Visiting friends in Ipoh and Penang, Malaysia

One of my work friends,   Razman Zambri,  was visiting his home town in Malaysia so I took that as an opportunity to invite myself over :).   I flew late into Kuala Lampur,  stayed overnight at the airport hotel,  took a train to central train station and connected to a long distance fast train from KL to Ipoh.   Thumbs up to the Malaysia infrastructure!

I arrived at the Ipoh train station after a 2.5 hour train ride from KL.   The train station has a beautiful colonial architecture.   The inside of the train station actually reminded me of the station in Minot,  North Dakota.  Here's another building of a similar style,  just across the boulevard from the train station:

The central park of Ipoh had beautiful soccer fields.   That is the state (called Perak) flag flying.

I wanted to see some of the natural beauty of Ipoh.   The most popular attractions are the Chinese temples built into caves but I get plenty of Chinese temples in Hong Kong so we found something else.   This is a small resort-type place with cottages,  a small lake,  places to hike,  bikes and boats to borrow for exploring, etc.    I thought it was pretty cool.

I explored a little bit of the Ipoh town center.  On Sunday they had a flea market.

Here's a video that captures a little bit more of the local feel.

On my way back I ran into the Ipoh Art Crawl.

The people running the art crawl were having some sort of award ceremony.   I blended in with all of the other photographers, pretending I was a member of the local media (kidding).

Razman picked me up for lunch at his house. 

Here's a picture of his backyard.   Some jungle action going on.

I was lucky enough to have some delicious home-cooked food from Razman's mom (Thanks Mrs. Zambri!)     Got to love Malaysian home cooking.   The dessert on the right (sago + coconut milk+palm sugar syrup) was da bomb!

After lunch,  we drove up to the royal town of Kuala Kangsar.   First stop was the Perak Royal Mosque (Ubudiah Mosque).   I was not allowed inside,  so we only have pictures of the outside.   Pretty impressive, though.

Our next stop was the sultan's palace.  Unfortunately,  we couldn't get in,  so this is a good a picture as we could get without causing a local disturbance. 

  Razman actually went to school with the sultan's wife,  so I was hoping he could set something up,  but no dice.

That night,  Razman and one of his high school buddies took me to a Liverpool pub to watch the Manchester United v. Liverpool game.  

The pub had a really cool mix between local Malaysian and Liverpudlian:

Here we are watching the game.  It was a beautiful night and a fun crowd.   Unfortunately Liverpool didn't hold up their end of the bargain with a 3-0 loss.

The next day we drove to Penang to see friends and do a little bit of work.   Seagate (our company) has a big factory in Penang.   On our way out of town,  we visited a hawker stand for the Malaysian Breakfast of Champions:   roti canai and teh tarik.   Roti canai is an Indian-style pastry,  kind of like puff pastry,  that can be stuffed with egg or onion (this one is plain).   It comes with a curry-like dipping sauce.    Teh tarik is kind of a sweet black tea latte.  Delicious!

Here's the view of Ipoh valley on our way up to Penang.

We arrived in Penang just before lunch time.   We were meeting another one of my good friends,  Stefan Weissner,  with his girlfriend Chooi Khim.   Chooi Khim owns and manages the Armenian House,  a cute hotel in the heart of Georgetown's old town center.  

Here is Razman,  Stefan, and Chooi Khim standing in the hotel facade.

Here is a Chinese temple in Georgetown  - a lot of the architecture actually reminds me of Hong Kong.  There are a lot of similarities among the southern Chinese immigrants that set up roots in Penang,  Singapore, and Hong Kong.

A huge cruise ship docked behind the clock tower.

We had lunch at a hawker stand right near the docks.   Supposedly this is THE place for mee sotong,  a spicy and sweet noodle dish with squid.   Delicious!

More eating.   For dinner, we went to a seafood restaurant over by the touristy beach area of Penang.   Again,  there were a lot of similarities to the Hong Kong-style seafood restaurants overlooking the South China sea.

The fish in the center of the picture was fabulous - a Cantonese-style whole steamed fish but instead of the simple ginger/chicken broth it is served in a Thai Tom Yum-style broth.   Delicious!

The next day after work we did some more sightseeing.   This is a really pretty hike through the Penang Botanical Gardens.

This hike can lead to a path up Penang Hill,  one of the most popular sites in Penang.   Again,  some similarities to the Peak in Hong Kong.   Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to check it out.

That night,  we had a really nice dinner with drinks.   None of the pictures turned out,  I think I was more focused on the drinks ;).   But here's a cool picture of a colonial-style mansion with artistic lighting.

The 2014 Founders Cup, starring LP III

Over the 2014 Thanksgiving holiday,  my dad,   Lewis Paul Sonda III,  came to Hong Kong on strict golfing business.  Our mission was the Orchard Country Club 2014 Founders Cup along with partners and hosts,  my Tito Conrad and cousin T.J.    We had a fabulous time.   The golf wasn't always pretty but wasn't as bad as it could have been,  which is all we could realistically expect.

This post will be short and sweet.   It will consist primarily of action shots (and videos) of  LP III stylin' and profilin'.      Here he is riding the ferry to the wonderful public course in Hong Kong,  Kau Sai Chau,

enjoying a refreshing Coke Zero early in the day,

and needing a six-pack to rehydrate near the end of a humid,  hilly round.

We had another warm up round before the tournament,  this time with T.J. at Valley Golf near his home in Queson City.

 The golf was kind of ugly so I will only show one picture,  the four of us just before the carnage started:

Perhaps the highlight of the Founders Cup was the banquet.  It was a big-time affair,  with at least 500 people in attendance,  fabulous food,  free beer, wine, and whiskey,  and some amazing door prizes including a few cars.  The MCs  were a famous Filipino pop trio from the 60s and 70s.    They also had a house band with three singers that were part cover-band,  part crowd warm-up act, and part cheesy comedy troupe.   A key component of the "warm-up" is going into the audience to find a willing singer for some Karoake.   LP III was locked and loaded.   He asked me the name of the song with  "South Detroit" (Don't Stop Believin') and from there it only took an extremely energetic chorus of YMCA to draw their attention.   T.J. was alert enough to capture a lot of the action on his phone -  see YouTube clip below.   It's a long clip but I think it is worth your time.   The actual singing starts around 1:45.  The Tagalog in the beginning is the comedian making jokes about Dad's availability as an American Sugar Daddy.

Here is the conclusion,  a bit jiggly from my cell phone.

 When he wasn't lighting it up on the golf course or breaking women's hearts on stage,  he found time to meet my Tita Leni for lunch at Mega Mall,

get a shave and a manicure,

and visit the Ayala Museum to see the recent exhibit of my cousin Len Len's authentic Filipino fashion line,  Filip+inna.

Nobody does it better.

Searching for Mr. Miyagi

For my 40th birthday (ugh),  Chandra treated me to a surprise weekend trip.   Based on my interests, I was thinking Hanoi or Japan and I was right,  but didn't really envision the destination...Okinawa!   Okinawa is a set of islands in the southwestern part of Japan.   It is just northeast of Taiwan and an easy two hour direct flight from Hong Kong.  Okinawa is most well known for being the birthplace of Kesuke Miyagi,  a handyman who taught Daniel LaRusso the Okinawan art of karate.    In a less important historical context,  Okinawa was also the site of one of the deadliest battles of World War II.    

We were only there for a weekend,  so we just stayed in Naha, Okinawa's primary city.   I've only visited Hawaii (Oahu) once,  but Naha felt pretty similar - just a more Japanese version. Due to the significant American presence from the air force bases,  there is a lot of American pop culture here.   Examples include:  Many fast food chains,  including a big A&W right in the middle of "downtown" Naha;   1950's style ice cream parlors;  "Hawaiian" shirts everywhere,  houses/shopping areas look kind of like Honolulu or California.  

Here we are at the central Market.   It has a similar look to the shopping areas we saw in Dotoburi, Osaka.  Here I wanted to buy a Orion beer T-shirt but they had the gall to charge $30 for it,  so no dice.

A popular place to eat is the "food court" above the central market's food area.   You can see the escalator behind Chandra in this picture:

   A lot of people purchase fish and vegetables downstairs and then ask one of the stalls to prepare the food.  A really good idea,  but we were feeling kind of lazy and a bit intimidated so we just went with the menu.   

Here you can see some of the American influence - one of the most popular Okinawan foods is Taco Rice.   The ingredients are pretty much what you would expect:  rice topped with meat+taco seasoning,  lettuce,  tomato, and cheese.    Even though it sounded tempting,  we decided to go with other traditional items,  like bitter melon and local seaweed served with pork.  

The most popular local seaweed was called sea grapes or "green caviar".   It tasted really nice and had an interesting texture.

As alluded to earlier, our primary focus while visiting Okinawa was to see critical backdrops from the Karate Kid trilogy (boyhood home of Mr. Miyagi,  place where Daniel and Kumiko had their first date,  site of the final battle between Daniel-san and Chozen , etc.).   Unfortunately it turns out they filmed the movie in Hawaii,  so we settled for a general tour of southern Okinawa.   

We started with Shuri Castle, which was the administrative center and residence of the Ryukyu kings until Okinawa became a Japanese prefecture in 1879. 

Where's my selfie stick?

 Our next stop was the former Japanese Navy Underground Headquarters.  I don't have many cool pictures here,  it's basically a small museum, followed by a walk through a tunnel and a few caves for short people.  The big thing I noticed about the exhibit was the level of self-victimization regarding the Japanese Navy.   I'm not a fan of the USA's military-industrial complex and resulting military aggression but methinks the Japanese Navy might have had an teensy-weensy little part in the Allies coming over to Okinawa for a visit.   (Obviously the Okinawan civilians deserve significantly more sympathy and are honored in other exhibits throughout Okinawa.)

Our next stop was the Okinawa Peace Park  Museum.   It consisted of a large museum (which we didn't really have time to see) and a large outdoor Peace Park.   The focal point of the Peace Park was the Cornerstone of Peace, a memorial that listed all of the victims of the Battle of Okinawa (> 240,000 people).   

The garden was on the coast,  so the surrounding views were also beautiful. 

Our final big stop on the tour was Okinawa World,  a surreal combination of a "Culture Kingdom",  a lot of art/souvenir shops,  and a big set of caves.      The caves (Gyokusendo) were pretty cool.

 I don't have pictures of the "Culture Kingdom" part of the Okinawa World.   You didn't miss much.

That night,  we did a little more exploring around "suburban" Naha.   We went to a highly forgettable mall but eventually stumbled upon a cool pocket of restaurants.   We ended up going to a Okinawan hipster diner type place,  which kicked big time ass. 

Here's my food.   Sea grapes salad,  locally grown pork on a sizzling plate,  another type of seaweed  disguised as pasta,  some other food I don't remember,  the local rice wine and Orion beer.   Thumbs up says Paul.

On our final day,  we had enough time to do a little more tourism.   We decided to visit the Shikinaen garden, the second home of the Ryukyu royalty.  

  

It was beautiful and relaxing.   And just take a look at these pictures of Chandra. 

Could she be any more adorable?