Ommm Salaam and Aaamen

Selamat datung, nama sama lizzi, reporting to you live from Kuala Terangganu. A small state on the Eastern shore of the Malaysian peninsula affectionately known as “KT” – who’s motto boasts, “More mosques than Mecca, baby!” not necessarily due to exceptional piety, but grace à the particular brand of tourism cultivated by the local government. On our morning commute from the beachside hotel to the sailing centre we pass by the Muslim theme park, a collection of famous international mosques built in miniature. Like mini-golf! But with all mosques! And no putting. One of the twenty-something Ozzi boys never fails to say, “We should take a rib ova’ ta ‘Mozzi-Land’ afta’ waak– I reckon it’ll be heaps cool!” Dr. Seuss will roll in his grave when I am able to say I was buzzing with Ozzis to Mozzi-land.

I’m back up here in Malaysia for more of the Monsoon Cup – this go round is the Malaysian Qualifiers regatta. Monsoon Cup is the final event of the World Match Racing Tour. (I repeat, so how did I get involved in this?! Clearly skiff sailing in Sydney is a pre-req for match racing in Malaysia…)

Following discussion on how to minimize potential damage during boat rotations (the general boathandling ability is quite beginner – someone ran aground on practice day – the passing squalls challenging, and the boats need to be in tip-top condition for the Monsoon Cup next week) Peter Gillmore, event director and current defending Monsoon Cup Champion, asked me to create an entirely new round robin for the 13-team, 8-boat fleet with minimum boat rotation... about 2 hours before the first warning gun. This is of course after staying up till 2200 the previous night making final formatting adjustments to the original rotation. “Sure! No problem! Now please excuse me while I go rip off all my toenails.”

Anyone need a template for 13-boat, minimal changeover rotation? I've got one! Posted at 13team8boatminimalchangeoverroundrobin.com – and already I’ve received 1,346 hits! My youtube site featuring the “making of” has surpassed the 100,000 hit benchmark! Who knew watching people under pressure make overly involved formatting [=c10/[e136+t9978] could be so entertaining! I have no idea how comfortable my bed is at the resort – I’ve been sleeping in Xcel spreadsheets…

I did have a moment to read this morning’s headlines, slipped under my door. Next to “MJ wins lifetime achievement award” was, “Winning thesis took 6 years to write”. A masked Michael Jackson and an unassuming girl in tudung (headscarf) pictured adjacent on the front page. I heart local news. [Insert: shout out to Miri “aren’t theses awesome?!” Hutcherson, here.] The world loves a winner.

Here in Malaysia monsoon and religion vie for who reigns harder. The entire Malaysian Air in-flight magazine devoted its pages to devotion. The feature article described the perfect getaway to the top ten holiest sites in the world. “Muslim Architecture”. “Madrid’s New Cathedral”. “Japan’s Oldest Zen Sanctuary”. The ads used religion as a selling point: “This lip gloss has apple extracts. In the Old Testament apples are said to have… ” Sold! I’ll take three! The local “Mackas” (Aussi-talk for Micki-D’s) advertises the “Prosperity Burger”.

Malaysian Air gets my vote because they serve mango ice cream! The flight was an eight-hour sandwich between an English chatterbox and a genteel Indian woman who also just moved to Sydney. He, as most often do upon discovering you are a “sailor”, eagerly sputtered his few intersections with nautical life – seasickness, gale-tales, sleeping through shifts: “When I finally woke up, we were there! I was bruised where they tried to punch me to wake up!” Mmmm, not an ideal offshore companion, but pleasant enough for row 34. She gave me a movie recommendation: Evan Almighty, “It’s about this man and a flood and he starts to grow a beard and no one believes him, and he is suppose to take all the animals. I think it refers to a story from Christian mythology. It’s such a funny movie”.

Initially I thought the simplicity of her narrative quite funny… and then I thought of the numerous Hindi myths I could of course recount offhand… and suddenly her story got pretty damn impressive.

While Arabic polyglots all the signs around town, Malaysia is not an Islamic state. The Terangganu region has a muslim majority, but the nation is divided somewhat evenly amongst Hindi, Buudhist, Muslim and Christian people. Ommm, salaam and aaamen.

Salaam, meaning peace, amen – just something you’re suppose to say a lot, and “Ommmm” the Hindi meditation, the yoga class closing prayer, the first sound in Sanskrit creation mythology, a vibration so powerful it caused the universe into being.

Mmmmmmm. Humming and spirituality. We summon air from within hum and expel it through our nose, trapping the sonic vibrations in our mouths, buzzing in our lips. Used to express piety, prayer and the satisfaction of desire: good food and good sex.

A way for us to experience the physicality of breath – of spirit moving through us.