Jan 182014
 

sal and i had a delicious meal of indian street food in little india last night, chook curry, duck curry, dahl, vege curry and chapatis washed down with a cup of chi, about $8 ozzie.

we were woken this morning by the call to prayers from the local mosque, a form of terrorism that is singularly effective, especially with modern amplifying systems!

breakfast was roti teluh (roti with eggs and onion), dahl and beef curry, kai had plain roti and the breakfast cost us about $4! absolutely yummy and a great start to the morning, we then wandered down to the foreshore and the old fort which allowed kai to burn off some pent up energy!

Jan 172014
 

today we said goodbye to KL, joe & christian and headed north to penang in our hire car, it was a recent model toyota camry and kai rated it about a 9 out of 10 for accessories! we had a great run up to penang, dropped into ipoh for lunch and sat on about 140kmh most of the way, boy has that road improved since last time i was on it!!

holP (1)

this is the most extreme example of camber i have ever seen on a car, this guy was doing about 130kmh up the highway, only appeared to have a small amount of trouble getting around gentle bends, i have no idea how far he was going, but he would be needing a new set of rear tyres when he got there!

we also stopped a couple of times at the rest stops for a pee on the way up, they are a thing, huge carparks full of hundreds of cars and trucks, parking guards to direct you, many hundreds of people swarming through the shops and stalls for food and drinks and massive toilet blocks, very clean, no waiting and there seems to be one of these every 20km or so! amazingly efficient and functional.

we arrived at our little apartment in the world heritage area of georgetown early afternoon, it certainly lives up to the description on the website,

very comfortable and tastefully furnished, you can see more about the project on their website, http://www.straitscollection.com.my/index.htm

a quick walk around the precinct of our apartment reminded me of what a photographer’s paradise georgetown is, here is just a few quick snaps from our first wander around,

as usual, click on the ‘i’ to read the image description

 

 Posted by at 7:56 pm  Tagged with:



Jan 142014
 

this morning joe & christian picked us up and we heading up through the genting highlands to the national elephant conservation centre and after about 90 minutes of driving through the highlands we arrived. we all had lots of fun feeding the baby elephants and then enjoyed a simple lunch in the centres cafe. they told us that they would be taking the elephants for a swim and wash about 2.30 and that we might be able to get in the river and help wash them depending on river conditions.

hol14s

kai, me, sal & christian

as it was a bit long to hang around waiting we decided to check out a deer farm that we had seen a signpost to, a couple of km’s before the elephantcentre. it actually turned out to be the highlight of the day – the deer were very funny as were some of the people feeding them!

hol14s (1)

who knew deer loved uncooked potato fries!

hol14s (2)

as we wandered though the paths in the jungle there were cages with various birds in them and near the end we came across a beautiful peacock who was doing his best to woo a rather disinterested peahen!

hol14s (3)

none of us had seen a peacock in full display like this before so we were all mesmerised by the show he put on.

the next corner in the path revealed 2 huge fat pythons in an open area and we were able to handle them, i think kai would have stayed the rest of the day if allowed, he just loved the big fat albino burmese python, the beautiful yellow coloured one, he was happy to just sit rubbing his skin and talking to him! the other one was a reticulated python.

hol14s (4)

for the first time ever i didnt take a shot, which explains the superior quality of the images! Joe is a professional photographer and bought along his superb nikon pro camera and took eleventy billion shots.

we returned to the elephants but the staff had decided the water was unsafe for the public to be in the river, which was a bit disappointing but more than compensated for by the deer park experience. we had another feeding with a heap of paw paws, which i think kai wanted to have some of as well as feeding the elephants!

hol14s (5)

throwing peanuts into the elephant’s mouth

all in all a magic day with great friends and terrific scenery as well as plenty of entertainment – mainly from the funny people feeding the deer.

today i discovered the sleeper train is booked out for penang, so we will stay another night here beyond our original plan and then hire a car and drive up to penang instead.

 

Jan 142014
 

we did the train trip up from JB to KL yesterday, so much more pleasant than flying! sure it takes longer but its relaxed, you can move around, there is scenery to look at all the way and you can use your iThings!

there is lots of palm oil and rubber plantations along the way, some jungle, lots of villages and towns, beautiful old timber traditional malay houses so there is always something to look at.

we got to KL Sentral station and caught a taxi to our amazing apartment, my friend Joe had recommended it as it was only 10 minutes from their house and it is something special, 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, full kitchen and a balcony, expansive views across KL and very luxurious,

joe and his son christian came over and picked us up last night and we met up with joe’s wife, mey at the restaurant they took us to for dinner – just our style of eating place, locals only, very typical SE asian eatery, fantastic food and a great night was had by all!

joe and i actually met online in an apple forum maybe 12 years or so ago, we have maintained a friendship over that time but until yesterday we had never met before, so we have watched each others children grow up from a distance! It was fantastic to finally meet them in person and they are just a lovely family and so hospitable and friendly.

once again, click on the ‘i’ to see the photo captions.

Jan 122014
 

a lovely bunch of coconuts

well you might ask what coconuts have to with legoland, nothing really! they were lying beside the grill in the restaurant we had breakfast in and i snapped a pic of them. we went back for another murtabak daging, although sal had a roti telur (roti with an egg in it),

murtabak daging

at least i remembered a photo before eating all of it! accompanied with a glass of nescafe with condensed milk, not quite the same flavour profile as a latte out of my italian lever espresso machine! i have made a little video of the roti making, quite a skill –

so then it was in the taxi and off to legoland, kai had a ball, sal won a huge angry birds stuffed toy by winning one of those silly fairground throwing challenges that no one normally wins! click on the ‘i’ in the top left hand corner to see the photo descriptions.

 

 

 

Jan 112014
 

hol14.1

today happens to be my birthday and the start of our latest travel adventure, we left home last night, after a lovely ‘last supper’ with jeremy & leesi, they dropped us at the airport and we headed off to darwin. we had one of the worst flights i have ever had, really bad turbulence due to big thunderstorms in darwin. we ended up circling for an hour waiting for a gap in the storm cells to plonk the plane on the tarmac.

we then had a couple hours waiting in darwin airport before we left for singapore, so i turned 21 again in australia, eventually we boarded our silk air flight to SNG and headed north. after flying through the early hours of the morning we arrived at changi airport at about 7.30am and cleared customs and immigration then stumbled around the three terminals showing kai the airport and filling in a bit of time before catching a bus across to the border, clearing out of singapore customs and immigration and then into malaysia.

the system was as good as i remembered it, you basically hop on and off the bus either side of each border crossing, the bus is automagically waiting for you on the other side, a massive, mobile, seething mass of people relentlessly moving in the same direction, with fast and efficient government employees making the whole thing happen seamlessly and in a timely fashion. (take note australia!)

so by the time we were jumping in a taxi as we exited malaysian immigration, i was in the 3rd country for my birthday, and by this stage feeling a bit second hand! our good fortune was doubled when the hotel informed us the previous guests had already checked out and our 2 bedroom family suite was cleaned and available to check in! so we were able to settle in to our room at 9.30 in the morning which was a great relief after a long night of travel.

we ventured out for brunch and i found a little local restaurant that cooked murtabak daging – one of my favourite morning dishes in malaysia. if you are not familiar its an Indian Muslim wrap. It’s a large, thin, roti stuffed with various meat fillings, along with eggs and onions and then fried on a hotplate. daging refers to the meat being beef. its served with dahl and a couple of different curry sauces, you tear the murtabak into pieces and dip them into the sauces. its simply the best way to start a day!

we then returned to the hotel for a well deserved siesta, there are no photos of the brunch because we woofed it down before i thought of taking a pic! we did some more wandering around Johore Bahru in the afternoon and picked up a bit of shopping. its great to be somewhere where you simply dont see any other tourists and no one humbugs you on the street on in the shops. most tourists dont stop in JB, they stay in singapore and then go straight to malacca, KL or Penang.

tonite we went to a little local food court round the corner and filled up on chicken satays, beef rendang, pork ribs and various vege dishes, all washed down with a couple of carlsberg beers! again i forgot to take photos until the meal was nearly finished, but here is a snap of the mainly empty plates!

hol14

time for an early night now, i feel as if my birthday has gone on for about 3 days! we are off to legoland tomorrow which has kai beside himself with excitement, but i know it will be another big day so we need to recharge the batteries.