Rotis Rotis Rotis

Brellowgirl
Mar 14, 2016
19 min read

3.3.16

It’s March already, isn’t that crazy? So crazy story, my workaway host Chantrea got realy really drunk the other night and was feeling quite the hangover the next morning. When I crossed paths with him he mentioned how much he had drank and then told me that I was in his dreams. I didn’t know whether or not that was creepy so I left the kitchen and proceeded to look up travel plans for my next destination lol. I found a cheap ticket to Malaysia, booked it and left two days later. So I had to take a 5 hour bus from Sihanoukville to Phenom Penh, get dropped off at the airport, wait 2 hours for check-in to open, wait two more hours for my flight to board, 2.5hr flight, I land in Kuala Lumpur, take a 30 min Klia train into KL Sentral then wait an hour for another train that will take me into Johor Bahru. I’m on that train for 8.5 hrs and then I take a 30 minute bus ride to a town called Ulu Tirar where a staff guy from the camp picks me up and drives me 30 minutes back to the camp. I am pooped. The drive to the camp was nice though, it’s 5 kilometers lines with palm trees. The minute I get here I am asked to either bike 20kilometers or be out in the sun all day on a boat watching kayakers-I opt for the latter. I quickly slather on sunscreen on my face and grab a hat, I’m out! One of the first things they tell me is that the river is called the Johor and it runs out into the sea so it’s saltwater. Be careful with the crocodiles and cobras in the water. HA. Not going in that water…They have kayaking and stand up paddleboarding, which I love doing so I miiiight just see how the week goes and make a decision on whether I’m brave enough to get in the water or not.

So this place I’m volunteering at is an outdoor adventure camp. They have mountain biking, trail hiking, other team building activities and the kayaking and SUP like I mentioned before. I meet a girl nicknamed Minie and I shadow her all day. She’s interning here as part of her requirements in school; she’s studying tourism management. We’re baking in the sun literally allll day so we have plenty to talk about. Our job today was to be out with the kayakers and make sure they didn’t drown, easy. There’s a big camp here right now of 140+ kids. They’re all teenagers probably 18-20ish? And I believe they’re from Singapore. Half of them went on a water expedition and the other half went on a land expedition… whatever that means.

We got done around 5pm, it started raining on the way back. There was one straggler group kayaking that just didn’t give an eff and basically gave up halfway down the river. There were 4 kayaks and they were all just super uncoordinated and one was sinking the whole time. It was a mess. It was also hilarious haha.

We got back, I showered and went down to dinner. There wasn’t much to eat though. For about 10-15 people there was about 10 chicken wings, a couple of pieces of fried fish, a small portion of potato salad, a bowl of fried rice and a bowl of fried noodles. This is not going to go over well. I had a small portion of food and then talked with some other staff members before going up to my room. I’m sharing a 6 bed dorm room with Minie and a staff member named Fang. It’s a pretty big room, so I’m happy about that. However, the bathroom we’re using is in the adjoining guys staff room and we all have to share it. Bleh.

Okay, I’m in bed and I’m pooped from a long day of traveling and being in the sun. Not to mention my back is killing me from carrying my bookbags. The wifi here is non-existent so idk when you guys will ever get to read this.

3.4.16

My first day at Kulim and I just did some marketing stuff in the morning. We want to attend intakes at some local universities which are like extracurricular fairs for new students. So I contacted a handful of colleges and talked to coordinators about tabling at the schools. Everyone spoke pretty good English so thankfully I didn’t have too much difficulty. In the afternoon I, along with Jason the other workawayer, set up and led some team building activities with the campers. We had one in particular that I liked called leaky pipe where there was an 8ft pvc pipe with a bunch of holes drilled into it and the object of the game was to fill the pipes with water and extract a ping pong ball that had been thrown inside.

In the evening I was told that I would be MC-ing for a campfire the next day along with Jason so all the staff members got together to practice their routines. Glaudine and Fang were fire breathers, Iem and Dwayne spun fire staffs and Andy DJ-ed. It was nice seeing them relax a little and focus on something other than the campers for a bit.

3.5.16

We’re up first thing in the morning for a water expedition with the campers! I slathered on the sunscreen and headed out with the rest to the launch point for the kayaks. I rowed with Iem and we spent a good 2.5hrs on the water rowing against the current to get to a spot for lunch. It was full sun out and we didn’t think that the group could row to the spot we were supposed to stop at so we stopped at a point closer to set up lunch. This spot had zero shade though so it was pretty torturous. We had packed hot dogs, eggs and maggi (ramen) for the campers and they were meant to cook their own lunches in teams. We did the same as staff members but the guys forgot to pack a big pot for ourselves so we had to take turns cooking individual portions of food in small containers. We spent about 2 hours there and then packed up all our stuff and headed back downstream. I got a kayak with Andy and Iem went on the speedboat. It was a different kayak than the one we were using before though and within about 20 minutes of kayaking I started feeling like we were sinking. I looked behind me at Andy and there was water in our boat -___- I didn’t mind capsizing but the waterproof bag I had grabbed for my phone was broken on one side and I was so afraid that if we flipped over my phone was going to get destroyed. I took the lanyard with my phone off my neck seconds before we flipped over and I went under but managed to keep my arm above the water with my phone. Unfortunately my head went under though and even though I had my sunglasses on a cord I managed to lose them =[. I was pretty scared at that moment because I already knew about the crocs and the cobras that might be sharing the water with us but in addition to that, Andy had said that bull sharks like to play in the water too. Sigh. I was peeing my pants. The problem was that we were the last one to leave the launch point so there was no one behind us to help and the speedboat was far ahead of us. We called out to Jason who was rowing far ahead of us and put our paddles up in the air and waved them as it was an emergency. Within 5 minutes the speedboat came around to pick us up.

Then, we had another adventure…the speedboat was already heavy with people but we couldn’t tow the leaking kayak so they had to pull it up onboard. It was filled with water though so it was extremely heavy. They managed to pull it up but it was really scary because the speedboat was not balanced at all and I thought a few times that it was going to turn over itself. Not a good situation. We got it handled though and made our way back with everyone.

In the evening I got the chance to shine and MC the campfire. I don’t know how David is such an amazing MC at all the events he helps host yet I just cannot. I tried my best to keep the campers entertained but I sucked.

3.6.16

We were all dead tired in the morning but we had to get up for a hike to Banana Hill. It was a short 3 hour walk there and back and the views were awesome. This entire area sits on palm plantations like for palm oil so from the top all you can see for miles and miles are rows of palm trees. It's really cool to see the seed pods of palm too. They’re bright red and if you cut them in half you have some fleshy fruit on the inside and then where there’s supposed to be a pit that’s where the palm oil is. It’s like hardened, waxy and whitish in color, really cool. I get terrible reception at the retreat center but at the top of banana hill I had great service and got to check my e-mails for the first time in 3 days. I know 3 days seems like nothing but without IG and facebook and emails 3 days is an eternity.

Our camp group left in the afternoon when we got back and I made a few friends from the group (the entire group was from a uni in Singapore). When we got our evaluation forms back it seems like I had made more of an impression that I thought on the campers lol (see pictures below).

We had a half day after that and I was so pooped that Dwayne and I rolled out some mats on the grassy lawn and passed out in the shade for hours. I woke up a few times and tried to read (I’m reading this book called All the Light we Cannot see about WW2-highly recommend) but I’d just fall back asleep in the heat. I was finally awakened by mosquitos eating me alive so we went in, grabbed Jason and went to a movie. The movie theatre was in a mall about 25 minutes away and It looked like our theatres back home. We agreed on watching Dead Pool, which was greeeattt. I though Ryan Reynolds was awesome *swoons*. I thought it was hilarious that when the credits started rolling and the lights came on, I saw cup noodles in the drink holders on some seats haha. THAT’S when you know you’re in Asia.

3.7.16

Day off, day off, day off! Feels so good to not do anything after doing so much! We all slept in and then met up downstairs for lunch. Our plan for the day was to drive to a town called Kota Tinggi, about an hour away and go to a waterfall there and then go to a place along the Johor river that’s known for seeing fireflies. So we took two cars to go to the waterfall and I put on my sunscreen and bathing suit and went but when we got there I realized that I hadn’t brought a change of clothes and that we were in Malaysia and that I couldn’t just go swimming with my bikini on…everyone was covered up while they were swimming, even the men had shirts on. So I sat out on a rock with my feet in the water and read my book instead, it was still really nice out. There were tons of fish in the water, the kinds that like to suck on your feet so Iem was throwing some chips into the water and all the fish would violently attack that area for food.

We went for dinner after that at a place nearby. I had biryani rice with some kind of curry. One thing I find really interesting is that in Thailand the food was really spicy. I mean, even if you asked for just a little spicy, you were going to have a burning mouth for quite some time. In Cambodia the food was super mild. I can’t remember eating anything spicy at all. In Malaysia everything is spicy. A lot of the places we’ve been going to are like buffets where they already have the food cooked and then you take what you want and someone will come around, look at your plate and make up an arbitrary number for what you owe. The more you mix food though, the more expensive it is. E.g. rice and chicken might be 4 ringgit (about 4 ringgit to the US dollar) but then if you add beef or fish to that it might be close to 12 ringgit whereas if you just piled chicken on your plate it probably wouldn’t go over 6 ringgit. Idk, I don’t make this stuff up. A really popular drink her is Milo, a chocolate milk. It’s almost like a national drink where everyone drinks it. I think it’s hilarious seeing grown adults go out for dinner and order chocolate milk, it just cracks me up.

At the table next to us they ordered this huge cone shaped roti (bread) and Dwayne said it was sweet so I was curious to try it. It looked like a huge Malaysian roti (more airy and buttery than Indian rotis but the size of a dosa) and it came out on a plate like a cone. It was covered in condensed milk, yummm. It was crispy on top but I liked the doughy parts on the bottom. It was super yum.

In Cambodia and here in Malaysia I noticed that people use a lot of condensed milk for desserts and drinks. You can order cold or hot black tea and they’ll put sugar, milk and condensed milk in it. It’s really good but deathly sweet. They also put condensed milk on shaved ice with flavors, like sno cones but with condensed milk also.

After dinner we went to this really weird place to watch fireflies. There was a mini zoo with rabbits and roosters in small cages and there was one lone monkey. I felt so bad for the monkey I started tearing. I sat by it for a while and talked to it but it looked like it was going crazy. It would sit against the cage and stick it’s arm through and just relax like that listening to me talk. Monkeys are social animals and this one was so sad being in a cage by itself. Sigh.

We had to get on a boat to see the fireflies along the river. It took us down and when the tour guide pointed out the first blinking lights in a bush I didn’t believe him because they looked like blinking Christmas lights. Our fireflies back in the states light up and then take a few seconds to light up again. Their light is also a glowy yellowish light. These fireflies looked like mini strobe lights in the trees and bushes because they were non-stop blinking. They were so small though you could barely see them. Half way through the boat ride a few flew onto the boat and Fang caught one. It almost looked like an engorged chia seed that lit up haha. It was cool but there weren’t many out and I think this isn’t the right season to see them.

On the way home we stopped by a roadstall known for their satay. We bought two bags (each had 30 skewers, one chicken and one beef. Nowhere you go will they serve pork because we’re in a Muslim country). We watched the stall owner cook up the satay and then brought them to another place along the Johor river to eat. It came with bags of cut up cucumber and red onion and another big bag of peanut sauce for the satay. Proper satay is different than the satay that is served at home. Satay here is ground up chicken mixed with spices and herbs and then they form little pieces of the mixture and put it on the skewers whereas back home I’m used to eating just pieces of chicken that have been skewered and then marinated and then the highlight is the peanut sauce (which is also very different here). I tried some, although I’ve been trying not to eat meat, and then FT-ed Kirk for the first time in a few days. The internet at the retreat is terrible (thus, I haven’t been able to post anything). Our drive back was cool because the retreat center is in a gated area where the palm plantations are so once we cross the gates it’s like a single road all lined with these huge palm trees. Super super cool to see during the day and at night. I’d especially like to have a photoshoot amongst the trees during sunset. Maybe tomorrow.

3.8.16

Another day without campers so we’re all just taking it easy. We gathered up for a late breakfast/lunch and went to a place outside the estate known for their rotis. I got some rice and vegetables and curry and then ordered roti canai (just a plain roti with a little bowl of curry to dip it in). It was a delicious roti, really oily and buttery haha. THIS is why I have love handles and back fat! In all seriousness though, it was really yummy. I also had milo ice (cold chocolate milk), it just brings all the flavors together lol.

We had a chill afternoon and then around 4pm the ice cream guy came around. It’s an ice box on the back of a motorcycle but it’s a godsend on a hot day. I ran out to the front of the building on the road and managed to flag him down right as he passed. Everyone got some ice cream from him and I have to say that Malaysians officially eat ice cream the weirdest way…in HOT DOG BUNS! WHAAAT???!? Seriously, it’s a hot dog bun with scoops of ice cream in it haha. I got one knowing I was eating an ice cream hot dog and it tasted just like ice cream in a hot dog bun. I threw away the hot dog bun and finished just the ice cream. The ice cream was a really weird flavor and I found out that it was durian flavored which was probably why it left a terrible taste in my mouth lol. Durian flavored, purple yam flavored, chocolate and maybe corn, I’m not sure. All I know is that next time I’ll ask for only chocolate haha.

I finished my ice cream and the girls went outside with yoga mats while the guys went upstairs to play ping pong. The girls went through some stretches, some simple yoga positions and then I did some P90x ab exercises. Not good after eating hot dog ice cream fyi. I also taught the girls some self-defense moves before dying in the heat.

In the evening half of us watched a movie at Kulim in one of the classrooms and the other half went out to the theaters. Me, Jason and Dwayne went to grab dinner at a place that only serves porridge. A bowl of rice porridge comes with all these little side things, chili greens, roasted soybeans, dried anchovies, chinese ginger and a salty egg. You can either mix everything together into the rice or you can eat a little bit of everything in each spoonful. I mixed everything together and ate like that. It was a little fishy so I ended up taking most of my anchovies out but it was pretty good. Not super filling but I’ve been overeating anyways. I think it’s because I’ve been spending all day outside in the sun doing exercise so I’m hungrier during the day.

3.9.16

Up early to go for a run but my ipod is dead and my phone is dead. Fail. The work day starts at 9am so everyone starts trickling in at 8:59am lol. The office is right downstairs from our rooms so people usually roll out of bed and just walk right down to clock in.

The word is that we’re having a BBQ today and maybe karaoke back at Kulim. The staff has been really proactive with organizing activities for us on off days when there aren’t any campers here. It’s so nice here though, I don’t mind staying on the grounds all day. The building and grounds here are beautifulll. The slogan of the camp is “The most iconic building on Johor River”.

Sidenote, did I mention that Dwayne is half Indian and half Chinese?!??!? When we met I was like whaaaat?! I only know one other half Indian/Chinese guy and that’s the closest mix to me. Dwayne has a cousin who’s half Indian/Japanese and apparently it’s not uncommon around here. I’ve found a place where I belong!!!!! Haha. It’s actually really cool and exciting. Imagine never knowing what to associate yourself with and always having identity insecurities. No one fully understands your lifestyle and you don’t quite fit in with ethnic groups properly. Okay, that was my sidenote, I’m done now.

The BBQ was a success! I went to town to go shopping with Iem, Glaudine, Fang and Andy and we went to a Tesco Extra. It was huuuuge, I miss Tescos. You learn so much going to supermarkets in other countries. This is the first time in two months I’ve seen a big grocery store though. I didn’t see any in Thailand nor in Cambodia. I was in charge of making a big salad and mashed potatoes. I also picked up some eggplant that was on sale and shiitake mushrooms and marinated them in garlic and soy before they were grilled yummmm. The salad was huge! Two kinds of lettuce, two kinds of peppers and tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, red onion. I haven’t had a giant salad like this literally since I left home. I roasted lots of garlic and made mashed potatoes with cream cheese and butter too ughhhh drool. The guys grilled chicken, lamb and fish and of course corn. We feasted. It was a really nice time spending the evening with new friends and sharing food together. Breaking bread always brings people closer. I bought some mini blueberry cheesecake tarts from a stand in the store and that was our dessert to top everything off. Overall, a really low key, chill night in.

3.10.16

Honestly don’t even know what we did today. Dwayne makes ice pops out of milo, the chocolate milk, and they’re awesome cause it’s so ridiculously hot here. He made a bunch today and then I went out with Iem and Fang who taught me how to tie some knots so I could go tree climbing. Literally went climbing the old school way with just two ropes, it was awesome! I got to try this interesting dessert thing that looks just like idli but it’s sweet. It’s called pudu biring. It’s like a yellowish green color and there’s brown sugar in the middle and then it’s sprinkled with coconut. It’s made with rice flour with a little pandan in it for color. Tastes good but you can’t eat more than one round. I saw the biggest horned beetle I’ve ever seen and the girls and I had a zumba freestyle in one of the classrooms. We danced for a good hour and then did some crunches. Glaudine and I hooked up the mics to the sound system and had a mini worship session singing praise songs, that was really nice. Some of those songs I haven’t heard for years but the words still came back to me as I heard the songs. We all went out to dinner together and I got a cheese roti and roti canai from the roti man. He always asks me where I’m from. I think one day he’s expecting me to say I’m Malay lol. Regular rotis are the bomb but the cheese one was a little funky. The cheese tastes like daiya cheese, the vegan stuff my mom buys. It’s sweet tasting, so weird.

3.11.16

We all got up early today to hit the badminton courts! I didn’t realize how popular of a sport badminton is here. Everyone plays! I stunk, the badminton racquet is just so small compared to tennis racquets. It was an indoor court but it didn’t feel air conditioned at all and we were all sweating heavily by the end. I got service there so I got to facetime with my mom who held the phone for me while I watched David and his team members practice their Hult Prize pitch ( more about the Hult Prize in my next post). I also got time today to sew some new patches onto my backpack. I sewed on Japan and New Zealand when I was in New Zealand with Kunal and the girls in Milford Sound. It was a rainy day in the sound (typical) and we were relaxing in our room so I sewed lol. The rest, Australia, Thailand, Cambodia I sewed on today. I’m so happy with my backpack! I washed it today too and then when it was drying a bird pooped on it haha. It’s just good luck.

In the evening Iem picked up dinner for us and I asked her to get me a roti that I had seen the roti guy making one day. It’s called a murtabak and it’s like a giant stuffed roti. I got mine with chicken because nobody believes in vegetables in this country. It came wrapped in newspaper for take away and the curry in a little baggy haha. I love it. We also got 19 plain rotis to stack up into a “birthday cake” and stuck two candles into it for Kenneth’s birthday. I forgot to mention, we got a new addition the other day. His name is Kenneth and he was a volunteer over at the other camp. He traveled around a bit and then came over to Kulim to hang out with us. He’s only 18 though! I can’t imagine Connor traveling around on his own at his age. Sometimes I think I’m even too young to be doing this on my own.

3.12.16

We got two big groups of campers today. I belayed all day for what we call “Leap of Faith”. I did it myself a few days ago, I’m not sure if I explained it already. You harness up and climb a big ladder and then stand on a platform at the top. The object it to jump and try and catch a hanging bar in front of you. I tried twice but was too short to reach and hold onto the bar. For 4.5 hours me and Dwayne were the anchors and belayed people so they wouldn’t fall. I had fun until the last hour when all these little red ants came out of nowhere and bit me all over my arms and legs. They didn’t bother me all day until then, really crappy. If you stand still for too long ants come out of nowhere. I realized that in a bunch of places I’ve been to the same thing happens. In Cambodia when I used to sit at reception at the bungalows I would feel something crawling on my skin and would see little tiny spiders or ants.

The groups that we had today for LOF were adults and it was really interesting seeing them get scared of jumping when they got to the top. You don’t typically see fear in the eyes of an adult but I got to experience it firsthand. Even the ones who were loudmouthed at the start and climbed the ladder really fast were taken aback by how high they were on the platform and most were afraid to jump.

A lot of people faced their fears today though and I was proud of those who said they didn’t want to but jumped anyways. There were only two people who took about 5 minutes to jump and I had to reassure them that they would be safe and that I would belay them. This kind of human interaction is so important. The ability to rely on a person you’ve just met or someone that you barely know is something that I’ve come to understand while traveling. Even if it's just something little like asking someone to watch my backpack while I run to the bathroom or hopping on someone's travel plans for a few days. I've learned that people are inherently kind and want to help others and I'm not just takling about travelers helping eachother. There have been times that locals have come up to me and asked if I needed directions, etc probably because I always look lost. Just a good feeling inside knowing that you're not alone in this world and that people ae willing to help.

Anyways, I'm happy to be here! Being active outdoors and of course making new friends and getting to live and learn about Malay life has been a great surprise. Malaysia wasn't in my plans (neither was Cambodia but look how amazing that was) but I guess this is the life of a backpacker. I just started reading a new book (on reccommendation by my friends Kunal and Juan) called Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. There's a line I love that reads, "I was what Karla once called the most dangerous and fascinating animal in the world: a brave, hard (wo)man, without a plan". It's always a bit scary but we're taking it day by day over here.

Much love,

Cas