Hello KL

A couple of months ago, I joined the Association of British Women in Malaysia (ABWM).  They are a fun group of women who get together at different venues throughout Kuala Lumpur for coffees, Mahjong, dinner socials, charity events, running clubs, book clubs, photo clubs, and more. 

This past month, I was lucky enough to take part in a 4 week (once per week) introductory tour around KL with two lovely British guides from the ABWM-Mandy and Pauline. Our group consisted of seven expats from Australia, America, Scotland, and England. Together, we traveled around different parts of the city including Chinatown, Central Market (Pasar Seni), the light rail, the Taman Tun Dr. Ishmael (TTDI) wet market, a traditional Malay house, the Bangsar neighborhood, and a variety of stores and shops that a new expat might find useful. A good time was had by all.

first day of Hello KL tour

popular expat store for home decorations

our lunch at the Malay house

Jalan Alor area

gorgeous mahjong set at Ambiance

LRT at Bangsar station

stopping for a drink at an old salon-hotel

Central Market

not quite my idea of Christmas trees, but very colorful!

fish balls cooking?

TTDI wet market

the baking store at TTDI

TTDI veggie stands

more veggie stands at TTDI

fish stand at TTDI

florist at TTDI

poultry area at TTDI

the spice lady at TTDI

beautiful displays at Allison's

loved this acupuncture family (at Ambiance)!

some of our group in Bangsar neighborhood

more in Bangsar neighborhood

our group in front of Jalan Conlay Malay house

Petronas towers peeking out behind the Malay house

inside the Malay house

inside the Malay house

our 2 muslim guides in the Malay house

traditional Malay kitchen

Jalan Alor

Bukit Bintang 

Lucky Meats proprietress

street scene KL

elephants at gift shop 

tea time with the group

my dragon fruit smoothy at lunch one day

light rail at Bangsar station

inside Bangsar station

central market

scarf shop

our group in Chinatown

can you find me?

view from near Merdeka Square

the famous Peter Hoe's

Christmas cheer in Chinatown

inside Peter Hoe's

Photography

I enjoy taking pictures and try to photograph what I am looking at in an artistic way. Sometimes photos just jump out at me until I stop and try to capture that moment in time. 

Moving to Malaysia for a year seemed like a good reason to buy a nice camera. So I decided to buy my first digital SLR camera before we left home. After doing some online and in store research as well as getting personal recommendations, I purchased a Canon Rebel T-3. I like it’s moderate size and ease of use, but I still don’t know very much about it. As I take pictures this year, I am trying to experiment using different settings on the camera. And with the help of my daughter, I am also learning more about photoshopping. Additionally, I have started taking photo classes at the British Women’s Association in Kuala Lumpur and am loving it. In our first two classes, we covered some aspects of photo composition and evaluated professional photographer's works as well as some of our own. In the new year, I will be taking classes on movement, portraiture, street photography, aperture and macro, and Light Room (a cataloging and editing program). I am excited. Below, I have included several of my favorite shots. Hope you enjoy ; ).

Christmas in Malaysia

Hmmm...celebrating Christmas in a Muslim country... Despite Christmas decorations and music in the malls, Christmas just doesn’t seem the same here. Could it be the warm weather? The lack of Christmas carolers, Christmas trees, and the fragrant smell of pine? I think it is that and more. I am missing our annual Christmas traditions that lead up to Christmas: the lighting of our city tree, the special gatherings of friends, seeing eggnog at the grocery store and eggnog lattes at Starbucks. And most certainly, it is having the day off for Christmas!

On the positive side of things, lots of grocery stores and hotels are selling take out turkey dinners accompanied by a few side dishes for pretty reasonable prices. I haven’t yet decided if I will go that route, but it seems excessive to cook so many dishes for just the 4 of us. Perhaps I should just break out of tradition entirely and do something different this year for dinner. What do you think?

What have I done to bring in the Christmas season, you ask??? 

Several weeks ago on a walk, I found a lovely large tree branch without leaves on it that I am using as our Charlie Brown Christmas tree. I have begun to decorate it with homemade and store bought items. So far, my decorations consist of toilet paper rolls I decorated with colorful designs, stars, bows, strands of crepe paper, and a Petronas towers ornament. I also found a strand of lights that I plan on hanging on the tree if it is strong enough.

We also attended a church service at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Bukit Bintang where there were Christmas carols being sung and the origination stories of the carols were told. I enjoyed the stories though the singing left much to be desired. The musical compositions weren’t much to my liking and the voices were sadly uninspiring.

The crafting part of my Christmas season has consisted of folding Waldorf stars (http://arwenart.com/tutorials/windowstars/). For a few weeks now whenever I get the chance and find some cool paper, I fold more stars. Our entry wall now has stars of all different sizes and colors. Because I couldn’t find the recommended kite paper for the stars, I have used whatever paper I could find including colorful sticky note paper, magazines, advertisements, wrapping paper, local money, and even the waxy paper covering some flowers I purchased...I love my star wall ; ).

St. Andrew's Church

Malaysian Ringgit star

star wall

our Charlie Brown Christmas tree

mall Christmas decorations

Ambiance store Xmas decorations

MKIS Symphonic band Christmas performance (w/Gabe)

our own mini mall in Mont' Kiara

1 Mont' Kiara

Today was the last day of school for the kids for 3 weeks-YAY and tomorrow we are off to Bali and Thailand. Merry Christmas to all and to all a Happy New Year!