Sept 2011 - World Class Golf on Langkawi Island, Malaysia

Dreaming of a Golf Getaway? I'm not a golfer but I do appreciate the great natural beauty surrounding the courses found on Langkawi island. The new "Golf + Leisure Magazine" published in Kuala Lumpur commissioned 3 articles by me about the world class golf courses on Langkawi Island in Malaysia for their first issue. I summarized those in an article published on the Langkawi Gazette, a richly informative local website. This link will take you straight to the Sept 2011 Langkawi Life column:
Sept 2011 - GOLF Langkawi Life Column on Langkawi Gazette

Copyright 2011, TF (teviothome@gmail.com)

Writer's Un-Cramp

Every day I seem to fall further in love with writing. Years of my life were spent producing theatre, arts events, and teaching -- all ephemeral. All hugely demanding of time, energy, money -- and gone so soon afterwards. Writing sticks. Especially in this age when anything going up on the internet, stays on the internet -- perhaps forever! Writing feels like freedom -- "un-cramping my voice" -- speaking my mind, voicing my passions, putting it out there to wander through cyberspace... Who knows who will hear it?

                                                               Recent and current writing projects:  

Koh Phangan, Thailand.
Thinking about what to write next...

Monthly column  "Langkawi Life" - observations on life on Langkawi Island, Malaysia on  www.langkawi-gazette.com

4 articles on golf on Langkawi (3 world class golf courses here)  Golf + Leisure Magazine

E-book:  "So You Think You Can Act?" -- "how to" on developing an Acting Career (International) -- drawing on all the many years acting, teaching acting, producing theatre-- have got so much to say!  In process, completion scheduled for November 2011, due out January 2012

E-book:  "Fundraising for Individuals and Small Charities" -- "how to" with lots of "fiddly bits" and ideas for fundraising events and activities -- 30 plus years of fundraising experience, co-writing with a crafter and fundraiser in Australia. In process, completion scheduled for December 2011.

E-books, Powerpoints, Websites, etc.:  "The Crash Course in English" - unlocking the mysteries of grammar, pronunciation, academic and business writing, Travel Survival English, etc., the accumulations of 7 years teaching English in Asia and trying to make language study as easy and accessible as possible. Recently did a 24-lesson Travel English teaching curriculum for a school in Brazil. Lots of material! See:
www.crashcourseenglish.weebly.com.

Book:  "My Father was the Real Indiana Jones -- Biography of a Renaissance Man" -- ongoing project, biography of my father Walter A. Fairservis, Jr. -- What a fascinating and full life he led! Completion date??? Currently gathering information, drafting chapters. See the Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Walter-A-Fairservis-Jr/253196034698116

Book:  "East-West Fusion Theatre: Theory and Practice" -- documenting 1975 to present history of theatre company, philosophy, context, influences, and more -- completion date??? Currently gathering information, drafting chapters. See the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/East-West-Arts-East-West-Fusion-Kings-Couriers-Theatre-Co-Inc/227830450580950?sk=wall

Copyright 2011, TF (teviothome@gmail.com)

Little Reminders You are in a Different World

Unfamiliar landscapes remind me that
"You are not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy!"

My Chinese friend reaches across me and picks up my empty tea cup. She takes the cup to the thermos on a side table and pumps the lid several times, then presses a tab at the front briefly -- just long enough for the hot water to coat the cup, inside and out. She pours the water out into bowl set there to catch waste water. Then she opens a packet of instant noodles and drops them into my cup. Once more she pumps the thermos. Once more she fills the cup -- this time to the brim. She sets it in front of me, adding a plastic spoon. "Wait two minutes," my friend tells me, "and it will be soup!"

It's the little things that most remind me that I am living among different cultures -- in a different world from the one I was raised in. Last night, I had drinks at the yacht club with a couple who have been sailing their own yacht for ten years. They talked about how they would wake in the morning and go through a process of discovering they were in a new place. I know that experience well; when performing on tour around the US and abroad (on and off for some 30 years), it would take awhile after waking to figure out where I was. The "yachtie" couple delights in exploring new ports, though they sometimes forget they are visiting foreign countries. Being on a boat -- like being in a car or RV on a long trip -- things become settled into their places. You know where your toothbrush is; you can usually find the scissors. Things become 'shipshape' after awhile. I have that experience now as I feel increasingly comfortable in the apartment I have rented on an island in Malaysia. It is well-outfitted with luxuries like a hot water shower and a washing machine, broadband internet access, cable TV -- all the comforts of home. I even adopted two kittens. I forget I am not "at home."

The seats become beds on trains in Thailand

What are those "little things" that are so different? I have come to accept that I must turn on a switch to power the electric hot water heater for the shower, then turn it off again when done. Unlike the U.S., I have only cold water to wash the dishes. If I'm feeling ambitious, I will throw the cutlery into a large pot, fill it with water, and boil the utensils for 15 or 20 minutes to sterilize them. But often, I will just soap and rinse -- the dishwashing liquid bottles claim their contents to be antibacterial. In China, the bottles would have pictures of vegetables being washed -- a good idea anywhere because who knows who has been touching food on its way from farm to store? I read recently that a few Americans die every month from bacteria in rat urine left on cans. So now I wash the cans as well before opening them.

The most shocking difference, of course, to most Westerners is the traditional Asian squat toilet, really just a hole that you attempt to hit. In China, especially in drought-stricken or desert areas, this can be a gutter that is washed out infrequently. The smells can be unbelievable. Waiting at ferry terminals in Thailand and Malaysia -- tourist centers featuring fancy duty-free shops and chain restaurants like Starbucks and KFC -- I am surprised (and disappointed) that there are no 'sit-down' facilities. In bus and mini-van terminals, I ask the way and find I must wend my way to a table where I have to pay for entry, or go through a family's kitchen or a filthy storage room to a rickety door and a windowless room with no lights, or else go outside on a narrow path through bushes to behind the fancy storefronts where sits a shack in the back. There are, of course, many many exceptions: the Western throne has become ubiquitous in newer buildings. That's part of the shock: you spend time in Western style hotels, apartments, and restaurants, then start to travel and inevitably, encounter the unexpected. But that's part of the attraction of travel: to see and experience new things you have never dreamt of before.

Ferry terminal in Asia. Workers generally
 have a more relaxed attitude towards time than
their Western counterparts.

With writing assignments, correspondence, and the fun of Facebook communications keeping me at the computer for most hours of the day, I rarely go out. When I do, it's usually just down the hill to a new grocery store just built a few months ago. I watched the store grow from a cement pad. Metal siding was added to form walls and roof. That was it -- then trucks arrived with boxes of stock and the doors were opened. Now when I need to shop, I am reminded about just where I am by the head dresses worn by the Muslim girls who act as cashiers and the bottles, cans, and packets labelled in Malay (Bahasa Melayu). There are no fruit or vegetables in this store (though there are two larger groceries in the city); I must go next door to an open-air stand where bunches of bananas hang suspended from bamboo poles and the flies buzz around. The surface of the electric weighing machine is never cleaned. Or I could go down the street to where a man in rubber boots stands with a cleaver in his hand, chopping chicken carcasses for hours, blood draining into the gutters around him.

Why do I keep assuming that all the world should be hygienic, sweet-smelling, sterile? It's the richness and variety of flavors, colors, smells, cultures -- and arresting images that suddenly make my heart pound --  that make living 'outside your comfort zone' in a foreign place such a stimulating, exciting experience!

Copyright 2011, TF (teviot@facebook.com)

Coping with Crisis

In recent weeks, I've done some research on the differences between life in Asia and life in "these United States." Here's one  horrifying statistic: 45 million Americans are now receiving food stamps. About 1/3rd of the U.S. population is now receiving government assistance of some kind -- that's 100 million people. At the same time, prices in Asia average about 1/3rd that of the US. How can people afford to live in the US any more when prices have become so ludicrous? And income has remained the same or jobs have disappeared entirely? What can be done about it?

Numbeo.com compares cost-of-living. The closest city to me is Penang, Malaysia. I think of New York City as "home." Compare the prices:

	Penang	New York
Restaurants			Difference
Meal, Inexpensive Restaurant	3.48 $	15.01 $	+331.18 %
Meal for 2, Mid-range Restaurant, Three-course	16.88 $	73.00 $	+332.35 %
Combo Meal at McDonalds or Similar	3.67 $	6.75 $	+83.94 %

There are a few out there doing something to help those Americans who suddenly, dismayingly, find themselves empoverished. Just watched a CNN Hero, Sal Dimicelli, who voluntarily helps his neighbors in Wisconsin (http://edition.cnn.com/2011/US/07/29/cnnheroes.dimiceli.qa/index.html?iref=obinsite). The couple seen in the video is as American as apple pie. They are hard-working but also fun-loving, and they wear their years on their faces -- faces which now are even more drawn and wrinkled by the sudden realization that they are down to their last pennies with no job prospects on the horizon. Sal comes to their door bringing some hope.

I know these people. Like most Americans, they seem reasonably intelligent but poorly educated; they live in a house crowded with couches, comfortable chairs, stoves, TV, running water, hot showers, electricity, and probably an assortment of "chatchkas" -- Hummel figurines and Barbie dolls. These are people who show up for work, do an okay job, work hard but not obsessively. They do not aspire to much more than what they consider a simple life -- a life which has increasingly been defined by the "name brands." They enjoy their Bud beer and Marlboro cigarettes, a steak at Sizzler or burger at Mickey D's, get their clothes at K-Mart, their appliances at Wal-Mart, their shoes at Payless. In the US, so many Americans continue to overeat -- doctors claim there is rampant obesity in the US, and consequentially, epidemic diabetes and heart attacks linked to overweight, killing thousands each year. The couple in the video are not emaciated though not fat.

When you live in a "spoon fed" society, do you lose your ability to self-initiate? It seems that many Americans do not have the training or the personal resources to figure out what to do in times of crisis. They are trying everything they can think of to survive -- in the video, the wife reports she sold her wedding ring and is deeply when touched when Sal returns the ring. He had convinced the jeweler who bought it to give it back to her.

Why are Americans having so much trouble coping? Where is the old "pioneer spirit?" Or the determination that our parents and grandparents had to survive the Depression and the World Wars? Have we become so spoiled by propaganda and the previous decades of excess that we simply do not know what to do when jobs and money are scarce. The contrasts with the lives of Asians, especially those of the educated middle classes and poor, are startling.

To me, a big problem is the assumptions that Americans make about what life should be like and what business and society tell us are standard. For the last 6 years in Asia, I have lived without an oven. Before I came here, I had never seen a kitchen that was not equipped with a 4-burner stovetop with oven below. I miss baking and roasting but I have been forced to learn ways to cook decent meals on a propane gas stove similar to what campers in the US use outdoors (cost of the stove here in Malaysia = 35 ringgit = $10 USD).

I had never seen a hot water heater for a sink or shower before I first visited Asia. As a child in the 50's, I remember my mother's washing machine would require several steps; it was never until I visited Japan that I had ever had to deal with a cold water wash or moving the laundry to a spinner to wring out the soap, and then a second time to rinse.Why or how has it happened that Americans assume that all kitchens have stoves with ovens, all laundry and dishes must be washed in machines using hot water, and all clothes must dry in energy-eating hot air dryers? There are other alternatives.

Front door of the Jungle House

Last week, I spent some time on an island in Thailand where a British friend has designed his own little house in the jungle. Long previous experience in Asia and a lot of research went into the design. He used tropical trees cut down to make room for the house; hand-axed by local workers, they became the support beams for the house -- reported cost under $35 for the house beams. Stained a dark brown against the white sheathing, they give an English Tudor effect. For the floors, he got extra large white tiles to cover a poured cement floor -- both cooling and easily cleaned. The bathroom and kitchen areas are simply roofed with a semi-translucent plastic. Yes, when cocoanuts fall on them, there's a loud noise but otherwise they serve well to keep insects and rain out while letting light in.

Jungle kitchen

For about two days, when my prepaid mobile phone ran out of money, I was alone in the jungle without a way to call anyone if I had needed help. No phone, no internet access, no TV, no air con, no transportation (my friend's motorcycle broke down so he had mine). Water was collected in tanks from the mountains to supply the local village; the pipes into the house would clog up with leaves. I boiled water for hours in the little electric hot pot.

Beautiful jungle garden --
with  creatures hiding in the bushes

Outside,I was surrounded -- in the bushes live a nest of king cobras, a swarm of scorpions, a flock of very handsome chickens. Luckily, just outside the front door, lives a pack of very protective dogs and cats who appreciated my feeding them. Inside, I was in a reasonably safe, secure, clean and pretty place -- a comfort in the sudden torrential rains. With the help of some good books, time passed pleasantly. Now back home in Malaysia, I am more grateful than ever for the luxuries that surround me -- cable TV, broadband, aircon -- but also with a greater appreciation for how little it takes to survive and how wasteful modern life is getting to be.

It reminded me very much of when I used to live in a little 2-room cottage in northwest Connecticut. Water for the house came from an artesian well which failed every time the electricity blinked off. Winter months I spent hours filling in unsuspected holes in the wall with plastic wrap, aluminum foil, and whatever else I could find. Windows were sealed first with plastic wrap, then covered with blankets. Living there, life held daily lessons in self-reliance and necessity as the "mother of invention." This has stood me in good stead as I struggle to stay ahead of the financial game and am faced with more tests of my tolerance for Asian conditions.

Those experiences that test our ingenuity also teach. For me, the answer to living a 'low-income life' became obvious: leave the US.  I have a little regular monthly income -- and dollars go so much further here in Asia. From what other expats I have met here have said, there's an increasing exodus from the West -- people are moving to Asia because they can't afford to stay at home.


Indexes Difference
  Consumer Prices in New York, NY are 79.11% higher than in Penang
  Consumer Prices Including Rent in New York, NY are 142.17% higher than in Penang  
  Rent Prices in New York, NY are 420.04% higher than in Penang  
  Restaurant Prices in New York, NY are 248.82% higher than in Penang  
  Groceries Prices in New York, NY are 57.83% higher than in Penang    
  Local Purchasing Power in New York, NY is 10.11% higher than in Penang











Copyright 2011, TF (teviothome@gmail.com)

ABSURDITIES - USA vs Asia

AMERICAN LIFE TODAY

Or how rules and regulations are making life miserable for many Americans

               Do I think there should be a “baby on board” law to ensure that parents put their young children in regulation car seats in the back rather than on their laps? Yes.  My mother told me that when I was still a baby (this was in the 1950’s), my father was driving and I was sitting on her lap. I had just lain down flat to go to sleep when the car was rear-ended. My mother’s body folded over me – if I had been sitting up, I might have been crushed. This recently happened to a father in Hawai’I whose child died in his lap – and who will spend the rest of his life regretting that he did not follow the child-seat law.

               But do I think that I should be terrified of being arrested for jaywalking or hanging out a convenience store or smoking in a bar? Do I think that the over-worked and underpaid police forces should be constantly on the lookout for infractions of the law? Or that decent working people should be constantly thinking about whether or not they have a non-working horn on their car or if they have left a shopping cart in the wrong place?

               Legislators and politicians have attempted to “idiot-proof” American society.  Long ago, it reached a point of absurdity.  The USA is one of the most regulated countries in the world; it is often called “the most litigious society in the world;” lawyers make millions and the courts have backlogs of years. My point here is that I believe the country is over-regulated and that situation has led to a rampant and destructive paranoia. And it hasn’t stopped the unfortunates, the idiots, and the few bad apples from accidents and injuries.  

Medicines that could save lives are denied because of side effects caused by improper use; obstetricians refuse to deliver babies because they may be sued. There needs to be a better, more reasonable balance between law and order, between care and prevention and trust in common sense -- otherwise it seems American life increasingly resembles the paranoid worlds of the old Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.  We are afraid at a time when we need courage. All the laws in the world offer no protection if we live in fear.

 

nagoyahoo.com

               This thought first struck me when, in the early 1990’s, I attended an outdoor performance of ukai in Kyoto, Japan.  As the sun was setting, friends brought me to a crumbling cement pier beside a river on the outskirts of a city known for its preservation of traditions.  As we drank our “Calpis” yogurt drinks purchased from a street-side vending machine (showing trust that customers will help themselves and not harm the machines), little boats began to move out on to the river .

               Each boat held eight passengers and a cook / guide / sailor who anchored them just above a cement waterfall, where they swayed a little precariously in the torrent.  On an open charcoal grill, the cook prepared a feast of seafood and vegetables.  Bottles of beer were opened and passed around. Clearly, a good time was being had by all.

               As the evening darkened and the passengers set down their chopsticks, a larger boat coasted out from the dock to just below the waterfall. On this boat were several strapping men dressed oddly in grass ‘hula-type’ skirts.  They uncovered cages and brought out pitch black cormorant birds with gold rings around their throats. Stars popped out above us. The men loaded wood into steel baskets that were suspended from cranes. Teetering on the bows in their grass skirts, they set fire to the wood, then swung the baskets out over the water.

               At once, fish began to jump from the water, attracted by the firelight. Now the cormorants went into action, diving into the river and coming back to the boat to present their catch to their masters. The fishermen chopped bits of fish into bite-sized pieces and fed the birds their reward. They dove back into the river to fetch more fish. The fishermen tossed the rest of the fish over to the cooks who grilled them fresh and served the passengers.

This tradition of ukai  cormorant fishing has been practiced in Japan since at least the 8^th century.  It can still be seen at Arashiyama and Uji near Kyoto, at Gifu near Tokyo, and according to the Visit Kansai website, at a total of 12 locations around the country http://www.visitkansai.com/attractions/uji.

               The boat passengers and pier-side watchers all applauded loudly as the program drew to an end and the boats prepared to return to shore.  I got up from my perch on the crumbling concrete pier and was suddenly struck by two thoughts.

First, as my friend informed me, this tradition of cormorant fishing at night by firelight is yet another example of how  Japanese culture has both preserved and developed over a thousand years and how it stems from the even earlier 5000-year old Chinese sources.  Western – and especially my own American culture – is only a few centuries old.  Are we toddlers by comparison? On what basis can we say something that has been practiced for centuries is “wrong?”

Second, there was nothing in the entire performance that would be LEGAL in the USA. OSHA would shut down the whole program for inadequate seating on a dangerous pier. No inspector worth his salt would allow boats to be anchored at the top of a dangerous-looking waterfall.  Barbecues and wooden boats don’t mix well, and the potential was there for the grill to spill hot coals on the passengers if it tipped.

Worse yet, as most Americans would probably agree, wearing a grass skirt while starting a fire is never a good idea, nor is standing on the edge of a tipping boat. And the ASPCA and PETA would be up in arms over the cruelty to the birds.

I have lived overseas now for almost 7 years and just returned to Asia from a few months trip back to the US for the first time in years.  Being back in Asia has given me a huge sense of relief and release. While in the US, I became increasingly aware of the many “DON’TS” in American life. People grabbed me when I attempted  to cross an empty street and warned me I could be arrested. Cashiers looked askance if I approached their counters from the wrong side. Police sirens screamed through the streets day and night. Things that are simple in Asia – getting a prepaid cellphone number or getting an internet connection were bewilderingly complex in the US.

In the air – and on ads everywhere – there seemed to be a clear message of my personal failures. I failed to wear the right clothes, drink the right soda or fancy coffee, eat the right healthy foods, or respond to the authorities –  officials at the motor vehicle department when I went to renew my driving license, doctors when I went in for a checkup, police when I called them because after a month of listening to a baby scream as though being tortured – in quite the expected ways. American society seemed to me to be wearing a giant frown. No wonder so many people I met seemed depressed or crazy.

And the prices were ridiculous. I went to the neighborhood convenience store to get food for breakfast: a half-gallon of milk, a quart of orange juice, a dozen eggs, and 1 pack of cigarettes (yes, I still indulge). Grand total: $26.00. Back in Asia, the same would cost $6 - $10 max. More than anything, I hated the feeling that I was being reduced as a person and valued only for the amount in my bank account – which was rapidly emptying.  

I have lived in a variety of Asian societies where I see people living a pretty good if subsistence life. They may be only paid 3 ringgit or 35 baht per hour but they wear a smile and clean clothes. They are proud of their country, their family, their cultural group or their school, their temple or mosque or church. Even the lowliest seem to have found some dignity as participants in a group that values and supports them in various ways. Across the board, I am treated better here than at home – perhaps in part because as a foreigner it is expected that I have deeper pockets but also I seem to be esteemed for my age and education, for my acts of kindness and honest smiles which burst through the barriers of language and culture.

The longer I step outside my own society, the more I am dismayed at its essential flaws.  Violence, murder, perverted love affairs, and the tracking down of criminals dominate the entertainment. Advertising bombards the country with propaganda about what people should do – or buy. The news is all bad – the shuttle flights have ended and there’s no new goal being promoted, the housing market has tanked, there are no jobs available, the president has failed to turn the stock market around.  

Blame and shame show up in so many of the conversations I have had with my fellow countrymen, and worst of all is the sense of hopelessness. For every effort to start something new, or take another approach, there is a reminder that this or that is against a regulation or a law. Big Brother is watching, and the criminal element is stealing our identities.

America, so many seem to be saying, has lost its edge and therefore, we should all just surrender and despair at our individual failures to buy the right thing. People seem cynical, distrustful, despairing. Makes me wonder what has happened to the “American fighting spirit?” I just hope and pray that Mr. Obama’s “Yes, we can!” message can catch fire again over some cause that unites the country. (Pres. Kennedy got us all caught up in the "race for the moon." Later, it became "the race for space." It seems so sad now that the Space Shuttles are grounded that there's no new frontier being touted for us to conquer...)

I retain some faith in the intelligence and problem-solving ability of our current president but I think he is fighting formidable apathy. With all the brain-power in the country, we need to educate and support each other so that we can overcome despair and revive the energy needed to save ourselves. I am encouraged by the TED talks, Tim Ferriss’s “Four Hour Work Week,” Jack Canfield and others offering “Chicken Soup for the Soul” – but wonder if that American soul has become so damaged by the constraints imprisoning it that it may waste away in jail until it dies.

In contrast, it has been my experience here in Asia, that even the humblest person has a sense of hope for better days.  Even more, people just choose to enjoy themselves now and not worry too much about the future (which of course, leads to people not showing up for work, lying or cheating to get time off and put unearned money in their pockets).

I step outside my own society in pursuit of something different, hoping for something better. The reality is, at least for now, I prefer life outside.

Copyright 2011, TF (teviothome@gmail.com)