Malaysia day 3

For my final day in Malaysia, I really wanted to see a rainforest. Malaysia has beautiful rain forests with exotic plants and animals, but they are a bit far from Kuala Lumpur. There is a place called the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM), which is just outside the city, and has a forest where they do research particularly on trees. So I decided to check it out. I arrived at 9am, and met my 19-year-old guide. The first thing we checked out was the giant fish called the arapaima or pirarucu (look it up!). In FRIM’s small pond, there were about 4, and the biggest one (that is actually small) is about 6ft long. Yes, feet, not inches. These fish can grow up to 10ft and weigh about 400 lbs! They leap out of the water to catch animals like monkeys who sit on low-lying branches. He suggested I not leave my camera hanging around. The water was quite murky, so I didn’t get a picture, but I could see it’s spine slithering through the water, and one’s head popped out once. It was ugly!
We walked through the forest while my young guide pointed out different trees and plants. I think my two favorites are the puzzle looking treetops and the twisty trees. The puzzle trees (that’s not their real name) are super smart trees that do not touch each other and even stay at different heights to keep apart. That way, they do not pass any diseases. How considerate! There is also the elephant tree, which my guide pointed out was a “boy.”
The main attraction at FRIM is the canopy that is suspended about 30 meters off the ground with spectacular views. Unfortunately, it was closed for maintenance until the October 20th or so. Then I saw that its main support was one metal rope tied (and bolted) around a tree, and I wasn’t so disappointed anymore.
The last thing he showed me was a small waterfall/river. I saw a sign that pointed to a trail to the right, along with all the people walking to the right, so I assumed that we would also go that way. Silly me. The 19-year-old boy wanted to take the “faster” way down the hill. We climbed over rocks, around a pipe, and through streams to make it down faster than all the rest. Yay! We won!?
Now luckily I had doused myself in bug spray (called “Mushi Bye Bye”), which actually did a great job keeping the bugs (mushi) away. My guide did not have anything on (I offered to share!), and was surrounded by swarms of mosquitoes, various bugs and a leech. I kept looking at myself, but I didn’t see anything! I was happy to not be the bug magnet.
As I learned by doing some research before I left, most Malaysians are Muslim. Right now is Ramadan, and so my guide could not even have a drop of water, I felt guilty drinking in front of him.
After the hike, I rushed back to my hotel room, showered, checked out, and then went to the train station to catch the train back to Singapore. This train left at 2:15 and was supposed to reach Singapore at 9:30pm, but somehow we were delayed along the way and I didn’t get there until 11:30pm. So my plans for going to the night safari and shopping were changed to sleeping curled up in a little ball on a chair at the airport. But actually to stay overnight in an airport, Singapore’s is probably the best. They have shops that stay open all night, free internet (if you stand and use it), big TV’s to watch, bars, and The Coffee Bean. I did get some sleep, but it was not very restful. Once in the middle of the night I was awakened by a police officer that was checking everyone’s ticket and passport. He was very friendly, but along with many pairs of police officers and customs officer that I saw in Singapore, there was always a third man dressed in military looking clothes, wearing a beret, carrying some sort of large automatic weapon, a handgun on his side, and a machete slung on his back. Pretty intimidating I’d say.
After a restless night, I got on the plane and left at about 8am back to Japan.
Overall, I enjoyed both places, I think I would like to go back to Malaysia and check out other cities and maybe some rainforests. Both places had good shopping and great food. I would definitely go back again.

Baby teeth

Did you know that kitties lose their baby teeth? I found a very tiny tooth on the floor (eagle eye!) and looked inside Sumi's mouth and saw he was bleeding a little. Eeewweee, I just looked at him and he is sleeping with his eyes open. weird! Boy am I learning more about cat's than I ever thought possible! Anyway, now he may actually get 4 canines instead of the two he has now - one on the top right, and one on the bottom left. It's funny.
Sumi has found yet another spot to sleep in the apt - the bookshelf.
He is a good actor too, playing dead by being impailed by the fuzzy toy.
And look at how he hugs my arm while I check out his teeth. So cute!

Kuala Lumpur: day 2

On my second day, I slept in a little (accidentally), had a buffet breakfast at the hotel, and took a ride around the city on a Hop-on-Hop-off double-decker bus. It was a nice tour except for the Friday traffic.
One of the places I stopped at was called the Kuala Lumpur Lake Gardens. They have an orchid garden and hibiscus garden there. The national flower of Malaysia is the hibiscus. I absolutely loved the orchid garden. There were plumerias too, which are my favorite. All the colors were vibrant, and everywhere I turned seemed to have another beautiful flower. They had some for sale, but I wasn’t sure what all the rules are for bringing plants to different countries (especially Singapore), so I decided against it.
At 5:00 I rushed back to my hotel and over to the spa for a 3 ½ hour spa treatment! I deserve it! And it’s my money! (that’s to dad). I was taken to my own personal room with the massage table, bathtub, cushy chair, and bathroom with a shower. My masseuse was really sweet young Malaysian lady. First I sat in the comfy chair and drank some ginger and honey tea and had a coffee foot scrub – it smelled amazing – the scrub, and my feet too afterwards I guess. Next, I had a full body scrub with some kind of chocolate mixture, and she wrapped me up in plastic. After about 20 min, she came back, unwrapped me, and I took a shower. Then I hopped into a milky bath filled with rose petals. After I finished putting the curled petals on all my fingertips and splashing around, she came back and I had a mini-facial. Finally, I had an aromatherapy massage. It was a wonderfully relaxing treatment. Well, worth it considering the last leg of my trip was not as relaxing.

Kuala Lumpur: day 1

I spent about 3 days in Kuala Lumpur. I checked in early to my hotel called the Hotel Maya. It is a really nice hotel with beautiful rooms. The location was also perfect because it is right across the street from the tourism office, down the street from a monorail stop, and right around the corner from the Petronas Towers. Inside the Towers (or KLCC) is a huge shopping complex. I wandered around there for a while. Then I went on a tour called the “Country Tour.” It was a bus that took us to a pewter factory, Batik making place, and the Batu Caves. I really only wanted to see the caves, but the pewter factory had some nice pieces for sale. So just outside the city, is a Hindu temple that is inside some caves at the top of a hill. To get to the main Temple cave, you climb 272 steps. I was a little out of breath. Inside are small shrines, then another(!) set of stairs, not as many, that leads up to another shrine. There were people praying, and some things flying around, presumably bats and/or birds. There were also monkeys at the bottom of the steps – lazy little bastards, that apparently will steal food, or anything else interesting that you might have in your hand. They were busy eating coconuts and things when I was there, so they left me alone. I just kept picturing one of them leaping onto my head as I walked up those steps and me tumbling down while the monkeys laughed and stole my purse.
After arriving safely back to my hotel, I went to Chinatown to look around at the outdoor market. This was one of my least favorite things about Kuala Lumpur. Chinatown was dirty, too busy, crowded, and did I mention dirty? After walking around for way too long, I went to a restaurant called Nando’s that had the best garlic peri peri sauce. Oh, my mouth is watering just thinking about it. The sauce is Portuguese, and the restaurant is based in South Africa. Very multicultural! After dinner, I went back to the hotel and over to the sky bar for a great night view of the Petronas Towers and a drink. Then back to my beautiful room for a good nights sleep.

Post #100!!

So it has been a little over one year in Japan, and this is blog post #100! Thanks to all of you who read and comment on my pictures and thoughts. I am glad to know that people keep track of me. You never know if people want to read your writing or look at your pictures, so I am really happy to know that you all find this blog somewhat interesting.
Also, I am not sure if you noticed, but at the very bottom of my blog is a Cluster Map. It shows the locations (not names!) of everyone who checks my blog. I see big dots in Northern and Southern CA, Hawaii, Japan, and a few random ones around the country, including a small dot in Alaska (thanks Mary and Lana!). There even looks like a dot in New Zealand! Didn't know I had a friend there. I got the idea from Mike's blog here in Osaka (thanks Mike!). I think I put it on a few weeks ago, so I am hoping maybe someday, I'll have dots in lots of countries!
Well, thanks again for reading.
Love,
Leilani & Sumi

Singapore

I’m back at work now typing out this blog page. I never seem to have enough time to do it at home! And this seems to be the one school where I can "borrow" someone's wireless connection.
For those of you keeping an eye on Asia’s news, last week there were a couple earthquakes in Indonesia, which is right next to Malaysia and Singapore (where I was), but I didn’t feel a thing! In fact, the way I found out about it was reading it in the newspaper a few days after.
I had a great time in both Singapore and Malaysia. I will focus these blog pictures on Singapore.
I arrived in Singapore late Wednesday night, and went straight to the hostel. It was very simple, with just the bare necessities, but the other travelers and the owner were very kind. The next day I headed out to start my day exploring Singapore, and promptly jaywalked across the street. Suddenly I realized where I was, and got all panicky, but luckily no cops were around to arrest and cane me. I took the bus to the train station where I would be leaving that night to Malaysia, hoping to leave my backpack in a locker, but no such luck. I don’t think anywhere else has those little conveniences like Japan! So I ended up carrying my backpack around all day, which wasn’t too bad. Then my next stop was – The COFFEE BEAN!! There are many Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf’s in both Singapore and Malaysia, how excited was I! I had the first of many White Chocolate Ice Blendeds. There is tons of shopping in Singapore, and the city really reminded me of an American city – large buildings and English everywhere. The performing arts center is in the shape of two large durian fruits. I have never eaten one, but they are super popular in Southeast Asia. I haven’t actually smelled one before but they all say, “It smells like hell, but tastes like heaven.” I of course saw the Merlion spouting water into the harbor. I walked through Chinatown and many small markets. Finally, after a full day of walking across the city, I arrived at back at the train station. I took the overnight sleeper train to Malaysia. It left about 10:30pm on Thurs, and I arrived at 7am on Friday. The ride was really comfortable, except for the strange Australian woman sharing the room with me who thought it was much more comfortable to sit on my bunk than hers. Boy was she wrong.
I’ll write about my Malaysia part in the next blog.

packing...again!!

Well, just a short update because I have to get back to packing. Yup, I was lucky enough to get a few days off this week, and I decided to head off to Singapore and Malaysia for 6 days! But, more about that later.
I have begun taking Japanese lessons, finally! I am really enjoying them. The teacher is great, and it is 90 minutes of one-on-one tutoring. I had my second lesson yesterday, and I have 3 pages of homework. It's great!
And I bet you all have been wondering about Sumi. He is doing wonderfully. He is really big now, over 2 kilograms! My new neighbors downstairs saw him tonight and said he's even bigger than 2 weeks ago. They are kind enough to watch him while I am off gallivanting around Asia. Sumi has stopped biting and scratching, so now if he would only sit still long enough to sit in my lap, and keep his paws out of my food, he'd be perfect. No, he really is a good boy. Right now, he is climbing up the drying rack and stealing my freshly laundered towels. Like I don't notice a long towel trailing behind him as he runs past me into my room! But he makes me very happy.
So I haven't really heard from anyone after my trip home, so please don't forget to write to me!
Take care!