Kids

Yesteday Isha and I went for a walk to see the neighborhood behind our layout, and the park where I saw the statues standing in the rain. It was a very pleasant walk through the neighborhood. People were staring at us a lot, but as soon as I smiled and bobbled my head, they would grin back and then bobble their heads, suddenly we would feel accepted. It is really interesting how that simple little thing will change people's attitude so fast.

We saw just about everything on the way, men stripping down motorcycles to work on them, fruit vendors arguing, men taking a nap by the corner of a building. We even saw a couple of women leading a group of 5 or 6 cows somewhere. They just kept nudging them along, and one had to use her elbow on the rum of a particularly stubborn cow which didn't want to move out of our way.

But the best part of the trip was the kids. In the park, there is a walkway which is maybe a kilometer around. We walked clockwise and as we got to about 1:00, we ran across this group of children who were having fun walking through the park. We passed them, and then they yelled at us "Hello". So we replied, "Hello". There was one boy who could speak English, , but he was rather shy. None of the rest spoke any english. The boy would say something, and then dash back to the middle of the group and sort of hide there. He asked Isha what her name was, then me. Then he asked how old we were, and we told him. I then asked how old the tallest girl with them was, figuring she was somewhere between 10 and 12 by her size. She, through the translator, told me she was 14. She knew English numbers. I asked if I could take their picture, and they were very willing to let me, but then I had to show them all the picture, and they were thrilled. Then they insisted that Isha take one with me in the picture. It was really interesting how they warmed up and started hamming it up for the camera (all except the two older girls, one is almost hidden in the second picture.)

The best part of it all was when we were leaving. Shortly after the pictures were taken, we passed by a playground and they yelled goodbye and disappeared into the throng. We wandered on to the exit, and just before we got to the gate, the two older girls came runnning up and wanted to give 'auntie' Isha a kiss. I wish I had had the camera out for that, it was really cute. Oh well, it is a wonderful memory.

Langkawi & Fathers Day

After traipsing around Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, we needed a break and a rest. So off to Langkawi for 2 days. This is definitely not enough time. If I go back to peninsular Malaysia again, I'd skip KL, maybe see Malacca, and then spend more time in a place like Langkawi. Mostly we lazed around on the beach (our villa opened onto the beach). We could see the sunsets from our lanai. Somehow we also managed to become members of their club, so we could walk down to the clubhouse and sit for cocktails and hors d'oevres and watch the sunset. We went for walks on the beach. You could have gone hunting varieties of sea shells for hours. Cindy and I spotted these funny little crabs which seemed to make sand balls for some reaon, just above the tide line, but where the sand was still wet.

On the second day there, Cindy and I went for a walk down the main road outside the hotel towards "Water World" the local aquarium. It really felt like a cross between India and Singapore. Cleaner than India, but still piles of stuff in some places, and there was definitely still evidence of the Tsunami having damaged some of the structures. We thought about buying some duty-free items here in Langkawi, but then realized we stopping in Singapore for a day and might have to pay duty there, so we just enjoyed the walk, and came back along the beach to the hotel. Along the way we spotted this group of kids swimming in the ocean. You could definitely tell it is a largely Muslim country, and pretty conservative. The only people who were in skimpy bathing suits were the westerners. All though the locals didn't seem too conservative in dress, many of the ladies did wear the head scarf. Also we saw a significant number of visitors from the middle east where the women were fully covered. We see that occasionally in India, but somehow it still stood out more there than it does here in Bangalore for some reason. Maybe it was because they were usually accompanied by a man in jeans and a t-shirt, which makes a real odd combination.

Our last evening in Langkawi, we ate at a restaurant called Bon Ton. It is part of a small resort near where we were staying. The owner also runs the local animal shelter, and has multitudes of cats and a dog running around the place. It is excellent food, with an upper class atmosphere juxtaposed with a homey reception and animals. Somehow it all works and makes for a great time. I really would have liked to do a bit more on the island, see some of the historical sites, go up the mountain on the cable car... But maybe next time.

Singapore/Fathers Day

Saturday afternoon we flew back to Singapore. That evening we tried to get the tour to the Night Safari, but it was sold out. Instead we just took a taxi to the zoo, and bought tickets there for the night safari. It was pretty cool. No pictures because they ask you not to use flash, and I could not hold the camera still enough in the dark. Some of the animals were definitely more active than they are during the day. We took the safari bus tour first, then we went for a short walk, after a while the ladies went to stand in line for the animal show and I went on walking a bit. The animal show was fun, and Cindy was sitting right on top of a large python they had stashed in a box under the audience. It even touched her when they took it out, and she jumped big time. We say otters, wolves, a civet cat which could jump six feet in the air, and many others. All in all, I would say it was a bit too crowded for my taste, but definitely fun to do.

Father's day we went down to the waterfront, took care of some last minute shopping. We stopped for a nice lunch in a Thai restaurant which I chose as I was feeling like I might be coming down with the cold which had plagued Anna for most of the trip. The soup cleared my head right up. Then we took the cable car up the mountain (well I guess you'd call it a hill really, but it is the highest spot in Singapore), and took photos with the Merlion.

By then it was time to head back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and head home on Lovely Tiger Air. All in all it was a nice trip, if short.
Bryan

Malaysia

I feel a bit like I'm in wonderland. The more I try to post, the behinder I get. Isha's been here in India more than a week, and it has been almost two weeks since we returned from Malaysia, but I'll try to remember faithfully what we did.

First day there we arrived, and checked into the hotel, had breakfast and then decided to go out for a walking tour. We thought that along the way, we could find the tourist information center and get more info about what to do and see while there. Well we started out on our walk by taking a taxi to our jumpoff point. So far so good. Then I managed to figure out which streets to take to get started, ok so far so good. The street signs are better than in India, but not as good as in Singapore.

We skipped little India, figured we'd seen enough of that by now. Off towards Chinatown. After a couple of blocks, when I'm looking at the map, trying to figure out where the tourist info center is, this nice older guy stops and asks what we're looking for. I tell him and he thinks about it for a minute, then says-'yes I know where it is, I'm going just by it'. Ok we'll follow him. He has two large plastic bags, obviously very heavy. I wasn't sure if they were collected recycling, or his shopping-- I couldn't really tell, but he takes off at a good clip, and I'm trying to keep up with him and still not lose Maya and Cindy trailing behind me. He stops every so far to change hands as they are obviously unbalanced. We go a couple of blocks, and then according to the map, we should turn left, but he says to turn right. Cindy and I confer and decide to go left. He goes off with his bags to the right. Well we wander around a bit, see a mosque and some other nice architecture, but no tourist office. We ask a bus tour operator-not a clue. So we head back the way we came to get back to our walking tour. Then we see City Hall. Ok, we'll ask there. We go in, and the first person at the info counter doesn't know. But the second does. She says to go out, across the street a bit to the left ( which is where the old man went on his way right).

So then we are crossing the street, and there he is, with a very small pamphlet about KL. We thank him, and go on towards the tourist info center, thinking we'll find out more, like we did in Singapore. No such luck, we get there and it is a bit dilapidated looking, and has only 1 pamphlet, and the lady at the counter doesn't seem to be interested or able to suggest much more. So back to the guidebook we were using. That was our key to the city.

Ok back on our walking tour, we saw some more, not much exciting really, and get to the central market which is on the edge of Chinatown. We went in. Fortunately it had air conditioning because we were all beginning to feel the effects of the heat. I was getting grumpy. This place was large, and they had just about everything from antiques which were beautiful, to plastic toys, to saris, to batik, to toiletries. We picked up some gifts for people here, and then had noodles for lunch. Very nice, and relatively cheap compared to Singapore.

By now we were pretty well shopped out, but needed a couple more items which had been requested of us by people in India. So on to Chinatown. Here there were a couple of main streets lined with shops, which then had stalls set up in front of them. So we were ducking in and out of stalls, avoiding the hawkers of fake purses and watches, looking for rain jackets for Manju. Why he wanted them from KL or Singapore I don't know, but he did, so we were on a quest. The colors were fun. There were some interesting fruit--which we saw more of during our stay later in Langkawi. The dragon Fruit, here the ones cut open with the pink centers, we ate in Langkawi, but they must have been a different variety as they were white in the center with black seeds. Nice- not too sweet. The hairy looking things are a varity of Lychee, we have some in India too, but they are not quite so Sea Urchiny looking here. They were really good. This is the first time I've had fresh lychee. I've only had canned inthe past. What a difference.

Well we did find the jackets, and then I decided I'd get a fake rolex, just for the fun of it. We found a vendor, and I picked one out. So far so good. Then he proposes one for Anna. So we agree and she gets one too. Well we weren't back at the hotel that evening or it stops running. I managed to get it to wind again, but still 10 mins later, it has stopped again. So much for fake rolexes--they were only about 15-20, I guess you get what you pay for-- at least mine is still running. We figured they were a gamble. The taxi driver the next day just laughed when we told him about Maya's watch.

Ok now it is getting time for us to get back to the hotel. We go to the main street and are asked if we want a taxi--sure, how much? He wants 20 Ringit. We had paid about 8 to get to the start of our walk. So I said, no--put it on the meter. He refused--afterall we were tourists weren't we. So we said no, and walked back to the other end of the shopping street. Again found a taxi, same story. Then there was a taxi letting someone off. We grabbed that one, and he was willing to put it on the meter. He was an older Indian, and drove like he learned to drive in Bangalore, using all of the road. He also wasn't quite sure how to get to our hotel, but found it in the end. Price--4.5 Ringit. He got a decent tip. I don't mind paying a little extra, but I do mind being taken for a ride, so to speak.

Next day, we decided to go 3 places-- Batu Caves, FRIM (Forest Reasearch Institute of Malaysia), and to see the Fireflies. So we negotiated a taxi for the day, hourly rate, nice driver. He asks if we want to go to FRIM first, and we had figured that Batu caves were closer so we would go there first--mistake, but I'll get to that later. We drove to the Batu Caves, probably about 20 mins max. They are these large limestone caves, in which there are Hindu temples. It is magnificent to see. You arrive and there is this very tall statue out front. and you immediately also see the long staircase going up to the caves. We started climbing up. About half way up, we ran into these macaque monkeys. They have figured out that many people, mostly the Hindus, carry these bags of fruit up for offerings in the temples. The monkeys are very fast, and will steal the bag when someone sets one down for a photo, or sometimes even taking the bag from someone's hand. But they are very camera shy. I only got this one in the shot because he had turned away from Cindy who was trying to take his picture.

I think for many people the monkeys were more interesting than the caves and temples, but anyways. We continued on to climb the remainder of the 272 steps to the caves. They are huge inside, like a natural cathedral. My camera didn't really capture the inside very well, except for the furthest parts where the cave is again open to the sky. Inside it is too dark, and the flash on the point& shoot is too weak to get a good photo. If we had a better camera with us at that time it might have been possible. You can get a sense of the scale a bit better, and the absolute beauty of the caves themselves from this. For more pictures, you can peruse my Flickr or google Batu Caves and find many better photos.

The temples themselves inside are interesting, but not remembering my Hindu gods, I don't know which was for whom. About 20% seemed to be manned by a priest. Many people were going in and making offerings and prayers. After we came down, Cindy and I went into the gift shop while Maya got an ice cream. We were tempted to get a miniature of the statue out front, but decided we have enough nick nacks. Then we wandered around the outside and found more temples, and what looked like an entrance to another cave, but it was locked up. One interesting thing we found was the statue of Hanuman who was keeping his parents in his heart.

From the Batu Caves, we went to FRIM to go on the canopy walk. Unfortunately we arrived at 1:00 on a day when they were having some sort of training for the employees, so we couldn't get into the info center to buy tickets till after 2 and they only sell tickets till 1:30. So that was off, now I understood why the driver suggested to go there first, but since he didn't explain, we didn't know. Ok so we had lunch at their cafeteria which was sort of fun. It was buffet, and then they charged by what you took. It had been sort of picked over by the time we got there, but still good. The one thing of interest that I noticed was that everyone left their shoes off outside the buildings before going in (except the cafeteria for some reason).

We then had to decide what to do next. We opted to not go to the fireflies as they don't come out when it is raining, and it was threatening pretty much, also it was an hour's drive and we weren't sure we wanted to go that far with a risk of not seeing them, so we'll have to save that for another time. That afternoon it poured steadily for about 1/2 hour in KL, but I don't know about where the fireflies are--it is closer to the ocean there.

We went back into KL, and went to the shopping center under the Petronas Towers, to look for some books Anna wanted, and some clothing for Cindy. She has trouble finding western clothes that fit her here in India. Better luck there. Oh, and thought that the shopping malls in Singapore were large, this was enormous. For those who know it, I think you could have fit Valley Fair inside at least 3 or 4 times. We enjoyed a nice dinner there and made it an early night.

The next day, I was determined to go on the canopy walk, but Maya wasn't feeling too well, so I went back by myself to FRIM. The walk through the rainforest (after getting tickets) took about an hour to get to the canopy walk structure. Beautiful, wet, green, dense forest, and did I say wet. My shirt was totally soaked by the time I got to the top. I read the brochure on the way up, and they said to bring a small towel and a clean shirt. Now I know why. I met a nice British couple on the way up the hill, and we had a nice chat about how different the forests are etc. The canopy walk is 5 walkways and 3 stations. The couple I met took a picture of me on one of the bridges. They were built of aluminum ladders, tied firmly together, and then supported by the cables/ropes you can see in the picture. It was fairly sturdy, but would bounce when you were walking. There was a limit to the number of people allowed on the bridges and platforms at any time, 2 per bridge, and 3-5 per platform depending on the size. The canopy walk was originally built for a research study, and when the research was done, they opened it to the public. Unfortunately I found out when I got there, that if you want to see the animals, you have to come very early in the morning (probably even before they open), but if you get there when they open at 9:30, you have a better chance than at 11 like I did. I did see a few birds and squirrels though.

That afternoon while Anna stayed back at the hotel (she was really feeling sick by now), Cindy and I went to the world famous bird park. The park was about 50% open aviary--large areas with netting, but the birds were free to wander and fly, and about 50% caged, particularly the raptors who probably would have cut down on the rest of the population very quickly. I think my favorite part was feeding the lories. Someone from the park came in with a bucket of fruit, and we were allowed to feed them bananas. The interesting part was that there were two men and two women, aside from the park worker. The birds would flock to us men, and the women were left with just one or none, despite the fact that they had as many bananas as we did. But I must say, they had a lot of different kinds of birds. They had many very colorful birds, and from all continents. The only ones I don't remember seeing is Penguins. Oh well, we dis see birds doing Yoga. and They also had very colorful water birds. It was just fun to wander around and see them all without having to figure out what each one is. We could have spent many more hours wandering around there.

That evening we went to a dinner/show. They had traditional Malay dancing, and a huge buffet. We really enjoyed the food, and we enjoyed the show when the other audience members were not standing in front of us. I had to get up 3 or 4 times to ask people to sit down or move so we could see too.


Well that was KL. Next I'll describe Langkawi.

MerLionLand

Finally getting a chance to describe our vacation. It was pretty busy from one end to the other. We had a week, well actually 9 days, but we also had 3 destinations, plus a return to Singapore at the end before coming home. The trip started with, well, how shall I put it, I guess you could say it was a pain in the a%%. We went with Tiger Airlines. They are a discount airline flying out of Singapore and Australia. They started coming to Bangalore recently so they had a sale and we bought it. The seats were EXTREMELY uncomfortable. Basically I felt like I was sitting on a toilet seat at a 15 degree angle leaning into the aisle. All of the seats in the plane seemed to be similarly old and worn out.

We were trying to sleep as the flight left at 11 am, was 4.5 hours long and we would arrive in Singapore at 6 in the morning. Tiger "doesn't serve anything" on the flight--ok, we wanted to sleep-- except that they sell drinks and food. And the stewardesses are on commission, so they kept going back and forth up the aisle (bumping into me as I was leaning due to the seat) and yelling out 'who wants more drinks?' all night. Not only that, but because there wasn't enough leg room for me to have my knees in front of me when the seat in front of me was leaning back, they complained that I was blocking the aisle for their cart. I snarled at them about the lack of space for my knees and they backed off. Oh well, lesson learned-- NEVER NEVER NEVER fly Tiger Air again except for really short or necessarily cheap flights where you don't care about food or space, or comfort.

Enough bitching Bryan. We arrived in Singapore. It is spotlessly clean, an extreme contrast with India. There are signs which point out everything from directions to what is and is not allowed. They say Singapore is a Fine City-- Spitting $ 200 fine, Littering $400 fine, etc. But this does make it clean and feel safe. To me it feels like Disneyland where people actually live, and yes they even have rides on Sentosa Island. (We didn't go there.)

We spent the first day going around on our own (after checking into the hotel and having a short snooze and late breakfast). We did some shopping for Anna and Cindy. We went to Orchard road. The shopping opportunities are amazing. The road is lined with large buildings (not quite sky scrapers, but tall big enough), and the bottom several floors of each was a shopping mall. I mean it went on and on. Most of these would dwarf any mall I've seen in the US. We saw a couple of groups performing on the street. One of them was a drumming/percussion--Samba Masala group of about 30 youngsters who were trying to raise money to go to Ireland. They were awesome. We watched for about 1/2 hour.

The next day we took a bus tour in the morning to get a bit of the history and decide where to go. At the end of the tour, we skipped out and continued to visit the orchid garden for longer, and have lunch. The orchid Garden was beautiful again, but obviously this was not the optimal time of year. Many of them were not flowering or had few flowers. Bollywood made it there though. SRK has his own flower . You cannot read the sign, but if you click on the earlier link, you can read the sign there.

Then in the afternoon we went down to Clark Quay, traipsed around, had ice cream, took a boat tour. On the tour we saw some boys frolicking on the riverbank , and took in the Merlion by the waterfront . Singapore has done a nice job of retaining the old architecture in spots, keeping the cultural and historical heritage alive, while allowing the new to come in and support a growing economy which provides for housing and other benefits for Singaporeans. You can see an example of it here along the waterfront where the older architecture is in front of the financial district in the background.
And then they have things which I just cannot explain. Like the hOOters Restaurant with one of the biGGest signs along the waterfront. Something really Singaporean for all...

Sunday night (we arrived on Saturday morning), we took the train from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur. I must say this was one of the more interesting parts of the trip for me. We had first class Sleeper berths. Here is Cindy looking out of her window from her berth. And here you can see the whole cabin a little better. We left at 21:15, we arrived at the train station at quarter to nine as Cindy had, admittedly in a sleepless daze the morning before, read it as 11pm. I checked with the ticket office as we had pre-purchased tickets over the internet, and they sent me right to the train. Fortunately we arrived at the station early as the guide book had told us to, or we would have missed the train altogether. Fortunately we didn't. At about midnight the train stopped somewhere in Malaysia, and a young man joined me in my cabin on the top berth. We arrived in Kuala Lumpur without a hitch, got to the hotel by about 8am, and had to wait for a room to be ready. They served us breakfast as we waited. We were just about to give up when they had a room ready, so we checked in and then went out to see the city. More about that next time.