Planning The Wedding

12.12.12. There will not be another date in my lifetime with repeated day, month, year numbers (unless I live up to 119 years old). Fun fact aside, it is exactly a month until JQ and my wedding day!

What is the purpose of a wedding? Celebration! Getting to know our families and friends. A reason to dress up. But mostly, a fun night with family and close friends. I had wanted it to be a fusion between a Western and traditional Peranakan wedding but my parents are pretty untraditional (at least in this case) so decided to keep it simple with several important essence of our family tradition.

1. Country: Malaysia! We knew we wanted a wedding back home as soon as JQ proposed. When I think of my wedding, my ahmah is the first one who came to mind. I always wanted a wedding where I can serve tea to my grandparents. Even with only my ahmah left to witness this event, there is no way I am having my wedding without her or without my aunts, uncles and cousins. JQ's family is also excited to celebrate with us in Malaysia. It will be a great opportunity for JQ's family to meet my family, to experience Malaysian culture and simply to visit my home country. 

2. A small wedding. Growing up, dad reminds me again and again not to over spend on wedding, invite only people who matters and not the entire village. That advice was repeated over and over that it got stuck in mind. Being away from M'sia for so long, I lost touch with several friends. But there are a handful who are dear to me, who influenced my life in some way, who I would like JQ to meet. With short trips back to M'sia, I also wanted this event to be like a mini-reunion, getting to know my friends again. I wanted to be able to tell JQ a story of every person who come to the wedding instead of 'I am not exactly sure who this person is'. Definitely a small, intimate wedding. 

3. Reasonable. We dream of wedding up in the Rockies, somewhere in the middle of the Amazon forest. But realistically, we can't afford that and we won't have any guests! Our first choice was at hotel gardens but the few places we looked at had a minimum of 100 guests. While it would be easy to invite 100 people, the cost was outrageous, and comes in package where refusing some items do not make it cheaper. With both of us coming close to a change in career, we also have to prepare for moving costs and temporary unemployment in the near future. 

4. Garden wedding. There is no way we are going to have our wedding in an indoor ballroom or function room. It has to be outdoor or partially outdoor (mosquitoes or not aside). Mom suggests the garden of my uncle's apartment. That would have been a perfect location - garden wedding by the pool! Unfortunately, we could not secure any florist to help us design the location (this is another story to tell some other time). Then we found the Tropical Spice Garden. I loved it when I went there almost 5 years ago and they have a lovely eco theme wedding package. So that is how we decided to have it at the TSG.  

5. Food. This was a challenging subject for us. We wanted traditional Nyonya cuisine. My family are strict critics when it comes to Nyonya cuisine. Nothing tastes better than my gee kim's cooking. No way we are going to make gee kim cook for 80 people on my wedding day. My parents favored catered food over hotel food. So the hunt for caterers began until they found Bamboo Catering. 

The most challenging on the major planning is communications with the different vendors in Penang. From our experience so far, Penang businesses rarely reply to emails, take months to respond to our enquiries and do no like to share their prices until you agree to their service. Lucky for us, my parents are retired and can help us hunt these people down. Yet, they still had a hard time getting quotes or finding a florist. With only one month left and the plans in place, we can only hope that these places deliver as they promised. 

Kuala Lumpur Bird Park

Every trip back to Malaysia, I mainly spend most of the break in Penang. Kuala Lumpur is not one of my favorite place as there is not much to do there. However, I still try to make a short trip there as most of the college and high school friends are there. This trip, dad brought up the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park located at Taman Tasik Perdana. I completely forgot about this place. When we were kids, we spent almost every Sunday there.

Taman Tasik Perdana, also known as the Lake Gardens, is a huge park with lots of attractions. We used to spend most of our time at the main lake feeding fishes with leftover bread or bread skins. There is also a huge playground and exercise equipments. The Lake Gardens also houses the KL Bird Park, Butterfly Park, Deer Park, National Monument, National Mosque, Planetarium, Orchid Garden, Hibiscus Garden, and the Herb and Conservatory Garden. All these are only a short walking distance from Kota Raya and Central Market, which is where most buses stop. 

This trip, we went to the Bird Park. For some reason, it is one of the park that I don't remember much. It was quite impressive as a lot of the birds are free flying and the park is very huge, giving the birds lots of places to fly around. As soon as we enter, we came across the parakeets and my first mosquito bite! Argh! 

The most common bird is the one in the picture below. They are very entertaining because they have different mohawk style hair cut. They also come closer to us than the other birds. 

Another one that I thought was very cute is the blue birds with a crown head and red eyes. 

Within the bird park, there is also a small lake with lots of flamingoes. 

By one of the river area, we saw this red flamingo. It definitely stands out! After a lot of mosquito bites, I finally got a nice photo of it! 

Of all the sections, my favorite is the World of Parrots, where you can buy a cup of honeyed milk to feed them. They are very human friendly as we saw one landed on mummy's head! 

There is also a huge lake with a waterfall at the Waterfall Aviary. 

It was here that we saw a peacock and her babies! 

Unfortunately, most of the peacocks have loss a lot of their tail feathers. We saw one opened its tail just as we were about to walk out of the bird park. 

It was definitely a fun morning!! 

Nasi Ulam

This past trip back to Malaysia, gee kim was not around much and we didn't cook at home either. So the only home cook meal I get to eat this trip is Nasi Ulam or can be known as Herbed Rice or Rice Salad. 

Nasi Ulam is a true Nyonya style home cook dish as it is not easily found in restaurants or any hawker stall (in fact I have never seen it sold outside). It is a dish that requires fine chopping abilities and patience. It is also a very time consuming dish as every ingredient requires chopping and roasting. However, if the ingredients are prepared in large amount, they can be kept for a few days and the dish itself can be easily put together. 

The ingredients for Nasi Ulam varies with the cook. The main ingredient is steamed rice and a variety of leaves finely chopped. The leaves that are commonly used are daun kaduk (betel leaf), daun limau purut (kaffir lime leaf), daun kesom (polyganum leaf), daun pudina (mint leaf), daun cekur (galangal leaf) and daun selasih (basal leaf). While they can be mix and match according to the likings of the cook, gee kim uses only daun kaduk. Daun kaduk is a wild plant in Malaysia. It can be found almost in anyone's garden and also in various tropical grassland. In ahmah's house, daun kaduk is just right next to the kitchen area. Besides for Nasi Ulam, it is also commonly used for Perut Ikan (fish stomach) and various other Nyonya dish. The leaves simply washed and mixed in with the rice raw. These leaves have various medicinal values and hence, it is more beneficial to eat them uncooked. 

In addition to the leaves and rice, other sides are added to give the dish more taste and to overcome some of the bitterness from the leaves. Gee kim's sides are kerisik (toasted grated coconut), belacan powder (roasted fermented shrimp paste), ground dried shrimp, roasted salted fish, finely sliced kunyit (turmeric), finely sliced serai (lemongrass), finely sliced shallots and white pepper powder. As shown in the picture, all ingredients are finely sliced and some of them needs to be roasted. This is why the preparation time can take almost the entire day! Some of these ingredients are meant to give only a subtle taste to the final dish but I love to have mine with lots and lots of daun kaduk, kerisik and ground dried shrimp. I would avoid the shallots though. :P 

Once all the ingredients are prepared, they are then mixed in a large bowl and is ready to be consumed. 

While it is sort of a salad dish, it is much healthier than Western salads that uses cream dressing. This does not come with any dressings. The variety of spices and leaves in the dish also adds antioxidant and other medicinal values to the dish. Until I can have my own house with a herb garden (even then, if I stay in US, might not be able to find the root for those leaves to plant it), I can only eat this once in a few years when I go home to David Chen Garden. For now, gee kim's supply of sambal hae bee (chilli roasted dried shrimp) will satisfy the often encountered craving for delicious Malaysian food. 

Butterflies, butterflies, butterflies

In the past six months, I have been to 4 butterfly gardens/exhibitions! I guess it was having the macro lens that prompt our first visit to a butterfly garden - Butterfly World, Florida. The other gardens that we have visited to see some butterflies are the Desert Botanical Garden at Phoenix, AZ, Frederick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park at Grand Rapids, Michigan and the most recent trip, Penang Butterfly Farm, Malaysia.

Butterfly World is by far the largest butterfly farm. In addition to butterflies, they also have an aviary and various flower gardens, making it the most enjoyable park out of all 4 gardens that we have been to. We went there first thing in the morning, arriving shortly before it opened (kiasu mah!) and stayed until almost 5pm! Since the main attraction is the butterfly farm, we spent most of our time there and some time at the aviary. As the flowers were not blooming yet, we were only at the flower garden briefly. The nice thing about this garden is that there is a lakeside cafe where we could take a rest, look through some of our photos and get some snacks. There was also a macaw section that we spent quite sometime at as they have very interesting interactions. We also went into the lorikeet section but only stayed for a while because the lorikeets were feisty! They kept nibbling on John's camera bag and seem to have no manners when flying around! :P One butterfly that we saw a lot here and haven't seen it elsewhere is the one that has a huge black dot that makes it look like a bird's eye. It is known as the owl butterfly (Caligo eurilochus).

More photos from this trip on Flickr and Multiply.

In early March, when I made a trip to Arizona, we went to the Desert Botanical Garden at Phoenix. It is mainly a garden of various plants from the desert ecosystem. It also has a section representing the lifestyle and various natural resources used by the people of the Sonoran Desert (the desert of northern Mexico, California and Arizona) in the olden days. When I was there, they had the Spring Butterfly Exhibit so we got to see more butterflies! However, the exhibit area is very small, only about the size of our Penang garden. As we went on a Friday morning, there were a lot of kids on school trip so it was a lot more crowded. There are also fewer varieties of butterflies compared to the ones we saw at Butterfly World. Even though there were fewer varieties, I did saw a few that I haven't seen before - the malachite (Siproeta stelenes), a light green moth and one with green and brown wings (this one might be a moth).

I also saw one yellow butterfly hidden under a flower.

We spent a few hours in the exhibit area and then head out to walk around the garden. Besides butterfly photos, there were not as much to capture as cactus are less colorful. We did end up spending most of the day there too because the park is huge and has various trails with different characteristics of desert ecosystem. Photos of this trip on Flickr and Multiply.

In mid April, John came back to Michigan for a visit and we took a day trip to the Frederick Meijer Gardens at Grand Rapids. Similar to the garden in Arizona, they had an exhibition of tropical butterflies, which they called "Butterflies are Blooming". The Meijer Gardens have a similar layout as the Desert Botanical Gardens where it is divided into different sections, one of which is a farm garden showing an example of a typical Michigan farm. They also have a children's garden with interesting flower arrangements, an indoor arid ecosystem and a mini waterpark for the kids. There is also a section with sculptures. The butterfly exhibit was held at the Lena Meijer Conservatory, a tropical conservatory. It has the humidity of M'sia weather but much much cooler. We went there on a Saturday morning and as expected, it was very crowded too. The conservatory is much bigger than the exhibit area at the Desert Botanical Gardens but it has a very high rooftop allowing a lot of the butterflies fly up high, which made them hard to be photographed with a macro lens. It is also more challenging to capture close-up photos of the butterflies because the the high density of leaves in the controlled tropical environment decrease the amount of light available. After spending a few hours in the conservatory, we went out to take a walk around the other gardens but it was very windy that day. We decided to go back into the conservatory to get a few more photos. If it wasn't for the wind, I think we could have gotten a lot of flower photos too because the tulips and a few other flowers were blooming. I didn't get as many nice butterfly photos because of the lighting but did get to see a few more different butterfly, like this blue one.

It was very hard to get a photo of this butterfly. Whenever it lands, it will close its wings. Most of the butterflies in this garden is the smaller ones with black wings. However, I get to see a butterfly popped out from its cocoon! When they first hatched, their wings are all crumpled and take a few hours for them to pump liquid for the wings to completely open.

Photos in Flickr and Multiply.

The most recent butterfly encounter is at the Penang Butterfly Garden, back in Malaysia. All these visits to the butterfly gardens made me look for one in Penang and guess what, there is one in Teluk Bahang! Knowing the lack of sustainability in any of Malaysia's public amenities, I had low expectation for this garden. Surprisingly, I find it to be the second most enjoyable garden, after the Butterfly World in Florida. Thankful for the tropical environment in Malaysia, the garden is an outdoor park. Unlike the other gardens in the States, it is solely aimed for butterfly farming. However, it is much bigger than the butterfly exhibits at Grand Rapids or Arizona. They also have small areas with other types of animals such as ducks, snakes, lizards, scorpions, turtles and a pond of fishes. It was fun to see other bugs like the moving leaf and the stick bug.

While we were looking at the moving leaf bug, one of the people working there came out to release some butterflies that just hatched. We get to see lots of different butterfly and a huge moth!

We only spent a few hours there because it was getting really hot and there was no place to sit down for a rest. If they have a snack bar or at least a vending machine selling drinks or ice-cream and a shaded rest area, I think we could have spent a longer time there. There are a lot of different butterflies and other bugs that will be fun to photograph. It is definitely worth going back. Next time, will go first thing in the morning when the butterflies are not as active and on a weekday.

More photos in Flickr and Multiply!

#Malaysia

The luxury of growing up as a Malaysian is that we were brought up to interact with people of different cultural background. There is always something new to learn and to explore. Despite all the negativity of racial bias and multicultural tensions, it is no doubt that everyone of us Malaysian have a sweet, touching story to tell about being in a multicultural community. With the coming up Merdeka Day (Malaysian Independence Day), there are lots of fun events to explore both in Malaysia and on the Internet.

15Malaysia is a project that compiles 15 short films produced by Malaysian film producers (Buatan Malaysia!). The theme of the films is on the socio-political issues in Malaysia. A Malaysian will definitely find that they can relate to each of the story, some might just be something that we have talked about among friends, or an event that we have witnessed, or even happened at some point in our own life. The films will be released every alternate days, with four already up online for downloads on the website as of today. My personal favorite so far is Chocolate by the late Yasmin Ahmad. (Mei, for some reason, it made me think of our Standard 6 days..hehe.) Will be looking forward to more great films!!

1Malaysia is an effort initiated by our current Prime Minister, Dato' Sri Mohd Najib Tun Razak, to reduce the gaps between all the different unique races and cultures in Malaysia. Recently, a contest to pick a song that could represent spirit of Malaysians, where race and culture differences no longer holds valid. If one were to think back, what exactly is the cause of such strong racial tension in Malaysia? It is definitely not something we experience in our daily lives until we have to face the rules and regulations posted by the government. In fact, the racial tension is not a true racial tension. We don't pick our friends or who we hang out with based on their race, we do not decide not to eat at the nasi melayu stall at Jones Road just because it is not managed by a Chinese. It is our dissatisfaction over the way the government expresses their opinions on policies (which often take advantage of radical religion beliefts) that creates a scenerio that looks like racial tension.

Well, back to the main topic, the competition has picked the best 10 songs and is now open for public to make the decision of which song will represent 1Malaysia. Have you rank your top 10 1Malaysia songs? Here's mine.

1. Inilah Malaysia
2. Lagu Rakyat Satu Malaysia
3. Satu Malaysia
4. Nyanyikan Lagu Mu
5. Malaysia Satu
6. Sehati Sejiwa
7. Kami Anak Malaysia
8. Keranamu Hati Ku Malaysia
9. Perpaduan 1Malaysia
10. Satu

I find myself liking lyrics with the Rukunegara in it. It will be a great reminder to all Malaysians that when Malaysia was founded, the segregation according to religion was never incorporated into the principles in which the government is built on. True, "Belief in God" is the first principle but it says nothing about the path one takes to do that.

I dropped by Western this weekend when I went soil sampling. What a delight to see that the M'sian flag is flying high!