Paris, France!

Paris: Yes, its that good!

Arriving at Charles De Gaulle Airport we were delighted to find there was no visa fee required to enter France. This not only saved us some cash but covered our asses. In all the planning for our surprise trip home, we forgot to check the process/requirements for entering the country which could have lead to real problems. Nevertheless, western civilization had the last laugh at our expense when the cab ride from the airport to our hotel cost a staggering 70 euros (approximately $100 USD).
We had been up for roughly twenty hours by the time we pulled up in front of the hotel. Exhausted and hungry we threw our packs off in the room and headed to the corner cafe for dinner. The weather was warm and pleasant as we hobbled down the cobblestone streets. The feeling of being on a Hollywood movie set came to mind. Everything you think Paris would be like, it is and so much more. The cafe was charming and inviting with cozy intimate seating. We ordered a bottle of red wine, a pasta dish and a gourmet sandwich which was delicious and completely eaten within ten minutes. After finishing the bottle, we were off to bed, sleep was needed.
Refreshed we woke up early to take full advantage of the short three day visit to this magnificent city. First stop, just like the French, was to the local patisserie shop to indulge in buttery, chocolatey sweet delicacies. On a sugar high we walked to the Eiffel Tower from our hotel and down the Champ de Mars then continued along the Seine River. The city was amazingly detailed with sculptures and many other architectural beauties. The bridges were adorned with carved stone and the huge water fountains were fit for Zeus. Decadence is the best way to describe it. Decadent and beautiful!
Avenue Des Champs Elysees showcases the fabulous Paris shopping district. A three story Louis Vitton store anchors the corner lot not to be out done by the svelte Abercrombie & Fitch models who are paid to be stunningly good looking and open the door for customers. High fashion is everywhere with the seductive scent of perfume floating in the air. These people make living life in high fashion look damn good. Everyone strutted as if they were the next top fashion model.
At the end of the Avenue stands the Arc de Triomphe. The Arc de Triomphe honors those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars, with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces. Beneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I. It was easy to see why it was named one of the most visited monument in Paris.
If, or better yet, when, we return to Paris more time will be spent at the Louvre Museum. It is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. We walked our legs off for 5 hours in the Louvre and maybe saw a tenth of the displays. Five days is a more appropriate amount of time to truly appreciate every masterpiece individually, but with time lacking we focused on the key attractions first. These included the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa. That's right, I stood face to face and looked Mona Lisa herself in the eye. Pretty freaking awesome!
We also spent 3 hours visiting the Musee D'orsay, the famed art, painting, and sculpture museum where you can take in the works of Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir, Cezanne, Degas, Gauguin...if you make it to Paris, do not skip this place, it's less crowded and you can get closer and feel less intruded in viewing the paintings you've always heard about. Amazing!
Last but not least on the sightseeing walk is Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris located on the Seine river. It is a cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Paris: that is, it is the church that contains the cathedral (official chair) of the Archbishop of Paris, currently André Vingt-Trois. We weren't able to go inside but the outside at sunset was breathtaking.
Outside of being incredibly expensive, Paris was amazing and is a must see city, we look forward to going back with friends and experiencing even more. It was incredibly easy to walk, beautiful, amazing food, and history at your fingertips daily. It was odd to check off all these "bucket list" places to see and visit in a short 2 days of walking Paris, but it is just filled with so much history and is well a planned and picturesque city.
That night we had our farewell dinner to Paris AND to the end of our eleven month journey abroad. The next day we'd be on a plane back to the States (Paris to Dublin, Dublin to Chicago, Chicago to Louisville) It was time, we were gassed out and ready to surprise family and see friends again. Not to mention a long long hot shower and fluffy pillows and crispy clean sheets :)

Jaipur, India

The "Not So Pink" Pink City of Jaipur

Train stations are intriguing places. One minute you're scrambling because you have not idea which way to go, can't read the signs and dare take the advise of the wrong local. Next, you're kicked back smoking beedies with the security guards who were carrying assault rifles, too fun! They were nice and chatted us up for more than our five-- fifteen minute delays at Agra Fort. Once aboard the train almost 2 hours late, we headed West down the tracks in pursuit of Jaipur or better know as the "pink city."

In 1876 the old city was painted pink, a color associated with hospitality to welcome the Prince of Wales. While that's a grand gesture and I'm sure stunning at the time, the fierce desert sun has taken its toll on this majestic city leaving everything muted under a layer of sand. Todd and I were both disappointed but I'm not sure what exactly we expected. A city washed in Pepto it was not, maybe dusty orange, but none-the-less we were pleasantly surprised with our lovely guesthouse.

During our time in Jaipur we explored Jantar Mantar, an observatory began by Jai Singh in 1728. He measured time by the place the sun's shadow fell on the huge sundials and charted the annual progress through the zodiac. Each sculpture had a specific purpose, such as calculating eclipses. Neat place that really makes you appreciated how far we've come. The Hawa Mahal was on my personal list of sights to see in India. I dreamed about seeing this remarkable, delicately honeycombed, pink sandstone structure ever since I started planning our trip. So, you can imagine the heartbreak when the auto-rick pulled up in front of it and it was utter chaos. This most distinctive landmark was on a most heavily trafficked street and smack dab in the middle of a bazaar. Todd held the rick while I moved through the homeless, the beggars and the thousands of locals shopping to take a few camera shots before being wrangled back for holding up traffic. Tranquil? I think Not! Does it look like the picture-books?...well, yes, if you get in the perfect spot and don't snap the pic while thousands are hustling by.

The rest of our time in Jaipur was spent scouting out last minute gifts and souvenirs. Jaipur is shopping heaven and known for its silver. We spent a few hours perusing a fine silver shop and customizing a couple of silver trinkets for ourselves. For me, I chose a unique set of bangles and for Todd a silver bracelet and chain. Todd and I both bought camel leather shoes for $2 each and a few pieces of Indian attire. We found bundles of bargains at the night bazaar and then enjoyed our last meal in India at a scrumptious local spot just down the road from our guesthouse.

Now, after ten months......back to Western Civilization!

Taj Mahal and Agra Photos

The Taj Mahal (Agra, India)

As the train pulls into Agra Fort we breathe a sigh of relief we didn’t get pick pocketed as this train ride from Varanasi is notorious for things disappearing we hear. We also can tell right away this city is less chaotic and populated. Of course the usual routine of getting the tuktuk, finding the guesthouse and the nearest eatery applied. This is all pretty standard travel day stuff, until.... a body prepared for cremation was carried past the entrance of our restaurant followed by two huge albino Hindu cows and moments later a camel. That my friends is where the standard routine ends and is replaced with “I can’t believe that just happened” part of your day. And just like that you’re seeing the world with brand new eyes.

While the Taj Mahal is not a stand alone attraction in Agra it seems to continuously captivate me like a moth to a wondrous flame. Long story short: Emperor Shah Jahan built it as a memorial to his second wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died giving birth to their 14th child in 1631. The Taj took 22 years to complete with the help of over 20,000 workers and specialists and a small fortune. Popular legend is that the Emperor wanted to create a mirror image in negative using all black marble as a personal tomb. This plan obviously fell threw when he was overthrown and incarcerated by his son for the daring to spend so much of his inheritance.

Touring hours were closing for the day at the Taj so we decided to take to the air on the roof and watch the sun set over the Eastern Gate, it was beautiful. Our guide book suggested sunrise as the most glorious time to view this marble masterpiece and not sweat our asses off being out in the heat of the day. Not much convincing to do there, so 5am the next day we arose bright eyed and bushy tailed determined to beat the crowd to the award winning camera shot of the Taj Mahal.

Nothing speculator at the side gate entrance, its as you step into the dark archway of the center gate the Taj begins to illuminate as the first morning’s sunlight unfolds onto the domes. It is MAGNIFICENT! Truly a wonder of the world. Or as the Indian poet Rabi Ndranath Tagore summed up its beauty – “a teardrop on the face of eternity.” We strolled for several hours admiring the exquisite details and craftsmanship, taking our own cheesy touristy photo shots, watching the other cheesy tourists and being enchanted by the Indian women’s saris in their vibrant colors as they float in front of the white Mable wonder. Despite the hype, its every bit as good as you’ve heard. That first picturesque moment when it comes into full view is really just jaw dropping. Postcard perfect, only the Taj and the bright blue sky, nothing is allowed to be built in the background so as to take away from the beauty. Wow!

Todd and I did par take in a few other activities while in Agra such as feeding chipmunks at Agra Fort. Agra has one of the finest Mughal forts in India. We also saw the Baby Taj or Itimad-ud-daulah, which lacks the magic of the Taj but holds several similar design elements. I’d like to add that it is here where Todd rescued a baby chipmunk. The streets were much more conducive for walking so we searched out a few hot spots with several great dishes of local fare that were delicious. Our tops were fresh noodles, marsala tea, spinach paneer and lots of fresh hot roti and naan. Agra was a peaceful and beautiful place with scrumptious food, friendly people and the Taj Mahal as icing on the cake. We did not forget to grab a few small gifts of marble, as Agra is famous for it's marble obviously.

Probably important as a reminder for travelers though, Agra is only famous for the Taj Mahal, so there's not exactly that much else to do there. Just a bit more. But great people. It's best for a 2 day stop, but after that be ready to move on.

Varanasi and the Ganges River

Falling down the rabbit hole into Varanasi, India

Now that was a fast flight, a mere 1 hr later and we’ve made the hop to India. Welcome to never-never land, we’ve ventured far down the rabbit hole it appears. Varanasi is one of the holiest cities in India as the great Ganges River (the locals call it Gahn-Ga, not Gan-Geez) runs through here. It is a town frequented for pilgrimages to bathe and pray, as well as a final resting place.
Let’s see how to describe??...... bright colors, clean your nostrils over-powering dirt, beautiful dresses, in your face poverty, cheerful smiles, Amazing food, quick flooding streets, trash-trash-trash, scams, haggling, mecca of all silk weaving, sweltering heat, sign-less streets, crowded traffic, noise, horns, dodging cow paddies, bodies cremating, ashes floating, bathing with dirty water, pollution, begging, dodging the cows that left the paddies, friendly people, sharing and the list goes on. Varanasi for our first city has a massive list of love it, hate it’s already. A mix of the best and the worst that you want to experience.
The holiness of the city floats through the air, yet each time you step out of the tuk, a small scam or hand-out awaits. It’s a place where walking on the street would prove highly difficult as the traffic of bikes, motos, tuks, cars, jeeps, and rick-shaws would likely run you over. It’s a place where the finest silk in the entire world is found. We saw the ancient artists weave the most impressive pieces for tourists like ourselves to haggle over. Paying only a fraction of what they’re likely worth for someone who just worked 2 months hand-looming a bedspread. Truly impressive, the looms are so complex and we found it to be more like fine art than anything else. The river really is the central focus of the entire city though, it’s all about the great Gang-Ga River. We partook in the quintessential boat tour up and down the river to view the colorful buildings and ghats. Ghats, we’ve learned at basically bathing areas along the river, mostly made up of simple concrete steps leading down into the swiftly running river. Overall, Varanasi lived up and far exceeded the chaotic reputation we knew the cities in India would carry. It was truly a different land!

K K K K K K Kathmandu (Nepal, Mt. Everest and the top of the world)

Well, that’s a first. Flying into a city at 30,000 ft and off in the distance a mountain top is about as high as you are, peaking it’s way far above the clouds. Really something to behold.
Wow, what an enjoyable weather change. Kathamandu, Nepal just kicks arse. It’s beautiful and the weather is like mid-fall in KY, ever so slightly cool, just right to wear jeans and a tee-shirt, maybe a sweater or light jacket at night, our favorite time of year. The people so far are overly friendly, speak pretty decent English and are very laid back. The only annoyance may be the constant touts wanting you to take their trekking expedition over their neighbors. The women wear beautiful, colorful clothing, and are themselves beautiful. Lots of smiling faces and greetings of “Namaste”. Namaste is a common greeting and could be interpreted as a sign of respect and saying hello, but has a deeper meaning as well, reflecting “The divinity in me, bows to the divinity in you.” It’s followed by a modest bow with hands folded, fingers pointing to the heavens.
We rode one heck of a bumpy taxi ride to the our hotel, brightly named “The Peace Zone Hotel”, about 15 walking minutes outside of Themel, Kathamandu. Themel is the “backpacker, trekker, partier, shopper district” of Ktm. We wanted to be close but just far away to get some sleep at night as well. I’d recommend our hotel to anyone, just as friendly as they could be.
Grace- Kathamandu is where Marian’s bar was in the first Indiana Jones Movie.
Mt. Everest was unfortunately difficult to see this time of year, it’s a bit too cloudy and you’d just get lucky to see the peak from the ground, unless you trekked up to base camp (some 18,000 ft and 14 days journey, and quite expensive, which we could not do). So we opted for the Bouddha Airline flight around the Himalayan Peak, where you could get above the clouds, see the Summit and vast stretches of the mountain range. It was AMAZING! Absolutely AMAZING to see. Check out the pics.
We also went on 2 different “treks”, complete with personal guide and porter (someone to carry our pack). One was a 4 day journey and the other 6 days, taking us to different areas of the lower Himalayan range, where some of the best views, easier walks and fine weather could be had. We stayed in tea-house along the way (small guest-cottages), and pigged out on the local fare to fuel the 5 hours+ of daily trekking. We Loved it! Walking around the mountain ranges of the Himalayas, forests, lakes, streams, with the most spectacular back-drop possible, man, we feel so fortunate. These views are going to be tough to top.

Kathmandu, Nepal

Sanya and Gillian, China (little rest and beauty)

Gonna keep this one short, We flew to the city of Sanya, which was touted as kind of China’s version of Hawaii. It was definitely a restful place and beautiful, but pretty sure it’s no Hawaii. Our “resort” kept us lingering around the pool and beach for 4 days, sleeping, reading, and overall chillin. Not much happened here, just a restful place to get away from the crowds in China, it’s easy to see why they vacation here. The only interesting thing to point out was that the giant pool was never visited during the day hours, hardly at all. But around nightfall the entire hotel seemed to come out and that was the time to go swimming. It appears Chinese dislike the sun and enjoy the pool almost exclusively at night. The hotel had it lit colorfully and lifeguards on duty for the crowds. Different and unique.
After vegging in Sanya, we hopped another short flight to Gillian (pronounced Gway-Lin). Where we enjoyed the natural limestone mountains scenery for a few days, sampled the local rice noodles (far too many times), and unfortunately witnessed a full on mafia beat-down walking home one day. Gillian is a lot like Halong Bay in Vietnam, except the limestone mountains shoot up from the land instead of water, very beautiful, great place to snap pictures and take a tough hike or casual lift to the top of one for epic green views. We went to a few large parks and met a new friend whilst sucking down rice noodles. We were invited to dinner and shared too much food and broken English conversation filled with humor and many smiles to fill the void. ______ was a sales rep for a company and just out of University. We shared our joy of good Kung Fu and fighting movies and beer 
One of the unfortunate parts of travel has been the odd incidences. While walking back to our hotel from a very busy park, we noticed a little mini-van rocking side to side in the parking lot. We stopped as there were 2 ladies and 2 men outside just watching the same thing. We were about 15-20 feet away. It didn’t take long to figure out, but a middle-aged man in the front seat was being punched from both sides of the car while he was sitting in the car. We suspected a robbery or possibly him coming upon someone trying to steal his car. However, after 30 seconds of punching, kicking, etc., they pulled him out onto the crowd, gave several swift kicks, shouts, and then ran off, empty handed. All the local bystanders (who were actual passengers in the vehicle, did not interfere, shout for help, call police, or anything). The 2 ladies and other 2 men picked him up, put him in the mini-van, then drove off. The 2 dishing out the beating took nothing, so we’re guessing it was a “message” being delivered of some sort. Glad I did not go over to help out. That was the tough part, watching this and not being able to understand the shouting or language to even know what is going on. Pretty scary stuff, broad day light and highly odd the other passengers did not intervene. Nothing like an eventful last day in China 

Xian and Chengdu

Xian and Chengdu, China (Terracotta Warriors and Baby Pandas)

After arriving in Xian and settling into the extremely difficult to find hotel, we were pretty excited to be off the train and just laying in a bed. We got up early the next morning though and headed to see the very famous Terracotta Warriors just outside Xian. We hit it first thing in the morning before the bus-loads of tourists get up and swamp the place, making it too hard to even snap a picture. Funny how we try to avoid the tourists, as if we were anything less.
I’d classify the Warriors as possibly the 8th wonder of the world. Unbelievable detail and scope. Over 8,000 life-size warriors, horses, chariots, weapons, etc were found buried in Xian by a farmer digging for a water well. My cousin Jason Coomes would have enjoyed that dig  Every warrior is unique. Their facial expressions, hair, weapons, decoration, armor, etc, is all individual. The King at that time wanted an army surrounding his tomb and seeing him into the after-life, and after all that work, he buried them all around his tomb, sheesh. Hard to believe the influence, power and money a King could command I guess. It’s a must see. We snapped a 100 pictures surely, and were lucky enough to get them before the thousands of other tourists rolled in. I believe some 25,000 people visited it the day we were there and the site is big, but not that big. Former President Clinton was lucky enough to get to scale down into the dig and have his picture beside a warrior, unfortunately ours were from a different view, but awe filled none-the-less. There’s not too much in Xian otherwise, it’s famous for the warriors and it’s also a damn big city, some 8,000,000+ I believe. Christina and I did partake in a massive German styled but Chinese buffet restaurant twice, Chinese girls dressed up like German beer maids, odd and funny. They served beer by the mini-kegs at your table. Christina proved herself worthy and crushed her fair share of liters. Atta-girl, she hasn’t lost a step.
We hopped a plane and headed for Chengdu (pronounced like it looks). Christina was stoked to check out the Giant Panda reserve and research center. We again got up bright and early and snagged a taxi to the park. The pictures tell it all, they all look like teddy bears and they’re pretty clever, goofy, and lazy, just like a bear should be. They are not imposing, more characters than fearsome predators, after all, they only pretty much each bamboo and some fruits, but mostly bamboo. They were only active for just a few short hours in the morning when it was cool and they could get some breakfast and then play around, then it was too hot and time to head inside to the A/C and became much more difficult to see them. They are obviously an endangered species and found only naturally in very few places in China, where they were once abundant. The baby/toddlers were by far the most enjoyable to watch, as they pretty much hammed it up, wrestled, splashed and posed for the cameras. We were also treated to a very rare species called the Red Panda, which looked like a cross between a fox, panda, and raccoon. It was a beautiful animal with a brilliant red fur coat, about the size of a really really big raccoon, but had the paws and snout of a panda, super interesting. Outside of the pandas, Chengdu was another massive city, 6,000,000+, pretty clean and well planned, but busy busy none the less. Christina and I did dominate a local muslim noodle shop about 5 times. Grubbing on dishes of fresh pulled noodles and veggies for about $1 a massive plate, along with local cold beers. They were indeed the best noodles ever. We also treated ourselves to the first tex-mex we’ve had in a long long time, although it was a little lacking, we had a fun time eating tortilla chips and drinking Corona. Don’t worry, we’re walking off all the beer calories more than enough, we get some serious walking/exploring in just about daily.
Next stop- Sanya, the “Hawaii of China”.

On the night train...

Night train to Xian (Shee-an), China
We hopped a hard sleeper train from Nanjing to Xian (Shee-an). Wow, that was a first/different experience! The train itself was fine, not a high-speed bullet though, so it took around 18 hours to get to Xian, whew. Getting on the train was quite an experience. Imagine about 200 people jockeying and pushing and shoving to filter through 2 turn styles to gain entrance to the train platform. No que line, no boarding pass number, no orderly line, just everyone fighting for themselves to get through, it was like its own little mosh pit, everyone trying to converge on the same point at once, luggage in tow. Christina looked at me and rolled her eyes while we put our elbows out and forearms in front to make our way through. Grown men were shoving each other and I had to clothesline a 5’2” China-woman to ensure Christina could gain access to gate. If you don’t hold your own here, you’re gonna get run right over. F-ing Crazy! King of Fun, but crazy and not expected. Ahh the contradictions. China- How can you not design an orderly boarding line and yet produce trains that go 220mph??? No idea. We realized what the fighting was about to get on as fast as possible though. On the sleeper trains you’re given 1 of 6 bunk beds in a room about 7x8 ft. Yep, 6 people sleeping in a virtual closet and the ones who get into the room first, get to throw their luggage and accommodate themselves much easier than the ones who arrive late (so if you want your luggage to have a spot, you gotta fight for it, seriously). There’s not much room for common politeness or courtesies, eat or be eaten  gotta love it, just be prepared.
The train was fun though, we had a little 12 year old boy (English name-Nick) who spoke amazing English and was a chatter box. His hobby was, studying English, wow! We quickly became his first American friends and enjoyed his youthful view on the world and played cards, he wants to be a Doctor and help hurting people. He shared his candy with us, which ironically turned out to be a push-up of “Duck’s belly”, much like beef jerky. Needless to say, Christina hid hers and did not partake  , so funny, not the candy we were expecting when he wanted to share. Nick’s little 7 year sister Judy was quite excited to have foreigners near. Nick harassed her most of the trip, saying “Judy, Judy, Judy” about hourly. Turns out, Judy was actually Nick’s 1st cousin, but since children rarely have siblings in China, their cousins are referred to as sisters and brothers (something new we learned), he did not understand the concept of “cousins”.
Yes, the one child law is still in affect here, there are a few conditional exceptions, but it’s pretty much the law of the land. Chairman Mao encouraged massive families a while back and viewed China’s greatest resource as its labor force and population, turns out, he was kind of correct. But there’s so many now that a great drain on natural resources is eminent and a true need for corrective policy seems reasonable, radical, but reasonable. Although America consumes 10x the natural resources per person, we could have a far greater impact on the world by reducing our consumption at home even though we have only 1/5th of China’s population.

Nanjing

Nanjing, China (damn who turned on the furnace?)

Ahhh Nanjing… Maybe we picked the wrong time of year to visit, but sheesh you are humid and hot. I’m reminded quickly of early August in the Kentucky River Valley, where temperatures and humidity have been reaching dangerous levels. Just walking outside the hotel you feel the sweat starting to trickle and the stickiness begin.
We did stay here 3 days and braved the heat and humidity while exploring some beautiful Pagodas and Temples on The Purple Mountain, as well as some very nice public lakes and parks. But if you can avoid Nanjing in August, I probably would, it’s just too damn hot to be a tourist here and enjoy yourself.
One Nanjing highlight though, I had the best Sweet and Sour Chicken in my life at a restaurant 60 seconds from our hotel. Actually I had it 3 different occasions  (it was that good). We actually spoke to the owner, he was a Hong Kong/Chinese who lived in Canada, then came back to the mainland China and started the restaurant as well as 4 others now. Nice guy, great consistent food at fair prices, we’re sure he’ll continue his success. Although he did comment on the difficulty of getting Chinese workers to anticipate customer’s needs in advance as well as some other challenges of having to spell things out in black and white too many times. He was disappointed in their lack of creative problem solving. I guess it’s something to consider when everyone who works for you is an only child. They talk about The Little Emperor syndrome over here and sometimes I can say it’s apparent. The spitting continues but I’m getting in a few good ones of my own, so it’s feeling more normal at least 

Shanghai, China

Shanghai, the city of 30 million

Shanghai, China (ok, so it has a lot of skyscrapers, I get it).

We had heard mixed reviews on Shanghai before deciding to visit, but we wanted to see the tallest building in China and were going to make it happen.
Shanghai turned out terrifically! We had a wonderful time, 5 days in a city with 25,000,000+ other folks  It wasn’t nearly as bad as we had anticipated. It was busy, but no-where near as congested as Beijing (in our opinion), and we thought the City Center Area, The Bund Area, and many public places were finely designed and wisely planned. Traffic flowed easily and walking, taxis, and the subway were super easy.
I’ll have to admit, Christina booked a solid hotel, which sometimes can really make the difference in your enjoyment of where you are. It’s not always fun to come back after 6 hours walking, hot and sweaty, and plop down on a questionable bed, lukewarm shower or visibly see the grit. This hotel was good, basically a budget business hotel (instead of a guesthouse or hostel). $30 a night ain’t so bad when you wake up completely refreshed and clean.
Shanghai highlights would include: Having dinner on top of The Pearl Orient Tower in a rotating restaurant and pigging out on a full gourmet buffet. Seeing the tallest building in China and where they are building the “next tallest building in the world”. Walking down on The Bund and taking pictures of the Shanghai cityscape. The Bund is a historical area on the riverfront that has been turned into posh designer shops and luxury brand offices, banks, etc. The Historical on one side of the river, the Modern skyscraper side on the other makes for a unique view. Going out on the town with some young girls and guys (19-20yrs) that stayed in our hotel, being treated to food, drinks, laughs and odd conversation obstructed by a massive language barrier (great fun!) They were all so nice and fun and having their first visit to Shanghai themselves. Shanghai was clean, modern, good food, cold beer, world-class shopping, beautiful sky-line and easy, I’d recommend at least 3-4 days here for anyone, there’s so much to see. The spitting is slightly less here as well, which is a positive, but there are no qualms about smoking in any restaurant and flicking ashes right on the floor it appears.
We are headed to Nanjing now, a town about 3 hours by bullet train, just an intermediate stop on the long journey to Xian (17 hours by hard sleeper train) pronounced (Shee-an) where we will see the very famous Terracotta Warriors and a few other famous sites.

Qingdao and Beer Street!

China- Qindao (Ching-dao)

China- Qingdao (5 days with a great family)
It’s official, that’s definitely the fastest train we’ve ever rode. Speeds above 300 km/h (maybe 220 miles an hour). The country-side was whipping by. Not as fast as a plane, but modern, comfortable, clean, much more spacious, cheap, smooth, a nice view, and did I mention fast? Why these aren’t in the States boggles me. You could realistically live in Owensboro and commute to Cincinnati, Indy, or St. Louis for a normal work day and then back, the economic benefit would be un-measurable, plus the effects on tourism.
We would call Qingdao home for the next week as we “couch-surfed” with Connor and Jen, a married couple living in Qingdao and their 3 year old son Liam, originally from Illinois and Pennsylvania. They are teaching classes and running a new English Language Bookstore in Qingdao, a city of 8 million + and just out in the world carving their own unique path that works for them.
Their 3 year old son Liam is fluent in Mandarin and English already (well as far as a 3 year old can talk), but it was really something to see. Cool little guy.
Qingdao (pronounced Ching-Dao), was actually a German settled port-town on the South China Sea. It has gone through several iterations over the years, but has retained its famous Qingdao Brewery. The Brewery produces the famously well-known Tsingtao Beer which is consumed secondly only to tea here in China and well-exported throughout the world, of which we have sampled many many bottles to ensure its’ quality . And let me comment, there’s plenty of beer drinking over here, my cousins and brother would really have enjoyed the October-fest Beer Street atmosphere we were witness to one evening. Christina kicked it up a notched and chugged some glasses with a very vocal and fun table of Chinese Locals, just out eating and partying. It’s a bit like being witness to a college fraternity again, everyone is egging on or harassing the next guy to chug chug chug, except mostly grown adults, it was a riot.
We shopped the local farmer’s market for fresh fruits several times, enjoyed hours of truly great and informed conversation with Connor and Jen (such bright people), and rode the bus around town hopping from tourist spot to tourist spot. Qingdao’s weather was not bad, a little breeze usually came through and the temperature was good and warm but not overly hot or humid. Our host couple had a great little apartment and really made our time enjoyable as well as a learning experience. We kept them up too late several nights just talking into the evening about politics, businesses, culture, etc. Jen cooked several nice meals and we were even treated to home-made peach cobbler one night (mmmmm), and sticky-rice with Mangos another evening (soooo delicious). We are looking forward to staying in touch with Connor and Jen in the future and sharing more. We hope one day, they’ll pay us a visit at home for a long weekend on the river.
Shanghai next, one of the largest cities in the world.

Beijing and The Great Wall of China

China and The Great Wall

China- Beijing & The Great Wall
Well, we made it. After an intense 16 hour travel day we arrived in Beijing, unfortunately 1 back-pack missing. Christina’s pack got held in our transfer city in China by the airline due to a cigarette lighter. But we managed for a day and were able to retrieve the pack in 24 hrs only lesser a handful of Yuan (Chinese Money) getting back and forth.
Beijing is big, very big. Over 20,000,000 people call the Northern Capital home. An extremely developed city to say the least, enormous high-rises and complexes are everywhere. Fast trains, buses, subways, taxis, cars, cars, cars are everywhere. Oh and did I mention lots of People? Beijing has felt a bit like Disneyworld during peak season on horse-steroids. Envision: line, line, waiting, waiting, crowd, crowd, push, push, nudge, nudge, and throw in a lot of spit, spit and you’ve got it. The Chinese are more “aggressive” than we’re accustomed to and we have some quick acclimating to get used to it appears. The Mandarin language describes the word “Guanxi” as “relationships”, which are imperative to Chinese culture, and if you don’t have a relationship with someone, you basically matter little or not at all, so it’s easy to see someone cut right in front of you in line or nudge you out of the way to claim their spot, since you kind of don’t exist.
The language barrier and reading barrier has been enormous, but we’re thankful for our beginner Mandarin lessons we had in Bali and a great travel tip to have someone write in Chinese an address or our need on paper so we can just shove it out to be read. China’s different and we’re getting cracked open even more by this experience.
Oh and we’ve done a crap load of walking in Beijing, it really does feel like going to an amusement park at the end of the day, except the only ride was the wave of people you surfed in to get crammed on the subway car.
The easiest highlight was going to see The Great Wall of China. It’s about 3 hours north of Beijing and we took a tour with about 40 other travelers to spend 4 hours hiking a 10k section of the wall with some very steep sections. It is truly a spectacular, awe inspiring sight. They said you could take all the bricks, stack them 1 meter high and it would still circumnavigate the entire globe. It stretched as far as the eye could see, right on the top of mountain peaks. The engineering feat and lives lost are mind boggling, I’m sure the wall doubled as a burial place for far too many of it’s constructors.
Other medium lights (not worthy of “highlights”): Tianamen Square, Olympic Village (Bird’s Nest Stadium), Flag Lowering Ceremony, The Forbidden City, The Gate of Heavenly Peace, & The Summer Palace. All very large places with lots of walking and viewing pretty places and buildings, unfortunately along with hordes of other people.
One thing I would comment on though is that China has a definitive “Buzz” about it of economic growth and opportunity. It has a little of what I imagine the industrial revolution in America must have felt like, crossed with the wild-west. There are 1.5 billion people here, all hustling to prosper, create and carve their success in the world. They are hungry, you can just sense it.

Incubus!

Kuala Lumpur and the Incubus Concert

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia I’ll keep this blog a bit shorter. We popped back to KL to obtain our Chinese Visas. Let’s just say they have a more reasonable and understanding Consulate than the one in Indonesia. But we were successful in getting approved and after 4 days in KL waiting for the processing to go through we are now cleared for 60 days touring China. Excited-yes, Nervous-a bit….who woudn’t be, China is a bit different: huge language barrier and outside of the big cities, nothing is written in English, so getting around and communicated should be fun challenges. Before we go, we did get a chance to take in the Incubus Concert in KL. We opted for the crazed fans area down on the floor about 20 feet from the stage. We’ve never sweat so much nor been so close to a different culture, let’s just say. What a blast though, we had a killer time and moshed in the pits with all the youngsters, jumping up and down and singing along like a couple of groupies. Christina got more than enough pics of the lead singer. We snagged a few souvenir tee-shirts and drank Angkor Beer and ate Kao Lai to celebrate.

To top it off, we met some cool Malaysian NBL basketball stars that night on the street and they told us about their championship game the next night, which we happily went to and had another great evening rooting on the home team with 5,000 other screaming fans. Our friends lost by 1 point on a last second shot for the title match, but they made an incredible game out of it. Was so exciting to see some pro hoops.

Well, off to China (Terracota Warriors, The Great Wall and hopefully Tibet, here we come)

Beautiful Bali and Friends

Bali, Indonesia Part 2

Canggu, Bali- 1 month in Paradise

Ahhh, finally settled into that paradise picture we had in our mind. Canggu is an area about 40 minutes north-west of the airport in Bali, located on the south-western coast of the island. Our long-stay hotel was near Berawa Beach, thus named the Berawa Beach Residence. Luckily there were only about 7 rooms and 3 townhouses here, so it had a very home-like feel. The Residence was quiet, super friendly staff, great neighbors and the perk of a membership to the “Canggu Club” (country club style healthclub). We took full advantage of free yoga classes, pool-side lounging, work-out facilities, tennis courts, saunas, steam rooms, posh locker facilities, etc. The staff at the Residence were so friendly and it was such a treat to have our rooms cleaned and beds made daily and have breakfast made for us each morning, ughhh, could get spoiled badly by this.

What impressed us most though was the picture perfect weather every single day and our great neighbors (Scott/Morna & Jackson, Stef/Monique, Debbie/Annikan). It’s feels great to have new friends who share so many of our common interests, very cool people. We couldn’t have asked for a nicer 30 days to re-energize, rest and be very lazy. I’d say the weather was around 82 deg. every day, sunny, and a strong enough cool breeze to fly kites daily. Truly paradise. When you think of that picture of Bali in your mind, this was it. We’d see at least 50 kites flying daily, lush rice fields, beaches, palm trees, green everywhere against a bright blue sky and loads of sunshine without being humid or too hot. It’s easy to see why so many ex-patriots call this home now. It’s only about a 3 hour flight from northern Australia, so it’s an easy destination for the Aussies, much like Cancun would be for us in the States.

Christina and I focused quite a bit on improving our yoga skills and had some great classes, 3-4 times each week. I’m proud to say I can do a legitimate head-stand now and Christina has turned out to be some kind of yoga prodigy, maybe after India she’ll even be teaching classes J

The only other piece to report was we got a chance to view/tour “Tanah Lot”. A very famous temple built on a rock outcropping shooting out from the ocean’s edge. Beautiful view there, a must see for any tourist.

Outside of touring this, we were pretty wonderfully lazy and spent our 30 days: taking many hot showers with water pressure, sleeping in large comfy beds, watching movies, shopping at the local markets, riding our motor scooter around in the fresh air, swimming at the club, some working out, and spending really enjoyable time with new friends.

We loved Bali and were so glad we worked our way through the tourist maze to find a peaceful area to rest and enjoy. I’d say we could so easily see finding a way back here to spend more and more time.

We’re headed back to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia next to get our Visas for China (we hope) and take in the Incubus Concert.

Next big destination- Beijing, China (Home of: The Great Wall, Tianamen Square, Kung Fu, Olympic Stadium, Peking Duck and Northern Capital to over 1.5 billion people), Excited and a bit nervous.

Ubud- Fire Dance- Videos.

Balinese "Kecak Fire Dance". (pronounced Kay-chak)  Few scenes, over 100 people in this 1.5 hour dance/play depicting stories out of the Hindu "bible" texts.  Story of the great battle of some evil guy and the monkey king's army.  One of the coolest nights we've spent in all our travels.  Culture...who'd have thunk it.

More on Ubud area coming up.

Ubud, Bali - Indonesia

Bali, Indonesia (2 of 3)....Ubud

Ubud, Bali, Indonesia
After our excursions the last 2 weeks figuring out our visa situations, we've headed north to Ubud. Central Bali's home for culture.  Famous for painting, wood-carving studios, cheap markets, dancing/theatre, yoga, cuisine and the monkey sanctuary.

Ubud is much smaller and has a home-town, slow-paced feel.  There's many tourist but everyone just strolls here.  Ubud's major area is a simple rectangular area you could walk around in about 1.5 hours or so.  Getting around was typically by foot and easily done.  With the help of our Bemo driver, we found a homestay style guesthouse and our new buddy Wayan would be watching over us for a week while we stayed here.  Wayan was the guest-house owner.  A basic room, with queen bed, a wardrobe, basic bathroom with hot water was about $17 a night.  Clean but quaint.  We did have a private balcony with a decent view.

Batur Lake and Volcano.  Majestic sight, we had lunch overlooking this one day.  breath-taking, 1,717 meters above sea level..

We didn't waste much time and headed straight for the monkey sanctuary.  An amazing place.  Tickets were $2 and you could go into this lush area of large trees and landscape where the monkeys roamed freely.  And let me say, there were a Bunch of monkeys.  Sometimes you could get closer to a little one and shake his hand, but had to steer clear of the bigger males, they were not shy to show there teeth and scare you away.  The park had guides that roamed around and just kept an eye on everyone and instructured them on not getting to close and just watching over things for safety.  We thought our nieces Grace and Abbie would have had the time of their life here.  It was very fun.

We wandered the square and market areas and had several beers taking in some good musicians one night.  We did some shopping and picked up some souvenirs for the family in the nearby areas while enjoying the fresh air, breeze and nature.  Things are just so lush and green here.  The temperatures are amazingly perfect.  I'd say low 80's, sunny, slight cool breeze and low humidity right now.  Very much paradise.

Agung Volcano, 40 minutes drive from lake batur, 3,141 meters high.

One day we spent about 6 hours driving around.  Only 1 hour north from Ubud is some of the most spectacular scenary on the planet.  The volcanoes and mountain lakes of Batur and Batur temple overlooking this view are hard to appreciate unless in person.  Wow, what a view. 

Christina at colorful Batur Temple

out strolling the rice fields of Ubud, (grand-dad, father, and son walking home)

We splurged a little too much and picked up some authentic local oil paintings and had a chance to meet the artists themselves.  Great souvenirs to last a lifetime.  Better than Pier One and to say we were there one day looking back at them will be an enjoyable memory always.

buying some art in Ubud, scene of "local market" done by local painter. picture with artist himself.

One of our funnest nights was having a chance to see an authentic Hindu dance/play that we both agreed was one of the best things we've witnessed since we left.  Awesome and worth the $15 tickets :)
We took some video of this and will post it in the next blog.

After 5 days in Ubud, we would have to put this little town way up on the list of best places we've visited.  It's just a great mix of things to do, see, experience and enjoy.  The food is good, prices fair, shopping plentiful, massages cheap and surroundings...welllll....what you'd think of when you hear Bali.   Would love to come back here for another week with more friends.

We're off to Canggu now, so excited to spend 30 days of rest and relaxation, not moving hotels and staying in a great place and becoming a local for a while.  We need this to gear up for the next 6 months.  We'll be hitting the trails hard in China, Nepal, and India next.

locals walking home while we were out strolling the amazing scenery in Ubud.  they thought we looked goofy :)

Beach Bums

Bali, Indonesia (1 of 3)

Our thoughts are to stay in one place and live for 1 month straight.  We've about reached the half way point for our trip and feel like a "break" from packing up and moving every 3-4 days.  Just some rest, really taking in an area and chilling.

We spent our 1st night in the Kuta area on Bali, about 20 minutes from the airport.  (Keep in mind Bali is an island maybe slightly smaller than KY.)   Kuta is a world-famous party, beginner-surfer, westernized area.  Well driving through it to find a back-packers hotel, we found out immediately why the guide-books warned of how the bad affects of tourism can spread.  Kuta was packed, packed, packed with people, taxis, traffic, shops, McD's, Hardrock Cafe, KFC, growth, malls, developments, etc.  A basic rat-race on steroids.  We knew immediately this was not going to work for us.  We grabbed a Bemo (goofy little mini-bus) and got the hell out of their the very next morning. 

size of a Bemo, basically a suzuki with 4 wheels.  but for about $4, you can get a ride to somewhere almost an hour away.

We chose to try Sanur, about 45 minutes away on the south-eastern coast of Bali to explore and escape to.  Keep in mind, we're looking for a place to rent for 1 month, but we also need to find a way to get our next Visas to China, so gotta fit that in somehow.  Sanur was nice, we found a real friendly, clean, spacious room for cheap about 10 minutes walk from the beach.  We stayed there about 3 days, just exploring around, eating the night food market, walking the beach, but mostly trying to figure out how to obtain China Visas.  We found out we couldn't get a Chinese Visa in Bali---oh noooooo?!@#%>

night snack in Sanur, take an entire loaf of fresh bread, split it 4 times, slather jam and butter in it, toast every side and corner, the douse with sweet milk....ughhh, goodness, get in my belly

So we book a flight to Surabaya, Java to get to the closest China consulate, but have 5 days to kill until our flight.  Next stop Ulu Wata and Padang Padang Beaches on the Southern Tip of Bali.

Now this is what I'm talking about.  Bali at some of it's finest.  What a view.  Ulu Watu is world-famous for it's surf, views, and Ulu Watu temple over-looking the ocean and cliffs.   Padang Padang Beach is 10 minutes away by motorbike and just a beautiful, but small beach to relax and kill a day.
We actually saw a small tornado out on the ocean here as well, it was sucking up the water and was a very impressive sight.  We loved it here.  Had a great handful of days, a good little guest-house, cheap and quiet as well, although cold water shower :(    I couldn't try surfing here, it's a Pros-only type beach, with rock and coral only 5-6 ft under the water, so I could only watch.  It was really awesome to watch them go though, I respect their skills much more now.  Fun to see the sky, ocean and all the green-ness around.

view from Ulu Watu temple.  picture doesn't even do it justice.

Next Stop it appears we have to fly to Surabaya, Indonesia in Java, the island (the size of oklahoma) to the west of Bali.  There's a Chinese Consulate there we were told who could possibly help us, fingers crossed.  So we get a ride back to the airport after 5 days in Ulu Watu area. 

Wow, Surabaya is a big big city.  Grabbed a taxi, headed towards a hotel area and grabbed a room for the night.  Lucky Us, it is the best room we've stayed in our whole trip.  So we're happy about that. A Little boutique style chain hotel.  A bit pricey at $30 per night but we were out of options.  We spent 4 days in Surabaya exploring a bit, taking in the nice malls, movie theatres, eating Java style spicy fried rice and yes Pizza Hut Pan Pizza :)    We were the only westerners we saw the entire 4 days here.  It was a bit odd to say the least.  We really liked Java style food though, delicious & spicey.
After a full day excursion trying to find the China Consulate.  Our taxi driver did not speak English and he got us lost for about 2 hours trying to find the place.  We found out that the Consulate would only give us 20 day visas to China instead of 60 days, and they were 5x the normal price for a US Citizen vs almost all other countries.  About $250 each for 20 days in China.  We were disappointed and perturbed.  We said No Thanks and our entire trip to Surabaya on this quest has proved a bust.  CRAP!
Indonesia, we're not loving you so far :)

What to do, what to do.....
We said screw it, we're gonna make this great and figure it out.  We flew back to Bali and booked a lush hotel right on the beach in Kuta, until we could find a long-term place.  We're gonna enjoy this if it hair-lips the governor.  The hotel was great and I got a chance to try surfing several days (I suck by the way, it's hard). 

proof it's hard to surf.  not sure I have a picture of me successfully riding a wave all the way out :)

We also took in a local water park, slides, rides, etc. and had a grand time there.  We rented a motorbike and took off looking for a long-term rental house/etc.  After a half day of driving around, asking, taking down numbers to call, we found the place.  In Canggu about 30-40 minutes from Kuta on the South-West coast. 
YEAHHHH!  great price, lots of amenities, we're pumped.  We wanted to visit Ubud, a famous cultural city/area first before settling in to the long-stay but went ahead and book the stay that would be coming up.
We are going to have to extend our visas another 30 days for Bali, since we've spent almost 15 days on the visa quest and some exploring.  We stayed in Kuta 5 more days while our visas were being processed and made the most of it and the fine hotel.

my lovely bride Christina, happy enjoying a Bali sunset, ain't she a doll! :)

Now, off to Ubud and central Bali for 1 week to take in some culture, nature, and art.  Then, finally, back to Canggu where we'll be spending one entire month in a long-stay studio apartment.  More to come.

Malaka, Malaysia

Malaka, Malaysia

Town Center, Malaka

Thanks Kuala Lumpur for another great comfortable bus ride! We really appreciate them when they’re not rough and crappy. We arrived in Malaka only 3 hours later from KL, and grabbed a quick taxi to take us to……duh duh duh duhhh…yep… China Town area of Malaka. It was the weekend and although a small town was really quite packed with local tourist making a weekend there, so it took some more searching to find a guesthouse, but 2 hours later, we snagged another solid bargin for $14 and settled in. Complete with hot water and aircon and 1 bad tv station 
There’s not a whole lot to Malaka really, it’s a nice little touristic town (at least in the China Town Touristic area) on the south-western coast of Malaysia. Probably at once an important port city. Keep in mind, when I say “nice, little town”, we’re talking about a town that has 400,000 people in it. The populations are so dense in cities here, it’s hard to adjust to just how many people live in this great big world. It’s a misconception we had ourselves and it easily reminds you daily why there are 7 billion people in the world now (a mere 300 million in the US), and what crammed will feel like if it continues. The taxi driver even commented how it was just a quiet small town. Well it’s twice as large as Evansville and 8 times the size of Owensboro.

adult tri-cycles for hire to tour around the city (these were so colorful and some had their own little soundsystems, hilarious)

Malaka was our planned jumping off city to get into Sumatra, Indonesia, but we decided to instead fly to Bali as the boat ticket to Sumatra was half the price of an airline ticket anyway. Indonesia is about the width, east to west as the US, so it’s a lot of land to cover and not just gonna be a quick 3 hour bus ride to get to the next city, it’ll be a 14 hr trip we’re afraid. So we just settled in Malaka for 3 short days, figuring out our next plan of attack and exploring some of China town’s night markets, food, the reconstructed churches, and a really enjoyable evening stroll through a Saturday Evening block party.

Christina getting her block party street grub on, fresh vegetable tofu burrito w/ caramalized turnip, was actually pretty darn good

The block party was a bunch of food stalls, people selling stuff, families eating, a farmers market, etc…Kind of felt like the fall festival in Evansville, just a lot smaller. We really had fun eating a dinner of snacks from different booths, sampling new items, and still finding room for a traditional bag of kettle corn and a cold sugar cane squeezed iced beverage…yummy.

unusual triple scoop cone of icecream, although the purple scoop flavor was un-identfiable :)

Well....
We bus back to KL and catch our flight to Bali as we grab new 30 day visas in Indonesia and are excited to see some of the world’s most renowned surf beaches, volcano lakes and countryside and do some serious Chillinnnn.

Christina adds a new patch to her pack. 6 down, lots more to go.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Pics)

Catching Up....Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Ok, so I've been super lazy lately and took a break from blogging. Time to catch up a bit. We're actually in Bali, Indonesia but I need to get up to speed. So over the next week, I'll get it up to current. Here we go.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Ahhh Kuala Lumpur, hello again advanced civilization. Greetings intricate city planners and engineers. Kuala Lumpur or KL is a massive city, sprawling, tidy, fairly organized, about as clean as you can ask for a city this size. We were transited into KL via bus from Tanah Rata, and it was nice to start off with the comfiest seats, clean, good air con, smoothest riding bus we’ve experienced in 3.5 months….by far. We hopped off at the bus station (like a well run airport), and trotted 15 minutes on foot around the corner to an area of KL, affectionately called “China Town”. It appears about every city has a China Town, and its where the travelers can find, cheap accommodation, cheap food, knock-off shopping, and the likes. We found a hotel, a bit pricey at $17 per night, but with air-con and a great hot-water shower, and situated right in the middle of everything, it was hard to pass up.
We figured our the LRT (public monorail system) easily, as it was, easy to follow, (thanks again city planners). We made our way to several stops over the next 4 days and explored only a portion of KL but easily the typical tourist highlights. We visited the Planetarium, the Mouse Deer Park and public lake areas, the Bird Aviary, the impressive Islamic Museum of arts, the famed Petronas Towers, the ritzy Petronas Tower shopping mall, and the 4th largest communications tower in the world, pigging out at a rolling sushi buffet, and most areas of China Town. We stayed pretty busy each day walking and exploring.
One of the highlights was definitely just seeing the Petronas Towers, both in day and again at night. The stainless steel behemoth is just plain cool to see, particularly lit up at night, pictures only do it partial justice. The mall inside and beneath it was a high fashion ritzy dream world. Mostly shops we couldn’t afford to even step inside to look  You name the brand, and they were in there.
I’d say our second favorite was the open air Tropical Bird Aviary. It was the size of a city park and was “netted in”, so the birds were actually free to fly around certain areas and some free to interact up next to you. The raptors and owls and ostriches were caged in, but most all others were free, flying around. It was our first chance to really see such tropical birds up close and we got the chance to watch them feed the eagles. Christina even participated in a small silly bird show where parrots and other birds did tricks etc. Christina got to hold up a stick with a piece of meat on it and they whistled in an eagle and it flew in from afar and snagged it right out of her hands in flight, very cool. She was the star of the show 
Third on the list was probably a combination of the Islamic Museum (it was well appointed and just beautiful historical pieces), as well as pigging out at the sushi buffet twice, and downing some more amazing Indian food at one of the local eateries. We just can’t seem to get enough Rotti and Naan, Dahl and Indian spiced curries, chicken and Indian tea. Mmmmmm.
KL was the first time we felt we were really back in the “western world”. They had a fantastic airport, transit system, fantastic bus stations that were nicer than most airports we’ve been in, and the city was well planned and developments everywhere. The communications tower was no doubt high up and allowed for striking 360 views over the entire cityscape, but it was a bit pricey for a ticket up and back down @ $20 each. Given the exchange rates, that’s a pretty high cost for the trip, but we did it anyway.
We’re out of time and need to be moving on, KL was worth a 3-4 day visit to explore, but at last, it’s still a big big city and time for us to find a beach or a quiet fun town elsewhere. Off we go.

Next Stop Malaka, only 3 hours away.

Tanah Rata, Malaysia (ahhh the tea plantations)