A collection of digital wonders and some other stuff
I had a quick dip in the hotel pool before we had our buffet breakfast and started the long drive back to KL.
The landscape on the way back was beautiful. There were huge jungles on both sides of the road and step mountains covered in trees. The roads weren’t too busy so we made really good time, at least until we got into KL where their city motto is, the town with Traffic. ;) J/k.
But what a fantastic weekend! I am so lucky to be here!
This morning we drove to a nearby resort and checked in. After that it was a nice relaxing swim in the South China sea followed by lounging around pool-side eating ice-cream cones and another dip in the hotel pool. Not only was the weather great, but everything was great.
For supper we found a nice Malaysian style place and had (I’ll just describe it since I can’t remember what’s it’s called) egg covered fried rice with chicken, manta ray, and fish. I love the spices they use here and really loved the meal. The ray wasn’t nearly as scary as expected – in fact it wasn’t scary at all; it was extremely tasty.
What a great weekend!
We didn’t stay at the birthday party as late as I would have liked because we had to get up early the next day. I slept over at Jon’s place and after less than 6 hours of sleep we were heading to Quanton for a video shoot.
We went to a mall to pick up some clothes for me to where during the shoot – which, by the way, brought me to one of the worst bathrooms I’ve ever encountered. I’ll spare you the details but suffice it to say it was very wet, very dirty, and VERY smelly. I’ve been in some smelly bathrooms, but this one was by far the smelliest.
The shoot was for an up-and-coming IT Company that is opening a new retail store called “The IT Life Shop”. I got dressed and pretty soon we were shooting. As those in my acting fundamentals class can attest I have some serious stage fright issues. Not so much fright as a plain lack of ability to recite lines when the camera is rolling. On the times when I got the dialog right, I would forgot to get my body movements right, and when I got the motions right, I would accidentally change the lines slightly. On the rare occasions when I nailed it, almost certainly someone or something outside would create a loud noise ruining the take. After more takes than any of us would care to remember we finally finished up the shoot.
I had a good time being the host, but I felt bad for not being better at it. I have to say being an actor, even in something so simple as a corporate video is not nearly as easy as it looks.
That night we all went out for Chinese food and I had some of the best fish I’ve ever eaten in my life. I also really enjoyed the other dishes. Afterwards we went to a “really happening club” and danced to some pretty good live music. A little smoky and a little crowded for dancing, but I think every one of us had a good time.
I had a meeting at Channel V today. JC and I went down to discuss some new TV ids and some other projects on the go at GXM.
Tonight we went out to the top of the Pan Global building to celebrate Jon’s friend Shawn’s birthday party. The Pan Global building is right next to the KL Tower and from the roof we could see both the Petronas Towers and where we were yesterday – the KL Tower.
Tonight I went to the KL Tower to see “Pixels and Wireframe”, Multimedia University’s forth year students’ final presentation.
The tower itself is quite something to see. Standing at 421 meters from base to antenna mast it is one of the tallest concrete towers in the world. It is also the fourth tallest telecommunications tower in the world. From the window where the private function was held, we could see the city for miles around and we also had a particularly nice view of the Petronas Towers (or KLCC as it’s sometimes referred as).
After a brief introduction and a small snack served buffet style, we watched the top 20 final animations from MMU’s forth year students. There were some really great showings there. My favorite was about a group of seniors in a home that wanted to stay up late watching Mission Impossible. The nurse has other plans for them, and through their imagination the group goes through their own impossible mission as they try to get back into the TV room.
GXM Studio was a major sponsor of the event and as such was given a couple of copies of the nights presentations. Jon was nice enough to give me one of them.
I’ve got a room for rent in Lethbridge. Of course I won’t be home from Malaysia for a few more weeks but if you are looking for a place in June or July please leave me a message in the comments or via email.
I’ve been working on a few different projects here at GXM. Today they had me record my voice for a small Channel V identification ad they are putting together. I don’t know if they will use my voice, but if they do – that’ll be kind of cool.
This evening I just took it easy and had a good old western style meal. It was a chicken sandwich and fries from Nando’s. It was a great meal.
The thing that I find most different about the Western meals here vs. what I’m used to back home is that here they kind of skimp on the fries. I ordered a second Chicken burger (I probably wouldn’t back home but I figure I need to eat as much as I can while the food is so inexpensive) and to my surprise the second plate had even less fries than the first. Also they were slightly undercooked.
Even at McDonald’s, famous world-wide for its french fries, they seem to skimp on the deep fried side order. I have begun upsizing my orders and still only get about the same amount of fries that I would if I ordered a regular sized fries back home.
I guess it’s obvious but the fact that back in North America they serve more fries on the side must be one of the reasons why there are so many overweight people there.
Not exactly an earth-shattering observation, but anyway that was my day.
Usual stuff happening today. In the evening I went out with Jon to a Chinese food place. I got full mostly on rice but I enjoyed having a little bit of everything. I’m still not completely used to some of the flavours but I’m only here for awhile so I’m trying to get in as much as I can. The strangest thing we had to eat—at least from my point of view—was frog toad. I only had the smallest bit; it wasn’t nearly as scary as you might expect. I’m not sure if I had a very good piece or not, I was offered a “better piece” but I declined. It seemed like a lot of skin and bones and as they say, “tasted like chicken”. Actually to me it tasted more like fish.
Today I spent the morning trying to arrange a trip to Iran but it looks like it’s not going to happen. I went to the Iranian Embassy and after waiting in line for about 20 minutes I was told that unfortunately I needed to get my visa from my home country or country of residence. Since I don’t have a visa to be in Malaysia (I don’t need one to visit) I can’t get one for Iran unless I go back to Canada first. So that’s that I guess.
This afternoon I’ve been working on a couple of models in Maya. I’m not really proficient at it yet, but it’s good practise.
I think tonight I’ll try and watch Star Wars: Episode III. Hopefully it’s not too crowded.
I went to Tioman Island over the weekend. We hopped on a chartered bus through the night and then took a boat the next morning. It seemed a little disorganized in the heat and with the lack of sleep (it’s hard to sleep on a bumpy road through the mountains when the bus driver thinks he’s in a race). The ferry was late picking us up because the tide was too low to come in. I’ve always thought the tide comes in at about the same time (based on the lunar cycle of course) and I couldn’t help but feel like they should have known whether or not they’d be able to pick us up when they said they would. Finally they decided to deliver us to the ferry via speed boat. And then everything got a LOT better.
Getting to the island was a nice trip. But seeing the Island? – wow! It was the most fantastic place! The beaches were truly magnificent and the jungle was gorgeous. I had a great time doing everything from snorkeling to trekking through the jungle in the rain.
On the first day we snorkeled out to a small island. The water was great, nice and warm, and full of beautiful fish. We had a great supper, especially because I had been really craving some western meals.
On Saturday Danny and I rented a scooter from some guy for the hour. It was just his private bike but we had a great time going down to the village and back. I got going about 60 km/h on the way back when I tried to see how fast I could get up to going down hill. Probably too fast for no helmets, but all’s well that ends well. Later that afternoon we went on the Jungle Trek. It rained pretty hard and my shoes were soaked. The jungle trek started half way up the mountain after walking through the golf course. I found it ironic that we just waltzed right through the same golf course that requires golfers to wear golfing shoes. I guess because we weren’t on the greens it isn’t such a big deal? Either that or it’s a case of what they don’t know won’t hurt them. On the way back the rain was really coming down and a few of the others in the group used the golf course as a gigantic slip and slide.
The next day Andrew and I headed off to the other side of the island. It was fantastic. We hired a taxi driver to take us in his 4×4 through the muddy roads over the jungle covered mountain. The beach was huge and even more beautiful than the side with the resort. I enjoyed having it all to ourselves and meeting some of the islanders. I did get a little sunburned from snorkeling for an hour in the hot sun. I didn’t notice it until it was too late.
We headed off the next morning and to our delight the guys running the show told us we’d be heading back via speedboat the whole way. The “speed boat” is a lot faster than the big ferry that brought us there, but it’s quite a bit smaller too. They stopped at another dock (to pick up more people?) but because the dock was designed for bigger boats, this one was being swished back and forth and when it hit the dock it smashed in one of the windows. I heard a loud snapping sound and then what sounded like water rushing in. I thought for sure we’d have to abandon ship. The water sound was actually broken glass spreading out over about three seats and four or five people. The dean of management was one of the ones to get hit and had a couple of tiny cuts on her arm and thumb.
After that we just headed out to sea without further incident. It was a totally perfect weekend — with exception to the fact that I got sunburned, but even that wasn’t so bad and totally worth it. I’d love to go to Tioman again. I’ve been told it’s not even the nicest island around here — which is hard to believe because this place is amazing, but that’s what they say.
