Jerad's Birthday and Weekend in Langkawi

Van's first long weekend started out with a birthday party for one of his co-workers. Jerad turned 30 and his wife, Jamie, who also works with Van, had appetizers and drinks at their condo in his honor. It was nice to meet the people who work with Van that I hadn't met previously. It was also fun to go out on the town with such a fun-loving group. Jerad is pictured above and below with the members of Bangkok Connexion who helped him celebrate in a "big way." Unfortunately, the photos of Van swing dancing with the girls in the band did not turn out well. He must have been swinging too fast! We went to bed in the early morning and woke up a few hours later to drive the 5 hours to the ferry landing (Kuala Kedar) for the trip to Langkawi Island. We were almost as far north as you can go in Malaysia before hitting the Thailand border. The drive was beautiful, but the roads were a little crowded, probably due to the Malaysian holiday traffic. The ferry ride was 1.5 hours and they really do pack you in. Unfortunately, the seats are made for the typical Malaysian traveler who is much shorter and thinner than Van or I. Considering they have assigned seating, it was lucky that Van got an isle seat on the way there. We stayed at the Meritus Beach Resort and Hotel that was done in the old Malaysian style of architecture with lots of teak. It was very nice. Langkawi is a large island and the taxi ride from the ferry to the hotel was about 20 minutes.

On our only whole day to do something (Sunday) we signed up for the all day snorkeling adventure. They picked us up at 8:00 a.m., drove us to the ferry harbor, and we had a 45 minute boat ride out to the marine preserve to spend the day snorkeling. The first two hours were beautiful with clear water and about 20 people snorkeling, then about noon a ferry load (75 people) arrived and took over the place. Shortly after that, a tide of garbage rolled in from the mainland and the water turned murky so you couldn't even see the fish (let alone two feet in front of you). It was depressing. So, we stayed out of the water. I worked on my tan and Van worked on his sunburn. Van hasn't been out as much as I have. He says he'll be a "bronze God" in a few days! Below are some photos of our snorkeling adventure.

Sandy sporting the new snorkeling equipment Van bought her before we left the US and Van looking good as ever! He said it's hard to get a good seal on his mask with his mustache!

One of the very colorful fish you could see in the water. They were beautiful to watch and some of their colors were awesome!
Patterns were incredible, too. I wish we knew what the names of the fish are, but we haven't a clue.
This one was by far the most colorful one we saw. Van's new underwater camera did a pretty nice job once we got the hang of it!
The sunset at from the beach at our hotel was really nice on our last night there. We walked on the beach, held hands, and watched the sun set. It was so relaxing and romantic - woo, woo!

The little love birds with Van's now famous "hand cam." What did we ever do without it?

All and all, we were a little disappointed with Langkawi. I was expecting the same beautiful beaches that Laine and I had on Tioman Island, but they weren't as pristine. The water is murky around the hotel beach just like it was on Penang Island. Due to our short stay, we really didn't get a chance to see all Langkawi has to offer, but I'm not sure we'll go back. We were checking it out for Christmas when the kids come and I think we are back to the drawing board. We'd like more of what we had at Tioman. The only problem is we've heard conflicting stories about the seas and when to go to the east side islands versus the west side islands. Definitely some more research is needed.

Sunday at Genting Highlands

Genting Highlands is in the mountains about an hour from Kuala Lumpur (KL). At 6,000+ feet above sea level you are literally in the clouds. It's a nice break from the much hotter temperatures around KL. Genting has a hotel with 6,000+ rooms, casino (which Van couldn't go in because he had shorts on), and indoor and outdoor amusement parks. There is a cable car that will take you the last 4,000 feet or so to the resort, but it was closed for maintenance, so we drove all the way to the top. It wasn't too disappointing because the clouds pretty much socked everything in so there wouldn't have been too much to see besides white out conditions on the way up. We had a great day. Yes, we wished the kids were with us, but we still managed "not" to act our age most of the day! It was nice to let loose!

This is one of the hotels. You can see it from way down below on the main highway when it's clear. You do a double take the first time you see it because it's hard to believe there are buildings on top of a mountain.

My sister, Nancy, whose husband restores old aircraft, asked me to keep my eyes peeled in the jungle for planes they could restore. Hey, I found one. I don't know what kind it is, but it looks like you could salvage it. That means you'll have to come get it. I know right where it is, too! It's in Dinosaur Land at Genting Highlands.
There was an amazingly friendly T-Rex in the jungle near the plane. He was so sweet to allow Van to do his "hand cam" and take our picture. Van is having more fun with than any grown man should with his hand cam. I think Laine addicted him to it when she was here visiting. Every time I turn around he's got the camera on us!
See what I mean? We paid extra Ringetts (Malaysian currency) to don our 3-D glasses and go in the Haunted Werewolf Alley at the indoor park. We were with a Saudi Arabian woman in a burka (the black outfits that cover everything but their eyes) and her husband. We laughed and laughed at them. She was terrified and kept hiding behind Van and I and her husband. There was a werewolf that came out of one of the doors and grabbed her. She screamed and screamed and then we all laughed and laughed. It's things like this that teach us we are really not so different after all. It was kind of comical to see Van try to give him a "high-five" when we exited. I don't think her husband was use to that. We laughed about that, too. It was such fun!

Here's Van on one of the roller coasters. I always make him go first to tell me if there are any "tummy drops" which I can't handle well (just ask Laine). Unfortunately, this one had several. He'll just have to wait until the kids come to visit so he'll have someone to ride with.
How about a big bunch of koi? Look at their greedy little sucker mouths opening up for food. They fed them fish food pellets (that you could buy for 3 Ringett) and they were huge! This was on the water boat ride through Dinosaur Land.
We waited in line for about 30 minutes to ride the go carts. The track was underneath the roller coaster. You had to wear closed toe shoes, so they had a rack of shoes and you got to pick some that fit. Van even found some monsters! I must say it was really "yucky" putting my bare feet into a wet pair of shoes, but I managed. Here's Van with the hand cam. Funny, he was going so fast he needed his eye glasses and his helmet visor!
This is me passing Van. I was the first one out of the gate and pretty much got the whole course to myself, until I had to do some passing after I started lapping people. You could do the whole course with your foot to the floor! It was great fun!

All and all, it was a great day to get out and have some fun. We spent most of the day on Saturday getting Van's expense reports entered into his company's online travel accounting system. He has been having trouble logging in, but it was fixed late last week. It was good to get them done finally!

Penang Island and Lata Kinjang Waterfall

Blogs are a labor of love. I keep reminding myself of that fact as I struggle to get the photos into the right format for downloading. Van had to extend his latest trip to the States by almost a week so I decided I had time to visit Penang Island. It's actually an island that you can drive to across a very, very long bridge. It's about 3.5 hours north of Kuala Lumpur, a couple hours from the southern border of Thailand (or at least it looked like that from the map). While I was there I had two of the most beautiful sunny days you could imagine. I am now an even darker shade of tan - this will become really irritating to those of you who will be experiencing winter while we are still at 90 degrees and 90% humidity. The beaches looked a lot like the beaches on the east side (Penang is on the west side) with the exception that because they are so close to the mainland it is more murky and there is more pollution. Never the less, it is still beautiful. Below are some of the photos of the beaches on the west end of the island.

Photo of the para sailers and the hotel beach. I really wanted to try the para sailing, but I figured it would be so much more fun if someone was there to hear me scream. So, I'll wait until Van or the kids are with me to experience the fun!

Below, sunset from balcony of Park Royal Hotel, Batu Ferringhi Beach, Penang Island.

On the second night I was there, a huge thunderstorm rolled in. The photo below was taken at midnight (although the lightning lite up the sky like daytime). The thunder was so loud, it made me jump a couple of times. It was fun to watch the storm from my balcony. I was excited to get a photo of lightning!! :)
On the way home, I took a 25 KM trek (in my car) to find the waterfall that I had passed on the way to Penang. I can't tell you how large it was, or how beautiful, and the photos don't do it justice. Oh, and the sound made me smile. It was absolutely worth the trip! I'd love to go back when the light is better. It was bright on the top and shadowy on the bottom.

Below, the upper part of the falls. I hiked up the stairs and took this photo from a suspension bridge that spans the falls. It was very, peaceful and wonderful.

On a sad note, they don't treat dogs well in Malaysia. I think it's a religious thing. One of the religious groups consider them unclean. Anyway, there was a really skinny mother dog with pups (about 7 weeks old). I saw her and the puppies out of the window at the restaurant (that said they had the best steak in town). I ordered the mom a steak thinking it would help make milk for the puppies and gave it to her after I finished dinner. She and her family were living in the rocks by the beach like a den. When I was walking on the beach the next day I heard one of the little puppies yelping so I checked it out. He had wedged his head in between the rocks and couldn't move. I tried pulling on him, but he yelped so loudly I quit because I was hurting him. I dug for 45 minutes, but couldn't get under the rock that was holding him captive so I had to leave him like that. I felt so bad. Maybe someone will come along who is strong enough to move the rock or maybe God has another plan. It was the only sad part of my trip.

Excursion to Chiling Waterfall

Van has been in the States on business for the past week and has another 5 days to go. He's been in Seattle (got to see Joe and Laine), Richland, Washington, North Carolina, and then he's on to Columbus, Ohio. I've missed him, but he's accomplishing great things! You GO Van!!

Well, taking Laine's advice seriously when she said "Be Brave" I decided to venture out once again and hike through the jungle for the first time to Chiling Waterfall. I went with Robert and Jan (from Crown Relocation Company), Stephen and Matthew (Robert's teenage sons), and some other stray folks that Robert picked up. Robert has this amazing way of attracting really nice people so it was my pleasure to meet his strays! The waterfall is about 1.5 hours from KL, but the ride went quickly with music (70's and early 80's), singing, and yes, even some head-banging!

The hike to the waterfall started with checking in with some rangers, signing in (I'm going to have to memorize my passport number), and getting some advice about flash floods if it starts to rain. The first thing I noticed, were the sounds on the hike were very different from the sounds I was use to in the forest. There was so much noise! Insects mostly, beetles that sounded like a high-pitched saws, crickets, etc. All I can say is they must be dang big to make that much racket! Robert pointed out plants. A pitcher plant that collects rain in a "pitcher" and unsuspecting insects fall in the pitcher, drown, and then the plant digests them. There were also lots of big, beautiful, colorful butterflies flitting about.

As you can see in the photo above, the trail was overgrown in places and a lot of the time we were walking through standing water. It was hot and very humid. Insect repellent was a must. Most of the way we followed the river which is pictured below. It was surprisingly clear compared to the other rivers I have seen in Malaysia.

We crossed the river no fewer than 5 times. It made me wonder how we got back to the car if it did begin to rain. Luckily, it was a beautiful day and we didn't need to worry. The river crossing sure helped to cool you off.

We hiked up a very steep vertical trail to get above the falls. Above is the view from the top of the steep trail of the falls. There is also a smaller falls directly above it that you can see in the photo below.

We hiked back down the steep trail, crossed the river one last time and ended up at the bottom of the falls. It was beautiful and the pool underneath the falls was perfect for cooling off. Everyone thought the water was so cold. It tickled me because it was really warm compared to some of the really frigid mountain lakes I've been in. They were just a bunch of wusses!

The waterfall actually has two parts. The upper falls comes into the main waterfall from above and to the left, there is a small standing pool, then this one cascades into the swimming pool you can see in the photo below. The folks in our group were jumping off the rocks into the deep pool below the falls.

The fishing was closed to all anglers. Robert said the fish were about totally harvested until they adopted their non-fishing policy, now they are starting to come back. See photo below.


It was a great trip that ended with a fantastic Chinese dinner at a little restaurant on the way home. Velma, which is a small lettuce-like vegetable with a garlic sauce was really good, the lemon chicken, talapia, and sweet & sour pork were fantastic! All 7 of us were fed for $20 US. Laine was right, food is a great value here. I can't wait to go back and take Van so he can experience the wonders of this beautiful country.