Some time ago, I wrote an appreciation of the traditional Malay music form of Dikir Barat and it’s similarity to hip-hop. By way of contrast, I made some generally derogatory comments about Malaysian rap music, singling out the group that was freshest in my mind, Pop Shuvit. (Or were they? I may in fact have […]
Tag Archives: malaysia
Beyblade!
Maybe I’m out of touch with what’s happenin’ on the playground back in the States. But I can tell you what is on the minds of every 4- to 7-year-old kid I’ve met here
Eating around Kuching
Food is a fairly consistent topic here at BGP, but I’ve just run across a site that does it full time, based right here in Kuching! It is mum-mum::eat-eat, and if you are into Malaysian cuisine, you really should have a look. The pictures are great, and are all taken right in the restaurant. That […]
Catching Up
There’s been some great posts among the websites I regularly read as well as some noteworthy stuff elsewhere as well. Here’s a quick round-up for you: Thebit discusses in his very learned way an essay about the genre of Islamic apologetics that produce evidences from the Quran for modern scientific discoveries. The logic behind the […]
Kuching in History
I picked up a great little book, a 50-year-old report done by two peninsular Malays as an undergraduate honors project. The reprinting, produced by UNIMAS, is titled “Life in the Malay Kampongs of Kuching, Fifty Years Ago”. It’s a real gem. The students were geographers, and so payed special attention to the landscape of the […]
Accommodations
I just got back from a lovely holiday at the Santubong Family Resort. It was my first real excursion out of Kuching since I got here. We took the chance to go, since Monday and Tuesday were State holidays in honor of Gawai Day. Gawai Day is the biggest holiday of the year for the […]
Overeating
Tracking down new and exciting foods and eating them has been my principle preoccupation since arriving in Malaysia almost six months ago. But I’ve also been happy to find old comfort food from my childhood that was tough to get back in the States. I lived in India for four years as a kid, and […]
Mawlid Parade
12 Rabi’ul Awwal, the day our beloved Prophet Muhammad (saws) was born, is a national holiday in Malaysia as it is in every muslim country on earth except one. In the city of Kuching, Sarawak, to where I had just moved from America, there was to be a large parade that morning as there is […]