2012 Malaysia and Thailand to Florida

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.

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.

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 24^th 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.

Famous Foot & Shoulder Massage

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.

The Baby of Bandekdee Orphanage

Stories of the children

The beautiful Mum in her kitchen

My favourite .. the three sisters ...

The art of making tea 

Our home on the 24th floor 

A challenge .. finding Debbie in a fabric shop

A novel idea with the Christmas tape ..

The baby puts the star on the tree 

Christmas at Bandekdee

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.