The shape of Thailand is similar to the profile of an elephant with a long trunk. We are on the west side of the ‘trunk’ and will be here for a couple more days. Thailand has a subtropical climate and although it is actually the ‘cool’ season it is still hot and muggy. However, we are enjoying some cloud cover and have seen some very heavy rain.
The Thai use the phrase "land of the free" to express pride in the fact that Thailand is the only country in Southeast Asia never colonized by a European power. It has a population of about 65 million people and is the largest exporter of rice in the world. Notwithstanding all the rice that is exported, there is still enough to serve it at every meal, including breakfast. The food is great – lots of seafood, vegetables, spices and, yes, rice! But the rice isn’t grown around here. The land is far too rugged to support rice paddies. Rubber trees dominate the country side though you are likely to see a wide variety of tropical fauna if you go for a walk through the heavily forested hills. Tourism is a big part of the economy. The resort we are staying at consists mostly of Europeans, primarily from Germany. In fact, all of the notices around here are printed in German first and then English. Thailand has been quite a change from Malaysia. The Chinese New Year celebrations were not a big deal here. In Malaysia, Islam was the dominant religion and it was common to see women wearing the niqab, the full black gown with only a slit for the eyes. It was always interesting to see a women dressed that way with her husband/boyfriend wearing shorts and a t-shirt. That seems to have disappeared now that we are in Thailand where the dominant religion is Buddhism. If you are interested in what we have been up to here, you will need to have a look at the video we have posted on the Thailand page. Our time in Malaysia is coming to an end. We head for Thailand Friday morning. I have posted a few new pictures and a short video from our time here on the Malaysia page.
On Sunday we arrived in George Town, Penang. George Town, the historic capital of the State of Penang, was formally inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008. It is officially recognized
as having "a unique architectural and cultural townscape without parallel anywhere in East and Southeast Asia". But, history isn’t the only thing it is famous for. Long known as the food capital of Malaysia, Penang is renowned for its good and varied food. Penang was recognized as having the Best Street Food in Asia by Time magazine in 2004, citing that "nowhere else can such great tasting food be so cheap". That is true as long as you aren’t too fussy about the surroundings. Last night we had some great Indian food at a place about five minutes from our hotel. I wouldn’t call it a restaurant. That would be too generous. It was noisy, full of people and a bit on the gritty side but the food was excellent. Total cost for two, including two bottles of water - $7 Canadian. The State of Penang consists of an island (where we are) and a stretch of the adjacent mainland. The island is connected to the mainland by the 13.5-kilometre, six-lane Penang Bridge, one of the longest bridges in Asia. We crossed the bridge yesterday by vehicle with our tour guide. We were the only ones on the tour and while the bridge wasn’t on the agenda, he took across anyway. We came back by the ferry. It extended the tour by an hour but the tour guide wasn’t too worried. That is the kind of generosity we have seen again and again. Penang is home to two medical schools, a nursing college, a dental training college, two teacher's training colleges, and numerous private and community colleges. It is a popular tourist destination for people from all over Asia. We had breakfast today with a dad and daughter from Shanghai, China. The dad didn’t speak any English but his daughter was great at translating everything. We will stay here until Friday when we leave Malaysia for Thailand. OK. It is still a day or two away but we will be in transit soon so I didn't want to let the opportunity go by.
The country is decorated for the holidays and it feels a bit like Christmas - especially in the malls of which there are many in Kuala Lumpur. Shopping is a national past time here as it is in Singapore. We have enjoyed our time in KL (as the locals call it) although we really only scratched the surface. We took a tour to see some of the surroundings outside the city centre on our first day. We were joined by a young couple from Oman who were on their honeymoon. Highlites of the tour were the National Mosque, the largest Chinese Temple and the King's Palace (from the gate). In the afternoon we saw the Batu Caves and toured a pewter factory. The next day we went up one of the Petronas Towers and down to the lower level of the Convention Centre where there is a surprising decent Aquaria. The food is great, the people are polite and friendly and the weather is hot and humid - whether it is sunny, rainy or overcast (usually all three every day). The average daily temperature while we were here was about 32C. It cools off a bit at night. Probably down to about 26 or 27C. Tomorrow we fly to the historic city of Georgetown, our last stop in Malaysia. I have posted a new slideshow with some pictures from KL on the Malaysia page. Today was a day of contrasts. In the morning we wandered around Chinatown in Melaka in nieghbourhoods that likely haven't changed much in the last hundred years. Hours later we were in the heart of Kuala Lumpur starring up at the Petronas Towers which, when opened in 1998, were the tallest buildings in the world.
It was raining hard when we arrived. There seems to be less humidity here which is a welcomed relief. We are staying in a regular hotel for the first time and it is fine. There is an outdoor infinity pool on the fourth floor facing the Petronas Towers. We had a quick swim after supper and enjoyed the view. Tomorrow we will start exploring the city. Many of the points of interest are within walking distance of our hotel. On Friday we head up to the top of the Petronas Tower. We were advised that we needed to line up for tickets at 7:00 am on the day we wanted to visit the towers. They go on sale at 8:30 am and only a limited number are sold each day. Why anyone bothers to line up so early is a mystery to us as you can buy the tickets two days in advance without any line up or waiting at all. Of course, you have to be here to do that and I suppose not everyone is. I have posted a couple of pictures of our hotel and the towers on the Malaysia page. We picked up a pamphlet a couple of days ago for an Eco Bike tour. We thought, why not? So we booked it and were picked up this morning at our hotel. Our van stopped a couple of doors down from our place to pick up another couple from Holland and we were soon on our way out of town.
Our guide handed each of us a 1.5 litre water bottle when we started out. Good thing because they were empty three hours later. The trip took us through the Malaysia countryside where we saw how rubber is extracted from rubber trees (amazing!). We tasted a number of fruits we had never seen before and saw where many of the local spices come from. We spent some time on a palm tree plantation and learned about that industry. We visited a mushroom farm and saw how they grow mushrooms here (we had no idea). Overal, a great way to spend a morning in Malaysia. I took my point of view camcorder and mounted it on the bike but I have doubts as to whether the footage will be watchable. If it is, I will try to post some clips. (UPDATE: I have loaded a video on the Malaysia page of the bike trek but I apologize for the quality. Also, some new photos have been posted as well.) I have posted a very short video on the bottom of the Singapore page. If you are interested in viewing it, you might want to pause it and let it buffer from a minute or so in order to watch it without interruption. Tomorrow we head for the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. We were sad to leave Singapore as we enjoyed our time there. A big thank you to our special hosts, Donald and Judith, who made our stay so great.
On Sunday morning we took a bus from Singapore to our first stop in Malaysia, the historic city of Melaka. The bus ride took about four hours but that included a number of stops for immigration and lunch. We had great seats at the front of the bus (it pays to book early!). I felt like I was the driver. The highways here are excellent and traffic was quite light. We were on a toll road which I understand makes the alternative/free highway a bit more crowded. We are staying at a small boutique hotel in the historic part of town. We walked a couple of blocks with our suitcases from where we were let off by the bus. The streets are quite narrow and there are no sidewalks to speak of. It looks like a great place to stay for our three days in Maleka. I have posted a few photos of the bus trip and our hotel on the 'Malaysia' page. Click play to view the slideshow. Our time in Singapore will soon be up. While it is difficult to gain much insight into a place in only a few days, I would offer the following random observations. Also, be sure to check out the new photos posted under 'Singapore'.
Very few people honk their horns while they drive – the opposite of what you find in India. Notwithstanding all of the sunshine, not many people wear sunglasses. The women are very sharp dressers – lots of skirts and four-inch heels. Singapore is about business and money but seems to have a collective social conscience. An iPhone with ear buds is a standard accessory for anyone under 30. Most tourists seem to come from India, Korea and Australia. There are surprisingly few motorcycles. Public transportation is efficient and inexpensive. Eating out at nice restaurants is expensive but you can eat very well in Singapore for very little if you are not fussy about your surroundings. People here are very friendly and polite. If you are looking at a map, someone will approach you and ask if they can help. Singapore is full of young people – of course, at our age just about everyone seems younger than us! Yesterday Char and I had lunch with one of Char's friends and classmates from India. The friend and her husband have been living in Singapore for a couple of years. We were chatting about how highly regulated life in Singapore is. The husband joked that Singapore is a fine city - a fine for littering, a fine for smoking, a fine for spitting, etc. I later saw a T-shirt to that effect.
Speaking of fines, our hosts were telling us about the mosquito control program. There are hundreds of inspectors. If you get bit by a mosquito you can call and an inspection will be carried out in the area. If larvae are found on your property, you will be fined hundreds of dollars. The program seems to be working as we haven't seen a mosquito yet. Good thing, as dengue fever can be a problem. Singapore has a great public transportation system. That is a good thing as well because owning a vehicle here is a very expensive proposition. In order to limit the number of vehicles on the road you are required to obtain a certificate of entitlement before buying a car. A limited number of COEs are issued each month and you have to be a successful bidder in order to obtain one. The average cost is something like C$50,000. A COE expires after 10 years so you need to purchase another one if you want to maintain ownership. There are very few older cars here and a whole lot of expensive ones. It seems like every third car is a BMW. All that revenue may explain why the government can afford to keep the lines on the roads freshly painted. Finally, I have added some pictures of where we are staying in Sinapore. The first and last pictures show our bedroom - it is two level affair. It is a very nice home in a great area. You can click on these pictures to get a larger version. I pulled the pictures off the BnB website - www.wimdu.com We made it! The flight over was a bit on the long side. I didn't bother to check to see how long it would be which was a good idea. If Charlene had known, she might not have come. We were late leaving Regina and late ouf of Vancouver so, of course, we were late into Hong Kong and therefore missed our connecting flight to Singapore. Not a problem though, we got the next flight 90 minutes later.
We have been in Singapore a bit over 24 hours. We expected rain but it was sunny and hot. How disappointing :) The city reminds me of San Francisco. That may be because SF was the last major city I was in. However, there are similarities. A shortage of space being one. Lots of shopping and great places to eat being the others. In fact, shopping and eating seem to be the national pastimes of the citizens of Singapore. They are well seved on both fronts. There is a great public transportation system. The traffic is orderly (apart from the odd motorcycle on the sidewalks) and the streets are clean and all the lines on the streets appear freshly painted. Maybe the rest of the world is like that with Regina being an exception. I doubt it though. The architecture is very interesting - a combination of colonial period buildings alongside the modern. We went up to the top of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. It looks like a huge yacht has been built on the top of three towers. There is a pool up top and some amazing views. Check out the pictures! Our homestay arrangements are great. We have wonderful and very helpful hosts. We are well away from the hustle and bustle of downtown yet have plenty of interesting things within walking distance. The sun is beginning to rise, we we need to get ready to see what the day will bring. |
AuthorIn January, 2012, Curt and Char left their jobs in Canada to spend four months travelling around the world. Archives
May 2012
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