Adventures from around the World

So we arrive in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia really late at night, and because the airport is really far from the city, we don’t actually arrive at the hotel until 2:30am!  However, we still had to wake up early in order to have breakfast (included with the room) by 10am. 
After breakfast we headed out into the city centre, towards the structures that define this city and possibly this nation, the Petronas Towers (Pr. Petro-nass, not like Petronas from Harry Potter, I know, I was disapointed too).  The towers are owned by the national oil and gas company - Petronas. Up until recently the towers were the tallest buildings in the world, though they still maintain the title of world’s tallest twin towers.  There is free admission to the skywalk that connects the towers ~half way up the building.  However, they only give out a certain number of tickets throughout the day, and its all based on a first come first serve basis.  So even though we arrived at 10:30am, our time to go up to the skydeck was not until 5:30 that evening. 
Well never fear, there actually happens to be something else to see in this city.  The KLTower, the world’s 3rd tallest free standing structure.  The tower is not a far walk from the Petronas towers, so we grinned and bared the greuling heat and walked to the tower.  Now there are two entrances to the base of the tower 1. via the road 2. via the jungle track.  You see KL was built over a tropical rainforest/jungle and this small piece of tropical paradise is all that remains of KL’s wild past.  So naturally I want to take the jungle path and I don’t care what Justin thought about the idea, cos I had the map and I didn’t even tell him about option 1.  So in the jungle there are lots of stairs, rope bridge things, and shade.  You would think that this abundance of folliage would provide relief from the searing heat.  Unfortunately not, we emerged from the jungle literally dripping - it was pretty nasty.  The greatest bit of relief came when we went up the KLTower - A/C
So from the tower you are naturally given views of the city, which are supposed to be supierior to that of the Petronas Towers.  So we took a look, it was nice, you could see pretty far, and you could see the towers.  But the one thing that stuck out, the white elephant as some might say, was the ever darkening sky.  You see it is the rainy season in KL, a rainy season that last 12 months (remember the tropical rainforest).  So everyday it WILL rain for a few hours in the afternoon.  Luckily that day we avoided it.  We walked back to the hotel, and almost immediately after we made it through the entrance the downpour began.
The rains stopped by the time we were to leave for the towers.  Before you go up they give you a little briefing on the history of the company and the intricasies of the tower itself.  For example, the towers are constructed on a floor plan derived from the concept of two interlocking squares, or an eight pointed star - an idea that upholds the beliefs of islam, the national religion of Malaysia.  This geometry is representative of the idea of “unity within unity, harmony, stability, and rationality.”  After this little information session we headed up the tower to the skywalk.  It was pretty cool.  Essentially it is a glass tunnel (with the exception of the floor and ceiling, which are not glass, though I though they should have been) that links the two buildings, which you can’t go into because they are offices.  Infact you are actually on the lower deck of a double-decker skywalk.  Employees get to use the upper-deck.  To get an idea of the upper deck, you should watch “Entrapment,” part of the film is shot there.
After the tower we went into the mall at the base of the towers (KLCC) to grab some dinner…I had some AMAZING Malaysian curry.  Afterwards we walked around the mall a little.  The mall is actually the largest in the country.  In the centre of the mall we saw a traditional music performance.  We then walked around KLCC park where we caught some pretty great views of the towers at night.
The next day we did some islam-inspired sightseeing.  We took the subway out to the old colonial centre of the city, where we got to see some pretty cool islamic architecure integrated into most of the buildings, including the train station and office buildings, most notably the Kompeks Dayabumi.  In this area are also several mosques, of which we went into two, the national mosque and the MAsjid Jamek.  I though this was a pretty cool experience.  I mean I have seen several mosques and I know people who go to mosque, but I have never seen the interior of one myself.  So the first mosque we entered was the national mosque, where I had to wear this big purple robe that would cover my arms, legs, and hair.  The interior however, isn’t so exciting.  It is really just an open room that can be filled with 15000 people praying.  We did meet this wonderful woman who explained the layout of the place to us.  The second mosque was smaller than the first, but it did have an onion dome, something that I associate with mosques and islamic buildings than the fan shaped roof of the national mosque.  Other than the roof the concept of the building was the same - big open room for praying.  We then went to Merdeka Square in the centre of the colonial area.  I don’t really get it, its just a big open field with a flag pole at one end.  Across from Merdeka Square was the national history museum, which was supposed to be pretty fantastic.  But it was closed :( 
At this point in the day the heat was unbearable, so we went back to the hotel to use the pool - well I used the pool, Justin said he would use the pool but instead he stayed in the room and watched tv.  The rains began shortly afterwards and lasted until dinner time. For dinner we had some amazing Indonesian food that was served on a banana leaf. 
On our last day in KL we took a cab out to the Batu Caves. This is a huge cave complex ~13km from the city. We visited two of the caves - temple cave and dark cave.  Temple cave is exactly as it sounds - a Hindu temple built into the cave itself.  At the entrance stands a 140′ golden statue of a Hindu god. The other colourful Hindu dieties fill the large cavern some 272 steps above the ground.  Every year around January 20th is the Thaipusam celebration, where over 1 million devotees will flock to the cave and climb the 272 steps.  Unfortunately we were a week too early :(.  The temple and cave are also covered in monkeys, which were so cute :)  The dark cave is about half way up to the temple cave. This cave is a 2km long limestone cave home to 3 types of bats - fruit, nectar, and insect.  Because of the bat’s sensitivity to light, there are no lights in the cave.  Instead you are given a helmet with a little light on the front, and you are put on a guided tour so you don’t get lost.  It was pretty interesting but the attention the guide kept giving my foot got pretty annoying.  Overall it was a pretty good day.  For dinner we had Vietnamese food which was pretty good, though I have to say Viet isn’t my favourite, but Justin wanted Pho.  We made it a pretty early night as we had to leave very early the next day to catch our flight to Cambodia.
Photos of Kuala Lumpur
1. Petronas Towers 2. KLTower 3. Jungle entrance 4. Skywalk 5. Petronas at night 6. Me in robes at the national mosque 7. National mosque 8. Kompleks Dayabumi 9. Big open space at the Masjid Jamek 10. Colonial buildings 11. Batu caves entrance 12. Guys breaking coconuts to feed the monkeys (the embodiment of the god Hanuman) 13. Hindu Dieties 14. Monkey 15. Arrow on the ceiling of the hotel room pointing to Mecca. 

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Welcome to week #2.  We begin with our flight out of Bangkok and head north to the rural town of Sukhothai, which besides being rural and a welcomed change from the hectic Bangkok, is also the area of the 1st kingdom of Thailand so there are lots of ruins and stuff (fun times).
Anyway this is where it is, because most people don’t know:

Unfortuatly this journey did not begin so smoothly.  I didn’t get a confirmation email from Bangkok Airways for the flight so I tried emailing them to find out when exactly the flight was.  Justin had written down 3:00pm in his little book, but for some reason was second guessing this and thought it was really 1:00pm.  So we wake up early to have breakfast before, what we think is an hour long trip to the airport.  The trip to the airport works out to be more like 15 mins and we arrive around 10am.  It turned out that our flight was at 3:00 not 1, so we now have to spend 5 hours in the airport…always fun
At 3pm we board the propellor plane that will take us on our 1 hour journey to Sukhothai.  This whole trip was pretty great though, 1. I had never been in a propellor plane before 2. They fed us a pretty decent meal, icluding chocolate glazed banana chips 3. The airport in Sukhothai was like 2 rooms, the smallest airport I have ever seen 4. The guy from our guest house picked us up from the airport…and he had a sign
The guy who owned our guesthouse was English. He was born and raised in England, met a Thai girl online, came to Thailand fell in love with the girl and the country, and has lived here ever since.  They own the guesthouse as well as a restaurant along the main strip in town - his wife runs the restaurant.  They are extremely nice and helpful.  On the first night there we met a couple of Chinese-Americans from San Fancisco.  They were a mother and daughter who were travelling around asia together.  They were both very sweet and very nice and the time we spent at the guesthouse was largely with them, including dinner every night at the guesthouse’s restaurant.
Some Photos
1.The plane, 2.The airport, 3.moooo welcome the rural Thailand!

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So our adventure in Sukhothai really began the next day when, after breakfast in the guesthouse - where we were served piles of fruit (which Justin thought were disgusting and should not be served at breakfast) and toast - we were taken into the town to rent bikes.  You see the ruins are REALLY spread out and walking is not a viable option, plus bikes are awesome, even if you have a cast and a broken foot.  Plus the bikes were really cheap.  The problem was that Justin was spoiled, unreasonably cautious, sheltered as a child and has not been on a bike since he was 7…so he had a few problems. But, because it really is “just like riding a bike,” he eventually figured it out, even if it was after much anger, usually focused at me for “forcing” him to partake in such activity.  Anyway, here is Justin trying to ride the bike at the beginning, what is missing are the small boughts of laughter from both me and the Thai woman renting us the bikes:

So off we went.  On the first day we went around the inner city, checking out a lot of the highlights including Wat Malithat (a massive temple in the centre of the city, seems to be the most important in the complex), Wat Si Sami (contains three decorated pillars in similar style to Ankor Wat), and Wat Sa Si as well as many smaller temples and buildings.  Around 1pm (the hottest part of the day) we decided to check out the national museum located near the inner city to learn about Sukhothai (history and current geography) and about buddhism, both of which are extremely important when viewing the site.  We then had lunch, checked out a few more ruins, and then biked back to the guest house, where Justin again got mad because he claimed that “physical activity did not belong on vacation.” At the guesthouse I went for a swim before dinner, it was great.
On the second day we decided to check out some of the arterial ruins to the west and north of the city.  Some of the highlights included the 90′ standing Buddha at Wat Saphaan Hin on the top of a hill, the massive seated Buddha in the Wat Si Chum, Wat Phra Pai Luang (a large temple complex surrounded by a moat) and the elephant temple Wat Chang Lom.  I personally liked this day more than the first.  It felt much more exploative.  The temples were, for the most part, hidden from the road.  They are also less frequently visited by tourists so you were generally alone.  They were also less restored, and were a part of the communtiy, often you would see cattle grazing in between pillars.  We returned the bikes in the afternoon and went back to the guesthouse where I again had a swim before dinner.

Photos of Sukhothai
1.Wat Malithat 2.Buddha in Wat Malithat 3.Wat Si Sami 4.Another seated Buddha, unknown location 5.Buddha and Wat Sa Si 6.One of the unkept arterial temples 7.View from the hill where Wat Saphaan Hin sits 8.90′ standing Buddha of Wat Saphaan Hin 9.Seated Buddha of Wat Si Chum 10.Elephant temple, Wat Chang Lom 11.Elephant
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The next day we had to wake up rediculously early (6:15am) to catch our flight back to Bangkok.  This was a mistake.  Instead of buying a round-trip ticket to Bangkok we should have continued out journey to Chang-mai and flown from Chang-mai to Kuala Lumpur.  But, Justin doesn’t travel by bus he exclaimed several times that it was “for poor people,” so in the end we returned to Bangkok.
The flight was delayed until slightly after 10, so we didn’t get into Bangkok until noon-ish.  This time we booked the hotel ibis for our stay, a much cheaper option, and to be honest I liked it better than the Shangri-La.  I am not even going to bother breaking this stay up into days as we really didn’t do all that much in these next 3 days.  A large part of our day was spent inside malls.  Like westernised malls, with stores you get back home or in England, not that it mattered as we never went inside any stores (except bookstores) we just walked around….I felt like a mall walker, it was so boring, but I think this is what Justin thought was fun, because for the first time he didn’t really argue about anything.
But what else did we do?
Well we went to the Vimanmek Teak Mansion, the largest teak building in the world. The mansion is actually part of a park complex called Amphon Park.  The mansion was built by King Rama V in a very westernized style.  It was the former residence of the royal family, and they still entertain dignitaries there.  We had a guided tour of the building which was really interesting, and was what was lacking in a lot of other places we saw.  It was nice to really learn about a place, rather than just read the small descriptions.  I did learn that my lucky colour is green because I was born on a Wednesday.  We saw some other buildings in the complex as well including, the Abhisek Dusit Throne Hall, which displayed arts, crafts and jewlery, and the Elephant National Museum which described the royal white elephants and the influence of Hinduism (Ganesha) on Thai Buddhism.  
We also checked out Chinatown and the Theives market, which was more crowded than anything.
We went to check out the palace, which re-opened on our last day in the city.  It was a huge waste of time and money! For $9 (or 250 thaibhat) we were given entrance to the temple of the emerald Buddha (we saw earlier in our trip for free), the teak mansion (we saw a couple of days earlier) and some of the exterior of the palace.  The palace was somehow disapointing.  It was smaller than I thought it would be and we were only allowed to see a small fraction of the property, as parts were still closed for mourning.
We went one night to see some Muay Thai (Thai boxing) but unfortunately the stadium was closed until later in the month :(. 
Overall I was pretty bored on our 2nd visit to Bangkok and was pretty happy to leave for Kuala Lumpur.

Some pictures of Bangkok
1.Slums by the water 2.Vimanmek Mansion 3.Massive lizard in Amphon Park 4.One of many malls in Siam Square 5.”I am Siam” for some reason I think of beer 6.Lumphini Boxing Stadium - note the sign 7.Entrance to Palace 8. Main building of the palace 9.Victory monument - I’m not exactly sure what they won (they sided with the Japanese in WWII)10.Coke in Thai - also note that the volume is measured in cubic centimeters

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Some comments about Thailand:
1. There is a lack of crazyness in the capital, with the exception of the traffic.  It was like Amsterdam, whose reputation preceeds it but in reality it never really livse up to the madness.
2. Wealth.  There are so many places in Bangkok that are full of high end shops (many more than are in Toronto), skyscrapers, and fancy condos.  I really did not expect that.
3. English. It is everywhere, and everyone speaks it, even in the rural areas where it is spoken less, it is still incredibly easy to get around.  In fact, in Bangkok a lot of signage is ONLY in English, Thai isn’t even present.

So coming back to work after my 6 weeks off was not as bad as I thought it would be.  This could be because I have done very little (in fact that is probably over stating what I have done in school this week…I have been playing Pirates of the Carribean over and over and over), or because I, in some ways, loathed the trip and wished for it to be finished.  Now that isn’t to say it was all bad.  I actually had a pretty good time, I saw so many things that I have wanted to see and so many things that I never knew existed.  The problem really lay in the company…but more about that later.  First let me tell you about the trip itself.

Week 1 (Dec 30 - Jan 5) Hong Kong, Macau, and Bangkok

So the trip began actually late at night on the 29th when I took the Incheon express bus from Mokpo at 2:30 am, which got us to the airport at 7 in the morning.  The trip began on a fantastic note!  We checked in for our flight to Hong Kong, on Cathay Pacific, and they upgraded us to Business Class!  I don’t really know why - they said why but I couldn’t understand the check-in woman…but who cares I was going to fly business class!  
Business class is amazing.  First the seats are huge, probably something like 1.5-2 ecomomy class seats, and the foot room!  I’ll put it this way, I needed to undue my seat belt to reach my bag that was stored under the seat infront of me.  Also once you get on the plane the flight attendant comes around and offers blankets, socks, eyemasks, headphones, orange juice, water, champagne (or sparkling wine I’m not sure), and hot towels.  And this is all before the plane starts moving.  Once you are in the air you get to watch tv/movies/play games on your own tv tucked into your armrest.  Then the flight attendant comes around and puts a table cloth on your tray table (which is tucked into the other armrest) and offers you a larger assortment of alcholic and nonalcoholic beverages, a bowl of nuts, and the menu for your meal.  The coolest part is that she addresses you by your name!  The menu describes your options for the 4 course meal that is about to be served to you.  It begins with a salad, a warm roll (of which there are 4 varieties) or garlic bread, and this thinly cut slamon and olives thing.  Then they bring the main course, I think I had the chicken and vegetables thing, but there were 3 choices to choose from.  I should also mention that these dishes aren’t being served in plastic trays with tiny compartments.  No, these are served on large ceramic plates, and each course is cleared before the next one comes out.  Ok the 3rd course was a selection of cheeses and fruit served with your choice of wine, then there was cake.  They came around offering more beverages and some pralines before they packed away our table cloths and give us another warm towel.  
Its too bad the flight was only 3.5 hours
Unfortunately this luxury would not last.  Our accomodation in Hong Kong was less then desireable.  It was along the Golden Mile in Kowloon in, what I think is the scumiest building in the city! The room itself was ok, there were no windows and it was small, but overall not bad.  The building just housed some really sketchy people, and looked like something out of an infomercial asking you to send money and help the poeple out of squaller.  Anyway, we didn’t stay in the hostel very long.  We took the star ferry across the river to Hong Kong Island and sort of meandered around the central area, checking out all the fancy shops and tall buildings including the bank of china building, which is possibly cooler in person than in pictures.  Just in behind the bank of China building is the entrance to the peak railroad.  There is a train - or possibly a funicular - that takes you up to Victoria peak on Mount Austin, the highest moutain in Hong Kong at 552m.  The train is supposed to be the steepest track in the world, or so said Justin, however this fact would be contradicted later in the trip (and by Wikipedia right now).  Anyway, we get in line, a very long line, and wait.  Eventually we get on the train and ascend the hill.  There are some pretty spectacular views up there, which would become even more spectacular after dinner, when the city lit up.  We ate at Bubba-Gump’s, in one of the many over-priced restaurants in the peak complex.  I had some excellent pasta, something I have a hard time finding in Korea, so it was a very nice change!  After dinner we get into the incredibly long line to descend the mountain.  Having had little to no sleep the night before we head back to the hostel pretty early.
The next day we went to city hall for some authentic dim sum…yum yum.  This restaurant is supposed to be the best dim sum place in the city, and judging by the line that formed before the restaurant opened, I would say it was probably pretty good.  We were seated with a mad rush of locals and tourists at 11am and randomly picked dishes that passed by on carts - not really knowing what was coming.  It was all really good, and considering the amount we had it was pretty cheap as well.  One thing I have learned from this experience was that you need to do Dim Sum with at least 4 people, that way you can get a greater variety of dishes without having to stuff yourself.  After lunch we checked out the crazy high end shopping in the central area.  There was this one mall that was filled with all high-end shops like chanel, louis vuitton, D&G, Tiffany’s, Marc Jacobs, Jimmy Choo, etc….it was amazing, I only wish I was travelling with a girl :(.  Next we walked to Causeway Bay on the other side of the city and checked out some more rustic shopping, including live chickens.  The sights and sounds of this area were incredibly interesting, but besides a lot of junk that I would never want I didn’t see anything particularly cheap.  We head back to Kowloon and grab some authentic Hong Kong noodles - very good.  We then headed to the avenue of the stars to wait for the New Year’s fireworks.  The celebration included a pretty spectacular display of lazers, lights, and fireworks that integrated the entire skyline.  But there was no countdown, how crazy is that.  Getting back from the event was INSANE!  The streets were entirely packed with people, and the previously 5 minute walk became 45 minutes.
HAPPY 2008!
The next day we took the ferry to Macau ~1.5 hours away.  The city is pretty crazy.  There is construction going on everywhere and glitzy hotels and casinos line the coast.  I didn’t really know much about Macau other than that it was previously a Portugese colony, which was returned to China in 1997, just like Hong Kong.  What I didn’t know was that Macau is the only place in China where gamling is legal, and because of all the new money in China it is becoming the Las Vegas of the east, except that it is already making more money than Vegas!  So the construction on the islands is almost entirely new huge hotels and casinos, and the city has recently celebrated the opening of the Wynn, MGM Grand, the Venetian, and Sands.  However, the day we spent in Macau was not in the casinos, except for dinner at the MGM Grand.  We actually wandered around the old colonial district viewing such attrations as Senado Square, the Ruins of St Paul, and the mountain fortress.  This area of the city was really nice, and very different from what I had come to believe was the feel of asia.  In fact, this area had a very European feel - cobblestoned streets, a plethora of chruches and public squares, and short (3 storey) buildings. 
The next day was our flight to Bangkok - officially our first day in SE Asia, and the crazy heat that encompasses the entire region.  We flew airAsia, the up and coming discount airline that is connecting SE asia with a system of operation based on Ryanair and other European discount airlines, though not quite as cheap.  Flights are more like $20 plus tax rather than a penny, and the taxes tend to be higher, but it is still cheap and the fastest and most comfortable way to move around the area.
We arrive in Bangkok in the late afternoon and immediately take the shuttle bus to the guesthouse.  The guesthouse is cozy with a pretty cool atmosphere.  The room itself didn’t have A/C but there was a fan, and it seemed pretty good to me.  Justin on the other hand refused to stay, he is super high maintenance and claimed that he couldn’t possibly stand four nights in such squalor.  I said that I didn’t want to spend a lot of money and that I was quite happy with the guesthouse.  So Justin said that he would pay.  So we spent the evening looking at hotels in the area.  Eventually he decided that the Shangri-la was up to his standards, and decided that this was where we would spend the night.  We checkout of the guest house and use the services of a tuk tuk, who drove down a one way road the wrong way, to move to the Shangri-la.  For those who don’t know this is a tuk-tuk:

It is basically a motorbike suped up with a carriage.  The term “tuk tuk” is reference to the sound that they make.  This type of transport is extremely prolific in Bangkok, and also exists in the rest of the region as I would learn later.
So the next 3 days were spent checking out the sights of Bangkok.  Some, like the palace, were unfortunately closed because of the death of the king’s sister and an official 10 days of mourning.  But we did get to see a lot of stuff including:
Wat Arun - the temple of the dawn
Wat Pho - the temple of the reclining buddha
Wat Phra Kaew - Temple of the emerald buddha, which is actually jade - and rediculously small.
The National Museum - learned about Thai history and the royal lineage.  As well as the real Anna Leonowens (The King and I)
Chatachuk Market - gigantic weekend market with over 15000 stalls selling everything you would ever and never need all at incredible prices that are bargained even lower.
We tried to go to the Oriental Hotel for cocktails one night, an event recomended by Justin’s professor.  But when we arrived Justin was not allowed in, as he was wearing shorts.  And since he refused to change it never ended up hapenning.
I also got to eat so much amazing Thai food, which is incredibly delicious and cheap…though it is served in far too small a portion.  Phat Thai, Green Curry, Satay, stirfries, rice dishes, noodle dishes, and fruit in abundant quantities :)  It was all spicy (and not the bad spicy, like Korean food, but tasty spicy) and delicious.

Well that is the end of the week….next time to Sukhothai and back to Bangkok.
Photos
1 - appetizer on the plane

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Hong Kong
2 - Hong Kong skyline 3 - Bank of China building 4 - Peak tram 5 - city from the peak 6 - Dim Sum 7 - Fancy mall 8 - Live chickens in Causeway Bay 9 - ghetto hostel building 10 - skyline at night 11 - crowds after new years
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Macau
12 - Senado Square 13 - Church 14 - Ruins of St Paul 15 - from the mount fortress 16 - MGM Grand
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Bangkok
17 - Ronald McDonald 18 - Buddha and a Wat 19 - Crazy steep steps up Wat Arun 20 - Reclining Buddha head 21 - Reclining Buddha body 22 - A lot of Wats 23 - Entrance to Wat Phra Kaew 24 - Me and a Guardian 25 - mm Phat Thai 26 - Wat Arun 27 - Satay 28 - Chatachuk market
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