Melaka was marvellous but Machap was not

Flag of Malaysia

Fly from Flies At Machap
We hired a car in Singapore, drove up the motorway, stopping to pay the tolls. We drove past the first stop for food point, wanting to get on our way. We stopped for lunch, at the second stop, giving our visitors a glimpse of old days, old ways, Malaysia at Machap. a dire motorway side stop. A food court above the shops. A good place to buy a hat. Not so good upstairs for food and toilets.

Toilets
First the good news. The ladies was easy to find. In the ladies, cubicles were plentiful.

Most of the toilet cubicles were the hole in the ground type. Only after I managed to use one of those, did I discover a door showed a picture of a regular modern toilet.

Now the bad news. The toilets were full of flies. Victorian England, where the outside toilet was at the back of the house behind the kitchen, established a building regulation requiring two doors between a toilet and a kitchen, as a fly trap, to prevent flies zooming from - you can work it out. From toilet to table.

Upstairs at Machap the food court tables were full of flies. I wished I had brought the fly spray from home (Singapore).

The people at Machap, were lovely, so sorry for them having to work amid the flies. The girls covered head to foot in what was traditional garb had another advantage - the girls were in what turned out to be fly-protective clothing, with their hair pushed into headscarves.

I felt conspicuous. I stuffed my blonde hair inside my baseball cap.

I considered a making a badge saying: To answer your question, I'm from London, England.

The wrapped up girls were no different to the conservative Malays in Singapore, all smiling and helpful. A white haired toothless man by a kiosk smiled and when I asked aloud, 'Can anybody speak English. Can anybody translate? I want chicken, ayam, and potato - what's that in Malay?' he was only to keen to help translate.

I ordered chicken, a generous portion of halal meat on the chicken wing, and potato. The rice which I had not asked for came automatically. All on a piece of green banana leaf.

Our visitors from England wanted non-spicy food, preferably vegetarian. I saw Chinese dumplings with filled with dates and other fillings, maybe savoury, maybe sweet, behind glass which saved the cabinet contents from the flies.

We sat down and ate fast, waving flies off our plates. The people were friendly, the flies over-friendly. I counted 16 on the floor and did not count those on the table because I was too busy swatting the ones on the table.

I muttered, 'Why doesn't somebody invest in fly killing machines and daily fogging? Maybe they do.'

We bought wrapped fruit, and canned drinks including Nescafe from a machine to drink in the car.

After Machap, I was so glad to reach Melaka.

Two days later, when we got back to Singapore, my biking family members told me: "As you drive on towards the capital, KL, the standard of motorway stops improves."

Useful Websites
https://www.malaysia.travel/en/sg

About the https://www.malaysia.travel/en/sg
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
See my other posts on marvellous Melaka. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Motorcyclists Planning Routes To The Races in Malaysia and Malay words

 Singapore flag.

Problem
A member of my family and their friends on motorbikes have left the civilised skyscraper city of Singapore, new, modern, clean and green. Why?

A keen biker can't pass a row of bikes parked in Singapore without stopping to admire every one.

They have gone on their motorbikes to marvellous Malaysia with its miles of palm tree plantations on open roads. Their aim is to watch a big bike race near the capital, KL, next weekend, the start of November.

Preparations
Before the departure date, there are trips to buy helmets and gloves. What size of helmet to buy? What about the spare helmet in case you take a passenger?

Buy gloves in a sale? But are they padded, with double stitching?

The languages of Singapore are English (with taxi drivers sometimes speaking Singlish, a kind of pigeon English which includes words in Malay and Chinese, meaning Mandarin), plus Chinese, Malay and Tamil.

I am practising my Malay language on Duolingo. Terimah Kasih is thank you. Malay and Indonesian are very similar, like American and English. Malay uses the English alphabet so is easiest of the local languages. Bahaya means beware, hey! Stay away. Danger.

In Singapore I was visited by my new Chinese friend, who has a Japanese husband. They lived in Australia.

My friend displaying her Australian flag on a beach towel

They sat watching TV, watching the previous races on Philip Island in Australia.

 Previously, the bike races were in Japan.

Japanese flag.

 We must plan a big trip to Japan or Australia. With Megan Markle and Prince Harry in Australia, the newspapers were full of stories about Australia.

But before taking a trip there, my relatives planned something simpler and near to Singapore, Malaysia.

Malaysia. Twin Towers, KL

They talk of nothing else but bikes and bike races. I am not a bike person. I listen politely, show an interest, try to make sense of it all.

My family includes supporters of Formula One Races (cars) as well as Moto GP (bike races), although some people are into either only one or the other.

Freedom Of The Open Road
A whole group of motorcyclists will go up on their bikes from Singapore to Malaysia to watch the race. Some people ride in motorbikes in Malaysia every weekend. It makes a change to be in the wide open spaces, instead of the motorways crossing the small city state island of Singapore off Malaysia's southern tip.

Preparing For The Bridge Crossing
The building of the second bridge helped eased the early congestion which some drivers and tourists remember from earlier years. We have also been across from Singapore to Malaysia in a car or hired car. Many Singaporeans go across to visit friends, staying with friends and family. Pedestrians take the bus from Singapore to 'JB' for a change and for shopping.

What do you need to take with you? A passport. You will be stopped on exiting Singapore and a few yards further on for entering Malaysia. Cyclists have separate crossing points from the cars, buses and big vehicles, with automatic barriers.

Passport Check
You go through two stopping points, one is the passport control, next customs. What are the officials on passport checkpoints looking for? Passport checks, in addition to stopping criminals, are looking for people overstaying their visas.

Customs
What about the security and customs check? Cigarettes. Petrol. The Singaporeans don't want people going across to Malaysia to fill up with cheap petrol (Americans say gasoline).

Petrol Points
Make a note of the restrictions, but also where the garages are. You used to be able to stop at a garage in the Malaysian border town of Johor Bahur (Bahru is Malay for new). But now the road bypasses the city. That speeds you on your way. But you don't want to run out of petrol in the middle of nowhere on an empty road.

Stopover Choices
Tourists would spend a day or two in the pink city of Malacca. We have done that at least twice.

Stopover at Ipoh
Ipoh is a sleepy trading post. We stopped for coffee at tea time once in the big hotel. Like British station hotels, it had run down.

Stopover at KL
Or in KL, with its must see Petronas twin towers where Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones were filmed in the 1999 movie Entrapment.

If you go as a group, even two or three, and staying not for just one night but a weekend of a week, you might find it cheaper and more fun to rent an apartment.

Malaysia. Petronas Twin Towers. KL, filmed in Enrapment.

In KL with my late mother-in-law, who was already frail, we stayed at the grand hotel beside the Twin Towers. We visited a museum in the basement about the construction of the towers and surrounding area and learned how they overcame the problems of finance and construction which threatened to derail the plans.  

I can't recall specifics but I can recall the stress on the people involved and the types of hazards you face in a large project which takes years to complete. Once a building is up, running, a success, it's a marvel. You assume it was easy. 

But I had not appreciated why builders of major projects, the architects, surveyors, project managers, are given awards. I thought, they are just doing their job. Spending somebody else's money. However, you know how long it can take just to get a simple repair done. The workman arrives and says, 'when we quoted for this job, we hadn't realised there would be ...'

All sorts of things can happen. Governments change and want to change plans. Backers go out of business. To fund the project, for commercial backers you need to add a shopping mall, hotels and restaurants. But to make up the money, for permission to go ahead as well as for more funds, you need government and local government, you need public projects to enhance the city such as parks or gardens.

You find water tables or rocks which you had not expected. Drought, flooding, earthquakes, upset the architecture or frighten off the workers, backers, or delay opening day celebrations. The backer or architect can die, funds frozen, supervisor not available, and workers can be injured.

The area suffers flooding or earthquakes. You need to add a religious building or remove it to get backers. You have Indians with auspicious days, Chinese with feng shui and lucky numbers, Moslems with holy sites, religious holidays, stops for prayers, Ramadan for a month and religious buildings must face Mecca.

Then we went up to walk across the bridge. We went early to avoid queues (long line-ups) and had timed tickets.

Timing Of Journey
If two or more of you are leaving Singapore, if you live nearby, it is easier to go together. It is also safer to ride with a partner or in a convoy.

I listened to stories of two accidents. On one occasion, an injured person went back to Singapore and his friend followed on a bike.

On another occasion a bike rolled over and caught fire. The rider came back without it, having had it delivered to the repair shop as instructed by the police who would not take it. So far so good, and so bad.

But the insurance company in Singapore insisted on having the bike returned to Singapore. Their assessor had to inspect it. Why? To ensure it existed and had not simply been sold after a fake accident. to check it was not still roadworthy.

Meanwhile the shop in Malaysia had already sold it to a breakers and it had to be retrieved by them, the money they received reimbursed, the driver to pay the cost of transporting the broken bike back to Singapore.

You can get an estimate of time taken to drive to meet your friends. But some drivers allow an extra half hour for at least one rest stop to refill with petrol, buy a drink or something to eat and eat it, and go to the toilet. (That's without losing your way, stopping to take photos, or stopping at a tourist site or city, stopping to phone your fellow travellers or reply to their queries.)

Weather and Police
In addition, you might drive slower, or pull off, if it is raining hard. You might also be stopped by police doing a speed check.

Sepang
The race course is at Sepang, about 60-70 miles south of KL, a circuit near the town.  More about the races and tickets and what you see in my next post.


Useful Words
Malay - English
bank - bank
bas - bus
hotel - hotel
jalan - road
imigresen - immigration
kastam - customs
klinik - clinic
minuman - drinks
pos - post (American say mail)
restoran - restaurant
stesen - station
teksi - taxi

English - Malay
bus station - stesen bas
clinic - klinik
customs - kastam
drinks - minuman
immigration - imigresen
restaurant - restoran
road - jalan
post - pos
taxi -teksi


Useful Websites
Singapore
visitsingapore.com
singaporeair.com (Singapore Airlines)

Malaysia
visit-Malaysia.com
malaysiatourism.gov.my
www.sepangcircuit.com

Australia
australia.com/en
www.lonelyplanet.com/australia

Japan
see_japan.co.uk

Also see TripAdvisor, Wikitravel, Wikivoyage
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

How Hospitals Can Improve - with food, drink, toilets and phone numbers

Hospitals are wonderful, caring people and amazing facilities. UK hospitals are cosy and warm. Singapore hospitals are refreshingly cool.

A doctor in Singapore sent me to a hospital with a covering letter. I was very pleased with the service. (They take your credit card details before anything else. Paying in advance is good. No worry about the bill at the end.)

But there is always room for upgrading and improvement.

1 TOILETS AND WATER ON ARRIVAL BEFORE BED
Get patients toilets and water before putting them into beds. This keeps them happy and alert and co-operative and less stressed . it also saves staff having to bring bedpans.

Give them water - and toilet - on arrival. A human being is like a pipe. Water goes in one end and out the other.

This applies to main wards and also A and E. (Accident and Emergency.)

2 POINT OUT BIDETS IN TOILETS
In National University Hospital I was escorted to the toilet and a nurse pulled the curtain around the toilet.

Later, I asked to go to the hospital toilet just before leaving. Having fallen after being giddy first thing in the morning, I didn't want to risk collapsing in a public toilet on a railway station. I then discovered, with the curtain pulled back revealing the poster on the wall, that the hospital toilet had a built in bidet jet like the toilets in five-star hotels (the Mandarin Oriental hotel next to the Twin Towers in KL, Malaysia, had them in the ground floor ladies).
It would have been helpful if the staff had pointed out this facility earlier.

Selfie of me in the hospital bed in A and E at National University Hospital, Singapore.

3 SERVE A SNACK AND DRINK OF WATER AT TIMED INTERVALS FROM ARRIVAL
Check whether the patient has eaten. I had breakfast but no elevenses or lunch in case I needed an anaesthetic or other procedure which required an empty stomach.
Serve a snack or check they have eaten and drunk water within two hours of admission - unless they are likely to need a procedure which prevents this.
I was given a jam sandwich. I though fruit might have been better. Maybe a banana instead of as well.

4 ALLOCATE A LIAISON PERSON
Hospitals see to have staff whose job is specific, such as measuring blood, or taking a patient's temperature. The person actually in charge, the boss, is nowhere to be seen. Nobody seems in charge of whether you have had a drink, or food, or need to go to the toilet or tell your family how long you will be in the hospital.

5 CHECK HOSPITAL PHONE NUMBER IS IN PATIENT'S PHONE
With the help of the 'geriatric nurse' - gee, thanks, I am now geriatric, who gave me my appointment card with a phone number on it, (guaranteed to go missing when I needed it) I was able to put all the hospital numbers in my phone.
The nurse also suggested adding the ambulance number. I'd noticed that unlike the UK where 999 was once number for all services, the ambulance number in Singapore is 995. If you are confused you might not think of it. If somebody from another country is with you they might not think of it. It's so handy to have the number in your phone contacts list under the word ambulance.

6 BUDDY SYSTEM
I thought I read somewhere about neighbours with similar conditions and no family around having a buddy phone call system. They just check in once a day to see the other person is alive and well.
Even if somebody is at home when you are released from hospital and the month after, there might be a time when you are on your own for several hours or days or weeks.

National University Hospital is a teaching hospital. It has sections dealing with cancer, children, dentistry, and women.
The main entrance/exit by the MRT station faces restful, soothing trees.

National University Hospital is right next to Kent Ridge MRT (railway station on the Circle line).
Useful Websites / Information
National University Hospital
5 Lower Kent Ridge Road
Singapore 119074
Tel: (65) 6779 5555.
website: www.nuh.com.sg

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

What Does Google Translate Give Me In Malay and Indonesian For Big, High, Beautiful?

PETRONAS TOWERS, KL, Malaysia. How would I describe them? "Tinggi!"

Problem
What can I say when I visit a landmark in a foreign country? What am I likely to hear the local people saying?

I was looking at the pictures of the Twin Towers or Petronas Towers in KL (Kuala Lumpur) in Malaysia.

I went into Google translate and tried the words big, high, and beautiful.

In Malay language (which they call Bahasa Malay (not to be confused with Malayala which is in Indian language) I got these results:

English - Malay
big - besar (big as a bazaar)
beautiful - cantik (Malay is simple, K instead of c or ck; so beautiful it can tick all the boxes)
high - tinggi - (so high it makes me tingle just looking down!)


English - Indonesian
beautiful - indah (Indonesian girls are indah - beautiful)
big - besar (same as Malay)
high - tinggi (same as Malay)

So, two of the three words are the same in Malay and Indonesian. We can make ourselves understood and understand what others are saying.

My Malay memory aids are 'big as a bazaar'; besar, big. Alliterative b and b.

***

So now you can say, in Malay or Indonesian, in Malaysia, Indonesia, or Singapore, to a Malaysian, Indonesian - or just think it to yourself to remind yourself of your words in foreign languages. Tinggi - tinglingly high.

Tower on Community Club Tampines West in Singapore. "Tinggi!"Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

You always need to reverse to check the exact meaning of the translation. I once tried translating nail file into French and got the words clou (a nail which you hammer into wood, and dossier - clearly stationery).

Click on the arrows at the top of the text box in Google translate to reverse the languages (the words swap languages appear when you hover over the arrows) and you find the words:

MALAY - English

besar - big
tinggi - height
cantik - beautiful

Watch out if you try to change the order into alphabetical. I did that and ended up matching the wrong words. I thought it would save me time to just change one word at a time, but it then took me ages because I had to go back to the start and check every pair to be sure I had not got it wrong.

Reverse again and you get:

English - MALAY
big - besar
height - ketinggian
beautiful - cantik (Can tick all the boxes for beauty in Malaysia or worldwide.)

Now try that reversing check with Indonesian:

English  - INDONESIAN
big - besar
high - tinggi
height - tinggi
beautiful -  indah (Beautiful as an Indonesian girl.)

Now we know the three magic words to we can say and nod at the top of the Twin Towers in KL, or looking at pictures of the twin towers in New York or any skyscraper in the USA.

Trump Tower, USA. How would you describe it? Besar? Tinggi? Indah or cantik?

You and I can also say these Malay and Indonesian words when shown to a bedroom on an upper floor of the hotel next door to the Petronas Towers (the hotel where my husband and I stayed for two nights at the weekend in KL to get one full day of sightseeing).

I am an aspiring polyglot.

If you like the Google translations, or don't like them, you can join the Google Translate community. The idea is that everything has to be approved by several people before it is added or changed, or noted as a 'possible' translation. Several websites, nowadays, including Duolingo (language teaching) and Wikipedia, offer the public a chance to suggest changes and to go onto forums discussing translations or asking questions.

Useful Websites For Travellers Learning Languages
Duolingo
Duolingo.com

Google Translate
translate.google.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teacher of English language and other languages. Please share your favourite posts with your friends and family and colleagues.

Free Language courses: First Words In Indonesian And Malaysian

Petronas Towers, KL, capital of Malaysia. Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones played characters in Entrapment, who escaped, suspended from the bridge between the towers.

You want to learn a language if you are an expat in a country, doing business there, or likely to visit.
Why would you want to visit Malaysia or Indonesia, apart from adding two more countries? You might want to see the Petronas Towers, known as Menara Petronas (notice the adjective first). That's where Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones acted in the film (Americans say movie) called Entrapment.

Problems
Duolingo offers a dozen free language starter courses with more in the pipeline and you can sign up to be informed when the new ones start. I signed up for Indonesian because it was almost the same as Malaysian which was easy to pick up from signs when we drove up to the pretty pink port city of Malacca from Singapore.

Later, we drove on to KL to see the Petronas Towers which feature in the film Entrapment starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Sean Connery.

I must admit before visiting both Malaysia and Indonesia I never initially saw the use of Indonesian. I never knew where I could learn it. I assumed it would be difficult. I was wrong.

Answers
Indonesian and Malay are almost the same apart from a little vocabulary. The grammar and sentence structure is simple, like Chinese.

Singaporean flag.

Singapore
Indonesian / Malay is also one of the four languages in Singapore. So you hear it on the station announcements when you take the trains, and see it on signs at MRT railway stations, lifts and exits, and on buses. The announcements end with the words for thank you, terimah kasih. I think of terribly grateful. Greetings often include the word Selamat, like salaam.

Four-language signs in Singapore include the Malay language.

The Malay for Botanic Gardens. 

Another warning sign in Malay.

Indonesian-Malay words are easy, like English with American spelling, but even more simplified. For example, apple is apel.

Duolingo has just started teaching Indonesian basic for free.

Just a few words, with my memory aids in brackets:

Indonesian - English

air - water (think of droplets of rain in the air)
apel - apple/ apples / an apple
itu - that / it's (the letters it in itu and it's)
jeruk - orange or oranges (juicy orange ok!) in Indonesian; oren in Malay
kamu - you / your (the word with u on the end is you)

makan - eat / ate / eating (making another meal such as lunch, makan)
minum - drink (keep your drinking of alchol to the minimum in muslim majority countries)
saya - I / me / my (what I say is all about me - everybody is more interested in themselves)
susu - milk (milk sustains you)
punya - have (p for possess)

English - Indonesian

apple / apples / an apple - apel
drink - minum
eat - makan
have - punya
I / me / my - saya

it's / that - itu
milk - susu
orange - jeruk
water - air
you / your - kamu

I have other posts on the Malay language and signs on stations and in trains.

Useful Websites For Travellers and Language Learners
duolingo.com
INDONESIA
indonesiatouristboard.com
MALAYSIA
visitmalaysia.com
SINGAPORE
visitsingapore.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages. I have other posts on learning languages and visiting Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Please share links to your favourite posts. See my books on Amazon and Lulu.com
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Multilingual clubs on Meetup

Problem
I am learning several languages on Duo lingo because I start a new language every time I plan a trip, even if it is a year ahead (in fact you want to start learning a year ahead). I can't join a new group every time I switch to a new language. I'd like to be in an online or at home multi-lingual club. What are the options?

Answer
On Meetup when I saw French and Russian clubs I logged in and found links to multilingual clubs. Here are some:
https://www.meetup.

AUSTRALIA
https://www.toastmasters.org/Find-a-Club/00712902-manly-multilingual-club
Meets first Wednesday of the month at 7pm, Manly Bay, Australia.

SINGAPORE
https://www.meetup.com/FrenchSingapore/ (French and Spanish. They have French wine classes and show films, I presume with subtitles.)

MALAYSIA
Metropolitan Bilingual Club, Koala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Meets first and third Tuesday at 7.0.
A club in Toastmasters international. for others see Toastmasters international find a club
http://mbtc.toastmastersclubs.org

UK
Russian toastmasters club, London, England


USA
Phoenix Bilingual Club, Phoenix, Arizona, USA.
Spanish English. Has a French conversation sub-group.
https://www.meetup.com/phoenix-bilingual-club/

INTERNET
https://www.facebook.com/MultilingualClub/
This site has some Chinese words you can learn.

https://polyglotclub.com
Lots of people learning lots of languages asking for help translating phrases.
https://www.facebook.com/polyglotclub.world/

https://www.fluentin3months.com/how-to-become-a-polyglot/

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teacher and learner of English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian, Welsh, Yiddish, Portuguese, Japanese, Greek.