64 Making merit
Saturday 31 July 2004

Many Buddhists in Asia feel a need to make merit—what we in the West might call creating good karma. Some do this by feeding monks on a daily basis. Others make donations to their local temple.

The rains season has started in Thailand and during this time monks are confined to their wat or monastery. One way Thai people make merit is to donate essential items to monks for use during the rains retreat.

Today I joined Ead and Tong and members of Tong's family on a visit to a small temple where donations were made to the monks for the rains retreat.

63 Back in Thailand
Saturday 24 July 2004

Today I arrived back in Thailand. For the moment I am staying with my friends Ead and Tong in Bangkok.

62 Giving with no expectations
Wednesday 21 July 2004

Chen Chin-fa* led a Tzu Chi relief mission to Hebei Province in China following the devastation from Typhoon Herb. Chen was confronted with uncooperative officials when trying to distribute relief to the victims. After completing the mission he returned to Taiwan. Here he had to confront his feelings about the way he was treated.

Reading about Chen reminded me of my time working as a volunteer English teacher in Thailand during 2003. My students and most of my colleagues treated me with great respect. Similar respect was often not given by bureaucrats with whom I had to deal to arrange my stay. It was the attitude of bureaucrats that led me to leave Thailand, which I love very much, at the end of the year.

On leaving Thailand I decided to travel with no plans, to see what came up for me. After a month in Singapore I took a bus to Melaka in Malaysia. In Melaka I met Tzu Chi volunteers and what I heard about Tzu Chi made me want to volunteer—to participate in the good work they are doing. Surely such a compassionate organization would treat me with respect.

I have no complaints with the way I was treated at Tzu Chi. But reading the article on Chen Chin-fa has triggered in my mind—my monkey mind—thoughts about the nature of giving without expectations.

Is it not reasonable to have an expectation of being treated with respect—the same respect that I give to others?

'Give with no expectations.'

OK. So, I am to have no expectations. What if they are outwardly rude to me? What if they spit on me?

'Give with no expectations.'

What if they lie to me, exploit me?

'Give with no expectations.'

What if they steal from me?

'Give with no expectations.'

What if they beat me? Rape me?

'No expectation.'

What if they put me in jail?

'No expectations.'

What if they kill me?

Practising Buddhism can be quite challenging. In the first sermon after his enlightenment the Buddha told us that our clinging causes the unsatisfactoriness, the suffering, in life. Everything we cling to leads to suffering. Our expectations are examples of our clinging.

I came to Asia to experience Buddhism in practice. At Tzu Chi I was confronted, at least in my mind, with perhaps one of the biggest challenges of Buddhism. Tzu Chi simply asks its members and volunteers to live Buddhism. It does not practice Buddhism as ritual. It is practiced in daily life—by giving with no expectation of receiving anything in return.

When I met recipients of Tzu Chi aid I met people whose lives are much worse off then mine. I do not know what expectations they have but at the time I have met them, they have been happy and certainly not complaining about their situation.

I met a man who was paralysed from the waist down—the result of a motorcycle accident 18 years earlier. At that time his family would have been quite young. If he had lived in Australia, my home country, he would have had the benefit of social security to support him financially. I wonder how difficult it was for his family to survive in Malaysia before Tzu Chi came to his aid. But there he was, chatting in a very friendly way and always smiling. When I asked how he could maintain his happy disposition he said he had learned it from Tzu Chi.

Another man was barely able to sit up by himself. He certainly was unable to feed himself. I was given the job of feeding him his lunch. I had to spoon-feed him like a baby. I do not know what his speech capabilities are; they certainly do not include English. He was still able to communicate. Whenever I asked if he was ready for another mouthful he would look at me and smile.

When I think back to my students in Thailand. Despite the poverty that was a part of some of their lives, most of them were usually happy.

The reality of my situation on a day-to-day basis is that I am treated well. People are not usually rude to me. They do not beat me. They do not put me in jail. I have all my faculties. I do not have to live in poverty. I have no reason to be less happy than any of the people who I like to think I am helping. The only thing that can prevent me from being happy is my expectations.

My challenge is to let go of my expectations one by one and at the same time to let go of the suffering that I inflict on myself.

* Tzu Chi Quarterly, Fall 2003

61 Bureaucracies: I can cope
Tuesday 20 July 2004

I had a little test yesterday. The previous time I lost my passport it seemed no one knew what I was supposed to do. The cops would say one thing, Immigration another. Melaka Immigration found it too hard, so they just gave me seven days to go back to my point of entry. This time I decided to take a chance on doing nothing and seeing what happened.

Yesterday I went to the Thai consulate. Everything was fine until he looked at my passport and there was no entry stamp on it. I explained the situation and showed him the police report but he said I would have to get it stamped by Malaysian Immigration before he could handle it. So I got in a taxi and went to the Immigration office in Georgetown (the city on Penang Island). There were no signs in English but eventually I found someone who could talk to me and politely told me that I would have to go to Immigration head office. Oh no! I thought, back to KL? But she gave me a piece of paper with the address and it was Butterworth, just over on the mainland. So, I walked down to the wharf and took a ferry over, which is a pleasant way to spend half an hour. Into another taxi (they all rip you off) and to the Immigration office. I got there at 11.30. When you get there you go to a window and they give you a form to fill out (and charge you RM1 for the form). They also give you a number and tell you to wait for your number to be called. At 1 o'clock they broke for lunch and my number had still not been called. One woman asked why I was still sitting there. I explained my situation. She took my form and she said she would fix it after lunch. (At this office they can speak English.)

Came back at 2.00. The woman told me to sit and wait until I was called. Eventually the cashier called my number and took RM100 (A$35) off of me, gave me a receipt and told me to sit down again. After another long wait my name was called and I was given my passport with the stamp on it. By this time it was 3.30 pm.

When I came into the country they took about one minute to stamp my passport, allowing me to stay for three months and it was free. Now, because I was foolish enough to allow one of their citizens to rob me, I am required to wait four hours and pay RM101 (not including taxi fares) for a stamp that allows me to stay 7 days that were originally included in the first three months.

And I kept my cool! : )

This morning it was back to the Thai consulate and everything was OK. However I still have to go back tomorrow afternoon and collect my passport and visa.

60 Women in black
Friday 16 July 2004

The Moslems here in Malaysia are mostly fairly moderate. Most, but not all, women wear a scarf over their heads in public. In Melaka I think I have seen a total of four who also wore a veil.

While the bus was stopped at aFormosa, I noticed many women in shapeless black from head to foot. All that could be seen of them was eyes and sandaled feet. When I looked at the men (dressed in modern shorts and t-shirts) accompanying these women they looked like they may be from the middle-east. Perhaps they are here for a holiday.

I saw such a woman having breakfast at a restaurant in Penang this morning. She had to put the food in her mouth under the veil. I caught a brief glimpse of her face. On the one hand I wanted to look but on the other I felt I should turn away so as not to embarrass her.

59 Travelling: Melaka—Penang
Thursday 15 July 2004

Today I took the bus from Melaka to Penang. It leaves at 9.30 am and arrives 6.30 pm. The fare is just over RM30 which is less than $A12. Not bad value, hey? And on a comfortable bus too.

The first stop was aFormasa Resort about half an hour out of Melaka. It is a big hotel, in the middle of nowhere, with lots of activities including golf, water slides and a wild west theme park. We waited there for 15 minutes. No one left the bus. No one joined it. A young lady got on and handed out promotional CDs to everyone. As a Westerner, I guess I was special because I got three brochures as well. Most people left their CDs on the bus when they departed. Me too.

The bus didn't stop again until almost 1.30 pm. There was a great rush for the toilets. And surprise, surprise—they were clean!!! These were the cleanest toilets I have seen in Malaysia. The whole complex (comprising service station, food stalls, toilets and nappy changing facilities) was quite new. They had a small army of cleaners working on the whole place. There seemed to be someone always mopping the already clean floor. If I seem to be carrying on about this, it is because when the bus takes a toilet stop on the way to and from Singapore, the toilets are absolutely disgusting. : (

I have now travelled almost the entire length of the Malaysian north-south highway and it is quite good. The Malaysian highway system appears generally to be better than what we have in Australia. It is all tollways. From Johor Baru, just across the strait from Singapore, to a little north of KL, the scenery does not change much. It is either green or greener. A few green hills, here and there, break the monotony. Sometimes the green is natural forest, sometimes it's plantations. Palm oil plantations are quite common. In many places teak trees have been planted along the side of the road.

Just south of Ipoh, the scenery changes with rocky mountains that include cliffs, caves the occasional waterfall and a tunnel. We stopped off at Ipoh at about 3 pm to drop off a few passengers and pick up a few more. While we waited a couple of partially crippled beggars came on to ask for handouts. Ipoh looks like a pleasant city.

Penang is an island not far from the mainland. You can get there by ferry or by a bridge that is perhaps five kilometers long. The main town here is Georgetown. It has many buildings of similar style to Melaka but it's a lot bigger.

After haggling for a while with robbers in taxis. I arrived at the Golden Plaza Hostel on the edge of Little India and not far from Chinatown. Those taxi drivers see a Westerner with more luggage than he can comfortably handle and they see dollar signs (or ringgits). The taxis have no meters. You negotiate the fare. Still, the one I took was quite friendly and helpful, even though I called him a robber.

Between the accommodation and the taxis, my impression of Penang so far is not so good. The Golden Plaza Hostel is no Sama Sama Guesthouse. I'll be positive and tell you what is good about my room. It has a big ceiling fan, a comfortable bed and a window overlooking the street. It is quiet at night. They also have security lockers where I am able to leave my computer for safe-keeping. I can't plug the computer in because there isn't even a power point in the room. Oh, the things we in the West take for granted. A slightly more expensive place wouldn't break the bank but I can't be bothered struggling with my luggage again. I have simply decided to stay as briefly as possible before heading for Thailand. Next time I'll know better.

58 Farewell Tzu Chi
Wednesday 14 July 2004

One of the reasons I went to Thailand was to learn more about Buddhism. As Malaysia is predominantly a Moslem country I did not expect to be learning much here. But thanks to Tzu Chi, I have.

When I was leaving Tzu Chi yesterday, they made a presentation—two actually, as I came back after dinner for the English practise group. It was all very nice and I actually got quite a few hugs, which is very unusual here in Asia.

Bye everyone. I'll miss you.

57 Moves
Tuesday 13 July 2004

Today, I expect to make my last visit to Tzu Chi here in Melaka (for the moment anyway). I will spend tomorrow getting organized. Thursday I expect to spend on a bus travelling to Penang, an island off the north-western coast of Malaysia.

My plan is to stay in Penang for about a week or so and then travel to Thailand.

56 Grandchildren
Friday 9 July 2004

I always remember how exciting it was when my children were born. So when they have children I know they are going through much the same feelings. They are experiencing what I experienced when we had them. And I feel good for them.

It is also nice having grandchildren. You get to play with them but you can give them back. You don't have responsibility, well not so much. And when they are really cute I think, this lovely child is 25% me. And when they are naughty I think they are 75% other people.

Not seeing my grandchildren is the biggest drawback for me, to living in Asia.

55 Garage Band
Wednesday 7 July 2004

I have found something new to enjoy on my computer. There is a program called Garage Band. I certainly would not have bought it if it did not come with the computer. And it wasn't a priority for me so I only started to investigate it about a week ago.

It comes with prerecorded loops that you string together in whatever order sounds good to you. You can add additional tracks until you end up with quite a big band.

Because I have a background in graphic design, I sometimes say that desktop publishing software makes it easy for anyone to design graphics badly. And I'm sure that Garage Band allows people like me to make music badly. But I'm having fun and it sounds good to me.

So far I have only finished one composition, which I call Melaka Blues. I have two others in progress. I'm sure it has its limitations but at the moment I'm just scratching the surface. I don't even know how to use the program properly. It's all trial and error.

It is possible to plug in a keyboard and microphone but for the moment I will leave that for the real musicians.

54 Attachments
Tuesday 6 July 2004

I have an ongoing goal to discover my attachments and ditch them one by one. I think that I am making reasonable progress with that. The progress shows when friends offer snacks around. It happens often. And the Chinese in particular are very persistent. I usually say 'no thanks'. As far as I am concerned that is the end of it. I have no attachment to filling my belly with junk. But perhaps they have an attachment to having their offer accepted. They seem to find it very hard to accept this 'rejection'.

Early this year I read a book on the Four Noble Truths which had a strong influence on me. I have always seen the Four Noble Truths as being the core of Buddhism. Hence the abovementioned goal. On reading this book, I decided to give myself a simple goal for the year; ie to understand the first aspect of the first Noble Truth, which is: There is dukkha (usually translated into English as suffering or unsatisfactoriness). I am happy that some of the negative stuff happening to me this year is simply a response from the Universe to my desire to gain this understanding.

Just realised as I typed: 'desire' = attachment = dukkha. Figures.

I have faced some challenges this year and I am thankful for them—even if I might be a little put out while I am going through them. And yeah, there are the good times too.

Sure I have lost a bit of stuff, but I am healthy, I live very simply and so can manage to afford to continue to live in the lifestyle that I have chosen for myself.

53 KL scam
Monday 5 July 2004

Today I went to KL to pick up my second new passport. A friend had told me a different way to get to the Australian High Commission from the bus station. I was looking for the entrance to the underground. Maybe I was looking a little lost because two women spoke to me. In Thailand this is common. In Malaysia, unusual.

After a bit of a chat and some advice on how to get there (incorrect I might add), one of them said her sister was in Australia and their old mother was worried about whether she was safe. Perhaps I could visit them for lunch and reassure her. I thought—this sounds familiar—and said that I needed to get to the Australian High Commission very quickly (I did). I told her to give me her hand phone number and I would ring her if I had time later; after I had picked up the passport. After I left them, I promptly 'lost' the number.

When I got home, I looked up my Lonely Planet and sure enough this is one of the KL scams. They get you into their home and entice you into a 'friendly' card game that is rigged and they fleece you of all your money. Don't know how they would have gone with me as I don't gamble, friendly or otherwise. I know a guy who got caught up in a similar thing in Bangkok. He had his drink spiked so that he hardly knew what was going on. I might have been safe being a non-drinker and non-gambler but I would rather not put it to the test.

There was nothing about these women in themselves that might have tipped me off that they were rip-off merchants. They were in their thirties. Both looked very ordinary; not particularly attractive or unattractive; not particularly well dressed or badly dressed. They were polite and not pushy. Just the sort of women who you would expect might be concerned about their mother.

52 Buying a camera
Sunday 4 July 2004

My digital camera is five years old and has served me well. Photos on this site are evidence of the quality of its pictures. It is a Kodak DC 265. Camera technology has advanced quite a lot since then and the prices have dropped amazingly. I have been thinking of upgrading to something that does a little more. But I have been quite happy with that one.

One I have looked at is the Panasonic DMC fz10. The reason I like it is that it is a 4 mp camera with a 12 x zoom and an image stabilizer. My friends at Tzu Chi who are AV & computer professionals advised me not to buy Panasonic as they had not proved themselves as camera manufacturers. They recommend brands such as Canon, Nikon and Sony. But I can remember when people were saying don't touch Sony. Not that long ago. I can also remember when Honda only made motorcycles.

Looking at alternatives, there is always a compromise. There are very few with a 12 x zoom. There are very few with an image stabiliser. The Panasonic is the only one with both. 10 x zoom is as far as most go. I would settle for that if everything else was right. But I don't think there is one with 10 x zoom, image stabiliser and 4 mp.

The purpose of an image stabiliser is to freeze any hand movement so that you don't get blurry pictures under low light or long zoom conditions. It means you can quickly take a shot without having to worry about a tripod.

The reason I have not gone and bought the Panasonic is that the reviews say that it is almost impossible to focus in low light conditions. I don't know if that means manual focus or if the auto focus doesn't work either. I do take a few night shots and the DC 265 auto focus has always handled that OK. If anyone reading this has an fz10, perhaps you can tell me how you find it. Or if anyone has another recommendation, I'd be interested to hear.

In the mean time. I am happy to keep using the DC 265.

51 Malaysian society & politics—a potted introduction
Friday 2 July 2004

There are three dominant races living here. Malays (same race as Indonesians, I'm told) are in the majority. They arrived here about 4-500 years ago, just before the Chinese who are the second most common race. The third, but much smaller in number, are the Indians. At different times the area was colonised by the Dutch, English and Portuguese. Before any of the above arrived there were aboriginal tribes. People today may be a combination of any of the above, however they usually see themselves as being one or the other. Many identify quite strongly by their race but most seem to see themselves as Malaysians first.

Most of the Malays are Moslems; mostly moderate and tolerant, however there are some extremists. The Chinese could be Buddhist, Taoist, Christian, Moslem or nothing at all. The Indians are mostly Hindu but could be Moslem or occasionally Buddhist.

Malaysia is a democracy. There seem to be dozens of political parties. Ever since independence the country has been governed by a coalition of several parties that go together under the name of Barisan National (National Front). The actual parties usually represent a race. The strongest party in the coalition is Umno, the Malay party, which supports moderate Moslem principles. The next most dominant party represents the Chinese. There is also a party representing Indians. Another Moslem party known as PAS is one of the opposition paties. It pushes more extreme Moslem views. PAS did have power in two states in the north-east. The laws there that everyone (Moslem or not) had to abide by were based on Moslem principles. Those two states have been experiencing a low level of prosperity. At the last election, PAS lost power in one of those states and diminished its majority in the other.

There are reports in the papers from time to time of Moslem extremist leaders being based in Malaysia. If this is so, terrorist activities are not conducted within Malaysia.

As I said, Umno is quite moderate and appears to be committed to rooting out any terrorists based in Malaysia. The government appears to me to be quite independent and has positive relationships with most countries.

One issue here is piracy in the Straits of Melaka, between here and Sumatra (Indonesia). The US has offered its navy to patrol. Malaysia has declined, saying that a US presence would only make the area of more interest to terrorists. A sensible approach, I think.

50 No water
Thursday 1 July 2004

The water was turned off in Melaka yesterday morning. The water utility had some maintenence work to do and we were advised that we would be without water for 24 hours. Not the whole of Melaka, just most of it.

This morning I checked the water and it was flowing. Good, I needed to do some washing. I put the clothes in the machine and turned it on. A trickle of water came out. That was it. No more—all day. I am writing this at 9.20 pm. We are still without water for the second day.

We are lucky. We have a well in the courtyard. Soon brings up bucketsfull so we can flush the toilet. Today he bought some large plastic bins. Tonight I bathed the way many people in Asia do. You douse yourself with a dipperful of water, soap up, and rinse.

© copyright John Shield 2003 - 2004

To read this in the order it was written, scroll to the bottom and work your way up.

Blog archives
March 2004, includes: What I am doing in Melaka; Independence / Interdependence; Brother Yap; Why this blog is late.

April 2004, includes: My first trip to KL; Passport; New computer; Karma.

May 2004, includes: Getting it all together; Across the street culture; It's happened again; Writing process; Sincerity; Boring; Why?; Bag snatchers; Cross-cultural communications; Listening without projections; Malaysian or what?; Definitely Malaysian; Battling Bunga Raya; Free food.

June 2004, includes: A democratic proposal; Towards a mail-forwarding etiquette; The smell of durian; Almost free food; Charity fair; Fighting evil; Attempted robbery; Smokers; Cyber cafes; Tropical fruit-lovers paradise; Consumer society; Another snatch-theft death; Passport application—again; Why I prefer squat toilets; If I had a mothball in this hand; Troubles in southern Thailand; Ninety-one today; Going back; Stopping the snatchers; Karma and choice; Hazy skies; Formula for happiness; Where to next?; Trishaw respect; Desire for union; My new grandson.

August 2004, includes: Back to Mahasarakham; Independence; Passing time; Observations from the omelette shop; Pad Pak; Procession; Storm; Famine?

September 2004, includes: Street vendors; The omelette shop; Shopping in Sri-sawas; Restaurants; Off to Udon; In Udon; Toad soup; Buying speakers; Sweet talk; The price of happiness; The right to vote.

October 2004, includes: The real issue; Who are the real Australians?; The Best?; Out of Thailand; Instant Millionaire; Nong Khai to Vientiane; National Library of Laos; Social security in Laos; Please help me!; Lao delicacy; Everyone wants a sponsor; Vientiane markets; Of girls and bombs; Pronunciation of names; Being dead; Renting a bicycle; Losing and gaining customers; Making plans again; Bun Nam Festival; Party's over.

November 2004, includes: Visa applicataon; Lao Tradition show; At the bus station; I didn't make it; Tips for travellers to Vientiane; Visit to an Isaan village; Crickets and grasshoppers; Don't eat cockroaches; Village of the Red Waterholes; Thai winter; All Asians look alike?

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