Sunday November 17

Sunday November 17

 This is the last blog entry.  I have had an enjoyable 4 days with Caroline and Ali.  I have photographed the night skyline and the shop houses.  I have dined well and drunk good coffee every morning.  Tomorrow I fly back to Canada.  

November 11 to 13

I have broken off the ride and I am BACK IN SINGAPORE.   On day 2 I found the riding to be a little too dangerous.  I was off the road about 6 times.  I found accommodation at the end of the day but it was rough and dirty.  The road is dangerous and the air pollution bothered me.

The next day I put the bike on a bus and rode the bus to Banda Aceh.  The express bus ride took almost 12 hours and when I got to Banda Aceh I went to 7 hotels before I found a room.  After a quick tour of the grand mosque I packed up and headed for the Airport and back to Singapore.

  I changed my return flight and will fly back to Canada on Monday November 18.

Sunday November 10

Day 1 on the road and all went well.  The bike and bike rack held together; my bag fastened onto the bike rack and it didn’t fall off; and I did not get lost.  My hotel was right near the main street, so I went 1 block and I was on Highway 1 for the whole day.  I wanted to stop early so at the biggest town of the day I asked a cabbie where the hotels were.  He told me there were none in town and none all the way to Banda Aceh (600km down the road).  When I questioned him more he said I could sleep at the Police Station.  It was 1 pm so I rode for another 2 hours until a big town.  I went to the police station and they told me there was a hotel 1km down the road.  There was and I am in the VIP deluxe room with A/C and running water.  All for only $17. 

   The riding is hard.  After the first 30km I was on a 2-lane highway.  Traffic is heavy, mostly motor scooters, but also minibuses and trucks.  I need to keep close to the edge without falling off; the edge can drop 25cm in places.  Rich people drive SUV’s, I have seen only 1 sedan all day.  I was run off the road once or twice by a big black SUV, but they sure let me know in advance.  They was passing everything in sight and I wasn’t going to get in the way.  I do seem to be a bit of an oddity here.  Every guy that sees me go past says hello mister!  I smile and answer, but very few people speak English here.  I am going to learn some Indonesian.   

My Bike and Luggage

Mosque entrance

Roadside Mosque

Saturday November 9

Joan and Barb flew back to Singapore this morning and I stayed in Medan to start a 3 week bike trip.  I spent the day shopping; what an exhausting experience.  I bought a brand new bike for $150 after 2 false starts.  Used bikes were not available, but new bikes start at $100.  Unfortunately the first bikes I tried didn’t have all the gears working and the shop didn’t want to fix them before I bought.  The third shop was much better and I got a mountain bike with all 21 gears working.  I just about finished everything on my shopping list, but I’m still missing a helmet and a decent map.  I was too tired to shop any more but the last purchase I made was a positive experience.  I bought a fanny pack for riding and as I left the shop 6 sales girls and the manger were lined up to say thank you and make a little bow.  I did feel special!

.Friday November 8

Today was a transit day.  We were to move from Bukit Lawang in the mountains to Medan near the coast for the flight to Singapore.  We booked the driver for all day and asked him to drive into the mountains to Beristagi where we could see active volcanoes.  He was a good driver and we stopped along the way to see a palm oil plantation and the local market.  Driving in Sumatra is very slow. The roads have potholes and the traffic is very erratic – people never look behind, only in front.  Added to that, everybody stops on the road to pick up passengers and drop off goods.  As we were climbing into the mountains we were driving switchback roads and we did see 2 accidents. 

We got to Beristagi and we saw 2 smoking volcanos – one of which had erupted in September.  Joan was happy and we continued on the way to Medan.  Joan and Barb fly to Singapore tomorrow and I start a 3-week bike trip soon.                    

Mount Cinabung

Mount Sibayak

Thursday November 7

Male Orang-utan

Sandra with baby

Our second day of trekking started with steep uphill but we were ready and so were the guides.  They split up immediately and the young one went looking for Orang-utans and the head guide lead us uphill slowly.  They kept in touch via cell phones and we soon had a destination.  Even the guides get excited about an Orang-utan viewing.  Because I’m chief photographer I had to run after the young guide and we went way past our destination.  Then we had to turn around and run back.  Spotting an Orang-utan in a tree is not easy.  Unless they move, they are very well camouflaged.  Eventually we caught up with a male Orang-utan and tracked him for about 30 minutes. He never came down so I have no good portraits.   We continued our trek and came across a mother and baby.  Sandra the mother is 20 years old and the baby was 2 months old.  The mothers stay with the babies for 6 years.  Sandra was carrying her baby under her arm so we saw him but he was so small we could only see limbs sticking out.  I was taking pictures and checking the results when I notice spots on the pictures.  When I checked the lens it was dripping with sweat.  I tried to wipe it clean but that made it worse.   All the clothing I wore was soaked with sweat.   I had to pull a dry sweatshirt out of my bag to dry my lens.  Sandra put on quite a good show so we followed her for 30 minutes and then called it a day.  Our guides certainly listened to us.  We had a lunch we had requested and a descent from the mountaintop that Tarzan would have been proud of. 

    Later in the afternoon I was lazing in the hammock on our balcony when two monkeys visited me.  The male put on quite a show.  He humped the female 4 times in 15 minutes and then rested.  The female was a bitch.  She was very aggressive and charged me 5 times.  Since I was still lying in the hammock with my camera, I flashed her close-up right in the face.  After a truce was declared she left me alone and I eventually went inside.                 
           

The Bitch

                                        

Wednesday November 6

Mama Orang-utan (Julia)

Thomas Leaf Monkey

Long Tailed Macaque

We started our jungle trek with a serious uphill climb.  The guides (we had two for the three of us) quickly realized we were not mountain  climbers and learned to go slow and take frequent breaks.  The young one helped us over the rough spots with a hand and carried Joan’s purse because she had a load on water in it.  We ascended about 1000m in 1 km and were only halfway up. (Well maybe 100 m in 1 km but it seemed worse).  The guides then split up to track down the Orangutans and soon enough they led to a mother and baby (their cell phones work in the jungle).  We spent about an hour watching the mother.  She parked her baby in the nest and descended the trees to feed.  The guides can recognise each Orangutan and they told me the mother was 17 and the baby was 1 year old.  The mother will stay with the baby until 6 or 7 and then mate again.  We the had a jungle lunch of bread and jam and lots of fruits and headed back.  We encountered a troop of Monkeys on the way back, but the baby was too quick for me to get a picture.  The older monkeys were quite photogenic.  We came across a single Long tailed Macaque who stayed with us for 2 km.  When I asked the guide why he was hanging around us - he told me the long tails are very social.  The monkey had lost his troop and was hanging around us for company.  At least he co-operated for pictures.                                                                                                            

Tuesday November 5

Our Residence - The Jungle Inn

                                 

We arrived late last night in Medan and we left early this morning for Bukit Lawang.  This is a small village, based on tourism that sits at the edge of a national park.  The park is the home of the orang-utan rehabilitation centre and we are here to see Orang-utans in the wild.  We went for a half hour walk by ourselves and then we attended a Orang-utan  feeding session but there were no orang-utans.  We will do a jungle trek tomorrow and according to our guide we will be 99% sure to see an Orang-utan in the wild. 

    In order to get to the park we must take a ferry.  It’s a hop on, hop off ferry because you scramble to hop in and scramble to hop off.                                     
                 

They took a picture of me first

Crossing the River

Monday November 4

Hindu Temple Roof

Sleeping Buddha

     With a few hours to spare in Georgetown, I visited 3 Temples this morning.   First the Hindu temple at 7 AM.  Joan and I had walked through the grounds the night before and they had been very welcoming.  Joan was invited to meet the head Brahma and I talked to one of the priests about Canada.  The priest told me they opened at 7 so I was the first tourist there.  They held a very noisy ceremony with lots of bells and lots of fire.  I was allowed to wander anywhere but I was hesitant to take pictures of the worshippers,  so I left after 40 minutes.

                   

       After breakfast I went to the Sleeping Buddha temple.  It is a Thai temple with a 130 foot reclining Buddha.  All the tourist maps call it the Sleeping Buddha, but his eyes were definitely open.  Across the street was a Burmese temple with a Standing Buddha.  He seemed to be 60 feet tall but it’s hard to tell when you’re looking at his kneecaps. 

        Since we first started touring in Asia I have been practising the opposite of a Photo Bomb.  When I see somebody lining up a picture I sneak up behind the photographer and take a picture too.  I have lots of photos of people I don’t know.  A very pleasant girl from India posed for me after the couple asked me to take their picture with his camera.

Girl from Southern India

   Late in the afternoon we flew to the island of Sumatra.   Tomorrow the jungle!                 

                                 

Standing Buddha

Sunday November 3

                                                        

Caroline in the clouds

    Barb and Caroline wanted to try Parasailing so they signed up for a flight.  Because of low winds they had to be transported to an small island offshore.  I went along as the official photographer.   Because the winds were tricky the crew would not let them fly together and the instructor insisted on going with each of the girls.  While we were on the island another group was there for parasailing as well.  I watched the other couple.  He was first and I didn’t see him take off, but his landing was a solid face plant into the sand.   The girl’s takeoff was pretty ugly as she got dragged 10meters on the beach and then 20 meters through the water.  Her landing was face first in the sand.  Then came Caroline, a quick 3-step takeoff and a graceful 2-step landing.  This was Barb’s second time at parasailing and her experience showed.  A one-step takeoff and a perfect one-step landing.  She aced it.                                                                                                                       

Barb's quick take off

Barb coming in

Barb Landing

  This was our last day in Langkawi so we caught the 2:30 ferry to Penang and we are overnighting in Georgetown.  We fly to Sumatra tomorrow.

Saturday November 2

                              
 Today, like yesterday, started as a serious beach day.    But Ali, who is considering an Iron Man Triathlon next year, was off at 8 am to tackle the highest mountain in Langkawi.  He survived but showed up late for the all day tanning session.  Round about 3 pm Joan and Barb headed out for some shopping, while Caroline Ali and I decided to try snorkelling on a nearby island.    We were dropped off on a deserted island that looked like a setting from an old James Bond movie. 

Spiney that punctured me

The snorkelling was tough.  The tide was low and we had to swim through the reef to get to the deep water.  The reef was populated with spike-like animals with one big eyeball.  When we got to the deep water the current was strong and we had to avoid be swept into the rocks.  The second time I went out my mask kept filling up with water so I couldn’t see properly and I hit the coral coming back in.  I now have 4 punctures in my skin and several scrapes.  The only picture I got was the spiky plant/animal that injured me.    

Friday November 1

                

Sky Bridge

                 
Today is a serious beach day.  We rented our chairs at 10 am and planted ourselves on the beach.  I have an E-reader with several new books and Joan swam in the ocean all day.  Caroline and Ali arrived mid morning and joined us on the beach.  Caroline had brought beach towels for all so we look like serious beach people.  The mornings are hot, but the afternoons are very hot, so we dunk ourselves every hour to cool off.  (except Joan who stays in forever).  Shortly before sunset we got a cab to the Skybridge in Lankawi and took the Gondola car 700m up to the top.  The Skybridge was closed but the view was great.  Sunset was slow that night so we started back down shortly before sunset.  What luck!  The cable car broke down.  We were stranded for 45min hanging 100meters above the jungle gently swaying in the wind.   Sunset came and went.  It’s a good thing nobody was afraid of heights.  After 30 minutes we called the emergency number posted on the Gondola door and they actually answered.  They told us they were switching to emergency service and we would be running again in 5 minutes.  Indeed shortly after 5 minutes we restarted and the gondola crawled back to earth.  We were each given a free bottle of water for our ordeal.                                                     

At the Top

Stranded

Thursday October 31

Ferry crossing

                                                      

 I had partaken of happy hour on a rooftop bar and ate a meal too hot for me to handle, so it was with trepidation I boarded a 3-hour ferry ride to Langkawi Island in Malaysia.  However the seas were calm and I didn’t turn green.  We arrived in Langkawi and when Joan saw a Starbucks coffee shop, there was no holding Joan and Barb back.  They both have a serious caffeine problem.  After their fix, we headed to our hotel – The tropical Resort.  It is a nice hotel, situated 100m from the beach and we walk through the woods to get there.   It is clean, has hot water and a very nice staff.  I quite like this place.  We walked through the town and we have several nice restaurants to choose from.  The beach is clean, with a bathtub hot ocean.  Joan is turning into a water baby.  She spends more time in the water than any of us.  Another thing we like about Langkawi is – laundry costs $1.50 per kilo.  We are superclean now.                                                                           

Ferry at Dock

Wednesday October 30

Fishing Boat deck

Fish Delivery

 We had a great day today. We wanted to tour the island of Penang and so we hired a taxi with driver and set off. Our first stop was at a fishing village right next to the entrance to Penang National Park. We watched some catches being unloaded and transported into town on motorcycle delivery vehicles. We clung to the pier posts when the motorcycles came by to avoid any incident. The pier was colourful and interesting.

We went next into the national park and hiked about 1 ½ kms into the jungle to reach a canopy walk. The walk was definitely the highlight of the day. It was a rope and wire construction, 250 meters long in 5 stages from tree to tree and it swung 15 meters high over the jungle. It was just plain fun to be up there!                                                

After we returned to our driver, we asked him to take us to two other fishing villages which were over the mountain and down on the coast. Trouble is, they were not on the coast nor were they fishing villages. This was one of the very few times that our Lonely Planet guidebook has been wrong.

Joan and Barb on Canopy Walk

  We then went to the Botanical Gardens. The highlight here was not the flowers but the many monkeys roaming the grounds. They are always fun to watch.

We finished our day with a drink on a rooftop bar overlooking Georgetown

Tuesday October 29

We did a walking tour of Georgetown today. Georgetown is one of the 3 straits trading cities set up by Great Britain during the 18^th century.  It has a long British history and is now one of the top tourist cities in Malaysia       

State Mosque

Temple Roof

Clan Jetty

We started at our hotel and took in the old colonial buildings first and then after our café latte we went into Little India.  This has to be as close to India as it gets without actually being in India. Gold, jewellery, and clothes are all in the Indian fashion and the food is all Indian as well.  We all decided we like Indian food.   We visited the clan jetties where the Chinese clans own the jetty and there are hundreds of homes and businesses clustered on 1 jetty.  The newer additions have stilts made of concrete filled plastic pails.  It really is a city within a city.                                                                             

   Just before sunset we took a funicular up to the top of Penang hill.  The funicular goes up 800 meters in one shot and takes about 15 minutes.  It was built 100 years ago, but it has new cars and it runs very smoothly.  The sun set and the city lit up and I got my pictures of Georgetown and the Neon lit temple at the top of the hill.      

Georgetown at night

                 

Monday October 28

             

Malaka - Sultans Palace

Joan in Trishaw

             
We took the train to Georgetown today.  Travelling by train or bus in Malaysia is not that interesting.  Lots of Palm Trees and not much else.  We ate bananas and cookies for 8 hours on the train and arrived in the dark at Georgetown.  Georgetown is alive and happy at night and we had tea and beer at midnight, right on the street by our hotel.

Sunday October 27

Malaka has spent money cleaning up the riverfront the runs through the town centre.  We took a riverboat ride yesterday, and today we walked along the river.  There is a 10 km walk that leads past house and shops, most of which have murals on the front and sides.  The murals seem to depict a lot of history. 

      One of the hotels in Malaka offers a high tea.  We decided to try it out. We sat on the riverfront and watched the thunder and lightening and rain for 2 hours while we ate everything but cucumber sandwiches.  Alistair and Caroline  then departed for Singapore. 

      Because of the rain I went back to the hotel, but Barb and Joan went shopping.  While walking by the shops a man told them to look down.  They were beside a 6 foot Montor Lizard.  They might have panicked, but they got some pictures first.       

5 foot lizard in ditch

Saturday October 26

                                     

Doors to a Chinese Temple

Caroline and Ali had joined us late last night, so we all toured the European area of town.  The down-town core has the official buildings and old Dutch architecture.  We went to only 1 museum but that was enough to give us nightmares.  The museum of beauty chronicles the brutality heaped on mostly women to make them more desirable.  From lip disc’s, nose plugs, ear stretching to tattoos and scarification – it all looks painful.

      On a brighter note Malaka has trishaws.  Old bikes with a side-car for 2 and the most colourful setups.  Most also have a sound system that specializes in loud music.  After lunch we took a trishaw back to the hotel.  Because of her dress colour Caroline got the pink trishaw and I had to take the yellow flowered special.  It clashed horribly with my red backpack.                                        

Caroline and Ali in the Pink Trishaw

                            
     At night tracked down the number one restaurant in Malaka.  The Pac Putra is rated the best on Trip Advisor and in the lonely planet.  It is a Pakistani/Indian special.  The 5 of us ordered 10 meat or veggie dishes a lot of Nan bread and drinks called Mango Lassies.  We ate in the parking lot along with a hundred other patrons.  Some of the food was cooked on the sidewalk, some inside the restaurant.  It was

Trishaw at night

great food.  All at less than $8 per person. 

Friday October 25

Kampung Kling Mosque

We boarded the bus to Malacca this morning and arrived in Malacca at 1 pm.  We crossed onto Malaysia after 1 hour and the roads in Malaysia are good.  Malacca is a UNESCO recognised village that has been a major seaport and trading town since 1400.  It has been owned, at various times, by the Sumatrans, Portuguese, Dutch, English and now Malaysia.   It is a popular destination for tourists and is famous for it’s mixture of cultures and fabulous food.   Our hotel is in Chinatown and this is the happening part of the city.  Shopping is good, but at night the street is blocked to cars and 1000’s of vendors put up stalls or have their carts on the main road.  After dark we wandered down main street and marvelled at the pure junk and gaudy beads that tourists will buy.  There is lots of food on the street as well.  Home-made potato chips, tarts and pastries, small squid skewers,  quail eggs and much more.  Even if I wasn’t hungry Joan made me eat the squid and the quail eggs.  Then she tried the potato chip, which we both liked.  The potato chip was made from one whole potato that was skewered first, sliced partially through on a lathe and stretched out on the skewer, and then deep fried.   All of the hot food is cooked right on the street in various ovens and fryers.  This makes our barbecues look sad.       
                                                                 

Quail eggs

Potato Spreader

                                                                                                

     

Potato Slicer

Thursday October 24

Back Alley Barber

The Prayer Room

The Great Mosque of Singapore

The girls went shopping and I went to the barber.  I found one in a back alley near China town and for the first time I had my haircut outside.   He was good and cheap - $6 for a cut and trim.  Afterwards I toured the Arab district in Singapore.  I was able to visit to Sultan Mosque.  The Mosque is impressive from the outside, but very plain inside.  I had to wear a gown, because I had shorts on, but it was provided free.  The massive prayer hall was almost empty and I took pictures through the door, but I was not allowed to enter.  I must have looked confused or religious because one of the monitors asked me if I was all right.  When I assured her I was just a tourist she gave me a 10 min intro to Islam.  I did not get around to asking about the place of women in the Mosque.

   That evening we went to Raffles Hotel and we all had a Singapore Sling at the Long Bar.  This is where the Singapore Sling was invented.                             

Caroline and Alister with Singapore Slings