Graceland

If you are ever going to be in Memphis, I would highly recommend a visit to Graceland. I’m not a big fan of Elvis, but it was fascinating to tour his home.

My favorite part was when we passed by the family graves. The tour guide lowered her voice as if we were going to wake him. She was giving reverence, like someone would give to a god.

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Something useful from Skymall!

Yes, I actually found something that is useful from Skymall. (As faithful readers will know, I enjoy glancing through Skymall catalogs when I fly somewhere: post one and post two.)

I was amazed to find a good idea during the most recent trip. How cool would it be to just pop down a little hatch to reveal your Christmas lights! (Alas, the setup cost a fair amount of money – but for those who hire someone to put up and take down their lights each year, it might be worth the investment.)

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Bring it here

Nando’s is a great chain of restaurants. Nairobi, Kenya has them. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia has them. But there aren’t any in LA or New York. Or Denver. (Washington, DC has the only Nando’s in the USA.)

One of the problems with having lived in another country is that you will forever be running into things that you simply can’t get in the country you find yourself in.

Some have said that El Pollo Loco is similar. For me, it’s just not the same.

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Ads everywhere

As we rode light rail trains around Kuala Lumpur, I noticed that ads were on the ceilings of the train cars. It seemed that companies rent ad space on entire trains. The outsides and insides of a train are completely wrapped in advertising for one company. Sometimes ads even cover parts of windows.

In this case, the company had something to do with preventing computer viruses.

I briefly raise these questions: How much advertising is too much? What if these ads help the train fare to be lower? And are the ads even effective? (I will answer that one – I’d guess that train users see them once and then the ads become invisible.)

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Not the best export

Sometimes it’s embarrassing to be an American.

If the only music that came overseas from America was Air Supply, I might try for different citizenship.

Update from my brother (who knows far more about these things than I do)… Air Supply are from Australia – not America. However, it was certainly their popularity in America (a million years ago) that drove them to the level of fame they achieved.

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There are other ways of thinking

One thing I love about travel is that it forces you to see that other people think differently than where you come from.

Since Malaysia is predominately a Muslim country, their sympathies lie on the Palestinian side of the conflicts in Israel. In America, it’s the other way around.

It was healthy for me to reflect on how Malaysians are concerned for families whose lives have been upset or ruined by conflicts in Israel. And to share some of their concern.

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Not adventurous enough

I didn’t try the ice cream toast. However, I did try the white coffee. Superb.

Old Town White Coffee is a restaurant chain in Malaysia. The atmosphere is retro – and yet polished. For those of you in North America, it might fall into what I call fast-slow food (more expensive and tasty than fast food – but cheaper – think Chipotle or Qdoba).

Old Town is successful enough that there are 171 outlets across Malaysia and Singapore. Starbucks doesn’t have that many – though in Malaysia’s largest city, Kuala Lumpur, it seems like there is one in every mall.

And just to quench your curiosity, Ice Cream Toast (Single) converts to about US $1. For that little, I should have tried it.

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Weird signs

I loved these signs. The top one looks like a pregnant lady’s tummy is radiating heat. (Real meaning – give your seat up for pregnant ladies.) The bottom sign looks like if you push the button, fire will come out at you. (Real meaning – fire alarm.)

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China is better than you think

China gets a bad rap for how bad it is, environmentally. Their negative reputation is true in some cases – but not all.

A few weeks ago, I was in Hong Kong (admittedly the most western-leaning part of China… but still China). I saw this great sign on a container for plastic utensils. Starbucks was simply asking the potential user to consider going without – for the sake of the environment. I’ve never seen that in the States (in the case of plastic utensils).

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