Exotic Leanings - Eastern Decorative Influences

Having done a fair of traveling, I can tell you that every country I have visited has something to offer in terms of architectural design ideas. But I found it interesting that there were foreign influences in local architecture as well.

For example, because of the British colonization, Asian countries like Hong Kong (special administrative region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China), Singapore and Malaysia, among others, have building with British inspired architecture. 

In fact, there is a Downing Street on the island of Penang, Malaysia where the British used to house their Government offices. For those not in the know of the significance of this street name, or more specifically, 10 Downing Street, is the headquarters of Her Majesty's Government and the official residence and office of the First Lord of the Treasury, an office now invariably held by the Prime Minister.

I could write for hours about the multiple architectural influences in South East Asia, but I'll save that for another blog post.

For this post, which I have digressed a lot, I want to talk about Moroccan design influences. I've mentioned in another post that I've already taken to trying my hand at making their sumptuous stews with the help of their cooking tagines. Not wanting to boast, but I've gotten quite good at making those stews.

Anyway, I digressed yet again.

Back to Moroccan decor. It's very easy to inject a little exoticness into a room without having to invest in heavy renovation. All you need is a little Moroccan furniture and decor to spice things up. A couple of pouffes, Moroccan tea glasses, ornate cabinets and hand crafted decorative dividers and screens in the right places can really transform a room into an exotic den.

Don't forget those beautiful Moroccan throw pillows and and carpets as well. Many of these item can be easily bought from the net at relatively affordable prices. I the divider and screen you see above from this site http://berbertrading.com/cat_dividers.cfm. Incidentally, that's the same place I got my cooking tagine too.

To top it off, don't forget to add a couple of those highly exotic looking Moroccan lamps. But be careful not to over do it...like I did. It good to have a plan but it's even better if you stick to it. 

DIY Projects Are Just Plain Fun, Though Not Always Successful

Living different places around the world can be fun as well as challenging especially if something unexpected happens like if your faucet suddenly springs a leak. How do you ask someone to recommend a plumber in Tagalog or Japanese.

This is when it pays to have a little knowledge of home DIY experience. I was lucky my dad pretty much thought me quite a bit about fixing stuff so I didn't really need a technician or a plumber to come over every time a little rewiring needed to done or a washer needed changing.

Though, as my wife would so kindly point out, more ambitious projects would require a person with more skill of a particular nature. Skills which I, apparently, do not possess. This can be deduced from a handful of home projects which I have botched in the early days.

After a few courses, I am proud to say that my competency level has improved greatly, although my wife still doesn't trust me to do certain things.

Anyway, we still like to do things ourselves. In many cases it saves money to do so, this is especially true for home remodeling projects. You can save hundreds of dollars if you can source raw materials and complete the project without having to engage professionals.
 
There are many other things you can DIY aside from restyling your home. You can carry out basic car maintenance, landscaping, run an online store, making personalized greeting cards and scrapbooking. Alright, I don't do the last two but my wife does and she gets lots of compliments from friends and relatives for the greeting cards she creates.

It seems there is an industry for DIY scrapbooking and card making, according to my wife, who incidentally, has a warped sense of humor.

Allow me to elaborate. One Christmas, while we were enjoying the sunny weather in Bali, she found this tropical scrapbooking site called Island Paperie.

She ordered material like tropical themed Hawaiian rubber stamps for card making and so on from them and created greeting cards to send to her relatives in freezing Canada. At the end of each card had the words - "Wish You Were Here". I'm sure Pink Floyd would find that amusing.

A New Year Beckons: More Home Projects, More Cooking Ambitions, More Things To Learn

2012 went by so fast.

My wife and I moved into our new place, a nice double storey detached house. It's got a built up area of a bit over 2000 sf and a land area of about 6000 sf. It's just nice for a couple of pets and a little garden.  We decided to rent out our old condo instead of selling it. Who knows, when we're older, we might want to live in a smaller place that's easier to maintain, and therefore, could move back

Breaking from tradition, this time, we completed all renovation before moving in. However, some friends have asked us to take a look at their places and see if we have any ideas. So that takes care of our decor projects for the year.

In terms of hobbies, well, I really want to give cooking another try. There's lots to try here in Asia, especially if you like Spicy stuff. Since Malaysia is a melting pot of cultures, there menu list is ridiculously varied. 

In the bigger cities like Georgetown and Kuala Lumpur (KL), there are lots of foreign food choices. Surpisingly, 'western food' is quite popular here. Portions are smaller than what we find back in the states. Portions in Singapore is closer to what we are used to back home.

My wife and I stayed at a hotel at Bukit Bintang Road in KL a couple of years back. It was like being in little Turkey or Morocco. I vividly remember having some sort of lamb stew which was cooked in a tagine.  It was absolutely divine. I swore I'd learn to prepare that dish. I Googled it. Got the cooking tagines from a this site http://www.berbertrading.com/cat-cooking-tagines.cfm but until now, the tagine is still in it's box. 

Thailand is Malaysia's northern neighbors and just a few hours away for me. But some of their standards can be a tad too spicy for me. My wife lapped everything up without much fuss.

I've also had the chance to sample some Indonesian cuisine which is spicy and tasty. Excellent stuff. 


I'd also like to run another marathon or ten. I know I said I'd just like to do one but I had so much fun the first time - even with the crazy cramps kicking in after 30k - that I think I'd like to do a couple or more yearly, but at different locations.

Since I'll be spending a couple of years here, I plan to run a few local Marathons and at least one in Thailand. 

I'd also like to climb a decent mountain. Since I'm staying in Malaysia now, I thought I'd give Mount Tahan (2,187 m) and Mount Kinabalu (4,095 m) a shot. I've been told that even though Mt. Kinabalu is higher, the climb up Mt. Tahan is way more challenging.

Aside from learning to cook,  I would also like to learn a few languages. The people here speak at least two languages. Malay is the language of the federation and is spoken by everyone. Then you have Mandarin, English, Tamil and a number of dialects. 

Looks like I've got 2013 pretty much outlined, which means it will pass just as fast as 2012.