The flag of the USA and of Malaysia - like the US flag - why?

Problem
I love flags. I learn flags. I like to test myself on flag quizzes. The flag of Malaysia looks like the US flag which you might find a problem, a pleasure or a puzzle. Why those colours, the stripes and the star?

The US flag

Stars and stripes.

The first time I saw the Malaysian flag from a distance I thought it was the US flag. When I got closer I thought it was like one of those tee-shirts which copy Western ideas but either get the wrong or make minor changes for copyright reasons.

Flag On A Tour
I took a tour of Kuala Lumpur. A national monument resembles a famous photo of the US flag being hoisted by successful soldiers in WWII at Iwo Jima. The Malaysian monument was created inspired by the same statue. I think it was the same sculptor-designer.

Our tour guide explained the story behind the sculpture and the symbolism of the Malaysian flag was explained.  But I was busy taking photos and that day I heard so much information that by the end of the day I had forgotten.

Learning Flags
I have since decided that it is a good idea to learn the country's flag before visiting the country or taking a guided tour. That way you can reinforce what you already know, and understand any garbled English or half-heard sentences. With your basic knowledge, you can and add on information which is not readily available on the internet.

Does knowing the country flag have any practical use to a tourist? Yes. You need to know your host country's flag as it could help distinguish your tour bus from those of coaches in the car park from other neighbouring countries.

The Malaysian flag.
1 It looks like the US flag with stripes but has a yellow moon section. If you thought that might be an Islamic symbol, you are right.

No, it isn't a copy of the US flag. The red and white stripes came from a trading company in Malaysia.

I was interested to read in Wikipedia about how the flag was chosen by popular vote from the  Malaysian people from a choice of flags. The current flag one in one sense by default. Some voters thought the alternative star flag looked too much like the Communist flag.

Once you have fixed in your mind you can add on the comments by the tour guide, the guidebook you buy, the free leaflet, and the comments by people from other countries about how they recognize the flag and how it resembles or differs from other flags.

What about the number of points on the star?

Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Malaysia
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iwo-Jima-3c.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Monument_(Malaysia)

(NB the country code for Singapore is 65).
As you cross the border your phone will give pings and popups with offers of charges for logging onto the Malaysia phone systems.

Useful Websites
www.bandarmalaysia.my
visit-malaysia.com
singaporeair.com (Singapore Airlines)

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer, photographer, author, speaker, teacher of languages. business trainer and workshop leader.
See my other posts on Singapore and Malaysia and learning Chinese and Malay. Please share links to your favourite posts.

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
Follow me on Google and Facebook.

Thrill Rides, Real Life Thrills And Safety

Problem
Thrill Rides
Why would anybody do it? Do I really want an artificial ride? Do I like crowds? Would I be better off hiking? Isn't it expensive?

How about something I can get off if I don't like it?

Mambers of my family ride motobikes (highly dangerous - just read the statistics. A car company in the USA long ago ran an advertisement, buy your son a motorbike for his last birthday).

One of my relatives did two back to back overlapping volcano climbs, just before the latest eruption in Indonesia. He's already planning the next trek. You wouldn't like it, he says. Darned right.

He doesn't have time for thrill rides. He's beyong that. He's out doing real climbing, real thrills, climbing volcanoes on days when the guides don't refuse to go, taking photos of dangerous snakes.

Time
But that's only for those who are retired, do it for a living (like competition drivers who are sponsored), on a gap year. If you have one day a week off work, there is just time to run the washing machine, drive to a theme park, queue up (Americans say line up), take a thrill ride and drive back home.

Disney itself can take three days. It's a holiday activity, or a long weekend. After walking around, you might need a bit more exercise, a bit more energy-using activity.

As for those people doing fairground rides - Why not just ride a fast bike? Is it the same people, at the same stage in their life?

Some like motorcycle rides. Some like to ride. Others like to watch others. 

You could watch the Red Arrows, be a passenger in a helicopter flight to see wildlife and scenery, or learn to fly. Join a gang, or join the fire service or civil defence or join the army.

Skywalks. Observation desks. Even children can walk through an enclosed skywalk, glass sides, enclosed roof. This one is K.L. Malaysia.

Answers
Madeira
In Madeira there's a short Skywalk around the top of a cliff. The first part is solid looking. The glass-floor part is the front edge.

After you've seen everybody else do it, and survive, and take photos, you think, I must do that. It costs nothing. (You spend your money on coffee, a snack, the toilets or souvenirs.)

Take a step forward. If you don't like it, takea step back. When you recover your nerve, try again. I liked it. Thrills without spills.

UK
In London, England, one of the popular entertainment areas is Thorpe Park. They had a new ride. After an accident it closed. It re-opened. By then I was put off.

Why? What's Your Motivation?
I've been thinking about the big rides, the glass bridges, the cliff-edge viewpoints and overhangs, the swinging and rushing rides and falls, the motivation. At places like DisneyWorld and DisneyLand you have a mixture of thrills and sedate walk around 'activities'. The whole family can find something. Scary rides entertain the teens and youngsters. Junior versions. Alternative activities entertain grannies.

Safety
What about the dangers? In theory, rides should go though health and safety testing. They restrict you if you are the wrong size for the ride and its restraints, or you have medical conditions. After an accident, the rides are closed so the same thing can't happen again.

You could argue that it's safer and cheaper than crashing your car racing through the streets, or risking your life jumping from tall buildings with no safety. It's cheaper than crashing your car or somebody else's.

Crowds, videos and insurance
At least in a crowd, other people are there to help. People can video you if you need compensation.  The park or their insurance company can afford to pay up (unlike the unknown, unemployed idiot who dares you at a pub).

Safety Plans
All around your buildings and cities are warning signs. Do not enter. Danger. Escape route.

If you just want a view, take a flight and sit by a window. If you just want a photo, take photos or videos with a drone.

Safety First - Stunts
Stunt men don't just run out. They do a check first of all the possible scenarios and plan for them. Prevention rather than cure.

I do sometimes wonder why more rides don't have in-built safety netting and barriers. You can build a slide on a hill or artificial hill rather than in mid-air so that you go sideways onto the same level instead of plunging.

If I stand on a chair to change a light bulb, I put a pillow or two on the ground, so that if I fell I would have a soft landing. You can put life jackets on people on water activities (or duck boats). Nowadays chidlren's parks have rubber-type ground around the slides and swings so that falling and tumbling toddlers don't scratch and scrape themselves or injure themselves.

Aircraft and Parachute Jumping
Aircraft are designed with ejector seats.

You want real thrills? Join the army. You will have plenty of challenges in training and learn skills, ranging from diving to cross-country skiing. And first aid skills.

French Foreign Legion training in France. Author Davric. From Wikipedia.

Watch
You still want to see and try rides? Yes - later? You can buy an annual pass if you want to keep going back for more thrills. Or if you didn't have the courage to try the biggest, but think you might work up to it.

Watch videos on YouTube from your armchair. Read my other past and future posts. Plan you next trip. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Maybe you still want to try some of those rides and activities?
Static Oservation Decks.
In London, my favourite is The Shard.
Moving Thrills
UK: Alton Towers, Gullivers World, Thorpe Park.
ACTIVITES WORLDWIDE
Disney in the USA and France.
Some car and bike races have tracks open to the public afterwards, usually for a fee, either in your own car, or also or instead in a suitable high speed hired car.
Many more options.

Take care!

wikivoyage.org
Useful Websites
COUNTRIES AND TRAVEL PLANNING & BOOKING
BRITAIN & UK
https://www.zipworld.co.uk/adventure/velocity
https://www.thorpepark.com
visitbritain.com
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g186338-Activities-c47-t39-London_England.html 
(Top ten London observation decks.)
https://zip-now.co/ (Exciting video of zipwire in London.)

INDONESIA
indonesia-tourism.com

MADEIRA
visitmadeira.com

MALAYSIA
visit-malaysia.com
malaysiatourism.gov.my

RUSSIA
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2141189/The-worlds-scariest-rollercoaster-Russian-theme-park-ride-designed-make-thrillseekers-vomit-themselves.html
http://geekologie.com/2012/05/the-puke-inducer-terrifying-russian-them.php

USA
visittheusa.co.uk

WORLDWIDE

wikitravel.org (Travel ads alongside)
https://disneyland.disney.go.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_roller_coaster_rankings

HISTORY
http://www.cracked.com/article_19302_the-6-most-terrifying-theme-park-rides-ever-built.html

ADVICE & INSURANCE
UK
gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice
USA:
travel.state.gov/content/travel
GENERAL
wikivoyage.org (No travel ads)
https://www.moneysupermarket.com/travel-insurance/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_roller_coaster_rankings Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.