How do I look?

A good thing about traveling is it puts my mind off my worries. I feel full of energy and carefree. And sometimes, at the height of the carefree-ness, I don’t wear my scarves. Ooops.


Yes, aku bukannya alim sangat. Every once in a while, especially masa jalan-jalan, I took off my tudung, tapi tak selalu la…kadang-kadang je. Dan bukannya sebab nak melawa pun….tapi sebab malas…maybe sebab dah pakai baju berlapis-lapis…or gatal nak merasa pakai scarf, mittens, beanie segala…or sebab nak jalan dekat-dekat je….on theses few instances when these happened, I came across these situations:

Situation 1 – South Korea
The Korean women at a restaurant that we went too told our host that she thinks I’m a Korean. Sangatla saya tak paham.

Situation 2 – Brisbane
I was walking at the open market at Eagle St Pier, looking at some blouses. The shop owner talked to me in something that I couldn’t understand. I said, “huh?”… She thought I’m from Thailand and she just spoke to me in Thai. Too bad I don’t have the petite figure like most Thai women (and transvestites) have, or otherwise I might have bought a blouse or dress from her.

Situation 3 – Surfers’ Paradise
I went for last minute souvenir shopping at a gift shop just down the street from the hotel. The towkay was entertaining a couple from Indonesia who wants to buy kangaroo leather wallets. The Indonesian couple is actually Chinese and the towkay is either from Malaysia or Indonesia. They were conversing in Bahasa. When I came to make my purchases, towkay immediately switched to English to speak to me. Terbantut hasrat aku nak beramah mesra dengannya.

Situation 4 – Cambodia
This has got nothing to do with me….but my brother la….he really fits in these 2 countries…even our tuk-tuk driver talked to him in Khmer and a Khmer guy who sat next to him in the bus shared his food with him. He called himself Maddox because of that.


So, how do I look? "Amalia, truly Asia"?