does it ever rain in Seattle?
I saw this sign for a driving school while i was on my way back from the Senai airport (Johor, Malaysia) to Johor Bahru. The Chinese words “少林教導駕駛學院” literally means Shaolin instructed driving school.
Now i don’t know which part of the Shaolin Kung Fu will come in handy when you are learning how to drive but i imagine it looking something like the video below. Why parallel park when you know Shaolin Kung Fu!
I am currently here in the capital - crime capital of Malaysia - with Smelly, visiting my parents. Not only is there nothing much one can do in Johor Bahru, this city is infamous for its rampant crimes. Every day in the paper, there are always reports of people being attacked, mugged, robbed and raped. Things have gotten so bad that a Johor state MP described the city as “crime city” and “sin city”. Ironically, an anti-crime demonstration organized by outraged citizens of Johor Bahru on June 17th this year resulted in the arrest of two lead organizers of the demonstration. No wonder safety and security have gotten so bad in this city. Instead of concentrating their efforts on fighting crimes, police officers of Johor Bahru harassed and arrested people voicing their opinions about the obvious lack of safety and security in the city.
Living in Johor Bahru is like living in a giant open air prison. You are perpetually having to worry about your personal safety and the safety of your loved ones. You won’t see a female jogging alone in this city. Walking alone at night in a dimly-lighted area is asking for trouble. My cousin’s husband is always having second thoughts about driving his Lexus SUV around in the city for the fear of being car-jacked. Most of the time, he would rather drive around inconspicuously in his wife’s Malaysian-made car. When my cousin traveled out of the country to places like Taipei or Singapore, she actually thought that safety there was a “luxury”.
Smelly and i have been “stuck” in this crime-ridden dump for the past four days. Because we are in the middle of the monsoon season, it is not recommended that we go to beaches on the east coast along the state of Johor. If not for the Nintendo Wii that i brought for my parents, i think i would have been bored to tears. We can’t wait for our flight out of here tomorrow to the real capital of Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur.
You can barely make out the silhouette of the Bank of America building - the tallest building in Seattle - in the background.
I went up to Whistler during the Thanksgiving break a few weeks ago. Snow was pretty decent, consider the season had just barely started.
