Little India, Sentosa, and Botanic Gardens

October 24th-28th

I finally made it down to Singapore. I stopped by here last year on the way to New Zealand, but only saw the airport. Of course, the only reason I decided to come down here this time was to see Uyen and Sean and Liem.



Singapore itself doesn't have anything spectacular or jaw-dropping, other than food and shopping. As a place to live it's quite pleasant, but as a place to visit, I'm not too sure.

Anyhoo, the first day we head down to Little India. It is right before Deepavali, so there's a lot of color and excitement down there. It's strange that only here does another community actually out-noise the Chinese. Excellent dosais and samosas; Indian food is always so delicious.



On the 26th, we make it out to Sentosa, a resort island off the tip of Singapore. Quite a lot of money went into this place, including importing tons of sand for the beaches. Like I said before, for someone who lives here, it's kind of nice to have it as a quick getaway from the city; but for someone coming from half-way around the world, it smacks of cheesiness. Of course, it's all in good fun!

Though we missed out on the aquarium, we did enjoy a nice stroll on the beach, watching the tourists try the trapeze, ate a Trapizza and walked through the skulls and dragon bones.



The day ended with the light and water show at the musical fountain. It's amazing how good the resolution actually is by projecting on streams of water. The show was really corny, but amusing nonetheless. The songs were nowhere as good as the Disneyland version, but what can you expect.



The 27th started out with a morning walk to the botanical gardens. Quite an amazing park, which reminded me of the one in Seattle but on a totally different scale. I went to try and catch some people doing tai-chi (there were a few scattered groups), but I was awarded with an even better sight. About 80 or so people stretching together with this Cantonese dude. How bizarre, almost cultish.



The evolution walk traced the progress of plant life through the ages; the information presented was fascinating but the visuals and atmosphere were lacking. The rain forest walk was quite nice. I especially liked the strangling figs that seem to float off from the ground.



Last we visited the orchid gardens which was quite pretty, especially when they designed it where one sees the orchids flowering in their natural conditions. I particularly liked the carnivorous plants though!



It was definitely a pleasant way to spend my birthday. Uyen says I act like a monkey too.

Well, tomorrow I'm off to Malaysia to catch my flight over to Sarawak. It's going to be a tough three weeks on Borneo, but it'll definitely be an amazing experience. It's strange to think that the next time I see Liem, he'll probably be running around the house causing chaos and probably saying bad words and being a little devil. Bwahaha, that'll be fun.

Going Down Under

October 20th-24th



One of the top three activities on my list to do in Malaysia was to get my next diving course under my belt. Having not dived since December in Okinawa, I knew I was a bit rusty and so I searched around to find where the best place to dive would be. Pulau Spibadan, though beautiful and well-renowned for world-class diving, was alas too expensive for me. But, Pulau Tioman was both accessible and affordable, and it was a beautiful place to be as well! Years ago it was one of the sites used to film South Pacific.

To get to Pulau Tioman, one has to take either the ferry or the speedboat. It being towards the end of the tourist season (the monsoons will roar in as early as next week), my only option in the afternoon was the last speed boat of the day.

Due to choppy waves, it took us maybe 15 minutes to get a mere 500 meters away from shore. The driver must have heard my cynical remark that this wasn't very speedy at all because off we went zooming across the water like a bat out of hell. Usually, I'm pretty good with boats, but when a small light boat is barreling across choppy water, surging into the air and landing with a stomach-churning thump, all for about an hour or so, I must say that it wasn't very pleasant at all. (Note, only the foreigners were ignorant enough to sit at the front of the boat where the crash landings rattled the most.)

I arrived in Salang late into the evening. Salang is at the northernmost area of the island, and though lightly developed and sparsely populated, it was a perfect choice for my diving trip.

My instructor for the Advanced Open Water Course was Jay. Jay was a beachboy.



Anyhoo, the course was for five dives. Deep diving and underwater navigation were compulsory. They were pretty straight forward, and the deep diving trip brought us to Fan Canyon which had an amazing array of fish and plantlife. I saw a stingray, a couple of scorpion fish, and fish of all shapes and colors. The three other dives were Peak Performance Bouyancy (my first of the five dives, so I was quite nervous. . . my mask also fogged up to the point of frustration), Fish Identification (saw dozens of families of fish, but was only able to identify maybe a handful), and Driver Propulsion Vehicle (imagine Bond's enemies underwater giving chase, with Thomas desperately trying not to crash into the reef!)

By the end of the three diving days, I felt much more confident and much more eager to continue diving. Diving through the underwater world is truly an amazing experience.

My last night on the island I was blessed with a brilliant sunset.



Even better, the generators failed that night, so I gazed upon the starry heavens for hours. A wonderful finale to a highly enjoyable trip.

Melacca, the ancient capital

October 19th (Wednesday)

It was time to leave Kuala Lumpur. Though comfortable and manageable, the big city life seems pretty much the same wherever you are. So, down the coast to Melacca I went. Over five centuries ago, the Malay empire flurished from this coastal town. Unfortunately, today the town retains only a faint whisper of its former glories.

The only attraction in town that caught my eye was the Baba-Nonya heritage house. The descedents of Chinese merchants and Malay locals, the Baba-Nonyas were a unique group that left their mark, however small, on the history of Malaysia. This house represented the lavish wealth that they enjoyed. By combining three houses into one single residence, they created an amazing mansion right downtown. The heritage house has numerous rooms filled with ancient liquors, a bridal chamber, fashionable clothing, and other memories of daily life. My favorite part was the staircase, that could be locked from above to keep out burglers and to keep in roving husbands.

Melacca does contain some other sites, mostly from the colonial times, and it was a bit relaxing after the hustle and bustle of KL. I really liked the guesthouse I stayed at though, called the Traveller's Lodge. Run by a Muslim family who enforce certain rules of diet and etiquette within the lodge, the guesthouse was clean and comfortable and well-run. There was even a rooftop garden where one can read and relax.

But, alas, I wanted to move on to Tioman, and Melacca didn't have anything else to keep me around for another day. I did eat a vegetarian patty from McDonalds, curious as to how it'll taste. Tasted like a cross between a potato croquette and a falafel. I also highly enjoyed the taxi ride because the taxi driver (and all his friends at teh stand) were energetically discussing what to do in Melacca and where to go and where to avoid and all that.

A Run around the Park, Up the Tower, and all Over Town

October 18th (Tuesday)

What a day! Too intense in fact because my head started pounding.

It started with an early invigorating run around the KLCC park (they have a rubber track). I probably did about 5km, though not at full speed and broken up into intervals. Unfortunately, while I was running, people were already inside picking up tickets to the towers. By the time I got mine, there was only the 11:00 opening available, meaning I had an hour or so to kill. Instead of heading back to the guest house and showering and picking up stuff for the day, I decide to hang around the shopping mall. (The biore soap is cheap.)

The towers are really impressive. Even though we could only go up to the sky bridge (at the 41st and 42nd levels, out of the total 88 stories), it was still quite high. The amazing thing is that the towers aren't actually attached to either tower, but instead are allowed to slide and roll as the towers waver in the wind. Also, the Japanese built one tower and the Koreans built the other tower, as well as the sky bridge.

From the towers, I decided to go straight to the museum. That was a good idea, until I got sidetracked and started shopping at the Pasar Seni, a great place for crafts and cultural artifacts and what-not. By the time I was done, I was down to RM 4.70 (a little over a dollar). . . hmmm. . .

So, I start to walk back to the guest house, only I get lost. Majorly lost. I pass by Chinatown. I pass by Little India--twice. I'm hot and dehydrated and broke! Some mango and water plum and a subway ride later, I end up back at the guest house, late into the afternoon. I'm grumpy, but I really want to see the museum, so I catch a taxi which ends up costing RM30 (about $7.50, a fortune!)

But, it was worth it. The museum is quite something. It is the Islamic Art Museum, and among the various sections and exhibits, I highly enjoyed the ones on architecture (some of those mosques are magnificient!) and the calligraphy. It's a shame that I was the only one in the entire museum; most foreigners just skip it in favor of shopping and food and the towers and what-not.



Too bad though that the planetarium was closed. I was looking forward to learning about how Islam developed its astronomy.

(Oh, and by now I'm in a pretty good mood. So good in fact that I didn't mind getting lost *again* wandering through the ritzy apartments just behind the guest house.)

But, that's it for Kuala Lumpur. It's an interesting city, with enough to amuse somebody for a week or so. It was good to come and see it once.

Back to the Big City

October 17 (Monday)

I caught the 8:00 am bus back into Kuala Lumpur. I thought that maybe I can spend the afternoon at the museum, and maybe even a visit to the planetarium. So, I check back in to the Red Palm and turn in my laundry. But, lo-and-behold, almost everything is closed on Mondays. Shoot.

With nothing better to do, I go to the Petronas Towers to see what's inside. There's a huge shopping center there, and better still, a movie theater. After some pizza, I catch the new Jackie Chan movie, "The Myth." It's really low-quality, and the story doesn't make much sense, but like all Jackie Chan films, it's quite amusing. It's about Jackie having dreams of being a Qing general in love with the emperor's Korean concubine. Strange stuff.

The highlights of the day though are a $1 root beer float that was divine, and some freshly wrapped dumplings RM 7 (less than $2).

Caught in a Monsoon

October 16 (Sunday)

As far as I can tell, there isn't a single foreigner in town. The locals sort of saunter around the main street. It really reminds me of Nishiarita.

After reading some in the park behind the mosque, I spent some time in a partly constructed shopping center. There's a lot of development going on in town, and this place up on the hill is quite nice. Then I start wandering up random streets. However, I must have wandered a bit too far because the monsoon came in quick and strong and I had to take shelter at a closed street kiosk. For two hours the rain came pounding down, and I must have really amused the confused neighbors.

The monsoon subsided, and I walked back to town. Tonight I feasted on the Ramadan goodness. For the entire month of Ramadan, the Muslims fast during the day and feast at night. So, around sunset, a food market sprouts up selling delicacies of all sorts. The one in Kuala Lipis was quite enticing and I ended up buying RM 10 ($3) worth of food, which turned out to be too much!

Birdies and An Empty Town

October 15 (Saturday)

The bird park in Kuala Lumpur is quite nice. An amazing array of various birds, most of them free to wander around under the large overhead nets, though some still confined to cages. My favorite were the parrots and macaws.

Unfortunately, I didn't have any time to check out the museum, so went to the bus station to wait for my 2:00 bus-ride. I got into Kuala Lipis at about 5:00, and went straight to Appu's. Everybody raved about Appu, but I couldn't find Appu. Not a single person to be found at the guest house.

So, I checked into Tong Kok Hotel (RM 15 for a spacious room and a sink). I wandered around town, and found a nice breezy place to watch the sunset. There was a calm, relaxing vibe to the town. And after a pleasant dinner and some people watching, I decided to skip the jungle and just stay in town another day before going back to Kuala Lumpur.

Nothing to do, which is usually alright. Except that I had left my ipod and my reading books behind (no need of those in the jungle!), so it was getting boring. After a few rounds of Metal Slug 5 at a local arcade, which was actually quite exciting, I did some more people watching from the window of my room.

Kuala Lumpur -- The Big City

**Before I continue, I was asked why I seem to get ripped off a lot by taxi drivers. I guess since I don't know how far a destination is, and since the taxis sometimes aren't metered, I don't have much of a basis from which to haggle from. Only after the ride do I realize how much the ride should have cost. So, it is partly my fault for not researching enough. I just feel stupid paying a couple of dollars for a 3 minute taxi ride.**


October 14th (Friday)

Slept very very wel last night after watching the lightning storm. After a quick dolse for breakfast, I circled around and around the area trying to look for the Nature Park. The directions in the Rough Guide were horrible! Once there, I was immediately attacked by mosquitos which followed me around for a while despite my DEET protection. Sheesh. There are supposed to be quite a number of bird species in the park, over 700 if I recall, and I saw maybe a dozen or so. More like, I startled maybe a dozen or so. The sounds of the different birds were quite something though. Oh, and there are monkeys, which were kind of cute, but kind of intimidating. [add in picture of monkey] They're in the trees, and then all over the visitor's center clanging on the roofs. Add in a few komodo dragons, and there we go.



The bus into KL hit traffic. And this isn't normal traffic. It was post-Friday mosque traffic. Not nice. Add to the mix a bus with no AC and it was horrible. Took over three hours to get into town, including two bus transfers.

So, my first impressions of KL weren't too positive. Once in town, I checked in at the Red Palm (RM 25 for a dorm bed). The workers here are really sweet and the atmosphere they create is warm and welcome. It's too bad there isn't much in KL for me to do, otherwise I would stay longer.

I visited the Menara KL (the 440 meter tall tower) and the Petronas Towers (the 450 tall twin buildings) at night. I only went up the Menara (the towers need tickets which you get at 8:30 in the morning), but the views were fantastic and the audio guide was quite interesting. The towers are gorgeously lit and I tried to capture its magnificence in my pictures. [insert feeble picture of towers]




Almost on a whim, I bought my bus ticket to Kuala Lipis for the following day, meaning that I'll be heading up into the jungles for the next few days. I'll be back to KL again on my way south to Melaka.

**By the way, there are lots of Andy Lau posters (huge massive banners) around town. I guess he's coming to town in December and he's quite famous. The posters probably subconsiously influenced my choosing to watch his newest movie, "Wait 'til You're Older." It's like "Big," only more depressing.**

kelip kelip

October 13 (Thursday)

I hate mosquitos. Killed about 5 of them last night, with one of them particularly wily so he took about half an hour or so. Usually inside hotel rooms, I don't bother with insect repellent, and the night before was problem-free.

Time to leave the Cameron Highlands. It's not a bad place, but I think I saw pretty much what there was to see. The bus to Kuala Lumpur (RM 17.30) got into town a bit later than I expected. Being that I was already at the bus station, I decided to transfer to another bus out of town to see the fireflies.

Oh, and by the way, the buses here smel much better than Greyhound buses.

Near Kuala Selangor, a small coastal town about 2 hours away from KL, there is a stretch of mangroves renowned for its fireflies. [saya mau lihat kelip kelip / I want to see the fireflies] It's a bit expensive (RM 30 for the taxi ride to and from Selangor and RM 10 for the boat ride). But the ride itself is peaceful; the motor hardly sputters. The fireflies seem to be high on caffeine or something because they flash at an extremely rapid frequency. But, the 30 minute boat ride was quite something, especially when the fireflies were competing with the approaching lightning storm. Luckily, the storm hit after I got back into town.

Oh, and how about this for Malaysian philosophy?

When is the next bus? / Depends on the driver
Do I have time to get something to eat? / Why not, the last bus is probably at 8.

I like it. I like it.

Jungle Hikes

October 12

I wake up early (like I've been doing every day my time here), took a walk around town and was surprised as to how unnecessary we tourists, especially the foreign ones, are to the town. That's a good sign. Cameron Highlands is known for its remarkable fertile farmlands, and I like it because it has great jungle hikes and cool brisk weather.

After a grueling hike up the local peak (the sounds of a jungle are quite wicked!) I visited a Tea Plantation [insert picture of cool, almost vertical tea fields], where they also opened the tea production plant for the public to tour. It was fun seeing how the tea leaves were harvested, ground down, oxidized, dried, and sorted. The factory also smelled quite nice.

Upon my return to town, I saw the local food stalls were open (they were closed by the time I arrived the night before), so I tried out a few of the delicacies. Some were quite good and my favorite was the Murtabak, a sort of crepe/egg thingy.

By now, I've learned a teeny-bit of Malay, such as "I want to go to . . ." [saya mau pergi ke. . . ] and "How much?" [berapa] and "Where is the toilet?" [di mana tandas?] Pretty useful eh?

Chinese Mafia (but alas, none to be seen. . . )

October 11

My first real day in Malaysia. I ate at the local noodles stand (breakfasts cost about 50 cents) and spent the day sight-seeing around a pretty cool Chinese temple [insert picture of Guardian statue with Penang in the background] and a clan house [insert picture of cool paintings on the walls]. Obviously, there are a lot of Chinese people around so my language skills are being tested. But, it's funny when they are all surprised that I'm traveling alone; they keep saying that I'm brave! Hmmm. . . maybe they know something I don't. . .



After Penang, I took a bus into Cameron Highlands. Where I checked into a pretty nice, quiet, informative guesthouse called Cameronian Inn. I have my own hot shower, but it's a bit pricey (about $12).

Crossing the Border

October 10

I slept quite well in the sleeper beds (the seats converted into full beds) and was quite refreshed when I got into Hat Yai (on the Thai side of the border). But, once again, the timing was off and I had to wait until the afternoon to catch the train south into Malaysia.

That train was cold cold cold, and I was going backwards the whole time. Not only that, they had to show really bad TV programs and the movie Kangaroo Jack, so I was not happy. I got into Butterworth, took the ferry into Penang (Georgetown), got ripped off by the taxi driver, and checked into a decent room ($5) with mosquitos and a huge fan. It was the only room, as the guy after me was turned away. And the owner gave me mosquito coils that actually prevented me from being bit. It was also nice to take a nice long shower.

So far, not so good. Oh, did I mention it was raining?

Out of Bangkok

October 9

So, after a day in Bangkok, I headed to the train station to catch a train down south to Malaysia. The tuk-tuk guy ripped me off, overcharging me and also trying to take me to another train station. Only by yelling "Hualanphong! Hualanphong!" did he catch my drift. I was in a sour mood. Then, I found out that the only opening on a train was leaving at 3:50 pm. It was 8:15 a.m. So, I bought the ticket and headed back to downtown to eat, to use the internet and to read.

The train was quite simple, but functional; though we had only a ceiling fan to cool us down, the weather and the breeze was quite comfortable. My seat-mate was a college student named Manit, who turned out to be an even bigger Otaku than I was. What a strange world. The scenery of country-side Thailand was gorgeous, and at night the landscape was punctuated by the lightning storm.

First Post (though a few days late!)

Hi guys. I'll try and keep this relatively updated, but I'm going to be at the mercy of the internet-access-blues.

My trip started off pretty good, with a day or so relaxing and adjusting in Bangkok. I have been in Bangkok enough times to be quite comfortable there; I've actually always enjoyed Bangkok since my first visit in 2002.

Jetlag really hit hard, and I could hardly keep my eyes open late into the afternoon, though I did watch "Red Eye" and stayed awake the whole time (a testament to how enjoyable the movie was). I also spent the day checking out people's footwear because I became really self-conscious of my sneakers. I bought some cheap flipflops but they started to hurt. I then bought some sandals and I've grown to like them, though I still need my sneakers for the serious hikes.