Bali: Round II (part 2)

My apologies for the delay in posting the second half of the Bali photos.  If you want to go back and look at the first set, I've annotated them.  Now that I’m motivated and have some free time I’m trying to catch up on sharing the last 5 weeks worth of adventures.  Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone!  Sending my love from Malaysia with some pretty photos J

Janelle and I enjoyed a week of yoga and hot stone massages in Ubud while exploring the surrounding area (temples, rice terraces, and volcanoes) and then headed east to the magnificent Tirtagangga water palace before heading south to find the beach!  There are lots of stories in between and behind all the photos, hopefully I'll have time to write more about the trip in the future.



Cooling off from some nice hot springs.

Enjoying a soak with the locals.

Beautiful rice terraces at Jatiluwih.

Approaching Mt. Batur.  Janelle was psyched to climb a volcano.  I was too but I got food poisoning the night before so I didn't make it to the top.

Lava flow from a historic eruption.

Growing onions at the base of the volcano.

Tirtagangga water palace.

Yet more beautiful rice fields.



Mt. Agung, Bali's tallest volcano.




Janelle enjoying the serenity of our patio adjacent to the water palace.



Colorful sails at Sanur beach.

But we opted to head to Balangan beach instead.

It was fun watching the surfers and trying boogie boarding.  Unfortunately there was a fair amount of plastic in the water.  Not derived from this beach, but brought in by the current.

And just relaxing and devouring a few books.

Sunset wasn't bad either.

Chinese New Year

Two days prior to my parents’ arrival marked the first day of Chinese New Year; yet another wonderful holiday in the treasure chest of this multicultural society.  It really is a treat to have the opportunity to experience and learn about the traditions of so many different celebrations.

On the eve of Chinese New Year I went out to dinner with some Rotarian friends and happened to return to my apartment right at midnight.  As I looked out the window of my 23^rd floor apartment, I watched in awe as I witnessed fireworks from at least nine or more different locations throughout the city, that those where just the ones in my field of view.  Mind you that only one or two of these were officially sanctioned firework displays, and the rest were just set off throughout very festive Chinese neighborhoods.  Everyone was happy to welcome the year of the dragon, and a long weekend. 

Mall decorations for the Chinese New Year.  This is the same space that had 10+ Christmas trees in it not that long ago.

The first two days of Chinese New Year are official national holidays, although Chinese New Year is 15 days long, so most people return back to their families homes.  Similar to Hari Raya, I was warned that the city would be very quiet and it was a great time to drive around or dance in the streets because they would be empty.  Well, that was quite true for the actual holidays themselves, but Janelle and I had happened to arrive back from Bali on the Friday before the long weekend when everyone was either coming or going and that’s when you learn there is a limited supply of taxis in the city. 

Although I was busy cleaning my apartment and preparing for my parents visit, I did sneak away to Seremban, a nice little town south of KL that I have visited previously several times to visit a Chinese friend of mine Q’Juan who I visited the Perhentian Islands with when I first arrived in Malaysia.  I spent the evening with her and her family visiting different households of their friends and family and participated in some cards and gambling which is typical for this holiday.  

I think I came out even in the end.

There are many traditions associated with this holiday.  For the Chinese, red stands for life, energy, and wealth so one is encouraged to wear red and something new.  This color is also very important in Chinese legend. Once upon a time (it is said), a man-eating beast known as Nian terrorized China every New Year’s Eve, until people discovered that Nian was afraid of loud noises and the color red. Thus people are encouraged to light firecrackers and wear red clothes to prevent another attack from Nian on the New Year.  Older married folks will give handouts of ang pow (red envelopes filled with money) to their kids and other young unmarried adults (including me!).

My ang pow!  Nice little surprises of $5-10RM each.

Every day of Chinese New Year has different meanings.  The seventh day of Chinese New Year is considered the birthday of all human beings.  The ninth day is particularly significant to Hokkien Chinese: on the ninth day of the New Year (it is said), the enemies of the Hokkien tribe banded together to wipe the Hokkiens from the face of the earth.  As a horrible massacre ensued, a few survivors hid in a field of sugarcane. The heavens intervened, and the marauders left.  Since then, Hokkiens have thanked the Jade Emperor for his intervention on the 9th day, making offerings of sugarcane stalks tied together with red ribbons (OK, I stole that info from the Internet).  The last day of the New Year celebration, this day is also the Chinese equivalent of Valentine’s Day, as unmarried Chinese ladies toss tangerines into bodies of water with their contact information on it hoping a nice young lad will find it and they will live happily ever after. 

A loin dance could erupt at any moment.

Fruits to celebrate the New Year.

From the Road

A quick post from the road, or the water taxi I should say.  My folks and I are having a great time traveling around N. Malaysia where we spent time in Ipoh and Taiping before heading to the island of Langkawi.  From there we hopped a boat to the small island of Ko Lipe less than an hour away just north in S. Thailand but the differences couldn't have been more pronounced.  On Langkawi the beach is populated with Malaysians and visitors from other Muslim countries where women swim in head scarves and children and adults swim fully clothed.  A skip away on Ko Lipe European sun bathers enjoyed the rays sans bikini tops. 

Ko Lipe was beautiful, we spent 5 days soaking in the warm, glowing waters and fresh white sand.  I think I "picked" a good winter to be away from Anchorage as the city has been getting dumped with snow (I miss the snow, but not driving in it) and long periods of temps well below zero.   

Its been great hearing stories about when my parents traveled extensively around the world (including SE Asia) 34 years ago.  Everything is so different now!  Tomorrow we're off to Ipoh again to experience the Hindu festival of Thaipusam before heading back to Kuala Lumpur.  I'll have a lot of catching up to to do with the blog when things settle down again come mid-February.  But I'm happy to have visitors, even for 5 weeks straight :)   

True water color, no enhancements!

My folks at the beach on Ko Lipe.

Bali: Round II (part 1)

My apologies for neglecting the blog lately.  I guess that's what happens when you have a blog mostly about traveling, you run out of time to post because you're...traveling!  I just got back from 12 glorious days in Bali with my good friend Janelle who came all the way from Alaska to get a tan, play with elephants, and enjoy yoga, yoga, yoga!  Here is a sampling of some photos from the first half of the trip.  No promises of when the next update will be.  My parents arrived 2 days after we returned and now I'm taking them around Malaysia for 2.5 weeks.  Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

Some friendly faces outside our guesthouse.

Janelle being pretty on the balcony of our castle like guesthouse in Ubud.

A vintage motor bike in our alley way.  We were too scared to try riding them ourselves as we saw many tourists scraped up and everyone you talked to (local and otherwise) had been in an accident.

Enjoying lunch with some Rotarians next to some beautiful rice fields.  I presented to the Rotary Club of Ubud Sunset on my visit and met some Rotaractors as well.

Monkeys at the Monkey Forest Temple, prior to one jumping on Janelle's leg forcing our evacuation of the site :)

The dragonfly really is that color!

A nice walk through the rice fields.  We found a great organic farm restaurant and returned home through the fields glowing with fireflies.

Janelle found her Bali spirit animal.

Nikki the elephant gettin' frisky.

That's how they say hello :)

Tanah Lot temple on the coast.

This isn't us but we were caught in the same downpour.

Culture dance in a village just outside Ubud.

Warning, many rice terrace photos to come.

New Year's in Singapore

After impatiently waiting for my passport to be returned to me from immigration (who was installing my student visa…for 3 weeks!), I finally got it back last week and booked a ticket at the last minute to Singapore for New Year’s.  Fellow Ambassadorial Scholar Andrew, who came to Cambodia, is based there so I knew I would have a local contact.  Additionally, a friend of a friend from Oregon was passing through at the same time so we met up and explored the city together.  It was a quick trip, only four days, but it turns out Singapore is really small, so I was still able to see a fair amount. 

We spent most of the first day around Chinatown and one of the more interesting sights was the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple.  It’s a huge five storey temple that opened in 2008 that is said to hold what is believed to be a sacred tooth of the Buddha (experts have expressed doubts over its authenticity, haha).  The tooth relic itself is on a pedestal in a shrine made with 420kg of gold donated by worshippers (no photos allowed there, sorry), quite impressive.  But the tooth itself is only revealed on two days of the year, the first day of Chinese New Year and Wesak day.  There was a great museum about the history of Buddhism, a pleasant bookshop and teahouse, and a roof top garden with prayer wheels and thousands of tiny Buddha statues. 

Anyone need some chopsticks?

Who knew there were so many options?

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple

It was very elaborate inside the temple, and it went on for many floors.

In Chinatown we ran into a youth group practicing drumming with a dancer performing acrobatics while balancing on high standing pedestals.  Really neat to watch.

From there we visited the Red Dot Museum, something I was not familiar with but I trusted in my travel partner who said it would be neat, and it was.  The “Red Dot,” from my understanding, is an award given to products/ideas/designs that have real market value.  It’s hard to explain but from the website “the aim of the award is to be the defining platform that separates good ideas with good design solutions from the mediocre, to provide a professional evaluation and internationally recognized seal that gives an advantage to the design and designer in the competitive market.”  The museum showcased tons of products that ranged from energy efficient bathtubs and toilets, sportswear, clean water solutions, furniture, etc., etc.  The designs were all very sleek and appealing and it was interesting to read about the functionality, so it was kind of like an engineering/art museum. 

Can you guess what this is?  Tupperware!

Later on we explored the waterfront and the architecture defining Singapore’s skyline.  The main waterfront it called Marina Bay and we took a small boat cruise around the bay and river.  The bay was filled with thousands of balloons or beach balls, it was hard to tell what they were made of, on which people had written hopes and wishes for 2012. 

I really enjoyed all the public art around the city.

There were many painted elephant statues as a fundraiser and awareness to save the elephants.

This one was painted with the Singapore skyline.

Marina Bay Sands hotel/casino, Art and Science Museum (the lotus looking building), and the Singapore Flyer observation wheel.  The boat in the foreground is what we took.

The Merlion, Singapore's mascot.  It was struck by lightening in 2009, but quickly repaired.

People's floating wishes for 2012.

We spent New Year’s Eve day visiting the Singapore Botanical Gardens, probably the best I have ever had the pleasure of strolling through.  There were small trees decorated everywhere by local NGOs in the Christmas spirit, but all the decorations were refreshingly made out of recycled materials.  That evening we went to a house party of one of Andrew’s friends and then headed down to the water front to battle the crowds to watch the fireworks.  They had shut down some of the major bridges, so we were lucky to stroll right up a great spot without having to fight crowds too much.  It was great to watch the celebrations across the background of the cityscape.  We wandered around with the crowds after midnight and found a DJ dance party outside one of the night club areas and thankfully caught the last subway back to our hostel or else it would have been a long walk as catching a taxi would have been impossible.

The night sky on NYE.

The last night I checked out the famed Night Safari, part of the Singapore Zoo.  It was quite extensive and it was great to see animals roaming “freely” with a no cage concept, just natural barriers like trenches to keep them separated.  It opens at 7:30pm and you can roam around until midnight so it’s a great way to see the nocturnal animals active.  My favorites were probably the hippos.  It was dark out and you weren't supposed to use flash, therefore it was hard to take photos, so this is the best I got!

Huge rino at the Night Safari.



Christmas Festivities in Malaysia

In describing the festive ways in which I spent the last few days, you might get a sense of some of the essence of Malaysia. 

On Christmas Eve I went caroling with a group of about 15 youths which consisted of visiting seven houses, singing a few songs, and proceeding to eat at every single one of them.  Never a lack of food (or drink) in Malaysia, even if you are a vegetarian.  This is why I have gained considerable weight since I’ve been here, and am happy to have a gym in our new apartment building that I’ve been using to try and negate the damage!  Dishes ranged from spare ribs, to all kinds of curries and rice, to roasted pumpkin, to pizza. 

On Christmas day, Tomoko and I attended a bi-lingual Chinese-English Christian church service which we were invited to by an Indian family.  Some songs were sung in Chinese, and some were sung in Chinese and English simultaneously!  The service ended with a very endearing boy band-esque performance by the church’s youth group to a musical menagerie which started with LMFAO’s Party Rock Anthem, and ended with Joy to the World.

For dinner we were invited to the home of an Indian-Portuguese family in which we feasted on dhal, potato salad, and, what I am pretty much craving all the time, cheese!  One of my favorite parts of my time here is being invited to people’s homes, even if they are complete strangers.  They are always excited to host foreigners and seem to like to share their perceptions of what is wrong and right with Malaysia, so I feel comfortable asking matter of fact questions about topics I am not clear about. 

Today (Boxing Day) we visited a children’s home/shelter with the Rotaract Club of Kuala Lumpur.  It was great to spend four hours with the kids playing organized games, and also just hanging out.  We also gave some educational Christmas gifts to each of the children.  The shelter we were at was for boys and girls 4-10 years old and then teenagers from two other shelters joined in the festivities.  There were about 15 Rotaractors that participated, so it was also a great way to meet new people in my same age group. 

"This Sponge Bob puzzle is....puzzling!"

Rudolph giving out presents.

I hope everyone had a very peaceful holiday!  I definitely am missing the “white” part of Christmas, but the spirit of the holidays is alive in Malaysia.  I noticed today that the shops are already switching from Christmas to Chinese New Year (end of January) goodies.