October 11, 2008 You would be justified in think this blog abandoned, but I do plan to get it up to date. In the meanwhile, after a couple of months at home after visiting Australia and Fiji, I’m back on the road again. I’ve been to China, and am currently traveling in Vietnam. I’ll be back home to stay in a couple of weeks.
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June 10, 2008 Mom and my step-dad Val were planning to join me for the Australia portion of my trip, and I was really looking forward to seeing them. I got to Sydney a couple of days before they were scheduled to arrive, and spent a bit of time shopping and finding my way around. I got a couple of new shirts, and Mom brought me a few things, so I was able to bid a not-so-fond farewell to a few of the clothes I’d been living in for the last few months.
It was raining one day, so I ended up having a drink at the Opera Bar with a great view of the Harbor Bridge while a waited for it to stop. Rain isn’t always such a hardship. I did buy an umbrella on the way home that night, which of course I haven’t used since. It’s a nice small one, so I’m keeping it.
Mom and Val got in early in the morning after a direct flight from San Francisco, and I went out to the airport to meet them. We went back to the guesthouse so they could check in and drop off their bags, and then I took them down to the CBD (Central Business District) to see some of the sights. The goal was to get out in the fresh air and walk around until it was somewhat close to local bedtime, to start getting adjusted to the time change. They made it until 8:00pm, so they did pretty good.
We spent a bit of time the next day doing some more planning, then went out to see the town again. The guesthouse was right on a bus line that went into the city, so it was quite easy to get back and forth. The downtown hotels would have been twice the cost. I’ve definitely been going through some sticker shock in Australia. The weak US dollar really shows here. The Australian dollar is currently worth about 96 cents, and a couple of years ago it was around 70 cents. If the value of the dollar was still at that level, things wouldn’t have seemed to expensive, but at the current value, prices were quite high.
There are two options for climbing the Sydney Harbor Bridge. You can do a climb with an outfit called Bridgeclimb that lets you climb up the actual arch of the bridge. People have to wear special suits when they do the climb, so they don’t drop things out of their pockets onto the cars driving below them. Or, you can climb up to the top of one of the pylons at the end of the bridge. The Bridgeclimb is $199, and the pylon climb is $9, so we opted for the pylon. The views were still spectacular, and we good a good look at people doing the Bridgeclimb.
We also did a sunset cruise on the Sydney harbor. The harbor is famous, but I didn’t really appreciate how big it is until I saw it. Ferries are still used to get around the harbor.
We took the ferry over to Manly Beach, one of the famous Sydney beaches, and watched all the activity. There were some young surfers out there, and lots of people just enjoy the sun. There weren’t very many swimmers, since it’s late fall in Sydney, and the weather was a bit cool for swimming.
I was coming down with a cold, so I took a day off on our last full day there, while Mom and Val went out for the day. They managed to have a good time without me :). I had arranged to meet Craig and Aphra, from the India tour, for dinner that night. It was great to catch up with them, and find out some of the local customs. For example, in most restaurants that don’t have a liquor license, you can bring your own beer or wine along to have with your meal.
The next day, we picked up our first rental car, and set off to see the Blue Mountains. We’d been flirting with the idea of going to Tasmania instead, when we found cheap airfares there, but when we went back to buy the tickets, the price had doubled, so we went back to the original plan. I’d arranged to pick up the car at a downtown rental place, so we could get to it easily and not have to pay the extra airport fees, and realized too late that it meant starting out driving on the left through busy city traffic. I’d driven on the left once before, so I was nominated to get us out of the city. We hoped that people understood that when the windshield wipers went on it meant I was about to turn. I was concentrating on what lane to be in, but the turn signal and windshield wipers were also reversed, and that I don’t tend to think about, and kept hitting the wrong one. We made it out of the city in one piece, anyhow.
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May 28, 2008 I took another night train from Georgetown, Penang to Kuala Lumpur, which is commonly known as KL (much easier to say!). Although the train itself was nice and the bunk quite comfortable, it turned into a very bad trip. The train was scheduled to leave at 10:00pm and get into KL at 6:10am. It was about 20 minutes late departing, so I didn’t think anything of it when I woke up at 6:30am to find we were stopped in the middle of nowhere. Getting in an hour or two late on an overnight trip is fairly common. Except the train kept stopping, and it kept getting later. There was a long stop at 9:30am and quite a few people got off the train to buy food, but I had peanuts along and figured we couldn’t be too far away by then. Not long after we pulled out, a kind Malaysian gentleman realized I didn’t know where we were, and told me that we were only half way to KL. I only had a small bottle of water, and a couple packages of peanuts, so I wasn’t nearly as well stocked as usual for the train, and there was no restaurant or vendors on board. We finally reached KL at 3:00 in the afternoon. The first thing I did was buy a bottle of water. I actually wasn’t too hungry, since I’d spent most of the day just laying in my bunk watching the scenery and reading. The countryside was beautiful, very lush and green.
I stayed in the Chinatown area of KL. There were a few blocks that were pedestrian only, and full of market stalls. I continued my trend of splurging on hotels, and got a pretty nice place in a good location. The only problem was the market stalls set up on the street outside, which left only a very narrow lane about one person wide, with people trying to go in both directions. There were all kinds of knock-off items like sunglasses, watches, and video games available. I bought some sunglasses, which I immediately lost, and some games for the PS2 and Nintendo DS Lite. I don’t know if the games work yet, but they were cheap enough to not be a big loss if they don’t. There were plenty of restaurants, with the occasional street performer singing 70s lite rock music.
The big excitement for KL was turning on the news in the morning to see that the Olympic torch relay was going through the city that day. Some things you just can’t plan for! I took a hop-on hop-off bus tour of the city, and planned to get off at the relay starting point, but we got caught up in the traffic, and ended up watching the torch relay from the bus. I could see the torch going by, but wasn’t able to catch it on camera. It’s in there somewhere! The red flags are Chinese flags.
I continued on with the bus tour since the torch relay had gone by. I took this photo of a group of Muslim women from the top level on the bus. Malaysia is a Muslim country, though there are also many Hindus and Buddhists. The Muslim women often wear these very colorful skirt and tunic outfits, with brightly colored head scarves. I didn’t see any women wearing veils, and a lot of the younger women just wore jeans and tops with a head scarf.
The Petronus Towers are the most distinctive landmark in the city. They were the tallest buildings in the world for a few years, but now they’re the second tallest, behind a building in Taiwan. They’re still the tallest twin towers, though. There’s a very nice shopping center in the lower levels, and the symphony orchestra is based there. They’re beautiful buildings, especially when they’re lit up at night.
I also caught up with the Olympic torch relay again here, at about 4:00pm. It was pouring down rain by this time, so people were standing under the overhangs waiting for the relay to arrive. The torch runner was there for quite a while, for people to take photos.
The torch was proceed by a team of bicyclists that were apparently sponsored by Coke, then a couple of trucks with platforms of young people dancing to loud music and passing out flyers. Then the torch arrived, and it was bedlam for a couple of minutes. At least you can see the flame this time!
After the torch went by, I went to the bus stop to catch the bus back to my hotel, and much to my surprise met Claudia there. I had met her in Thailand at Ko Tao, so it was a real surprise to run into her in KL. It’s funny how travelers end up running into each other again.
I had an evening flight the next day, so went to the Petronus Towers in the morning to visit the Skybridge there that connects the two towers. They have a very well organized system to manage the large number of visitors, with timed entries. I got there at 8:00am, when the ticket line opened, and was at the end of a long line already. I ended up with an 11:00am entry time, so went and had breakfast in the shopping center and did a little window shopping until it was time to go up.
The skybridge is at the 41st floor, and is less than half way up. The view from there was spectacular, so I can only image what it must be like from the higher floors.
I didn’t really have enough time to do much after that, so went back to Chinatown for a bit more shopping, and picked up my bag for the trip to the airport. I didn’t get around Malaysia that much, but it was very easy to travel in. Most of the people spoke at least some English, and there were very few hassles.
The KL airport is very nice, but they have a very odd double security screening system there. After you check in, you go through a security checkpoint and have your bag x-rayed, all the usual stuff. There are shops and restaurants beyond this point, so I spent the last of my Malaysian money on some snacks and water to take on the plane. Then I went to the gate, and was met with another security screening checkpoint, and they wouldn’t let me take my water into the waiting area, even though I had bought it in the airport. I was pretty mad about that, though there wasn’t anything I could do about it. There were no water fountains or restrooms in the waiting area either, so I was glad I hadn’t gone there too early. Then it was on the plane and time to say goodbye to Asia as I left for Australia.
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May 24, 2008 Long time, no blog! I haven’t had much time for blogging lately, but I’m going to try to get caught up.
I managed to schedule my departure from Thailand for the day of Thai New Year, called Songkran. It’s held during the hottest part of the year, and the festivities include throwing water at everyone. There were people with 30 gallon trash cans full of water alongside the road, with bowls to throw water at passersby. Big water guns were popular, and some of the tourists had punched holes in the caps of their water bottles to make a sprinkler. It would have been fun if I hadn’t been on my way to catch an overnight train, but the prospect of having to sleep in wet clothes wasn’t too appealing. The taxi driver dropped me off right at the pier, and I thought I was going to make it without getting wet. Unfortunately, it was the pier for a different ferry than the one I was booked on, and I was pretty wet by the time I made it to the right pier. I stood on the deck of the ferry most of the way to the mainland, which was a two and a half hour trip, so I was pretty dry by the time I got to the train station. And the train was an hour late, which gave me more drying time.
The train got to the Thailand/Malaysia border at about 8:00am, and we all got off the train at the station to go through Malaysia immigration and customs. It was a pretty easy border crossing. Then it was back on the train for another few hours to the town of Butterworth to catch the ferry to Georgetown on the island of Penang. The train station, bus station, and ferry station were all together, so it was just a short walk to catch the ferry to Penang. The ferry trip cost about a dollar, and took 10 minutes or so. I had a hotel already booked, so I got a taxi right to the hotel.
I splurged a bit and spent $22 a night to get a place that had wireless internet access. It even had an elevator! I thought the sign in the lobby was funny. Durian is a very popular fruit in this area, but it’s notorious for being very smelly. I intended to try it, but it seemed like every time I saw a vendor with it, I was on my way somewhere and didn’t have time to stop.
I was a bit tired after the overnight train trip, so I just wandered around a bit in the area near the hotel, and found an ATM so I could get some Malaysian money. I was having shoe problems, so I didn’t want to walk too far. I’d left my sandals outside an Internet cafe on Ko Tao, and when I came out, one of the ankle straps was broken. I bought a cheap pair of flip-flops to use, but I’m prone to foot problems if I don’t have good arch support in my shoes, so the flip-flips don’t work for long walks. I had to put on the hiking shoes I’d only put on for airplane flights for about the last 3 months, and they were giving me a blister. I think my left foot has expanded after three months in sandals. It’s also possible I was a bit crabby from not sleeping well on the train the night before. 
I found an Indian restaurant and had a nice dinner, then went back to my room and played computer games.
In its heyday, Penang was a center for international trade. The British had an outpost here until after World War II. Malaysia is a very mixed country ethnically. There are large Chinese and Indian communities there, as well as the native Malaysians. I visited a house that had been built by a Chinese businessman who was known as the Rockefeller of the East. After his death it had been turned into apartments because the family had lost most of their money, and they weren’t able to sell it until his last son died. When it was sold, the new owners restored it and opened it up for tours, and to be a high-end guesthouse. The house was very beautiful, and had been used as the location for the movie Indochine with Catherine Deneuve. Many of the mosaics on the walls were very detailed, and were made from broken dishes. In this particular case, they had broken the dished to make the mosaics rather than using dishes that broke naturally.
The town wasn’t that big, but since it was so hot and humid I hired a cycle rickshaw to take me around town to visit some of the temples and sights. With the ethnic mix of people, there was also a mix of temples, and I visited Buddhist and Hindu temples. The Hindu temple was very similar to the temples in India, but the Buddhist temples were different from the ones in Thailand.
After a couple of days, I finally worked up the nerve to go to one of the Chinese restaurants. They were generally full of locals and most of them didn’t have English menus, and since I wasn’t familiar with the food, I was a bit leary about going in. Of course, once I went in to one, they pulled an English menu out from behind the counter, so it wasn’t a problem after all. Many people here speak at least some English. I order chicken with a strawberry sauce, which sounded interesting. It was like lemon chicken, only with strawberry instead of lemon. It was a bit too sweet for me, though. Just after I ordered, servers started coming around with dim sum carts. I got some egg rolls, but nothing else since I had the chicken coming. If I’d known it was a dim sum place, I would have just done that rather than ordering from the menu. I think they wanted me to order from the menu so I would know what I was getting. Dim sum is small servings of steamed dumplings and other dishes brought around on carts. You just select the dishes you want, and the servers mark what you’ve taken on a card on your table for you to take to the cashier when you’re ready to pay. Some of the dishes are a bit strange if you’re not familiar with dim sum.
I was going to take the bus up Penang Hill, but I couldn’t find the bus stop. My bus phobia had kicked in, so I didn’t really look that hard, though the city buses looked very clean and nice (and air-conditioned) when I saw them going by. The heat and humidity was also sapping my spirit of adventure. I checked out the shopping center, and found a nice used bookstore, and just bummed around a bit before catching the next overnight train to Kuala Lumpur. The Esplanade along the seafront was a very nice place to people watch and catch a cool breeze.
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April 25, 2008 From Bangkok, I got a bus/ferry combo ticket to the island of Ko Tao, which I had heard was a good place for snorkeling. The islands in southern Thailand are very popular with Europeans as places to go to the beach and party. They’re just beautiful. I didn’t make advance reservations, but just went with one of the people who showed up to meet the ferry looking for guests. I ended up a ways out of town, which was okay, because I could hear the music from the beach bars all the way there, so it was probably pretty loud in town. The downside was a very steep hill that I had to cross to get into town. It was good exercise anyhow!
I had my own little bungalow, with a bathroom but no airconditioning or hot water. The weather was warm enough that cool showers felt good.
Not too fancy, but comfortable.
The view was amazing.
My days consisted of reading, eating, snorkeling, and drinking beer. It was a very relaxing stay.
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I'm on one last swing through Asia before I head back home to stay (until the next trip, anyhow). Current location: Vietnam.
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