Souvenir City - Go to the Movies

Well I found the place to go to buy 'stuff' to take home, I think. The Central Market has all of the 'made in Malaysia' items that you need to pack your bag with. Lots of Batik, and handmade trinkets. Big place, with lots of small shops, of course, as that is the Malaysian style.

Pretty slow Sunday. Rain, blogs, postcards, expense reports.

After supper I went to my first movie over here, at the mall I go to fairly often, lots of restaurants, 1 train stop away (train I got 'picked' on). Anyway I saw 'The Sentinel', with Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland and Eva Longoria. Pretty good movie, lots of action (guns and such). Tickets were RM11 for a reserved seat. Pretty good deal.

Almost as entertaining was the concession stand. You all would love it. As is true in most countries, the selection of treats at the cinemas is very localized. They have soft drinks, but also many fruit juice-ish drinks. Sugar cane juice and coconut juice are pretty popular here. The girl at the counter asked me which type of popcorn I wanted. They have 'sweet-lite', 'salted' and 'caramel'. Carmel was the popular choice, I was told. I decided to try the 'sweet-lite' corn. They were out. I thought I'd switch to 'salty', but they were out. I enjoyed the caramel corn, with my 100Plus drink (kindof a Sprite drink, not so sweet, more like Fresca). RM8 for popcorn and a large drink.

Not related to this conversation (but I thought of it, so you get it) is the other snack I've seen a lot here. They like to get a cup of buttery hot sweet corn. Just a small cup, 8 oz or so, with a spoon. Street vendors, shopping centers, anywhere. Not that there aren't just a ton of other sidewalk snacks here, there is an amazing variety of fried, steamed, grilled stuff. Fish heads to fruit. I'm surprised the folks here tend be pretty slendor, as they seem to stop and snack quite a bit, I think.

Also related to eating, but just a random thought ..... prior to coming here I could eat with chopsticks, but rarely did choose to. I have eaten with disposable chopsticks, a lot of nicer ones (reusable), smaller disposables (snack size?), and metal ones. I won't say it feels natural, but I'll likely choose to use them more once I'm back in the US.







This is a kiosk sales counter at the Mid-Valley Mall. It is here for Brad to see.





Monday is a holiday, but I have to work on last week's status report, expense reports, issue lists, take it easy.

bye