Looking For A Breath of Fresh Air

Not a week goes by where Zach and I don’t at least find one or two customs or habits here that we find truly baffling. One that we just can’t get over is the local obsession with fresh air. Regardless of how cold it gets here, locals are constantly opening the windows in cars, restaurants and office buildings to get fresh air. I’m fortunate enough to have a window in my office, and if I so much as get up to go to the restroom, 9 times out of 10, by the time I get back, the window will have been opened by one of my windowless colleagues to provide ‘fresh air’ to the entire office.

Shanghai has a lot of wonderful qualities, but unfortunately, the air quality is not one of them. My office building has state of the art air filtering machines, yet windows remain open. In addition to the need for fresh air inside, locals think clothes can only be clean if they are left to dry outide. When we first arrived here, we decided 'when in Rome' and hung our sheets out on our balcony to dry. Needless to say, once we brought in our dried sheets, they were anything but downy fresh and had a dirty film that had settled in from all the ‘fresh air’. After that, Zach and I took to hanging our wet laundry around our apartment from the hall tree, towel racks, and chairs until we moved into our new apartment and were lucky to get one of the few combo washer/dryers in the city which does the trick. Of course, our ‘ayi’ (housecleaner) has lectured us constantly on how we should not be using the dryer, we can’t quite tell if she thinks there are evil spirits in the machine that rob our clothes of fresh air, or if it just makes ironing our shirts that more difficult. Either way, every once in a while we do come home to an open balcony door and an apartment full of ‘fresh’ Shanghai air trying to counteract our unhygienic ways.

A Pork-Free Vacation

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Tiffany and I headed down to Malaysia for the Chinese New Year holiday two weeks ago, ready to escape the wet, cold Shanghai winter. Malaysia was like the rest of Southeast Asia, warm and tropical, a welcome respite for our chilled bones. The country was an interesting cultural mix. Some people looked more Indian, others more Chinese, and nearly every blended shade in between. Malaysia also has a very large Muslim population, and this was visibly apparent everywhere we went, and painfully apparent every pork-less meal we ate. In the Year of the Pig, we found nothing but beef bacon, turkey ham and chicken sausage.We started out in Kuala Lumpur (or “KL”), home of the famous Petronas Twin Towers, a pair of spiraling 88-story, 1,500-foot silver skyscrapers (about 30 feet taller than Chicago’s Sears Tower), connected by a sky bridge 41 stories high. The view was amazing; the city looked like a thick field of dense tropical greenery dotted with gray groups of buildings here and there. Even vertigo-prone Tiffany could appreciate the vast overview of the lush landscape.




















Once safely back on the ground, we set out to explore the city streets.







And immediately got lost. And then got even more lost. Armed with three separate maps, we were nevertheless undone by a maze of unmarked KL streets. We had fun wandering through random streets and alleys. Small marketplaces and food stands littered the sidewalks and hawkers called out with their siren songs of fresh fruit, multi-colored cold drinks, and skewers of meat and seafood. We found long stretches of imitation luxury goods, and found that our life in Shanghai had immunized us to their appeal (and not even I need 3 Dolce belts!) It was chaotic and crowded and full of fascinating people watching.We then visited KL’s major park, and walked through the national museum and a butterfly park.














We took a quick flight to the island of Penang, which was once a British colony. We even stayed in the colonial part of the island called Georgetown! The city had lots of beautiful old architecture, and the famous E&O Hotel, named after the colonial Eastern and Oriental Trading Company.















Finally, we took a 2 hour boat ride to Langkawi, an island beach resort, for some rest and relaxation.

I think this was when Tiffany and I realized that throughout our trip was an undertone of slight discomfort. Not in an obvious way, but subtle reminders along the way that while the Muslim and non-Muslim communities could peaceably live intermixed throughout the same country, they were still definitely two very separate cultures. The breakthrough realization moment came on the boat trip, where we were seated behind two beachwear-clad European girls and a young Muslim couple. The Muslim boyfriend was seated in between his girlfriend, in full-black burka regalia, and the two (for lack of a clearer description) white girls. Apparently having every body part but your eyes covered forces one to develop some very effective eye movements, because it only took one hard look from behind the veil, and the boyfriend jumped up out of his seat as if he’d sat on a tack, and quickly switched seats with his secretive senorita. Maybe it was just our inexperience in living among Muslims, but Tiffany and I were ill at ease among the black burkas, unable to tell if the veils hid laughing mouths, or tired yawns, or even bored expressions from having foreigners like us unsubtly trying to subtly stare at them.Anyway, it was an interesting experience that became no easier upon our arrival to the beautiful resort at Langkawi. As we skipped between the pool, beach, restaurants and spa in our scant beachwear, we often walked by the black robed women, and while we felt a bit underdressed in front of them, we felt more sympathy for what looked to be a mobile oven, fully covered in layers of black material under the humid 90 degree midday sun. Unfortunately, we did not see any of the highly touted 'Burkinis' that we've seen mentioned quite frequently on BBC.

To break up our lounging by the pool and reading on our balcony relaxation routine, we did take a boat tour of the highly anticipated Langkawi mangroves.
















We got to see lots of wildlife along the ride. Fortunately, we spent most of the time on the boat, and weren't able to get too close to the monkeys on shore.



The tour also included a stop at an outdoor, rudimentary outdoor aquarium, where we got to see gigantic fish and touch a stingray.








We also stopped to see some bat caves. All I could think of was Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, as the sharp, biting reek of guano (bat poop) cut into our nostrils.









All in all, the trip provided some interesting city and cultural exploration opportunities, as well as some much needed blue skies and clean air. But at the end of the week, we were ready to get back to the hustle and bustle and pork filled menus of Shanghai.