When travelling, you find that reading materials are of inestimable worth- before I left I raided my girlfriend's classroom supply of old National Geographics for a quick and discardable source of fascinating material. All over Malaysia there is a trail of National Geographic back issues, and I hope young Malays are picking them up like the birds in Hansel and Gretel, and turning into young conservationalists. In fact just today I went and bought a bunch more (a buck each, can't go wrong) to wile away the upcoming hours of the next leg of our journey which will take place in our rented campervan. Soon I will be able to discourse on all sorts of interesting facts concerning the Ibises of Ibiza and the Oryxes of Oris. Or something like that.
Also, I will finally dive into The Silmarillion tomorrow- even though I have read LOTR umpteen times in the last twenty years (yeah, since 1984), I have never been able to penetrate The Silmarillion, but since we are in Middle-earth there is no longer any excuse.
Just today I finally finished a book I started in Melaka (as much as I love to read it is hardly my first priority while travelling) which I enjoyed: The Amulet of Samarkand", by Jonathan Stroud.
Hey I just remembered it's my second bloggiversary next week! Umm, for the contest send me . . . i dunno . . . any kind of creative work (story, poem or drawing) about polar bears in New Zealand, or South Polar bears or something like that. Or anything really, I don't care. Just send your submissions to nwaddell (at) gmail dot com and the winner will get a no-expenses paid vacation to NZ to join gabrielle and me for Christmas! Heck, you all win one of those! And the rel winner will get at least a postcard from me while I'm here, and maybe I can find something cooler, like a kiwi fruit or something. Sadly there are no cassowaries on New Zealand. That I know of.