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Date: 05/01/2005
We flew out from Macau, about a 3 hour bus ride from Guangzhou. The bus left from a hotel near Haizhu Guangchang (Square) We can't wait to start the trip.
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Date: 05/02/2005
We landed in Kuala Lumpur (KL) at 4:00 AM. We took a nap, then went out to watch the sunrise over the airport. Our next flight wasn't until noon, so after the sunrise, we ran off to the express train into town.
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Date: 05/02/2005
In KL, we went straight to the Petronas Towers, the tallest buildings in the world (or maybe 2nd tallest by now). It was an awesome sight.
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Date: 05/02/2005
Ahh, finally landed in Langkawi, took a taxi to the hotel. This is the view from our first floor balcony. Nice.
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Date: 05/03/2005
The first day, we took a tour of the island. One of the stops was a decidedly poor waterfall. Apparently we arrived at the very tail end of the dry season.
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Date: 05/03/2005
Instead of a waterfall, we found a family of Monkeys. The monkeys were not very shy, and allowed us to watch them for a good half hour or so. We would have stayed, but we were getting eaten alive by mosquitos.
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Date: 05/03/2005
The next stop was a fantastic beach. Tajung Rhu (Rhu is beach in malay). It is one of the prettiest beaches I have ever seen.
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Date: 05/03/2005
After that, we visited the night market. We arrived as they were setting up. I could not resist the hamburger. I don't recommend it.
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Date: 05/03/2005
This really reminds me of the horchata tank in mexican restaurants. Here they had juices, both fresh and powdered, along with iced tea and iced milo.
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Date: 05/03/2005
The island was small, we could drive around it in a couple of hours, so this was just a small local market. It met nightly, and there was lots of great food that we sampled later on.
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Date: 05/03/2005
We wandered off the path and ended up in a residential area. Cute little houses on sandy roads.
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Date: 05/03/2005
Here they are teaching Alison to count in Malay (satu, dua, tiga). I used this webpage as a phrasebook during the trip http://uk.geocities.com/ramonaali/ephrases.htm.
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Date: 05/03/2005
More kids kept coming as we stayed longer. They seemed to be related and they all live in the area. I was trying to teach the boys to skip stones.
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Date: 05/03/2005
I think we ran up and down the hill about 30 times. Ahh, the energy of youth. I threw out my back...
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Date: 05/03/2005
When we left, the whole group followed us halfway down the road. The asked us to come back the next day, but alas, it was not to be.
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Date: 05/04/2005
Alison combed the beach for shells. I picked up some trash. In general the beach was pretty nice, but with the low occupancy rate, I think they were not very active on beach patrol.
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Date: 05/04/2005
Alison spent a lot of time in the pool, something like 4 hours a day. By the last day, she was swimming, sort of, mostly.
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Date: 05/05/2005
A 2.5 hour ferry ride later, we were on the island of Pinang. Here, we met with friends of the family who showed us around. They were awesome, and Penang is simply wonderful.
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Date: 05/05/2005
This is the Koo Clan Temple. The roof decorations are more elaborate than anything I have seen in mainland China. Penang is about 60% Chinese, so there were a lot of temples and clan houses.
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Date: 05/05/2005
Looking out from the entrance of another clan temple, onto a Penang street.
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Date: 05/05/2005
The food was strongly influenced by Chinese, but also had elements from India, Malaysian, and British Culinary styles. There were lots of curryies, fried nodles and fried rice, tangy soups... yum yum!
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Date: 05/06/2005
We also took a tour of the Cheong Fat Tze mansion. Completely restored in the 90s, it was the favorite house of a turn o the century (20th century) trade baron. His story was interesting as they said he left China as a teenager with the clothes on his back, but in the evening of his years, he was able to loan the fledgling Chinese government 3 million USD to start a bank.
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Date: 05/07/2005
We left Pinang by bus, and were treated to a passive tour of inner Malaysia for 4 hours. Malaysia is a really developed country, with great roads, clean streets and well-maintained buildings. This highway rest stop was immaculate, and includes prayer-rooms for the muslim faithful. While Malaysia is predominantly muslim, it is a secular, open country, and many different faiths are followed. On one street in Penang, you can find an Anglican Church, a Hindu Temple, a Chinese Bhuddist temple, and a Mosque all within one KM.
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Date: 05/07/2005
The building behind houses the offices for the KL transit rail. The bus droppped us off here. It was great to see the traditional Muslim architecture in this modern city.
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Date: 05/07/2005
We had 2 hours to kill before we had to get to the airport, so we went shopping, of course.
