An AMTAM Adventure

A coworker of mine recently taught me the acronym - AMTAM. Malaysia's tourism campaign slogan is "Malaysia, Truly Asia." AMTAM stands for A Malaysian Truly Asian Moment. It's meant to describe some of the frustrating moments that expats encounter when living here. For example, a new mall on Bukit Bintang, the Pavilion, has a newly painted crosswalk leading from its sidewalk across the street to a potted plant. Pedestrians have to walk around another 10 feet or so to get to the sidewalk on that side of the street.

Last weekend, Avery and I went to Gopeng for a white water rafting and abseiling (rock climbing, rappelling) weekend. The whole thing started as an AMTAM because the schedule only accounted for 2 of the 3 hours it takes to get there from KL. So naturally when we arrive (an hour later than expected) we can't go rafting as planned at that time. So why don't you start the abseiling they say?

So we are trekked up a slippery slope, across a waterfall, and then stop at the bottom of the path to the rappelling spot. At which point they say, stop here for "light refreshments," a cooler, hot water and instant coffee and chocolate milk. They do know it's 90 degrees here and we're in the middle of the jungle, right? AMTAM.

At that point, we had to wait an hour and a half before we could start. The joke became we're going somewhere else to wait. By the time we started, only half our group was still willing to wait around and do the activity. The worst part of the day was the truck ride back to the camp for lunch.

20 people are piled into the back of a truck like cattle. The road was only one lane and was bordered by a small natural wall and a trench with the remains of cement pipe supports spaced every 10 yards. So when our driver sees a motorcycle, who almost stopped to wait to get around, he naturally doesn't slow down at all and tries to move toward the trench. I mean what's 20 lives in the back of a truck compared to one motorcyclist? So we hit one of the cement supports and not one of us thought we weren't going to rollover. Miraculously, we didn't, but we did end up in the ditch. Then the driver wanted us to stay in the back while he tried to pull out. No go, mon frere. AMTAM

After that, everything was okay. The lunch was excellent and the rafting was fun. But an eventful day, nonetheless.

Luke "Swims Like an Otter"

Somehow, the phrase "swim like an otter" has become synonymous with swimming without floaties. Luke has been doing this for some time now. He has also been jumping in the pool and swimming back to the side. In the last couple of weeks, he has started diving for toys on the bottom of the pool. He can't get them if they are too deep, but if they are on the steps in the middle of the pool, he can get them. While his swimming is not very elegant to look at, I'm no longer worried that he is going to drown.