Malaysia trip Pt. 2
Dec 3
Woke up early from the alarm clock, judged sufficient time for a bit more sleep before shutting off the alarm and going back to sleep.
Woke up again, this time by my roommate, Colin. Judged sufficient time for a slight bit more sleep before dozing off again (and letting him be the first to get to the bath, incidentally freezingly cold enough to really wake him up =D).
Woke up yet again, no more time for more sleep (if I wanted time for breakfast) but felt awake enough to stay awake from then on. Got changed into collared t-shirt and slacks before going down to the twenty-third floor for breakfast.
I'll digress a bit to describe our place of stay for a bit (and to make this post a bit longer =P). We, the volunteer group were staying at the Pacific Regency, a service apartment (serviced hotel?) building at the expence of a company sponsering Gamecon 1. Because of this, our lodging and breakfast were paid for, any other expense we would have to fork out for ourselves.
Perhaps incidentally perhaps not, the Pacific Regency building happened to be situated next to the main office of the company sponsering us. This (and certain difficulties appearently caused by our liasion) led to our ring leader labeling our place of stay as under the Eye of Sauron. Our room was the topmost of all the rooms set aside for us, hence closest to the Eye of Sauron. This little joke also led (with help from seeing twin hotel buildings (Hilton/somethingelse) along the journey) to discussion of a Hotel Sauron. It shall be composed of two closely placed towers, one named Minas Tirith, the other Minas Morgul. And at the top of both buildings a hologram generator shall form an image between the tips of both towers of a giant burning eye.
Aaaaanyway, breakfast was cool. Buffet style with a mostly western spread. Pigged out on the meat but forgot about the yogurt. Damn! There was time enough for a leasurely breakfast (to me anyway, Colin felt it was a bit rushed) before we had to leave (we were part of the first shift).
A fifteen minute trip later brought us to Mid Valley mall, the location of the con and also the largest mall in South East Asia. We settled in and setup the games. No problems that I know of during the time I was there. Bumped into an old friend Gary, who had worked in Singapore before. (Well, he was specifically looking for us.) A bit before lunch, Dawn arrived. She was down with a few of her friends. It turned out that Gary and Dawn knew each other, through a game store known as Wolf's game shop. Appearently the gaming community tended to congregate around the same areas, same as Singapore actually.
Anyway, after playing a few games it was lunch break for my shift (Shift A). Colin, Gary and Dawn along with one of her friends (sorry Dawn, I forgot his name ^ ^), a few others from Singapore (two Richards and a Brian) and I headed over to the food court. It was crowded so we went over to another place. The food was good though a bit pricer than I'm used to. Anyway we all chatted for a while before we left the place. Dawn had to meet some friends later so she left the mall. Colin had to stop by the hotel next to the mall (where the CCG group and con visitors were staying) to sort out some things regarding some misarrangements (yet another recurring theme) and Gary and I tagged along to chat. Dawn's friend and the others went back to the con.
After things were settled (or so we thought) we headed back to the con. Back there I figured I had enough time so I embarked on my quest for bubblegum. Dawn had suggested that Toys 'R' Us was a good place to look so it was there I went first. Couldn't find the type I was looking for though. It occured to me that the candy section of a supermarket may have it. After checking I hit the basement level and what followed wouldn't make a story by any stretch of imagination. I found the bubblegum (and that's Bubblegum, not those tiny flat strips of gum but large almost cube like chunks of gum that could be used to blow bubbles as big as your face). It was also smaller than I remembered. Certainly not enough to blow bubbles as big as my head (Though back then, my head used to be smaller...). Anyway, I was disappointed enough with the size, variety (I remembered dual apple/banana flavour) and packaging (gaudy with reflective bits and a picture of a duck with a mohawk?!?! O_o) that I only bought a triple pack (so long childhood memories *sniff*).
The rest of my shift (and all of my first) was teaching a simple game called Palazzo palati (something like that, I can't remember the spelling), a game played by building a platformed tower Jenga styled (remove pillars from the lower levels to place on higher levels). And a game called... called... Urmm... Ah yes, 'Pit'. Another simple game played by distributing out a deck of cards (which have images of various fruits numbering one to five) equally to 2 or more players. The stack of cards for each player are placed face down in front of them and each player takes turns to reveal the top card. The first player to hit a bell placed at the center of the table when exactly five fruits of the same type are revealed takes all the cards. The winner is the only player with cards remaining in hand. Yeah, they're simple games, I'm just not confident enough to teach the more complex ones. ^ ^
Around the con were various other offerings. There was a sci-fi corner wheresome sci-fi toys and collectables were sold. Also there was a screening of various fan made sci-fi movies (Star Wars, Star Trek and B5) and a couple of cosplayers playing Jedi knights, Sith lords, an Imperial Stormtrooper, Gimli and another LotR character (someone who wears scale-mail, I didn't recognize the character.).
Also around were demos of some larger scaled boardgames, Twilight Imperium, World of Warcraft (yes, the boardgame), Cosmic Encounters and I think a few others. Other slightly smaller scaled boardgames were also being demoed. In all, I think about half of the con area was devoted to boardgames. One interesting fact regarding boardgames turned up during the con, smaller quicker games are preferred in Singapore whereas larger and longer playing games are preferred in Malaysia.
There were Warhammer 40K, VS, Magic and a Pokemon tournaments being run. A Warhammer 40K demo/contest, various boardgame contests and a model making showcase. I managed to get a couple of pictures by borrowing Colin's camera so I should be able to upload somethings sometime soon.
After my second shift ended, Gary, Colin, Darren (another Volunteer), Eric (also another volunteer), Brian (from lunch), Richard (one of the Richards from lunch) and I went out for dinner and planned to stop by Wolf's Game Shop. Well we did go for dinner, after waiting for Colin for an hour. He just kept talking to the invited con guest and our sponsor liasion while the rest of us waited. While I understand the importance of his talking to people who could be potential investors or people famous enouth to endorse his products, I wish he'd think and remember enough of his friends to not keep us waiting for so long. (As a friend I should tell him off about it, but I'm just not confrontational by nature and am rather timid about such things. *sigh*)
A tradition Colin always followed when in Kuala Lumpur was to eat at a certain foodstall selling boiled pork bone soup (called 'Bak kut teh') in Petaling Jaya (an area just outside of KL). The trip over was almost an adventure; we broke into two groups to take cabs and our cabdriver didn't know the way and had to be directed by Gary via cellphone through Colin. Appearently KL's big enough that there are cabdrivers who don't even leave the city limits and can earn enough to make a living.
According to Gary, the state of public transportation in KL was terrible dispite two Light Rail Transport(transit?) a Monorail system and a cityful of taxies. It seemed that it used to be easier to get around previously (something like 10 years back) when there was a mini-bus service around (which I later learned everyone was probably better off without (reckless speeding, overloading of passangers, etc)).
After arriving at the place (the trip took like maybe half an hour, I might be wrong) we had our supper and spent about an hour and a half chatting.
Actually, the others spent an hour and a half chatting, I spent an hour and a half alternatingly listening, puzzling over what was said and straining to hear what was being said over the noise of the occasional vehicle (our table was actually on the street). I was kinda upset that we never got around to visiting Wolf's Game Shop, it was kinda late when we finished chatting and none of us know if the shop would still be open. We left for our hotel rooms after that, and the trip back was uneventful.
Back at the ranch some gaming was in order in one of the other rooms but I stayed in to put down some notes. Too bad I fell asleep before I could finish.
*looks over the post and blinks* Okay, maybe I remember a bit more than I thought. ^ ^
More another day. ^_^
Woke up early from the alarm clock, judged sufficient time for a bit more sleep before shutting off the alarm and going back to sleep.
Woke up again, this time by my roommate, Colin. Judged sufficient time for a slight bit more sleep before dozing off again (and letting him be the first to get to the bath, incidentally freezingly cold enough to really wake him up =D).
Woke up yet again, no more time for more sleep (if I wanted time for breakfast) but felt awake enough to stay awake from then on. Got changed into collared t-shirt and slacks before going down to the twenty-third floor for breakfast.
I'll digress a bit to describe our place of stay for a bit (and to make this post a bit longer =P). We, the volunteer group were staying at the Pacific Regency, a service apartment (serviced hotel?) building at the expence of a company sponsering Gamecon 1. Because of this, our lodging and breakfast were paid for, any other expense we would have to fork out for ourselves.
Perhaps incidentally perhaps not, the Pacific Regency building happened to be situated next to the main office of the company sponsering us. This (and certain difficulties appearently caused by our liasion) led to our ring leader labeling our place of stay as under the Eye of Sauron. Our room was the topmost of all the rooms set aside for us, hence closest to the Eye of Sauron. This little joke also led (with help from seeing twin hotel buildings (Hilton/somethingelse) along the journey) to discussion of a Hotel Sauron. It shall be composed of two closely placed towers, one named Minas Tirith, the other Minas Morgul. And at the top of both buildings a hologram generator shall form an image between the tips of both towers of a giant burning eye.
Aaaaanyway, breakfast was cool. Buffet style with a mostly western spread. Pigged out on the meat but forgot about the yogurt. Damn! There was time enough for a leasurely breakfast (to me anyway, Colin felt it was a bit rushed) before we had to leave (we were part of the first shift).
A fifteen minute trip later brought us to Mid Valley mall, the location of the con and also the largest mall in South East Asia. We settled in and setup the games. No problems that I know of during the time I was there. Bumped into an old friend Gary, who had worked in Singapore before. (Well, he was specifically looking for us.) A bit before lunch, Dawn arrived. She was down with a few of her friends. It turned out that Gary and Dawn knew each other, through a game store known as Wolf's game shop. Appearently the gaming community tended to congregate around the same areas, same as Singapore actually.
Anyway, after playing a few games it was lunch break for my shift (Shift A). Colin, Gary and Dawn along with one of her friends (sorry Dawn, I forgot his name ^ ^), a few others from Singapore (two Richards and a Brian) and I headed over to the food court. It was crowded so we went over to another place. The food was good though a bit pricer than I'm used to. Anyway we all chatted for a while before we left the place. Dawn had to meet some friends later so she left the mall. Colin had to stop by the hotel next to the mall (where the CCG group and con visitors were staying) to sort out some things regarding some misarrangements (yet another recurring theme) and Gary and I tagged along to chat. Dawn's friend and the others went back to the con.
After things were settled (or so we thought) we headed back to the con. Back there I figured I had enough time so I embarked on my quest for bubblegum. Dawn had suggested that Toys 'R' Us was a good place to look so it was there I went first. Couldn't find the type I was looking for though. It occured to me that the candy section of a supermarket may have it. After checking I hit the basement level and what followed wouldn't make a story by any stretch of imagination. I found the bubblegum (and that's Bubblegum, not those tiny flat strips of gum but large almost cube like chunks of gum that could be used to blow bubbles as big as your face). It was also smaller than I remembered. Certainly not enough to blow bubbles as big as my head (Though back then, my head used to be smaller...). Anyway, I was disappointed enough with the size, variety (I remembered dual apple/banana flavour) and packaging (gaudy with reflective bits and a picture of a duck with a mohawk?!?! O_o) that I only bought a triple pack (so long childhood memories *sniff*).
The rest of my shift (and all of my first) was teaching a simple game called Palazzo palati (something like that, I can't remember the spelling), a game played by building a platformed tower Jenga styled (remove pillars from the lower levels to place on higher levels). And a game called... called... Urmm... Ah yes, 'Pit'. Another simple game played by distributing out a deck of cards (which have images of various fruits numbering one to five) equally to 2 or more players. The stack of cards for each player are placed face down in front of them and each player takes turns to reveal the top card. The first player to hit a bell placed at the center of the table when exactly five fruits of the same type are revealed takes all the cards. The winner is the only player with cards remaining in hand. Yeah, they're simple games, I'm just not confident enough to teach the more complex ones. ^ ^
Around the con were various other offerings. There was a sci-fi corner wheresome sci-fi toys and collectables were sold. Also there was a screening of various fan made sci-fi movies (Star Wars, Star Trek and B5) and a couple of cosplayers playing Jedi knights, Sith lords, an Imperial Stormtrooper, Gimli and another LotR character (someone who wears scale-mail, I didn't recognize the character.).
Also around were demos of some larger scaled boardgames, Twilight Imperium, World of Warcraft (yes, the boardgame), Cosmic Encounters and I think a few others. Other slightly smaller scaled boardgames were also being demoed. In all, I think about half of the con area was devoted to boardgames. One interesting fact regarding boardgames turned up during the con, smaller quicker games are preferred in Singapore whereas larger and longer playing games are preferred in Malaysia.
There were Warhammer 40K, VS, Magic and a Pokemon tournaments being run. A Warhammer 40K demo/contest, various boardgame contests and a model making showcase. I managed to get a couple of pictures by borrowing Colin's camera so I should be able to upload somethings sometime soon.
After my second shift ended, Gary, Colin, Darren (another Volunteer), Eric (also another volunteer), Brian (from lunch), Richard (one of the Richards from lunch) and I went out for dinner and planned to stop by Wolf's Game Shop. Well we did go for dinner, after waiting for Colin for an hour. He just kept talking to the invited con guest and our sponsor liasion while the rest of us waited. While I understand the importance of his talking to people who could be potential investors or people famous enouth to endorse his products, I wish he'd think and remember enough of his friends to not keep us waiting for so long. (As a friend I should tell him off about it, but I'm just not confrontational by nature and am rather timid about such things. *sigh*)
A tradition Colin always followed when in Kuala Lumpur was to eat at a certain foodstall selling boiled pork bone soup (called 'Bak kut teh') in Petaling Jaya (an area just outside of KL). The trip over was almost an adventure; we broke into two groups to take cabs and our cabdriver didn't know the way and had to be directed by Gary via cellphone through Colin. Appearently KL's big enough that there are cabdrivers who don't even leave the city limits and can earn enough to make a living.
According to Gary, the state of public transportation in KL was terrible dispite two Light Rail Transport(transit?) a Monorail system and a cityful of taxies. It seemed that it used to be easier to get around previously (something like 10 years back) when there was a mini-bus service around (which I later learned everyone was probably better off without (reckless speeding, overloading of passangers, etc)).
After arriving at the place (the trip took like maybe half an hour, I might be wrong) we had our supper and spent about an hour and a half chatting.
Actually, the others spent an hour and a half chatting, I spent an hour and a half alternatingly listening, puzzling over what was said and straining to hear what was being said over the noise of the occasional vehicle (our table was actually on the street). I was kinda upset that we never got around to visiting Wolf's Game Shop, it was kinda late when we finished chatting and none of us know if the shop would still be open. We left for our hotel rooms after that, and the trip back was uneventful.
Back at the ranch some gaming was in order in one of the other rooms but I stayed in to put down some notes. Too bad I fell asleep before I could finish.
*looks over the post and blinks* Okay, maybe I remember a bit more than I thought. ^ ^
More another day. ^_^
posted by Roderick at 12/10/2005 05:16:00 PM
1 Comments:
Cool, I'm glad you got to meet up with Dawn! And I'm sorry that the bubblegum didn't live up to your childhood memory :(
When I was a kid I used to love gum. My dad had a friend whose name I can't remember because we referred to him as "The Bubblegum Man". He always brought us kids gum when he came to visit.
I also loved buying bags of Big League Chew--I realize now that it was made to look like the chewing tobacco that baseball players chew, but all I knew at the time was that it was a LOT of gum in a big bag and that it was fun to try to get all of it into my mouth at once. Plus, it was delicious! I also enjoyed the hell out of Bubble Tape...
A few years after that time in my life, my brothers started playing T-ball (baseball that essentially eliminates the pitcher; you hit the ball off a stand), and I got into collecting baseball cards and chewing the stick gum that came in the packs.
I agree with you that the best gum (well, maybe besides Big League Chew) is the big block kind. My favorite brand when I was a kid was Bubblicious, followed by Bazooka.
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