High Above Kuala Lumpur.

After we got back from the Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary, we grabbed a cab to the Chinatown area of the city. I had been to a night market (Patpong) in Bangkok, so I pretty much knew what to expect. Jen on the other hand was a bit overwhelmed by the noise and the press of people in the market. The stall owners were less aggressive than those in Thailand, but only just. At least this time, there weren’t any “ping-pong shows” on offer.

The last thing we picked up at the market was a tiny tripod – I had forgotten mine back in Jakarta, and wanted to take some shots of the Petronas Towers at night:

Day three in Malaysia marked the first time Jen and I really ventured out on our own. The first two days were mainly spent on guided tours, so we decided that it was time to stop playing the pampered tourist and do our own thing while getting some fresh (and cool) air. Our goal for the day was to head up to the resort area in the Genting Highlands.

Before we left for Genting, I dragged Jen along to go up the Petronas Towers to the SkyBridge. After waiting in line for two hours (yeah, the lines are that bad), we got tickets and took the elevator up to the 41st floor. I’ve always wanted to see what the bridge was like, and I wasn’t disappointed: the views were amazing:

We made it to the local bus depot in time to find out that the next bus wouldn’t be leaving for an hour and a half. We had seen a sign for the Jade Museum on our way in, and figured we would have enough time to walk over and have a look.

One common theme throughout our time in KL was that the tourist sites we visit inevitably had a gift-shop attached. We saw a batik factory and gift-shop, a pewter factory and gift-shop, the Batu Caves and gift-shop, the Petronas Towers and gift-shop, and now were on our way to the Jade Factory and gift-shop. I’m glad we didn’t make it to the prison I wanted to see in KL: I really don’t want to know what their gift shop would sell.

After the museum/gift-shop, we boarded our bus for Genting. Little did we know that the bus driver was a NASCAR devotee à la Ricky Bobby. The roads up into the highlands got fairly twisty, but I don’t know if we ever dropped below 100 km/h. You know you’re in trouble when everyone on the bus is leaning into the turns in the hope that we won’t go flipping over the edge of the cliff we’re careening along beside.

Back on solid ground only momentarily, we headed up the longest and fastest cable-car ride in Asia. The ride was the calmest part of the day, taking us over some fairly pristine jungle. It was a welcome respite from the chaos we’re used to in Jakarta.

The Genting Highlands resort complex itself is a rats-nest of hotels, stores, and two inter-mingled theme-parks. One of the big attractions is Malaysia’s first roller-coaster. Let me tell you, it looked the part. Rusted and creaky, I managed to con Jen into going for a ride. I’ve been on some crazy modern roller coasters with loops, rolls, and some pretty stomach-turning drops, but this was by far the scariest one I’ve ever been on. There’s just something about knowing that the ride you’re on could collapse at any minute that adds to the thrill.

When we bought the entry passes to the theme park, we were told that they were “all-inclusive”. Apparently, all-inclusive means different things in Canada and Malaysia. The tickets really should have read: “all-inclusive, except for the rides you actually want to go on.” Seriously, all of the “Signature” rides cost extra to ride – this covered the SkyVenture, Flying Coaster, Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, Snow World (more on that later), and the Xpedition Wall. Oh, and the two big roller-coasters that you didn’t have to pay for were closed.

Snow World sounded like a perfect way to kill some time for some snow-starved Canadians. In reality, the place looked like a giant refrigerator with some grainy ice pellets on the ground. That said, I’m not sure how visiting Malaysians survive: while we were in Genting, the temperature was around 24 degrees, and there were people walking around in scarves, gloves, and parkas.

The most memorable part of the day came when the clouds rolled in in the late afternoon. Yes, clouds, not fog. Watching the entire complex being slowly consumed in a thick, white blanket of mist was breathtaking.

The last thing I did before we left the part was to take a final ride on the Space Shot. By the time we were at the top of the column, I couldn’t see the ground, or really anything beyond my feet. Dropping through the mist was surreal and terrifying – well worth it.

One more death-defying bus ride, and we were back safely in KL.

Our last day in Malaysia, we wandered around Chinatown again during the day time and rode some of the public trains around to see the sights. One of the trains was a Bombardier – gotta love seeing Canadian products in exotic places.

That’s my train, that’s a Bombardier (anyone else remember those commercials?):

Note that the trains are driverless…those are commuters in the window. Wonder when they’ll put this kind of technology on planes?

-Ryan

As always, more pics on the Flickr stream.

Elephants and Snakes and Bears, oh my!

On our second day kicking around Kuala Lumpur (KL), Jen and I booked a tour to see the Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary. You’ll see a lot of places with Kuala in the name around Malaysia – the word means estuary. Kuala Lumpur literally translates as “muddy estuary”.

Anyways, we had opted to take this tour in the lap of luxury – a private guided day tour. We were picked up by our guide in a Mercedes sedan (we’ve come a ways from backpacking, eh?), and were off towards the sanctuary. Part of the way there, we stopped for a bite to eat at a Chinese restaurant.

You might be thinking: why didn’t we stop for Malaysian food, seeing that we’re in Malaysia? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, we were visiting during Ramadhan. Most businesses run by ethnic Malaysians (especially restaurants) close down during the fasting month, or at least wait until nightfall brings the buka puasa (breaking of the fast) to open. Second, the Chinese make up the second largest ethnic group in Malaysia at 24% of the population, leaving lots of options for great Chinese food in the KL area.

After lunch, with the show at the elephant sanctuary still hours away, we stopped off at Deerland Park to kill some time. As we pulled in, a busload of school-kids were streaming into the park. Luckily for us, they were born of Generation ADD, and moved through the park in fast-forward while we took our time meeting the animals.

Some of the highlights:

Malaysian deer:

Sugar glider:

The best part of the park by far were the sun bears. We met two: Hitam (“Black”) and Muda (“Young”). Hitam was younger, and had a killer sweet-tooth. He sat on his fat bear butt while we dropped cookies into it. In the photos, it looks almost scary (well, not really), but it was actually pretty funny.

The older bear, Muda (go figure) cut quite the imposing figure sprawled on his back eating rice crackers off of his chest. No shame these bears. The coolest part was when the handlers told me that he would eat a cracker out of my mouth. This is the closest I’ll ever come to making out with a bear (and makes for some great photos too).

After we were done with the bears, it was time to meet some elephants. When we arrived at the sanctuary, we were shown to a room with a projector screen where we watched a short documentary about the relocation of wild elephants from inhabited areas to national parks. The film was honest about the stresses on the elephants, but emphasized that whatever hardships they might endure, the alternative is simply shooting them.

Once we finished the movie, it was time to meet some elephants! We were brought outside to the recreation area, where the handlers brought the elephants out for a bath and then feeding. Our guide pushed his way to the front of the line, and brought us handful after handful of juicy papaya to feed the big guys. The cool thing was that to feed the elephant, you had to stick the papaya up into their mouth, which is pretty deep. Soon, Jen and I were elbow-deep in elephant drool and loving it:

After the feeding, it was time for rides. Jen opted for the dry-land experience, while I decided to take the water dive instead. Jen’s ride was a two-minute lap around a dirt-ring:

The dive was a lot of fun – we mounted from a platform on the side of the river, and then were taken out into the deeper part, where the elephant flopped on his side on command:

I thought the day was over once the ride ended, but the handlers brought out the baby elephants for a bath and some play time:

I’m glad I took a change of clothes!

-Ryan

More photos on the Flickr stream.

Kicking Around Kuala Lumpur (Day 1).

When Jen’s visit to Bangkok got cancelled due to the political tensions and riots that were occurring a few weeks ago, we decided to look for a way to salvage the credit from her non-refundable ticket. As we had booked it with Malaysian Airlines, visiting Kuala Lumpur seemed the best option, especially as we had only one week to plan the trip.

Jen and I arrived into Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia, around 11:00 pm on Thursday night. We decided to take a cab into town – it was cheaper and easier than taking the train (at least at night). At 67 ringit ($22 dollars), the 45 minute direct trip was worth it. I had read some warnings about going this way, but we were prepared, so there weren’t any issues.

We stayed at the Impiana KLCC Hotel in the Golden Triangle area. When I was looking into places to stay in KL, the Impiana was ranked 23rd on TripAdvisor, and was reasonably priced for a 3-4 star hotel at 209 ringit ($67) a night. The room was nothing special, but it was clean and had decent air-conditioning.

KL is a beautiful city: to compare to Canada, KL is as much like Ottawa as Jakarta is Toronto. The scale, lack of pollution, and relative safety would all make KL a first choice for Jen and I when we look at postings in the future.

Jen with the Petronas Towers:

For Friday, we had decided to sign up for a Grand Tour of KL. The morning was a small group tour, with six of us heading around to Istana Negara (the National Palace),  the National Museum, the National Monument, a bit of old KL, a pewter factory, and a batik factory.

At the palace:

War memorial:

Royal Selangor Pewter Factory:

Batik factory:

In the afternoon, we joined a bus tour, and headed to Thean Hou Temple. One of the interesting things in this temple was the fortune-telling stations located in the main hall. Each person took a turn picking up a handful of numbered plastic sticks by their tops, and dropping them back into their holder. In turn, the person then chose the one that was sticking out the highest out of the group, and opened a drawer located on the pedestal corresponding to the number chosen. Iniside was a paper with a fortune written on it. On her first attempt, Jen dropped the sticks from so high that they nearly bounced out of the holder. It would have been quite a mess to clean up.

Jen in front of Thean Hou:

Also in the main hall were these rotating pillars with miniature Buddhas (I think) in little cases on them. Evidently there is a person who comes in every week to pray to/bless them all:

Our final destination of the day was the Batu Caves. The site is a limestone hill with a series of caves that hold one of the most visited Hindu shrines outside of India. The annual Thaipusam festival held on the site attracts over more than 1.5 million pilgrims each year.

The first statue in the temple was installed in the 1890’s, while the massive gold statue of Lord Muruga was unveiled in January 2006.

Out front:

The steps up to the temple were infested…..with monkeys! These little buggers have a pretty bad reputation: they are known to bite tourists, and to steal everything from cameras to jewelery (I even heard a story of a woman’s earring being snatched from her ear). I almost got a taste of some angry monkey medicine – on our way down, I was taking shots of a big male monkey who didn’t take kindly to paparazzi…he came over and tried to smack me! This monkey wasn’t giving us any problems:

Going up:

At the entrance to the caves was this kitschy gift shop. I mentioned to Jen that Hinduism is so much more colourful (and has shinier deities) than Christianity. It was strange to find glowing, flashing pictures of all kinds of Hindu deities for sale nontheless:

The cave itself had several chambers, hundreds of feet high. They were stunning:

Shrine:

At the end of our visit, Jen decided that this was the “coolest thing” she had ever seen:

More of KL to come. As always, additional photos on the Flickr Stream.

-Ryan

Glance back at Bangkok (Part 2 of 2).

Friday was my last day in Bangkok; thankfully it was quiet work-wise, so I was able to fit in some final sights. Joe wasn’t working for the morning, so I hired him again to take me around.

 

The first place I wanted to see was the flower market: Pak Khlong Talad. Joe had taken me past the area before, and I managed to take a few shots from the car, but I wanted to go back and walk the market. It was worth it:

After the market, we headed to Wat Ratchanatda, a less popular temple important for the amulets it sells.

The style was very different from the Grand Palace and Wat Arun that I visited later. In retrospect, I think it was kind of odd that I didn’t see any monks until I visited Ratchanatda.

Once I was in the temple, I was basically alone. A group of school kids had just left (thankfully), and other than one monk tending garden, the place was empty (save for a thriving population of sleepy cats).

There was a central staircase that took me up a few floors to the roof of the temple. Ratchanatda is in the old part of town, so there are other temples all around.

Sweating profusely, I headed back down and caught up with Joe. I was starting to run short on time, so he suggested a boat trip to Wat Arun (the Temple of the Dawn, and one of the most photographed sights in Thailand).

At 1000 baht ($36 or so) for a one-hour tour, it was a bit pricey. In any case, I bit the bullet and went. I ended up with a private tour on a long-tailed boat to Wat Arun, and then to one of the canals in the area.

On top of the boat fee, there was a 20 baht charge to get off the boat at the dock at Wat Arun, and a 50 baht entry fee. Once inside, you can really see why the place is so popular. The style of the decoration is similar to the temples in the Grand Palace, but without the concentration of buildings, it really stands out.

The stairs up the temple are pretty big and steep, and no small exertion to climb in 30+ degree heat. The top of the temple does merit a closer look though.

The climb down is harder than the climb up: backing down while holding the rail seems to be the way to go.

Getting back on the boat, we headed off for a tour of the canal. I was alone on a boat that could carry 30 or so people: after the crowded streets of Bangkok, it was a welcome break.

At one point, a woman and her husband paddled out to our boat in a small canoe, offering fruits and drinks for sale. I didn’t feel like a beer, but it wasn’t easy to convince her of that.

When we got back to the dock, there was a young guy bathing in the river. Its the small things that remind you just how different life is in this part of the world.

There wasn’t any time for more sightseeing, so Joe took me back to the hotel. I grabbed my things and headed to the airport. A small note for people departing from Suvarnabhumi Airport: the boards with the airline names on the ends of the rows of check-in counters have different things on their two angled sides. I didn’t figure this out until I had walked the length of the airport looking for Singapore Airlines, only to find out it was back where I started. The flight itself was better – the in-flight entertainment system had old Super Nintendo games! I spent most of my time playing Street Fighter II and F-Zero.

Onwards to Jakarta!

-Ryan

As always, more photos on the Flickr stream.

 

Wat Arun

Glance back at Bangkok (part 1 of 2).

During my down-time from ITU, I managed to get out to see a little more of Bangkok. Its a great city: bustling and busy, but not nearly as polluted and chaotic as Jakarta. In short, it has what I love about our new home, but manages to be a little less rough around the edges.

At my first meal in Bangkok, I was reading a tourist magazine that was full of ideas for things to see while in the city. The one place that interested me the most is called Ban Baht, or Monks’ Bowl Village. After some research, I managed to find the location, and I hired a local guide, Joe, to take me out for the morning.

I had originally considered going it alone and taking taxis around, but given the volatility of the situation in Bangkok, I figured that I would be safer with a local guide. Again, I was nowhere near the problem areas, and things were generally calm, with business going on as if nothing was happening. Still, I felt better knowing that someone was keeping an eye out for me.

Baan Baht is a small area of Bangkok where local craftsmen make black metal bowls for Buddhist monks (note: correct pronounciation is key in finding places in Bangkok; Joe had no idea what I was talking about until I explained about the bowls…turns out that my pronounciation was pretty crap). The good ones are made of eight pieces of metal, reflecting the eight-fold path of Buddhism. Most are painted black,and some have inscriptions painted along the upper rim. There are also less expensive ones made of one piece of metal. From what I gather, more of the bowls are bought by tourists than monks or temples these days.

When we finally made our way through the confusing alleys and found the area, I got out and Joe went to park. I was immediately greeted by an older gentleman who escorted me to his stall. There were quite a range of bowls on display, large and small, painted and unfinished. I ended up buying one of the more traditional ones, and didn’t bargain much (its hard to sometimes when you see how people live and ask yourself if you really need that $5 extra).

Once I caught up to Joe (who had taken the chance to grab a snack), he figured that we would have time to quickly run by the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Reclining Buddha (Wat Po) before heading back to the hotel.

The Grand Palace was both impressive and beautiful. From the soaring golden spires to the ornate warrior statues guarding the entrances, the Palace was decorated, almost to excess. Some of the buildings were adorned with thousands of small mirrors. Old school “bling”.

One of the downsides to travelling alone is the difficulty of actually including yourself in photos. Try as I might, I haven’t been able to figure out a way (without setting the camera down) to take a good photo of myself without the camera looking right up my nose. I had to resort to accosting other tourists who were carrying big cameras in the hope that they would be willing to help me out and take my picture. Fortunately for me, the weather was hot, and people weren’t in any hurry, so I persuaded two older gents to take shots of me in the Grand Palace and in front of the Reclining Buddha.

The Buddha at Wat Pho was more breathtaking than the Grand Palace. Most striking was the sheer enormity of the Buddha. The golden statue is 46 meters long and 15 meters high at the tallest point, its supposed to be the largest in Thailand, if not the world. Other than at the ends, the pillars supporting the roof made it impossible to see the whole statue at once.

The wall n the far side of the statue was lined with monk’s bowls like the one I purchased earlier in the day. For a 20 baht donation, you can purchase a small bowl filled with 1/4 baht coins. The ritual is to make your way down the line of bowls, dropping a coin into each bowl.

My visit to Thailand has been different than I expected. The original plan had been for me to attend the conference during the week, and do my sighseeing when Jen arrived on Thursday. With the cancellation of Jen’s visit due to the unpredictable situation in the city and the shortening of my own trip, I was left to fit in some quick jaunts around my conference schedule. Luckily I met Joe, who looked after me during my stay.

Joe was able to make sure that the places I visited were safe, and that I had transportation easily available should the situation start to change. I never felt like I was in any danger, thanks in no small part to him.

I look forward to coming back to Thailand when things settle down: next time, I hope to make it out of Bangkok and see more of the country.

-Ryan

ITU Telecom Asia 2008.

I thought that I might as well put up some shots from ITU Telecom Asia 2008, seeing as how its the reason I was in Bangkok after all. From what I heard, they were expecting 20,000 people to attend the show, but got only 4,000. As you can see from the following shots, the booths were huge but empty….

Princess Pavilion:

Another empty pavilion:

This guy had the right idea:

The ladies at this booth outnumbered the customers:

And so, for a “break” from the empty booths, some South Korean break-dancers performing at their pavilion:

On a higher (lower? stranger?) note, I had lunch at the food court at the venue on Wednesday, and decided to try something different. Instead of ordering pad thai, I ordered fried rice, and a plate of “crispy chicken knuckles”. I figure that part of living in Asia is trying food we don’t eat in Canada, and this sounded like it fit the bill. You know the cartilege parts at the joints of chicken wings? Well, batter and deep-fry them, and you have crispy chicken knuckles. Mmmmm, crunchy and chewy:

 

-Ryan

Bangkok.

I arrived in Bangkok on Sunday night, after much ado about the deteriorating situation in the country. With the opposition having occupied the Government House for several days prior to my arrival, there was some question as to the advisability of the trip.

My first meeting on Monday was being organized by the embassy: as they had not cancelled it, I decided that it should be safe enough to go. For the first day or so, it seemed that I was right, until the embassy issued a travel warning calling for Canadians to avoid all non-essential travel to the area. Jen had to cancel her visit, and I will be heading home early. I haven’t seen any real signs of the problems everyone is so concerned about, but then again, neither the hotel nor the conference venue are near the Government House. I should be heading back to Jakarta on Friday, as long as everything goes as planned. Anyways, on to the trip:

On arrival in Thailand, finding a way out of the airport was a bit confusing: I was delayed at customs for a while with an officer who I assumed was talking to me as we waited for someone to clear me through the diplomatic line. No, actually, he was trying to see if he could “connect me with a friend” who had a good deal on trips and suits and jewellery and massages…right.

Once I made it past him, everyone seemed so friendly. They call this the land of a thousand smiles, and its true. Everyone is smiling, whether genuinely interested in helping or simply trying to sell you something, All those people asking where you’re going? Taxi drivers and touts for limo companies.

I finally located the Airport Express bus, the cheapest (150 baht) means of transportation into the city. Luckily for me, my hotel was right on the route, making finding my stop a breeze.

The ride from the airport to the hotel was long but uneventful. I seem to have the misfortune of arriving in new cities at night, leaving the actual face of the city to my imagination, at least until the sun rises again. Bangkok was a busy city of lights, much like Jakarta, if a little quieter and less chaotic.

After a day of meetings, I was free to explore Bangkok. I set out on foot to see about finally eating Thai food in Thailand. My first restaurant was relatively disappointing (I hope to find a better one tonight). The pad thai was good, but I’ve had better. Staying on Silom Road, part of the city’s central business district, I should have assumed that most places in easy walking distance would be tourist traps. Lesson learned.

After killing a few hours on the internet (fast access for the first time in weeks), night came and it was time to set out for the (in)famous Patpong market. For me, the name called to mind a sprawling red-light district, but in reality it is a few narrow lanes between Silom and Surawong. At best, it could be referred to as pink-light (maybe light-red), as the many families I saw wandering around with kids were certainly not overly offended by anything on display.

On the walk from the hotel, there were two things for sale along Silom road: tailored suits and massages. Every twenty feet, there is a suit store offering made-to-measure suits for cheap prices: around $60 to $70 for a jacket and pants. Were I here longer, I might have taken them up on it – the quality of the examples was actually surprisingly good.

There were two types of massages on offer: store-front and friend-of-taxi-driver. The store-fronts are just small shops with a group of girls sitting in front trying to entice tourists in for a visit. Cute at first, annoying after the fifteenth offer of “massage mister” or “hello massage” in five minutes, they are relatively benign. Slightly shadier are the taxi and tuk-tuk drivers along the road, who pull out photo-cards of their “friends” as you walk by, offering their services in arranging a meeting. Yeah.

The main tourist area of Patpong is a lane with three lines of stalls on it. There were a wide range of offerings, falling into some pretty clear categories: fake watches, fake belts, fake sunglasses, tourist souvenirs, and DVDs. I only stopped once to check out a Canada-themed belt buckle, and decided to bargain a bit to see how flexible the prices were. After the vendor opened with 850 baht (nearly $30 CAD) and I offered 250 (around $8), we bickered a bit about the quality of the product, and I turned to leave. Immediately, the price fell to 350, then 300, and by the time I actually left, I figure I could have had it for 200 baht. Lesson: bargain hard, and start lower than you might think is polite.

The other side of Patpong is the “red-light” aspect. As I mentioned before, I found it pretty tame, at least what was visible from the street. Most places were little more than dimly-lit bars with sad (or bored)-looking bikini-clad girls dancing to the hip-hop hits of the early 2000’s. What goes on out of view of the street is decidedly less hygenic (I can only assume). Half the people on the streets outside of the bars had laminated menus to show to tourists, describing the various acts available for a price. The most popular offer was for a “ping-pong ball show. I don’t really want to know.

 

On the way back to the hotel, I decided to splurge and take a tuk-tuk. I knew that I would end up overpaying, but it was just too much fun to pass up (I ended up paying 100 baht for the five minute ride…in my defence, they started at 300 baht). Riding a tuk-tuk was top on my list of things-to-do-while-in-Thailand, and I’m pretty happy I got the chance.

After a good night’s sleep in the king-size bed at the Holiday Inn Silom, I took a bus ride to the conference venue, and the actual event began. ITU Telecom. The venue was large but relatively quiet compared to what I expected. The forum itself was interesting, though still a little over my head at times. I’ve been dealing with the tech sector in Indonesia for three weeks, so I’m still getting all of my acronyms and terms straight. By the end of the day though, I was happily learning about the implementation of advanced wireless access in Asia. Its actually pretty cool to hear people talk about 1GB/S wireless connections and high-definition, real-time video calls over the computer. Boring for some, but this is why I love my job.

Since Jen’s visit to Bangkok got cancelled due to the problems here, we are working on finding an alternative way to use the credit originally intended for her flight here. We might be able to go to Kuala Lumpur next week for a four-day weekend if we can get everything worked out. Will update as we go.

Until then, I’ll keep my eyes open, and update soon. As always, more photos on the Flickr stream.

-Ryan