Melaka

For the past few days I've been in Melaka and really enjoying it. Am traveling with some people from my Taman Negara trek, we're having a great time together, so tomorrow I'm going with them to Penang where I'll stay until it's time to meet Stef in Bangkok. I've been hobbling around with my jungle walking stick, and everyone here is very concerned about me and its so cute because they are relieved when I tell them that I didn't injure myself in their city. Melaka is a small port town, with very nice old Dutch architecture and a cool Chinatown too, I like it a lot better than KL. And the hospital Andrea escorted me to today was quite nice too! My poor foot, but at least I got some medication for it and he gave me an anti-inflammatory injection so that was nice. Anyway, have enjoyed walking around the city and visiting museums. The only problem is the lack of restaurants- it's Ramadan, so all the muslim owned places are closed during the day. All in all a great town to spend a few days. i'm in a little internet cafe where all these guys are playing computer games and yelling at each other about it so I gotta get out of here before it drives me insane!

Small World

This is for the Japan folk- this is Natsuki, from Toga-Mikita, can you believe it! Thats just one stop from Izumigaoka yeah? She was staying in our hostel. Mechha okashi ne!

with Gavin and Andrea on our night out with the locals

Dutch Colonial area

Crazy Bike Taxis- they play music too

Chinatown

Happy lion

Taman Negara

Even with the torn ligaments(which thankfully happened near the end of the last day) Taman Negara was amazing! (awesome dudes!) We had a great guide, Man, who told us about the plants and animals and cooked some great food. I had started talking to Gavin and Andrea on the bus, we recognized each other from the Perhentians, so we went to the same hostel, and then at dinner a crowd of others from our bus was there so we met other people who wanted to go trekking and got a group together, and it was a great group, we had a lot of fun together. The first night was an easy hike, up in the canopy, then to a village, then a short but difficult hike becuase of fallen trees to a hide, a shelter built on stilts. We didn't see any animals but heard plenty, it was great. The next night we spent in a cave- it was absolutely massive! We heard elephants this night but didn't see them, sometimes they come into the caves. Out last day was when I had my tarzan-gone-awry incident- no one else had a problem but me, of course. But Mare gave me some first aid, Yohan found me a walking stick, and the boys gallantly took turns carrying my bag for me and I made it the rest of the way out of the jungle. It could have been SO much worse! But went to the doctor today and he gave me some meds and a new wrap and orders to not do any hard sports, but yay water stuff is fine! So all set for the islands of Thailand.

The jungle plants were so cool- I loved the big trees. And according to the scientists this is the world's oldest rainforest. Man's been giving tours for 11 years so he knows his stuff and told us the medicinal and recreational uses of the plants. Theres even one that naturally keeps away mosquitos so I didn't even get bitten. The jungle was an amazing, very "nature" experience and I love it. Though I've never felt so dirty and grimy as when we got back to the village! A cold shower never felt so good.

Canopy Walk

Fire!

We stopped by an Orang Asli village, the aboriginal people who live in the jungle

Trying out the blow dart- I was pretty bad at it

Roots like Walls

The picture doesn't do it justice but I love these trees

The crew in the cave, our last morning

me, Stacey, Andrea, Yohan, Mare, Gavin and Man

Just because all your friends are swinging from vines...

Yep, if you look closely you can see my gritting my teeth as my hands are slipping off the vine. So thats how I tore the ligaments in my left foot- went to the doctor today and found out, was just glad I didn't break anything. thought it was a sprained ankle but it was seeming too swollen. So no trekking in Chiang Mai, so I'll just dive more, it'll be fine. I make a bad Jane.

Perhentians-Beach Paradise

The Perhentian islands are amazing- 29 degree blue water, soft sand, colorful fish, beachside cafes, everything you could want in a holiday! Simon and I arrived Sunday night. He had to leave Wednesday to get back to Japan, I had intended on staying till Thursday but left the following Sunday instead. Cause really, when you're in a place this great why leave?

I took my open water course with some cool folks from Norway, its nice to be official! My ears were stopped up for a few days after but it was all worth it. If I had more money I might have stayed on the island longer and been a beach bum, but things start to close down in October with the monsoon season so we were there at a great time. Definitely recommend this place!

Theres no jetty, so a boat takes you from the mainland to just offshore of your chosen beach where a smaller water taxi takes you to shore. We stayed at the backpackery Long Beach, and it was great. When Simon left I moved to a shack on the hill with rough planks with cracks in between and spaces in the roof for the geckos to get in but thats all you need really. The restaurants get daily deliveries by boat as well, and they have to get gasoline for the generators, which is how all electricity is supplied on the island. I miss it already!

View from me and Simon's room

Monitor lizard outside the shack

My beach shack

Gorgeous! I'm in heaven

Divers!

Kinda crap pic, but these are my fellow open water coursemates Erling and Sigrid in the back, and in the front is our instructor, Cindy

Dive shop

Tropical paradise- why leave?

Back to Civilization

Hi all, have been away from the internet for nearly 2 weeks now so just wanted to let you know I'm alive and well, except for my sprained ankle. I spent a week in the Perhentian Islands- absolutely fabulous! Got my open water liscense and lazed around on the beach. From there I went to Taman Negara, a rainforesty, jungley national park. With some other travelers I met on the bus, took a 3 day trek into the jungle with a great and somewhat eccentric guide. I'm on a crap old computer now so I can't upload pictures but when I do in the next few days or so I'll post heaps and go into more detail about those places- and you can see how I sprained my ankle, it was caught on film. I'm now in Melaka, south-west coast of Malaysia, came here with 2 people from Germany that were on the islands and at Taman Negara too. I love meeting people while traveling! So fun. Anyway, I'm sure you will all wait with anticipation for my photos and longer stories!

KL Malaysia

Got into KL early Wednesday morning and made it to the wonderful hostel, the red palm, I highly recommend it if anyone is going to KL, I'll probably be back here in a few weeks myself! Anyway, the first morning a woman who half lives here (also from Seattle- and her dad is from NC, how weird) took me around to the markets and showed me the shops where us western women can find shirts, so that was cool. Lazed around in the afternoon, and then Simon got in at night and we hung out with people at the hostel and had food, and then went to Kareoke. It's not nearly as good here as in Japan, were a bit dissapointed in the song selection, and they slapped a service charge on us that they didn't tell us about beforehand so we were a bit miffed at that.

Today we went to the Batu caves as pictured below, they were just discovered a little over 100 years ago, and a hindu temple has been built inside. The caves are beautiful, but would be better without the touristy stalls. It's also overun with monkeys who constantly go through the garbage and drink through cans.

Have walked around the markets as well today, and of course they have all the same stuff that was sold at the tourist shop I worked at in Seattle, an experience which turned me off buying souvenirs for life!

Am enjoying the slow-paced, relaxed atmosphere of SE Asia, its fantastic. Sunday we head off to the Perhentian Islands, met some girls here who went there and said it was fantastic so we're really excited to go and check it out. you have to take a speed boat from the mainland to get there, and apparently have to change to another boat in the middle of the sea, so we'll see how that goes!

Malaysians really, really like corn

the caves

Monkeys Like the Shrine too

Batu Caves

KL's Petronas Towers

Mosque Dress Code

Celebrating the American Culture!

Simon and I sampling slurpees- and yep, as I expected, they are pretty gross, but so good at the same time

Ice Kechang

Kinda like the Malay version of Kakigori, Sze told me I had to try it and it's good. On the bottom is gelatin, peanuts- and corn. They seem to really like their corn here.

Bookstore! English! Bookstore!

So last night had planned on going to the night safari, but no one else was going that night and with the solo taxi journey both ways would have been way to expensive. Wasn't too dissapointed, as I'm going to spend some time in the Malaysian jungle and can hear those night sounds for real, thats going to be awesome!Instead I wandered to Orchard Road, the expensive shopping street. Yayoi Kurasuma (think thats right) had covered the trees in polka dots, which I always enjoy, and walking around I saw a Border bookstore. I walked in, thinking at least half of it would have to be in English, and perhaps you fellow expats can appreciate my delight at discovering it was ALL ENGLISH!!! I wanted to take pictures but thought that might make the staff suspcicious of me, so I wandered around with a ridiculous grin on my face just flipping through random books in each section. Pure bliss! I'm sure if anyone was paying attention to me they probably thought I was high or something.

Today just wandered around the Quays (the money picture) and a bit of Chinatown to get some cheap eats ($2! vs. 15 at the quay). Had thought about climbing a little mountain, but its so hot and humid today decided that would be a miserable idea so just hung out and read my book and people watched, a nice lazy day. Taking the night train to KL where I'll be meeting Simon at night, yay! We're gonna hang out in and around KL for 4 days then its off to an island paradise where I plan on getting my scuba license, I can't wait!

Smell that? smells like money!

More Art!

A Message from the Singaporean Government

7-11

Wanted to mention that the 7-11s here have slurpees, good old American style. And big gulps- they are so huge! Do people really drink those? I like that I can get a taste of the reverse culture shock before going back home.

Singpore=Posh

So have decided I love Singapore and would like to live here for a few months sometime- maybe when I go back to university I can arrange that, after all its right by Indonesia so could just hop over to do some research. Everything is so posh here its ridiculous, this picture was taken outside the theater area Esplanade. Theres a hip hop competition happening there tonight so I'm gonna go back and check it out. The area i'm staying smells wonderfully of Indian spices and the food is so cheap and good! Even the airport here is nice- can't remember if I already said this- but beautifully designed, free internet, and mints at the immigration desk! How cute! And I love the ethnic diversity, it's such a nice change after Japan. Plus since people speak English it's so easy to get around! Fantastic! Have been happily looking at art the past few days, eating good food, wandering around the town, good times. Last night went to an ultimate frisbee party (no joke- theres some huge international tournament happening- who knew) at this really swank bar, but luckily I pretended to be on a team and got free drink tickets, score! anyway, thats all to report for now, but think I'm in love with this place.

Singapore Biennale

This exhibition was taking place throughout the city, to my excitement. The locations were all public places, including places of worship, parks, and city hall as seen here. The pink panels have quotes from locals, it was pretty cool. I stumbled upon one exhibit by accident on Saturday and today went to the rest of them, it was so awesome! I also saw a Sigmar Polke exhibit yesterday which was great cause I missed his show in Osaka last spring, have had a great artsy weekend.

Outside Singapore Art Museum

Part of the art crawl!

Hindu Temple

Chinese Buddhist Monastery

Took a tour here that was pretty interesting, heard some dirt about local politics and how they relate to cultural sites such as this one.

Singapore

Hey all, just got into Singapore last night so have updated with China photos. My hostel is ok though pretty crowded and the lockers are only small ones, not big enough for your bags so thats kinda annoying to keep locking it back up all the time. In a bit am going on a walking tour with the hostel folks to a local monastery, then plan on feasting on Indian food (I'm staying in Little India) and maybe doing some electronics shopping. Don't have big plans for Singapore, just hanging out, wandering around, plan on checking out the nigh zoo, supposed to be cool as you can see the nocturnal animals. Will post more later!

The Great Wall

Can't believe I was here! Absolutely amazing.

My dorm mates

My dorm pals Anhita and Thomas (if you guys check this, let me know if I spelled your names right!)

A particularly treacherous section

Some parts had loose stones like this, or no actual wall just a path, and some seemed to go straight up- which made us wonder how they ever built it in the first place

Yata! Dekita!

Pretending to look energized at the end of our 10km trek

Good Old Mao

Cool door in the forbidden city

Starbucks?

We're not convinced this is a real one- Thomas said when he walked by here later the sign had been taken down. hmmm, a bit suss

Always check your toilets rating

Forbidden City

China Baby!

Hey all, this is the end of my second day in China, I leave for Singapore tomorrow. When I get there I'll post some pics on here, using the hostels free internet so can't take that long. I've been having fun, been hanging out with my German dormates who nicely speak in English when I'm with them.

I got in Tuesday night but was too tired from the hassle to find a taxi to the hostel and my last 2 weeks of sayonara/sightseeing craziness to do anything. The next morning my new pals and I went to Mao's mausoleum and the Forbidden City. Mao's mausoleum is pretty creepy, not sure if its really his body or a fake, but you just keep walking in a line and it only takes 10 minutes to get through it. The forbidden city is absolutely amazing, it's so unbelievably big. Unfortunately, some of the most important buildings are under construction getting ready to be showcased for the 2008 olympics. But we wandered around for ages admiring the architecture and the sheer size of it all. Funnily, there was a Starbucks, but we remain unconvinced if it was real or not- the sign was just propped up in the window and the menu didn't look quite right, though they were wearing the aprons. That night just hung out with other backpackers and had dinner where the restaurant tried to to severlely rip us off, that was not so fun. Had an early night as I got up at 5:20 this morning to go to the Great Wall.

The wall was amazing, as you can expect. We hiked a 10km section that starts off pretty nice, as it's been redone a bit, but the center sections are pretty rough, with loose stones and really steep, tricky places. Was glad I wasn't hiking it by myself! It took us 5 hours to get through the section, with plenty of photo stops. The weather was fantastic as well, not so humid and a bit overcast so we didn't get fried. The annoying thing is having someone waiting at the top of every staircase and in every tower trying to sell you something, so you're constantly fending them off. It was a very long day but well worth it.

Anyway, I'll post pictures tomorrow or the day after when I get to Singapore. My feet are still pretty sore from the walk today so not gonna do anything tomorrow morning, just relax. Decided to just go to a few places, didn't want to run myself ragged in the beginning of the trip or be too tired to enjoy it. Also, I love how everyone at backpacker hotels has identical outfits- the plain colored T-shirt, cargo pants or shorts, and those loose hippy type skirts for the girls, love it.

Will write more when I can