You Gonna Eat All That - Malaysia

Malaysia 2011?

2010-10-04T20:34:00.002-04:00

For those who keep finding this blog from our original trip, we're now planning a trip back in March 2011! We're planning a northern trip to Kota Bharu and Penang, among other places. So, yes, Malaysia did make as much of an impression as we said it did.

The trip home and epilogue

2008-11-15T11:00:00.000-05:00

By Jim

Saturday, March 15, 2008

The trip home was uneventful, a flight to Seoul, then around an hour to change to the 747 that would make the 14 hour flight to Washington Dulles. If you fly Korean Air, make sure you try the Korean dishes they offer, like bibimbap.

I took off from Kuala Lumpur around 1:00 AM, and landed at 11:00 AM the same day at Dulles. Not bad for a 24 hour flight. I made it through immigration and customs quickly, and then caught a cab to home. The driver, a very proud Parsi from India, was a pleasant, chatty fellow, glad to tell me about his home and eager to hear about my trip. He helped me get my large suitcases to my door, earning his tip.

I opened up the house, found no disasters, then headed out immediately to get the dog from the kennel. She was very glad to see me after being in the doggie health spa for 2 1/2 weeks, and wallered in the back seat of our Subaru as we headed home. I crashed out and napped for a few hours, then headed back to Dulles to pick up Barbara who had a six hour layover in Doha. We were glad to see each other again, and very glad to be home. I had been away for 3 1/2 weeks, the longest time I had been out of the country since my semester abroad in college.

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I gave up cigarettes again as soon as I got back home. It may be fun to smoke on vacation, but Barbara would kill me before the cigarettes if I kept smoking. (Sometime this summer, I even gave up smoking cigars. They're expensive, and just not that much fun anymore.)

Barbara and I recall our trip fondly. We've had a heck of a summer and fall with a lot of chaos in our lives. So, we find ourselves thinking "I'd rather be back in Kuching," or "These orchids aren't as pretty as Singapore," and sigh to ourselves.

I do know that we will go back. Barbara forgot to change her ringgits back into dollars, so I've got close to $70 worth of them in my desk, and I need to spend them. We've got two trips in mind. One would fly into KL, and travel up through the northern parts of the Malay peninsula, hit some of the islands off the east coast, visit some of the more traditional Malay areas, and go to Penang, which has beautiful beaches and possibly the best food in Malaysia.

Another idea for a trip will be going in through Kota Kinabalu and traveling through Borneo, visiting orangutans, snorkeling off the coast there, maybe climbing Mt. Kinabalu (OK, that will be me while Barbara visits some museums), traveling through the Sultanate of Brunei and going back to Sarawak and Kuching. Oh, and then we'll bring back some Sarawak laksa paste.

One thing that will be included will be beach time. We stayed so busy on this trip, we didn't really take much time to relax. Our time in Melaka was relaxing for me because I had been there for a week already, but Barbara was still coming down from jet lag and dealing with a bit of culture shock. Then we started the whirlwind tour and neither of us took much time for ourselves.

The only thing that keeps us from doing this sooner is the length of time it takes to get there (24 hours plus getting over jet lag), and the cost of the airplane ticket.

Malaysia and Singapore were beautiful countries. There is a lot of history, both Asian and European, and beautiful scenery. The people were the best, though. They were very kind to the traveler from halfway around the world. Especially in Melaka and Kuching, people would stop on the street and say "Hello, welcome to Malaysia!" usually followed by "Is this your first trip here?" Or "You're looking very smart today, sir." Wow.

And don't forget the food. The merging of Chinese, Malay, Indian, and other cuisines turns this into a wonderfully tasty place. There were many favories: the fresh fish in Kuching, the Peranakan food in Melaka, the food hawker centers of Singapore, and the availability of all kinds of food in Kuala Lumpur.

So, keep an eye out for Malaysia Trip 2010(?). Until then, thanks for reading and I hope you all enjoyed it. To the folks who search Google and find this, I hope it helps your travel planning.

Day 13 - Kuala Lumpur - Bus Tour, Mousedeer, Menara KL

2008-11-13T09:00:00.004-05:00

By Jim
(or: "Why stop and relax on vacation? We're on a roll!")

Friday, March 14, 2008

We packed up and got ready to check out of the Renaissance. The lovely, lovely Renaissance. Barbara took breakfast there in the hotel, while I headed back to the row of street vendors behind the Concorde Hotel. We got back together after breakfast, and left our bags with the concierge.

The Malaysia Tourism Centre [Note-I wish I had known that they had internet, craft demonstrations, and other things. Next time I'll take advantage of that.] was just down the street, so we headed there to get the Hop-on Hop-off bus to ride around KL and take in the sights. There were souvenier shops there, and so we did some shopping while we waited for the bus.

The bus took us through town, past shopping areas, and into Chinatown. We jumped off in Chinatown, and took lunch back at the same food court where we had lunch on Wednesday.
Then we found out that the next bus wouldn't come until later in the afternoon, because of afternoon prayers. Oops. We had coffee and doughnuts in a coffeeshop to kill some time, then split up and one of us shopped while one waited for the bus. We hopped back on, and headed back out on the route. We passed the National Museum (I took a picture of the locomotive out front), and headed up into the lake gardens.

At the Bird Park stop, Barbara and I split up. She stayed on the bus, while I hopped off. I had checked the times on the gate to the mousedeer park , and knew I had a little time to kill. I went up into the orchid and hibiscus gardens for some pictures. The orchids were nice, and the hibiscus is the national flower of Malaysia.
While I was there, the skies opened up and we had a big downpour. I found a place to sit under cover with a couple of Canadians. After it quit raining, I headed over to the gate to the mousedeer park. But the gate was still locked! I asked in the Tunku Abdul Rahman Memorial, and they directed me to a path to the other entrance to the mousedeer park.

On the way there, I slipped on a metal grate and fell. Ow. I managed to protect my camera with my body. The lens hood broke, but the lens and camera were intact. This was much better than my knees which had blood pouring down them. I hobbled on over to the mousedeer park, but there were no attendants there. Since I was there, and couldn't do anything about my knees, I kept walking around and seeing the mousedeers and other animals.
Finally, another person walked into the park. He was Chinese, and I asked him as politely as I could if he had a tissue. "Sure, take some," he said with an American accent. Turned out he was from New Jersey. At that distance, we were practically neighbors. I stanched the flow of blood and cleaned up a bit. I was able to repay him the favor by pointing out a monitor lizard in the upper area of the park. I never got his name, but thanks to him for being able to help me in my time of need.

I made my way back to the Bird Park stop, and took the bus back around the rest of the route.
I hopped off back at the Tourism Centre, and walked back to the Renaissance to meet Barbara. We had drinks by the swimming pool and hung out for a couple of hours.

I thought we might enjoy happy hour at one of the nearby watering holes on Jalan P. Ramlee, but Barbara's asthma decided to kick up. So, I had a beer at one place and a beer at another. After dark, we headed toward the Menara KL to go up in it and enjoy the night view. But Barbara was tired, grumpy, suffering a bit from her asthma, and anxious about getting to the airport, even though we had 7 or 8 hours left. So, she headed to the hotel and I headed to the tower. The view was spectacular, but was soon wiped out by a downpour.

Our hotel is on the left
The Petronas towers from the Menara KL

The rain cleared, and I headed back to the Renaissance to meet Barbara. We shared a hamburger in the bar there and at 9 PM decided to go ahead and take the taxi to KLIA for our flights home.

At the airport, we had a lot of time to hang out before my 1:00 AM flight back to Korea and on to Dulles, and her 3:30 AM flight to Doha and back to Dulles. She spent a lot of time using up our phone minutes, first on her card and then on my card. I headed back to my flight around 11:30 PM, changed all of my ringgits back into dollars, and went to the boarding lounge for my flight.

Day 12 - Dinner -KL - Restaurant Seafood Paradise

2008-11-11T09:00:00.001-05:00

By Jim

Thursday, March 13, 2008

We had planned to go out to Eden Restaurant for dinner in KL, to get some good seafood. But the taxi driver suggested another place, Restaurant Seafood Paradise. He said it was all halal, very fresh seafood. So, we decided to take a chance on it. We got there around 7:00PM, and it was fairly empty. Empty, except for the wall of aquariums full of fish. We were quickly seated, and offered menus and asked to pick out our dinner.

I should say that I'm not too squeamish. I can catch my own dinner, fillet it, and cook it up. This bothered me, though. One, because I wasn't sure how to pick a good fish out of the tanks. I'll tell you the other trouble at the end.

Our server, I think a manager there, could tell I didn't know what to get, so she made a few suggestions. We selected a parrotfish for two as the main course, steamed, then went to the shellfish table for some emperor clams for an appetizer, and the prized water spinach as a side dish. Soon I saw a guy walking up to get something out of the aquarium. It was our parrotfish.
First up, our clams, topped with garlic, green onion, and cilantro. They were tasty, and Barbara ate one or two even. She's not a big mollusk fan, but liked these.
Next were the parrotfish and the water spinach in spicy sauce. They were both very tasty. The fish was very good, and enough for two.
It was a very nice dinner, and a nice way to end the day. We decided that this was the way to celebrate my birthday. I had my birthday back in February, but I was so busy preparing for the seminar that we didn't do anything to celebrate it.
It was pricey. Just the fish was RM180, about $60US. This was at RM120 per kilo, so he was about 3 lbs. With the clams and spinach and beer, we ended up spending $100US. It was good, though.

I had one problem, though. I like eating fish, and I like fishing, and I am willing to kill my own catch. I felt a bit bad for our parrotfish, though. He had been caught on a reef somewhere in the ocean. Instead of a quick, relatively painless death on ice, he was put into a tank to swim around until someone like me picked him out. Who knows how many days or weeks he was in there. I prefer places like Top Spot in Kuching, where the catch was on ice, and already dead quickly, rather than the life in the tank.

We had heard that the Trader's Hotel SkyBar had a great view of the Petronas Towers. We started walking in that direction, hoping to get a cab. We didn't get one, but found that we weren't that far away and ended up walking there.
We got this great picture of the most iconic image of Kuala Lumpur, and Malaysia. We then walked over to the mall and the Cold Storage market for some souveniers, kaya and tea to take home, cigarettes for me, and another great picture.
I loved having my wide angle lens for pictures like this. After this, a quick walk back to the hotel and crash out for the evening.

Day 12 - Kuala Lumpur - Bird Park

2008-11-09T11:45:00.001-05:00

by Jim

Thursday, March 13, 2008

I got up a little early this morning, and headed out for a walk and to find a place to take breakfast. We had gotten lucky with so many of the little local kopitiams and hawker stands for breakfast, and I hoped my luck would hold up. I found a place behind the Concorde Hotel where there were a long line of hawker stands, and went back to the Renaissance to get Barbara. We walked the row of stalls until we found one that was crowded and making roti, Barbara's favorite.

They offered us a variety of fillings. Before, we had only had it with egg, so we decided to try it with the chicken. It turned out to be a chicken patty, minced chicken with onion and other spices. It was tasty but greasy. We had noticed that the chef was pretty heavy with the ghee (clarified butter). And the usual coffee zero for me, coffee with milk for Barbara.
Afterwards, we headed out to the KL Bird Park. This is a 20 acre park, with much of it covered so the birds can fly around freely. There were some cages, and there were some open areas where, in addition to the birds, local monkeys ran around.

The first area was where you could feed the lovebirds. (There we met a couple from Iran. It was a little awkward, I think we were both a little embarrassed at how our national governments were behaving. But we were both able to smile at the birds, and laugh at the sounds the peacocks made. Those commonalities are a good thing for us all.)
Then from there you went into the main attraction, the hornbill. Barbara's already shown you the video of the rhinocerous hornbill at the beginning of the blog. There were several other species there: black hornbill, white-crowned hornbill, great hornbill , and Oriental pied hornbill.

Rhinoceros HornbillOriental Pied Hornbill

Great hornbill preening

Nesting storks
Oriental Pied Hornbill at feeding time

After the hornbills, there were parrots. Some were in an open aviary, some were in smaller cages.
Hawks and eagles were in individual small aviaries. Toucans were there as well. They are all from Central and South America, but the similarity of the bill lead to them being called New-World hornbills.

Everyone who has read our blogs knows Barbara's love of getting her picture taken holding or getting kissed by exotic animals. At the Feathered Friends Photo Booth, she got to hold a female wreathed hornbill and an owl. She thought this was really cool.
We stopped for a soda and a break after that. Right about that time, the macaques came through.
The attendants at the snack bar started pulling all of the candy displays inside the kiosk, because the monkeys would steal them if they didn't. As it was, they raided the garbage cans.

We also saw monkeys getting it on, making little monkeys. Unfortunately, Barbara wasn't quick enough with the camera, and they were quicker than she was.

We fed ostriches there too. They're aggressive.

Then we went into another aviary with more water areas for birds like flamingos and Milky Storks. I got lucky with a picture and got one in flight carrying a big stick to make a nest.
I also got a great picture of a Southern Ground Hornbill from Africa.

The best, though, was a peacock showing off for a peahen. And the hen was ignoring him. It was an amazing display.
Barbara tried talking to her, but it was not to be.After all this, it was lunchtime, so we went to the Hornbill Cafe at the park. With our admission to the park, we got a coupon for a free juice there. For lunch, we had chicken wings. Perhaps that was a bad choice. I hope they were chicken. They were tasty. And we had a view of the hornbills in the trees just outside the window. Then we headed back to the hotel, and hung out by the pool. I put on my swim trunks and took a brief swim, then sat with Barbara and enjoyed the afternoon.

Day 11 – Kuching – Kuala Lumpur

2008-09-26T22:00:00.004-04:00

By Jim

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

We woke to a gentle rain in Kuching. We had a few errands to run before our flight. One, we needed to go pick up Barbara's shirt from the tailor [This was the ladies' tailor shop next to the men's tailor I went to]. She did a great job on it, and it was cheaper than my shirt. Also I wanted to get some souvenirs for my colleagues. We then headed back, packed up, checked out, and were off to the airport. Once again, I paid overage fees on our baggage (all those sarongs and souvenirs weighed about 7 kilos!), and we were off on AirAsia's 11:55 flight to KL.

The flight was uneventful. We arrived at KLIA and taxied over to the LCC terminal. On the taxiway we saw a Cathay Pacific plane, and wondered if it was our friend Loren's flight back to the US. (We found out later it was.) We collected our bags and got a taxi to the city. At KL International Airport (KLIA), like many other Malaysian airports, they use a taxi coupon system, where you buy a coupon and give it to the driver. For a premier taxi (we needed the space for our luggage) it was RM92.40 (Around US$30).

After about a 45 minute drive, we arrived at the Renaissance Hotel KL. Holy cow, this place is swanky. A 5-star kind of place, for around $100 a night. We were staying in the west tower of the hotel. Barbara has been told that the west tower had a view of the Petronas towers. Unfortunately, this was incorrect. But, it made up for this shortcoming with a spectacular view of the KL Communications Tower (Menara KL).

The small chandelier

Menara KL - Our View

Barbara took a video of our doorbell and our bathroom

The room was suitable for a well-heeled potentate, and had all of the features we had come to expect such as a doorbell and a telephone in the bathroom. We got settled in, then headed out to find some lunch and see some sights.

Our hotel was also right next to the Bukit Nanas Monorail Station, so we hopped on it to go down to Chinatown to start seeing the sights. We passed a pretty temple on our way there from the monorail station.

You can see the banner around the temple from the election

The hawkers were out in force, selling fake Rolexes, purses, everything. The crowded walk and the pushiness of some of the hawkers sort of creeped out Barbara, so we worked our way into the Tang City food court for some lunch. Fried noodles, bean sprouts, green onions, and some little bits of shellfish (cockles or the like). This improved our mood, so we strolled back to the monorail and the hotel for a nap.

That evening Sadiyuk, who put the training program together, came and picked us up from the hotel to show us some of the city. We drove around a little, then he took us to the Suria KLCC, which is under the Petronas Towers. This is a six-story shopping center, with everything that you would expect to find in a high-end mall. OK, what you would expect in two or three high-end malls. This place is huge, and you definitely need the map to help you navigate.

Barbara wanted to check out some pewter souvenirs, so we went to Royal Selangor first. The pewter was beautiful but on the pricey side, so we took a pass on that. After that, we wandered around the mall a bit.

We wanted to take Sadiyuk out to dinner to thank him for the drive around and tour, so we went to Madam Kwan's. I've seen it described on-line as hawker fare without having to sit outside, or sort of a safe way to explore Malay cooking. This description may set off alarm bells for those of us in the US, whose idea of mall food is dreary Applebees or TGI Fridays. In this case, don't worry. Like about everything else in Malaysia, this is good food. Really good. I had one of their signature dishes, Nasi Bojari, which is a big mound of tricolored rice with a leg quarter of chicken that has been fried, assam shrimp, and beef rending, served on a banana leaf.
Barbara ordered the beef rendang, and Sadiyuk had the chicken curry.
Prices were higher than at the hawker stalls and kopitiams, but not unreasonable for a sit-down kind of place. Portions were large, and we sent Sadiyuk home with leftovers.

He dropped us off at the hotel, and then headed home as he had things to do the next day. I stopped in the lounge for a smoke and a drink, then we crashed out. Tomorrow would be a busy, interesting day. Which for us was the norm in Malaysia.

Day 10 – Kuching – Sarawak Cultural Village

2008-09-25T22:27:00.000-04:00

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Mr. Bong, our driver and guide from yesterday, met us at the hotel and we headed out to the Sarawak Cultural Village. SCV is a collection of traditional style houses for each of the ethnic groups of Sarawak: Chinese, Malay, Melanau, Bidayuh, Iban, Orang Ulu, and Penan. You tour the houses and then go for the big dance show at the central theater.

Our first stop was the traditional Chinese farmhouse.

Then a traditional Malay Borneo house

Then we got into the more exotic indigenous groups. First was the Melanau Tall House.

The Melanau people harvest the sago palm, both for its starch, similar to tapioca, and for the sago grubs that were traditionally a source of protein. I held one, but couldn’t bring myself to eat it alive and wiggling. Sautéed in butter and garlic might have been a different story.

I also tried their stick dance, where the sticks are clapped twice on the floor, then smacked together twice. I was unsuccessful, but the professionals there made it look easy.

Can you tell which ones are the professionals?

We went next to the Orang Ulu longhouse, another tall structure. There a man was playing a sape' and three dancers performed.

The Penan people are nomadic. To show this nomadism, sometimes they're at the SCV, and sometimes they're not. They weren't in residence when we were there, but they did have one warrior showing how to shoot a blowgun. Three tries for one ringgit. I wish I had this advice then: "Do not blow from your mouth. Blow from your chest and your stomach." Let’s just say that I would have gone hungry for a long time if I had to hunt with a blowgun. Unless the animal died of laughter.

Next was the Iban longhouse. Formerly a tribe of fierce headhunters, they have managed to ease into the modern world without losing their identity and culture. There was a demonstration of weaving there, showing how their ornate textiles are made.

Our last house was the Bidayuh headhouse. Like the Iban, they were headhunters as well. The headhouse was where the heads of their slain enemies were hung, as well as a store for weapons and meeting place for the village.

Here is a youtube video of the inside of the headhouse.

The hornbill sculpture that is the crest of the house.

Bidayuh using bamboo for weaving what looks like a small basket for poison darts. They sold blowguns there as well. I knew better than to buy one, because of my miserable failure at the Penan hut.
After this, we went to the big dance/musical show at the central theater. It was spectacular. I'm not sure if I learned anything more, but I certainly enjoyed it.

On the way back to Kuching, Mr. Bong asked if we’d like to make a side trip to the Cat Museum. Remember that Kuching means "Cat" in Malay? To tell the truth, we were museumed, cultured out, from all we had seen for the past two days. But I knew the Cat Museum was a little bit silly, a little bit of a tourist trap, and it was on the way, so why not? And after all of the seriousness, it was fun and lighthearted.

A Muslim Girl's School was having a field trip

A mummified cat from Egypt

Cat porcelain, including a cat pipe

Friskies through the ages

The museum is in the Kuching City Hall, up on a hill, so you also get a beautiful view of Kuching from it.

When we got back, I had to do some business with the bank. The day before, I had tried to withdraw some cash for my shirts. It didn't work the first time, and was like the machine reset itself. I did it a second time, and it worked. But I also checked my account online and it showed two withdrawals. So, I went to the bank there and filed a report, and also reported to my home bank via e-mail. The transaction was reversed very quickly, but I was told by the Hilton doorman that he only recommends the Standard Chartered Bank ATMs, in the same row of banks across from the Holiday Inn.

After this was squared away, we took a walk along Jln Main Bazaar and Jln Gambir looking for souveniers for my colleagues at work. Afterwards, Barbara headed back to the hotel to write and I went to take a massage. The masseuse I had wasn’t as good as the other ones I had and seemed a bit sketchy.

After that, I went and had my usual beer and cigarette at the Chinese café across from the Hilton. This had become my place where I could sit, read, and think about everything that happened during the day. Barbara and I travel well together, and part of that is knowing we both need a little alone time to think. Hers was in the Executive Lounge of the Hilton, writing in her journal, enjoying the river view, watching the little water taxis running across and up and down the river.

Dinner was again at Top Spot. There is nothing, nothing better than fresh seafood cooked by people who know how to cook it just right.

Another Pomfret, a cousin of the Florida Pompano, and just as tasty.
Shrimp with onions and chiles.
More stir-fried midin, the tasty fiddlehead ferns also known as "jungle vegetable".

A small portion of deep fried squid. I asked the waitress to ask the cook if he would, after frying, toss it with salt, hot peppers, and garlic like they do at the Chinese restaurants back home. She did, and it came out wonderful. The entire deal, with beer and everything, was around $30.

After dinner, we walked along the riverfront. This was our last night in Kuching, and we didn't want to leave. It had been a wonderful experience for us. The people were all so friendly, and a little curious about the Americans. We had seen a lot of wildlife and a lot of history. We also just enjoyed being there. It felt good.

Tomorrow was another day, another adventure, the final destination of our trip, Kuala Lumpur.

Logistics: P.F. Bong, a local taxi driver, arranged the trip to Semenggoh on Monday and SCV on Tuesday for us. Because he got the tickets to SCV ahead of time, they were a little cheaper. He can be reached at email (bongpf@pd.jaring.my), or on his handphone at 013-8089724 (outside Malaysia, +6013-8089724).

Day 9 - Kuching and Orangutans!

2008-09-23T23:33:00.006-04:00

Monday morning we headed over to Green Hill Corner for a breakfast of laksa. We'd had some the other day and liked it so much that we had to go back one more time before we left Kuching. A spicy rich coconut milk based broth with noodles, chicken and shrimp. This video of Green Hill Corner shows Jim reading the local paper as we enjoyed our breakfast.

After we ate, we headed over to the tailor shop to pick up Jim's shirts. They were beautiful! So much so that I asked if I could get one made as well. The tailor walked us next door to a ladies' tailor and asked her if it were possible to make me a shirt and have it ready by Wednesday morning before we left. She said yes, so we looked over some of the material selections that the men's tailor brought over from his shop. I picked out a brick red version of the red Dayak material that Jim used for one of his shirts. Then I had to get measured, left a deposit and we took Jim's new shirts back to the hotel.

After dropping them off, we asked the doorman for a cab to take us to Semengoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Center to see orangutans. Our cab driver was Mr. Bong, a very nice fellow who inquired about what we had seen so far in Kuching. We told him of our ventures and that we were going to go to the Sarawak Cultural Village tomorrow, our last day in Kuching. He offered to meet us at the hotel the next morning and drive us there and back. The price was right so we said sure.

The drive to the Center took about 20 minutes. And unlike the less expensive local bus, the cabs go all the way into the center whereas the bus drops you off at the front gates and you then have to walk about 2 miles to get to the actual center itself. I don't know about you, but I was very glad we paid the money for the cab. The hike in would have done me in for the day.

Once at the visitors center, we paid our fee and waiting with about 2 dozen other people to walk into the jungle to see the orangutans. These are semi-wild and will come to the feeding platforms during the year when food is more difficult to find on their own. There are no cages, this is open ground and the orangutans can come and go as they please.This chart shows the orangutans that frequent the center.

After a 10 minute walk we came up on a small clearing with some small stadium type benches. This little green snail was sitting on the edge of the railing. About 30 yards away was the feeding platform already laden with fresh fruit like pineapples, bananas, and durian (a favorite of the orangutans).
Within minutes, a female with two babies arrived for breakfast. They quickly went to town on the fruit. The babies stuck around a little bit then got full and began to play in the trees above us. Water would rain down on us when they jumped from branch to branch overhead. Mom had her fill a few minutes later and retreated to the trees overhead with her youngsters just as a young orangutan showed up. This one was happily enjoying his meal when he suddenly stopped and scampered up into the trees. The park guide pointed out some movement in the distant trees behind the feeding platform and soon we could hear the crashing of branches. Then we saw him. A huge male orangutan! He was amazing! Long read fur went from his shoulders down to the ground, arms as big as tree limbs and a face only another orangutan could love. Here are a couple of videos of him enjoying his meal.

He took his time devouring what was left of the fruit on the feeding platform while the younger one kept a watchful eye out for his departure. After close to 10 -15 minutes the big male decided he had eaten his fill and got up to leave. The younger one picked up on this right away and cautiously glided down from the trees on the vines and ropes and was back on the platform to pick over the remains. He was still leery of the big guy coming back and was grabbing hand- and foot-fuls of fruit and heading back up to the safety of the trees to eat his fruit as you can see in this picture and video.

Thus the morning feeding was over and we all walked back to the visitors center spotting some pretty orchids along the way. I picked up a few things to bring back to a fellow manager who was working at my library in my absence and something for my supervisor. And for Miss Sophie, I got a stuffed orangutan.

Jim and I found Mr. Bong waiting on us and climbed into the cab for the ride home. Mr. Bong turned the A/C on full blast which felt heavenly. Once back at the hotel, we confirmed his pick up time the next morning and we headed into the hotel to drop off our things and head back out to walk around.

Jim and I wanted to go back to a couple of shops that sold material. We wanted to bring some back home and have more shirts made. We bought three brightly colored fabrics and began a search for some lunch but changed our mind when we realized it was getting later in the afternoon than we realized and didn't want to spoil our dinner. Some snacks in the lounge back at the hotel would be good and not fill us up. Plus we could shower and freshen up a little.

For dinner, we headed back to Top Spot. This is a nice little video I took of it.

Only this time we knew to go right to a vendor to pick out food rather than have someone else do it for us at their place. The place that was most recommended was ABC Seafood and for good reason. It not only had the largest selection, it was by far the busiest place there. Once we looked over the choices, we found one of the ABC tables that was partially under an awning. I sat at the table while Jim picked out dinner. The two large shrimp on the plate would soon be ours. A few minutes later, two Tiger beers arrived. Jim had a grin on his face. I knew that this meant he'd found something good for dinner. And indeed he did. First to show up was squid rings, battered, fried, very tender and very tasty. Joining it were grilled freshwater prawns. Two of them, big enough to scare us had they not been grilled, dead, and delicioius.Then our main course showed up, pomfret steamed with scallions and ginger. And to round out the meal, miden, a jungle vegetable that resembles fiddle head ferns. But what also arrived was the rain. While part of our table was under the awning, it soon became apparent that the rain would invade and we were moved to another table. Dry again, we finished our wonderful meal. And thankfully, the rain had stopped just in time for us to head back to the hotel.

On the way, Jim mentioned he had seen a sign outside a bar for Kilkenny beer on tap. And as I mentioned in one of the Singapore posts, this was a beer Jim could not find back home. The chance to have one or two more frosty pints could not be passed up so we stopped at the bar which was named The Cottage. We notice a gentleman and two woman sitting at one of the outdoor tables as we walked up. It was a little dark so I didn't notice at first that the man's voice welcoming us to the bar didn't come from the sole man sitting at the table. It was one of the women! Yes, boys and girls, we had wandered into a transvestite bar in Kuching. While not something we'd planned on, we decided to go with the flow and have a drink. It turns out we were the only ones there besides the trio outside who were actually the staff. Guess things don't pick up until later in the evening. The bar was dark and resembled an English pub and actually very nice (not that I've been to any English or transvestite pubs before). Jim got his Kilkenny and I ordered some fru-fru drink that had amaretto and Kahlua in it. Both drinks were a bit pricey so we decided to settle up our tab at one drink each and continue on to the hotel. We made one last stop at a gelato shop across the street from the hotel for some dessert.

Back at the hotel, we both stayed up for a short while before going to sleep and getting ready for the Sarawak Cultural Village the next day.

Day 9 - Kuching and Orangutans!

2008-09-13T10:08:00.000-04:00

Here's a sneak peak at what will be posted here soon:

Day 8 - Kuching Part 2

2008-09-12T12:51:00.013-04:00

Before I start on my day, I need to add in something we forgot to mention on our Saturday post. While walking around we found a tailor shop down this street.We walked in and inquired about having a couple of shirts made for Jim. The tailor was very friendly and showed us some beautiful material to choose from. Jim picked a beautiful blue silk material with silver thread woven into it and a red material with a Dayak pattern.He measured Jim and said his shirts would be ready on Monday. Very cool.

My Sunday was quite different from Jim’s. The only trekking I planned on doing was to a local craft center, some museums and a little shopping.

Cat Statue outside the Chinese museum

I decided to check out a little Chinese history museum near the hotel located in the old Chinese Courthouse. I was the only visitor much to the delight of the director who was very proud of the exhibits and equally curious about this American that wandered into the museum. He asked me about as many questions about the US and our ongoing presidential race as I asked him about the items in the museum and the Chinese influence in Kuching. After thirty minutes, I had seen all the museum had to offer so I headed back to the hotel to take a look through the travel guides and plan the rest of my day. I decided on checking out the Sarawak Craft Council.

Sunflowers in hotel lobby

After talking with the doorman at the hotel, my plans changed slightly when he referred me to a different place, the Sarakraf Pavilion (I think). He said would be more interesting so off in a cab I went. The place may be great to visit during the week but not on Sunday. There are many areas in the center that display traditional Sarawak crafts and cultural traditions with people doing weaving, wood carving, music and dance, and so on. However, there were only a handful of folks there on this day and none of the display areas were manned. It did make it nice and quiet and allowed me to take more time to admire and more closely examine the items on display. And the local cats seemed to stop and pose when I pulled out my camera. This little ham even got up and turned around to show off his best side.

The gift shop had lots of nice items. I picked out this clay pot with a Sarawak motif and pretty pearl earrings for me then got a few little things for my family. I then sat in an outdoor area and just relaxed for a while. Here's a video.

By then there wasn’t much left to do so I went out to the street to catch a cab back towards the river and my next stop, the Textile Museum. *crickets chirping* Where were all the cabs? I must have waited for 20 minutes without seeing a single one pass by. Hmm… I looked at the map and figured out how to walk back to the river, even if it was more than I planned to walk. After getting about halfway there, I was sweating like crazy and I finally spotted a cab. Yippee! Five minutes later, I was dropped off at the textile museum. And again I realized that Sundays are very quiet days for touristy attractions. Three floors of Sarawak textiles and I had the place to myself. I learned that anything from silk to gold and silver to tree bark was used to make clothing and the details related to life in Borneo with animals and plants being the main design feature on many patterns.

Silver belt

Vest made from bark and adorned with shells

More bark clothing

Silks

I took a ton of pictures to show Jim later that day and it was on my way out that I saw a sign that read, “No Photographs” Oops. Although I doubt it’s seriously enforced since both the museum staff in the lobby saw me taking pictures and never said a word.

By now I was a little tired but not ready to head back to the hotel so I walked up the main road along the river and went into every shop to see what trinkets and goodies were available and making mental notes about where to go back to buy stuff. I didn’t realize just how many shops there were along this stretch of road until it was over 2 hours later that I finally hit the last shop before crossing the street to the hotel. Back up in the room, I showered and headed up to the lounge to write in my journal, enjoy a cold drink and have a snack. The view from this side of the hotel was spectacular. I could sit there all day and look out over the river.

Day view

Night view

Jim trudged back to the hotel around 4:00, tired, sweaty and so very excited about his day in Bako National Park. When he told me how rugged the trail was, we both agreed that I would have hated it. I was happy with my decision to do my own thing and thrilled that he got to do the one thing he was looking forward to on this trip.

After Jim showered, he joined me in the lounge to have a drink and talk about dinner plans. One of our guidebooks recommended a place located close to the hotel. I had seen it earlier in my ventures and thought it looked pretty good so we decided to give it a try. Upon entering the place we noticed it was full of tourists and we should have taken that as a sign to go somewhere else but alas, we didn’t. The menu offered average fare for the area as well as many dishes geared to those less adventurous. Again, we should have cut our losses and gone somewhere else but we didn’t. I ordered a lamb fried rice that was lacking in flavor with lamb that was well into the mutton stage of life. Jim ordered an unmemorable noodle dish.After dinner, we strolled up the road a ways to see one of the many cat statues that grace the city. This was by far the biggest one of all. It was a family of cats with mom and dad proudly looking over their little ones.
On our way back to the hotel we stopped in at the Cat City in for a couple of beers. By then we were pretty well done for the day and decided to call it a night. Tomorrow would prove to be one of my favorite parts of the trip......we were going to see orangutans.

Kuching - Day 8 - Bako National Park

2008-07-07T13:35:00.017-04:00

Sunday, March 9, 2008

(By Jim)

At 8:30, I left Barbara in the Executive Lounge planning her day. I was in a hurry to get underway to get to Bako National Park, since I would only have the one day there. Bako is known for its wide array of wildlife, plants, and jungle trails, some of the best in Sarawak, and is only 30 minutes away from Kuching.

The Hilton's doorman was fantastic, offering me two choices, join up with a tour group that would leave at 9:30, or hire a taxi and boat independently. Since I was trying to maximize my time there, I opted for the latter. He made the arrangements with a taxi driver, and away I went.

At Kampung Bako, I paid my park admission and hired a boat. There was an older Austrailian woman there who wanted to share a boat with a group, but she wanted to share it with a large group to get the cheapest fare possible. I wasn’t as worried about cheap, so I took the boat by myself. We ran down the river past the village with its little houses and net frames the locals use for fishing.

Park offices and jetty at Kampung Bako

Running downriver past the village

Welcome to Bako National Park
Good advice in any language

The tide was out, so the boatman beached his boat and I made a feet wet landing at Telok Assam, the park headquarters. We agreed he'd be back at 3 PM to pick me up. I checked in with the office there, and the person at the office recommended for me a short trail, the one to Telok Paku, a small beach. I thought it was rather silly to say that a 1km trail would take an hour. I was wrong.

Let me introduce you to the idea of jungle trails. These aren't nice, gently sloping up and down walking trails you might find in a park around here. These are uphill, downhill, climb over rocks, roots, narrow stairs, planks, and things that are not what I would call trails. I was watching the little markers that said 100 meters, 200 meters, and wondering if I would make it to the beach before I expired.

These are all part of the trail

At the 500 meter marker, my phone rang. My cellphone. I was in the middle of the jungle in Borneo, and my cellphone was ringing. It's Barbara. Just wanted to see how I'm doing. Next time I'll turn off the phone and pretend that modernity hasn't entered the jungle yet. Shortly afterwards, I got to the end of the trail and the beach.

[Barbara and I have talked about this, and we agreed that she would have hated this. If we ever go back, I'll hire a boat to take her around. Or take us both. I'm not as interested in jungle treks as I thought.]

When I got there, I had a little tropical beach all to myself. No other people, no macaques stealing things. I'm like Robinson Crusoe with dry cigarettes. Ok, one dry cigarette. So, it's smoke break time. I put my camera down, set the self-timer, and took a picture of me there. Then I went for a swim. The water was cloudy because of the river outlet there, but it was still pretty, and warm, and a nice way to recover from sweating myself silly on the trail. It's a very slow slope there, so I had to walk a long way to get to waist-deep water.

Jim at Telok Paku scaring away the wildlife

A little shelter right there at the beach

I still hadn't seen any critters, but after about an hour some people started showing up, having come from the tour group. So, I packed up and headed back to the lodge to figure out what my next hike would be. The hike back was just as tough, but since I knew what I was getting into, it wasn't as hard as the trip out.

After I got back near Telok Assam and on the boardwalk, I saw my first wildlife, proboscis monkeys in the mangrove across from the jetty. Big nose, pot belly, red fur and a long thick white tail.

As I was taking pictures of them, a macaque came walking down the handrail of the boardwalk across the mangrove. I took a dozen pictures of him coming and going, and he ignored me completely.

Once off the boardwalk and onto the concrete path, I saw a water monitor. All of the wildlife was hanging out at the lodge while I was hiking through the jungle to see them.

I changed clothes at the lodge, putting my sweaty stuff into a plastic bag. I decided to go ahead and have lunch, a simple cafeteria set-up, with mee goreng, rice, and curry chicken.
While I was eating, a bearded pig came by. Holy cow! They hang out there at the lodge looking for scraps and handouts.

I spent some time walking the beach near the lodge, checking out tiny little crabs. Then I stopped to talk to another traveler, and he told me about a place up one of the other trails where he saw several green snakes. I headed that way, but got delayed because there were lots of proboscis monkeys hanging out in the mangrove now, and I took a lot of pictures.

By the time I got through there, it was time to get my boat back to the Kampung and meet my taxi. Boat number 22 was there as agreed.

This boatman did a great job for me, slowing down so I could take pictures of the people and houses along the river and running upriver past the kampong jetty to see if we could see any crocodiles, which inhabit that stretch of river. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see any that day.

People over on this old boat - not sure if it was a picnic or home for fishermen

Working the nets in the riverElection flags - this was the day after the parliamentary elections

The taxi ride back was uneventful. Barbara was hanging out at the hotel, after having done her own tour of some of the local craft demonstrations, and so I headed across the street to a little food court place where I could get a bottle of beer and a pack of cigarettes. After a beer and a smoke, I felt almost human and headed in for cocktail hour in the executive lounge.

We went out to dinner at a place highly recommended by the guide book. There were no locals there, only tourists, and the food was mediocre at best. This is the only place I’ll say that about in our travels. On the bright side, we were near the big cat statue in the middle of the road near the Holiday Inn and I got some great night pictures.

The next day, we went to see orangutans, the old men of the jungle. I was so sore from my hike that Barbara was outrunning me, and that never happens. Also, I found out that while my sunscreen did a good job on my body, it didn’t do so good on my scalp where I part my hair and where my hair is thinning in back. That hurt. Jim’s new rule: Wear a hat if you’re in the jungle in the tropics.

Logistics
Prices are approximate. If you're in Kuching, your accommodations can probably contact one of the tour operators to get you on a tour to Bako for RM165 (US$51) or so. CPH Travel is one operator that is often mentioned. Or, you can do it the way I did. Taxi was RM85 (US$27) to Kampung Bako, admission to the park was RM10 (US$3), and the boat ride was RM90 (US$28), which you can share among a group if you're willing to wait. You pay the taxi driver and boatman at the end of the trip. Lunch was cheap, though plan to buy large bottles of water at RM2.50 or so after your trek.

Kuching - Day 7 - So, where are we staying?

2008-07-05T21:32:00.013-04:00

(By Jim)

We woke up more rested than we expected from our night at the Singgahsana. Barbara and I called around and found that the Harbour View, Crowne Plaza, and Holiday Inn are booked up. The Hilton has rooms, so we decide to head over there. But first, some breakfast. We didn’t want to have breakfast in the lodge, so we head across the street to Green Hill Corner, which is one of the ubiquitous food courts where various cart/stalls with various dishes are set up. We’re looking around at the various things available, fried noodles, coffee, and we get to one of the carts and the woman cooking there says "Laksa?" Yes, yes we do want laksa. Sarawak Laksa is a local specialty, coconut milk with spices, rice noodles, chicken, shrimp, cilantro and green onion and bean sprouts. It’s a joy for breakfast. [And you can’t get the mix, so far as I know, in the US. Unless you order a lot from Barretts.]

Laksa soup

Jim happy with a belly full of laksa

After this, we head over to the Hilton. They didn’t have any regular rooms, but they did have their Executive Level rooms with a river view for $150, which includes breakfast in the morning and cocktails in the afternoon. It was expensive, but it made Barbara happy, and it didn’t make me unhappy. Turns out, it made me happy too. Comfy bed, big room, gorgeous view, nice bathroom, and free drinks. What’s not to like?

Big roomNice bath

Beautiful river view

Decamping from the Singgahsana wasn’t a problem, but sort of messed up our Kuching schedule. Instead of going to see the orangutans or Sarawak Cultural Village, we ended up spending the day in town shopping. So, I decided to make my trip to Bako National Park on Sunday a day trip and Barbara can visit some local craft places that day instead of coming with me for an overnighter. Turns out, this was a good idea because the jungle trek wouldn’t have been to her liking and the “rustic” accommodations at Bako would have really made her unhappy.

I spent the afternoon doing things like toting laundry over to a place (Spot Free maybe?) near the Grand Continental hotel. The City Laundry across from the Hilton wasn’t open on Saturday, but this place did it all in 4 hours. They also charged by the piece, not by the pound, but it ended up costing around RM60 (less than US$20) for a suitcase full of laundry. This seemed to be the going rate in Kuching, as I later had another suitcase full done at the City Laundry for the same price. Melaka was much cheaper; around RM20 for the same amount.

On the way over, I noticed a bar called "The Cottage" that advertised Kilkenny beer on tap. Since I hadn’t had that since we were in Ireland in 2003, I made note to take Barbara back there another night.

After drinks in the Executive Lounge, we wanted to check out the Sunday Market, which gets started on Saturday afternoon along Jalan Satok. We taxied over there from the hotel, then walked around a little. I was a little hungry, and we decided to stop for some satay on sticks.

Then, more market strolling. They had all kinds of souveniers, fish, meat, and vegetables you could want. I chatted with the fish merchants, and looked at what looked like some of the prettiest king mackerel I’ve ever seen. I would have bought one if I only had a kitchen to cook it in.
Outside the shops, there was a band playing. To me, the music sounds like the Del Shannon tune "Runaway".

Barbara did find something to buy; a bundle of fresh orchid stems for RM4 (US$1.25). Barbara put them in a water glass in the room, and they brightened it up. When we left, we gave them to the woman at the Executive Club registration desk.
After this, we decided it was finally time for dinner. We took a taxi over to the Top Spot, a parking garage with a seafood food court on the roof. We let ourselves get taken to a table by one of the many roving waitresses for each of the food stalls. This was probably a mistake, as we were sort of captive there without having seen the rest of the places. For new folks, don’t do this, take a look at all of the fish displays before going. That night, we had kankong with spicy sauce, and two fish, one with a black bean sauce and one fried. It was good, but wasn’t as good as it could be if you know better what you’re wanting. We came back twice after this, but went to a different stall. I’ll tell you more about that when we get to Monday. We enjoyed our dinner, and shared it with a lame cat who was hanging out up there. Then we slowly walked back to the hotel.
Tomorrow, Jim goes to Bako and Barbara goes looking for local crafts.

Singapore-Kuching-Day 6 - Shopping and Travel

2008-07-05T08:36:00.013-04:00

(By Jim)

After the busy day yesterday, we could have been forgiven for indulging ourselves in the Singapore café scene the next day before beginning our travel to Johor Bahru and Kuching in Borneo. Instead, we went shopping.

First, though, we took breakfast again at the hotel, then packed up and checked out, leaving our bags stored with the hotel. Barbara had read about a funky, cool shopping area on Bugis Street, and read that it was 24 hours, so we started out to go there. Our taxi driver dissuaded us, telling us it wasn’t open 24 hours, and if we wanted to go shopping, let’s go to the Mustafa Center first which was open 24 hours, then we could take another taxi over to Bugis Street later in the morning.

Mustafa Center was impressive. 4 stories, and a city block long. Anything you need, you can find here. Groceries, jewelry, clothes, souveniers, or electronics. We ended up getting a shot glass for my brother here.

We stopped at a café for coffee and water. At 11 AM, we decided it was time for Bugis Street. We got there and half of the shops were still closed, and the ones that were open didn’t offer anything that we needed, that were funky and/or cheap.

We were pretty disappointed with the shopping. I know now that this area doesn’t get cranking until 4 in the afternoon. Next time I’ll ask the more than friendly clerks at the Hotel 1929 before I go out shopping. Another café, another hot coffee for me and iced coffee for Barbara.

We had checked with the hotel desk about how long it would take to get to the airport in Johor Bahru. For a 5 PM flight, best leave Singapore by 12 or 1 PM, he said. We decided to go ahead and begin our new adventure at 11:30, figuring we couldn’t find anything else we wanted to do in Singapore for 30 minutes. We caught a cab back to the hotel, got our bags, then headed for the Queen Street Bus Station, where you can get long-distance taxis (S$40) to take you across the causeway to Johor and the Bus Station there. You can also take a bus that is much cheaper, but with the taxis you don’t have to unload and reload your luggage at immigration and I thought we would enjoy the less-stressful option.

[Singapore taxis are almost all Toyota Crowns. They remind me of Checker Taxis in the way they are high-roofed, bench-seated, and comfortable carrying large amounts of luggage. Singapore is one of those compact cities that you don’t break the bank by taking taxis everywhere.]

Either we got lucky with the causeway or immigration, or the expected rush of school holiday-makers had yet to materialize, but we zipped across the causeway, stepped out of the car to get fingerprinted by Singapore immigration, and were in Johor in an hour. Another cab, this one from the bus station to Sultan Ismaili, or “Senai” Aiprort
[Note that AirAsia, the low cost carrier, never calls it this on their website, instead calling it Johor Bahru, but none of the locals ever refer to it by anything other than Senai.]

We had lunch there, and watched a 747 from Singapore Airlines do touch-and-gos .It’s an impressive airport, with a pretty modern fountain outside.

Also, there is a large fountain/waterfall in the men’s room for the urinal. I didn’t take any pictures of this, but fortunately there’s a video on Youtube.

And there is a water feature in the ladies room as well.
AirAsia flies from JB to everywhere, and it’s a lot cheaper than flying Malaysia or Singapore Air out of Singapore. AirAsia is the Southwest Airlines of Southeast Asia. I think our tickets were US$120 for both of us from JB to Kuching, and $125 from Kuching to KL. From Singapore to Kuching, it was $220 each on Malaysia. AirAsia is strict about its luggage weight charges. I think we got hit with RM75 ($25) at JB, and RM180 ($56) coming back from Kuching, but even then it was much cheaper for us to fly them. The flight from JB to Kuching was full, but I had paid extra for Express Boarding so we could be sure to sit together. Downside is the time to get across the Causeway.

Our flight to Kuching was uneventful. When arriving in Sarawak from Peninsular Malaysia, you have to clear immigration again, but it is usually only a formality. Our bags came out quickly. At Kuching Airport, you buy a coupon inside and give it to the taxi drivers, rather than haggling with them for the price. Traffic was a bugger, but we finally got into the city and to our accommodations.

Singghasana Lodge was not what we expected. We had to walk up one floor (with our bags). I knew we had to take off our shoes, but Barbara didn’t and hated that after the travel. Our room was on an alley that motorcycles kept running through. And the room was dusty smelling and the air conditioning was struggling to keep up. On the other hand, it was cheap at less than US$40 a night. But it was more hostel than hotel.

Our bed, note bamboo mat and concrete floor below.
Curtain covers window looking out on alley.

Toilet/shower combination

We went out to get some dinner, and stopped at this place on the corner showing American movies on a big screen. Strike 1, they didn’t serve beer! Strike 2, the waiter was hovering over us which didn’t help Barbara’s mood. We ate there anyway, then headed across the street where I could get a beer.

We decided to tough it out for one night, then look at things in the morning. I checked a couple of places online and by phone, including the Harbour View Hotel, the Crown Plaza, Holiday Inn, and Hilton. (Thank goodness for our cellphones and our Digi SIM card.) Xanax and beer made sleep possible, and the next day we moved on.

Singapore - Day 5 - Museum, Orchids, and Night Safari

2008-07-04T12:38:00.034-04:00

(By Jim. Warning, lots of pictures.)

We took breakfast in the hotel's restaurant, as it was included with the room. They did a good job with breakfast there, typical western style fare with eggs, potatoes, sausages (with German mustard), and bacon. Coffee was out of an instant grind and brew machine. However, we weren't there to eat at a hotel, so we headed out to check out the Asian Civilisations Museum. We spent two and a half hours going through it, and it is the quality of a Smithsonian.

Edged weapons of southeast Asia

Bronze Age Drum

Buddhist Artifacts

Enormous footprint of the Buddha

Barbara having fun with the hats in the childrens area

Hindu costumes (I think)

Southeast Asian masks and helmets for theater

Jim has horns

Display of jewelry

This jewelry case shows where they were worn with a light-up display

A cannon with a dragon's mouth

Arch to one of the Hindu exhibits

We then had lunch on the terrace of the Museum, overlooking the river through the city, then took a walk.

Singapore Supreme Court

Singapore Parliament House

As we were walking around outside, near the Parliament House, we saw the Singapore Airlines Hop on Hop off trolley come by. It stopped at a stop light, and after a short debate we decided to hop on and see the city. We had wanted to do one of these, and this was just too convenient. Not to mention, I think this is the better value of the two in Singapore.

We went by the Singapore Botanic Gardens, another thing we were wanting to do (to see the orchid garden) so we hopped off. We walked up from the entrance to the Ginger garden to start out.

Various members of the ginger family

Then we went into the National Orchid Garden, which had more orchids than I've ever seen before. Too many orchids! Orchid overload. They even have a garden of orchid hybrids developed at the Orchid Garden which they have named after visiting dignitaries, including the former Irish taoiseach, Bertie Ahern.

Rare mountain orchid, only one that is really blue

Jade Vine from the Philippines

On the way back, I cut through the rainforest walk. You know it's humid when the rope handrail has mushrooms growing on it.

Pavilion at the Botanical Gardens

After we had worn ourselves out walking around the gardens, we headed back to the pavilion at the front of the gardens to wait for our bus. We enjoyed the ride, but after all of the walking we were tired and didn't want to get off anywhere else. Unfortunately, the closest bus stop to our hotel was about a mile away. On the bright side, though, this stop was a Lau Pa Sat food center so we stopped for a beer and more snacks at a hawker center. Then a long walk to the room, and collapse in room.

Big pork buns, little shrimp dumplings

But we couldn't leave well enough alone and wallow in de agony of de feet, so after a couple of hours of relaxing and stretching out, we took a taxi (S$35 to there, S$25 back because of lower tolls at night) to the Night Safari. At the restaurant there, food mediocre (Jim's lamb burger) to awful (Barbara's Mrs. Pauls superannuated fish and chips).
Night Safari had a cool show with Southeast Asian traditional blowgun displays, then a stage show with nocturnal animals.

Blowdarts and balloons

Pole dancing?

Think you're a tough guy? Here, hold this snake.

Recycling otters

Good evening, ocelot (actually a cervil)

After the stage show, we were then led to a tram that took us through the park. None of the pictures I took there turned out. It was just too dark out. Some of the animals, like flying foxes, were true nocturnal animals, but others like elephants and giraffes, were more daytime animals that they trained to be night feeders, or just had a sleep disorder. Our time there ended around 10:30, and we took a taxi back to the hotel. I went out to get us some snacks at the 7-11 nearby, and then we crashed.

Tomorrow we leave Singapore, head back to Johor Bahru and fly out to Kuching on the island of Borneo and perhaps our favorite part of the entire trip.

Packages

2008-05-30T21:02:00.003-04:00

We will resume the travelogue after this brief post.

On March 3rd while we were still in Melaka, Jim shipped home some of the business clothes he used during his training as well as some other things. We went to a local postal office and were told that it would cost around 3 times as much to ship the packages back to the US by air as it would be to send them by sea. We chose the latter of the two.

And just this week they arrived.......86 days after they were shipped. Yes, that's right, 12 weeks and two days and a little worse for wear.

Hotel Equatorial - Melaka

2008-04-29T19:53:00.005-04:00

I forgot to add this video from our hotel room in Melaka. Enjoy.

Melaka / Singapore - Day 4

2008-04-27T20:25:00.005-04:00

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

So this morning is our last in Melaka. After we got up and finished packing, we headed out to the little place across the street from the hotel for breakfast. But alas it was closed. After a moment of thought we both said screw it and went to the hotel for thier breakfast buffet. We were anxious to eat and head over to the central bus station so we could get an early bus to Singapore so the hotel breakfast was the quickest and easiest option. And it wasn't half bad. Western and Asian fare with plenty of choices to satisfy us both. It was also the first time I'd had a glass of milk in a week and it was delicious!
We made a quick trip back up to the room to get our bags and check out. We took a few pictures of the room before we left (Sorry the bed isn't made up)

The comfy, comfy bed.

The bathroom with the huge tub

Desk and balcony (I loved the sliding louver doors)

After checking out, we hopped in a cab and were off to the bus station. And we lucked out as the next bus wasn't sold out, was scheduled to leave in about 30 minutes, and was one of the nicer ones that had one seat on one side of the aisle and two seats on the other. This meant the seats were much more comfortable.
The trip to Singapore would take about 2 1/2 hours to get to the border. Then we had to deal with immigration. Our friends (Jim's co-worker and her husband) had traveled to Singapore a few days before us and said it was a major pain getting through the check points so we planned an extra hour for this part of the trip followed by the bus ride into the city to the bus station.

Once we were out of the city we noticed what looked like steps going up into the hillside along the highway. We weren't sure if they were for people to climb or if they were used to help water flow to the storm sewers during the rainy season.
Just over an hour into the trip we stopped at a rest stop for a bathroom break. This was our bus. Jim took a picture of it not only for our photo album but to remember which bus was ours! There were several at the rest stop and we didn't to wind up on the wrong one to who knows where!At the rest stop we saw a prayer hut for Muslims daily prayers. It faces Mecca so those needing to use it don't have to worry about which direction they need to face.
Back on the road, we finally reached the last city on peninsular Malaysia, Johor Bahru. Here are a couple of pictures Jim managed to take from the bus window. And finally we crossing the border. We were pleased to see that there wasn't a long line of traffic like the one our friends faced a few days ago. It could have been that they traveled over the weekend while we were traveling during the week.
While we were pleased to see little to no traffic backups, what awaited us was just as much of a pain......passing through customs and immigration. Since we opted for the much cheaper form of land travel, by bus, we first had to stop at the Malaysian side of the border, get off the bus, have our passports stamped out of the country, get back on the bus , drive a few hundred yards to cross the border and get off the bus again. This time to enter Singapore and have our passports stamped. Then get back on the bus again to go to the bus/taxi station in downtown Singapore. This was our first glimpse of Singapore when we finally stepped off the bus at the station. Note the dark clouds....it would soon rain, alot. It was also when we realized that we forgot to get any Singaporean money! Aw, crap. Jim quickly got directions to the nearest bank while I waited with our luggage. About 20 minutes later he returned, money in hand and we hailed a cab to take us to our hotel.

Now while we were planning this trip, we were surprised at how expensive hotels in Singapore can be....even the so-called budget hotels. For example, at nicer hotels like Hilton, rooms start at about $300/night. And if you are totally made of money, you can stay at the famous Raffles Hotel for a mere $800/night. We, however, are not made of money so we looked for a place that was more affordable. After looking through a lot of websites and checking Trip Advisor, we settled on Hotel 1929, a small boutique hotel in the Chinatown section of Singapore. And small was right, the lobby and sitting area were cozy which is a nice way to say tiny. One cool thing about the place was the funky chairs . The owner has a thing for antique chairs which were located throughout the hotel and adjoining restaurant. There was also a cool poster in the elevator with a historical collection of chairs.

We knew the room was going to be small but we never expected this small:This is the view from the door
And the view the wall opposite the door

The two-sided bathroom. This is the sink, right next to the door. Behind the sink is the rest of the bathroom (the toilet and shower)

The view looking in from the bathroom doorAnd the view from inside.

Yeah, the room was small. Jim could stretch out his arms and be within a few feet of touching opposite walls. Add in the bed, the bathroom, a tiny desk and chair, and all our luggage and the room was bursting at the seams. It was quite a compact room.

Shortly after we checked in, it started to rain....hard. When it finally slowed down enough for us to even think about going out, the hotel staff gave us umbrella's. A nice touch and probably a very common thing in a country where it rains so much but still a nice touch.

Just down the street from our hotel was this very cool Indian temple. It was very beautiful and quite the attention grabber when you walk down the street.

We passed it as we wandered over to one of the many food courts located throughout the area. The one we were headed to was the Maxwell Food Court. If you've ever seen the episode of No Reservations where Tony Bourdain goes to Singapore, this is the food court he visited. It supposedly has the best Chicken Rice around (which Tony vouched for) so we wanted to see for ourselves. And we were not disappointed.

When you walk into the Maxwell Food Court for the first time, you can easily be overwhelmed by all the delicious smells and aromas coming from the many food stalls. Take your time to look at all of them before you decide where to eat as there are so many good choices. We already knew we wanted to get Chicken Rice from Tian Tian. So we located it right away then wandered around a little more to see what else would tempt us. It was a hard decision but we finally settled on this Oyster Omelette from one vendor as well asTom Yum Soup from another.We sat in front of the vendor that sold us the Tom Yum Soup. The owner noticed me writing about the food and came over to ask how we liked the soup and where we were from. We told him we were from the US and that the soup was very good. We talked a little bit more as best we could since there was a little bit of a language barrier. He seemed quite pleased that we really liked the food in Singapore, especially his soup and before we knew it, he brought out a bowl of lamb stew.
It was very rich and hearty. Big chunks of carrots and potatoes swam happily in the bowl with chunks of lamb. The broth had a nice balance of Asian seasonings that Jim and I tried to decipher and jot down on my notepad. The owner must have realized what we were trying to do so he offered to show me how he made it. With very broken English and hand gestures, I quickly made note of all the ingredients as he held up the bottles and jars and holding up bottle and jars. And we managed to understand each other completely. It was so much fun! I think he really enjoyed it too.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel and saw this amazing temple. Its the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple.Once you went past the front entrance you came into an open courtyard area. The architecture was just amazing.In the courtyard were places where one could place incense for prayers.

At the entrance to the temple itself, a sign of do's and don'ts for visitors who may not be familiar with what is acceptable when visiting.I had a little laugh (respectfully, of course) when I noticed the picture used for "No Pets Allowed" was a Boston Terrier.

Sorry Java you can't go in.

Inside the temple was rich with color. It was truly something to see.Back out in the courtyard were two statues standing guard. Jim and statue guard.

We walked around the area some more and looked at some stores and street vendors then went back to the hotel where I took a much needed shower. Singapore is probably the hottest and most humid place I've ever been. After we were cleaned up, we headed over to The New Majestic, a hotel owned by the same person that owned the Hotel 1929. When we checked in earlier we each got a free drink coupon to use at it's bar and who were we to turn down a free drink?

The hotel itself was sleek and modern and the bar was cool and funky.This is looking straight up at the ceiling in the bar. Glass or plexiglass lights hanged from the ceiling and along one wall next to the bar. The room was long and narrow with a bench along one wall with tables in front of them. And as we found with the hotels, bar prices were high. But hey, our first drink was free so that made our second drinks that much cheaper! cha-ching.

Jim ordered Kilkenny, an Irish beer that he's only had in Ireland. We can't find it here anywhere. He was a happy man. I ordered something cold, fruity and totally girly. I don't remember the name of it but it had pineapple, banana and chocolate in it and it was really good. Jim ordered another beer (Hoegaarden) and I got another fruity drink. We called it quits after that and were actually getting hungry again so we decided to head back over to the Maxwell Food Court to get some dinner. On the way we passed by the Chinese temple again and got this great picture of it lit up.

Back at Maxwell, we ordered a spicy Schezuan beef soup and fried dumplings from one vendor.

I was craving roti (again) and went to this vendor to get my fix.I watched as this guy deftly made my roti. And this was my reward.After dinner we were pretty well done for the day. Knowing we only had tomorrow and some of the next morning to see what we could of Singapore, we went back to the hotel for a good nights sleep. And little did we know just how much that sleep would be needed because the next day we were going to walk our legs off.

Melaka - Day 3

2008-04-14T22:05:00.008-04:00

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Another bright, sunny, hot and humid day. Much like most days here. After puttering around our hotel room a little we sought out breakfast on our way to pick up the laundry Jim dropped off the day before. We first stopped at one restaurant a few blocks away and sat down at an outdoor table but couldn’t figure out what we were being told by the server. When we asked about roti or nasi lemak, he pointed to the indoor area of the restaurant so we went inside. But were pointed outside when we asked about ordering. Confused, we walked further down the street to another place where ordering was much easier. We ordered some nasi lemak, roti with Indian curry and coffees. It was so good. I swear I was becoming addicted to this stuff.

After breakfast we headed over to the laundry and saw these orchids. There were so many varieties that we’d never seen before just growing everywhere. This one looked like a hibiscus at first until you looked at the plant itself. That’s when we realized it was an orchid.

We also saw a Tata (yes, it’s ok to giggle). We took a few pictures for a friend who liked cars and trucks that weren’t readily seen here in the US.

Once we picked up the laundry, we dropped it off at the hotel and took a few minutes to walk around the pool area. The plants around the pool had beautiful flowers and brightly colored fruit which was apparently a tasty treat for the local birds.

Once we finished enjoying the pool area, we headed out to the bus stop to catch one of the local buses to the fabric shop we saw the night before.

Here's the view of our hotel from the bus stop.

Across the street from the hotel and bus stop, the place we had breakfast the day before.

One of the routes went around to the area of town we were in last night where we spotted the big fabric store. Along the way we took these pictures of the city and bay.

It only took about 20 minutes to get to the fabric store. After looking at several selections of batik style material we picked out one we both liked and got 10 meters, enough for each of us to have a shirt made with plenty left over for future use. It was a great price too at roughly $20 for the entire piece.

By the time we finished looking at material we were beginning to get hungry so we walked up and down the street to look at what our options were. We stopped in front of one place that smelled wonderful. One of the restaurant staff came out and persuaded us to come in and we’re glad we did. We ordered Mee Goreng with chicken. A squeeze of lime really added to the dish.

After lunch we decided to head over to the river to see Villa Sentosa. The river and the foot bridge we needed to cross were only a few blocks away. Said to be an unofficial museum in Melaka, Villa Sentosa is a privately owned home opened to visitors by the owners whose father was an important figure in the early days of independent Malaysia. Here's some of what we saw:

Wedding chairs

The open entry way

Decorative clothing

The Dining Room table

Guest Bedroom

China Cabinet

The current owner proudly shows guests most of the rooms in the house as well as the great number of family heirlooms including china, clothing, furniture, and a gong. The latter item was once used as way to relay messages across the village and beyond before more modern forms of communication were available. Today, you can make a wish and bang the gong three times for it to come true. I'm still waiting.

The tour ended in the guest parlor where stack upon stack of guest books were sitting on the floor. Dating back to the 1960's these guest books have signatures from people who have visited Villa Sentosa over the years. And as you can imagine, just about every country was represented in the books. It was quite interesting to look through them then add our names to the latest book. Overall this was one of the best things we did in Melaka and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who ever visits. They do not charge admission but accept donations.

The gardens on the property had lots of interesting plants like this pitcher plant.

As we finished up our tour and were ready to leave, we took our self portrait. This has become one of our traditions on every trip we take.

By now, we were tired, hot and sweaty. A shower was beckoning me back at the hotel so that’s where we headed. And seeing as it was our last night in Melaka, we wanted to have dinner again at Restaran Peranekan. It was so good and the beef rendang was the best I’ve eaten and we were looking forward to trying out some other items on the menu. We strolled along Jonker Walk which is much different during the week than it is on Friday and Saturday night when it's full of street vendors. Several of the buildings have very intricate decorations.

But alas, when we got there it was closed. Phooey. We walked further down the street and came upon two restarants. One overlooked the river and had nice white tablecloths, the other place was a small local place with plastic covering the tables. We chose the latter of the two because it looked less touristy and we were not disappointed. An advertised special was a sampler of sorts featuring a pineapple and shrimp curry, a veggie omelet, fried fish in a tomato based sauce, lamb stew and water spinach with hot peppers and onions. A bowl of chicken soup came out with it as well. It was all quite tasty especially when washed down with a couple of Tiger beers.

On the walk back to the hotel we took a slightly different route, walking by the Maritime Museum and walked through an open air mall that was mostly closed up for the night. What was open wasn’t of much interest so we continued through and out the other side. Across the street was the nice new air-conditioned mall. We walked through the nice cold mall savoring the cool air and looking at a few shops along the way. The far exit for the mall opens out to the street in front of the hotel so it was a short walk once back out in the heat before we got to the hotel.

We began to pack up our things so we could get an early start the next day as we would be traveling by bus to Singapore.

Melaka - Day 2

2008-04-06T11:35:00.007-04:00

Monday, March 3, 2008
After getting a better night's sleep than the night before, I felt like the worst of the jet lag was behind me. Jim suggested trying the little place across from the hotel for breakfast. Sounded good to me, especially if they served coffee like I'd had the day before. The yellow chairs are where we went. The restaurant had no name that I'm aware of just good food. We each ordered Nasi Lemak, a coffee zero for Jim and a coffee with milk for me. It doesn't look like much but it was filling and very full of great flavor. Coconut rice, fried egg, peanuts and fried baby anchovies. The little red dish in the center of the table was spicy seasoning you could add to your plate as you like. It was fairly spicy and added a nice level of warmth to the dish. I was still unsure how much I would like spicy food for breakfast but I was slowly being won over by this meal.
After breakfast Jim gathered up some laundry he had (he'd been there over a week by this point) and a few things I had worn on my flight over and sought out a laundry. On his way back to the hotel he noticed this cute little guy in the back of a pick up truck.After he got back we hopped in a cab and went over to the Indian section of Melaka where we'd been told we could find some nice fabric shops. We wanted to get some batik to bring home and have made into shirts for each of us and/or possibly a skirt of dress for me. Unfortunately we came up empty handed. There were several fabric shops but none had a batik we liked so we decided to just walk around and take in some sights.

A few blocks from Little India was the Church of Saint Francis Xavier, a Catholic Church built in 1849.(Jim took this night picture the week before while he was teaching his class)

It is dedicated to St. Francis Xavier, a Jesuit who brought Catholicism to Malacca and other parts of Southeast Asia. While there, I said a quick prayer for a family friend who had passed away the day before. It's a bright and airy church with beautiful stained glass windows. This one is over the main entrance to the church.

Moving on down the street we found a small cafe on the Melaka River and stopped for a cup of coffee. It was still early enough in the day for us which meant back home it wasn't too late in the evening for a quick call home. Here I am yacking away with either my mom or my sister. Jim bought new sim cards for our cell phones when he got to Melaka. We used the Digi network which offered a great rate for calls to the US at 5 cents/minute. It was more expensive to call each other than it was to call halfway around the world....go figure.

While we were enjoying our coffees, we saw a tour boat cruising down the river and saw it dock just up the way from the cafe. As soon as we finished the coffee, we walked over to inquire about taking a river cruise and were told it would be about an hour and a half before the next one. A couple just getting off the current cruise overheard us talking and asked if we were American. They were from New York City and had only arrived in Melaka a few days before I had. Both were retired and were on a month long trip through Malaysia, how lucky! We talked about where each of us would be going while there and exchanged some touristy advice. After about 30 minutes we parted ways.

Since we still had about an hour before the cruise we decided to look at some of the souvenir shops across the street. Most of the stuff was mass produced, overpriced trinkets and the same from shop to shop so we passed on buying anything. Wandering back across the street we saw a street vendor selling coconuts. We picked one out and watched him deftly chop off a piece from the bottom so it would sit upright then four chops to the top to form an opening. That was one scary looking cleaver too.
But once it's open all you do is insert a straw to drink up the coconut water and a spoon to scrap out the tender coconut meat and you have yourself a nice refreshing snack.After our little snack we walked back to the area where the river cruise docked and the ticket guy quickly pointed out the big monitor lizards on the other side of the river. This one was an adult that was about 5-6 feet long. And just below us on the dock area was this little guy. He was about 2 feet long and scurried away just after I got this picture.When it was finally time to get on the cruise boat, we all loaded up and met yet another American, this one from Washington, DC. Talk about a small world. He lives in Malaysia during the winter and back in DC the rest of the year.

The tour guide was very entertaining. He actually had names for all the monitor lizards we saw along the riverbank. I think the pair just under the bridge in this picture were Romeo and Juliet.

The reddish stones you see along the sides of the riverbank date back to the early Portuguese settlers. The red color comes from the iron content in the stones. Today, most of these stones are being reclaimed and used to revitalize and rebuild the river bank. A lot of restoration and new construction is going on along the river to make it a more attractive place for people to walk, dine and enjoy the views. Many of the old buildings are being restored for shops and restaurants and a boardwalk is nearly complete along one side of the river. Ahead of us was a small (very small) amusement park. It had two rides, the ferris wheel you see in the picture and a boat ride that swung back and forth like a pendulum.
On the left is Kampung Morten, the only remaining kampung (village) in Melaka with traditional Melaka-style houses. They had a steeply pitched upper roof that lead down to a slightly sloped roof.
Hanging from the bridge, as well as all over the city, were banners for their upcoming national elections. And unlike here where it seems the campaigns have dragged on for an eternity, they are only allowed to campaign during the two weeks prior to election day.
Some houses were very patriotic like this one with the Malay flag painted on the roof.

This house was known as Villa Sentosa (the Malay Living Museum). It's not officially a museum but probably one of the best sites to visit in Melaka. More on that later.

After the cruise we were getting a little hungry so we headed off in search of lunch. A few blocks from our hotel is an outdoor food court with lots of food stalls to choose from. For our trip today, we chose several tasty dishes.
This is prawn mee, a soup made with noodles, sliced fish cake, shrimp, water spinach, bean sprouts in a spicy broth.

This a water spinach soup. Very mild in flavor, it wasn't my taste but Jim enjoyed it.

And finally Char Kway Teow, a dish of soy sauce, chilli, prawns, egg, bean sprouts and chicken.

As we walked back to our hotel after lunch, I couldn't help but notice that orchids grow everywhere! Some intentially planted around trees, along the curbs, or in flower beds. Others grow wild up in the trees. Wish I'd gotten a picture of that to show you.

We noticed a massage and reflexology place just down the road from food court. Jim suggested we check it out after lunch. We did and they offered me a great deal on a 90 minute back massage and foot reflexology. While I was being massaged, Jim strolled back to the food court, got a nice cold Tiger beer and people watched. He came back to pick me up and we headed back to the hotel where we cleaned up with a nice hot shower and headed back out and into a cab to see the Portuguese area of town. Located along the bay, it's a small area with some houses and a food court that also houses a small museum, most everything was closed when we got there but it looked like it would be a hoppin' place to go on a Friday or Saturday night.

Once we were back at the hotel we had a little snack while we talked about dinner plans. I bought these miniature mandarin oranges the day before. I couldn't help it, they were so cute! They were good but were so small that there wasn't much space for a lot of juicy pulp.I also bought a can of Kickapoo Joy Juice. Yea, sounds scary, doesn't it? Know what's even scarier? It has it's own website. However, what wasn't scary was the taste. It was very close to Mello-yello or Mt. Dew. Not bad.

Jim said he was craving a steak and wanted to go to a place he tried the week before called the Bulldog Cafe which served a combination of Asian and Western style food. A quick cab ride later and we were there. It's a cute place with an indoor pond full of Koi and some frog statues. Jim got a steak with peppercorn sauce which was good enough to satisfy his craving.
And I got a dish recommended by the waitress that called Asian Beef. Now you'd think since we were in Asia that they'd nail that part of the dish but sadly it was just barely Asian-ish in that it was soy sauce in it but beyond that, eh. The sauce was thick and gloppy and looked so Americanized. I was pretty disappointed.
Needless to say we skipped dessert and chose to take a walk over to the river which was only a few blocks away. We crossed over the banner draped bridge you saw in our river cruise pictures and strolled through Kampung Morten and Villa Sentosa. We were also just a few blocks from the ferris wheel we saw earlier in the day. When we got to the park, it was all lit up with just a handful of people milling about. We decided to give the ferris wheel a try and enjoy seeing the city from high above. It was also nice to get a bit of breeze. Afterwards we decided to head back to the hotel so we began walking, and walking, and walking. Apparently we were in a section of town rarely frequented by taxi's. We finally saw a busy street and headed towards it and hopefully a ride home. After close to 10 minutes, we finally hailed a cab and found a huge fabric shop just down the street from where we'd been standing. Note to self: tomorrow we go back and look for some batik.

Once back at the hotel, I took another shower and collapsed into bed. We had a great day, saw a lot of cool stuff, ate some great (and not so great) food, met a few other Americans and a bunch of super friendly locals. Tomorrow: shop for batik, visit Villa Sentosa, eat more great food and get ready for the next leg of our trip, Singapore.

Melaka - Day 1

2008-04-02T22:50:00.005-04:00

Sultanate Palace - Melaka

Sunday, March 2, 2008

I woke up feeling pretty well rested. It was a nice sunny day and the view from our hotel room was nice. Jim suggested breakfast at a place his co-worker recommended from the day before that served a really good pho soup. We were game so off we went, and walked, and walked until we got to the street where the restaurant was located. Most everything was closed, not a good sign. And sure enough, the pho restaurant was among the closed places. However, the restaurant next door was open so we gave it a try.

We ordered fried noodles, roti and coffee. I particularly like the roti, a thin multi-layered Indian bread with an egg cooked into it that you tear into pieces and dip into curry. It was so good! The rich curry with all it's flavors and the delicate roti that just soaked up the curry was a combination I would enjoy many more times on this trip. The noodle were typical for the area, flat noodles with a few vegetables like bean sprouts and green onion seasoned with soy sauce. Very tasty as well as surprisingly filling.

Coffee is pretty good in Malaysia. Most of the places we went to served a freeze dried variety that came two ways. Black coffee was refered to as coffee zero. Coffee with milk was order just like that, coffee with milk. However, the milk is sweetened condensed milk. Normally I would say yuck, as it would add too much sweetness to the coffee for my taste. But here, the coffee is strong, put hair on your chest strong so a little sweetness is good......very good. I took one sip of the coffee and was immediately in love. It was like a coffee mocha drink. I ordered a second one and would enjoy many more over the next two weeks.

After breakfast we made our way back to the hotel via the Sultanate Palace, a replica of a Melaka Sultan's palace. The building itself was quite beautiful with lots or rich dark wood, wide open interior and great views of the gardens out front (and our hotel). The exhibits ranged from beautiful displays of clothing worn by various members of the sultan's family to glassware to weaponry. Most were well done but there were a few displays that bordered on cheesy. For example, this display of merchants from another country used mannequins which in itself isn't so bad. But when one of the mannequins is a dead ringer for Yul Brynner and another is sporting a cock-eyed wig, you can't help but giggle like a little kid. Then there were the displays of beautiful pieces...... with green Styrofoam packing peanuts adorning the bottom of the display case. What's with that?

Overall the place was very nice, if not a little quirky and the gardens out front were beautiful.
After we finished walking around the palace and gardens, it was actually close to lunch time and Jim had a place in mind that served chicken with rice balls. This is somewhat a national dish in both Malaysia and Singapore. In most areas, it's Chicken rice, while in Melaka it's chicken and rice balls. The difference is the rice in other parts of the country is served loose. In Melaka it's compressed into small balls and served with the chicken. Jim noticed this place during his first week here. He saw a banner over the entrance that had an article about the restaurant written up in a local magazine or newspaper. He figured it must have been a good place to try and he was right.

To make chicken and rice balls, you boil or roast a whole chicken with seasoning and vegetables. Basically as if you were making chicken stock or soup. Then the rice is cooked in the chicken stock. The chicken is sliced, skin and all, and served with the rice balls and a side dish of the stock. It was very moist and flavorful. We added some sauteed vegetables and a prawn omelet to round out our meal.

After lunch we went back towards the hotel. We stopped at a new mall that had a Carrefour which is similar to a Target or Walmart superstore. We picked up a few snacks and some bottled water and I got a small purple notebook to use a a journal for the trip. I knew I'd never remember everything from the trip otherwise.

Once we got back to the hotel jet lag reared it's ugly head and I had to take a nap. Jim went to the pool while I napped for a few hours. I was still pretty groggy when I woke up but knew if I slept any longer I would have trouble the next day getting used to the time change. We were 13 hours ahead of DC.

When Jim got back to the room, we discussed what to do for dinner. We brought along a Lonely Planet guidebook and it recommended Restoran Ole Sayang, which served nyonya style food.

On our walk to the restaurant, we spotted this place and took a picture for my family (my maiden name is Groves). The place never seemed to be open while we were in Melaka otherwise we would have stopped in to check it out.

Restoran Ole Sayang was just about 6 blocks from our hotel.
We got there fairly early so there was still plenty of seating. It looked like we may have been the only tourists in the place which we took as a promising sign.
On the waitress's recommendation, we ordered the Fish Head Stew. Fairly pricey for what we got but it wasn't too bad. A halved fish head and some filets in a nice, spicy broth.
Also ordered was Black Pepper Beef. A richly flavored dish of beef that's been stewed until it falls apart. Slightly spicy and tangy, it was our favorite dish of the night.
And to be sure we got enough veggies for the day we ordered kangkung belacan (spicy sauteed water spinach).
While the food was good, it wasn't as good as we were expecting since Lonely Planet raved so much about it. And throughout dinner we kept hearing very loud pops. More than once I nearly jumped out of my seat. We found the source of this annoyance. When they cleared the table they gave everyone a little sealed bag with a moist towelette in it. Rather than tear it open, folks would squeeze them til they popped open. And having it happen all through dinner was a royal pain.

A short stroll back towards the hotel and we were pretty much ready to call it a night. And around 9:00, I could not keep my eyes open any longer and went to sleep.

So most of my first full day in Malaysia was spent eating. And I didn't complain, it was all such a tasty experience and I was looking forward to the next few days to see more of Melaka.

DC to Malaysia - my flight

2008-03-26T20:30:00.004-04:00

Thursday, Feb. 28th was busy. I had to get Sophie's things together for the kennel. We board her at Anchor Kennels in Accokeek, MD. I hated leaving her for such a long time but knew they'd take good care of her.

I had the rest of the day to finish packing, nothing like waiting until the last minute. The house was so empty without Jim or Sophie around, it was depressing. But I kept myself busy until the shuttle van came at 6 to take me to the airport.

Surprisingly, traffic wasn't too bad and we got to the airport in 45 minutes. Not bad for the Beltway at rush hour.

Since I was already checked in at 7:30 for my 10:30 flight, I had time for a quick bite for dinner and a few calls home before we boarded the plane around 10:00 p.m.

My flight was on Qatar Air. It had the best price and a good route, with only one layover in Doha, Qatar. Some flights, although lower in price had 4 stops! That's just screams, "Lose my luggage!" One example, DC to JFK to Anchorage to Hong Kong then finally to Kuala Lumpur with a combined travel time of 32 hours. Holy moly! Mine was bad enough with a travel time of 26 hours.

Qatar Air's service was very good. The meals were good and filling, beverages were available all through the flight and if you were on one of the newer planes the on-board entertainment was great. I got to watch several movies including Juno (loved it), No Country for Old Men (good) and Martian Child (eh, it was ok). Plus you had your choice of several TV shows, games and an option that let you see the flight path and where you were.The first leg of my flight over was less than half full so most of us got an entire row to ourselves, luxury.....if only the dang armrest went all the way back. I don't get it. If you're going to make the armrest mobile, at least let them be pushed all the way up so they're out of your way. These went about 1/3 of the way up and stopped. I saw several other passengers do what I did, push the armrest up til it stopped. Push it again, look puzzled then check the back of the seat to see if something was blocking it, then try pushing it up again. But at least it went up enough that you could stretch out and snooze which is exactly what I did for about 4 or more hours.

One quirk with the airline that I read about but thought was just too weird to be true was how the flight attendants would constantly go around closing the window shades during the entire flight. Now I can understand doing that while most of us were sleeping but when we were a few hours out from Doha just about everyone was awake, it was sunny out and some of the passengers wanted to see outside. No sooner did they nudge up the window shade when a flight attendant appear and tell them to close or just reach over them and close it themselves. This phenomena only happened on the the flight from DC to Doha.

Finally after 14 hours, we landed in Doha. It was about 5:30 in the afternoon when we landed which was about 10:30 in the morning back home. I had about a 5 hour layover and thanks to some research on the Internet Jim found out about the Oryx lounge at the airport that was available to any passenger for a nominal fee (roughly $25 US).This is just inside the lounge. What looks like a concrete wall is really a sliding door to the lobby/reception area.

Once inside, your fee got you

food, beverages, nice comfy seating, TV, Internet access, restrooms and a shower area.

It was very nice, much quieter than the terminal and a great way to spend some time between flights. I was able to relax, get a bite to eat, e-mail everyone back home and freshen up before the second leg of my trip.

The flight from Doha to KL was nearly full. I managed to get a bulkhead seat in the center (4 seats) with the two middle seats empty. This was an older plane which had slightly narrower seats, armrests that also didn't go all the way up and an older in-flight entertainment system. But what made up for it was my seat mate who had the other aisle seat was from Malaysia and more than happy to tell me about her country. I managed to get only a couple hours sleep on this flight but it was enough to get me to my final destination and my hubby who I hadn't seen in over a week.

We landed in KL about 11:30 a.m. Going through immigration was easy, my bags were one of the first off the plane and within 30 minutes I walked out of the arrivals area and there was Jim, all dressed up to greet me.

During the week he was in Melaka, he met Tony, the owner of one of the local restaurants. When Jim mentioned that he was going to go up to KL on Saturday to meet me at the airport (about a 2.5 hour drive), Tony said "you don't want a local taxi, my son can drive you there." (in a Mercedes)

The drive was nearly uneventful. I say nearly because at one point I looked up at the speedometer and noticed it was at 110! Meep. Then it dawned on me that it was kilometers not miles. I also noticed that traffic lanes are a mere suggestions on the highway.

By the time we got to Melaka and our hotel, the Equatorial, I was feeling worn out. We got a quick bite to eat then I went for a nice long nap. After 3 hours, Jim woke me up and I felt soooooo tired. I managed to get out of bed, shower and wake up a little. We were meeting his co-worker and her husband (who flew in several days before I did) for dinner on Jonker's Walk.

This was taken in front of the Victoria Fountain and Christ Church which was on our way to Jonker's.

It was about a 10 minute walk to Jonker's. During the week, it's just another street but on Friday and Saturday night, the streets are closed off to traffic. Vendors selling food, movies, jewelry and other items line the street. Strings of lights draped along the street add a festive feel. We made our way to D'Arts Cafe and got a table out on the sidewalk and ordered a bucket of Tiger beers. Five beers 25RM (or about $8 US). I enjoyed watching all the people milling about and catching a whiff of some of the street food being cooked. After a couple buckets of beer and some snacks, the four of us headed out in search of dinner. Jim's co-worker and her husband mentioned a place they stopped at for lunch and said it was so good they didn't mind going back for dinner.
Restoran Peranakan, 107, Jalan Tan Cheng Lock, Malacca 75200 is one block over from Jonkers. An old, well preserved building with high ceilings and lots of decoratively carved wood welcome you inside. Once seated we looked over the menu and ordered dinner. Clockwise, starting at the top of the plate is Udang Lemak (Spicy shrimp in coconut milk), Kangkong Belecan (water spinach with spicy seasoning), Ayam Panggang (BBQ spicy chicken),and Beef Rendang.
And very reasonable. This was our bill for the four of us. 94 RM (about $32 US) for 4 entrees, rice and 4 beers.
After dinner we all strolled back towards our hotels, said good night and went on our way. By the time we got back to the Equatorial, I was beat. I don't remember hitting the pillow before I fell asleep.

Next: Exploring Melaka

Rhinoceros Hornbill Video

2008-03-21T20:31:00.006-04:00

Just a teaser of what's to come. This was taken in the Bird Park in KL. Rhinoceros Hornbills having a conversation.

This was just one of the great little video clips I captured on the trip. It's also one of my favorites.

Off we go!

2008-03-21T15:19:00.007-04:00

Last year when Jim's office was asked to create a training seminar to present to the Malaysian Government, Jim and a co-worker were the lucky ones to be selected for the task. Naturally I was excited for him but even more exciting was that I was going too!

When a date for the training was finalized, we booked my ticket to fly over and meet Jim the day after he was done. Then I checked out several travel guides from the library and we began to select places we'd like to see. Our itinerary changed several times because there was just too much to see and not enough time to see it all. We finally decided on the following: Melaka (where Jim would be doing the training), Singapore, Borneo - specifically the City of Kuching in Sarawak, and Kuala Lumpur.

Jim flew out on Februrary 21st. The training was scheduled from February 25th - 29th in the city of Melaka which is about 2 hours south of Kuala Lumpur (or KL). Both he and his co-worker had a day and a half to recover from jetlag.

They were able to get a little exploring done in that time including going to the beach,

seeing a rubber tree plantation,

enjoying the nightlife on Jonker's Walk,

and meeting some of the local residents.

Jim's accomodations and the training were in the Renaissance Hotel in Melaka. Although not as centrally located as other hotels in the city, it was very nice with little touches like fresh flowers,
and a nice view of the city.

Week One ended with a successful program and Jim receiving a gorgeous plaque. He also had time to get a good lay of the land ahead of my arrival.

Coming up next.... I arrive.