Things I see - a list

Interesting and strange things I see in this country, some of which I would also see back home and some that I would definitely not see back home.

- the chinese lady that turns up everyday at the school gate to pick up her child. At least 2 times a week, she wears a t-shirt bearing a giant marijuana leaf. It just seems a strange thing to wear in a country where the penalty for dealing drugs is death. Drugs are used here, that I know, but it just seems ironic. Maybe she picked the t-shirt up from charity and has no clue about what it is that adorns her t-shirt. Naive little me didn't know what a marijuana leaf looked like until I was 20 or something.

- the Malay lawyer who sends his kids to a chinese school because the academic standards are higher and the teaching is better. His kids can speak chinese together and he can't understand them.

- fathers and grandfathers, mothers and grandmothers, turning up to school on motorbikes with a toddler. A lot of people wear helmets but many do not. Did you know that these motorbikes "can" (they shouldn't, but they do) carry a family of five? Mum, dad and three small kiddies.

- young children and standing in the back seats of cars, unrestrained. Babies sitting on the laps of mothers, not a child safety seat in sight.

- the old lady with the jet black dyed hair who picks up 6 kids from school in her beat-up four seated datsun. Their bags fill the boot to the point where she can't close it. She probably does this to earn a little pocket money.

- empty durian husks, dropped by the roadside.

- monkeys crossing the road where I travel to take my son to kinder.

- rubber tree estates, the tree trunks freshly cut and the white latex running out and into the cup secured to the trunk. The price of rubber has risen greatly in the two years I've been here, so whoever owns the plantation is making a fortune. I hope the pay of the rubber tappers has increased as well.

- supper last night, open air restaurant, lots of people still eating and drinking. 5 or 6 mini food stalls serving an assortment of drinks, noodles, fried rice, rice porridge, pork buns etc. Kids of 11 and 12 working with their parents, cleaning tables and taking orders.

- litter everywhere, blocking the drains, fermenting and giving off a stink like no other (except for durians)

- rubbish bins overflowing, bags torn open by the stray dogs and cats looking for something to eat. Good thing the rubbish gets collected every second day.

- concrete buildings, painted white but streaked with black mould that grows in the hot, humid air. Makes the place look old and unkempt. You start to not see it after a while.

- buildings painted in garish colours like orange and purple.

- little chinese mini-temples painted red, looked after by the chinese community.

- fruit stalls overflowing with stacks of durian, rambutan, mangosteen, bananas, mandarines. Do they really sell it all? I hope so. It just looks a lot.

- the wizened old man who walks to town everyday, looking for rubbish to recycle and sell. He wears clothes and a cap browned by age and dirt. I wonder what his story is. I haven't seen him in a while, I hope he's OK.

- children (aged 7+) coming out of extra-curricular tuition classes at 10pm.

- ex eating durian in his room - glad I'm not sleeping there!

- a red Porsche Boxter - in Segamat! Cars are expensive here. Cheap cars are still RM 15,000 and a new decent car, like a toyota people mover can cost RM 90,000+.

- the big yellow school bus that passes by our place every evening just after we get home from picking up my daughter from school. There's always two little girls who hang out the window and yell out my daughter's name - they are her friends and she smiles and waves back at them.

Another list, another day.