Sunday, July 04, 2004
My cheeks and knees hurt today, but that's a good thing: it means I was smiling and dancing too much last night!
The last few days have been full of interesting things. I'll give you the rundown, before I set off for Sarawak tomorrow. Sarawak is in Borneo, the non-penisular part of Malaysia, and has lots of indigenious people and jungle. Just heard that the world's biggest corcodiles live there. Hope I don't run into them.
I'll be attending the Rainforest Music Festival on the 9-11th. Performaces from around the world and workshops in the afternoons. I know a few other people who will be in Sarawak the same time and it'll be easy to meet a lot of new people, I'm sure.
SEEN
Hindu temple, Friday evening, the big night to go. Wash your feet when you come in. Touch the ground as you enter. Put hands in prayer-mode and front of nose and then lift up above your head. Some men in sarongs in charge of taking care of statues (gods), who live at the temple, for weeks or months at a time. A statue in the back wearing at least 10 necklaces of strung-together limes and also some of jasmine. A couple passing out drinks of some rice thing, in fulfillment of their promise to do so if they were granted a baby. I thought it tasted like corn kind of. Lots of people waiting in line to pray and just hanging out on steps around the temple, too. Some flirting going on, but it seemed pretty limited.
Saturday. Chow Kit, the sketchy area where lady-boys prostitute themselves late at night and you should hold your handbag a little bit tighter. At least 25 men (some with their motorbikes) standing on the sidewalk in front of an electronics store, watching WWF wrestling on the TV screens out front on a Saturday, early evening.
Bukit Bintang, the sheeshee area with lots of malls and clubs. A lady boy in the woman's bathroom, fixing her hair and makeup. Outside, punks congregating early Saturday evening. Tight jeans that are a bit too short and hiked way up high, old-man style. Spiked belts. Jean jackets with graffiti (one labeled 'punk' on the back). A girl in a short plaid skirt, fishnets and Buddy Holly glasses.
Hard Rock Cafe. Harley Davidson bikers galore, reminded me of Beach Week senior year at Mrtyle, SC, which was having a bikers convention the same time we were all there. Some veiled women in the club--the first time I've seen that. One of the biker chicks was even wearing the headscarf AND leather pants! A middle-aged short Chinese man with no shirt, just a leather Harley jacket, grooving on the dance floor before anyone else got the nerve. Non-bikers, but a drunk Indian couple, the man kept lifting the woman, who was bigger than him up in the air and I was sure they were going to fall over. A British guy air-guitaring and headbanging. An African I met several months ago was there and man, can he move. With A., who is one of my all-time favorite people to go dancing with because he's got energy and you can just tell how much fun he's having (another was a guy working in Dahab, Egypt).
The Blue Bar. A gay club (the roommate of one of the guys I was out with is a bartender there). Lady boy show--but the Iowa City Alley Cat trannie show I saw to shame. These Asian men sure can pull off being a woman! And I was silly enough to wonder how the first woman's voice was so high--then I realized they were lip sync-ing (I was behind them and couldn't see!). I was one of maybe 3 real girls there. On my way through the crowd, someone grabbed my butt! (Actually, it happened at Hard Rock, too!) I don't know if he thought I was a lady boy or what...Later, one lady boy told me I was very pretty--also not sure if she thought I was really a man...A crew of friends all wearing red, doing pre-planned dance moves (thought I could almost be in a Bollywood movie! If only!). They tell me they come every week and always wear matching colors.
HEARD
A Hindu girl I met once or twice invited me to join her at the temple and we hung out most of the day before that. She told me that she has some female friends (mostly Malay and Chinese) who are essentially dating each other, because they have romantic and sexual desires, but the risk is too great with a guy before marriage, so better to fulfill urges with a female friend.
The last few days have been full of interesting things. I'll give you the rundown, before I set off for Sarawak tomorrow. Sarawak is in Borneo, the non-penisular part of Malaysia, and has lots of indigenious people and jungle. Just heard that the world's biggest corcodiles live there. Hope I don't run into them.
I'll be attending the Rainforest Music Festival on the 9-11th. Performaces from around the world and workshops in the afternoons. I know a few other people who will be in Sarawak the same time and it'll be easy to meet a lot of new people, I'm sure.
SEEN
Hindu temple, Friday evening, the big night to go. Wash your feet when you come in. Touch the ground as you enter. Put hands in prayer-mode and front of nose and then lift up above your head. Some men in sarongs in charge of taking care of statues (gods), who live at the temple, for weeks or months at a time. A statue in the back wearing at least 10 necklaces of strung-together limes and also some of jasmine. A couple passing out drinks of some rice thing, in fulfillment of their promise to do so if they were granted a baby. I thought it tasted like corn kind of. Lots of people waiting in line to pray and just hanging out on steps around the temple, too. Some flirting going on, but it seemed pretty limited.
Saturday. Chow Kit, the sketchy area where lady-boys prostitute themselves late at night and you should hold your handbag a little bit tighter. At least 25 men (some with their motorbikes) standing on the sidewalk in front of an electronics store, watching WWF wrestling on the TV screens out front on a Saturday, early evening.
Bukit Bintang, the sheeshee area with lots of malls and clubs. A lady boy in the woman's bathroom, fixing her hair and makeup. Outside, punks congregating early Saturday evening. Tight jeans that are a bit too short and hiked way up high, old-man style. Spiked belts. Jean jackets with graffiti (one labeled 'punk' on the back). A girl in a short plaid skirt, fishnets and Buddy Holly glasses.
Hard Rock Cafe. Harley Davidson bikers galore, reminded me of Beach Week senior year at Mrtyle, SC, which was having a bikers convention the same time we were all there. Some veiled women in the club--the first time I've seen that. One of the biker chicks was even wearing the headscarf AND leather pants! A middle-aged short Chinese man with no shirt, just a leather Harley jacket, grooving on the dance floor before anyone else got the nerve. Non-bikers, but a drunk Indian couple, the man kept lifting the woman, who was bigger than him up in the air and I was sure they were going to fall over. A British guy air-guitaring and headbanging. An African I met several months ago was there and man, can he move. With A., who is one of my all-time favorite people to go dancing with because he's got energy and you can just tell how much fun he's having (another was a guy working in Dahab, Egypt).
The Blue Bar. A gay club (the roommate of one of the guys I was out with is a bartender there). Lady boy show--but the Iowa City Alley Cat trannie show I saw to shame. These Asian men sure can pull off being a woman! And I was silly enough to wonder how the first woman's voice was so high--then I realized they were lip sync-ing (I was behind them and couldn't see!). I was one of maybe 3 real girls there. On my way through the crowd, someone grabbed my butt! (Actually, it happened at Hard Rock, too!) I don't know if he thought I was a lady boy or what...Later, one lady boy told me I was very pretty--also not sure if she thought I was really a man...A crew of friends all wearing red, doing pre-planned dance moves (thought I could almost be in a Bollywood movie! If only!). They tell me they come every week and always wear matching colors.
HEARD
A Hindu girl I met once or twice invited me to join her at the temple and we hung out most of the day before that. She told me that she has some female friends (mostly Malay and Chinese) who are essentially dating each other, because they have romantic and sexual desires, but the risk is too great with a guy before marriage, so better to fulfill urges with a female friend.
