Hi All,

  Just trying to catch up on the emails I wrote but couldn’t send.  There are about 4 of them.  Here is the first, about a woman and a water pipe at the Little Lebanon Restaurnat in Kuching.

Ru

ps Spent today doing boat chores: defrosting frig, cleaning up exploded Pepsi Max from the freezer, washing sheets and blankets.  Randal did his boat chores and our friend Jim came to return a book and retrieve his hat that he left on our boat back in Tioman.  Just a quiet day

Woman Smoking a Water Pipe in the Little Lebanon Restaurant, Kuching

That about sums it up! Randal and I were in our “favorite by default” restaurant in Kuching. I say favorite by default because we really didn’t explore the city all that much. We ate 3 times in Little Lebanon, once in James Brooke and twice in small Chinese open air restaurants. I say open air because the street side has no wall and it’s all just open. Most small restaurants are like that. But some seem more like bistro sidewalk seating than like the wall is missing. And though I’d prefer eating somewhere new each day, Randal prefers to “go with what you know and serves beer.”

One time we were sitting at our same table that we always sit at waiting for our food. We do order different dishes each time and I do have to say that they were all quite good. That visit Randal’s meal came first and mine about 10 minutes later. While I waited a “baggish lady” sitting at a restaurant table but eating her own food, offered me some of her rice. I tried to explain that my food was coming, but she offered again. Maybe she thought Randal wouldn’t buy me any! I had ordered two small inexpensive appetizers that sounded interesting, and were, but larger than I had expected. The first dish was 6 small vegetarian fried pies. When it came I offered some to the lady. She came over to look and was a bit surprised. At first she wasn’t sure what to do, then took one. Then the restaurant owner came out to shoo her away. I explained what had happened; but I guess they weren’t too pleased with her sitting there but couldn’t yell at a tourist. The other dish was Dayak Chicken soup and was wonderful and spicy hot! But that was a different story and this is about the water pipe smoker….

I asked if I could take photos of the process.

They were trying to figure out why it didn’t work. The water apparently acts as a filter. I guess the smoke goes through and makes the water bubble or something that apparently wasn’t happening. The woman was drinking beer and about to smoke this intense pipe. Her male friend was reading a magazine and sipping a Pepsi. Opposites attract.

This woman was beautiful enough to have this odd hairdo. The hair above her ears is shaved almost. The best of both worlds, short and long hair. She actually is quite typical of many of the young travelers we see. The Rainforest World Music Festival attracted many more tourists than we have seen in other places.

Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes…..and several piercings too.

Francesca Ang to the rescue. Somehow she knew how it was all supposed to work and took charge ordering the restaurant worker to bring a different pipe and a new mouth piece. She also took charge of lighting the small piece of coal that heats it all up. A bit later Francesca walked by our table and we stopped her to talk. She is Malaysian but lived in Lebanon (the real place, not this restaurant) and works in the area of Malaysian economic development. Her lunch companions were two men from Egypt. Francesca told us to look for her at the Music Festival and we actually found her and enjoyed a cold drink together.

So that’s the story!