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Bolivian Rant, Book and Visit

April 21, 2012 in Self, South America, Travel by Zain

A few nights ago I went on a rant of tweets about my 2008 visit to Bolivia, when a book I was reading discussed about a town I passed en route. Read below, with accompanying pictures.

Reading a book. 1 part it discusses the writers experience in mining town Potosí, in Bolivia, economically the poorest cntry in S America.

I wondered if the bus I was in, 15 hours fr bordertown Villazon to La Paz, went past tht town. See map.

Re the map/twitpic. Journey was to La Paz after I walked across the bordertown La Quiaca (Argentina) after 4 hrs of rest, in out of hostel. ..

Tht border crossing, my 1st tht whole trip, and Bolivia was d only country where a visa is needed. Nervousness grew as no 1 knew ‘Malaysia.’

Almost every border I crossed in S America, they had to refer to some dusty piece of paper pasted on the wall to see if Msians need a visa.

Anyhow,got into the other bordertown Villazon (Bolivia), hung around for 5 hours waiting for the 15 hr bus to La Paz w/ 4 new acquaintances.

I thot them how to tie a sarong, and use it as a mat, the Colombian couple studying in Sao Paolo taught me how to chew coca leaves.

18kg of coca leaves make 1 gram of cocaine btw. Not sure how many bags make up 1 kilo cause it’s bloody weightless esp when it’s dry. As I was learning how to get used to coca leaves, he also offered some weed. I said ‘slow down. I don’t want to get pregnant.’

Walked arnd the street market for fruits n bread for the journey. Sometime for the funfair b4 getting on the bus. ..

15 hours, winding road, ascending to high altitude. I assume we went pass mining town Potosí. Arrived in cold La Paz, 6am.

Was in La Paz 3 nights.Did tht 6 hr dangerous bike ride in Coroico b4 having Xmas dinner in Calacoto w/ half Kelantanese half American fren.

And her husbands fam. Whose fam is Bolivian. But friend n husband lives in San Fran. Happens to be in La Paz same time as I.

To add, my 1st night in La Paz, I stayed in a dodgy ass cheap ass hostel. USD3 a night. For 2 beds. Pics all in my FB btw.

El Carretero. The same place Brit author Rusty Young of Marching Powder, former prisoner n drug trafficker got 1st introduced 2 cocaine.

In 2000, he lived in San Pedro Prison with Thomas 'the tour guide' McFadden (left) for four months in order to research the book 'Marching Powder'. Afterwards, he lived in Bogota, Colombia, where he worked as an English teacher and translator whilst completing the book.

He ended up in San Pedro prison, 2 blocks away fr that same hostel i/he stayed in. An amazing prison indeed. Google his book. Rusty Young. Marching Powder. I have it. Can pinjam. But read in my house only. Nak pinjam, bleh gi mam. (click here to read about the book http://zainhd.com/2009/05/san-pedro/ )

(Btw all this was Xmas 2008). So after tht I went to a small serene village town in the valley called Sorata. See map.

Stayed there 2 nights. Walked 2 appropriately describe fckng hours to see a cave worth spitting at,albeit the walk was scenic.

Then took a bus to Huarina, a small town en route Copacabana, for Lake Titicaca, next to Peru border.

At Huarina, a place I was only at the main road (highway?),a place where I was dropped off really, to wait for a bus to go to Copacabana.

There. On the mainroad by the town of Huarina. The bus stop was really, nxt to some stuff and a pig. Aku tunggu bas dgn babi.

And it didn’t help that 6 buses had stop heading towards where I wanted to, all full.

Finally I got into one, n got a special treatment. Sat in the drivers compartment w/ his family. See my fb profile pic of me n a small girl.

Anyway fr there went 2 Copacabana for 2 nights I think. Did Lake Titicaca in btwn. B4 heading to Puno(Peru),en route Cuzco for Machu Picchu.

Ok cukup. Penat jari. Wanna continue my book then sleep. Tweets shld only confine to Bolivia. Dnt wanna start on Peru. Not nw. Slamat malam.

Yes. I brought 9. Gave away all in each house I stayed in. Incl mine. RT @h_hardy_h: @ZainHD I wonder, do you wear sarong at El Carretero?

With Senor Gustavo Courreges, whose house and farm I stayed in in Villegas, Pampas (Central) Argentina.

During my 40 days in S America 4 tht trip.Besides hostels,I stayed in ppls homes. In return 4 hospitality,I gave them a sarong. @h_hardy_h

With Cecilia Knöpfler, in Centragolo, suburbs of Buenos Aires.

With Ruben Schmidt, at his place, in Tigre (the delta) of Buenos Aires.

Bcz my trip got extended unexpctedly, I had to give away my own sarong 2 d 2nd last house. The last hse got a I Love KL tshrt.@h_hardy_h

Bahasa Malaysia dan Singapura

January 19, 2012 in Literature, Travel by Zain

On an evening of playing the ‘board’ game Taboo (Singapore version) with cousins in Singapore, I begin exploring slang differences between Malaysia and Singapore, of the same language.

If a football team is rubbish, you indicate they’re so rubbish that they’re unheard of. For example, ‘Arsenal? Pekak team ah.’

If a football play takes bribe, he ‘keylong.’

When someone is lame, he is a slengek. Or kental (not kentel or poyo).

If someone is eksyen, dia ‘step.’

When men are chit chatting aimlessly not saying anything of significance, they ‘bebual konek.’

When a group of ppl wanna chill out, they ‘lek one corner.’ Sometimes ‘dekat bawah block. Void deck ah.’

Ah I got some tambahan for the Sgpore lingo tweets I did earlier. Bedek means tipu. Lincah w/c KL has but they actlly use it day to day.

Instead of ordering your drink w/ the mamak, it’s ‘mama.’ Without the ‘k’.

Instead of wtv or ‘aku tak kisah’ they say ‘sebarang’ or ‘sembarang.’

Other terms tht they use, KL also knows except they still use it. Old school. Like borak or temberang for lie, sepatu (shoe), kocek (pocket)

When telling their friend ‘call me if anything,’ they say ‘eh ape ape nanti picit eh.’ Picit bcz u picit the button of ur phone 2 call.

Bodek btw does not mean the same as KL, which is to suck up. Bodek in Sgpore means the mans thing. The tht one la. His tht one. U know? Pantat also does not mean the same in KL, where it means the womans thing. The tht one. U know? In Sgpore it means ass. Bontot. Unisex.

It’s not ‘aku cakap kau, aku tak mau’. It is ‘aku bilang kau, aku tak mau.’ Bilang is to say, not just count as in ‘bilangan’ in KL.

In KL we say sial. In Sgpore it is ‘siol’ or ‘sia.’ But due to slang, and also internet, some use ‘siak’ then ‘zark.’ Both rooted fr ‘sia.’

It is ‘anting-anting’ still. Not ‘subang’ for earrings (all types).

Some still say ‘motokar.’ Not kereta. Ranjang. Not katil.

This is 1 tht I often use w/c I blame granaunts for. That is, instead of mungkin, it is ‘barangkali.’

A muscle man, is an Abang Body. Also known sometimes as Abang Ketiak. Cause of how their arms are like, outward?

‘Etc etc’ is ‘gedebak gedebuk.’

Murtabak Singapore is Murtabak.

When u say ‘karipap’ in Sgpore, you’re referring to what KL knows as ‘karipap Sgpore.’ What KL knows as ‘karipap’, Sgpore says ‘epok-epok.’

In Sgpore, it’s not ‘syok’. It is ‘shiok.’ Or more aptly, ‘shiok seh.’

Pepatah tends to be quite popular among older folks when it comes to making jabs at one another. ..

Recently uncle playing cards complained, ‘tak shiok main ni terup,saiz kecik.’ Granaunt said ‘orang tak reti joget, salahkan lantai senget.’

To those following tweets re Sgpore BM slang/lingo. My familiarity comes fr d amount of time spent here since lama. Like..Zaman Jahiliyyah.

Scrambler motorbikes are popular in Sgpore. KTM the bike maker is a popular brand. If u own a KTM n go to a popular hangout joint, u …. Are certain to pick up a chick. Therefore, bikes by KTM, is also known as Kenderaan Tumpang Minah. (Minah is female for Mats)…Obviously. But more importantly, they’re jst Mats here. Not Mat Rempit.

Rabak, to mean drastic. Teruk, not necessarily in the negative sense of the word. Like ‘that’s just bad man.’

Furni Loving

November 28, 2011 in Art, Self, Travel by Zain

Earlier today, I tweeted:

Jst left old furniture shop. In love, did not spend, but hv their email & pics of wht I like. Oh dear..http://lockerz.com/s/159887637

The last time I went on a furniture spree, Jakarta 2009, it caused some damage and no regrets. The same has been the case for the last few outings I’ve had with the shops.

But there are a few realities some must come to face. And the new one I had was, to run away.

By that I mean, not to stay another night in Penang, because if I did, I’d pay this store another visit to confirm purchase of the items I’m interested in.

When I started looking at this, I knew I was getting carried away. So..the wise thing to do was to continue letting that happen.

Aren’t they lovely? Note how the legs are angled, and that there’s only three.

I actually came looking for this. And got excited seeing all the other stuff.

And then I enquired about the price for this gorgeous heavy peranakan beauty. That snapped me back to life and marked my exit.

Khor Antiques, Beach Road, Penang. Near Chulia Street.

That said, here it is for your perusal as I don’t subscribe to this notion of keeping the good things a secret. In essence, no good has ever come out of such selfish behaviour.

- http://zainhd.com/2011/11/furni-loving/

Arab Proverb

August 10, 2011 in Quotes, Travel by Zain

Quirky Iceland Jungle Drum

March 13, 2011 in Ad, Travel, Video by Zain | 1 comment

I was in Iceland last July and was quite impressed by their brand of humor, or more accurately, the quirkiness of their advertisements. I remember taking an amount of photographs before being scolded by the immigration officer for boarding the flight at the eleventh hour. What happened to those photos is something I’ll explain later, but above is a video from tourism that I imagine will draw in some numbers.

Note how some people in the video are wearing only single layer clothing, which I trust was done to debunk the impression that it’s all cold, all year round everywhere there.

- http://zainhd.com/2011/03/quirky-iceland-jungle-drum/

Funny Video, Passionate Email

February 19, 2011 in Change, Individuals, Middle East, Politics & Governments, Travel by Zain | 3 comments

With President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Aden, Yemen Dec '01

A lot of Asians, get annoyed with foreigners categorize us as one, when the region is both too vast and too diverse. Similarly with South East Asians, and then Malaysians – who are very aware that by the regions within the country alone, we can be quite diverse, let alone on other aspects. But the same has been the case for us towards the other parts of the world. A case in point is the Arab world (a chunk of which is in Asia).

I’ve been to the Middle East now maybe 8 times and still trying to understand the cultural demographics and political dynamics. But even with something closer to the surface than that, there are stark differences. So even if you have come across a sufficient number of them either in or out of their land, it’s not a representation of the mass, and perhaps an inaccurate generalization, albeit sometimes necessary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqJDuZIcQ34

Besides being in frequent contact with people there, online and offline, my last visit to that side of the world was to Yemen in last December. And it further highlighted the point in my view, that overall things there need a shakeup, and one that I had no hope for until Tunisia. The above video (lyrics here) is a lighter note of things, and below is an email I received recently from a man I had dinner with in KL last year. I vividly remember after him looking at me carefully and asking where I’m from, he replied, ana min Tunis (I am from Tunisia).

I’m not at liberty to share his name nor the nature of how I met him, but he is one that is very familiar with the political climate (public and underground), among other things, of that spot on the globe we call the Arab world. I share this email here to put out to you that what happened was very real, and it started along time ago. More importantly, it involves our brother and sister human beings.

‘Everything is ok for my family in Tunisia and I’m really proud of being Tunisian, one of the sons of a great people. Our martyrs, including my eldest brother killed in the 1961 war against France, were not dead for nothing and the honour of our dear country belongs to them. The struggle against despotism, in all its forms, will guarantee to the Arab peoples the dignity they deserve and the bell is tolling for the dictators and their lackeys.’

http://zainhd.com/2011/02/funny-video-passionate-email/

13000km Trans Africa Expedition

January 13, 2011 in Africa, Self, Travel by Zain | 1 comment

I just got this via email. Cape Town, 27 April. Dar es Salaam, 24 May. Cairo, 21 June. Going past Capricorn, Equator and Cancer latitude lines. Going, I am least likely.

- http://zainhd.com/2011/01/trans-africa-expedition/

Back in Business with Love

January 3, 2011 in RA, Self, Travel, WAGO by Zain

Happy New Year. I am now at home. Landed Subang Airport early this morning and have literally since then, every hour been working, until now closing in on midnight. That said, the last ten days with family was lovely as love.

- http://zainhd.com/2011/01/back-in-business-with-love/

The New Year Plan

December 28, 2010 in Self, Travel by Zain | 1 comment

I’m in Singapore now for a wedding and instead of leaving for KL tomorrow, due to various relatives making their case to me as to why I should stay on, I have decided to do just that, till 2nd Jan. I was in Jakarta on 23rd Dec (also for a wedding) and flew out here on 26th morning. While waiting for my flight, I had published a blog post at Soekarno-Hatta from the iPod Touch but I don’t see it here.

Since we’re on the topic of mobility, there are options and thoughts in:

February to go to Yemen with an uncle or Australia (coincidentally) his son,
April would be Israel but no, not on the convoy bicycle ride that departs from London in March for Gaza,
May to visit an English teacher in Peru and accompany her to the next posting, Ecuador,
June for either UK or US for summer school, if all things and around it lead to that,
July for a wedding in Italy assuming the schedule then is as sunny as Florence.

Like many times during the day, these are just (or perhaps more than just) ideas. So happens they are travel related, and of course let’s not get too excited and straighten our curls. Meanwhile, if you’re in town, do check out Rihlah: Arabs in Southeast Asia Exhibition at the Singapore National Library, which focuses on Yemen, especially the valley of Hadhramawt (where I mainly was two weeks ago). It’s been extended to 31st Dec.

- http://zainhd.com/2010/12/the-new-year-plan/

Aden

December 12, 2010 in Middle East, Travel, TRM Dec 10 by Zain | 1 comment

I’m now in the city that was once a great port and liking it so far. One that when I was small, at the mention of its name I thought it was a country. Not due to the fact or exaggeration, but from ignorance. I leave for Sana’a, high altitude capital in the north of Yemen in a few hours.

Earlier yesterday before I arrived here, I was in Shibam, one of the oldest cities in the world. The view of it from outside the city, resembles that of the New York City skyline from the East River. Ironically, walking its streets, reminded me of La Paz.

- http://zainhd.com/2010/12/aden/

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