Since coming to Malaysia I've been playing a lot of "pictorades." To play pictorades:
Supplies
hands
a notebook
a writing utensil
a task you need to accomplish
one or more individuals with whom you do not have a language in common
Rules
1 part charades, 1 part pictionary
An example:
Which, of course, with hand signs gives you, "You called me on the phone speaking Malay. Could I have a shuttle to the airport? At 10?"
My first round was with the reception at my hotel. I was a bit tired coming in from a long flight, but with the help of pictorades it went smoothly. The next morning, during round two, I got a shuttle to the airport. Round 3 with the shuttle driver brought me to believe that my bus to Melaka didn't exist. But since I had a ticket, I felt confident. I entered the bus terminal and was quickly swarmed with bus hawkers. One by one I showed them my ticket and one by one they pointed me toward the desk. Once I got to the desk a woman outside the desk looked at my ticket and then joined in the game. Her clue I guessed to be "Why the heck are you 2 hours early? Sit in that chair right there and I'll deal with you later."
The reason I was so early was so I could walk (oh sorry dad, take a bus) to the other airport if my bus was actually out of there. My ticket said "KLIA/KLIA2" which are actually two separate airports a little ways apart. Spoiler alert: I sat in that chair dutifully for 1.5 hours, and yes, I was at the wrong airport.
Not knowing this, when it was a 1/2 hour until my bus the woman I had talked to came over and told me she'd come back and show me where the bus was once it got there. What happened next is anyone's (or at least my) guess. Two men carrying machine guns entered the terminal wearing camouflage. With them was a man dressed in a blue uniform. As if by magic all the hawkers disappeared... Something, perhaps my strong grasp of the Malay language, tells me what they were doing wasn't legal. The one or two that were left were questioned. Of course, my hawker, who said she'd tell me where to go, was gone. Knowing I needed to figure it out myself I went outside and went bus by bus until I found one by the company I was taking. Bus #3 was my lucky one where I played my "bonus round" explaining to the driver that my ticket in English was a ticket for his bus and that he should let me on.
The bus pulled out (luckily with me on it) 10 minutes early. This was long enough for the bus driver to drive to the correct airport to pick up the other 39 passengers. No wonder it was so confusing for the driver, I had found him in his waiting lot. My bus ride was quiet, quite literally as no one spoke a word, and I was picked up at the bus terminal without a problem.
The highlight of the next day and a half was the food. As a former chef, the mother of the house offers cooking lessons... Which of course I had to try. I was joined by a German couple (who were both teachers) and we watched and took notes as she made 5 Malay/Arabian dishes... Get ready to be jealous. But don't worry I have the recipes and I'll post one soon!
This photo also nicely demonstrates the other unforeseen reason I stick out here. I am quite literally a head taller. In fact, at 5' 7" I'm only 3 inches above the US female average, but I'm 7 inches above average for a woman and 2 inches above the average for a man in Malaysia.
Supplies
hands
a notebook
a writing utensil
a task you need to accomplish
one or more individuals with whom you do not have a language in common
Rules
1 part charades, 1 part pictionary
An example:
My first round was with the reception at my hotel. I was a bit tired coming in from a long flight, but with the help of pictorades it went smoothly. The next morning, during round two, I got a shuttle to the airport. Round 3 with the shuttle driver brought me to believe that my bus to Melaka didn't exist. But since I had a ticket, I felt confident. I entered the bus terminal and was quickly swarmed with bus hawkers. One by one I showed them my ticket and one by one they pointed me toward the desk. Once I got to the desk a woman outside the desk looked at my ticket and then joined in the game. Her clue I guessed to be "Why the heck are you 2 hours early? Sit in that chair right there and I'll deal with you later."
The reason I was so early was so I could walk (oh sorry dad, take a bus) to the other airport if my bus was actually out of there. My ticket said "KLIA/KLIA2" which are actually two separate airports a little ways apart. Spoiler alert: I sat in that chair dutifully for 1.5 hours, and yes, I was at the wrong airport.
Not knowing this, when it was a 1/2 hour until my bus the woman I had talked to came over and told me she'd come back and show me where the bus was once it got there. What happened next is anyone's (or at least my) guess. Two men carrying machine guns entered the terminal wearing camouflage. With them was a man dressed in a blue uniform. As if by magic all the hawkers disappeared... Something, perhaps my strong grasp of the Malay language, tells me what they were doing wasn't legal. The one or two that were left were questioned. Of course, my hawker, who said she'd tell me where to go, was gone. Knowing I needed to figure it out myself I went outside and went bus by bus until I found one by the company I was taking. Bus #3 was my lucky one where I played my "bonus round" explaining to the driver that my ticket in English was a ticket for his bus and that he should let me on.
The bus pulled out (luckily with me on it) 10 minutes early. This was long enough for the bus driver to drive to the correct airport to pick up the other 39 passengers. No wonder it was so confusing for the driver, I had found him in his waiting lot. My bus ride was quiet, quite literally as no one spoke a word, and I was picked up at the bus terminal without a problem.
The highlight of the next day and a half was the food. As a former chef, the mother of the house offers cooking lessons... Which of course I had to try. I was joined by a German couple (who were both teachers) and we watched and took notes as she made 5 Malay/Arabian dishes... Get ready to be jealous. But don't worry I have the recipes and I'll post one soon!
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