SMART Seminar: Malaysia
By Robin Collins
The bus is humming the soothing song of travel as we start our trip from Kuala Lumpar to Singapore.
Stuart Tan and Simon Leung’s SMART seminar has been a huge success in Malaysia.
The enthusiastic crowd was incredibly inquisitive and longing for knowledge; grasping every opportunity to speak one on one with Lee and I to squeeze out even more insight and information before our weekend together came to an end.
A teacher’s dream!
This gave us the privilege of getting to know so many fantastic Malaysians and open their eyes to how to begin their journey as a business owner and introducing them to the concepts of Hybrid Marketing; but also left little time for us to enjoy the leisure explorations of being a tourist.
Our luxurious bus journey to Singapore will be our only opportunity to digest this beautiful countryside.
An opportunity I am grateful for, even if it is at 60 miles per hour (or whatever the kilo translation is 
We have left the busy streets of Kuala Lumpar and are beginning to see the first inclinations that this country truly is a jungle paradise.
There are forests of palm trees – a beaming ocean of luscious
green foliage rising and falling with the swell of the land.
Looking upon the vast jungle, it is hard to imagine that only 20 minutes ago we were among a bustling metropolis melting pot of cultures.
I am still amazed, when visiting different countries, at the variety of people that inhabit the cities.
Americans like to think of ourselves as a diversified culture, but ours appears to be just a taste of what many other countries truly do enjoy in ways of multiplicity.
Here in Malysia, it is primarily a Muslim driven philosophy.
My ignorance led me to the surprising discovery of one very glaring side effect of the majority mindset – the lack of pork.
I never realized how much of an impact “the other white meat” had on my diet, until it wasn’t an option!
The first real pangs of this meat omission came when Lee ordered a bacon cheeseburger.
Let’s just say that they shouldn’t be allowed to advertise their somewhat lacking replication of our favorite pork product as the real thing!
And WTH is beef or chicken bacon anyway?
But their offerings of delicious local fare more than made up for the porkless society.
A single example would be Teh Terik, a hot drink that is somehow made from tea, but more accurately resembles hot chocolate in both texture and taste – AND has to be my favorite malaysian treat by far.
The name of this yummy beverage loosely translates to “pulled tea”. It is given this name by the pouring method used to create the creamy goodness.
Teh Terik = very yummy!
And the chicken and rice dishes have been fabulous…even if I must take a moment to discuss one very disturbing dietary trend….the Malaysian need for hot and spicy.
It is common place for every dish to come pre-seasoned with the devil’s very own fire. And as if this were not enough, they serve chili sauce as their preferred condiment. Plain old Ketchup gets no respect in this part of the world.
Those of you familiar with my loving husband’s eating habits already know that this common requirement for added heat has sat very well with his personal taste preferences.
Me, I’ve eaten a lot of rice!
.
I’ve just looked out of my private window and have found that while I was engrossed in my story telling, we have entered another world.
The dwindling evidence of civilization has been replaced
by a world that I last witnessed while watching the
fabulous Disney flick “The Jungle Book”.
Gorgeous trees cover the foothills. There are no homes viewable from our incredibly out of place 4 lane highway. I can just imagine the sinister snake, Kaa, peering at our bus as we make our way past his bountiful home.
I feel like an excited zoo patron being given a small glimpse into another world.
Beautiful. Mysterious. Incredible.
I am going to leave you for now so I can soak in as much of this glorious landscape before it turns back into a concrete hell.
Until our next chat….Pura Vida, Baby!
PS Pictures will be added later, once I get my few photo’s off of the camara. Thx for patience!
Topics: Offline Marketing, Where is Lee Collins? | 4 Comments »
4 Responses to “SMART Seminar: Malaysia”
Comments
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November 14th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
I am so jealous! You are in the very place where hashing originated. It’s the greatest “sport” ever invented because it involves copius amounts of the beverage of choice, beer! If you have no clue what it is, look up hash running or hash history. It’ll give you great insight to what happens. Y’all enjoy yourselves over there and can’t wait to see ya again!
November 17th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Robin,
As I read your beautiful words, I close my eyes and I am right beside you. Feel me :O) I am so proud to be your sister. I love and miss you!
November 18th, 2008 at 3:24 am
Hi,
I guess you haven’t blog about the Singapore EXperience yet. Really wonderful to get to hear your topic on Hybrid Marketing..
Found you through Google Blog Search!
Fadzuli (from Singapore)
http://www.fadzuli.com
November 18th, 2008 at 4:40 am
Fadzuli,
Singapore was fantastic and Robin is working on the post today, with hopes to get it posted before we leave tomorrow morning. Thank you so much for your hospitality, the comment and for the kind words. We’ll see you again next year!
– Lee