February 28, 2004

Whew, SOOOOO busy

I've been on the go for days. Today is the first day I've been able to actually get to a PC and write.

Last time I blogged, I was in Coober Pedy. The next stop (if I remember correctly) was Uluru, which is a sacred meeting place of the Aboriginal people. Some people climb the rock, but I didn't because it's really hard, and well, the Aboriginals would prefer if you didn't. It's a stunning sight and I was able to see several sunrises, as well as sunsets over Uluru, and the other impressive sight, Kata Tjata (otherwise known as The Olgas). The place gets completely mobbed and you have to fight for a spot to take a crap photo.

At Uluru we camped at this very posh campground where there was even a swimming pool. Rock on. I don't know how they do it though, the pool was freezing!!! You would figure in the middle of the desert, in full sunlight, it'd be scorching, but no.

After hearing the phrase "wakies wakies!!!!" from Adam the driver/guide (who rocks btw) at 4:30am, I wanted to beat myself with my own arms. All during the nights, I slept somewhat uneasily because I kept hearing "things" so waking up before the asscrack of dawn was a bit rivetting. As it turns out, Danielle, the British bird in the tent next to me, got a nasty centipede bite and is now still in pain three days later.

Next up was a ride to Kings Canyon for a strenuous walk. This is one of the place Priscilla Queen of the Desert was filmed and Jan, a wacky Belgian, got himself all tarted up for the event with full makeup and nail polish. It's amazing how much attention a guy in drag will get from girls!!! See my other recent post to see both Adam and Jan.

What else.... we cruised into a small area yesterday afternoon and got to see a piano playing and singing dingo. Very odd....

Finally, last night the crew rolled into Alice Springs after a long day. To celebrate the night, a group of us went out on the town and got completely obliterated, myself included. I was shaking my ass all over dancefloors here in this MASSIVE metropolis. Poor Adam got himself really drunk and is still hurting today. However, the highlight of the night for me was seeing Jan getting phyisically molested by a LARGE Aboriginal woman. She was absolutely massive. His girlfriend looked on, fearing for his safety.

Today has been a day of rest- so that's what I'm off to work on. Doing nothing because starting tomorrow I have a crazy life again!!!

Posted by Claudia at 11:55 PM | Comments (2)

What I've Been Seeing

I thought of instead of writing about what I've been up to, I thought I'd throw up some pictures because my descriptions are not going to cut it.

These first few are a of critters I've encountered:

A thorny devil

Wedge tailed eagle

Blue tongued lizard

A skink I think...

A biting centipede

I've also got kangaroos and emus, but they aren't as exciting....

Next, we have some of the many sunrise/sunsets I've witnessed.

Sun 1

Sun 2

Sun 3

Here is a photo of Uluru, a sacred meeting place of the Aboriginals.

Uluru 2

A scene next to inland salt water Lake Eyre.


Here are a few of the characters I met along the way:

Jan 1

Jan 2

Adam

This guy wanted to come on the bus.

We were desperate for food as you can see here.

Strange old vehicles are all over the desert.


Finally, here is the famous rabbit/dog fence that the girl in Rabbit Proof Fence followed to get home after being stolen from her mother.

Posted by Claudia at 11:24 PM | Comments (6)

February 24, 2004

Roughing it in the Outback

I've been seriously slack with the blog and I need to improve- though internet access is "slightly" limited in the Outback.

The last few days have been really great. I started out in Adelaide and headed towards Wilpena Pound and the Flinders Ranges National Park. Myself and the few others on the bus had an evening of camping with rented tents. That was an experience and a large kangaroo was scratching at the side of the tent. I did a walk that made me sweat a bit and I got myself bitten by a poison ant while I was stalking a kangaroo. OUCH!!!

Speaking of critters, I've seen a good number of 'em while here, and when I find a cdrom drive that I'm allowed to use, many MANY photos will be uploaded. I saw a blue tongued lizard which has a super infectious bite, many many kangaroos (in the wild and on my plate), a stunning wedge tailed eagle (massive wing span), and more emu than you can shake a BBQ at. Snakes are always nearby (you can tell by the squiglies) though I haven't actually seen one.

On the second day of the journey, I stayed at a little hostel in the middle of nowhere. On the way to the hostel, I stopped in Blinman town and me and a few other girls got to chatting with a local bloke. I'll call him "Bruce". Bruce informed us that there were 19 residents in the town. NINETEEN people!!! Imagine you don't get along with one or two people! Your life could be hell. One of the girls joked that he must be married to the barmaid because she's the only woman we had seen. Bruce looked down the bar at his "mate" and said "no, he's married to her." See what I mean? It's a small place.

Another town we stopped in was Clare, where there are some decent vineyards. I bought myself a nice reisling and also a shiraz malbec, one of which was gone before the day was over. When we stopped in the town proper of Clare, not a thing was open except the supermarket. The young guy at the checkout was so shy and embarassed to meet four foreign girls and kept blushing at us. He was so sweet though and when he asked how long we were staying in Clare, we had to tell him only twenty minutes. He blushed again, probably not realizing we were just trying to find some supplies for the next few days and that Clare wasn't drawing international acclaim.

Another strange hermit character that we met was Talc Alf. This is a odd loner type guy who lives out in the desert. He spends lots of time pondering the meaning of words. He's very clever, but he seems to have made loads of ideas up to fill in the gaps of his knowledge. He also carves things out of talc stone both for sale and for his own pleasure. The best bit about his ranch was the washing machine- it's hooked up to a bicycle for power.

After a long day on the road, we wound up at some roadside hotel/campground/mechanic/restaurant combo. It seems to be common in the Outback for men to have massive beards, and the barman was no different. He kept us laughing at his stories as well as in beer. The evening was not complete without a game of "boule" which is basically bocci ball. The best part about it is, that when we were done, I realized we were playing in the middle of the road. Not one car had gone by in hours!

To end the night, the small crew slept outdoors in "swags". Swags are basically an old canvas tent made into a sleeping bag cover that is super durable. Once the campground lights went off, you could see the brilliant stars that are ten times brighter than anywhere in a town or city. In swag, you sleep under the stars and open to the sky. It also means that sometimes critters like snakes can slither in with you and once or twice during the night I swore I hear something slithering around even though I know it's too cold out for them to be wandering.

Today, we arrived in Coober Peddy, which is Aboriginal for "white man in a hole." In this area, most people mine for opals. However, because it's so hot (last week it was 52 degrees celsius) the miners all have underground homes. When I visited an open home today, I was amazed how comfy it was, very cool and spacious. It is rumored that there are houses with swimming pools underground, as well as huge mansions with forty-two bedrooms. Wouldn't that be cool? Tonight I sleep underground like the locals. It should be interesting, especially since I'm claustraphobic.

I'll write again soon.

Posted by Claudia at 01:07 AM | Comments (2)

February 20, 2004

Tired in Adelaide

I've been spending the last two days in Adelaide, which is a decent sized city.

I'm beat to hell as I write this because last night I wandering to the opening parade of the Adelaide Fringe Festival (same idea as the Edinburgh one) and wound up staying until 2am. With only 4 hours of sleep, I'm a walking zombie. I spent the evening with Christian of Germany and Peter of Poland. We wound up hanging around the University of Adelaide campus because they were having some sort of party with an attempt at music. The beer was alright, and the music was well, interesting. I'm not a huge DJ afficianado but the guys spinning had me bored to tears.

Anyway, before that Adelaide was pretty chill. I took care of some chores, went to the beach and went to the Central Market which had ever type of gourmet food available and my mouth was watering.

I know, not a very inspired post... I may be out of touch for a bit because I am heading towards OZ's interior and internet access will be limited at best.

Posted by Claudia at 04:06 PM | Comments (2)

February 18, 2004

Does Anyone Live in Canberra?

I've been spending the last day and a half here in Canberra. It's one of those planned cities which always seem like no one lives in them. As I walk around, it looks like everyone are daytrippers even though I know they aren't.

Yesterday was pretty much spent catching up on sleep I didn't get the night before (too much coffee with Terry) and today I spent out in Parliament Triangle, where the business of running Australia gets done.

The building itself has an interesting design and is built into Parliament Hill so that people can walk on the park above, thereby emphasizing the "people above te parliament" symbolism.

I went to the Question Hour of the House of Representatives and it's a complete free for all. I thought watching the Brits on BBC was bad but it's much more of a ruckus in person when you can see all the other reps laughing at the speaker. Basically, everyone rips on the "other" guys. I thought people were going to start throwing things and starting the Aussie version of Smackdown.

I am currently enroute to Adelaide to begin heading north from there on a hop on/hop off bus thingie I bought. The end of the route is the Red Center of OZ, Alice Springs. I am VERY stoked. I hope to capture many kickass photos.

Posted by Claudia at 12:48 AM | Comments (0)

February 14, 2004

Blue Mountains Galore

Yesterday I took the train from Sydney to Katoomba, the main town of the Blue Mountains. I came to OZ looking for natural beauty (that's what I decided on the plane anyway) and if this is only the beginning, I think I'll be having a great time here.

I had read about the Blue Mountains in the Let's Go Australia I "borrowed" from the hostel. I also "borrowed" a Lonely Planet on walking in Australia. To my own credit, I did leave two books, my LP Malaysia (ok it was crap) and a copy of Catch 22.

Anyway, I got here without a hitch, dumped my stuff in a hostel and went out for a walk. I visited the Three Sisters, which are the local icon of the outdoors. Everyone and their monkey stops by Echo Point to view them. It was a hazy day, but I did my best with the photos. (I'll have them up as soon as I find an internet cafe not run by computer nazis who have locks on their cd drives.)

I then got poured on, but I didn't let that distract me. It actually made the area quite peaceful and hearing the water on the leaves in a temperate rainforest was really soothing. As it let up, you hear the "drip drip" from leaf to leaf.

After the refreshing rain, I about faced and walked along the Prince ICantRememberHisName walkway. Along this route there were several extraordinary lookouts. Some were out on cliff edges that allowed you to look back into the cavern you just walked across while others looked out onto the canopy of the rainforest or into the distance. Finally, I started my walk back when I reached the Katoomba Cascades because I was thirsty and starving.

Today, after I switched to a better hostel, I started up exactly where I finished yesterday. I had the correct supplies (water/food) and could go for a longer "bushwalk" as they call hiking here. I don't know why it's called bushwalking because I am no where near a bush, nor do I want to walk on one.

This walk was even better than yesterday's. I got deeper into the rainforest and walked under huge overhangs of limestone and around hanging swamps. When I was alone in certain parts of the forest, I swear, you could hear the ground crawling. One of the highlights of my walk was a large number of wild yellow cockatoos. With their tall yellow head plumes, they soared like eagles. In fact, they were almost terrifying because they kept skreeching like wild animals because well, they ARE wild animals. I wished my brother Nick could have seen these beautiful birds in the wild, as well as some of the lizards that crossed my path.

I finally finished up by taking the Scenic Railway up the cliff. No one told me it was a 52 degree incline and when I saw how roller coaster like it was, I nearly had a heart attack.

This has been a great intro to the Aussie outdoors and I am looking forward to more. I will be re-editing this post with photos, so check back.

Posted by Claudia at 01:01 AM | Comments (7)

February 12, 2004

Mr. Anderson???

I don't know what city The Matrix was filmed in (Sydney or Melbourne), but as I walked along the Sydney Harbour Bridge today, I kept thinking I was going to see Agent Smith walk around the corner. Maybe it's the generic highrises that all seemed to look like all the generic highrises in the movie. Go figure.

I got a great view of the Sydney Opera House from the Harbour Bridge. From the side, it looks like shark fins, and from the front it looks like gills or and open mouth. The water in the harbor is also much cleaner than I would ever have expected. It's actually green-blue!!!

My walk across the bridge was most leisurely and most free something I have come to look for now that I'm destined to ruin my budget here in Australia. Everything is so expensive, or maybe I've just become used to Asian pricing. I didn't expect such a sticker shock at everything. I know I'm in Sydney, which is a major city, but five weeks at OZ prices and my budget is going into the crapper, FAST. I think I am going to have to get out of big cities as much as possible. However, if I want to get to Alice Springs, where you start most trips to Ayers Rock and that whole area, you pretty much have to fly. Ditto with Tasmania. Grrrr!!!!

Posted by Claudia at 03:25 AM | Comments (3)

Eddie Strikes Again

Last night I finally had enough energy to crawl out of bed and I decided to call Terry, a friend I met in India. He just so happens to live just around the block from my hostel so that was a bit of good luck. We headed out to the Cafe Tropicana in King's Cross.

The Cafe Trop was rockin' and arollin when we got there and we jockeyed for a window table for a while. After several coffee based beverages, we went and watched two Eddie Izzard videos I hadn't seen. Definate Article had me clutching my stomach in pain. Pears are devious when they decide to ripen aren't they??

I crawled into my hostel bed around 1:30am and had dreams of transvestites. I don't know if that was because of the Eddie videos or the fact I am staying in the red light district of Sydney. Probably both.

Thanks Terry, we will meet up again soon I'm sure.

Posted by Claudia at 02:38 AM | Comments (0)

February 10, 2004

Bleary Eyed in Sydney

So I arrived a few hours ago. My mind still isn't processing that I am no longer in Asia. Well, if you don't consider it "Australasia" anyway.

This morning I called the hostel I chose and they picked me up for free from the airport. Bonus! I didn't even hear the guy when he showed up and called my name because I was so out of it.

I checked in, had a brief nap and a refreshing shower and headed out to find feed. I walked into a supermarket and was overwhelmed by the fact I was going to be making my own food again, something I haven't done since early September. I hate cooking, but even I would be hard pressed to not do it at all for six months. I saw all these fresh veggies that were safe to eat! The sight of real cheese and juice (and not fruit "drink") had me nearly in tears.

Now I have to figure out what the hell I want to do here in Sydney because stupid me sent my guidebook back home when now I need it. Ahh well. It's not like I can't handle Australia.

On a funny note, I noticed what a freaking travel snob I am becoming. Three Canadians, one my age, and two my parents' ages, were discussing how brave the one my age was for going solo to Australia. Come on!! I don't even consider myself a particularly adventurous traveller and backpacking only in OZ for five months (as she was) isn't that difficult. The older couple said they even knew someone who went to Europe all by herself. I had to put on my headphones to keep from convulsing with laughter.

I'm off to wander the area I'm staying in, Kings Cross. So far, I've discovered it has tons of nudie bars and cheap internet. I'll check in soon.

Posted by Claudia at 08:52 PM | Comments (8)

What's This??

There's a reason for that new travel category for this entry.

I walked into STA-Travel as planned and walked out with a ticket to Sydney for TODAY at 5pm. I am flying into Sydney and out of Melbourne for like $450 roundtrip. I figured I couldn't even beat that from Bangkok so I took it and ran. The reason it is so rushed was I could fly today or fly on Feb 23rd. The choice was pretty obvious. :)

I have had a great time travelling with Kathy and just running off to OZ on my own without my tall Viking buddy will be strange after three weeks of wandering Malaysia and Singapore together. I wish more people out of college would be like her! She had never left the country before and decided to head to Asia and go to Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philliphines.

Anyway, I've emailed everyone I know in Australia and have already been invited to go camping at a folk festival by another Kathy, this one from Melbourne.

Woo hoo!!!! Go spur of the moment travelling!!!

Posted by Claudia at 12:56 AM | Comments (10)

February 09, 2004

Travel Plans In Upheaval

I am desperately trying to figure out what the heck I am doing for the next two months. I want to hit up Laos for at least 3 weeks, and that leaves me 5 to keep myself busy.

I was in different travel agents today, looking at world maps and asking prices. When everywhere you want to go is in below freezing climates (Russia, Mongolia) or such a hassle for visas (the "stans", i.e Kazakstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikstan, etc) it gets frustrating. My timing is just off.

However, I may have just found a way to not only have something to do for 5 weeks, but also save money!!!! I was planning on heading to OZ in late May/June, for which my ticket from Bangkok would have been $550 or so. Here in Singapore, STA Travel is doing a promotion to Sydney/Melbourne for $333!!! It just means changing up my order of doing things. This also might allow me to go to Mongolia in the late spring/early summer after I am in Nepal.

Tomorrow I am going to go scope it out down at the STA shop so wish me luck.

Posted by Claudia at 06:27 AM | Comments (2)

Nyonya Food

After being in Malaysia for three weeks, I realized I hadn't really tried any Malaysian food because most of the restaurants are Chinese or Indian. I read about a reasonably priced Nyonya place in Melaka named Nyonya Makko.

Kathy and I walked in having no idea what to order. We asked the server what she recommended and we got chicken satay (it's actually Malay, not Indian) and ikam goreng chili garom. The second dish, fried fish, turned out to be a bit spicier than we expected, especially since the waitress suggested putting the sauce on the side. When it arrived, it was doused in chili (the "on the side" seems to have been forgotten) and we just did our best. It was definately a challenge considering since there were no soothing lassis to be had.

The chicken satay was of course, top notch because it is in a peanut sauce and had a hint of peanut buttery flavor. Yum. I'm sure now I'll also have the bird flu, but sometimes you need to live dangerously for your food choices.

The clincher of the night was a dessert called sago guca melaka. It looked super nasty, like caviar mixed with slimy brown poo. It tasted AWESOME though. It was made of shaved ice, coconut milk, brown sugar, and unidentifed jelly balls that stuck together. It was perfectly cooling on the tougue after such a fiery meal.

Posted by Claudia at 06:17 AM | Comments (3)

February 08, 2004

The TV Programs We Export

Ever wonder why we Americans have such bad reps around the world?

Well, it could be many of are ignorant as hell and feel the need to police the planet, but what I saw the other day sure didn't help. As I was sitting on a ferry from Klang to Crab Island, professional wrestling was on. Nothing like a dose of WW"E" to promote your culture.

Kathy and I are both occassional watchers of WWE. When I lived with Steph, we would watch Smackdown with her Rock doll sitting shotgun on the couch. There was no question it was fake and the retarded antics were exactly what we needed before going out for beer and wings at Rogo's.

However, when played for a Malaysian audience, Kathy and I wanted to jump up and scream "this is not what Americans are like!!!" Let's see, what happened:

Stephanie McMahon who used to come out to the chant of "SLUT, SLUT, SLUT"
is now being cheered in a positive way on as her jacked up, diesel, 'roid taking father Vince McMahon beats the everliving crap out of her. Vince looks like the Hulk now. What's up with that? Then to confuse matters even more, Momma McMahon is now involved as well. She got body slammed by Vince while trying to defend Stephanie as the general manager of Smackdown! To top it off, Stephanie has so much cosmetic work and body work she doesn't even look like the same person. Have the McMahons run out of wrestlers? Bring back The Rock and Chyna!!! The Undertaker was still there, as was Kurt Angle, but all the other characters sucked.

So, it's no wonder we have a bad image when this is what other countries see of our culture!! WWE can be really funny, but when taken out of context, I can see how negatively "family life" can be portrayed.

Posted by Claudia at 09:41 AM | Comments (2)

February 06, 2004

Blitzing Through Melaka

Melaka is a city about two hours from KL by bus. The city has been under the control of three different European powers, the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the English. Each have left their own marks on the city, as have the Chinese and Indian immigrants. You have to wonder what was left to the Malays!!!

Kathy and I went out for a brief walk, and wound up heading to four or five tourist spots right away because of how compact everything is. Compared to KL, this is super small.

St. Paul's Church was built by the Portuguese in 1521 and it was visited regularly by St. Francis Xavier, whose corpse I saw in Old Goa, India. Xavier was buried here for nine months until he was exhumed and moved to India, minus his blessing arm which was sent to Rome. Ironically, the statue of Xavier in front of the church is missing it's right hand as well, but it seems to be due to vandalism. Maybe his statue's marble hand was sent to Rome?

Right down the hill, the Porta de Santiago is all that is left of the Portuguese fortress A'Famosa. The only marking left on the fort ruins were left by the Dutch, who put the Dutch East India coat of arms on it. There are really annoying toy sellers who have bird whistles and you want to snatch them out of their mouths and stomp on them....

Chinatown was a great little area with alleyways winding this way and that. Between buildings there were strings of red lanterns which gave it a festive feel. On one street you can visit a Hindu temple, a Muslim mosque, and a Chinese temple which are all in a row. We even met a shoemaker who makes replicas of the tiny little bound feet shoes. Very disturbing....

On the same theme, we visited the Museum of Enduring Beauty. It had explanations of different practices such as foot binding, corset wearing, lip plates, intentional cranial deformation, tattooing, scarification, piercing, and neck stretching (which isn't really stretching). The name of the museum is particularly poignant because of the dual meaning of the word "enduring". The most baffling practice had to be the skull flattening/elongating practices. Newborns would have their heads basically placed in super tight material binding or even a head vice. Creepy stuff.

Tomorrow I am off for Singapore and to plan the rest of my trip depending on the airfares I can find. Who knows where I will wind up!!!

Oh, and if anyone is planning to see that movie "Timeline" which is based on a Michael Critchon book, I saw a pirated copy last night and it was terrible.

Posted by Claudia at 08:52 AM | Comments (0)

Petronas Towers Photos

In case anyone missed them, I re-edited the "Being a Tourist in KL" post to include some photos.

Posted by Claudia at 08:33 AM | Comments (7)

February 05, 2004

A Visit to the Cameron Highland Bug Farm

As the title mentions, I visited the Bug Farm.

AHHH!!! It's a dangerous species!!!!!!

This bug was completely hidden and when I looked into the tank, all I saw was a pile of green leaves.

This is the national butterfly of Malaysia. She's lost a bit of her wing because too many people handle them.

This rhinocerous beetle was downright scary and definately belongs on the "dangerous species" list. The legs of the beetle could easily fit around my wrist.

And finally, here is a view of the beautiful BOH tea estate that was enroute to the bug farm.

Posted by Claudia at 04:52 AM | Comments (4)

Funny Things I've Seen

There are always ironic situations on the road which can be really funny when taken out of context or the translation is slightly off. Some are just plain funny. Here are a few of my favs.

Look Mom! It comes in a can!!

I wonder what they sell here.

This is a shop tailor made for Adkins Diet people.

The Malaysian Listerine man must be rushing out on an emergency bad breathe call. Hose em down!!!

Everything grows big here in the jungle!! I feel like I'm in the Woody Allen movie Sleeper.

If the veggies grow that big, image if you saw one of critters in the next photo. I think if ones of these guys jumped out of the trees, I'd pass out, especially because this is in the middle of KL!! NO dangerous species please. That said, check out my next post because it will include photos of some of the insects of the Highlands.

Posted by Claudia at 03:44 AM | Comments (5)

February 04, 2004

Being a Tourist in KL

I've been doing so much in the last few days, especially today.

Back a few days ago Kathy and I met up with David and Chris, who are doing a round the world trip as well. David has a blog on Bootsnall so check it out. We shared beer, travel stories, and tips over some tasty Chinese grub. It was good fun and we might get to meet up again tomorrow night when they return from the rainforest and ask if they saw leeches.

Yesterday, Kathy, Leticia (another Bootsnall girl from Sao Paulo, Brazil) and I went out to visit Angeline, yet another BnA girl who lives in Malaysia. We had a tasty lunch of fried squid, veggies, and sting ray. We wound up back at Angeline's house, having beers, and then heading out to the mall to chat over Starbucks coffee. See, life everywhere is the same!!

To make up for it Kathy and I spent today being the faithful tourists. We went to the Masjid Jamek, a peaceful mosque early in the day. It's in the middle of the KL madness and somehow it has a bit of tranquility even though the minarets have the backdrop of construction sites. We were pretty much the only ones there and had the run of the place. An amusing sign showed us the way to the ladies toilet or tandas.

Our next stop was the famed Petronas Towers. These twin buildings are 452 meters tall (that's approximately 1525 ft) but you can only visit the connecting skybridge on the forty second floor. That was plenty high up for me because I could feel the sway anyway. Kathy swears she couldn't but if I stood completely still, I could feel the wind move the bridge. Not a good feeling at 170 meters up. Here's a view down from the skybridge.

The PT have eighty eight stories (an auspicious number in Chinese mythology) and were designed by the American firm Cesar Pelli & Associates. They incorporated the eight sided star common in Islamic art, as well as giving the building five tiers to represent the five pillars of Islam.

They didn't forget the other "religion" of Malaysia, shopping, and there are several super posh malls which included stores like Burberry, Gucci, Prada and all manner manner of retail therapy/obsession.

Each tower was built by a different contractor, one Japanese and one Korean. The Japanese company completed their tower first, but it was the Korean firm that built the connecting skyway, which was the most challenging aspect of the entire structure.

While standing at the base of the towers, I got queasy looking up and they feel like they go on forever. Here is a view from Menara Kuala Lumpur.

We decided to spend another few hours at the Muzium of Islamic Art. THey had pretty kickass textiles, Qurans, and random art objects. The building itself is right next to the National Mosque, and looks like a mosque itself. On the way we passed this building with some nifty arches and some M.C. Escher staircases.

There is one major advantage to being in Malaysia over Thailand- I can read all the signs. Malaysia uses roman script to write everything so even if I don't understand what something means, I can at least sort of figure it out. For example, muzium is museum, teksi is taxi, and my favorite, bas is bus. There are bas minis all over the place. I've learned the Malay words for stop, toilet, and other things just by figuring out the signs. It makes me feel somewhat intelligent again!

Tomorrow is a huge Hindu festival here and I think I am going to give it a pass. The devotees show their piety by skewering themselves with pointy metal skewers and I don't handle that sort of stuff well. I'd probably wind up getting nauseous somewhere and having to vomit in a crowd, always a bonus.

As soon as I find an internet place with a card reader, I will put up more photos. It seems that when there is every type of technology available, as it is here, no one has it. Go figure. I'm tempted to go out and spent $240 on a PC independent cd-burner/mem card reader so I don't have to deal with this anymore.

Posted by Claudia at 05:34 AM | Comments (0)