| QUICK UPDATE Where are they now? |
| Malaysia |
| 8/20/2002 Bound for Thailand Oops! I've been slacking off since the photos went up. To fill in the blanks: 8/13-19/2002 Cameron Highlands Took a 5 hour bus ride up to the cool highlands northeast of KL. This cool mountain retreat was just the break we needed from the heat and humidity of the past 2 1/2 months. It rarely got warmer than 74 or so during the day, dropping into the low 60s at night. Talk about heaven! Thick scratchy wool blankets on the bed never felt so good. We took care of writing a bunch of postcards and doing laundry the first 2 days (along with plenty of sleeping and reading), then Monica had another bout with tummy trouble. Almost sure it was from brushing her teeth with tap water. With her in the toilet (FYI - no where else in the world is the term "bathroom" used, you go there to use the toilet, right?), I roamed around town and on the internet, and made arrangements for our flight to Romania from London on 19 September. This was harder than it appears. Here is a list of the things that prevented me from booking a flight: not a resident of the UK, no residential UK mailing address, no UK issued credit card, agents who couldn't book flights on TAROM (Romanian Airlines), agents who wanted my home phone number and refused to deal with me if they couldn't talk to me. So much for the age of the internet, globalization and one-world government. We also decided that instead of spending a month in Northern Thailand, we would spend a week in Bangkok and the remaining 3 weeks in Viet Nam and Cambodia. Found an agent in Bangkok who could book the flights and obtain the visas (our first of the trip) in a hurry. Because of this, we had to arrive in Bangkok by August 21 so that he had time to obtain the visas from the respective embassies. To get to there by then, we had to take either a bus or a train that left soon, 30+ hours either way. Decided to take the train, since we hoped that it would allow us to sleep during the next 2 days. Our previous experiences on buses left us a bit too worn out to really enjoy the towns we arrived in, and since this would be our only time in Bangkok, we wanted to be functional. And Monica still hasn't fully recovered and requires toilets at a moment's notice. A 3 hour bus ride on the morning of the 19th took us to the town of Ipoh, Malaysia's third largest city. There we hired a taxi to show us the sights, which were 3 local Chinese temples built into limestone caves just outside of town. Pictures of the Buddah! Our train left at 1:40 am for southern Thailand. It stank of urine and was way too cold. When the smokers lit up at 5 am, we were almost grateful for the relief from the stench. Bound for Hat Yai, Thailand. 8/11-12/2002 KL Used a free night (from Marriott) to stay at the Renaissance Hotel. Very nice for both of us. Moved right back to the cheap hotel by the bus station, scanned the photos and updated the Web site most of the night. Monica woke up the next morning with bug bites running the length of both arms and around both thighs. Sympathy from the hotel manager and days (nights, especially) of itching was all she got. 8/10/2002 Back in Malaysia; Kuala Lumpur We thought it was going to be simple to get up to KL from Singapore, but noooo. Yesterday was Singapore's National Day, and this turns out to be a holiday weekend. As a result, very few buses run from Singapore to Malaysia. Instead of waiting until 4:30 pm to take a late bus that would get us into KL at 10 pm, we decided to gamble and take the trip with a one-man mini-bus operation. He assured us it was only 5 hours to KL. Turns out that he wanted to wait until he had 4 people in the van before he left. After waiting for about 45 minutes, he had only found one more passenger, and this guy wanted to go to Malacca, where we had just been 3 weeks ago, and which we knew was a 2 hour side trip on the way up to KL. Our driver was having a very animated discussion with the guy in the passenger seat and wasn't: driving at any more than 45 mph, watching the road, following the correct roads, steering even when the road turned, etc... We both were very relieved when, 4 hours into a 6 hour trip (and we were still 4 hours from KL!), we pulled in for a rest break where there were other buses also going to KL, and our driver put us on a full-size bus with an alert driver. I think he paid that guy about 10% of what we paid him to get us to KL, but at that point we didn't care. Arrived in KL at 8 pm, and stayed at a cheap backpacker hotel right across from the bus depot. (7/24 - 8/9 See Thailand and Singapore) 7/23/2002 On the road. Since we were delayed a bit in Singapore, we'll head to Thailand tonight. It is an overnight bus trip to Penang in the north, then another 7 hours in a van to Krabi. Ugh. 7/23/2002 Malacca Today we rented bicycles and hit the road. The town is quite small, but we have discovered that even an hour or two of walking in this heat really saps your strength and hurts your feet. Cycling through these little streets, dodging buses, and looking out for huge and apparently random holes in the ground keeps you awake! We saw several of the old churches and administrative buildings left by the Dutch, and an old cemetary from the late 1600s. Much more creepy than even the cemetaries in New Orleans. Tonight we're going to catch the all-night bus to the Thai border, about 9 hours away. We should be able to make it to Krabi in southern Thailand by tomorrow evening. We'll stop in Kuala Lumpur for 2 nights when we come back into Malaysia to put Kristen on her flight back to Singapore/Los Angeles on the morning of August 8th. Finally using a few of the free nights at Marriott hotels that I accumulated while traveling with the Fed. I'm sure they'll look at us a bit funny, and we'll need to do some laundry, but hopefully they'll remember that I used to be a good customer and won't kick us out. Once again, everyone speaks English, so the "foreign lands" mystique is only so important to us. The staple food in the area continues to be roast chicken and rice, so finding a good meal isn't too hard. A stall we ate lunch at this morning had the best BBQ chicken we've had in a while, and for $.50 a plate, we're really temped to go back for seconds. On a smelly note, we sampled the notoriously stinky fruit the region is famous for - durian. It looks like a bowling ball covered in 1/2-inch long spikes, and is known to kill people who are under the tree when they drop. The fruit emits a smell much like that flowing from a 3-day old port-a-potty at a construction site in the Nevada desert. No kidding! They are banned in hotels, airplanes, all public transport in Singapore and by most sane people. Crack it open, and the stench gets more powerful. Inside are 6 - 8 fruit segments that look like a small banana, but which have a 1-inch long hard seed inside. The fruit is pale white to yellow, and has a very slimy texture. Monica, Kristen and I split a piece about 3 inches long and 1/2 inch thick. Our reaction was the same.... yuck. Tastes like you're eating a rotting onion, but there is a slightly fruity taste there too. Some people just love them; we don't. Nasty stuff. 7/22/2002 Malacca or Melaka, Malaysia The name of the town has several different spellings because the Dutch, Portuguese, British and Malays all ruled the town over the centuries. It is one of the 3 big seaports that were developed along the Malay peninsula during the early 1700s to support the spice trade to Europe from the East Indies. Once Singapore took the leading role, Malacca became a much less important place, but it retained many of the old buildings that make it an interesting place to visit. It is still very hot here, but the humidity is a bit lower than it was in Singapore. The bus trip here was only about 4 hours long on a huge toll road that runs north to south through the entire country. This makes bus travel faster than the train and much more convenient, as buses leave all the time for everywhere. Kristen and I had a great meal at an Indian Tandoori House next to our "hotel". I think it was about $6 for both of us, so food is still a bargain. Tomorrow we explore the town. |
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