This was my bungalow.

Matahari Chalet, where I spent a few nights.

Long Beach at Pulau Perhentian Kecil. It is pretty deserted.

Back in Paradise!

After many hours on the road, I made the trek from the northeast corner of Malaysia to the west coast of Thailand. I am now in Krabi. I was here back in 2001. It's good to be back.
From the Cameron Highlands, I took an overnight bus to Kota Bharu. A taxi ride and fast boat later, I arrived at Pulau Perhentian Kecil, or small Perhentian Island. There was not much at that place. It was covered with a jungle, a couple steep mountains, and some beautiful beaches. The sky was partly overcast for the three days I was there, and the surf was pretty big, so I didn't do any dives. I did watch the "lifeguards" rescue two girls (separate incidences) from the strong rip currents during my time there. It was fun bodysurfing in the waves, fighting the rips. It was definitely a pretty place to be.
It took me about 12 hours to get to Krabi from the Perhentians. Travelling is definitely easier now that I am out of Indonesia. I just tune out with my headphones and earplugs (earplugs to shut out the high pitched drone of the motor and the Thai/Malay music). Thailand is a lot more developed than I remembered four years ago. The roads and cars are new. In fact, I would guess that Toyota has built a new plant here recently as most of the cars are one or two year old Toyota pickup trucks and SUVs. In the south, where the Thai army continues its battle with Muslim rebels, we had to cross several checkpoints. An army dude just wanted to checkout the male occupants of the vehicle. That included me, but they quickly lost interest when I could speak English.
I think the second largest minority group in Thailand are the Swedish tourists. Holy cow, there are loads of young Swedes here. I think the most casualties of tourists in the tsunami were Swedes. It's baffling how the Swedes more than any other nationality come to Thailand.
Anyways, I am beat, so it's time for bed now.

This is how they bake naan bread. They plaster the dough in a brick pot which serves as an oven. The consistency is of thick, chewy pizza dough.

An Indian restaurant I went to everyday in Tanah Rata. This dude is making roti and naan bread.

View from Father's Guesthouse at Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands. The temperature was nice and cool up here. Father's Guesthouse is actually at the grounds of an old seminary. I was up here when the Pope died, which was kind of wierd.

Cool in the Cameron Highlands

I have been in the Cameron Highlands at a small town called Tanah Rata. It's in the middle of peninsular Malaysia, around 5000 ft in elevation, so I've been sleeping under a warm blanket and enjoyed a hot shower this morning. It's about 70 degrees F up here. This town is quite touristy, in that Asian sort of way. I'm surrounded by jungle-covered hills and tea and fruit plantations, but there are multi-storied apartment buildings or hotels in various states of construction...some look like they're on permanent standby. I'm not sure what makes this place one of the most touristed sights in Malaysia. I'm surprised at why I am even here, except that it is nice not sweating, and in a pretty quiet setting. I took a five-hour bus ride up here from KL. That was a big difference from travelling in Indonesia. The bus was air-conditioned and big. The roads were paved. We still passed reed and thatched huts on the way up here, I didn't get nauseated on the windy road either. That was a nice improvement.
I went on a hike through the jungle yesterday. It was hot, wet, and muddy. Good stuff. The jungle is pretty thick and wet from the morning and evening mists. It also rains a little everyday here. I had to hop over a lot of fallen tree trunks, but I didn't get any leeches on me. The floor of the jungle is springy from decomposing organic material. Wierd.
I've still been eating Indian food. It's fantastic, but strange to be eating lots of Indian food in Malaysia. Aside from a steaming bowl of laksa soup at a bus stop, I've only eaten Indian food since entering the country. I've found a place that I've been going to everyday while in Tanah Rata. Malaysia is a surprising mix of cultures much like Singapore was. The food and accommodations have been cheap and good. I've been spending about $10 a day here in all. The people are friendly, and I haven't been harassed. The few touts are quite polite and don't mob you when you get off a bus. How totally unexpected and pleasant after Indonesia. Also, most people speak English, as they did in Singapore, for the same reasons, but as it turns out, Malay is actually quite similar to Indonesian. Most backpacker travellers fly through Malaysia, which is a shame because it is easy to travel through, cheap, and safe. Tonight I'm taking an overnight bus to Kota Bharu, on the north part of the east coast, so I can catch a ferry to the Perhentian Islands. They're supposed to be some white-sanded, turquoise-colored water island paradise with some good diving. I'm hoping this overnight bus trip is not too bad. I've been forewarned to dress warmly as the bus drivers tend to keep the interiors frosty. I don't expect to have internet access there, and I'm not sure how long I will be there. If conditions are good, I will try to get my advanced open water diving certification.

The Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur

These are the twin 88-floor towers built by Japanese and Korean companies. They were formerly the tallest in the world. Inside is a huge multistory expensive mall with loads of pretty people and unaffordable goods.

Banana leaf vegetarian set meals in an Indian restaurant. The food just keeps coming and coming until you scream, "UNCLE!" When you're done, you fold the banana leaf to show you are stuffed. It costs about 80 cents.

Sun setting over a minaret in Melaka. The muezzin starts the call to prayer which is heard throughout the city -- a magical sound.

A another wierd sight in Melaka. What country am I in?

Christ Church near the town center in Melaka. Very wierd to see this type of stuff in Malaysia.

A Catholic church, leaning to one side, in Melaka.

A Chinese mosque in Melaka. Very different architecture from the traditional mosque.

View of Melaka from the hill where there was an old fort and now St. Paul's Church. This place was occupied by the Portuguese, Dutch, and English, as well as local kingdoms.

Indian food in Malaysia

I took a nice air-conditioned bus from Singapore to Melaka, an old port on the west coast of Malaysia. Singapore is separated from Malaysia by a bridge, but once you go over it, you know you're not in Singapore anymore. Gone are the glass and steel structures. I'm back in jungle and rusty tin roofs. Okay, it's not that bad, but it's not Singapore. It's not Indonesia either. It's somewhere in between. Malaysia actually is quite modern.
Melaka is an old port, one of the wealthiest in the world a few hundred years ago. It was said that the Lord of Melaka had his hand on the throat of Venice, because it was the main trading port in southeast Asia. Melaka has an interesting mix of Portuguese, English, and Dutch architecture, reflecting the previous occupants. It also has a Chinatown and Little India.
On the bus to Melaka, I met up with a couple of backpackers from Canada and the UK. They had been eating Indian food since leaving Thailand a few days ago, so we went off in search of good Indian food. It's pretty wild to be eating curry and rice on a banana leaf with your fingers. That's how the past two days have been...one Indian meal after another.
We're in Kuala Lumpur now. It's the capital of Malaysia. It's big and modern, but not as clean and polished as Singapore. We went to the Petronas Towers, at 88-stories they were once the tallest buildings in the world until 1998.
Tomorrow I am headed to the Cameron Highlands to commune with nature. Well, it's supposed to be a lot cooler up in the mountains.
By the way, I haven't felt any of the earthquakes or seen an tsunamis.

Where did all the White people go?

Remember that old ditty from the early 80's? Neither do I... The best way I can describe this place is this: imagine the cleanest and most modern part of a metropolis in America, then replace all the White people with Asians. That's what this place is like. It's like no other Asian city I've visited. I am totally thrown off by Asians on Western-style advertisments. This has the feel of a Western city, but the people are Chinese. And they speak Mandarin and Fujianese, similar to Taiwanese. The local English dialect is a pidgin-English called Singlish. It is a mix of English with some Malay and Chinese. I find it difficult to understand, but it's neat to watch a Singaporean Chinese and Singaporean Indian speak to one another in Singlish. But if you come here, don't worry, they also speak English.
Singapore is a pretty amazing city. I have been here a week, making it the longest I've been anywhere at one time since leaving Taiwan. It is a strange mix of different cultures, mostly Chinese, Indians, and some Malays, as a result of the British establishing this place as a trading port 200 years ago. Before then, this was just a small muddy village. It was briefly part of Malaysia in the middle of the last century but then parted ways because the Singaporeans did not want to allow "apartheid-like" preferential treatment toward Malays like the rest of Malaysia. And Malaysia didn't feel comfortable having a huge Chinese population (almost half penisular Malaysia's population) within their borders. Singapore has since impressively developed into an immaculate modern city.
Before coming here, all I knew was that this city-state was known for its fascist rules (no chewing gum, no jay-walking, no rated-R movies...), and it had the reputation for being boring. Reality has proven to be quite different. There is chewing gum, just none smashed on the ground (and none sold in stores, but it's not illegal to chew). I've been jay-walking around. And there are rated R movies. But all these rules have created quite an orderly society. The metro is the most shiny and cleanest one I have ever seen. It gives Taipei's metro a run for its money. The downtown are has been renovated into a beautiful tourist area with riverside restaurants and bars. There are some enclaves of different cultures like Chinatown, Little India, and the Arab district where you can get some great food. The food courts have taken over in a culture that used to have food carts and hawker stalls. You can get a fantastic meal for $3-$5 (Singaporean dollars, which is about $1.80-$3 US Dollars). This is a shoppers paradise. There are malls everywhere, some of which are connected by underground air-conditioned mall passageways, so you never have to go outside. It's a great way to take a walk in the evenings. There are lots of electronics gear for sale, but it's also a little dodgey. I ended up not buying a videocamera, but there are great deals to be had just the same.
There is an awesome Asian Civilizations Museum which covers all the different religions and cultures in Southeast Asia. It gives a fascinating and open-minded overview of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam. Singapore is definitely worth a few days if you're ever flying out this way.
I got my visa business taken care of over the Easter weekend. I am headed north into Malaysia tomorrow.

The Esplanade -- Singapore's answer to the Sydney Opera House. It looks like a big durian cut in half.

The Singapore river and the downtown area has been renovated in the past ten years into a nice area to walk and eat.

Singapore downtown at night.

Home again.

They say Singapore is a "fine" city.

Singapore's Orchard St. This is where the upscale malls and embassies are located. Air-conditioning, smartly-dress people, Border's Bookstore...I'm in America again!

Shanty towns in Jakarta. There were big buildings in Jakarta, like many huge cities in Asia, but there were still shanty towns like this.

Sate ayam (chicken satay) with a tasty peanut sauce. You know, it looked a lot better in the dark.

Threshing rice next to the railroad tracks on my way to Jakarta.

Becaks lined up for customers at the railroad station. These are bicycles outfitted with two wheels and a bench in front. In the States, I've seen things like this for tourists. In Indonesia, this is a common mode of transportation. It costs about 30 cents, depending on how far you go.

Relief art at the Sewu temple at Prambanan.

The tallest of the temples at Prambanan is 47 meters.

Prambanan

This is the main Hindu temple at Prambanan. There are actually many temples
in the surrounding area, but this is the largest on. It was built around
the same time as Borobudur, then both were abandoned.

Singapore

The next day in Yogyakarta, I went to Prambanan, a Hindu complex 17 km away. It was also built around the same time as Borobudur, and also soon abandoned after. Then there was a massive volcanic eruption from neighboring Mt. Merapi which reduced both to ruin. While Borobudur has been pretty much restored, Prambanan is only partially complete. I think only 17 temples have been reconstructed out of the 243 in the area. The ones that are rebuilt are pretty amazing. I'll post pictures soon.

Yogyakarta is one Indonesia's biggest tourist cities, but while Kuta Beach has the Western tourists, except for a few foreigners, most of the tourists in Yogya are Indonesians. They have a sultan in Yogya, and a "kraton", a palace, where he lives. I was going to visit, but my shirt didn't have any sleeves so I was refused entry. Instead, I went to the air-conditioned mall, the modern marvel of Western culture. I also ate at Pizza Hut and McDonalds, two cultural emissaries from the States. When you order pizza at an Indonesian restaurant, you're never really sure what you're going to get, and it usually doesn't compare to pizza we get in the States. I figured, if you're going to get pizza, you might as well get it from a reliable source. It's surprisingly cheap to eat at these places. I mean, it's not prohibitively expensive, and about the same as eating at a restaurant in the tourist ghettos that serves Western food. I had a Coke & vanilla ice cream float (mmMMmm) and an "America's Favorite" medium pizza for about $4.50. The pizza was smaller than a medium in the Statesl it was maybe 1.5 times the size of a personal pan pizza. I forgot that in a Muslim island like Java, most of food is likely to be "halal" (consumable by devout Muslims), so there was no pig in their pepperoni or sausage...what was that familiar aftertaste?Oh yeah, lamb. Oh well, at least it was a nice greasy piece of pan pizza. At McDonalds, I had the Chicken McD meal #1 which was two pieces of fried chicken, a la the Colonel, with a scoop of white rice, and a medium drink. The price: $1.70. Fried chicken is the most popular dish at McDonalds in Indonesia, and it's pretty good.
Also in Yogya, I ran into Mike, one of the Brits from my travels in Flores. It's amazing in a country of 240 million people, you continue to run into the same travellers.
From Yogya, I took a train to Jakarta. I bought a ticket on "bisnis kelas", which sounds nice, but really was just a step above a bus. The only thing a bisnis kelas ticket gets you is assigned seating, which is a big plus when you consider that ekonomi kelas has people crammed into standing-room-only cars with people and limbs hanging out the doors and windows, and people sitting on the roofs. No air-con for bisnis kelas, so it was a pretty hot ten-hour ride. Like on the buses, hawkers came on board selling their wares: food, snacks, fruits, meals (served on banana leaves), drinks, and "other junk". "Other junk" included safety pins, books, pens, pencils, toys, belts, slippers, back scratchers etc. They would pass buy and just leave stuff on your seat or lap, and then come by to pick the stuff up if you didn't want it. I gave up trying to keep folks from giving me stuff. Jakarta is a massive city. I've read estimates that it has over nine million inhabitants, but I heard that during the day, it goes up to 16 million. It is similar to other industrialized Asian cities I have been to: lots of traffic, lots of pollution, noisy, dusty, lots of people, tall apartment buildings for the rich, and shanty towns for the poor. I took an awesome ride on an "ojek" (scooter) through the traffic-jammed streets to the tourist ghetto. The traffic is so terrible in Jakarta that taking a bus or taxi would take forever, but on a scooter, you can squeeze between cars, go "the wrong way" on streets, go on sidewalks, cut through narrow walkways etc... It's pretty exciting, especially when you've got a backpack on.
For dinner, I went to a street a block over from the one my hotel was on, known for its "sate" or "satay" stands. It costs about 75 cents for ten sticks of grilled chicken meat on a stick with an awesome peanut sauce, served on a banana leaf. Ah, I miss Indonesia already.
I also went to visit the National Museum which housed artifacts from all over the massive country. It was very good, but there was a power-outage (not an uncommon occurence). The cost for the ticket was about 8 cents. Yes, that's right, 8 cents.
I took a bus to Kota, the Dutch colonial area, but just ended up going to a massive mall (ah, air-conditioning!) I realized that after four weeks, I have become pretty comfortable getting around speaking in broken Indonesian and not using toilet paper (for three weeks now).

Last night, I took an evening flight from Jakarta to Singapore on Emirates Airlines (and yes, it is one of the best in the world). I arrived in Singapore at 1120 at night, too late for the metro system, so I went to catch a bus. I didn't have accommodations, but I called a place from the baggage area (they had pay phones with FREE local calls -- they should have this in ALL airports). At the bus terminal, I didn't have any small bills, so I was bumming. I asked everyone to see if they had change for my bills, but no one did. I walked off pretty bummed, but then an Indian dude came up and handed me about $2 in change. I am humbled by the kindness of strangers, especially if when there is no way I can repay them. So, I ask of you...do something nice for someone without expecting something in return this week.
Singapore is so clean! Yeah, there is some litter, but not much. I'm back to hostel living for a while, but there's toilet paper and hot water in the shower! And air-conditioning everywhere! I'm here to get a visa, and maybe buy some electronic equipment -- it's supposed to be cheap here, but we'll see.

Food cart selling "bakso" (meatball). Actually they have chicken meatballs with noodles in a soup. It is tasty, but they put lots of MSG in it. Where's the kitchen to wash the dishes? A bucket underneath. Yum!

Elderly woman selling stuff on Jl Maliboro. I paid her 5,000 Rp for me to take this photo; that's about 55 cents.

Yogyakarta at night. Jl Maliboro (Marlborough St.) is filled with hawkers selling trinkets and food to Indonesian tourists. Most of the tourists were from Jakarta. Indonesia is a country with large natural resources, a few wealthy people, and heaps of poor people. Java is by far the most developed and richest island, followed by Bali (because of tourism). Something like 80% of the people live in Jakarta.

Relief art on the walls of Borobudur recount the stories about the Buddha. If laid out, these tiles would be 3 km long.

Borobudur buddha statues.

Borobudur

It is difficult to get a good impression of this place in a photo. Maybe
one from the sky would be better.

Macaque eating sweet potato

In Ubud, we visited Monkey Forest. There are tame macaques everywhere looking bored. They were hilarious to watch. They were pretty bold -- jumping on tourists to look for food in their bags.

A koi pond in a temple at Monkey Forest Temple in Ubud.

Terraced rice fields

You see pretty rice patty fields all over the place. This is one of the prettiest fields I saw; it is just north of Ubud. Rice takes three months to grow, starting in deep water, and after three months it dries out.

Mt. Batur and Lake Batur

On a day trip from Kuta, we saw this view of Gunung Batur and Danou Batur. There are active volcanoes all over Indonesia. This one blew and poured lava over a town below it in 1963. You can see the lava track to the right below the volcano.

Yogyakarta

I made it back to Kuta Beach on Monday, but instead of leaving after one night, I ended up staying for four. That pretty much sums up a lot of the trip planning I've been doing; plans go out the window, and I've been going with the flow. I caught up with a couple of Brits that I had met on my first day in Bali three weeks ago (they were on the same flight from Auckland), and I also met a cool Canadian couple, and we all hung out in the evenings. Good company.
We took a day tour around Bali, which satisfied me enough to know that hanging around poolside in Kuta was not so bad. We saw Mt. Batur, one of many volcanos on the island. And we spent a couple hours at Monkey Forest in Ubud, the other big tourist town in Bali. Ubud is known for its artsy-fartsy boutiques, while Kuta is known for its surf, beach, and nightlife. The macaques (monkeys) at Monkey Forest were very entertaining, jumping on each other in their little pond; very human behavior. But, returning to the pool at the hotel in Kuta Beach was the best. After the trip through Nusa Tenggara, I really can appreciate Kuta, much more than when I first arrived a couple weeks ago.
I was going to go to Mt. Bromo on Java a few days ago, but I really didn't feel up for a 12-hour overnight bus trip. Today I flew to Yogyakarta for a little more than the price for a 16-hour bus ticket. I should be here for a couple days, but then again, you never know.
Today I went to Borobudur, a 9th century Buddhist step pyramid. It is massive and amazing. I've never seen anything like it. In Taiwan, the Buddhist temples are rather garish in colors, but the dark gray stone of Borobudur seemed just right. I was careful to walk around each of the levels clockwise before ascending a level through the East gate. To walk counter-clockwise is to speak with the spirits of the dead. But other the tourists didn't seem to care; they're mostly Muslim in Java.
I took the public bus system to get to Borobudur, which meant taking changing buses, and then taking a tricycle-rickshaw type of thing to the temple. On the way back, the guys on the bus tried to overcharge me, but I didn't even budge. I paid the same price I paid for getting up there. I was feeling pretty ornery from the heat and the early morning flight. Then, as I was getting into town, I think a couple of guys tried to steal from me. One guy kept distracting me by saying this was my stop, constantly tapping me urgently for about a minute, meanwhile his co-conspirator got up to squeeze by me in the aisle. I realized then, that my backpack had mysteriously opened up. I quickly zipped it closed after an inventory and got away from them. I was warned by the taxi driver to be careful in Jogja.
Tomorrow I will try to get to the Hindu temple Prambanan at dawn. Or not. I had to wake up at 0400 this morning to catch my 0600 flight.

Welcome to the Six-foot-plus club. The Brits and Canadian and the surfboard.

"The Morgan show" during a break on our bus ride from Moni to Maumere.

Village kids dancing and watching the "Morgan Show". The Canadian was great entertainment for all the locals across Flores. Definitely a good attitude for meeting people. Some people are disarmed with the persistent staring, but Morgan would talk to people and touch them. If you needed to find him, you just needed to look for a circle of Indonesians.

A cool sunset on a village road. Music filled the air in stereo...a good day.

A good quiet black sanded beach at Waiara, 13 km east of Maumere. Clean, quiet, and no tourists. The water was warm, but no surf on this north-facing beach.

The Bermuda Triangle of Flores. A traveller can get stranded for days here. Flores was colonized by the Portuguesed, so they have afternoon siestas, and Catholic churches. It looks like what I imagine places in Latin America look like.

There's a goat under the luggage. This is the typical long distance bus in Flores. It seats about 98 people.

The terraced rice fields at Moni. The hot spring was somewhere near the man in the red shirt.

This was so amazing to be soaking and having locals descend upon us in such a pretty setting with the rice patties. A good day.

Villagers bathing at a hot spring in Moni. The water very clean surprisingly.

The turquoise lake at Kelimutu (1600m) and sunrise. You can make out the brown lake in the background. My hair is pretty long now, exaggerated, by the big winds at the peak. "When God painted the world, he washed his brushes in the lakes at Kelimutu." Okay, somebody else said that.

Day market in Bajawa.

The port of Sape where I was stranded for a day. I thought it had a dirt road, but it only looked like dirt from all the horse poop. They use these horse-drawn wagons ("dokars") for their public transportation system around town.