Pamcy the Geeky

This country has taught me a lot of things and I was able to reflect this much because of my exposure to post colonial reading from Fil 11.

Comparisons are easily done once you’ve had a taste of perfection. - Thinking of You by Katy Perry. HAHAHA THIS DEFINITELY FITS THIS POST.

For one, Malaysia is much like a better Philippines. By that I mean a much more organized Philippines. I regret being colonized by Americans instead of the British. Haha! We’d probably be similar to Hong Kong and Malaysia if that had happened.. Imagine, what a better country the Philippines would be!

But then again, it was just really up to the inhabitants to build their land. It wouldn’t really matter who colonized you. The Malay (and all the other races living in Malaysia) did it not because of their British colonization but because of their love of their nation and determination to make their country a better place. Where do all these observances come from? I’ve noticed that almost every house and establishment have the Malaysian flag in front. Oha! Here in the Philippines, only schools have flags (and some don’t even put it up — I don’t even think we have a Philippine flag in my school, AdMU). HAHAHA.

And they don’t look like they have COLONIAL MENTALITY. They barely have imported products and they so so so love their local products like Durian (which we have here but WE DON’T APPRECIATE!). They have Durian cake and chocolate-covered Durian!

Based on my logic, we could’ve made our country a better place if we appreciated our country more and foregone our colonial mentality. (?) HAHA.

–

Malaysia beats Philippines when it comes to weather. It’s been crazy in here lately whereas in Malaysia, it’s all easy for them because all they have to do is expect rain in the late afternoon, a rain that doesn’t last long. It actually seems to me like their weather is cooperating with them — with rain coming down just to water the plants. I guess it’s because they’ve maintained their country in terms of environment stability — trees, birds and plants all just where they should be. Don’t even get me started on talking about the dirty, polluted, vegetation-less Manila.

–

Moving on. The food — hmm. VERY VERY DIFFERENT FROM OUR CUISINE! They always have something spicy, like in their what I think is their national dish, Nasi Lemak, there’s some sauce that looks spicy. The rice is so flavorful that I couldn’t take it! The only similarity is that they have dilis, but they put it together with Adobong Mani and they eat it as a side dish. Aside from those, that dish also contains fried chicken and cucumber.

My mom noticed that they don’t have just like ULAM and KANIN. There’s always a vegetable side dish. Although they still don’t have a “balanced” diet — NO PORK! T.T

THEY DON’T FREAKING HAVE PORK! Since their major religion is Islam, most restaurants (or restoran in Bahasa Malaysia) don’t serve pork. So yeah, 3 freaking days of a no-pork diet. For the first time in my life, I actually missed pork.

Weird, but malls don’t commonly have a food court, which is one of my family’s favorite dining choices whenever we travel. So we ended up mostly eating at KFC — this was totally against my ADVENTUROUSLY-EATING self. The only time we were able to eat in one was in the mall inside the Petronas Towers. I ate Lamb kebab, just because I was so fed up of chicken.

–

Beyond the diversity of cuisines (kebabs are probably available because of the Persian communities there) is definitely a diversity of nationalities and races. There are Indians, Turks, Persians, Malays (of course) and Chinese. I’ve never seen so much diversity in an Asian country (I’ve only been to Hong Kong and Malaysia, haha). And honestly, we’ve experienced some racism from the Indians. At least here in the Philippines there isn’t much racism.

Aside from racism, another fact I hate about Malaysia is that they don’t give free WiFi virtually everywhere — meaning  you have to pay, or there just isn’t internet connection in that area — which to me is shocking because I live in a third world country where internet is given away like flyers! And to think, they’re not even a third world country!

–

Among ideas and realizations I’ve formed and acquired because of this trip, learning about basic facts beats those. I learned a lot about our Malay heritage. For one, I enjoyed reading signs and some other stuff written in Bahasa Malaysia because it pretty much looks and sounds like Tagalog that I actually took shots of Bahasa words similar to Tagalog ones!

But the greatest thing I’ve learned from this trip is that Malaysia is actually geographically kinda below the Philippines! So yeah, I’ve been living all my life thinking otherwise.

–

After all that has been said, it all boils down to this: I really do envy Malaysia. I’m not giving up on this country though, I’m keeping my hopes up for a better future for all of us Filipinos — probably a future similar to, or beyond, the present growth and stability of Malaysia.