Quokka-mania!

Here is a a close-up of a quokka. A quokka is a marsupial that only exists on Rottnest Island off Perth/Freo shores. It's pretty amazing that it exists nowhere else in the world. I guess people brought them over to the mainland, but there are predators on the mainland that are not on the island. So, Rotto is the only safe place for these little fuzzy guys. It's so cute when they hop and then drag their fat little butts along with their front paws :)

Quokka 2

They are so cute :)

Quokka 3

Note the marsupial stance...

Quokka 4

ps- These are all pics of the same quokka. We only saw 2 total despite there being thousands on the island, supposedly.

My fave Rotto pic

Here you can see what the coastline looks along most of Rotto. Then, there is the odd break in the rock where there is a white sand beach. Ahhh!

More Rotto

Here is a cool rock outcropping on Rotto Island.

Shipwreck!

This is the crystal blue water and remains of a shipwreck on the coast of Rottnest Island just off the coast of Perth/Freo. The shallow shoals made for some pretty crazy wrecks along Western Oz and they still happen!

Perth Pics

Hi,

I know I am posting pics kind of helter-skelter, but now here are some Perth, Australia pics. This one is the Swan Tower at the water.

Here is the waterfall at the entrance to the orchid garden in Singapore.

Singapore's National Flower!

Singaporean orchids!

Here is a set of pics of the orchids at the Singapore Botanical Gardens. I think this was the Princess Diana memorial orchid.

View from Towers

One of the views from the Petronas towers. As you can see- the traffic here is slightly more controlled and less chaotic than in India (Singapore even more so and then Oz even more so...it wasa breath of fresh air!)

Petronas Twin Towers

Here is a shot 'from down below' of the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur. They are sort of a World Trade Centre type of deal-io. The bridge is the highest floor 'the public' is allowed to visit (floor 41)

Petronas Towers 1

Here is a cool architectural shot that I took from the sky bridge at the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. It gave you some cool angles and I was having a blast using my new 'cramera' (heehee) More KL pics to come!

Me at Ricey Bay

Here I am in the crystal clear waters in Ricey Bay inlet on Rottnest Island just across the bay from Perth. The water was chillier than expected but sooooo clear and aqua blue. Beautiful!

Frangipani

Some of the frangipani flowers, native to Australa, that were at the last B&B in Geraldton.

Aussie aboriginal art

Here are some cool Aboriginal paintings in a gallery in King's Park in Perth. I loved the Aboriginal art!

Chronicles of Christmas 2

Chronicles of Christmas 2....
Dec 21st, 2006 7pm-ish (1st day of summer in Australia!)
So, we didn’t end up being on our flight at 1:15 am....nobody did! It got delayed until 4am due to the truck that pulls the ramp/walkway away breaking down. Needless to say nobody was impressed. But, they put us on a better plane, fed us some Chinese food and off we went....albeit in a major daze. I don’t remember much of the flight as I slept most of the way. We arrived at 8am Australia time (1 hour ahead of Singapore/Malaysia time). On the plane we sat next to an Aussie bloke who had just moved to Perth himself, so couldn’t recommend much to see/do. Once in the airport, Johnny bought Vodafone SIM card to put into his Indian Nokia phone...so now we have a veritable Aussie phone #! We then took a very rude Czech cabbie from the airport to the hotel, The Criterion Hotel. Unfortunately we couldn’t check in right away, so in a continued daze we walked down to the harbour on the Swan River and lay on the benches in the sun, trying not to fall asleep for good! The Swan River is named for the black swans..yes, black swans! We saw some, they are very pretty! Perth seems to be a very chill Nova Scotia-ish, small Toronto-ish vibe-y place. Johnny says it’s like being in Kingston after exams- only here it’s a whole lot warmer. We are sooo happy to see the sun after the drizzly dampness of KL and Singapore. And no more humidity! It is dry as the desert here...Australia’s worst drought in 30 years or something like that. Ah- I can’t wait for the beaches!! Our hotel had a room ready for us around 1...so we crashed until 5:30 when we received a nice Christmas gift- delivered to our hotel room in Oz, but from Annie and Mike- John’s sister and brother in law. They sent us 2 bottles of Australian wine and a big box of Ferrero Rochers :) Yum! We are currently at an outdoor pub where I am having a delicious glass of Brown Brothers reisling wine and John is having some Aussie beer. Love it. Also- we just realized we have been to 3 capital cities in 3 different countries in one 24 hour span.
Dec 22nd, 2006 10:15am
We slept like babies and have just had a so-so brekkies at the Criterion Hotel café downstairs. We just showered and are now watching t.v.- our favourite Aussie commercial so far is one for a restaurant where their jingle is ‘where tomorrow’s fish are still swimming.’ Hah! Soon we’re heading out into the blessed sunshine- yay for sunshine!!!!
Dec 22nd, 2006 1:20pm
We’ve just spent the morning wandering and shopping, drinking coffee and soaking in the sun. The shopping here is great. I’ve hit up some of the stores that Rachel told me about and I’ve bought 2 tops, 1 dress and 1 purse and a necklace. We also had a ‘flat white’ coffee at Gloria Jeans coffee chain as we were instructed to do. Coffee in Oz basically comes black or white (you generally don’t add your own milk) and flat or not flat (still don’t know what that means yet..) The flat white seems exactly like a latte to me...but they also had a latte on the menu so it clearly differs somehow...I have yet to find out how! Keep ya posted. At any rate it was tasty...now we’re back at the hotel dropping our purchases off and planning our next move. Oh- also on the street we saw a street performer swallow a sword! That’s the first time I’ve seen that. And they really do swallow it- you can see him almost gag....crazy.
Dec 22nd, 2006 7pm
Just got back from spending the afternoon wandering around the Swan River and up to King’s Park and the Botanical Gardens. The park and gardens were so neat- there are so many species of living things that I have never seen before. I saw a pelican in the wild on the river (it’s gullet is HUGE!), I saw eucalyptus trees, grass trees, and lot of different types of banksia (a cool flower whose ‘flower’ resembles a toilet scrubber brush!) Eucalypts are huge trees. The jacoranda trees are fat too- and they are neat to look at because their roots are exposed at the bottom. We also wandered into an aboriginal art store- and the aboriginal paintings are just gorgeous! If I had lots of money to spare, I’d be buying Aussie aboriginal art. I had lunch in the park too- a smoked salmon sandwich. We also got sunburned.....sorry Mom... We forgot for a minute that we are below the equator and the sun is...well.....different. So, we might be hurtin’ a bit tomorrow. Now we’re going down to the river area for dinner. Countdown till Christmas: 3 Days.
It doesn’t quite feel like Christmas though...but there are lots of street performers singing/playing Christmas carols, so that is nice. One other thing we did is used the hotel tour guy to book us a trip to Rottnest Island (‘Rotto’ to locals) for the 24th. On the 24th we’re gonna have to get up pretty early, cab it to Fremantle (15 mins outside Perth), drop our stuff at the Painted Fish B&B and then make it to the jetty nearby for the ferry to Rotto at 9:30am. It’s doable!
Gnome pics: Next to a Perth sign on a street by the river and in the grass at King’s Park
Dec 23rd, 2006 12:05 pm
We slept in deliciously late for the first time this holiday (John’s got a bit of a head cold, so he needed this too!) We also made some calls home and I talked to Daddy (yay!) and tried to talk to the slumber-bum Riley but he was too slumbery..... Last night we went to Northridge area in Perth and ate at a place called Barocco- a place actually in the Lonely Planet even though we didn’t plan on it! It was very yummy, as I am finding out all food in Oz is! We had salad, garlic prawns and I had a ‘pizzer’ (a pizza, but with the Aussie accent it sounds like pizzer!) The funny thing we’re finding in Oz though is that they don’t do doggie bags. Weird. Anyway, this morning we plan on splitting up to do some Xmas shopping and then who knows what else?!
Dec 23rd, 2006 7:40pm
We shopped and walked around all day and went to a really neat Aboriginal art store. Johnny’s not feeling so great, so we’re just chilling before dinner. We plan to go for sushi at this place right near the hotel. Then, it’s a 7:30am taxi to Freo tomorrow morning. Ack, that’s early!
Dec 24th, 2006 Christmas Eve 3pm
Christmas Eve in 30+ degree weather on an Australian island. How crazy is that? We are on Rottnest Island (‘Rotto’) a 25 minute ferry ride from the Fremantle harbour. We got our cab this morning to our B&B, The Painted Fish, which didn’t look like much at first glance, but our separate room, a converted rail car is very lovely and hippie-ish. It’s got a bed and a sitting area and a kitchenette. It reminds me of Aunt Penel’s old house/shed before they built the big house in McDonald’s Corners. ...but I was like 4 years old then, so my memory might be a little foggy! The story with this place is, the main building built mainly of tin used to be inhabited by a family with 13 kids until it was acquired by Tim, the current proprietor. All his friends thought he was mad, buying a crappy tin house...but it is prime property. He has now fixed it up...well, is still fixing it up as it might be a forever fixer-upper....but has made 3 rooms into a B&B and they are awesome. Anyway, back to Rotto. This island is gorgeous. Turquoise blue waters to rival any Caribbean beach and clear as glass. The rock outcroppings are so unique and majestic...the whole island just keeps you in awe! So far we have seen one brown snake (John almost ran over him with his bike!) and one quokka (a cute little mini kangaroo type animal.) There are lots of annoying flies (Oz is known for their flies I guess) but other than that it is amazing. You can definitely tell why Oz is the sunburn capital of the world though (I mean, skin cancer capital of the world...) The sun is HOT and unforgiving...it feels fabulous! However we are glad we brought the SPF 45 sunscreen along after all! We could make do with an SPF 60!
Gnome pic: On the Ricey Bay beach where we went swimming.
Dec 25th, 2006 11:30am
MERRY AUSTRALIAN CHRISTMAS! We spent Xmas eve doing some grocery shopping for today (as everything will be closed) and then watching the sunset on South Beach- right up the street from where we are staying. We brought glasses of wine with us too, even though it’s probably not allowed- but we were going to feign ignorance if caught! Then we came back and had some antipasti that we bought at the organic grocery store- and some of the yummy wine that John’s family sent us. Now it’s Xmas morning and I just talked to Momma and I was a bit sad, especially last night just missing the fam. But I feel better now. We’re just having coffee and fruit for brekkies then...who knows?! Tomorrow we have to go into Perth again and pick up our rental car.
Dec 25th, 2006 4pm-ish (?)
Ahh...so nice not to have any idea what time it is! Right now we’re lying on Freo’s South Beach listening to the surf and feeling the effects of the ‘Fremantle Doctor’ as they call the wind that kicks up around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Christmas on the beach...where is Santa in surf shorts?! It also seems like an Aussie Xmas tradition is to have a family picnic in a park somewhere- we see lots of tents and coolers and families spread out here, there and everywhere....families and cricket games just seem to meld into one another. Cool.
Dec 26th, 2006 12:45pm
So, last night we ended up going to a fancy hotel- The Esplanade to treat ourselves to Christmas dinner. It cost us $125 each (eek!) but we didn’t care, it was Xmas Day and we were going to make sure we had a proper dinner! It was good too. We did the Aussie Christmas tradition and had prawns (chilled) with thousand island dressing (weird, I know- but it’s their tradition!) Luckily there was also turkey with cranberry sauce and beef and little mini lobsters called marin. It was good- it also included unlimited wine and yummy desserts. This morning we woke up at around 9:45 and booted it into Perth to get our Avis rental car. We had to wait a bit as the people who had the Hyundai Getz before us had brought a beachful of sand back with them in the car! It’s a cute car and will serve our purposes just fine. Now we’re just having brekkies (late!) and then we’re heading off to the Freo Maritime Museum so Johnny can see his Americas Cup boat-the Australia II then we’re beachin’ again at Cottesloe Beach. Tomorrow we shove off!
Dec 26th, 2006 5:20pm
We’re on the beach right now at Cottesloe- and it is awesome! We did the museum and Johnny saw his Australia II boat that shocked everyone and won the Americas Cup in the U.S. in 1983. It was actually an excellent museum. Then, we drove to a bottle shop for some drinks (which you’re allowed to drink on the beach! AND bring into restaurants BYO style!) [Insert from Johnny: In my field of vision I can see a white sand beach upon which I am sitting with my elephant bedsheet. In front of me are two surf-skiers who are racing around buoys on Gage Roads (the water) 10 km in front of me is Rotto, 6km to the south (left) is the mouth of the Swan River. About 1 km north (right) is a kite skier. Oh- and I have a bottle of Little Creatures’ Ale in my hand on a public beach! Where am I? No, it’s not Scarborough (also a town in Western Oz), although I can see Scarborough from here, it’s COTTLESLOE!] Now we’re on the beach at 5:30pm and the sun is still gorgeous and the breeze is lovely. BOXING DAY 2006 BABY!
Dec 27th, 2006 2:40pm
We woke up this morning and packed our bags and bid adieu to The Painted Fish. We signed out in their guest book which is quite funny because it starts out with entries addressed to Tim and Karyn who started the B&B and then there a 5 year gap in entries and then entries to Tim and Shani. In the same book no less! I wonder if that is weird for Shani!! Anyway, John wrote a little something then we left to explore downtown Freo, as we still hadn’t just wandered. We saw the harbour and went into a few shops and then went and had fish and chips at the famous Cicerello’s. Cicerello’s I guess is a bit of a Freo institution...it’s been there forever and is famous for it’s fresh fish and chips. It’s so cool- they come wrapped up in a piece of newspaper and we dumped on some malt vinegar- yum! I am also trying Bundaburg Ginger Beer. It’s so funny how many drive-in bottle shops (liquor stores basically) there are here. There’s one on every corner, basically like Tim Hortons in Canada! Right now Johnny and I are driving along Hwy #1 on our way to Dunsborough for the day and night and then on to Margaret River (Ausralia’s answer to Niagara On The Lake!)
Dec 27th, 2006 4:16pm
We’re currently driving thru Bunbury still on the way to Dunsborough. Of note though is that we passed the remains of a brush fire. We couldn’t see the flames but we definitely saw smoke. It is soooo dry here right now. WA is going thru one of their worst droughts in 30 years.... and the charred tree bottoms and fizzled grass areas show it!
Dec 27th, 2006 7:56pm
Johnny and I are sitting on the beach in Leeuwin National Park at Yallingup Beach watching a dozen or so kite surfers catch some of the famed Yallingup waves. They make it look so effortless. The teenage boys are having a blast seeing who can wipe out the most! The cloud cover is almost covering where we are and it’s giving everything a misty, hazy light as the sun is dropping. We saw at the reception at The Dunsborough Inn that sunset today is 8:27pm. So nice- not like 6pm in India!
Dec 27th, 2006 10:02pm
Well, after we went to the beaches yesterday we went for a tiny drive into ‘the outback’ as I call it a.k.a a rural area- and we saw KANGAROOS! Yep- real, live gray kangaroos in the wild...not to mention 2 brown snakes that we ran over in the car and we saw one kookaburra and heard another. Oh- and just in case I haven’t yet mentioned it- brown snakes are #2 on the deadliest snakes in the world list! Yep, #2! It was like we were in our own private zoo! It was so strangely exhilarating to see the roos....I don’t know why. It was just so foreign- and I loved the way that they hopped across the highway. They locomote so differently than any animal I have ever seen (well, other than the quokka!) We are now at a cafe/wine bar in Dunsborough and we are drinking one of the most divine red wines I have ever tasted! It is Edwards 2004 Cab Sav (Edwards is a Margaret River winery.) Johnny is having rack of lamb and I am having beef sirloin- both are sublime.

2007- Here I Come!

2007 is so totally ON! I am pulling myself out of this overworked, underappreciated funk and I am going to live 2007 to it's fullest: starting with getting my blog updated!

Oh my! I hardly recognize my own blog! One- because I have not posted or anything since last year....and Two- because I decided to have a play around with settings and my blog is now green!! Ack! Okay, so give me a minute to get used to it...okay. So- I will now be posting the two novels that compromise the first two sections of my travel journal. Most of you visiting my blog will also have received this by email...so this is just really for you random people visiting my site (don't you have better things to do with your time, such as eat chocolate?!) Anyway, here goes:Chronicles of Christmas 2006....by Jessie Bass-West

Dec 15th, 2006 10:32pm
We are currently at Bangalore’s Hindustan Airport in line for immigration to head off to Singapore!! Am very excited-only problem is...I feel sick. Kind of achey/fluey and my ankle still hurts (maybe a connection perhaps? A spider bite reaction?) I am hoping with all my might that a sleep on the plane and in the hotel in Singapore will remedy this. We had dins tonight with the CIS crew at TGI Friday’s near the airport (perfect for us!)- but you know I must be sick, as I could nly have one celebratory "It’s the Holidays!" strawberry daiquiri! I actually slept in Rachel’s car for a bit, so that helped. There are a lot of CISers (kids mostly, but none of mine...) on this flight, and I even saw Joon Hyung, one of my kids from last year who goes to a different school this year in B’lore. This seems to be a popular route to Australia.

Dec 16th, 2006 9:20am
We are sitting here in the lobby of Hotel Bencoolen in Singapore after taking our own walking tour of Orchard Rd. area for about an hour. The flight was okay....despite feeling icky, I only almost puked once! Our hotel room isn’t quite ready yet.....and we are soaked from walking around. Singapore is beoynd humid! My hair is soaked thru and sticking to my face. Our hotel is in Little India (as we will find out on this trip, you never can really escape India in this part of the world!) On our walk we walked by Penang Lane and were making fun of the name by singing The Beatles’ Penny Lane. We also saw a British International School in the middle of a posh neighbourhood. Cool. More ‘whities’ than I expected too.

Dec 16th, 2006 2:15pm
Just woke up from our ‘night’s’ sleep. We thought we had the alarm set for 12 noon, but I guess not. Ah well, we’re just about to set off to do some shopping!! Our hotel room is nice, small like European rooms but comfy- especially the bed- which is nice after hard Indian mattresses! Oh- the other crazy thing- on the shuttle we took from the airport to the hotel, there was a Canadian girl, my age from Whitby, who was teaching in Oz. Small world!

Dec 16th, 2006 4:20pm
So- I am slightly in shock because I JUST BOUGHT A NEW DIGITAL CAMERA! Impulse buy- but a fun impulse buy! And I needed it too, as the battery is completely shot on my other one, it won’t even charge. I might as well buy one in one of the cheapest countries in the world to buy one :) It’s around my neck right now and it’s an Olympus U710 with 7.1 megapixels (even more megapixels than Johnny’s!) Johnny was just telling me a story about when he bought his first camera at age 13 with his Dad on Yonge St. in Toronto and how it was such a thrill. So, we also bought a Kabaya batik print shirt (John) and dress (me). Kabaya is the traditional batik print of Singapore, and the highly recognizable print on the uniforms of the Singapore airlines stewardesses. Oh- for the record, Singapore airlines is an excellent airline...one of the best I’ve flown- and the interior of the planes are so pretty in blue and purple :) Now we’re sitting at an outdoor restaurant having a ‘breakfast’ of Tiger beer (Singapore’s beer brand) for Johnny, and a Vanilla Coke for me. I like Singapore a lot so far, it is so much more orderly and clean and well, ‘civilized’ than I expected (if you can gather what I mean...) Also, people are so friendly- and they don’t stare at you just cause you’re white!! Hallelujah! They’ve still got the ‘hard sell’ aspect to selling goods though, just like India...’best price just for you- special customer!’ One more thing- Mom sent me a tiny traveling gnome in my Christmas package, so the gnome will be visiting each place I visit. The first gnome pic is at a food stall in China Town in Singapore.

December 16th, 2006 7:05pm
We just spent an hour in the Orchid Gardens at the Singapore Botanical Garden. The orchids are stunningly beautiful- my favourite was a very light green coloured one with a purple ‘lip’ or third petal (where the insects land.) They have also named certain orchids after famous people who have visited the gardens- such as Laura Bush, Nelson Mandela and Ricky Martin to name a few! They also have a Princess Diana Memorial orchid- a lovely white one. They had a neat section called the Cool House that simulates a high mountainous area that is a natural state for certain orchids and carniverous plants. It is all misty and cool in there- we wanted to stay in forever to escape the Singapore mugginess! It is still quite light out now at 7 pm....we’re sitting in the Botanic Gardens by a lake...lots of joggers going by...saw a blue hummingbird land on a lily pad in the lake...ahh. Tonight we’re going to the famous Raffles Bar for a Singapore sling! It was at the Raffles bar that this drink was first invented! Then we’re going to a restaurant for some local ‘Perinakan’ food. Perinakan is a unique mix of Straits Chinese and Malay foods. For lunch we had prawns noodles from a street vendor. They’re in a photo I took. I have also tried the local ‘soursop’ juice which tastes like a lighter, slightly different mango juice.

December 16th, 2006 10:26pm
After a quick rest at the hotel, we went to the Raffles Hotel’s ‘Long Bar’ and had the famous Singapore Sling. You can get it in a commemorative glass but we decided not to. It was pretty good- syrupy sweet...kind of like a Shirley Temple. The bar is very colonial and filled with white tourists, but we loved it, cause you felt like you were in a movie from 75 years ago. They had live music so we enjoyed that for a bit and then came downstairs to the Raffles Arcade to the Empire Café. The Café was recommended in the Lonely Planet for authentic Peranakan food. Johnny had laksa, a coconutty noodley soup with quail eggs...he described it as a boullaibaise with noodles. I had a beancurd veggie dish.
DAY 1 OVER AND OUT!

Dec 17th, 2006 10:14am
We woke at around 9:30am after a great night’s sleep. It’s so nice to have a soft mattress again! We just returned from our free brekkies at Hotel Bencoolen. I had watermelon, coffee and toast. After we shower etc. we’re heading off to Sentosa Island, an island off the coast, to see the aquarium and possibly the pink dolphins! Then hopefully we’ll SHOP! I am currently watching the local Singapore tv station.... Oh, the other thing I forgot to write that is great about Singapore is that the tap water is safe to drink!! Such a nice change from India- I brushed my teeth with tap water last night- what a thrill!!

Dec 17th, 2006 2:15pm
We just took the MRT (subway/metro) to Orchard Rd stop (from our stop of Dhoby Ghaut) so that we could do some shopping while it drizzled rain outside. Sentosa is tempoarily on hold! I bought a bake Balenciaga motorcycle bag in deep green as well as a cute pair of shoes. Knockoff shoes are so inexpensive here. The road we are on is lined with big shopping malls. We went to Far East Plaza. Johnny got black fake Prada shoes and a new Damian Rice cd. We’re now in a taxi on the way to the entrance of the cable car ride to Sentosa. It is still drizzling, but we’ve decided to go anyways.
Second gnome pic: On the bed in Hotel Bencoolen.
Third gnome pic: At Orchard St. MRT station.


Dec 17th, 2006 6:05pm
We just took a cab home from Sentosa Island where we went to Underwater World. It wasn’t as spectacular as I was expecting, but it was still good. The cool thing is you can hop onto a moving sidewalk that takes you into an area where aquariums are on both sides and above you. We saw one of the famous ‘merlions’ (a lion head and fish bottom) that Singapore is famous for. We took the cable car ride there an back. I loved it but Johnny was a bit hesitant. I thought it was exhilarating! I bought a Kabaya print umbrella, as it rained almost the whole time, and a little something for Grandma and Grandpa West.

Dec 17th, 2006 9:45pm
We just finished the craziest meal! After finding that #10 Smith St. doesn’t exist under the name it says in the guide book, we chose #12 Smith St. instead. This was a place that served ‘steamboats’ and little did we know what we were in for! Steamboats are big pools of boiling broth in the centre of your table (we chose half spicy, half non-spicy) and then just like fondue you dip in your prawns or veggies or greens, and let them cook. We also opted for the spicy crab option- two whole crabs on the spicy side....and when we say spicy we mean spicy! There was enough peppercorn and chili in there to completely clear out your nasal passages for good. My Dad would love it! The prawns and crab were also hard to get into so we definitely worked for our supper and worked up a sweat in more ways than one! Now we are at the Post Bar in the swanky Fullerton Hotel sipping cooling (!) cocktails. Johnny opted to have one named ‘Merlion’ in ode to Singapore :)

Monday, Dec 18th, 2006 10:50am
After leaving the Fullerton last night we walked down the Boat Quay along the water where we almost felt like we were in India again...due to the ‘hard sell’ that was going on a.k.a everyone was trying to persuade us to eat/drink at their establishment and about half of the places were Indian! We ended up choosing a place called Harry’s, which is a chain in Singapore, because it had live music. Johnny told me that Harry’s was one of the original establishments for British/American soldiers and expats alike. There was quite the melting pot of people there, including some men with female ‘escorts!’ Ew. So, we had some good drinks and then took a ‘trishaw’ back to the hotel (a man huffing and puffing whilst riding a bicycle with a little side cart where Johnny and I were squished in....speaking to us in broken English about how the Singaporean government was only interested in money and how you can’t even have a cigarette in a restaurant [which we like very much!] and all that.) It was kind of funny. He showed us some places on the way home though, mostly churches that he was disgusted had turned into business buildings. It was a kitschy ending to a great night! Now, we’re in a cab on the way to the airport....we slept in because it was raining, so we missed brekkies at the hotel. I am excited- we’re off to Kuala Lumpur!! Oh- one more thing I forgot to mention...the flower Bird of Paradise grows here all over the place in the wild!

Dec 18th, 2006 5:05pm
Well, we’re safe and sound in KL! Our plane left a bit late, so we arrived at 1:30. We tried to get a taxi at the first place we saw, who told us that there were no taxis left. What? How can there be no taxis left?! It turns out there were just none left at that stand. A trip to Bob Murphy’s (a former CIS teacher working in KL now) in Petaling Jaya cost RM (Malaysian Rinngits) 57.00. That’s about $20 CDN. Right now we’re at Murph’s pad in the Bandar Sunway (‘Bandar’ means neighburhood....like ‘nagar’ in India) condos. We brought Murph some rum from duty free to say thanks for the free digs! KL so far seems kind of more like India- but we’re in a big condo complex in a suburb-y like area where the houses we can see across the street are eerily identical. We can see the Petronas Towers in the distance to our left. The towers are basically the World Trade Centre twin towers of KL. In fact, they were the first people notified after 9/11 happened...just in case the were targeting all trade centres. On the way to Murph’s we passed a huuuuge mall (Murph told us about this mall...) The mall is called the Pyramid Mall and is fronted by a huge lion head statue, just like the sphynx in Egypt. It’s an altogether weird place thus far. Right now I am sipping French red wine out of an Ernest and Julio Gallo wine glass is Malaysia. Nuts. Very cool. John and I plan to go to town for dinner, then tomorrow we’re doing all the major sightseeing. Johnny’s lesson of the day: DON’T IRON THE PLASTIC MONEY!

Dec 18th, 8:45pm
We decided to come into town and we’ve found a street with restaurants (I took a photo of the street sign....Jalan means road or street.) The street is lined with kitschy restaurants so we’ve decided to try a Thai place (where I stole a napkin for my scrapbook) and then the ‘Aloha’ bar that is soooo trying too hard. But it has cool leopard print covered stools!! Now we’re in ‘Rum Jungle’which is also trying way too hard. Johnny has tried the local beer ‘Skol’ but everyone is very surprised when he only wants one glass of beer...everyone here drinks a LOT of beer...sometimes 2 or 3 glasses at a time. Funny for a Muslim country! At the start of the evening, we got off at a teksi (taxi) stand stop right near the Petronas Towers, so now we will have some day and night shots of them. The songs that are playing in this Rum Jungle are hilarious! Every single one of them is from 1984....not ‘83 or ‘85 but 1984. They are also playing ‘Obla-Di Obla-Da’ in Malay right now. Surreal. I feel like I am in a movie. Oh- one more difference between here and Singapore and India is that everything here and in Singapore is verrry air conditioned, almost overly so.

Dec 19th, 2006 11:34am
Last night we ended up having dins at a French restaurant- I had chicken confit and John had beef bourginon (sp?) Then we cabbed it back to Murph’s and watched the Jennifer Aniston/Vince Vaughan film ‘The Break-Up’ on Murph’s dvd system. Not the best film I’ve ever seen, kind of dark and negative. Not really worth the rental at Blockbuster people!
This morning we woke up and came downtown to the Petronas Towers to get tickets but they were sold out. They only give away 800 tix per day and they go fast. So, now we know to come early tomorrow- good thing we have another day! Right now we’re in the famous KLCC Shopping Centre. We’ve hit up The Body Shop and had some coffee. Now we’re going to tour a bit more and head for the mosques. Lots of ‘whities’ at the mall. They’ve got most of the big designers here- Prada, Burberry etc. as well as brand names recognizable from North America...even a Dunkin’ Donuts!

Dec 19th, 2006 1:45pm
We’ve just mistakenly taken the LRT (subway) to KL Sentral- but it is too far south of where we wanted to be. So, we’ve ‘teksied’ to the National Mosque (Masjid Nemara in Arabic) which is neat to look at, but closed for prayer right now. So, we’re going to see if we can walk it to Chinatown....

Dec 19th, 2006 4:17pm
We’ve just walked through Petaling St. Market in Chinatown and I have taken advantage of the knockoff industry.....I bought a fake Chloe wallet (my India wallet has fallen apart, so this was a purchase of necessity!) and John and I both bought fake Rolexes! We’ve just now had some Chinese food on a random street corner. It’s funny, everything here is a knockoff bag or watch- it’s funny. After, we went to the Masjid Nemak, which was pretty but nothing spectacular. Then came the frustrating part- we couldn’t find a cab and we couldn’t find station with the right subway line to get us back to Murph’s. We basically walked in circles for an hour before finally deciding to take the expensive RM 30 cab ride offered to us by one teksi dude. Let me just tell you, I was sweaty beyond belief, sticky and exhausted and the shower I just had felt like the best thing ever! Oh- I forgot- at the last mosque I had to cover my head so I was totally dressed like an Arabic woman! I wore my salawar kameez today and then I was basically wearing a makeshift hijab! The other thing, which you may have already gathered- Malaysia is even more humid than Singapore..or at least they are on par with each other!

Dec 19th, 2006 12 midnight
Note to self: RM 3= CDN 1 approx and SD 1.3= CDN 1 approx. So, we’ve just come back from doing a little tour of the ‘bandar’ or ‘hood. Murph’s hood seems to be made up of complexes under a large overhanging name of Sunway. There’s a hotel, a few condo complexes- and from the look of all the signs- a whole water slide park somewhere in here! Crazy that all this can exist here- oil money does that to a country though! So, we made it to Pyramid Mall, which is fronted by the large, looming, aforementioned lion bust...and inside it has everything! There’d be no real need to go downtown if you lived here, you’ve got Starbucks (Johnny has started a collection now of Starbucks mugs from different cities), Baskin Robbins, even a Rainforest Café (yes, like the one at Yorkdale Mall in Toronto.) And...more importantly to some (aka me) they have all the fashion stuff (Zara, Topshop, Body Shop- you name it, they’ve got it) I don’t know if this is just sad, how "Westernized’ bg Asian cities like this have become, or if I am glad because of all the great shopping (Don’t worry Mom, mostly window shopping!) However, I am planning on visiting this mall again when John and I come back to KL in April for the Formula 1 Grand Prix. After some shopping we decided to give props to TO and eat at The Rainforest Café. There, we had the last (maybe) of our Malay food (well, the Rainforest Café at Yorkdale certainly doesn’t have laksa on the menu...but maybe they should!) John had laksa and I tried nasi lemak. Nasi lemak is a plate with a whole bunch of different things on it- rice, chicken in coconut curry (the good part...), some peanuts (random, but okay...) and then dessicated anchovies and pureed venison. Ew. It tasted slightly better until I knew what it was, then I couldn’t eat it. Yep, in Malaysia they have a specific kind of deer that they eat as venison, just like (some of) us! That led me and John into an emotional discussion on vegetarianism and halal/kosher slaughtering and whether being a vegetarian makes a difference. It all ended well though. Then, as an homage to Murph, we went to the bar he always writes about in his emails- ‘Monti’ bar. It is pretty dive-y as places in the Bandar Sunway go, but we had to meet Patrick, the Burmese manager. Murph told us that Patrick might be our hookup to free race tickets for April. So, we had a drink, got his card as well as an open invitation to visit him if we’re ever in Burma! Crazy...now we know someone from Burma. Last thing I want to write about now is names here in Malaysia. Everything is strangely phonetic. For example, orange juice is ‘oren jus,’ boutique is ‘butik,’ and station is ‘stesen.’ This is all interjected into Malay too, which uses the English alphabet. Final words: Laksa good...nasi lemak: not so good!

Dec 20th, 2006 10:15am
We woke up bright and early to make it into town to get tix for the Petronas Towers. It is free to get in, but as I said, they only issue 800 tickets a day. No coffee shops were open at the mall (what?!) so we just teksied into town. We picked the wrong teksi! He tried to charge us RM 40 one way, when yesterday it cost us only RM 16!! So, I handed him a 20 and we left. He got the picture. Johnny then got into line for tickets (the line was already pretty long!) I went to procure brekkies. I got a smoothie, coffees and croissants. When I got back, John was almost at the front of the line. We got 12:30 tickets, which is perfect timing for us, and now we’re on our way over to the National Museum for an hour or so.

Dec 20th, 2006 1:35pm
We went to the National Museum with a quick cabbie recommended stop at the Sultanate- the King’s Palace. We couldn’t see very much but I took a requisite picture of one of the mounted guards. Turns out the Sultan doesn’t spend much time there anyway..... The museum housed lots of the shadow puppets native to Malaysia and showed the traditional dress of the many different peoples in Malaysia. The slogan ‘Malaysia, truly Asia’ really does apply. There are Indonesians, Indians, Chinese, and more here. Then we teksied back to KLCC, got a coffee and went to the Petronas Towers tour. The visit is all very official (I guess to avoid any shady people who want to get in to pull some terrorist act or something...) Anyway, you are issued a colored badge and you have to stay with your colour’s guide. Your bags are also put through an x-ray scan and then you’re on an elevator to the 41st floor, where the bridge connects the two towers. John says that it is an architectural feat to connect two towers of this height together, taking into effect the wind (sway) of the buildings together and other stuff. You are able to do it in KL because there is practically no wind, and they have put the bridge on moveable joints or something. Supposedly, the architect (an Argentinian born U.S. citizen as Wikipedia tells me..) just did it to show that it could be done. So, the skybridge gave you a pretty good view of the city as well as some neat architectural photos. We then bought some ‘swag’ at the gift shop (a new notebook for me, as this one will be running out sooner than expected!) And now we’re in a cab on our way back to Murph’s. We’ve arranged with this driver to come back and pick us up to take us to the airport, so we’ll see how reliable he is!

Dec 20th, 2006 6:55pm
Our guy DID show up- and on time too! We relaxed at Murph’s for a bit and left his keys with his neighbours- some young Canadian dude named Mike..and then we met Murph’s other colleague Barry in the lobby. They encouraged us to come and work there...but the place where they work is strictly a highschool and we’re not so convinced we LOVE Kuala Lumpur...we liked it...but it was almost a bit eerie in it’s Muslim-ness mixed with wannabe Westernized commercialism...mixed with a bit of what’s not good about India (open sewers etc.) We’ll keep looking! Anyway, we got to the airport and checked in no problem. We had some lunch, bought some reading material and then I went to the massage place (yes, in the airport!) and had an utterly fabulous back, head and neck massage! What a way to start a flight. I love it- and it was cheap too! We are now on the plane for our second ‘puddle jump’ bound for Singapore. We were reading in The Straits Times (a Singaporean newspaper) that just yesterday Singapore had the third largest deluge/flood in history. Yep, in history! We just missed it. Guess we won’t be leaving the airport in Singapore! Off we go!

Dec 20th, 2006 11:50pm
After exiting the place from KL we had to go to a transfer desk in the terminal. Our bags couldn’t be directly relayed onto out flight to Perth, so we had to go to this transfer desk to have them loaded onto the Perth flight. We were scared our bags would get lost in translation, but I hear this is a pretty regular occurrence. Then, at the same desk we had to get our new boarding passes. But here’s where the drama began. The guy at the desk told us we weren’t on the flight from Singapore to Perth. What? How could that be? Turns out what had happened was our Sing Airlines guy in B’lore had switched us to one of the other flighrts we were wait listed for without telling us. So, they had us on the flight that left 24 hours later. But we had planned on being on the red-eye and had booked hotel rooms thus So, I put on my very best pity face and whined a bit (I mean, we weren’t in the wrong- we clearly had a e-ticket saying we were on the earlier flight..which perplexed the transfer desk man thoroughly!) Eventually he got us seats on the flight we thought we were on. We tried to pull getting moved to Business class due to this inconvenience, but alas it was not to be. Oh well, at least it all worked out! After that we came upstairs and had BURGER KING! Yes, I never thought I’d be so excited to have BK. A whopper meal has never tasted soooo gooood! Then, we poked around the amazing Changi airport some more and I decided to continue the trend of having inexpensive spa treatments in airports and I had a pedicure at the Changi spa. How cool is that? Now my twinkle toes are ready for Australian beaches!! Why can’t Toronto have a spa in Pearson?! Now we’re waiting outside our gate- F50. They should let us in in 10 mins or so..to well, sit some more! But- Oz, here we come! Oh- the other great thing about this airport is they have free internet stations- with webcams and everything! I love Changi :)