Siblings in KL

My brother and I also took a side trip to Kuala Lumpur for 3 days.  We got to travel in style on a luxury bus with the seats that were like recliners.  Plus, each seat had it's own TV and controls, and they served food and drinks on board.

I booked us a room at a little boutique hotel called Anggun Boutique Hotel.  It was a really nice hotel, but our room faced the street and was really noisy all night.  However, the service was great and when I complained about the noise, they transferred us to a quieter room for the second night.

Our nicely decorated room - of course I got the king bed....and Jimmy got the little cot.

Jimmy checking out the scenes from our balcony

The room also came with a computer/TV so we could surf the web on the big screen.

Once we unpacked, we headed out for some sightseeing.  Unfortunately the main attraction of KL, the Petronas Towers, was closed to visitors for maintenance work.  Instead we visited the KL Tower.

From the top, we got a pretty good view of the city as well as the Petronas Towers.  Unfortunately it was a rainy/smoggy day so it was difficult to see very far.

    

Of course we took a self portrait with the towers.

Afterwards, we walked over to the mall beneath the Petronas Towers and had dinner.

After dinner, Jimmy had his first (and probably only) experience with the dreaded, stinky Durian.  For those of you who don't know what it is, it looks like dead chickens (according to my sister) and it smells like a gas leak.

The Durian Experience:

This is the progression of faces my brother made as he had his first taste of the mighty Durian...I made him take a second bite so I could take some pictures of his reaction.  Concentrating so hard on making a good face for the camera, coupled with the nasty taste of Durian, resulted in my brother gagging and nearly throwing up right in the mall.  Needless to say, I don't think he'll be trying it again.

On the second day, we enjoyed a relaxing breakfast upstairs at the hotel's rooftop restaurant called Bubu restaurant.  It was like a garden oasis in the city.  

Rooftop Restaurant


Coffee, fresh juice, and fruits


Healthy porridge - it may sound like nothing special, but it was DELICIOUS!

Then we took the train out to Batu Caves just outside of KL.

242 steps to the entrance of the caves

A woman/cow/bird/peackock statue....slightly disturbing

We also did a guided tour of the Dark Caves

Jimmy and me in the great chamber

   

Outside, we saw some people carrying interesting things on their heads....the man had three boxes of water and was climbing 242 steps.  That's dedication.

After all that climbing, we headed back to the Petronas to do some photography.  Jimmy's main goal for the trip was to duplicate a jump picture in front of the Petronas towers that he'd seen online.  So I got down on my elbows and knees and started snapping.

It takes many tries before you can get the perfect pic....

Here are two keepers:

     

Our picture turned out pretty well, but Jimmy was hoping to make himself smaller in comparison to the towers and to cut the street and cars out of the frame.  However, it was just impossible from our angle.  Finally tired out, me from kneeling on the ground to take the pictures and my brother, from jumping so many times, we decided to call it quits and take one more final picture with the towers:

At this point we're both hot, sticky, and sweaty.

But, as we crossed the street to go home, I noticed a plaza right in front of the towers along with a bunch of steps.  So, I dragged my brother over and there we found the money shot!

Finally, THE perfect pic!

So, my brother went home satisfied with a fun and exciting trip to Southeast Asia.  You can check out the rest of my brother's visit in my flickr album.  This marks the end of my month of visitors.  Now Andy and I are gearing up to do a little traveling ourselves during the holidays.  We'll be touring Vietnam for a week and a half....looking forward to it!

Melaka Getaway

This past weekend, we took a trip to Melaka, Malaysia.  Originally, we planned on going on the weekend of our anniversary, but we put off planning for too long and then couldn't find a hotel room because it was a school holiday weekend, so lots of people were travelling.  So we had to push it back a few weeks.

We got up early and caught a luxury bus from Singapore to the Melaka bus terminal.   It was a smooth ride, only 3.5 hours and very comfortable as the bus was a regular sized bus with only 29 seats.  We had plenty of leg room and could recline pretty far back.  Andy's long legs were happy.

Andy got us a nice room at the Holiday Inn with a view of the Melaka Straits.  He had used his points to get us a free room, but they made a mistake when assigning the room and we ended up with two single beds.  So, after some complaining, upon which he flashed his Platinum status (thanks to all those nights spent in Victoria last year), he got us upgraded to a nicer room with a water view that came with free breakfast.  After checking in, they brought us this welcome treat - fancy! 

Our view of the Melaka Straits and a mosque.

After some resting, we headed out to explore the sights of the town.  First, we stumbled upon the "Pimp My Rickshaw Contest" at the plaza.  There were all these rickshaws lined up with numbers and I guess they were being judged.  

This is one really souped up rickshaw.  You could rock out while riding the streets of Melaka.

One of the creepier rickshaws, decked out in.....barbie dolls.  Weird.

A muslim woman at A Famosa, the old Portuguese fort. 

The front side of A Famosa

The ruins of St. Paul's Church

A local school boy looking out the window of St. Paul's Church.

Me hanging out inside the church.

Just down the hill was Christ Church of Melaka, probably the most famous tourist sight of the town.  Of course we took a few pictures.

We also spent some time strolling down Jonker Street, which basically closed down at night and became one really long night market.  I picked up some cool leather bracelets for my sister for $1 a pop.  So cheap!

Jonker Street at twilight.

After dinner, we were zonked out and headed back to the hotel.  The heat and humidity can really be a killer here.  The next morning, we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and headed out to the mall where I got my shopping fix in.  Stuff in Malaysia is so cheap!  At the mall, there was an archery store, so Andy and I gave it a try.  I even hit the bullseye on one of the targets - to which Andy remarked, "Were you actually aiming for that one?" Surprisingly, I was.  If you know me, I definitely have a lack of hand-eye coordination, I've even missed the cup when pouring water before...so I was really proud of myself.

Watch out Robin Hood, here come the Sokoliks!

After shopping and archery, we headed back to Jonker Street and had some Hainan Chicken and Rice Balls. It was pretty good, although I think I still prefer the Singaporean version with rice in a bowl.

This cost about US$4! So cheap.

So we basically spent a little over 24 hours in Melaka, but had a great time.  Getting back to Singapore was a bit of an adventure since we waited until we got to Melaka to buy tickets for the return and found that all buses back to Singapore were booked.  We then found ONE company that still had tickets to Johor Bahru, Malaysia, (which is right across the border from Singapore) and had to go there, then take the public buses back over to Singapore.  Took almost 6 hours to get home.....  

So, we got to celebrate our anniversary in style, a month late...but better late than never!  I posted the rest of my pictures in my flickr album so you can check them out here.