The Oglivy Center building in Singapore

When I first decided to include Singapore on this trip I thought it would be fun to meet some fellow web developers. In NY I belong to a Flash user group called Flash Coders NY and I did a little search online to see if a similar group could be found in Singapore. Sure enough, I found A-SFUG which stands for Another Singapore Flash User Group (apparently they even have more than one!).

By the time I visited Singapore I was already in contact with Shang, one of the organizers of the group, and we arranged to meet for lunch. Shang works at Ogilvy, an award-winning, global advertising agency (based in NY) with nearly 500 offices throughout the world. I met him at the Ogilvy Center a very nice rounded building on a busy corner in downtown Singapore. Shang brought along his co-workers, Ed, Yulun and Danny all of whom are web developers working in either Flash or .Net.

Area near Oglivy where we ate lunch

We walked about a couple blocks away to Telok Ayer Street. The place Shang had in mind for lunch was closed but we found another option on the corner which offered outdoor tables, shade and fish head curry! There was no need for menus since the ordering was simple. We just ordered one big fish head curry which was enough to feed five hungry developers at the table. The curry came out in a big bowl and included veggies, curry sauce and other good stuff all topped off with a big fish head. I don’t know what kind of fish that was but the head was big enough to have a full set of teeth! The dish was served with white rice, some sauteed green leafy vegetable and something that looked like an egg omlette. I picked up my chopsticks but was a bit unsure of how to begin to tackle that dish especially since the fish was staring at me the whole time.

Fish head curry dish

However, Shang put a stop to that fish’s staring! He reached for his spoon, dug out the fish’s eyeball brought it up to his mouth and ate the whole eyeball, spitting out only the eye socket which, of course, everybody knows is not edible. Mr. fish head then got flipped over and I was sure to get my camera out for round two. Same thing…spoon, scoop, gulp, spit, but this time with my camera snapping away creating a stop-motion animation of the whole sequence. Apparently, people say that the eyeball is the most delicious part. I wonder who the brave person was to first make that discovery!

How to, step by step: Shang eats the fish eye from the fish head curry

While the rest of us picked at the flesh of the fish’s cheek we did manage to talk some shop. Shang and the team work on a lot of full-on Flash websites or microsites for their clients. It turns out that most of the development on the team is done on PC and the IDE (for non-techies, that’s just the software we use to do our coding work) of choice is FlashDevelop. Flex is catching on but for advertising work, which still involves a lot of creative graphics and even animation, it’s not necessarily the most appropriate technology compared with straight-up Flash. It seems as though clients in Singapore get Flash and Flex confused just like they do in the US. Clients request Flex since they’ve heard from the Adobe marketing guys that Flex is the latest and greatest thing out there but they really only need their ad banner or micro-site to be built using Flash and ActionScript. For developers in Singapore, there’s no need to pay extra shipping charges for international Amazon orders since all of the latest technical books are readily available at Borders in Singapore. I was happy to see that the dress code for developers in Singapore is casual just like in NY or Tel Aviv and that’s very practical for such a hot country like Singapore.

Developers from the team at Ogilvy. From left: Yulun, Shang, Ed, Danny

A-SFUG is a fairly new group and they’ve only had a couple of meeting so far. But the organizers are enthusiastic and they’re already using tools like their A-SFUG group on Facebook (140 members so far) to manage participation including events with RSVPs for attendance and other announcements and photos of meetings. I know that many FCNY members are on Facebook and I think it would be a great idea for the NY folks to create a FB group to leverage the organizational tools already in place there too.

I asked about the name A-SFUG and the developers explained that there are a couple of other groups in existence in Singapore. But instead of always waiting to see what kind of meetings those groups would organize they decided to just move forward and create their own group. I have the feeling that Shang and his colleagues will be able to really grow the interest and participation of A-SFUG by the time Adobe releases the next version of the Flash Player Plug-in!

Kek Lok Si Temple on Penang Island

I’ve uploaded new photos of the beautiful Kek Lok Si Temple, a Buddhist temple located on Air Itam near Penang Hill in Penang, Malaysia. Kek Lok Si is the largest Buddhist temple in Southeast Asia. Photos of the temple include the large assembly hall, hundreds of lanterns and flowers and the view from hill upon which the temple is situated.

But that’s not all I have to say about HCMC and Mui Ne! That’s just all I have time for right now.

Georgetown
Food in Penang
Jewish Cemetery in Penang
Driving to Penang Hill
Penang Botanical Garden
Penang by Night

Also, new photos have been added from walking and sightseeing in Kuala Lumpur as well as photos from my last weekend in KL.

The plaque at the Jewish Cemetery of Penang

Malaysia is a country that is jam-packed with diversity including many cultures, environments, foods, terrain and foreign influences throughout its rich history. With all of those great things going for it the question arises as to why Tamar didn’t join me on this visit to Malaysia since we all know she loves these things as much as I do. Well, unfortunately Israel citizens are not permitted to enter Malaysia and Malaysians are not allowed to visit Israel, in fact it even says so in their passports! That’s really too bad for everyone since I’m sure Israelis would have a blast adding Malaysia to their Southeast Asia itineraries and, from some of the young Malaysians I spoke to, there seems to be a fair amount of interest and curiosity about visiting Israel as well.

I started to dig a bit deeper into the current state of Israeli-Malaysian relations and I came across an interesting article written by an Israel professor for whom an exception may have been made (or he holds another passport) since he recently spoke at a conference in Kuala Lumpur. You can read about his impressions of Malaysia and its cultural diversity as well as his experiences with colleagues and conference attendees.

As with anything related to Internet research one thing led to another and I found myself looking into whether there is or ever was a Jewish community in Malaysia. After all, there are thousands of Jews in Iran and nobody from Israel is hopping on a plane to vacation in Iran these days or vice-versa. It turns out that there is a very small Jewish community in Malaysia although it was larger in the past. That past is now represented by the Jewish cemetery that still exists today in the middle of Georgetown on the island of Penang. There were a couple of articles written about this cemetery and they gave me the idea that I could just rent a motorbike and drive around looking for it myself.

The cemetery previously existed on Jalan Yahudi which is Malay for “Jewish Street”. However, the street has since been renamed Jalan Zainal Abidin. I asked a couple of people working at my guesthouse if they knew where that street is or if they’ve even heard of the Jewish Cemetery there but only one person knew the location of the currently named street but he wasn’t familiar with the cemetery. I set out on my motorbike to find Jalan Zainal Abidin and, although it would’ve been a far walk, it only took me about ten minutes to find the cemetery.

The clearly marked gate to the Jewish Cemetery

The gated entrance was clearly marked, “Jewish Cemeter” so I knew I was in the right place. The gate appeared locked with a padlock but there was a man on the other side who told me to just open it up myself but to be sure to not let his dog run out (the key was in the padlock). Aside from that man I didn’t see anyone else in the cemetery so it was just me and the tombstones, at least at first.

The oldest grave that is clearly marked

I wandered around trying to make out whatever I could which was challenging because of the poor condition of some of the inscriptions on the tombs as well as the Hebrew which wasn’t always the modern, newspaper text I’m more used to reading. However, after about five minutes of going it alone I was joined by an older man and his young son who came out to greet me. The man’s name was Raju and he was the caretaker of the premises. He took me around to several areas of the cemetery pointing out various tombs and explaining a bit about each one. He pointed out the oldest grave as well as the most recent. He showed me where a father and son were buried next to each other and also where a fallen Lieutenant in the British India Army was buried during WWII. Overall, the cemetery was very well preserved and there was no visible sign of any intentional destruction. The members of the community are truly resting in peace.

Tombstone of a fallen WWII soldier

He told me that his parents and grandparents knew many people in Penang’s Jewish community and that he maintains the grounds in honor of his family’s relationship and for no real compensation (although he accepts small, individual donations from visitors). Over the years he’s met many of the deceased’s family members who come from the UK or other countries to visit the graves and he actually gathers many clues about the people buried there from the families themselves even if he or his family never knew all of the individuals personally. He said there are very few Jews still in Penang, if any at all. The residents of the streets surrounding the cemetery continue to reflect Malaysia’s current mix of cultures: Malays, Chinese and Indians but there are no longer Jews on what was once Jalan Yahudi.

View my photos from the Jewish Cemetery in Penang.

From reading a bit about Malaysia’s Jewish Community and the Jewish Cemetery on Wikipedia, I’ve discovered that many of the descendants of the community are actually in New York!

Kevin's US Naturalization Certificate (1979)

The problem the first time was that the Vietnamese Embassy wanted to see further proof that I was previously a Vietnamese citizen prior to becoming an American citizen. I have no official Vietnamese documents that prove that such as an old Vietnamese identity card or passport. However, once I sent in a copy of my US Naturalization Certificate they were able to see that the “Country of former nationality” was “Vietnam” and this was sufficient proof that I was previously a “Vietnamese citizen”. On a side note, one thing I love about this Certificate of Naturalization is that I weighed only 30 pounds and still they thought to indicate that my “marital status” was “single”.

So what does getting the Certificate of Visa Exemption mean in practical terms? This means that I can enter Vietnam multiple times for the next 5 years without ever needing to apply for or pay for a tourist visa. I’m not sure how long I’m allowed to stay each time or if there’s a maximum number of visits or days in the country that I’m permitted within any given year. But for the short, annual trip to Vietnam this is perfect.

When I landed at the airport in Ho Chi Minh City I noticed that there was also a special line set up for holders of the “Certificate of Visa Exemption”. There were about three people in front of me in that line which was shorter than the lines for holders of “Vietnamese Passports” or “All Passports”. My passport picture features a full head of hair and no glasses so in order to pass inspection by the immigration officer I had to remove my glasses and look serious for a second but after that I was quickly on my way to collect my baggage.

Now, thanks to the visa exemption, instead of spending money on numerous Visa applications and USPS Express Mail services I can now blow all of my cash inside of Vietnam as was likely intended. Sounds fair to me!

The full moon over the Batu Caves on Thaipusam

In my three weeks of travel now that Tamar has returned to the US I planned to visit Malaysia, Singapore and Ho Chi Minh City. When I told my Malaysian friend, Vannitha, that I was in the process of making plans she told me about the Hindu Thaipusam Festival that was to happen in and around Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital, the weekend of February 8th this year. She described it as an “unforgettable experience” and “a very out of this world sort of thing”. That certainly sounded interesting enough for me so I planned to arrive on February 7, the day before.

Thaipusam is a Hindu festival celebrating the deity, Murugan, and is marked largely by Tamils in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore and Mauritius. Malaysian Tamils created the shrines at the Batu Caves just 13km north of Kuala Lumpur in the late 19th century and, although Thaipusam is celebrated in many states in Malaysia, these caves are the primary location for the festival in the country. Devotees take part in a procession originating in Kuala Lumpur and ending up in the Batu Caves. They shave their heads and carry out acts of kavadi, or burdens, ranging from carrying a pot of milk to piercing of the body flesh, tongue and cheeks with metal hooks or skewers.

As soon as I landed, Vannitha told me that Thaipusam had already started that day and she suggested that we take a short nap and then go directly to the Batu Caves that night. This would be to both avoid the hot sun and also to observe the highest procession traffic before dawn the following day. We set out on our own little pilgrimage around 10pm from the train station in Kuala Lumpur where we found ourselves already among several hundred people crammed into the train’s cars. We then got off a few stops later to switch trains and the crowds gathered at this junction were even larger than before. We squeezed into the very end of the last train car where some young dudes were smokin’ weed (not officially part of the Thaipusam ritual) but made it to the Batu Caves rather quickly.

Once at the caves we joined the thousands of worshipers and other tourists who came out for the festival that night. Over a million people were expected to visit the Batu Caves over this holiday weekend and I felt like I had seen or felt all of them around me. Just walking to the caves was a fascinating and time consuming process. We witnessed all sorts of worshipers bearing kavadi and dancing in a trance-like state with musicians playing all around. We were nearly run over several time by approaching processions of people and the only thing we could do was to just keep on moving forward towards the caves.

272 steps up to the entrance of the Batu Caves

Before climbing to the top of the 272 steps we got a bite to eat first around 3am. I tried my first roti canai which is a thin doughy bread and is known for being both delicious and fattening. We dipped this into some sauces and we were fueled up and ready to go.

We started to climb the steps at at about 4am but the traffic flowed constantly up and down the steps at every hour throughout the night. The beginning of the ascent was slow and it reminded me of being on a roller coaster as it just begins to pull out of the boarding station to make its way up the first incline. We were surrounded on all sides and so it really was like being locked in one position and being forced to move in only one direction. The climb itself proceeded at a moderate pace and so it wasn’t too tiring but I was focused on always looking at the step in front of me and only occasionally did I turn around to see the view behind me.

From the top of the steps the view was spectacular and there was a feeling of accomplishment as an individual and also as part of a group. Of course, you couldn’t really stand at the top of the steps for long because hundreds of people were still making their way up the stairs by the second and needed to land somewhere too. We then spent the next hour or so wandering through the caves, resting and enjoying the cool breeze since the top of the cave is open and air flows freely.

The view from inside of a canopy while descending the stairs

The way down was also exciting and I went so slowly, enjoying the view and taking photos that, at one point, I was overtaken by one of the canopies and I found myself actually underneath it! That was strange and exciting. After we reached the bottom I had so much energy I felt like I could do it all over again but, this time, in the heat of broad daylight…NOT! But I did feel a sense of accomplishment even if it was to climb up the steps carrying only my Nikon D40 as my kavadi. While some of the people around me were in a trance, helping them to endure the pain, I myself was in a trance-like state commonly referred to as “sleepwalking”. I was so tired by about 5am that it was painful to think about the long journey home: walking through the crowds, waiting in line to buy train tickets, waiting for train #1 to arrive, taking the train, buying the next ticket, waiting for and taking train #2, the taxi to Vannitha’s car, driving to her home, riding the elevator…zzzzzzzzzz.

It took both of us a good few days to get back on a regular sleep schedule but when folks asked me, “What do you think so far of Malaysia?”, boy did I have a story to tell. For me it really was a mind-blowing experience to be part of something so huge that night. For Vannitha, she likes to refer to it as a “once in a lifetime experience”, meaning, she really doesn’t see herself doing that again. So, that was my first night in a new country and it was certainly a sign of all of the great things that were to follow.

Singapore Skyline at Night

I haven’t posted anything to the bog other than photos over the past week because I’ve been so busy during my time in Malaysia and Singapore (over the last three days). Both countries were the two new destinations for me on this trip and I really loved what I saw of both. I had wide-ranging experiences in Malaysia such as attending the Thaipusam Festival at the Batu Caves, exploring the sites in Georgetown and motorbiking to see monkeys, tea plantations and scenic views in Penang and the Cameron Highlands. I also got to hang out with friends, old and new, as well as their family, co-workers and other friends, getting a more authentic taste of life in Malaysia.

In Singapore I saw sites and ate great food but I also met some very cool people along the way, all of whom were interesting and friendly. I got to see some examples of a really clean, organized and well run city including advanced urban features we don’t even have going on in New York yet. Last night I spent time near the river eating a huge crab, listening to live jazz and taking photos of the city at night. In addition to the photos I’ve posted, I have much more to say about my time in Malaysia and Singapore but I’ll have to play catch up while in Vietnam over the next week. For now, enjoy the photos and I’ll try to post more soon!