Birds Nests Are Good For You...Really!

We took our friend Bidari up on his kind offer to drive us over to the Sarawak Plaza to his friend's record store in a hotel van. He picked out a bunch of CDs and a kind young lady unwrapped each of them and played cuts for us to choose. They were compilations of Malaysian music, which is characterized by the type of instrument they use.

Siti is the name of a very popular vocalist here, one of Malaysia's biggest sellers. I picked up her CD plus two others who had played at the Rainforest Festival last year and another group, Tuku Kame, who will pay Sarawak music tonight.

At the plaza we got a chance to do some shopping. Boy it's great to be in a country where the dollar actually is worth something! Time and again, our jaws drop in amazement at how cheap things are...Edmund bought a gorgeous batik shirt for $7, I got some leather sandals for about $19, and the CDs came out to about $20 for three! With travel to euro zones bumming out Americans and trips to London cafes becoming huge investments, it is wonderful to report that here everything is cheap, the people are friendly and speak English, and the culture is rich and full of surprises. Plus they have wonderful music.

As I left the shoe store, an attractive Chinese woman in a tiny tight black T-shirt caught my eye as she hung out by the shop door. Good marketing. I asked Bidari what they sold in that store, and he said 'birds nests.' We walked in and the girl giggled when I asked her what birds' nests do for you. She spoke in Chinese then in broken English explaining that they are good for your insides. All over the store there were tiny nests, in various colors, and inside jars of water birds nest concentrate was for sale. The nests are spun using bird saliva to keep them together and they are very popular here. We munched on a few at the opening reception. I'd say they are sort of like sweet shredded wheat.

Today we'll return to the Sarawak Cultural Village where we will first take a dip in the warm South China Sea and then visit stalls where we can learn how to play the instruments like the sape, a native guitar and various kinds of drums. Like most of the places I travel, I love it here.

That's what makes life so much fun.