Hello again!!
Thank you for the lovely treat and great tour of Dora.
I’m glad you enjoy the CONGKAK. That’s a cool piece of mind and hand coordination game ya…
We were all too contented that the ice cream and brownies lasted until the next day. I know I had the most ha ha ha…
We cherished our new friendship and hope to cross our paths again in future.
Your comments and wonderful description of us is super nice…
Just a tiny weeny correction… it’s Che Raiskandar or Rais for short and Mohamad Badri or Badri for short. I have forwarded your email to the guys.
I am still here in KK, and will return to Kuala Lumpur on the 8th August.
Do let us know your interesting journey.
“Salam (greeting) manis (sweet)” – Sweet Greetings
Salam manis,
Emilda Rita Sjahrial
PhD student in Built Environment
International Islamic University Malaysia.

And as for the congkak game, it turns out that Randal’s sister had one in the house and her two nieces went hunting for it.  Theirs had the name Mancala on it.

  I love the way it says for ages 6+ and I took forever to learn.

Yesterday Randal decided to walk to town and it really was not a bad walk. 

I timed my walk home and it took about 25 minutes.  We had gone our separate ways at the Wawasan Mall since we had different things to shop for.  It was the first time we had actually been to this shopping mall so both of us were also exploring.  And Randal also wanted to go find a shave.  When I walked back, there was more shade along the way.  But I was pretty hot and tired when I got back to the boat. 

I was at the mall hunting for tops that have not much to them but enough that I don’t have to hide if someone comes onto the boat.  And though the women of Sabah aren’t all as tiny as they were in China and the Philippines, they are still pretty small.  I did finally find something, so took two.  They aren’t so flattering so you might not get a photo, but they do their job.

While walking through the section of the mall that had “native crafts, etc.” I saw two women playing congkak!  I asked if I could take their photo.  They thought I wanted to play.  Since I am still sketchy on the rules and clumsy when I do try, I really didn’t want to play in public.  I managed to explain what I wanted and they were good sports about it.  Then they made me have my photo playing.

  The 2 sales clerks entertaining themselves waiting for customers.  They do jump right up immediately if someone needs service.

  As clumsy as I am going clockwise, I was worse counter-clockwise which is how they were playing.

They do know more English than I know Malay (none  but things can get confused.  As you can see, many women cover their arms and legs.  I don’t think I could stand it, even short sleeves seem too warm.  Of course, they might know something I don’t.  But I also think they don’t want to get more brown, which we prefer. 

Next email I’ll write about my visit to the Public Library.