Justin-Klein.com – Life of a Traveling Programmer

Usually, my “observations posts” come from all the leftover blog notes that fail to find their way elsewhere into the narrative. Today’s is a bit different. Malaysia has been a particularly unusual stop, as I really did settle in and put all fun and tourism aside to focus almost exclusively on work. I usually only do this at home; I lock myself indoors to “catch up on life,” saving the fun for my next trip overseas. Even during my longest international stints (i.e. 3 months in Kyoto or a month in Hong Kong) I’d still go out every weekend or meet up with friends. But not here. The main reason I chose to stay in Malaysia for so long was because I knew I’d have nobody egging me on, so I was free to, say, buy a new hard drive and spend two days migrating over my system – just the unfun kind of thing I’d usually do back at home. But I’m not ready to go home, so I had to handle it now.

The result was a slew of unusually boring day-to-day notes; little thoughts I had while looking out my window or sitting in a restaurant or dropping off laundry down the road. While they seemed interesting enough at the time, coming back months later I realized that they pale in comparison to things like watching an entranced Indian shove a metal trident through his cheek – and are probably not worth publishing.

Thus, in favor of catching up and getting back to realtime writing, this time I’ll whittle things down and select just some of the more prominent “observations” to share… Continue reading »

“Malaysia Boleh” is his slogan, meaning “Malaysia can do!”

Dr. Ho Eng Hui is something of legend in Melaka. A 57-year-old Kung Fu master, he holds the world record for a task which, though not particularly useful, has earned him fame (and fortune?) throughout the world: the ability to pummel his index finger directly into a coconut.

Dr Hui eats fire and throws knives, he chops objects with the crack of a whip, and he pridefully shows off his iron forearms (so tense that you literally can’t even pinch the skin no matter how hard you try). But his real talent will always be the coconut. I think Lonely Planet put it best:

If you’re not familiar with the strength of a coconut’s husk, think back to Tom Hanks in the film Castaway. Remember how he spends hours hurling a coconut on the rocks trying to break the damn thing open? Now a soft little human finger just shouldn’t be able to pierce through a coconut’s husk, let alone the interior nut – but this guy really does it and has been entertaining folks by doing so for more than 35 years.”
Continue reading »