facts, Chinese people can be seen as conservative, but in some cases very progressive and modern. Especially the young people copy the fashion styles of the West or Japan. Older people are naturally more conservative, but most of them allow the young people their way of life and they are non-judgmental. Somehow all generations can find a common ground and stick together as a family. Chinese don't like to talk about their family problems to outsiders. It stays in the family.

In conclusion.

I'm glad to see a culture as complex as Chinese from so close and learn so many new things about it and correct my perception or stereotypical thinking. I hope I will learn more and get to see many more aspects of Chinese culture in the weeks ahead. I especially look forward to Chinese new year 2009.

[My MALAYSIA page][All photos by MKL, 2008]

Singapore: City of my memories

So... I've been to Singapore, again. Only a 2 days 'adventure' this time. It was ok. What to say... Since I've been in Singapore twice before, what's more I can say I lived there for nearly 3 months, so I know this place in and out. I have to say, I felt a bit uptight, partly because I had to face my past, partly because I went there to return back to Malaysia and extend my stay.
Well, Singapore is a great city! If it's a great state, that's up for discussion. But as a city it's really unique. Always sunny weather, always clean, stuffed with delicious food, friendly people, it's very easy to get around... If you stay for a short period, Singapore will leave a great impression. If you stay longer, if you mix up with locals, you will see, it's not all so great. But tell me any country, where things are enirely great? So, Singapore is a great mixture of foods and races and modern and historic architecture. I recommend to anyone who is a passionate traveller to see Singapore at least once in your life.
I enjoyed my short stay in that vibrant city, even if I had my own issues, I think I will gladly come back to Singapore in the future.
Btw, it was again a pleasure to enjoy myself at Sentosa island. Much has changed, which made me a bit sad. I don't like that they are building so much, it will destroy the peaceful green island it used to be and transform in into a mass tourism destination. Let's just hope it won't turn out too bad.

[Photo by MKL, 2008]

Kuala Lumpur: City in motion

After 4 years, I've been again to Kuala Lumpur. To the ones who don't know KL, it's is the capital city of Malaysia, located in southeast Asia. It's one of the fastest growing cities in the area. It's a mix of a modern clean asian city and a messy old fashioned asian province town. The latter is slowly disappearing, especially in the city centre. Since 4 years ago, when I was last time in KL, so many new buildings rose from the ground: It's amazing! Around the famous Petronas twin towers, there's so many new highrise condos, I wonder who will live there and how will the higher densitiy affect the already highly congested traffic.
I hope to return there next year, because KL is always worth to visit. You see so many different people from all over the world. The cab is cheap, the food is delicious and affordable, shopping is great in this period before the New year and Chinese new year. I recomment to everybody who's in this part of the world: Visit Kuala Lumpur! You won't regret it. Photo: KL at night. Hint: December and January are very rainy, so don't forget your umbrella.

[My MALAYSIA page][My KUALA LUMPUR page][All photos by MKL, 2008]