Tahoe Johnson’s Journey to Southeast Asia

The hotel we stayed at – picts

The golf course Tim found – only payed 9 holes, but hit two balls on each hole – sea in background

Stream with 7 wells to to slide down and swim in.  Josh tried to pull ski tricks

Cable Car Ride – like in the Alps or France – steep!!!!! – kind of scary – a marvel of engineering

Steel suspension bridge – one support held up by cables.

The rare beautiful sunset in the palms

Josh trying ski tricks into water pools – beach – pool – location of our upscalse hotel – other activity,etc picts

 – Range Rover like Dads – a little newer for the Bro’s

This Island is off the northwest coast of Malaysia – just north of Penang.  It is considered one of the premier vacation spots for Malaysian nationals, but also European and S.E.Asian tourists.  This was going to be our first “real” sandy beach location (Tioman Isand was during monsoon season, so not at its best).  We opted to go more upscale for a couple of nights at a resort that had a pool – give the kids a break from the heat and humidity of sightseeing in big cities.    Holiday Villa was our “splurge” and everyone needed the respite just to hang out at a pool – especially the kids – and to be in a “real room” with a bathroom that was more western and actually had a shower area with a curtain so one was not constantly walking into a wet bathroom.  We happened to be going right around Chinese New Year so all the prices were inflated and we had a hard time finding just a room for the other two nights we were going to be there.  Activities:  renting motor bikes and a very small car (no taller than Annika) to see the sights of the island- you have to drive on the left – took a while to figure out shifting and control pannels – ie turn signal in the US would make he windshield wipers go; Tim renting a motor bike and finding a golf course on the other side of the island; renting a jet ski (Josh was in heaven driving it himself and hitting every wave trying to catch “air” – a true free ride skier); swimming at a series of stream pools  that could have been in Tahoe!; eating out late at candlelit tables set right out on the beach; playing night beach soccer, lying on the beach staring up at the stars; market shopping- girls obviously liked that.  The beach was pretty, but the water was not good for swimming – lots of small jelly fish – so even here, we were hot! A highlight was to ride a cable car to the top of the mountain. The pictures don’t do justice to the steepness of the grade – the worst was going over the edge when coming down.  It was a marvel in engineering, especially at the top where a steel bridge suspended on cables crossed a steep gorge.

 Next Stop will be the Andman Sea – southern Islands of Thailand – Ko Lipe, Ko Bulon, Ko Hai

Some neat sayings – hopefully, this experience will allow the kids to see things differently about the world and the people that live in it.

Fort Cornwallis and Penang

The home of the richest Chinese Merchant from Penang – came to Penang penniless and developed into largest merchant of Penang.  The home tour was great – explaining the whole concept of architecture and philosphy of fengshui

Buddhist Temple with Chinese New Year decorations

Offerings for the deceased

Back on Line again -Time to catch up 

Penang – Georgetown is an incredible city of history, architecture, religions – crowded, hot humid but that helps the mystique – as a break Natalie wanted to do an “Afternoon British Tea” @ high end hotel developed by two Armenian Brothers.  Same type of hotel you saw on Singapore pictures.  Natalie really wanted to do this white table cloth, sit down, British tea with sandwhiches, crumpets,and sweets.  Cost an arm and leg but gave us a break from sightseeing and the heat. –

Proper way of stirring – pinkie has to be up

The right way to drink tea

The wrong way of drinking and stirring  high tea

Penang Hill top – overlooking the island and city – you have to take this small gauge train, build in the early 1900’s, the cable pulls you up the mountain and lowers you – the grade is steeper than Gunburrel at Heavenly – it has to be timed right because downcoming train and upcoming train meet half way and cross – the car seats are situated at an angle in order for you to feel like you are level – at the top, nice and cool from the city – however, above the walkway are these spider webs and spiders – at least 3 inches across (thats just the body) – scary

At the hotel that afternoon I notice black smoke out our window and thought it was a fire – sure enough about to blocks down an Indian restaurant blew up – it was right across from where we were eating -walked down a small lane to see the comotion – firetrucks, people everywhere – interesting to see the difference between US firemen and their protocols and the Malaysians, very bad fire – fortunately most of these houses are made of brick and mortor – it did not spread which is lucky – due to all the shops, hotels, restaurants all connected together side by side – it did make us more conscious of escape routes in hotels we will be staying at.

Backpacker Hotel – this has been the best so far – usually we have stayed in busy ChinaTown type places

We had a “Jungle Bar” connected to the hotel – it was great – no age limit – kids liked that – played pool -etc

Very busy backpacker hotel – neat place – at night we would all sit around the bonfire and trade stories

BOH Tea Plantation Pictures – grown in neat rows – tough to harvest – just cut the tops of the leaves off

This is a tea tree – NOT pruned – its leaves become useless

Notice the dark green is where they have pruned – the light green is ripe for the picking

Strawberry Farms – very orderly and interesting way to grow – works wonders – great strawberries

Also growing lettuce, etc

In America we call it U-Pick – here they call it Self Plucking – Natalie had a laugh over this one – thinking of women and their heigene (spelling?)

Of course while everyone sleeps in late, Tim goes on the search for a golf course.  Better greens this time.  Hard to adjust to Asian “rental” clubs.  Again monkeys playing on the fairways and greens.  Luckily no 6 ft monitor lizards to scare daily light out of you

Tea Plantation – terraced hills, if you don’t prune the tree grows tall and is useless – every two years they prune to keep branches and leaves fresh; lettuce and strawberries – all grown under plastic and in deperate gutter rows, bonfire chatting, and the worker vehicle of the hills – 1960’s Land Rover – I forgot to get picture of the 4 door cab  one like my dad owned – that was for the brothers to think back

I finally got to ride in a mercedes – it was a diesel and was a TAXI (of all things), Buddhist Shrine for our local backpacker hotel owners (they also  had a Hindu shrine on grounds); scorpion from the insect/butterfly farm – then Tim was walking through a dark tunnel thinking of scorpions and lo and behold Josh was waiting to scare and take a picture – he succeded; jungle lounge pool table; kids able to go to a bar – there was no underage issue – hey we are all backpacking – enter into the conversation and fun

taking a break from tourist sightseeing – went to park and played – Josh trying to slide down the “rail” – misses skiing; Tea Plantation shot

Pictures coming

finally blogged Kuala Lumpur after the pictures were uploaded – so if you missed it –  go on back 

Time for  some cool mountain air.  Cameron Highlands is an hill station developed by the British as a respite from the heat of Malaysia – located at about 3000 feet.  It’s also been developed into a vegetable, strawberry and tea growing area.   The tourist attraction is the primarily for its Tea Plantations and strawberry farms… and the largest flower on earth – the Rafflesia, which is abiout 2 feet across.

The trip up is on a very tight 2 lane road with 96 hairpin switchbacks – it is hard to get two buses to pass each other on the road.  Halfway up, our bus driver and the oncoming bus both took a blind curve too fast. Our driver slammed on his brakes, swerved, and ran into the side of the mountain at the mid-point of the bus where Josh was located –scary/exciting!? Everyone was fine though and we just continued on our way as though nothing happened.

This part of the trip was to get out of the heat and rest a little from travel and sightseeing.  The air was wonderful when we stepped off the bus. We were actually a bit cold! We stayed at a really neat backpacker hotel – small $10 rooms as usual,  shared toilets as normal – yet finally a HOT shower (most have been cold or luke warm), very clean, lots of travelers probably due to it having a TV-Movie room area,  “jungle bar” and evening bonfire. It was also off the main road, which means a lot, because you don’t hear motorcycles whizzing by all night. And last, we were a distance away from the mosque, so we didn’t get woken up every morning by the call to prayer! We thoroughly enjoyed playing pool, watching a few movies, hanging out on the veranda doing homework, writing, internet, and staying up till 1am sitting around the fire pit talking to other backpacker travelers – mainly English, Austrian, German, Holland, Argentinian, and a big Japanese group. A Korean guy said he saw us 3 times in Singapore; an Austrian couple was in the same hostel in Kuala Lumpur;  and another couple had seen us walking like a family of ducklings in KL . (Tim had noticed some people laughing at us as we walked down a busy street in Kuala Lumpur, and in Cameron Highlands, we got to meet them and give them a hard time for laughing at us!)  They actually said they were laughing with us:)  All the travelers think it is the greatest thing for us to take the kids out of school and see the world.  They all wished their folks could have done that with them.  They also think it’s great that we are not doing the mid or high end hotel thing, but following the backpacker grouping.  It actually is pretty neat – Josh loved to hang out with us at the firepit listening to everyone talking. Other thoughts:  most have been totally against the Israeli push into Gaza, are looking forward to the Obama administration. Most have quit their jobs after saving up for a big world or ½ world trip, or have a 2-3 week vacation and are traveling Asia.  Most are 20-28 year olds – boy do we look like the old generation – but they still think we are cool/sic!?

The first day, we just let the kids sleep in and just have a “down” day.  The only problem with a down day means they have to do homework! The next day was our sightseeing day – which included the tea plantation, strawberry farm, and butterfly/insect farm.  The tea plantations were beautiful – planted on incrediby steep hillsides. The hike in to see the Rafflesia was a 4-5 hour trek in mud and leaches – not what the kids wanted to do.  You also could take a 4×4 adventure trip which would get you within a hour of the flower, but was far too costly for a whole family – especially when kids are not that interested.   Hopefully, we’ll see on of these amazing flowers later in the trip.

The next day we left in the afternoon for Penang, another island back on the northwest coast of Malaysia.  Tim got up early and went golfing at the local public course while everyone else slept.  The other highlight was that the wall fronting the hostel had graffiti painting on it with the name of the hostel.  Tim talked to the owners to see if Josh could add to the wall.  After showing them some of Josh’s work, they decided tey wanted him to paint “Home Away From Home” and the Rafflesia flower.  It became more of chore than we thought.t would be.  The paint wouldn’t stick because there was a lot of moss growing on the wall. so we had to scrape it all off, which meant finding a hardware store and buyin some scrapers. Then we decided we should prime it, so we had to buy that and a roller and whitewash the wall and let it dry overnight. Finally, Josh got to paint.  See the Picture blog for better pictures.  It came out quit well.    Josh is leaving his mark on Asia!

After traveling now for a couple of weeks, figuring out the picture situation takes time.  The original picture is saved as 8MB – too big for upload – therefore, need to resize the pictures we would like to put on blog (usually done late at night or during next stop bus road trip).  Then, there are  only 2 sizes to upload to the blog site – for some pictures the small does not do justice, but too big if trying to attach to the blog writing.  Therefore, my new style – blog with some small pictures, then a picture blog only.  Hope you get a better picture – pun  (haha)

Kuala Lumpur – Petronas Towers – incredible architecture and design – trully a wonder, the banner inside the building was 5 stories long for Chinese New Year, old and new architecture/skyline, Sultan’s Front gate – quite formal, waiting at bus stations, when you eat fish they mean it literally whole cooked, Islamic Art Museum – tile work, but incredible display of islamic writings in the Chinese and Arab world, ceramics, weapony, textiles, and architecture of mosques around the world – photo displays and then actual architectural models, timeline of occupation of the lands of Palestine/Israel – pertinent for today’s understanding of history.

Pictures:  actually getting a photo of Josh smiling – wow – how did that happen – Natalie told him she found a store where a guy specializes in graphiti and there may be a wall he can tag – as you can see Natasha is really happy about that, Natalie and Annika went to the largest free flight bird aviary in the world – had fun feeding birds, went to a cultural center and each did a batik piece – everyone enjoyed that.

Pictures Notes:  Ferry coming in the day we were diving —  we could leave the island the next morning! Kuala Lumpur Welcome center with Petronas Towers in back; Sultan’s Palace grounds; National Islamic Mosque (stylized after Mecca); Obama’s face on money changer stall; a monkey-crossing sign ( a change from the bears!); pictures of family taking an “art” break at Petronas Towers.  Josh – well he was just chilling (I think the 4 days of all day diving lessons had done him in); Annika very happy to have a pancake with chocolate on it; Annika feeding birds in an aviary.

The trip to Kuala Lumpur required: a 2 hour ferry ride (quite uneventful), 2.5 hour sitting around bus station, and 5 hour bus ride.  To go from an island back to the bustling big city was a rude awakening.   The KL traffic was more much congested than Singapore and getting dropped off at the main bus depot was a bit overwhelming: capitalism at its best – probably 30 different bus organizations, hundreds of hawker stalls, people everywhere  – loud, busy, and of course dirty.  After we got our bearings, we walked to China Town (couple of blocks) and stayed at another backpacker hostel. We were complete sweat hogs by the time we made it to the hostel. (We make quite a sight. We look like a family of ducklings -one parent in front and one in the back with the “ducklings” in between, each pulling their own bag.) It was evening, so not much to do except we tried the local Chinese cuisine (see fish picture next blog).

For sightseeing, there is aHop On-Hop Off Tourist Bus – you can get on anytime within a 24 hour period and it follows a 22 stop route around KL hitting all the major sights.  According to the guide books, wait times were no more than 10-15 minutes and there were headsets in the seats to give you a dialogue of the city. A great idea, but waits were more like 30 minutes and headsets did not work.   Highlights were:  seeing the city skyline (which really has grown only in the last 10 years) – old colonial buildings, largest free flight bird aviary in the world (Annika in heaven). Josh and Natasha did not want to go (plus costly) so Tim and kids sat in the outdoor restaurant catching up on internet  while birds would fly up to your table and beg for food – the 3 ft hornbill was incredible.

Islamic Art Museum:

Incredible display of Islamic writings in the Chinese, Arab, and Indian historical periods, calligraphy styles (Josh kind of enjoyed that), weaponry, incredible textiles from different periods (textiles and silks – large part of the trading history), Korans from all ages and the beautiful drawings, calligraphy, and gold embossing that went with it.  One prayer book was only 1 inch by one inch with the full writings – go figure how the artist wrote that one.  There were small scale models of different mosques around the world . 

Petronas Towers:

You all have probably seen them in James Bond movies or others.  They are a marvel to behold.  It was quite an engineering feat  See pictures of next blog.  The building is the headquarters for the gas and oil company called Petronas.  We took the tour that takes you up to the bridge that connects the towers on the 46th floor. Only employess can access the towers. It also holds an incredible music hall for the royal Malaysian philharmonic.  Attached to the towers is a six story mall full of high end stores.  We splurged here on dinner since the kids were really ready for a break from Malaysian hawker stall food. Found a Californian Pizza Kitchen (!) – paid an arm and a leg – but kids were happy (no more whole fish) Got a window seat overlooking the Petronas Towers Fountain and Park.  Good day but again very busy and late in getting to bed.  In order to catch up on picture blogs, writings, searching web for future travel plans – it is around 1am before Tim and Natalie finally call it quits. (So some things haven’t changed:)

Batik at Cultural Center:

(Natalie here) This was the highlight of my day, of course! We all learned how to batik at a local crafts center. They provided all the materials and you could sit there as long as you wanted and work on it. Sort of like our paint-your-own-pottery stores. We spent at least 2 hours there and everyone really enjoyed it.

Grafitti Artist:

We looked up grafitti in KL and came across a young artist who had a studio not too far from us in Chinatown. We went to see the studio, where they had a lot of “grafitti-style” art on canvas painted by young artists just starting out. We actually got to meet the owner of the studio. He “writes” under the name “They” (odd, I know) He was so friendly and curious to talk to Josh about grafitti in the US and Malaysia. He’s actually been chosen to be part of a cultural arts exchange to New York next month. He offered to take Josh out that night and paint! But Josh wasn’t too sure about it – a little intimidated, I think. And I wasn’t sure how we’d handle it. Tim or I could have gone with them, but they don’t leave until 11:00 at night, and I wasn’t exactly sure whether grafitti artists are viewed as criminals or not! But it was definitely a chance to see something beyond the tourist path!

We’re heading up to Cameron Highlands, which is 3000 ft. in the mountains of central Malaysia and looking forward to being cool for awhile. More later…

Tasha’s homework settinggetting ready to dive boat Josh finishing his last diveIsland in background is where we dove

 Pictures:  Dive trip – also Tasha doing math homework – what a horrible location to do homework, Tim diving, Natalie eating a “huge Prawn”, Natasha and Annika playing on beach 

Since we found out we would be stranded, Josh wanted to learn how to scuba dive.  While we waited to get off the island, the days were filled with swimming, home-work (math – ugh), walks, etc. and Josh spending all day at the dive center.  The time worked perfectly.  Josh was able to complete his Open Water Padi Dive Certification with flying colors – Hurray!!!!  As a part of the course, he has to do 4 dives.  2 were from the shore which Tim and Natalie accompanied (we are both certified divers but hadn’t dove in a long time – actually – trivia note – our honeymoon was in Cozumel, Mexico spent diving every morning on the reefs).  The last day we went out on the boat and did 2 boat dives – one a reef and the other a small island.  Girls tried their snorkeling at the island, but waves kind of scared them.  Natalie will finish the blog —

 Tioman Island was a great respite after months of packing and planning, and then Christmas! Since it was monsoon season, much of the island was closed, which really made it nicer as it was very quiet. I liked the routine we got into: Tim up early, reading out on the porch and looking at the waves; the rest of us up later – Josh to his dive class, me with a cup of coffee on the porch, and the girls usually on the beach. The rest of the day was just more of nothing! Annika would play with the cats at the guesthouse. There are all kinds of stray cats on the island. They all have bent tails! They say that’s how you know they’re from Tioman. Annika named them all and made special friends with one, whom she named “Tiger.” She and Tiger kind of look alike! This morning when we walked down the path to the boat, Tiger followed us quite aways and finally stopped and looked woefully after us. Back to the “routine:” Dinner was always fun, because we would walk down the path that paralled the beach and check out whatever restaurants were open – usually a rickety wooden table, made even more wobbly because its legs sit in the sand. On the way back to our bungalow, it was really dark because there weren’t many lamps, and the jungle would come alive with sound. And there was not an ounce of car noise because there aren’t any!

 We didn’t know it when the day began, but Josh did his final dives on our last day. He and Tim popped up after their first dive, and I heard Tim exclaim, “I see a ferry!” which meant that we would be able to leave the island the next day. Tim and Josh did the first dive of the day off the boat, but fairly close to shore. They saw turtles, moray eels, sting rays, and lots of “Nemos” playing in the anenomes, as well as a myriad of brightly colored tropical fish. Josh’s favorite were these small neon blkue ones. The visibility wasn’t great due to the monsoon, but there’s so much variety on the reef, that it didn’t matter. We were really proud of Josh. Getting an open water certification is not an easy thing and takes some courage, and he did a great job and loves it. We’re hoping the girls will see the beauty of what’s under the ocean, because so far, they’re a bit uneasy about all those fish swimming down there and not sure they want to look at them! In their defense, the day they were snorkeling off the boat, the sea was rough and a bit intimidating. I went on Josh’s second boat dive, on a reef that encircled a little island. We saw a HUGE grouper, a huge shark, a huge moray eel, a huge turtle, and one very small octopus!

Nazri’s Place – restaurant-hotel Looking from our room Looking at our room Jungle rain forest walk – kids freaked out\ Junlge stream shot  Fishing boats in harbor  Air Batang – beach of the guest house-hotel- whatever you want to call it – down by the right end corner