201 Street

Fishing for the bottom feeders along the banks of the city’s water way canals his only thoughts effected by an empty stomach are about catching the funky tasting fish that can only be deep fried and loaded with fish sauce. Thoughts about how this plentiful free food of the waters will fill his belly and his Korean wife’s belly and keep the pangs of hunger away for another day. Coming from Malaysia, Daviz was hoping to ride on the wave of living the good life with which the United States promised. With which his friends, who were already living here, wrote to him to come, any which way he could, and leave the desperate life of rural Singapore.

Daviz, wasn’t really desperate in Singapore, having employment with two Singapore Luxury Hotels. Actually, he was better off than most of his friends living in Singapore and his friends living in the United States. So, sitting there with a makeshift fishing pole in his hand and looking at a Styrofoam ice-chest empty of fish, he can’t help wonder and question his decision to pack up and move to a foreign country. A wealthy country, a country that no article on the Internet or written in books about living in the States could possibly convey or even attempt to make clear just how massively the people of this country are all consuming of non-essential materials, all fearfully preoccupied and all weary of foreigners.

Daviz and his wife have been living here, legally, in the United States for over nine months now. But they are living in out of a van given to them by the kindness of a Korean Christian Church with which his wife attends. Daviz’s years of experience at working in Luxury Hotels as not gotten him employment and his wife’s refusal to learn English isn’t helping just how hard it truly is to make it in the United States, harder than he imagined. But, sitting there, by the banks of a man-made river, Daviz’s thoughts turn back to the fishing for what is free and what is good.

Raj came running into my office all sweaty and seemed to be in a panic. He couldn’t talk he was so out of breath. I told him to close the door and take a seat on the chair in front of my desk. He did. As I waiting patiently for him to catch his breath, I reached behind my a pulled out a cold bottled of water from my sub-zero frig and handed it to him. He opened it and took a big swig. I sat down on the leather sofa next to him.

Raj is known for his dramatics, but the state he was in right now appeared to have some authenticity about it, so when he finally caught his breath, I asked him what’s going on. He look at me in horror. ‘Raj’, I said, ‘tell me, it’s okay.’  He stood up and started to pace the length of my office. The distress on his face made him look like he aged 50 years over night. ‘Meg’, he said. ‘Meg, we’ve been exposed’, and he plopped down next to me on the sofa.

‘Exposed?’, I asked. ‘And what do you mean, we’ve been exposed?’

Raj laughed at my question, ‘Meg, don’t pull that on me, this is serious.’ he said. Okay, so he was right. I knew what he was referring to, but I was hoping he was just teasing like he usually does when we’re together. Raj and I have been meeting secretly at Rajasthan Luxury Hotels , we’d meet everyday after work and keep our rendezvous a secret from our respective partners.

‘They know, Meg’, he said. ‘They know what we’ve been up to,’ he puts his head in his hands and begins to rock back and forth. I put my arm around him and tell him that it will be okay. To not worry and think this the end of the world. He looked up at me like I was an idiot. I laughed and moved the hair away from his eyes. ‘Raj’, I said, ‘We’ve done nothing wrong,’ I say with a calm voice.  ‘We’ll be the laughing stock of the whole office,’ he said as he put his head in my lap. ‘Playing Yahtzee is nothing to be embarrassed about, Raj,’ I said. ‘I bet, if anything, we’ll have to refuse everyone wanting to play with us.’  Raj, once again just gave me a look like I just dropped in on this planet and didn’t know Adam from Eve.

Carnival is one of many festivals and celebrations that take place in Goa every year. Though it is one among many, it definitely stands out in its popularity and spectacle. It takes place prior to Lent in March or late February and is truly a one of a kind event in Goa. It’s tradition dates back to the 18th century when settlers from Portugal brought it with them to the country. Since then, the traditional European based holiday has fused with Indian culture to become a unique style of carnival, though many of its elements haven’t changed. The event includes numerous parades and floats and takes place over a three-day period. There are other forms of entertainment as well including dance and drama. Festival food is available and integral to the fun of the people who are lining the streets for this huge party. Carnival is a great time to be visiting India and tourists staying in Goa beach hotel can expect to have a great time. They may want to know that a common etymological definition of carnival comes from two root words carne, meaning meat, and vale, meaning good or goodbye. What this literally means to participants is that it’s time to enjoy the meat before Lent and the fasting that will accompany it. What is also means is a time of great revelry and abandon.

Early morning risings will be easy when guests awake to the sounds of bagpipes and cymbals playing up and down the streets. They can either go down to the street and enjoy the parades up close or watch from a window in their hotel room. What they’ll see is plenty of musicians who are colorfully dressed behind the instruments. Crowds gather early in the streets to watch these performers and floats pass by. Many people join in and run along with them. Tourists and residents alike enjoy the spectacularly elaborate masquerades that are intended to accompany the live bands every night. All of the activity fills the streets completely and often leads to enormous parties that last throughout the night. Another popular nightly activity is the elaborate balls that are held in various clubs. On the final night of carnival there is the grandest ball of all at the Clube Nacional. One of the highlights of this final evening is the traditional Red and Black dance. The importance of carnival is not lost on the Goans. They love the holiday and begin preparations for it in December, months before the festival will occur.

There are four main religions of Malaysia. A majority of them are Muslims, then there is Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity. Buddhism is the second largest religion of the country with 23 percent of the total population practicing the teaching of Buddha. Buddhist tourism is so big that there is new construction of Singapore Luxury Hotels  happening all the time to accommodate the thousands traveling to this magical Southeast Asian country every day. Many Buddhist retreats, besides the old traditional monasteries, have been growing in number to also accommodate the demand in the growth of not only tourist, but Buddhist practitioners.
 
Buddhism is described as a gentle religion, even though a ‘religion’ it is not, but a way of life, that doesn’t actively seek to converts non practitioners. Buddhism does have a foot hold in Malaysia population, but due to the nature of it’s un-organization, children of the Buddhist practitioner are being lured away by the other well organized religions such as Christianity. As a ‘way of life’, Buddhism is practiced in various forms in Malaysia in which, although rarely in conflict, can lead to confusion in Malaysia. Some moves have been made to organize the activities of the different types of Buddhists. An example is the formation of the Joint Wesak Celebration committee of the Buddhist temples in Kuala Lumpur and several other cities which will coordinate the celebration of the Wesak, the birth of Buddha. This is to promote solidarity among Buddhists in general. It will be an interesting experiment to see if all the different paths of the Malaysian Buddhist can be put in to one pot, per say.
 
Malaysia is situated on the Malay Peninsula and includes the island of Borneo in which are separated from one another by the South China Sea.  Located in the southeast Asia and is a Federation of 13 states and covers approximately 330,000 square kilometers. The largest city and Malaysia’s capital is Kuala Lumpur.  The better known city of Singapore lies right at the end of the Malay peninsula. Malaysia is surrounded by other Buddhist countries such as Thailand, Burma and the ever growing Buddhist movements in Indonesia.