Stranger in a Strange (but friendly) Land

Tags

black 505, foreign reporting, kindness of strangers, kuala lumpur, malaysia, pakatan rakyat

Old ladies in Malaysia are more hardcore than most kids in England

Tamun Tun, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: around 7:30pm. Sitting on the balcony of a local coffee shop, the stifling humidity of the day time has mercifully subsided. With a ceiling fan whirring silently overhead and a refreshing iced green tea in hand, it’s just about the perfect temperature.

A haze lingers in the air – pollution from crop burning in Sumatra – as I gaze out beyond the hills at the other side of town. Suddenly, lightning flashes across the horizon, followed a few seconds later by a thunderous, rumbling crescendo.

A moment of silence…

Then, as another burst of electricity forks through the air, the call to Maghrib prayers reverberates eerily from the local mosque – the choral accompaniment to nature’s symphony.

The atmosphere is almost surreal, as if this were the opening scene to a Hollywood blockbuster. It’s the sort of feeling that begs for contemplation, calling into question the nature of reality. ‘Who am I?’ ‘What is this?’ ‘Where are we going?’ And, most importantly: ‘In the week that I’ve been here, have I eaten my entire body weight in rice?’

Those first three questions continue to escape me… however, the answer to the fourth is almost definitely yes. Those that know me personally will probably have picked up on the fact that I’m no longer eating wheat. Unfortunately, that’s a big part of the Malaysian diet, and the only alternative is rice. Or rice noodles. Or rice crackers. Let’s just say, it’ a good thing I actually like rice (at least, for now.)

Things have kicked off since the last entry. Last weekend saw me covering the Black 505 rally – an 80,000 strong demonstration for electoral reform – and on Monday I attended the opening of the Malaysian houses of parliament, where violence erupted and over 30 people were arrested.

Despite this, what I have noticed most about the Malaysian people is how friendly and helpful they are. As a loan film crew on both days of shooting, there were plenty of times throughout when I could have easily messed up if it wasn’t for the help of those around me.

For example: scrambling up a hill to get a better view of the demonstration, I managed to press the ‘battery release’ button on the camera, sending the £200 battery tumbling down the slope. Anyone could have run off with it as I gawped in horror, stranded, clinging onto a tree. Instead, the man who picked it up came scurrying up the hill and handed it back.

This was not an isolated incident of kindness. Thanks also to the taxi driver who, after welcoming me to Malaysia 20 times, gave me a face mask to protect me from the smog. Thanks to the man at the train station who showed me how to use the ticket machine. Thanks to everyone who shouted at me to stop when I almost walked into quicksand, and thanks to the protester who helped me interview people in Malay.

The kindness continues. Today, I went to see a village of Orang Asli – the indigenous people of Malaysia. I was shown around by one of the villagers, now a freelance graphic designer living elsewhere. All I had to do was ask. He picked me up from my hostel, took me to the village, helped me interview people, then took me back. I bought him a couple of drinks and some food, but I definitely didn’t need to. In other words – what a lad!

The only downside of the trip so far is the haze. It’s preventing me from getting any decent establishing shots, as visibility is very poor. I really hope that it improves by the time I leave. KL is a beautiful city and, at the moment, my enjoyment of it is slightly spoiled.

The mission continues. Watch this space!

 

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Jet Set Journalist

Tags

black 505, brighton journalist works, independent documentary, kuala lumpur, malaysia, pakatan rakyat

Not content with pretending to be a journalist in the UK, I felt like travelling to the other side of the world to see how much more difficult it would be to pretend to be a journalist there. And so, my training has brought me to the beautiful country of Malaysia, and so far it’s turning out to be pretty damn tough.

A bit of background (feel free to skip): For a Master’s degree, usually you have to write a rather hefty dissertation of around 20,000 words. Thankfully, for the journalism course I am studying, you can instead choose to do a multimedia journalism project made up of a piece of print/online/audio/visual journalism, with 7,000 words of write-up.

So for my project, not wanting to take the sensible (boring) route and doing something based in Brighton, I decided to fly to Kuala Lumpur to film a 20 minute documentary on eminent racial issues in Malaysian society. I have with me around £5,000 worth of filming equipment that the University of Sussex has entrusted in me (for some reason), it’s day four of the trip and I still haven’t used any of it. On the plus side, I have already eaten a lot of really nice rice.

What on earth am I doing? That’s the question that kept me up until 7am last night (thanks, jet lag). Well… there are a number of issues that make this job a lot harder than it would be in the UK. Firstly, there’s the heat. It’s currently around 28 degrees, which doesn’t sound too bad, but it’s also about 90% humidity. This makes lugging around the 14kg of kit, which in the UK is a pain, downright hazardous.

Although my half-Indian-ness (thanks dad!) means that I blend in quite a bit better than a full on Gwai Lo (white person) would, it’s pretty obvious that a 20-something-year-old bloke, wearing a Superman t-shirt, staggering around like a sweaty drunkard, trying to eat frozen yoghurt whilst carrying three massive bags, is going to quite easily become a target. I also don’t have my own transportation. So, unlike in the UK where I could just hop in my car with the kit, go wherever I want and film whatever I felt like… here, there’s a whole load of planning that must take place before I even put the battery in the camera.

So what have I been doing for four days? To be fair, I spent the first two travelling and settling in, but since then most of my time has been spent organising and researching. Why didn’t I do this sooner? Well, pretty much since April I have been overloaded with uni work, freelance stuff and working on my online magazine – www.facelessmagazine.com – yada yada… Even so, I do wish that a few of the hours that I spent drinking cider and watching Mad Men/Game of Thrones back in Brighton were instead used to formulate a solid plan.

It’s not all doom and gloom! By pure coincidence (as it was meant to take place last weekend), tomorrow there will be a protest against the government which, it is rumoured, may be the biggest Malaysia has ever seen. I’ll be there, on the front line of news, trying not to get myself (or, more importantly my £3,500 camera) hit by a tear gas canister of water cannon. Then, next week, there’s the state opening of Parliament, which will no doubt make for some interesting footage also.

As for now, I’m about to go and meet my friend Sharanya, whom I know from my previous life as a sketch/improv comedian. I’ll try to pester her to take me into the city to film the Petronas Towers at night, but what’s more likely is we’ll go out, eat more rice, and maybe watch the new Superman film.

Stay tuned! Video blog coming soon (once I have some footage…).