BootsnAll Travel Network



Archive for the 'postcard: Malaysia' Category

« Home

weekend family picnic

Saturday, October 18th, 2008

According to cousin Pik Dzee, Malaysians don’t go out for picnics much. Generally speaking, the Malays do a little, because they are more connected to nature (mostly being farmers and fishermen), but the Indians don’t go at all and the Chinese certainly wouldn’t go and sit by a river, not when they could open their shop for the day (mostly being traders)!!!

At the river there were Malays and us 😉

picnic

river

forest

jungle adventure

sisters

cousins

Quote of the day: It’s the first time I’ve shivered in two weeks!

homes
Snapshots of homes along the way to the picnic spot.

immensity of highways

Friday, October 17th, 2008

In Auckland there is one main motorway system. If you take an exit you end up on a suburban road every time. Rarely will there be more than two lanes, only very occasionally four.

No wonder we find the KL highways intimidating. For a start, there can be ten lanes across. That is not a misprint. I mean ten! If you come from LA, this is not anything to write home about, but remember we’re from two-lane-country. So back to the ten lanes…three of them can be the offramp. But they may not go off to suburbia. Well, they *might* (you turn the corner and you’ve got houses a mere metre from the road, which is equally foreign to us….there should be a wide grassy verge next to main roads), but those three lanes will possibly turn into five lanes, three going in one direction, two taking another, which might happen to be a complete u-turn back to where you’ve just come from. How do you know which one is the “main” road? Sometimes you simply don’t! You drive and hope. And notice that you are now on another major highway, which again has turned into eight lanes. Repeat this process over and over….and soon you start feeling caught in a labrynth of main roads, all going somewhere important, all full of cars. Oh yes, there may be eight lanes, but there can be ten cars abreast, because the purpose of lane markings is not to tell you where to drive. You drive where there is space, and where this is no space, you just make some. While on the one hand this is frightening, it is also an amazing thing to watch or be in the middle of, because everyone is so polite about making their space and it just fluidly happens. But you still have no idea where you are, because you’re on your fifth main highway getting sucked further and further into the abyss, until occasionally you escape through a Plaza Tol, pay your few ringgit and start all over again.

traffic jam

Needless to say, the sense of accomplishment when you actually manage to make it across town with only one wrong turn (and which you were able to self-correct) is somewhat significant! Go Rob!! Loving being your navigator 😉

not far as the bird flies

Friday, October 17th, 2008

birdpark 1

birdpark 2

birdpark 3

"You need to have lunch early and be at my ... [Continue reading this entry]

of cavemen and monkeys

Friday, October 17th, 2008
all the children contributing to the text..... Batu Caves Just outside Kuala Lumpur are the Batu Caves. They have been carved out by water running through the limestone. Water is dripping all the time. Walking up ... [Continue reading this entry]

What could we have eaten?

Thursday, October 16th, 2008

I wonder!!!! Was it one of the at-least-twice-a-day curries or the treeful of rambutans or perhaps the Mee Rojak, which we have on good authority (and I quote) "Some meerojaks (cousin to small, stripey, weasly African animal what stands on ... [Continue reading this entry]

"I don’t blame her"

Wednesday, October 15th, 2008
Driving across town with uncle, discussing the dismal state of Americans' health (and agreeing that one of the major causes is diet, in particular the trans-fats and refined foods they readily consume....big discussion about palm oil and coconut oil ensues), ... [Continue reading this entry]

GPS-ing in KL

Wednesday, October 15th, 2008
Rob writing.... OK, so I know the stereotype is that guys never stop to ask for directions, right? So how does a modern guy get across a city he has not driven in for 7 years, and where the road systems ... [Continue reading this entry]

cool fun

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

Real tourists go up the Twin Towers to the observation bridge; we fried outside for a few hours at the playground and paddling pool.

Parents make sure ... [Continue reading this entry]

food glorious food

Monday, October 13th, 2008
We have a family tradition....when it's your birthday you get to choose what's for breakfast...so this morning that task fell to me, and after yesterdays' breakfast, I didn't need to think twice about where we would be going. [Continue reading this entry]

The First Sunday

Sunday, October 12th, 2008

Melaka

What a range of churches to visit today - and some of them built even before New Zealand had been discovered!!! Strange words set to familiar music rang ... [Continue reading this entry]