Satani Bat Bi: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Part 1)

Early January saw Husband head down to Malaysia for a week-long work trip.  I wrapped up a few loose ends in Bangkok and joined him a few days later.  I hadn't been to Malaysia before and scanned through the guidebook for some sites to check out in Kuala Lumpur.  The Petronas Towers are pretty iconic, as are the butterfly/bird/deer parks.

It's pretty easy to get to KL from Bangkok - the flight is only two hours, and most nationalities can get admitted for 90 days at the airport without a visa.  The airport in KL is about an hour outside of the city, so I had some more time to read the guidebook on the drive into the city.  The hotel we were staying at was a fairly central location, and close to a stop of the elevated monorail.

The first night we walked over to the Petronas Towers via a lengthy air-conditioned walkway.  With some mystic-looking clouds in the background, here is what greeted us:

We walked through the park closer to the towers and saw this cutesy colorful water show set to music:

The next day I started exploring by heading to the Masjid Negara (National Mosque).  It's quite a popular place for tourists to visit during non-prayer hours, and unfortunately those tourists don't always arrive properly dressed.  There was an area for storing shoes, and to put on robes/head coverings:

I walked up to the main prayer hall on the second floor.  As I was looking into the prayer hall, I was approached by a volunteer who shared with myself and other visitors some background on the mosque, the symbolism behind the times for the call to prayer, and more about Islam in general.  She was so wonderful and helpful and a fantastic ambassador for her religion.

Open air gathering area:

Heading to the main hall:

Inside the main hall:

The Islamic Arts Museum was just up the street, and next on the cultural tour.  The lower floor had an exhibit of photos commemorating Malaysia's independence and journey as a new nation from 1957 and on through the 60s and 70s.   History is good to know, but the real pull for me was the ceramics on the fourth floor.  I absolutely love Islamic architecture (the Alhambra!) and ceramics (tiles, jars, pottery!) and I finally figured out why.  On the fourth floor there were signs describing the main principles of Islamic art - geometry, organic images of nature and plants, calligraphy - and a general effort to create art that matches the idealized interaction with the surrounding world.  I think this paragraph sums it up well, from Khaled Azzam (http://www.khaledazzam.net/architecture-tradition/universal-principles-of-islamic-art.php):

Traditional Islamic architecture fully reflects this consciousness of the architect. There was never any attitude of conflict, defiance or conquest over the surrounding environment. This in Islamic architecture is seen in the curve of the dome, the fluid forms of vaults, the crenulations of the skyline and the recesses and protrusions of the walls which allow the building to interact gracefully with the surrounding space. Even the internal space of the building, the courtyard (metaphorically the heart of the building), was open to the sky symbolising the aspiration of the heart towards heaven.

Photos were forbidden inside the museum, but here are some from the exterior, as well as from our friends at Google Image Search:

From the museum entrance:

From Google Image Search, a view of the interior of the museum and one of the domes:

From Google Image Search, an inverted dome inside the museum:

From Google Image Search, a view of the museum's roof:

I think I also love it so much because all the blues and greens - so serene.

After the museum I hiked up to the bird park.  Luckily these places are fairly close together, but wearing jeans and a long-sleeve cardigan to dress for the mosque (along with a lightweight scarf) and the hotter temps in KL definitely meant I was a bit of a (literal) hot mess.  I think I drank three bottles of water before noon.  I was out of my third bottle and looking for the fourth when I came upon a sign that state "Don't feed the monkeys."  Oooookay.  I wasn't heading to a monkey park, that's weird.  Then I looked to my right, and saw this:

Oh, hello.  And he's joined by 30 of his closest troop mates in the trees nearby.  Downtown KL, just walking down the street, there's a troop of monkeys.  And I note they are macaques too - just the species I used to work with! Ahh!  So I didn't feed them, and definitely kept my distance, but here's some more shots of the rascals:

The sidewalk where I stumbled upon the critters.  Note the three macaques taking over the top of the lightpole:

The bird park in KL sits on 20 acres, and is a HUGE free-flight aviary with around 3000 birds from 200 species (90% local species).  Some birds are kept a bit more restricted - I'm guessing if they are feisty ones (like the eagles) or rare (like the hornbills).  A great afternoon though - here are some of my favs:

Some fellas playing chess outside the park:

Shy:

Suspicious:

Not all birds at the bird park:

Yellow-billed stork, gathering nesting material:

Couldn't walk 10 feet without tripping over a white egret:

Some of the many white egrets:

Peacocks were also quite common:

Fruit snacks:

Show off:

Flamingo on the move:

It was a beautiful park to walk through:

At a dead end trail, I saw this group of yellow-billed storks soaking up the sun (or having a secret meeting?)

When you're a stork, your little babies aren't so little:

The hornbills were all in cages. I think this one escaped..

Hear a rustle in the bushes. Wait. Watch.  Then out crawls this fella:

Emu.  Check out the mini...teeth?

One more of the macaques, this time going for a tightrope act:

Last for the day was a stroll through Chinatown.  Malaysia's population is comprised of (roughly) 50% ethnic Malay, 23% Chinese, and 7% Indian (with other minorities and indigenous people rounding out the population).  I found a beautiful fabric store, which immediately helped tick off an important box (my mom is very kindly making us a quilt based on our travels, so I've been sending fabric from each country we visit).  There were food stalls, incense shops, pirated DVDs, sunglasses, and other nick-nacks. 

Jalan Petaling, Chinatown

Enough for one day - more to come from KL.  

Satani Bat Bi: Koh Samui

The ferry back to Ko Samui was much like the ferry to Koh Tao - although it was a bit more hectic with all the travelers scurrying around to find their dream New Year's Eve destination.  Thankfully we boarded quick enough to get seats, and slept for most of the way.

On arrival at Koh Samui, we had no more energy to haggle and splurged on a taxi to our hotel rather than a shared van that wouldn't leave until it was full and would make 5 or 6 stops.  Our boat had been delayed an hour or so leaving Koh Tao, so by the time we got to our hotel on Koh Samui it was pushing eight o'clock.  We grabbed a quick bite to eat and left exploring our hotel and surrounding beach for the next day.

Koh Samui was mostly just recovery from scuba diving for us.  I'd gotten a bit of sore throat, as well as bitten a million times over by sea lice (ew, I know - they aren't dangerous but it feels like mini electric shocks when they bite and then leave itchy bumps all over), and so I just wanted to stay on dry land for a day or two.

We took a taxi to the far side of the island to go hiking one day, at Na Muang Waterfall.  The taxi prices on Koh Samui are pretty ridiculous, compared to Bangkok.  The starting rate for the meter in BKK is 35 baht, and then increases 2 baht at a time.  Trips of 20 minutes won't be more than 60 baht - a trip out to the airport is usually only 250 baht tops!  But here on the island the LOWEST price we could get for a 30 minute drive to the other side was 500 baht.  Granted, that's still only about $15 and cheap compared to Washington, DC taxi prices...but still.

At the parking lot for the waterfall trail head, there was a bit of a madhouse.  There were elephants carrying tourists around.  There were tour groups and snack shacks and pickups that had been outfitted for driving off-road and people on zip lines whizzing overhead on cables strung up between tree platforms.  We just wanted a simple hike!

Trucks and Trunks:

Once we got on the trail itself, things calmed down and this amazing green valley opened up ahead.

Bamboo poles were rigged together for bridging across the river at the base of the waterfall, and giant steps marked the way up.  I'm so glad we wore our sneakers - so many people were slipping and sliding down the trail in flip flops.

The hike up and falls:

For New Year's Eve, our hotel was putting on a "gala dinner," which was mandatory when you booked the hotel.  They spent part of the 30th and all of the 31st setting up for this dinner and the accompanying stage on the beach.  Then four o'clock rolled around and the thunderstorm hit and it started raining.  Dinner was supposed to start at 7 and it was still pouring. Buckets!  But, the front desk said dinner was still on if we could make it to the beach - and I suppose this is good prep for rainy season - so we headed down.  When we had checked in to the hotel, they'd asked us to pick our table for the dinner.  We'd picked one closer to the beach, to see the show and be under moonlight.  Well, our table had blown away in the storm and the staff were hustling around  trying to fit all the outdoor tables under the covered area while simultaneously trying to seat and please everyone.

I pause here for a note on Thai culture.  Of course I am just learning and do not pretend to know much about Thai culture, nor claim all Thai people behave a certain way, but one thing that is important is saving face.  If there is a disagreement, one would never raise their voice or become upset, but rather try and find a workaround or a way to let the other person down gently.  It's respectful and kind and just the way things are.  Okay, now back to the situation at hand -

So a crowd is building near the entrance to the restaurant as more and more people are braving the rain and coming to the restaurant.  Since the staff do not know which people may not show at all (given the rain), they are reluctant to reassign the covered seating to those of us who were in the uncovered portion, and prefer to just keep adding more tables to the limited seating space.  Eh, no problem.  Husband and I get a glass of wine and tell the woman helping us there's no rush.  After awhile working in other sections, two small square tables are brought to the front, linens are spread smooth on top, and silverware is set.  Voila! Ready to go.  The waiter who was zooming around prepping this table proudly offers it up to a group of four who had very impatiently been demanding when their table would be ready.  In an act that is clearly still upsetting me, the lead woman of this group looks at the table in disgust, and then loudly admonishes the waiter: "This table?? Are you serious?  We will never sit here.  Look at us.  We will not sit here in the front where just anyone can see us, all the people coming and going! Never!"  The poor waiter can't even raise his head.  So many people are staring and I cannot believe how rude this woman was.

A group of three guys nearby watching this scene quickly pipe up "Hey!  Can we sit there? It looks great!" Husband and I look at each other thinking the same thing and ask the group of three if we can join them too.  I think all five of us knew how bad the waiter was feeling and probably went over the top thanking him and telling him what a great table it was.  I hope that woman realizes there are far more important things in life than table placement...

Our dinner companions for the evening are all originally from Pakistan, but now live in Dubai working on IT.  We had such a great time chatting with them about Thailand, traveling, the food, Pakistani politics, love marriage vs. arranged marriages, and so on.  We didn't even realize the rain had stopped until an hour or so later.

Thailand is crazy about fireworks (sometimes we hear them on random Tuesday nights for what seems like no reason), so of course New Year's Eve was no exception.  Another gem in Thailand is the lighting and release of beautiful paper lanterns (check back to the Loi Krathong post for photos - I left my camera inside on NYE because of all the rain).  It was such a gorgeous night.  There was a band playing Thai folk music and guests dancing on the beach under the moon.  It's kind of hard to put more into words other than I'm so thankful for such a beautiful way to ring in the new year.

Happy New Year!

Satani Bat Bi: Ko Tao

For our long Christmas holiday, Husband and I decided this would be a great time to get our scuba dive certification.  Since you cannot fly for 24 hours after your last dive, this is hard to accomplish with even a long weekend trip.  Now we had the time to fly down to the islands, get certified, and still have a few days on the tail-end to let the residual nitrogen leave our bodies before flying home.

We flew down to Ko Samui (about one hour, $125 USD one-way on Bangkok Airways), the closest airport to our destination.  The airport on Ko Samui is adorable - like a mini Disneyland.  It is 100% open-air.  Literally nothing is sealed off indoors, and there are cute trams to take you from deplaning to baggage claim.  Of course they are painted with pastel-colored cartoon animals, trees, and butterflies.  If only one was allowed to take photos at airports, I would share these gems.

From the airport we caught a taxi-transfer to the Nathorn Pier for the last boat of the day to Ko Tao.  Again, there is a bit of a racket going on.  The "competing" companies actually just seem to be one company with set prices and identical laminated lists.  It was a 30 minute ride from the airport to the pier, and we grabbed some delish dinner (papaya salad and green curry) before our boat left for Ko Tao.

There are three islands in this region - Ko Samui (the largest and the one with the airport), Ko Tao (the smallest, the farthest, and our destination), and Ko Phangan (medium sized island known for full moon parties and craziness).  The ferry we took departs from Ko Samui, stops at Ko Phangan, then finally heads to Ko Tao.

Ko Samui, in relation to Thailand:

And the three islands, close up:

It's interesting to see the different characters that board and disembark at the various islands - each one definitely attracts a certain kind of person.  Ko Tao is now known to certify 3% of all scuba divers worldwide each year.  Considering the island is super tiny, that's pretty incredible.  Needless to say, it is dive central. Ko Phangan as I mentioned is all about full moon parties...think buckets of alcohol, neon body paint, and 15,000 of your closest friends dancing on the beach once a month under the - you guessed it - full moon.  Ko Samui doesn't seem to have that same singular focus - there is a backpacker's beach to the north, the main touristy area on the east, and quieter beaches to the south and west for those looking to relax a bit more.

Ferry ride to Ko Tao:

Back to Ko Tao.  Our ferry was a bit delayed and we ended up arriving in Ko Tao after sunset.  The dive shop we had signed up with had sent a taxi to pick us up, and we found him after wading through the crowd of others holding up signs for their various resorts and haggling for business.  A couple things to clarify - the dive shop was more of a dive everything-you-could-want-in-one-shop.  They had two locations on the beach, maybe 10 minutes walk from each other.  They taught every level of scuba certification (including underwater photography, how to become an instructor, reef cleanup, technical diving, etc.), had hundreds of rooms either on site or booked through partner guesthouses, restaurants, a bar, classrooms for instruction, etc.  And when I say they sent a taxi to pick us up, it was (like in Ko Samet), a pickup truck with two benches in the back.  We climbed up and held on tight for the bumpy 20 minute ride up the coast to our guesthouse.

Our room was decent - fan, air-con, bathroom with shower, and a small porch - and all for $30 a night. There were some options (had we booked further in advance and wanted to share a crowded dorm room and bunk beds) that were only $8 a night!  In the morning we went to check-in at the dive shop and got signed up to start classes that evening.  We had the day to ourselves and set out exploring the beautiful island.

View from our room:

Bananas!

There was a main road, but most of the island was little pedestrian walkways like this:

Classes in the evening and following day were great.  Our group consisted of two instructors to teach us five students - myself, Husband, Michelle & Cedric (a couple from the Netherlands who had been traveling for a month), and Shay, another girl from the Netherlands who was traveling for 3 months.  Shay had tried scuba earlier in her trip and it had gone pretty poorly and she quit.  She was heading home soon and determined to give it another go.   In the classes, we learned about tides, equipment, atmospheric pressure, nitrogen narcosis, safety checks, buddy signals, underwater life, how to achieve neutral buoyancy, and so on. We spent about four hours in the pool one afternoon, and after assembling and safety checking our own equipment, we went through numerous techniques underwater - flood your mask and clear it, what to do if you lose your regulator underwater, two different types of emergency ascents, how to share air with your buddy underwater if they run out, and more.

After we cleaned our equipment and put it away for the night, I felt ready.  We had the next day off for Christmas, and would resume diving on the 26th.  Christmas morning we Skyped with our families back home and got to catch up and send holiday love - where would we be without Skype?

The water was amazingly calm Christmas morning - here's some photos from our breakfast spot:

We caught a pickup taxi after breakfast and headed to another side of the island.  We had spent so much time in the concentrated area near our guesthouse/diving classes, and wanted to get out a bit.  The driver recommended Shark Bay as a quiet area - perfect.  We got dropped off at the top of a steep driveway (that had yet to be constructed...it was really just a hill with bags of concrete sitting nearby), and told to go down the slope to find the beach.  The driver gave us his card and said to call when we wanted to come back in the afternoon.  Hmm.  We ambled down the slope and found a path which led us down to the water.  There was a resort right next to the beach, and we claimed a shaded beach couch (it is as awesome as it sounds).  Christmas day was smoothie-drinking, book-reading, and life-talking good times.

Shark Bay:

The taxi in front of us on the way back:

The taxi behind us - this picture doesn't show how steep it felt...

Really quite a beautiful drive:

Santa delivering ice on Christmas Day:

December 26th came up next.  Boxing Day.  Or, in our case, Day of Dive 1 & 2!  We met up in the morning, practiced our dive table problems a bit more, then took the final exam for the scuba course.  We all passed and went over the few answers we missed.  Quick lunch, then got our equipment ready in dive bags, and hopped on the longtail boat to shuttle us out to the dive boat.  It was a bit chaotic with four dive teams on the dive boat (of 5-6 students and 1-2 instructors each), but they made it work.  The bottom deck had circles cut into wood for the air tanks along either side of the boat, with a bench in front to assemble the equipment and strap it all together.  There was a box of weights and weight belts in one corner, and two ladders into the water in the back.  On the top deck was a shaded bench area for briefings and to hang out between dives.  They had coffee, tea, water, biscuits and fruit for surface time, and a dry area up front to keep your personal items. The captain also slept on the boat, so his cabin to the front was understandably off limits.

Dive day:

Longtail boats in the morning:

Out on the water, looking back at Ko Tao:

I was a bit nervous for our first dive on how equalization would work for me.  I'd gone diving twice before and did not have the best experience with equalization when I was at 20 feet or lower.  Our goal for the course was to make it to 18 meters/60 feet.

The next bit of medical info for my family members who are medical professionals about my past sinus issues...feel free to skip to the next paragraph  :)
Before we left Bangkok, I'd contacted a dive doctor to check out my sinuses and see if he had any suggestions or tips for equalizing.  The doctor was fantastic - set up an appointment for me less than an hour after I'd called at a hospital not far from where we live.  He was a doctor with the Royal Thai Navy in their Underwater Medicine department, went scuba diving himself, and also had trouble equalizing.  Perfect!  He checked my ear/nose/throat and after listening to my past experiences diving, old history with sinus issues, and how using Afrin when I fly helps tremendously with ear pressure, he recommended I take a nasal spray to help clear my Eustachian Tubes for better ease of equalization.  He advised against pseudoephedrine, since it can have too many other side effects and the effect may wear off when I am trying to ascend and cause what's known as a reverse block effect.  Just to be safe, he recommended I have my ears tested as well, and sent me over to the ENT department.  They did a test called a Tympanomentry, which involved putting a set of industrial looking ear muffs on - the kind I wore in my Dad's workshop when we used the table saw - except one side of the ear muff had a long tube that was inserted into my ear canal.  When the technician flipped a switch on the machine it was attached to, it made different pitched noises and sent air into my ear, and measured my eardrum's reaction.  Then they switched sides and tested the other ear.  Very odd.  But I passed!  All normal.  So I was on my way with Afrin and hope. I told both our dive instructors ALL of this and let them know I was using Afrin and we were set. 

The first dive is kind of a blur - we got our equipment set, strapped on our BCDs, and made our way to the back of the boat.  We would also be practicing three different kinds of water entry, and the first was a giant stride into the water.  Once our group was assembled and bobbing at the back of the boat, Ant (our instructor) had us swim to the front where the descent line was anchored.  Husband and I were dive buddies, and Ant had me start descending first (since it was probably going to take me longer than others as I'd be stopping to equalize every half meter or so).  Holding onto the rope while descending was really reassuring to know I wasn't going down too fast.  Rope in one hand, pinch nose and gently blow out ears. Equalized!  Yes! Go down another half meter, repeat.  IT WORKED!  Oh man I was so happy.  We got down to the bottom - maybe 10 meters - and practiced a few techniques, and then Ant led our group in a two-by-two formation around the reef.  He checked on our air to make sure we were all doing fine.  Michelle responded that she had enough air, but made some odd gesture that looked like she wanted to throw up. Which she did. Underwater. TWICE. Wow.  And then remarkably, she calmly put her regulator back in her mouth, cleared it of water, and kept right on going.  What a champ.  Back up on the surface, she threw up a few more times (it had been really rough water before we started).  I thought there was no way she'd go through with the second dive.  But what a rockstar, she rested, drank water, and was ready to go for Dive 2.  

This entry is long enough so I'll skip through Dives 2-4 and just say we had a really great time, went through all the skills underwater, and were thankful that the water for Dives 3-4 was much calmer.  We saw amazing fish, corals, sea cucumbers, nudibranchs, and even a seahorse!  I later told Husband that on Dives 3 and 4 - when I was feeling much more at ease with the whole process and able to really look around and enjoy it - I felt like we were in a world that used to be above ground and now was underwater and inhabited by fish. Like exploring a wreck or an underwater Pompeii or something - it was incredible.  I'm so excited for our family and friends who dive too - come visit and we're ready to go! 

Finishing Dive 4, we got photos taken, got our dive cards, and caught a taxi to the pier for our trip to Ko Samui.  Exhausted, happy, and ready to stay above water for a few days.