Elections in Malaysia
The 14th general election was on 14 May 2018. There were all 222 seats in the House of Representatives and 505 seats in 12 state legislatures in play. People over the age of 21 (although the majority age is 18 years old) could go to the elections. These elections were a historic defeat for the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, which was a ruling party to Malaysia since the country’s independence in 1957. If one party gains most of the seats, then that party is entitled to form a government and its leader becomes the prime minister. Mahathir Mohamad became the oldest head of government in the world at the age of 92. On the day of the announcement of election results, a new government was formed and we just thought about what it looks like in the Czech Republic. The elections were in October, now we are in June and still, we are without the government.
Volunteers in Kawah Padi? Now more like domestic…
It usually works with volunteers that the hosts will tell you what to do. It’s a bit different in our case. We have so many ideas and plans in our head and find a work ourselves. At the same time, we care about the whole resort as our own. It is also related to the fact that we don´t work around 3 hours/day as required. We work constantly, but we are happy. I usually say that it reminds me like it is when you go for a vacation at the cottage. You take care of it, but at the same time you come to other thoughts and relax. I’ll focus on cleaning all the buildings and I’m playing to the garden designer (this title sounds better than just a gardener): D and the fruit collector. As far as Martin is concerned, he also sometimes helps in the garden, started replacing a new water pipe, installing, plugging in and putting the washing machine (so now we don´t have to go to public laundry). He installs a new door to bathrooms, builds a water tank and waits for a nice weather so he can finally do the swimming pool.
Harvest of cassava
Harvest of bananas, papaya, and carambola
Work on water pipes, planting and door installation
As Nicol and Martin went to the public laundry together, they installed a new washing machine and started to do laundry in Kawah Padi
NO PLASTIC BAG!
The campaign that began from 2.4.2018 in stores due to the reduction in the use of plastic bags. In Europe, it is currently quite a big focus around the ban on plastic straws. But if you’ve never been to Asia, you can´t know anything about the plastic problem. The real problem is here and it will take a long time before local people learn to reduce it. I’m glad I took my favorite cloth shopping bag and Czech string bag. It is obvious that as one of the few (but I have seen one more lady all the time), I say at the cash desk: NO PLASTIC BAG! Personally, I think it’s useless to give a plastic bag – for example, when I buy vegetables. Everyone puts a different kind of vegetables to the different plastic bag. I put it on the weight, I will stick the price to the piece of vegetables and that’s it. There is a normal situation that even if you go to buy only chewing gum, they immediately give you a plastic bag and it is so useless.
Local animals – rescue, surprise, visit, obstacle
Perhaps the biggest experience for us was a meeting with the King cobra. We know that cobra is on the island, but as everyone says … the snakes are afraid of a lot, this kind even avoids people, preferring to escape. Meeting with her is very rare. So we have this information for you: Martin saw the three cobras in a week. I was lucky because I saw only one. And even though they are “afraid,” we met one of the local guys. King cobra bit him before Christmas. He was in the hospital where he received the antidote and his heart was checked for a long time. Fortunately, He is okey now. But to travel it belongs. The most important thing in this situation – Keep calm!
One of the most popular activities – tasting local cuisine
Invitation from neighbors to celebrate the end of Ramadan
Celebrations began at the end of Ramadan. We even got an invitation from our neighbor. At first, we thought that it is strange, but our host told us it is normal during these celebrations. Unfortunately, I felt sick, but we wanted to please them. I went without make-up and in home´s T-shirt and shorts (nothing special). When we came, we were immediately headed for a dining table. There was several types of rice, roasted chicken pieces on skewers, beef noodles with sauce, chicken pieces with salsa, peanut sauce, butter biscuits etc.
They were all dressed in traditional clothing and after a while, the rest of the family appeared. We were probably a good attraction for them because they started to go around us with phones asking if they could take a photo with us. We had to admit that we were as exotic to them as if they were for us in the Czech Republic. Children were happy too. Some were ashamed, they took another moment to talk to us. One girl invited us out for burning sparklers and all the fear was gone. From the girl (what invited us to the sparklers), we heard that she likes us very much. Because I have beautiful facial features, smile, her brother loves my blonde hair, and because Martin has a blue color of his eyes and he is really tall. With a humble voice, she asked if we could take a photo with her, and we said – that is not a problem, all the children were running around us. Immediately two of them got hold of my hands. She thanked me a few times then, and with a happy voice, she informed us that she had to send it to her friends. I was really sad and so suprised because I came without make-up and nice clothes and I look like a princess in kid´s eyes. That’s where I realized beauty. Here, you can see that all makeup is not needed, and who wants to see a beauty so see it.
Finally, in simple English, we found all our common speech and spent 3 hours with them. We saw a one tradition during good-bye. The younger Muslims kiss the hand of the older (they show you the respect) so all kids kissed our hands. This afternoon was one of the most beautiful experiences in Malaysia.
