Kuala Lumpur

After 4-5 days in Penang it was time to take the 5 hr bus ride to the big city...Kuala Lumpur...which isn't so big really. At 2-3 million people it's 1/8th the size of Bangkok and only a couple of times bigger than Ottawa.

The bus ride takes you through some moderate height hills with lush rain forest along a modern 4 to 6 lane divided highway. This was the eve of Chinese New Year and the stream of cars coming North out of KL was like leaving Toronto on a summer long weekend.

Beautifully manicured road side stops along the freeway...you almost think you are on the 401 from TO to Mtl. Malaysia has a much more developed feel to it than Thailand, more 'modern' in its infrastructure and this is especially apparent as you roll into KL...fancy suburbs, modern roads, more cars than motorcycles, and of course it's skyline with the twin towers (see the photo of the Petronas Towers) that we've all seen so often (they really are impressive looking...esp at night).

We're embedded in a small-ish hotel on the edge of Chinatown and Little India. It's much like Penang where I described in more detail the crazy mix of Chinese, Indian, Malay with the presence of mosques, temples (Chinese taoist, and buddhist, and hindu) and churches often in the same block.

When visiting the Taoist temple, a Chinese women (currently living in Australia) chatted with us, explaining the tradition for their New Year and welcoming us into the temple. Another day, when we were strolling through the Chinese market, a teenage Indian girl started chatting with us as well - she was so friendly and inquisitive. We were touring a Hindu temple the following day, we met this girl again - this time with questions about Christianity. I would love to see her again before we leave..... We also had a nice opportunity to visit the new main mosque and speak with a woman there who was very open to telling us all about the Muslim faith, Islam. Lori had to don a purple robe as can be seen in the photo.

On the corner outside of our hotel is a hindu temple which is very busy day and night and bonus to us, a couple of ultra cheapo Indian curry houses right beside. We're getting into the Indian breakfast scene now...Roti's (kind of like crepes) with curry sauces....tearing the roti apart with the right hand and dipping it into the sauce. ...num num.

Ahhh yes, and let's not forget that John's hair (not having been cut since before we left O-town) braved the quick, scissor-wielding hands of the local Indian barber and survived...although we both were a bit hesitant once he sat in the chair and the hair started to fly!

It's Chinese new year but the downside of that is more than half of the shops in chinatown are shutdown and it's quieter than usual. Luckily there are lots of things to do in the city...Islamic art museum, temples and mosques to peak at, the Petronas towers to gaulk at, even a cinema where we took in our first movie in months... InkHeart...at a cost of 3.5$ per ticket.

A large park on the edge of town has a huge aviary....much of it covered over with netting up to 60 feet high with all manner of birds (parrots, lovebirds, Lorybirds!!! (see photo re: the chattering Lorybird), songbirds flying around freely). The larger tropical birds for some reason need to be in pens (the Hornbills...the most amazing birds we've ever seen, Toucans, Cockatoos, Mccaws, etc. There are peacocks wandering around freely all over the place as well as flamingoes, egrets and other water based birds. There is a show where they take a few Maccaws and have them do tricks (riding a mini-bike, going down a mini slide, watching a human play a shell game and seemingly always to pick the right dish which has the shell under it!!). Definitely worth a visit.

Our days mostly consist of getting up late (because we seem to be staying up later), wandering around to a roadside food stall, having b'fast, going to see a few sites, wandering around the ethnic neighbourhood of the day (Indian, Chinese, Malay), maybe taking in 1 museum or attraction, then finding some other roadside style cafe and chowing down a dinner and collapsing of exhaustion back in bed. It's hard work let me tell ya!

We can't stop talking about the heat enough!....During the afternoon the sun feels like its going to boil you alive and you just have to get relief somewhere for awhile to cool your core down. Luckily there is lots of AC around whether it be a shopping mall, museum, or back to the hotel for an hour or two. One afternoon, we were taking a break resting on the stairs in Independence Square when a man asked if we would take his picture (as he was alone) and a conversation began. A sweet man from India who has been working here for 8 years - his wife and son are in India. He shared his chocolate and peanuts while we chatted. His English was limited and unfortunately, we do not speak Punjab so we parted ways when the rain began.

So it's our 4th day here in KL and Lori has come down with a flu, weak, achy, etc so John is going crazy writing blog updates between darting back to the room to see if his wonderful wifey is OK. Luckily we have HBO TV in the room (this is our first TV in weeks) to keep my little movie addict occupied. Good thing Lori's husband is such a electronic fanatic ;)

We had a wonderful telephone call with Belinda, Andre, Nicolas and Timothy - it was so great to hear their voices - unfortunately, our Skype connection died :( We look forward to another opportunity soon.

The next stop is obviously Melaka a couple more hours to the south...but after that...where to go we don't know. Do we see more of the Malaysian Peninsula , skip over to Malaysian Borneo, Go to NZ/Oz, or cut out NZ/Oz completely and start heading back to the west again via India? We have some soul searching to do. Heading to NZ/Oz delays getting to India by a month or so and by then will it be as hot there as it is here?....that could be too hot...and besides, isn't it a bit ridiculous to go to NZ/Oz for only a month or so?

Penang

Moving south by another 2.5 hr ferry ride we arrive at Penang in Malaysia. Expecting some semi-historic post colonial style town and surprised to see a skyline with towering buildings appear on the horizon! I guess Penang (which is also an island about 20km squared and with hills up to 2500 ft high) is one of the more populous and bustling cities of Malaysia. A complete different experience from the Langkawi we just left which is really just a tourist destination. It's nice to be in a city again where the tourists are far outnumbered by the locals and you have more of a sense of blending in. So we start at the remnants of the old British fort...with the condo skyline in the distance....

Mind you, there is a historic core a few km squared which is where we holed up for another 4 days (or was it 5?... I can't remember anymore) in a simple hotel/guesthouse run by extremely friendly Chinese folk. In this core we have lots of run down old colonial style buildings with a Chinese neighbourhood, and a little India....and shops galore.

Then there are the forever present roadside stalls with foods particular to the neighbourhood you happen to be walking through. While dining at a roadside Chinese foodstall, we sat with a Chinese couple and their son - Lori is very proud that the Chinese man commented on her chopstick skills being much better than his!

Below you see one of the eateries that we frequently find ourselves in (this was an excellent spot for Indian fare).

The first thing you notice here in contrast to Thailand is the racial mix. Lots of Chinese and Indians in addition to the local Malays....and that means a lot of religious diversity... mosques, hindu temples, buddhist temples, churches often within close proximity to each other. This makes things really interesting and you wonder if there is a lot that could be learned from places like this. However, on the other hand if you scratch beneath the surface a bit, some people will tell you that there is a subtle positive discrimination toward the Malays (muslim) with respect to opportunities in education, and the good jobs and there is clear delineation between the types of occupations you will see the Chinese in, vs the Indians, vs the Malays. For instance, the bike taxi below....mercifully these replace the ubiquitos, stinky tik-tuks of Thailand and almost universally they are powered by elderly chinese gentlemen.!

So how did all these Chinese and Indians get here?.... Well, in Penang, the colonial past is dominated by the British (whereas in south Malaysia it is the Portuguese and the Dutch). So when the British needed workers, they brought in the Indians. Meanwhile one of the main raison d'etre for Penang is being a trading post for exchange of goods between India (and through India to Europe) and China. This has to do with the trade winds here where for 1/2 the year it blows boats down from China and India converging on Malaysia where the goods are traded and then for the other half of the year the trade winds reverse enabling both parties to sail back home again. Imagine what kind of meeting place Penang must have been over the years....British, Indian and Chinese boats in the harbour and people of all types frantically trading or indulging in the excesses of sailors who've been at sea for a little too long....

Here's some evidence of the chinese presence with the decorations for the upcoming Chinese New Year....

...and then there is the fact that in this country of 24 million or so people there are now supposed to be 2-3 million migrant workers...mostly from Indonesia but also a lot from Nepal and Bangladesh as well. You can see evidence of it by the adverts for cheap long distance cards and which countries are being promoted with the cheapest rates! So here is the typical place of worship for the native Malays and visiting Indonesians.

And not to be left out....the gathering place for the chinese. All of these different places are within the cluster of just a few blocks from eachother!

Did I mention that it is hot? During the afternoon, even being in the sun for 15 minutes and you feel like you're being baked alive. There is only a little wind and it tends to weaken during the afternoon which is weird as we're so used to wind increasing in the afternoon. After a couple of hours in the afternoon, you just have to find A/C, trees, fans, umbrellas...anything to cool off your core temperature a bit.

All in all, Penang was very interesting....a mix of old colonial British, Chinese, and Indian things to see, eat and experience.

We also took the bus out to the edge of town where you can take a cable car up the 2400 ft Penang Hill for panoramic views over the city and ocean, especially as lights come on at twilight. It's almost like being on top of Grouse mountain and watching the dark settle over Vancouver.....Definitely a place worth visiting...Below the view from Penang from above.

Last....but not least....our blog from Penang is not complete without mentioning that John had to bail Lori out of jail for causing a disturbance in the street. The locals were so taken by someone of such beauty that they had never seen before that the whole street was blocked and the police had to get involved. Luckily Lori had a faithful husband who was able to get her out of trouble once again!

Langkawi Malaysia

A few hours by bus to a small town in southern Thailand, an overnight stay and then a 2.5 hr ferry ride to the Island of Langkawi in Northern Malaysia brings our travels in Thailand to an end.

Langkawi is an island about 20-30kms square with a number of smaller uninhabited islands around its periphery. With some peaks up to 2000 ft high there are some dramatic views and scenery.

The longest beach (2km) on the island is a beautiful fine white sand, but the water is not particularly clear...a greenish cloudy colour with a visibility of perhaps 1meter or so. Funny what a difference that makes...not nearly as appealing to splash around in as crystal clear blue water.

So this main beach named Cenai is surprisingly undeveloped, with some mid-size mid cost (50-80$/night) lowrise 'bungalows' along the beach front, some shops/restaurants along the street, and really cheap rooms/bungalows (20$) night across the road from the beach. Overall it has a laid back not overly touristy feel to it compared to many places in Thailand where you feel like you're in nothing but an overpriced tourist ghetto.

Interesting when you're travelling for months on end like this that having a room on the beach isn't that much of a priority really...in fact, a room across the road is more appealing as its quieter and cheaper...so what if you have to walk 3 minutes to get to the beach! So many beautiful sunsets.

Now the beach was just too hot to hang out on during the day...the sun is so amazingly intense and there is no wind blowing in off the ocean, instead a light wind blowing from the land. Since in Canada almost all of our travelling is east-west you don't really notice how much the temperature and strength of the sun can increase as you move 300km or so further south. In fact by now we are 1200kms south of Bangkok and as a result it is a much hotter, more intense sun during mid-afternoon now.

So we hung out here for 5 days or so thanks to the low-keyness. Our accomodation was Shirin guesthouse, an outfit with about 10 simple wooden bungalows in a quiet garden, run by an eccentric Iranian and his Japanese wife. In many of the places we've been you can find outfits like this where they really take care of you in a personal way and you actually hang out with and get to know your hosts and there is a bit of a feeling of sadness on both sides when its time to move on. For instance there were some people (retired types) staying here who come back every year and stay for a month!!!...a home away from home for 20$ a day.

So what else did we do?...spent an afternoon at a fairly impressive aquarium with hundreds of tanks of fish including the most amazing of all...the dragonfish. How did a thing like that come to be?.... google it ... you will be amazed.

We also rented a motorcycle for a day and drove around the island, to the highest peak at 2500 ft, to a tropical fruit farm to sample the local fares, and checked out the new marina and some of the megayachts in port there (resisted the temptation to dine on fish and chips - it looked sooo good).


Here we are at the fruit farm posing with the world's largest Guava!

And the food here....lots more Indian in flavour. We had limited ourselves to only Thai food for the 6 weeks or so in Thailand and so we dove into the Indian food with gusto :D Nothin' like stuffing yourself on Massalas, Naans, and Lhassi's for 8$ for the two of us. Good thing there are no weigh scales on these paths 'cause I think the layers of fat on us are getting thicker! John did manage to find two on our journey - one didn't work (I laughed) and another, he had to pay! It is important to mention here that when dining true Indian style, you eat with your righthand only. This is tricky and fun! Skill comes from necessity i.e. nothing is to get in the way of eating such yummy dishes!

Is that all we did? Where did 5 days go? Yet we seemed busy all the time or maybe we just aren't able to do as much in the same amount of time as in the frenetic world of home?

Koh Phi Phi Island

The next stop south down the western coast of Thailand brings you to the town of Krabi and a jumping off point by ferry to another island 30 miles off the coast called Koh Phi Phi. This one too was devastated by the Tsunami, but you'd hardly know it by now with all the resorts and bungalows built up again already. This island too has dramatic mountainous peaks, and is famed for being fringed by coral reefs and clear water. About 10km long and several km wide, it has no roads and no motorized vehicles but there are probably thousands of tourists here spread out among several beaches around the island with a couple of beaches in the middle that serve as the hub with a sprawling area of tourist shops, restos, divings shops, etc. The only real way around is by boat or an arduous 1 hr walk up over the island to the far side. The photo below shows you the view from the top of the island looking down to the area with the 'tourist village'.


We happen to be on 'the far side' on a secluded 100m beach with about 15 rustic bungalows. Run by a friendly Thai woman with great food. Our 'shuttle' out to this spot by local 'longtail' boat ended up with us being thoroughly soaked. In fact we have been here now on the east side of the island for 4 days and the wind has blown relentlessly from the northeast day and night the entire time. Getting out of the 'long tail' boat and to shore in the surf is an interesting experience...one that is so interesting that one day we decided not to return from the central village by boat but instead to make the 1 hr hike over the peak of the island instead. So what the strong winds have meant is that the water clarity is down to perhaps 10-15 ft...a far far cry from what we experienced on the Similan islands. Such a shame because in the one time I went out snorkelling in front of our beach it really was a dramatic set of coral which looked like it ran the whole 10km down the shore of the island. But alas, the visibility just isn't good enough to make it seem exciting. That put a damper on my enthusiasm to sign up for a dive course, which is just going to have to wait again for another time, another place where the timing and weather seem right. Here is the view from the hammock on the verandah of our rustic little bungalow on a small beach by itself on the east side of the island.


We are also visited every morning here by a troop of 9 or so monkeys. Very interesting as you throw them morsels of banana to see the 'pecking order' where the big male makes sure to get first dibs on everything to the point of even chasing the others off the food if that's what he feels like.

Adjacent to this island is another one which we visited on a day trip...This is one where the movie 'The Beach' was filmed. Once again, a deep cove lined with dramatic cliffs and a beach at one end. This kind of topography is everywhere here and it is not like anything I've seen anywhere else. Combining it with the blue skies, warm water and coral seas make it really seem like paradise. It's just too bad about the water visibility right now. Below, one of the many scenes of some of the shoreline around the island.

Well we'll be here for another day or so and then we have to get out due to the impending expiry of our Thai visa. Probably we will head south for the Malaysian border and check out what the western Malay coast is like compared to the Thai. We are definitely moving along more slowly than originally planned and beginning to realize that our plans for Australia, NZ, India, Egpyt, Morocco...something is going to have to be forfeited...but what? Something to decide over the next week or so.

Phang Nga - James Bond Island

Once back to the mainland we took a day and a half to get caught up on hot showers, BBC news, some internet, etc and then took a few hours bus ride south to a town called Phang Nga. From here we signed up for an overnight trip out to an island with a muslim fishing village built on stilts above tidal flats and saddled up against this dramatic limestone cliff. See the village below nestled below the cliff?


This whole area perhaps 100km sq of the coast has hundreds of these rocky cliffs, completely uninhabitable islands that are thrust up out of the land and sea like pillars as much as 1000 ft high. It is an area where scenes from a James Bond movie were filmed and truly looks like something from out of this world. But first back to the fishing village....about 200 households on stilts, a small mosque, school with lots of kids everywhere, out in boats having paddling races with each other. We stayed in a small bamboo walled cabin and along with another couple from Germany seemed to be the only other foreigners in the village (overnight that is). During the day there are a number of large restaurants on stilts filled with day trippers in speed boats from nearby Phuket! Kind of surreal.

Oh yes there were perhaps 3-4 sailing boats anchored off the village and then one small 18 foot or so strange looking, forelorn sailboat tied to a pier. Some time later a late 20-ish looking guy with a long beard saunters down and turns out he's the boat owner. A Slovenian who has been on the sea for 2.5 yrs. He says he bought the 40 yr old boat in Budapest and had to patch a bunch of holes in it before setting out. I asked if he had any horrifying experiences and he said the worst he experienced in that time was a 40 knot gale for a day. All in all he made it seem like not much of a big deal to sail around the world in such a craft which seemed a lot less comfortable than even our little boat back home which we'd hesitate to spend more than 3 days on in the Ottawa river!

So the next morning we departed on a small-ish local boat for a trip around these dramatic islands for the day. Including a drop by the famed 'James Bond' island. Hopefully some of these photos will go at least partially towards conveying how dramatic this area of the coast really is.

Islands and rock outcroppings like you see in the photo below were abounding everywhere!

The Similan Islands

After some days of enjoying the mainland beaches we decided to sign up for a 3 day 2 night snorkelling tour to the Similan Islands. This group of 9 islands 65km out to sea are rocky and mountainous with only a couple of them having a bay and a bit of beach and flat land where humans can hang out. There is a campground here and a few simple wooden bungalows and outdoor restaurant. The beach is only about 100m long but is the finest white sand imaginable, a consistency of flour and the colour of the water is the most aqua blue we have ever seen.







Then you put on your mask and snorkel and jump off the boat and ... wow ... you can see 40-50 feet down to the bottom, easily...absolute crystal clear. Over the course of 3 days of snorkelling at various points around the islands we observed several moray eels, octopus, of course countless tropical fish, some larger game fish which were a meter or so long, a sea turtle, and a shark. Have no idea what kind of shark but probably not a very serious one, perhaps a meter and a half long and once he saw us departed pretty quickly. It took me a while though to pry Lori's fingernails out of my skin.






All in all a very worthwhile trip and one we enjoyed so much that we spent an extra day and night hanging around the campground on the island.

New Years on Tsunami Trail

Well, happy New Year to you all out there. We are now on the west coast of the Thai peninsula (where we spent New Years), about 100 km north of Phuket in the area where the Tsunami hit hard. We have been gathering some stories from people who were here at the time....hard to believe that it happened right here only 4 yrs ago. A lot of rebuilding happening, but also a lot of vacant land, which probably was not vacant 4 yrs ago.

The beach here is beautiful about 10km long with not too much in the way of resorts, the weather is sunny and 30 degrees and I'm pretty sure the water is about 28 or 29...the warmest we have probably ever felt (and its their cold season here!!). It is nice to take time for relaxing, long walks on the beach, reading, and swimming in the surf.

Hope the snow / skiing back home is good....but I think the swimming here is better!

We decided to move over here from the East side of the Thai peninsula because the weather wasn't the best over there. Lots of overcast, occasional rain, fair amount of wind and quite poor visibility in the water.... not so poor that John didn't see the 2 sharks when he was snorkelling! But viewing the underwater world is one of the main reasons for heading south so we set off in search of calmer and clearer water.

We managed to find room in a smaller guesthouse (12 rooms) run by a couple who are a Danish/Thai pair. Wonderful hosts who really want to make their guests feel at home. So as we checked in on the morning of New Year's Eve and were informed that every year she throws a free dinner party for all the guests... wonderful to meet people from all over (Danish, British, American, Swedes, etc)....The Thup Thong guesthouse:

During the evening John chatted a bit with the owners....who were here for the Tsunami. Sa, the wife of the couple had a sister who owned a bunch of bungalows on the beach...these are no longer here...nor is her sister. Sa said that she and her husband and 2 young children happened to be out driving on the main road which is 1.5 km back from the waterfront. Suddenly they saw the telephone poles dropping like sticks and the next moment their Jeep was rolled a number of times and then came bobbing back up to the surface like a cork. They were able to climb out and survived. They said it was about an hour before all the water had rolled back to the ocean.

We also chatted with an older swiss gentleman who has been here every winter for 7 yrs. He was with a friend who went out to the beach for 10 mins while he decided to remain in his room on an upper floor of the hotel. He never saw her again.

We were told that although a lot of rebuilding has been done and is underway, many people who were here have decided not to build or return.

These days were spent mostly just relaxing on the beach, swimming in some big surf and of course Lori taking advantage of ever so cheap Thai massage on the beach front!