Coolangatta, Qld to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia
Pat and I spent the past week with Mum at the
Gold Coast and had great days with her.
We’ve now done the final packing of our bags and we’re about to hit the
road once again.
Our flight with Air Asia out of Coolangatta
to Kuala Lumpur went very well, with me sleeping most of the way, I'm not sure Pat slept as well. The Air Asia fares are very reasonably priced
so I was interested to see what the flight would be like. Admittedly there is less seating space, but
that didn’t seem to worry me at all. If
you’re out to save a few dollars it is well worth checking out.
We had pre-booked our accommodation in Kuala
Lumpur at Hotel 1915, which is just on the edge of Chinatown and close to buses
and transport. KL has a great free bus
system – the Hop On Hop Off Bus. The Petronas Towers are the world’s tallest
twin towers and was surpassed in height as the tallest buildings by the 101
Tower in Taipei, Taiwan, although Petronas's claim to fame is that they are the
world’s highest Twin Towers.
Malaysia is mainly comprised of Malays,
Indians and Chinese, with smaller percentages of many other Asian
nationalities. The Government favours
the Malay people, with other Nationalities pushing for a new Government and
equal rights, particularly the Indians who have been in Malaysia for over 200
years, but don’t have the same benefits as the Malays.
There are many great places to visit in KL
from Chinatown to Little India, Wang Shopping Centre with over 1,000 shops, the
Central market and Bukit Bintang, KL’s Golden Triangle. Our bus took us to see the Royal Palace,
although visitors are not allowed inside.
KL also boasts about having a very large green belt within the city
area.
We decided on a change of pace, bused up to
the Cameron Highlands and checked into Grandfather’s Guesthouse at Tanah
Rata. The highlands, which are covered
in lush vegetation were quite hot during the day and then very cold at
night. We booked onto an organised mini
bus trip and visited many interesting places in the Highlands, namely the Bee
Farm, the Rose Garden, the Strawberry Farm and the wonderful Tea Plantation. On this trip we met up with a German couple,
Elke and Joerg who were great company.
In the evening we went to a little local
restaurant for some local food, which was excellent. The lady running this place used to cook for
the British Governor in bygone days, in itself a good recommendation. In this restaurant (sitting on plastic chairs on a concrete floor) we met two very interesting
ladies. The first, eighty year old Elizabeth
was English and in 1957 she left England to teach in France and she has not
stopped travelling ever since. She
certainly was slightly eccentric and a couple of dinners with her was enough
for me, but all the same she was very interesting to chat with. Her friend Anne, about 70 years of age was
also English and spends her holidays cycling around third world countries – she
amazed me at some of the countries she has travelled in – alone! She and her family organise to go on cycling
holidays from Britain every year.
Following a tropical downpour we walked back
to our guesthouse only to find the flooded creek and blocked drains had cut the
road off to our accommodation – off came the boots, then we trudged up and over
the muddy bank to our side of the flooded creek.
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| Tea Plantation |
Our next trip was by bus from the Cameron
Highlands to Georgetown in Penang where we checked into the Red Inn Heritage
Guesthouse for a couple of nights. The
historical area is very interesting and good for walking around, combined with
the city’s free buses, makes it great for seeing the sights. We took one of the local buses and travelled
to the southern part of Penang to a fishing village, where we had lunch and
then Skyped Sonya for her birthday. In
the afternoon we took a break from the rain in a little coffee shop and had our
first latte and cappuccino since we had left home.
We booked onto the ferry to Langkawi, picked
up a hire car and headed to a hotel right on a lovely beach for the next 4
days. Elke and Joerg who we had met in
Tanah Rata were staying at the same hotel, but we were surprised that they had
not arrived. In fact, they were a day
behind schedule as Elke was admitted to hospital in Georgetown with a serious
stomach/bowel condition which she had picked up during her travels. Jorge picked her up from the hospital early
in the morning and headed down to catch the early morning ferry to
Langkawi. Relaxing near the beach over
the next few days, she quickly improved and was soon back to normal.
We spent a couple of days driving around the
island and visited several craft displays and local villages. On Elka’s second day she felt well enough to
travel so she and Joerg joined us for a day trip. The Galeria Perdana is a top choice for culture,
displaying a wealth of gifts to Mahatir Mohamad, the former Prime
Minister. Firstly you notice the
beautiful ceilings inside this museum and then the amazing collection of absolutely
wonderful creations. There is fine
silver work, great handcrafts, artworks, sculptures and plenty of history, even
a wooden bicycle. Most gifts were
presentations to Mahatir Mohamad by visiting leaders from many different
countries and show arts and crafts from their particular parts of the world. We spent a few hours browsing the many items,
reading the tags and generally enjoying this great place. The Craft Cultural Complex in Teluk Yu is another
interesting place to visit to learn about Langkawi, with its four museums in
one.
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| Langkawi |
At
the end of our 4 days in Langkawi, we flew back to KL, stayed overnight and
then flew onto Chiang Mai.
Chiang Mai, Thailand
We arrived in Chiang Mai and were warmly
welcomed by Debbie and Mike who we have travelled with both in Mongolia and right across Russia. They have lived in Chiang
Mai for almost four years and recommended we visit while they are still in
residence, so this was a perfect opportunity for us to see Northern Thailand.
Debbie and Mike live on the 24th
floor of a residential building, the tallest building in Chiang Mai, which
makes it easy to find our way back home when we’re out walking. Their apartment is spacious and has been
traditionally and beautifully decorated by Debbie and Mike in Asian furniture
and antiques. Our bedroom is gorgeous
and comes complete with bedside tables, lovely lamps and a four poster bed with
a canopy (Kelli eat your heart out). The apartment is on two floors and there is a
whole wall of glass and windows with views sweeping across Chiang Mai and the
river to the mountains beyond. We
arrived in time for the dual festivals of Yi Peng and Loi Krathong, the
Festival of Light. We were lucky enough
to see the thousands of lit lanterns floating high up into the sky and others
floating along the river over many days.
What a welcome to Chiang Mai.
Loi Krathong takes place on the evening of the full moon of
the 12th month in the traditional Thai Lunar calendar. In the western calendar this usually falls in
November. Loi means 'to float', while krathong refers to a usually lotus-shaped container which floats
on the water. Loi Krathong is
very hard to translate, requiring a word describing what a Krathong looks like
such as Floating Crown, Floating Boat, Floating Decoration. The traditional
krathong are made of the layers of the trunk of a banana tree or a spider lily plant.
Thais launch their krathong on a river, canal or a pond, making a wish
as they do so. The festival may
originate from an ancient ritual paying respect to the water spirits.
Only four days prior to the
raucous Loy Krathong shindigs the same enthusiastic crowds will be tearing it
up across the nation celebrating Yi Peng. During this centuries-old
celebration thousands gather to send the country’s famous paper lanterns
skyward; paying homage to Lord Buddha and wiping the proverbial slate clean.
Following our arrival in Chiang Mai, our
first visit was to the Foot Massager.
The four of us visited a local salon and lined up in reclining chairs
where four practitioners commenced the one hour foot and shoulder massages. This for me was very different and yes
wonderful.
Our visit to Chiang Mai and Northern Thailand
has been fantastic, so much so that I haven’t kept up my blog, so I’ll attempt
to catch up and generalize our trips.
We had several visits to the Warorat markets,
where we shopped regularly for groceries, great local fruit and
vegetables. We also visited the Night
Bazaar several times and a crazy shop we nicknamed Chiang Mai Plastics – if you
can’t find it, it’s not made! I also decided
to have a couple of shirts made, so visited Debbie’s local dressmaker, with
great (and economical) results. During
our stay in Chiang Mai Debbie and I had some good days out especially a visit
to her hairdresser, Khun Ong and a visit to the material shops to buy fabric. Pat likes to cook, so he made his Thai Tucker
(as our kids affectionately call it)
for Debbie and Mike – no complaints from them at all. He made soup, green curry chicken and rice.
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| Famous Foot & Shoulder Massage |
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| Bell ringing for our Kitty ... |
Debbie and Mike help less advantaged people
and are currently involved in the organisation of a fairly new project
Bandekdee Orphanage. What a great
experience for us when we spent a day meeting the Mum and Dad (themselves
orphans), their own two children and then the 14 hill tribe children they have brought
into their home and set up the Bandekdee Orphanage. The wonderful observation about this couple,
is how wonderfully they treat all these children with the same care and
love. Our day was spent helping the
children make Christmas decorations for their Christmas tree. It was great to have a one to one with the
children and to be able to enjoy their company.
On their party day a few days later we joined in and took finger food to
the children for a Christmas party. We
could see they did not have a substantial, working refrigerator, so we went
shopping and bought a fridge which was delivered on the day of the party. There was great excitement getting (and
fitting) it into the small kitchen, but it was very well received. Hopefully there’ll be many great years ahead
for them all and lots of great meals coming out of that little kitchen. An experience we’ll never forget and will
always treasure.
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| The Baby of Bandekdee Orphanage |
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| Stories of the children |
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| The beautiful Mum in her kitchen |
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| My favourite .. the three sisters ... |
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| The art of making tea |
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| Our home on the 24th floor |
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| A challenge .. finding Debbie in a fabric shop |
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| A novel idea with the Christmas tape .. |
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| The baby puts the star on the tree |
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| Christmas at Bandekdee |
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| My favourite .. the Walking Buddha |
Pat and I headed over to the Masseuse, where
we had booked in for a two-hour Thai massage.
I could not imagine ever allowing myself to be pampered for two hours,
so I was in for an experience of a different kind. Pat and I were given 2 sets of loose clothing
to dress in and were then ushered onto floor mats where Malee and Wan were
ready and waiting. Well I am amazed at
how much I enjoyed this massage and how restful it is. Mike explained that it is often referred to
as being equivalent to a Yoga session. I
also had “eyebrow threading” done while I was with Malee – it stings a bit, but
it’s crazy how quick they are and how well they manage plucking out hair with
twisted cotton held between their hands and teeth!
One day we headed up the mountain to Doi
Sutep where we visited a beautiful temple at the top of a staircase, guarded on
both sides of the staircase by two, seven-headed dragons. Pat visited Thailand in 1970, so he had
already been to this lovely part of the world.
We had a great lunch at a wonderful restaurant in Maesae and sat on the
verandah with a view through to a waterfall.
PJ and Sonya spent some time in Chiang Mai
when they were on their honeymoon, so Pat followed up their visit in 2000 to
the Ba Ba Bo Bo Bar, where he bought PJ a polo shirt bearing the name of the
bar. We spent a lot of hours walking in
and around the city near to where we were staying and really enjoyed the
exercise. A couple of times we took
local transport and climbed onboard a Tuk Tuk for the trip home.
Our driver arrived in the early morning,
packed our luggage into the back of the van and we headed north on a road trip
to visit Thailand’s northern area called “The Golden Triangle”. Over the next few days we visited many great
places and had a great time touring The Golden Triangle. We experienced Oolong tea tasting and a great
little ceremony at Maesalong. At Doi
Ankhan we visited the Royal Project and saw the great farms and places which
were set up by the King to encourage and help the hill tribe people to grow
flowers and other produce as opposed to the growing of opium. We stayed at the Ankhan Nature Resort for the
night and enjoyed the surroundings.
We took a longboat and headed up the Mekong River
to a little village which is actually in Laos – my first visit to this
country. We visited Chiang Rai for a
couple of days, stayed at Dusit Island Resort and enjoyed Chiang Rai’s famous
pineapples. We also had a visit to the
amazing and beautiful White Wat and the Black Wat. The Emerald Buddha at Wat Preakaeo was also
great to see and it has an interesting history.
We headed out of Chiang Mai for another trip
to Sokhothai Historical Park and Si Satchanalai, two beautiful areas of ancient
ruins and temples. There are many acres
of these ruins and we thoroughly enjoyed walking around many of their sites.
Sokhothai is most famous for the ruins of the ancient city Sokhothai. The name translates as "the dawn of happiness". The province is located on the lower edge of the northern region, 427 kilometres north of Bangkok, and covers some 6,596 square kilometres. The city is a popular tourist destination because it is located near the ruins of the ancient city of Sokhothai, which was the Thai capital during the 13th Century C.E. The historical Sukhothai was the first capital of Siam founded by King Ramkhamhaeng. The province's temples and monuments have been restored and Sokhothai Historical Park is an area with numerous sites of historical interest which has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Other interesting places include Ramkhamhaeng National Museum, Ramkhamhaeng National Park, Sri Satchanalai National Park, and The Royal Palace and Wat Mahathat.
A visit to Chiang Mai would not be complete
without a visit to a cooking school. Pat
found a new one called the Galangal Cooking School which sounded good, so the
four of us set out for our classes. An
enterprising young lady has set up this new school and we had a great visit to
the local markets, then to the preparation of our meals and most
importantly the eating of our creations.
We thoroughly enjoyed the experience and the food was truly amazing. We all received a cook book with recipes of our dishes, so
we’ll be able to recreate the same dishes when we return home
On our last night in Chiang Mai we took
Debbie and Mike out for dinner to the Hofbrauhaus for dinner, which was a bit
of a break from our delicious Thai food, which we love. Our time with Debbie and Mike in Chiang Mai
has been absolutely fantastic. We hope
one day soon they will make it to our shores so that we will have the
opportunity to extend the same welcome to them that we have received here.
Bangkok – Guangzhou – Los Angeles – Orlando
Our flight left Chiang Mai for Bangkok and
all was well. A few hours later we
boarded our flight from Bangkok to Guangzhou, China. Just before we arrived in Guangzhou our plane
was diverted to another airport to sit out a weather pattern and traffic
congestion in Guangzhou. We sat on the
tarmac for 3 hours, which then began two days of stopovers and waiting. By the time we reached Guangzhou our flight
to LA had already left, so we were put up for the night in a hotel in Guangzhou.
To the best of our knowledge, we had confirmed with the airline that our onward flights had been reinstated from LA to Orlando, Florida. When we arrived in LA, yes you guessed it, our onward flights were not booked and they put us up for yet another night in LA before we could get a flight to Orlando.
The following morning we finally boarded our aircraft and were on our way to Orlando to meet up with PJ, Sonya, Flynn, Liam and Ayla. I sent PJ a text message telling him to organise their day and that we’d catch up with them all for dinner later in the evening. The flight went well and we were happy when we finally arrived in Orlando. We had just lost two days of our precious Christmas holiday time with the family, so we’ll just have to make up for lost time.
