March 17, 2011 Tourists in KL, Malaysia

Walked and walked and walked in KL. Checked out Little India (had the best biriyani of my entire life), the KL Tower with the most amazing city views. We had tons of fun, a wonderful day together.

Nice cuppa chai after gorging ourselves

We just kept the Tower in view and
headed across the city toward it.
 It felt like we were on a quest for magical items.

Looking up

Gorgeous cityscape. Twin KL Towers behind me.

March 16, 2011 More KL

Walked around KL again. Found the UNIQLO store. They have an amazing screen saver clock that Christian loves so we stopped in. Turns out they have really cool clothing. When you walk in the staff shouts "Welcome to UNIQLO!" which made me feel so welcome. They had great t-shirts like one that said "I hate my skirt".  Christian bought a Kakashi (from Narudo anime) t-shirt.

For dinner we went back to the Chinese food stalls. All I wanted was some simple chicken broth with rice noodles, which the restaurant generously made for me even though it wasn't on the menu.

Christian just had a beer and then some Angry Birds. This little boy couldn't take his eyes off the game and even leaned into Christian's back at one point while watching so attentively. Think he pays such close attention to his teachers? Let's hope so.

March 15, 2011 Petronas Towers

Today we headed to the Petronas Towers, aka the Twin Towers. Weird to hear that term used. Discovered that they main part visitors can see is the gigantic mall. Tickets can get you up to the observation area and bridge linking the 2 at about floor 40 but we didn't get there in time for them. I had read there's a better view at the KL tower, which we'll see another day. The towers are stunning. The mall is just a mall.

The place we're staying is one block from one of the best areas for Chinese food stalls at night. We had a lovely steamed fish with garlic, lemon grass, chilis, etc. I don't normally eat much fish, but here it's hard to resist.

March 14, 2011 Day one in Kuala Lumpur

KL is awesome. The bus dropped us off in the middle of town at butt-early, which is sometime between 4:30AM-5:30AM if I'm not mistaken. Thank goodness there was a small diner-type restaurant open for us to loiter at.

Once it reached about 8 AM, I headed out with a man named Conny from Sweden, to find a place. He wanted to check out Chinatown, the usual backpacker area. The places were expensive dumps. He picked a clean one. I headed to a different area and found very tiny but funky place called Tropical. We got settled in then walked toward the malls, which KL has LOTS of. Malls are comforting for us while we're out of the country, which is weird since we don't care much for them at home.

On the way we had our first spectacular meal at a Pakistani buffet. Christian was insanely happy. So was I. The food here - I can't wait to eat it ALL (or as much as my limited, high-maintenance GI system will let me).

We wandered around the mall amazed at the cost of everything, which was just the usual mall prices so it shouldn't surprise us. They had a cool superhero store with some great Wonder Woman t-shirts but they were almost $50!  I stopped in to help Batman keep an eye on the city.

March 13, 2011 Thailand, bye bye! Hello, Malaysia!

Left Krabi and Thailand today. Did I mention the place we stayed at in Krabi was bubblegum pink inside and out? (No commenting on how full the bag is getting, please. I'm well aware of it.)

We were supposed to have an early morning departure to get us to Kuala Lumpur at night, but due to a screw-up of the travel agent we wound up on a later bus which meant an arrival in KL in the early morning. What can you do - it's just the way things shake out.

Late on the Krabi bus

First stop in Malaysia, first meal in Malaysia. Not sure what
made the restaurant "eco" other than the name. 

March 12, 2011 Getting lost in Krabi

We're not really near anything, surely not the ocean. Christian and I decided to just start walking and see what happens. Surprisingly, we didn't get lost. It's cool seeing the residential area instead of the tourist area. Still, wouldn't mind being closer to the water.

Where are we? Who cares!

After our walk, we settled back at the "resort" beside the swamp to avail ourselves of the wi-fi.

I loved the sounds of the swamp at night. Spectacular!

March 11, 2011 Krabi

We're staying in Krabi faaar from the shore, which is why we went there. (NOTE: never buy a package deal from TAT in Bangkok. They have a habit of screwing people over.) The place is by a "lake" which is really a dirty pond. The other side of the place is a swamp, one of the noisiest bits of nature I've ever heard, which I actually liked. Bug spray used liberally.

We walked up to the main road to find a place for dinner. We found a little place that had some tables so we figured they were probably a restaurant. They made us 2 delicious dishes, not what we ordered but who cares when it's so tasty.

Delicious and unassuming - we watched some toads eating
bugs, which was really cool.

Me, happy to be out and eating.

Mr. Big Hands

March 10, 2011 Moving on to Krabi

The beach bungalow is done. Moving on to Krabi on the mainland. Ran out to get a decent breakfast and a good cup of coffee before heading out.

We had to hurry up to get to the pier to wait for the boat. The weather was fine, though, so we didn't mind.

Here are some others waiting with us.

March 9, 2011 Getting WET again!

SCUBA diving makes me very happy. Went out to dive Sail Rock today, one of the best dive sites in this part of the ocean. The water was very choppy so most on the boat got seasick and/or took medicine for it. I must be part pirate because I didn't do either.

The dive itself was good. A whole school of barracuda surrounded us and that was intense though it wasn't unsafe. Lots of fish, not much coral.

Second dive was at the same place Christian and I tried to snorkel the day before. The visibility was crap, which sucked because it was obviously a very rich place to dive with lots of healthy coral and many fish. Still, it was good.

Me and dive master Johnny from UK

March 8, 2011 Into the water

I found a place to dive with tomorrow to see one of the best sites in this part of the ocean. They were going to a nice snorkeling area so we got up early and grabbed a ride with them, saving us about $20 in transportation. The snorkeling was only OK since the equipment we rented was c-r-a-p. The beach was nice and we had fun just goofing around in the water.

This is us waiting to take off from the scuba resort.

March 7, 2011 Koh Phangan

We have a little bungalow near a beach. There's an excellent patio/hangout area with cushions and movies playing on the TV. The island is too big to wander the whole thing, but we set out today to see what we can see from our place.

Later we went out for Mexican food since I like to do that every time I can. It's nice to eat corn and beans instead of meat and rice. It was delicious!

March 6, 2011 Overnight travel kind of blows!

As mentioned in the previous day, the whole first part of the day was spent moving from one type of transport to another and then being dropped somewhere to wait for at least an hour for the next type. It was quite exhausting.

Me at 5 AM

Christian at 9 AM

March 5, 2011 Bangkok to Koh Phangan

Had breakfast at a place that had cats so I finally, finally got some kitty love. I had been starved for some.

A man on a motorbike came by the guest house to call us a taxi to take us to the first bus station. Here we are on the first bus. The whole journey went - bus-minivan to a pier that we didn't get a boat at-bus to different pier where we waited an hour before climbing back on that same bus that took us to the end of the pier-onto a boat that took us to the island. The whole thing took 20 hours.

March 4, 2011 More Bangkok

After breakfast in Khoa San...

we visited Pantip, a megamall of technology. We managed to get out of there with only a few items totaling less than $20, and that includes the soda.

After the mall, we took the scariest tuk-tuk ride ever. We both seriously weren't sure we'd make it without getting hurt.

Headed into the heart of Khoa San for dinner. Xn got side-tracked doing a contest to get a free Tiger Beer t-shirt. Part of the challenge was to eat a bug.

I didn't do it because you also had to drink a beer.  Well, that and the bug - I'm just not there yet.

March 3, 2011 Skipping the Grand Palace

Another touristy day, we headed to the Grand Palace, the top tourist destination in Bangkok. When we got there and saw it costs $12 per person, we thought again. We sat for a while considering it and watching people walk through. They have a strict dress code to go into the grounds. You have to have your legs completely covered and shoulders covered. There's a booth where you can rent appropriate clothing. Appropriate being relative, that is. The men who needed pants were given some seriously hilarious ones.

We took a few photos outside the gate and then walked back to a nearby university of art.

The art school was a great idea. It was free, but more than that, they had wonderful exhibits. One was of Corrado Feroci, an Italian artist who moved to Thailand and lived the rest of his life there. He brought Modernism to the art in Thailand, and he fell in love with classic Thai art, which he also embraced. He worked for the King and became a key figure in Thai art history.

The other exhibit was a huge hall filled with sculpture. It was all of people, including this gigantic Buddha head made by the above-mentioned Feroci.

We were both quite pleased with finding something to do that was authentic, excellent and free. All we had to do was take a few steps off the beaten path.

March 2, 2011 Actually a Buddhist holiday!

There's a common scam people pull on tourists in Bangkok. They'll see you looking on a map or trying to figure out where something is and they'll say, 'Oh, that place is closed for a Buddhist holiday, but you can go to this other place, which is better.' This was pulled on us. When we got back to Bangkok this time, a few people told us it was a Buddhist holiday and we were very leery, but it turns out it actually was.
This was the big fair happening at the site of the giant standing Buddha.

Because of the holiday and the big push to get more tourists to Thailand, there was a special on tuk-tuks taking tourists to various temples. The first one we saw was the one above then we went to this other one where there were a bunch of tall ones, though not nearly as tall as the first one. Still, you have to admit, that's one tall Buddha I'm standing under.

Another reason tourists may want to visit - the food. I was very happy to be back in Thailand and eating Thai food!

While we were talking into our guest house, there was a late night bean sprout delivery truck. Totally serious. These 3 big buckets are full of bean sprouts as was the entire truck.

March 1, 2011 Cambodia, see ya! Hello again, Thailand

Very long travel day from Battambang, Cambodia to Bangkok, Thailand. I drank a cup of coffee, but maybe that wasn't enough or maybe it was something else, but I got extraordinarily sick by the end of the day (migraine, nausea, hot-cold sweats). We got to Khoa San Road and found an it'll-have-to-do place so I could just lay my head down. It sucked!

This photo was from the start of the day, however, when I was just happy to be heading back to Thailand.

February 28, 2011 Too much information

I've been spending a lot of time learning about things that scare the poop out of me. We forgot to take photos this day because we didn't really do anything but do online stuff and hang out so I staged this triptych honoring my recent obsession with the economy, peak oil, peak water, peak food, climate change, etc.

OH, MAN - WHAT'S HAPPENING?

WELL, WHAT CAN WE DO?

WE CAN LOVE EACH OTHER, THAT'S WHAT!