Mr O'C in Malaysia - Kuantan & Pei Chai School

6th July – Tuesday

Up early ready to for the start of school at 7.30. Most Malaysian schools run two sessions each day. The first runs from 7.30am to 1.10pm, and then a whole new group arrives and is in school until around 6pm.

School starts with a full school assembly each day where notices are read out. I talked to four classes about New Zealand and found their grasp of English to be very good. Each of the classes had about forty students in them. This is normal in Malaysia where even the new entrant (called Standard 1) classes have forty students.

I was taken to lunch at an Indian Restaurant by a group of teachers. We ate a range of dishes straight off a banana leaf with our hands. In Malaysia it in traditional to only bring food to your mouth with your right hand, so I was very careful to follow that custom. Some of the dishes were quite spicy but I also discovered my new favourite drink which is fresh mango blended with yogurt.

It was hotter today than it has been and I was really feeling it. I was sweating lots and feeling really drained and low on energy. So much so I needed an afternoon nap.

Around 5pm Ai Li (my host) took me to play badminton. It is one of the biggest sports in Malaysia and the people I was playing with were good. The combination of the heat and my lack of skill meant I was pretty average despite the efforts by Ai Li's friends to tke it easy on me. It was easily the hottest I have ever felt and it took a long time for me to cool down afterwards.

7th July – Wednesday

Another day visiting classes at my host school of Pei Chai. Pei stands for educate or develop, and Chai stands for successful people. Also watched the practice for the Pei Chai sports day. It is going to be a very big affair with a marching band as part of the opening ceremony.

I have become very aware of how hard students here work. As well as school, where they learn three languages, Malay, Chinese and English, they all generally go for tuition for various subjects after school, or before if they attend the afternoon session. These tuitions are often very late at night with my host family’s children often coming back after 9pm or 10pm.

Food plays a big part in Malaysian culture. I am hearing "Makan Makan Makan" lots which means "Eat Eat Eat". I was taken to lunch twice today by the school principal Mr Goh, once with some of their Board of Trustees, and once with some of Mr Goh’s friends and other school parents. Each meal I eat I am introduced to new food including Rice Porridge at my second lunch. Also tried some new fruits called Mango Steen and Rose Apple. Both were very nice.

I was taken to a Karaoke bar that night by Mr Goh. Him and his friends had great voices. Unfortunately they made me sing and I let New Zealand down with a very poor rendition of “I did it my way”.

8th July Thursday

I forgot to mention that in Chinese people’s full names tend to have the surname first. Therefore all around the school I was known and introduced as Mr Jimmy, rather than Mr O’Carroll as I would be in New Zealand.

A day of visits today. I went to the District Education Office where Mr Goh introduced me to the district manager. He spoke only a little English so Mr Goh acted as translator for our conversation.
On our way back to school Mr Goh took me to visit a music school run by one of the parents from Pei Chai. The school was quite impressive with a large number of tuition rooms, all with a high standard of musical equipment, and at least two performance spaces that I could see. The school has hundreds of students signed up for tuition.

In the afternoon we were taken to visit the Pahang State Education office. It was a very grand building and we were ushered in to meet the head of State Education for Pahang, the state Kuantan is in. We were given a tour of the many departments they had for each curriculum area. Subject areas appear to work very independently of each other.

After the visit it was home for a shower and short rest. The temperature is so hot I have had 3 to 5 showers each day.

In the early evening my host Ai Li and her son Shi Rong took me out to Telok Chempedak, one of the local beaches. It was a very beautiful beach with a couple of beach resorts, and plenty of monkeys.

After the beach Mr Goh took me out with his family for my fourth big meal of the day. I found out it was his wife’s birthday so his family made me feel very special by including me in their celebration. I think they thought I was missing western food so they took me to a restaurant that served steaks. I did take the opportunity to sink my teeth into a good steak. It tasted good.

9th July – Friday

Went into two classes today and shared about New Zealand. The students almost treated me like a super star, wanting autographs and even to know my blood type. I happily shared that my blood type was red.

After school we went out to a Batik Factory where cloth, including silk, is either printed or hand drawn on. Some of the work was amazing, with spectacular patterns and colours. The initial design is done with wax, and then dye is used to create the colours. The material then goes through a process to clear away the wax leaving only the picture or pattern. Spent some Ringgit (Malaysian dollars) here.

We also went out to view a turtle sanctuary and stopped to drink coconut juice straight from the coconut at a stall on the way home. Another refreshing drink to battle the heat with. I was fascinated by the old lady who hacked open the coconuts, six for our group. She must have been at least 75 years old.

10th July – Saturday

This was very much a tourist day. We drove out to a town called Sungai Lembing which is an old tin mining town. At its height it had close to 20,000 people living there but now, since the mine has closed, has a permanent population of only one or two thousand. The museum there is quite impressive and very informative. The conditions the miners used to work in were horrific but the money at the time was very good so many took the risk.

We visited a few spots around the town including the cottage of an old miner who now collects crystals from around the area, and went over quite long swing bridge. The interesting part of the trip across the swing bridge was meeting a man on a scooter using the same bridge, there was not a lot of room to get past each other.

On the way home we stopped in at Charas Cave. This is a lime stone cave which you get to by climbing up steep steps. I’m not sure why but this country seems to like getting overweight Kiwis to climb stairs in 32 degree heat. Once there it is worth the climb, deep into the cave is a reclining Buddha.

To finish the afternoon I was treated to examples of all three of the main religions in Malaysian, visiting a Muslim mosque, a Hindu temple and a Buddhist temple. All three were in close proximity of each other.

I needed a quick nap before Mr Goh took me out for another big evening. Somehow he and his friends had managed to get me an invite to a Chinese Wedding Dinner. This was a huge event with around one thousand people seated at approximately one hundred tables. I was surprised to be put in a photo with the bride when we arrived and could not stop simply looking around in amazement. There were nine courses for the dinner as nine is a lucky number in Chinese culture. I was made very welcome by Mr Goh’s friends, particularly Mr Yee who I think wanted to find out how much Carlsberg I could drink. I politely resisted and behaved myself. The entertainment was mainly people from the attendees who has been prearranged to sing, karaoke style. They generally were very good but even I could not hold back the smiles when one lady attempted to yodel in a high pitched Chinese accent.

11th July - Sunday

Last day in Kuantan, and at Pei Chai school. The sports day that they have been practicing for all week has finally come. Most of the 1800 students are involved in some way, either competing, in the marching band, helping organize and filling one of the many other roles required. Almost all parents come so it is a huge event. The teachers, including me, needed to be at school at 7am to start the organisation.

There is a real mix of events. The more serious individual events are short distance (up to 200m) track events, with the 4 x 100m meter relays events ranking as the high status. There are also a serious of fun events such as ping pong ball and spoon or sled events for the younger children. All the events contribute points to the totals for the four teams that students are split into when they join the school. The points for the sports day contribute to the overall school competition for the teams.

I was treated as a dignitary and was seated on the nice cushioned couches that had been set up by the side of the track. I was in the company of the school board and a representative of the Pahang State government.

There was also an event for teachers and parents involving throwing a very light ball, and catching it in a cone. I represented New Zealand’s sporting prowess well with a perfect record.

As part of the closing ceremony I had to give a five minute speech. It was a little nerve wracking but once I got through the very short Chinese and Malay parts of my speech I loosened up and enjoyed the rest of it.

I loved my time in Kuantan, where everyone looking after me was very kind and generous, but it was a very tired Mister Jimmy who climbed on board the bus for the trip back to Kuala Lumpur. Unfortunately the bus was a double decker that understandably was designed for Malaysians, therefore little leg room and space meant not a lot of rest was had during the bus trip.
Once in Kuala Lumpur we were picked up by Fauziah and dropped off at KL Sentral which is the main train commuter hub. We then had to sort tickets and catch a commuter train to Klang. If you picture a crowded commuter train in Wellington, add more people so it is even more crowded, and then add two foreigners with massive suitcases you will get a feel for how ridiculous we must have looked.

We were picked up at Klang station by Chandrika. She then took us to her house to meet and pick up her family and we all went out for dinner. So by the time we were dropped off to our new host families it was close to 11 pm. I was shattered but still loving the adventure.