July 29- Ubud, Bali



We are heading to the beach today after a wonderful short week in Ubud, but we have to finish telling you about our time here. On Wednesday, we went to the Nirvana Gallery and took a batik workshop with Buddha himself. Well, not really, but this guy advertised in his brochure that he was larger than life, and he certainly was. His batik artwork was amazing, though, and the compound he had built, with galleries, studios, guest rooms, a temple, and a gorgeous home for him and his family, was an idyllic location to let the creative juices flow. The area was full of tropical plants and trees, and there was artwork hanging on every square inch of wall in the open air studios.

He began the lesson by telling us about the batik process, and then left us to be inspired to sketch out what we wanted to batik. Ari quickly decided on a mask of Hanoman, the monkey from the Ramayana story, and Jillian wanted to do a lady dancing. Ari was able to draw his out nicely, referencing a picture of the mask. Jillian got a little help from the batik master himself, and then we were off to begin the actual batik process.

In the middle of the studio space, there were pots set up cooking beeswax, and little batik "pens" for us to use to trace the wax onto our sketches. These pens consisted of a little wooden handle with a small vessel at one end, about a one inch cylinder, with a tiny spout at the tip. We would fill the vessels up with beeswax and then use the spout to draw on the fabric we had sketched on. Once we had traced all of the lines in wax, we began painting with fabric dye. The batik master gave us a lot of guidance on choosing colors, and it was good practice staying in the lines. We hadn't done that for about twenty years.

After the whole picture was painted in, we spread beeswax over the painted areas to protect them while we dyed the background indigo blue. We had a lot of help from the batik master's apprentices, and they did most of the really messy dyeing for us, but we were still proud to call the pieces our own. (They may not be on display in the permanent collection in our museum apartment, as they will be on loan in more prestigious collections).

During our class, the wife and servants of the batik master prepared a feast for lunch for us and some of his other visitors. They were kind enough to make us plenty of vegetarian options. It was the best gado-gado we had ever tasted (in the three days that we have been eating it).

After the batik class, we headed back to our bungalow to put on clean clothes, and we meandered back into town. We shopped, shmyed, and shopped a little more before we sat down for dinner. This dinner was the nicest that we had had since leavnig Hawaii, and the food was gourmet with a local flair. It may have been the wine, but we decided to go a little crazy by the time the dessert menu came around. Jillian had been hoping for creme brulee, but she was even more excited to find durian brulee on the menu.

A note about durian: We don't know if we have told you yet about this amazingly odd fruit. It is considered a delicacy in most of Southeast Asia, and the locals devour it! Unfortunately for non-locals, it smells like armpits. A lot of hotels that we have stayed in have signs posted that you are not to bring durian inside, because the smell is so offensive. While we were in Bangkok, we just had to try it and see what the rage was all about. It sort of tasted like onion custard, and after a couple bites, it began to grow on us a little. We would go so far as to say we almost enjoyed it.

So, Jillian ordered the durian brulee- when were we ever going to see that on a menu again? Ari ordered an extra spoon, but then something on the menu caught his eye. A single word: Cohiba. It was more than appropriate for him to order a Cuban at the nicest meal of our honeymoon.

Needless to say, we slept in a little the next morning, but we had to rest up because we had a long day of shopping ahead of us. No need to go into the details, but we literally spent the entire day browsing boutiques, haggling in the market, and schlepping shopping bags back to our bungalow. Our major purchase of the day was a new suitcase. The cheapest one we could find was a "same same" Burberry. We will be travelling in style now, with four backpacks and a Burberry rolly case in tow.

Yesterday, Friday, we took a Balinese cooking class. (Ari thought it was a good idea on Thursday to sign up for it, to curtail the shopping frenzy). The class turned out to be well worth the relatively nominal fee. We began with a trip to the market, where the chef explained to us about the local fruits, vegetables, and spices, and also some of the imported ones that have been incorporated into the cuisine. We have been to markets all over the place, but it was a real treat to have a gourmet guide lead us through the stalls.

Back at the restaurant, we donned aprons (which we get to bring home as souvenirs- if they fit in the new suitcase) and prepared six delicious courses. It was a vegetarian cooking class, and we were delighted to find new ways to prepare tempeh and tofu, both of which we struggle with sometimes at home. Jillian was even more thrilled to learn the secrets of gado-gado (which will be served in the museum cafe). Everything turned out delicious (but that's probably because half of the things we made were deep fried in coconut oil, and the other half were drowned in coconut milk. We got to keep recipe books of all of the things we made, plus a few other Balinese treats which we didn't make, but will experiment with at home. (Potluck, anyone?)



After the class we had time for some last minute shopping of pirated DVDs (we had had it up to our necks with batik). We went back to our bungalow, and the engineers in us came to life. We had so much stuff, in all shapes, sizes, and degrees of fragility that all needed to make it into our bags. Amazingly enough, and with a little elbow grease we got it all in.

This morning, we got up early to write this post before we head to the beaches of East Bali for our last week in paradise.

TTFN (Ta Ta For Now).

Lots of love,
Jillian and Ari

July 28th Bali, Indonesia

We finally found an internet cafe in Ubud, Bali with decent internet speeds, so we will do a big post tonight. Internet cafes here advertise that they are "high speed" but creep along at a telephone modem speed. I guess that's "same same" broadband internet, or something.

Anyway, enough kvetching, we are in Bali, afterall. We arrived here in the late morning on Monday. We had to haggle with a few taxi drivers before finding a reasonable fare, but we found a cab to take us from the airport to Ubud, a town about twenty kilometers inland renown for its cultural events and shopping. The ride took us past mile after mile of tropical road lined with palm trees and countless roadside shops selling stone and wooden sculptures of the Buddha, Hindu deities, or local deities we did not recognize, of all shapes and sizes.

We arrived in Ubud and began a short search for a place to stay. It is a great little town, chalk full of artists, galleries, shops, resorts, and rice paddies, located in the middle of the island. The accommodations in Ubud run the gamut from cheap bungalows to posh five star hotels (several of the hotels in Bali are consistently rated among the top ten best in the world.) We opted for the cheapest option, mostly because we knew Jillian was going to do some real damage in the shops selling funky, colorful everything. The first bungalow joint was too expensive (80,000 Indonesian rupiahs: roughly $9) so we held out until we found a clean bungalow for a better price (50,000 rupiahs: $5) with breakfast included!

After dropping off our luggage (which has gotten much heavier since we left NYC), we set out to explore the town of Ubud. The town is beautiful, with sloping streets lined with little boutiques selling local handmade wares. We stopped at a cute restaurant and had lunch overlooking picturesque rice paddies. The food was really good and the view was magnificent. Then we wandered through the streets and alleys of the town, past temples, mixed in with shops, and a few small rice paddies thrown in for good measure. The hours passed, and somehow it became evening.

That night we went to a Kekak Fire Dance show. We had heard that Kekak meant chanting, and we thought the fire dance would be cool, but we had no idea what a treat we were in for. The kekak dance took place on the open air patio in front of a temple, in a grove of trees, lit only with candles. The show began with one man coming into the center of the plaza, and lighting a six foot tall candleabra, which lit up the entire area. Then dozens of men came out, clad only in black and white checked sarongs, and sat in circles around the pyre. Then came the chanting. These men began and continued to chant, "chak-a-chak chak-a-chak" at different volumes and speeds for the next hour and a half. They got up and danced like flames a few times, but for the most part, they just swayed and belted their "chak-a-chaks" in place. Soon a few other fully costumed dancers came out and danced the Ramayana story for us, in and around the middle of the circle. The costumes were incredibly elaborate, complete with masks, hair and sequins.

After the completion of the Ramayana story one crazy Balinese dude came out, "riding" a straw horse all around the middle of the circle. The chanting men moved off stage, and the candleabra was replaced by a bonfire made of coconut husks. Two other men, bearing wooden rakes came out into the center with the crazy dude, and the second half of the show began. The crazy dude (wearing only a sarong- no shoes) held tight to the reigns of his "horse" and ran through the middle of the bonfire, sending coconut husk embers flying in all directions. It was cool to see them flying towards the other spectators, but when flaming coconut came flying in our direction, well, that was a little more nerve racking (We never actually got hit, but we had to pick up our feet and skooch a little to the side to make sure). That's where the men with the rakes came into the picture. While the crazy dude ran around with his horse, they swept all of the embers back into a pile, so he could charge through them again. And again. And again. This ordeal went on for about twenty minutes (with the "chak-a-chaks" going in the background the whole time) before one raker had to steal the dude's horse, while the other tackled him to the ground. The first raker had to go back and help hold him down. Then a third man (possibly a shaman?) came out and sprinkled water on the crazy dude. It was only then that we realized he had been in a trance the whole time, because we saw him come out of it. (Not that it made the whole thing any less crazy). The show was over, the house candles came on, and the crazy dude was sitting in the middle of the circle catching his breath. We went over to check him out, and his feet had been completely blackened, though he didn't seem burned. He was one crazy dude.

Tuesday morning, we decided to check out some of the local Batik courses to try and find one that suited us. The Lonely Planet had a few leads for us, and we didn't have much trouble finding one. We did have a little trouble making it directly there, since there were so many shops to wander in and out of along the way. Bali is known for its textiles, particularly hand painted batiks and intricately woven ikats, and the craftsmanship is amazing. We first went to ARMA, Agung Rai Museum of Art, a local art museum, resort, and place for learning. They offered many classes on Balinese culture, but we were a little disappointed in the batik offerings. We wandered around the grounds for a bit, passed by a music and dance lesson for local children, and then headed into the museum. Like many other museums in Asia that we visited, the architecture was extremely impressive and the collection was just OK. It astounded us that in the open air museum, most of the pen and ink drawings and paintings were not behind glass or protected in any manner. You could see them obviously wilting from the humidity fluctuations in Ubud. There was a distinct Ubud style to many of them, and the museum only held local works, which was cool, but half of the galleries were totally empty, which was not cool.

From ARMA, we headed to the Monkey Forest. Our bungalow is on Monkey Forest Road, so we had to see what the hubub was all about. We walked in to find monkeys everywhere. There were monkeys on the path, monkeys on the railings, monkeys in the trees, and monkeys stealing women's purses (and who says there is no pick-pocketing in Bali. Generally we saw the monkeys take any snacks, then give them back). At a spot in the woods where a few paths converged, some of the park rangers (men wearing sarongs) put out piles of raw sweet potatoes for the monkeys to feast on (and the tourists to feast their cameras on). It was quite a scene! The monkeys fought over the best potatoes or best lady monkeys or for no good reason. Most of the time they were pretty content just to sit and eat potatoes. We even saw a few mama monkeys carrying their baby monkeys on their bellies, and grabbing them by their tails when they tried to wander off (nature's first baby leash).

After we left the Monkey Forest, we started to walk back towards the center of town for dinner, when we saw a monkey walking down the sidewalk in front of us. We paused, so we wouldn't get too close (rabies was the one shot we didn't get before we left), but the monkey was not interested in us. The shopping is just so good in Ubud, even the monkeys check out the shops every once in a while.



The monkey on the sidewalk stood up, walked up four steps, and disappeared into a shop. He remerged with someone's bag of oranges before we realized, maybe we should do something (other than take a lot of pictures). Ari started to yell, and got the bag away from him with a stick. The shop owner came running over, snatched the bag back, and threw the monkey an orange. Satisfied with himself, the monkey headed home.

We got a quick dinner in town of gado-gado (Jillian's new favorite meal. It consists of boiled vegetables smothered in a sweet peanut sauce). Then we were off to see a wayang kulit (shadow puppet) show. Shadow puppetry has a long tradition in Indonesia, where puppet masters carve the puppets out of leather, and paint them beautifully, even though the audience never actually sees the puppets. Wayang Kulit is traditionally only performed on religious occasions (or when tourists pay enough). The dalang (puppeteer) trains extensively in puppetry and Hinduism to learn the stories and techniques. All of the wayang kulit stories are Hindu epics from the Ramayana.

The show itself began with the lighting of one huge candle behind the screen, which provided the light required for the shadow puppets to cast shadows. The story is one that has become old hat to us, so even though the play was not in English, we got the jist of the plot. The main action was interspersed with the puppets doing funny skits in English.

We will tell you how our batik class and the rest of our stay in Ubud went next time.

Lots of love,
Ari and Jillian

July 25- Bali, Indonesia

We arrived safely in Bali after a short flight from Singapore yesterday morning. We still need to finish telling you about Malaysia, so here goes...

We left Kuala Lumpur Thursday morning and took a 2 hour bus ride to Melaka. We arrived in the late morning, had a short orientation tour from Jamie, our guide through Malaysia, and then it was time for a Nyonya (regional cuisine) feast for lunch. Keeping a strong tradition strong, we stuffed ourselves and went shopping. Lunch was delicious, highlighted with freshly squeezed lime juice, ginger fried fish, and pineapple tarts (a local Portuguese influenced speciality).

After lunch, we walked around the town of Melaka, which is famous for its Chinese antiques and local handicraft shops. The buildings in the town were all traditional Chinese colonial shophouses painted in bright pastel colors, similar to the ones that we saw in Hoi An, Vietnam. The roads were closer to winding alley ways than actual boulevards, and the people could not have been friendlier. We did some damage shopping, before meeting up with the group for a boat ride through the town.

The boat ride was fairly ridiculous. The whole thing was narrated by Bernard, who seems to be infamous in the Melaka tourist circles. Not only did he point out the sites to be seen along the river, but he introduced us to Madonna and George Clooney, two of the river lizards we passed along the way. He described the government's effort to boost tourism in Melaka, and showed us the construction of a pedestrian walkway along the river as a part of the campaign to revitalize the riverside district. After a half hour or so, the boat turned around to head back to the pier, and Bernard began thanking us English, Dutch, Malay, Japanese, Korean, and French. He continued to thank us in more languages than we knew existed, and carried on all the way until we reached the pier again. He was even able to thank us in Californian (See you later, dude).

Back on land, we met up with the trishaw tour that had been arranged for us. Each country we have visited has a different name, and slightly different arrangements, but the Melakan trishaws take the cake. These were a regular bicycle with a cart attached to the side. Doesn't sound much different than the Vietnamese cyclos, you say? Well, the Melakan varietal was so colorful you would swear a clown had exploded all over it. Each one was covered in at least 500 silk flowers, Christmas lights, stolen medallions from cars (ours was a Beamer), umbrellas, and even speaker systems blasting everything from Bollywood hits to American 80's pop. It was quite a scene to see 10 of these streaming down the street in a row. On the trishaws, we took a tour of the cultural sites in the city; a Daoist temple, a Dutch church, and Fort Cornwallis, the local fort (every good town needs one). It was a nice tour and all, but the trishaws were really what made it an experience to remember.

That night, we separated from the group and celebrated our two month anniversary (since we forgot about the one month). We had been planning on going out for a nice romantic meal, but when we stumbled upon a dive-y little Indian restaurant in (you guessed it) Little India advertising vegetarian food, full of locals and no gringos to be seen, we decided that it was a bit more our style to dive in head first into the local scene. Not only were there no gringos, but there was no silverware. You would think that if the food was meant to be eaten with your hands, there would be some sort of scoop (think: guacamole and Tostitos) or it would be self contained (think: slice of pizza) or at least not be soup. If you were to think this about Indian food, you would be dead wrong. We washed our hands thoroughly and rolled up our proverbial sleeves and put our left hands under the table for the remainder of the meal. (If you think it is gross that they only eat with their right hands, we won't tell you what they use their left hands for.)

The waitress came over and spread a banana leaf in front of each of us, slapped down a huge pile of saffron rice and then drowned it in lentil soup. She then spooned out four smaller piles of cucumber salad, cabbage salad, pineapples in barbecue sauce, and fried tofu. After a deep breath, we dug right in and were quickly elbow deep in lentils. And it was DE-licious. After dinner, our tummies aching from being so full, we decided to revert back to plan A. We found a cute little upscale open air bar, where we sipped wine along the river's edge.

We got up early Saturday morning to catch a bus to Singapore. We were a little worried because we had heard that they fine, cane, or strike you for any violation of anything in Singapore. Not that we had any real reason to worry, but Jillian was afraid to sneeze lest she get caned for littering boogies. The bus ride was about 4 hours, and went smoothly. When the bus stopped at the border to go through Customs and Immigration, we were greeted, in true Singapore fashion, with soldiers wielding machine guns in a pristine looking building. They set the tone for Singapore perfectly.

Singapore was a very nice city to stop in for a couple days, but it was so sterile that it was pretty boring compared to most of the other cities we have been to. There was no real alternative culture, outside of the trendy club scene, and no real mainstream culture for that matter. On Saturday afternoon, we visited the Museum of Asian Civilizations, which was an absolute gem. This was one of the most beautiful museums we have ever visited, and it was chalk full of information and artifacts from all the different peoples of Asia. We had to laugh, because there were numerous displays of the very things we had bought on our trip. (We will soon instate an admission fee to come visit our apartment. Consider buying a membership if you are planning on freqenting the collection. Unfortunately, at this time we cannot offer a discount to family members).

Saturday night was the last night with our group, and we ate at a restaurant that our guide had picked out for us. He had heard the food was good, but what made the place stand out was the chef. He was a shamelessly self promoted body builder (possibly stripper) and he covered the menu with Glamour Shots of himself.

After dinner, we went to the Singapore Zoo's Night Safari. This was a special area of the zoo that is only open at night, and you can see the "nocturnal" animals sleep. We took an hour long tram ride through the park and saw lions, tigers, bears (oh my), zebras, elephants, big ugly things, rhinos, giraffes, little ugly things, capibaras, antelope, smelly things, anteaters, and scary things with big teeth (well, Jillian found all of them scary since there didn't seem to be any fences anywhere). After the tram ride, we walked through the park, and saw an abysmal zoo show, before heading home.

Sunday morning, we were on our own again! We decided to celebrate our freedom by (surprise, surprise) shopping in Little India. We had read that Singapore is a good place to buy cheap electronics, and Nintendo had just come out with the DS Lite, so again, our mission was clear. Ari needed to have that Nintendo, and he needed to have it cheap. We went to two electronics malls (Yes, entire malls with nothing but electronics. Needless to say, Jillian wasn't in her element). We scouted out every store to see if they had the DS, and then we had to go back and see which one would give us the best deal. It was quite an ordeal, but at the end of the day, Ari was a very happy camper. In being a thoughtful husband, one of the games he got was for Jillian. (The one he picked tests your intelligence daily, and he knew that she would enjoy beating him over and over again, which she does.)

After that, we went to check in to our hotel, so we could relax a little and Ari could try out his new toy. The hotel that we stayed in, called 1929, was super cool. It was a chic boutique hotel, with Marimekko bedspreads, rooftop jacuzzis, and fabulous retro furniture in the lobby. Our room even had a cool little music box and CD player in it. We were finally able to listen to the Malay hip-hop and Indian mantras that we had picked up.

That night, we went to Orchard Road, the high end shopping district, for dinner and shmying. Marcey had taken us to Takashimaya in New York, an upscale Japanese department store on 5th Avenue, and we wanted to check out the one in Singapore. The two were worlds apart (literally and figuratively). The one in New York boasted only exquisite Asian inspired clothing, accesories, and furniture, while the one in Singapore was immense and can only be described as KJC Penny's meets Bloomingdales. There was a lot of inexpensive Western style clothing mixed in with some well known Western designers, but very little Asian influence anywhere. We were pretty disappointed, although the 7-11 on Orchard Road had sour apple Slurpees, which made the whole trip worth it.

We headed back to our hotel on the early side, because we had to get up a few hours later for our flight to Bali, where we are now. We are having a great time here, and we will tell yyou all about Bali in our next post.

Lots of love,
Jillian and Ari

July 23- Singapore

We are back, and ready to tell you about the rest of our adventures in Malaysia and Singapore. We flew in to Kuala Lumpur and arrived in the early afternoon on Wednesday. After getting settled in our hotel, we took a wander through the streets of KL to get a feel of the flavor of the city. Our hotel was located right in Chinatown, which was a bustling area with a huge street market selling "same same" versions of all kinds of goods. Some were better than others, but you could find yourself watches, jeans, backpacks, sneakers, purses, DVDs and cheap street food.

We walked through the financial district, passing by some beautiful mosques before coming to Little India. We have become mildly obsessed with the Little India neighborhoods of the Southeast Asian cities that we visited. The bright colors of the saris, the scent of jasmine garlands adorning the temples, and the spicy Indian food make Little India a feast for the senses. We were a little disappointed by KL's version, but mostly because the one in Penang had been so awesome. (We even came home with Indian music from Penang.) In continuing our practice of trying new street food, we had to try the Indian deep fried bananas and tapioca balls. Deep fried anything is good, but deep fried Indian spiced bananas are stellar.

After some much needed alone time, we headed back to the hotel, and met up with the group for dinner. We had been disappointed with a lot of the restaurant choices of the tour company, and we had low expectations going into the meal, but we were quickly proven wrong. We walked to the Central Market, a few blocks outside of Chinatown, and walked into a restaurant decorated with exuisite Chinese antiques, with Andrea Boccelli playing over the stereo system. It was the perfect combination for us because Ari loves old Asian decor and Jillian loves blind Italians. The food was equally as good, and since no one else in the group liked tofu (Aussies eat steak three meals a day, seven days a week) there was more than enough for us.

Since we were already in the Central Market, we naturally just HAD to go shopping after dinner. After passing through stalls filled with handmade kites, cheap pashminas, and "same same" antiques, we came upon the Malaysian CD shop of Ari's dreams. He has been amassing a collection of hip-hop from around the world, and we were determined to find Malaysian hip-hop (assuming it existed). The guy working the shop could have been the clerk in any music shop anywhere in the world, because he had nothing good to say about the local taste in music. He readily directed us to the only decent Malaysian hip-hop group, Too Phat, and we have to say that we really enjoyed the CD. On the album cover, the rapper is wearing a flat brimmed baseball cap with the letters, "KL" across the front. Needless to say, our mission for the following day was laid out before us: find that hat for Ari.

After shopping, we met up with some people from our group at the Reggae Bar, back in Chinatown. Caveat: Because Malaysia is a Muslim country, there is a heavy "sin" tax on alcohol, so there are not many choices for good bars, outside of the expensive and glitzy Golden Triangle district. The only reggae song that we heard was Bob Marley's "Stir it Up." After that, they played some Ace of Base, Michael Jackson, Men at Work, and even some unkown hard rock. Oh well.

The next morning we hopped in tourist vans for a whirlwind tourist's tour of KL. Our first stop on the ride was the Grand Palace, which is not actually open to the public, but there was a lot to see in the Parking Lot. There are 9 sultans who rotate playing the role of king every five years. The Grand Palace is where the king lives, and there are other residences for the other Sultans around Malaysia. From what we could see through the fence, this was a pretty nice palace.

More interesting than the distant palace was the royal palace guard. Every country has its own version of the costumed guard standing outside its palace. In England, all of the tourists take their picture and try to taunt the Bobby into smiling. In Malaysia, all of the tourists take their picture with the guard as he falls asleep standing on his feet. We felt a little bad for him- he was wearing a skirt after all- but not really. It was pretty funny.

Even funnier than that was the Chinese tourist who thought Jillian was special. She insisted on taking several pictures of the two of them together, all in different poses. They even held hands in one. She even wanted Ari in another photo. Then we watched her grab on to the palace fence seductively for a few more glamour shots.

Back in the van again, we headed to a memorial for the Malaysians who fought against a domestic communist uprising. It was really picturesque, situated on a hill overlooking KL, with onion domes covering the pathway leading to the statue. The monument itself was designed by the same artist who created the famous American Iwo Jima statue, and this one had a very similar dramatic feel.

Our next stop was at the KL court building and the royal cricket field across the street. At one end of the field flew the Malaysian flag, on the tallest flagpole in the world. (This was not our only witnessing of a Guiness Book record holder for the day. Read on!) The court building was really beautiful too, and if we had a better internet connection we would show you our pictures. It was built in a blend of Portuguese and Muslim styles, with the tell tale pointed arch windows.

Next we headed to the Menara Tower, which is the fourth tallest communications tower in the world. Situated on a hill, it overlooked the entirety of KL. We took an elevator ride to the top (87 storeys up), for an audio tour and panoramic view of the city and its impressive skyline. The views were breathtaking.

From there we headed to the Batu caves, just outside of KL. These were only discovered about 100 years ago by an American (holla!). Soon after they were discovered the Hindus built lavish shrines inside the caves and carved into the side of the mountain. We put up a picture of a Hindu shrine at the very beginning of our trip (from Bangkok) and you can see the intricate ceramic figures painted in bright lifelike colors covering the shrines. The shrines at the Batu caves were no less brilliant and contrasted nicely with the bare stone of the mountain. Of course, to get to these caves, we had to climb up 272 steps, which we shared with the local monkeys.

Even more impressive was the immensely large statue of Shiva in front of the cave entrance, and next to the staircase. This statue was covered in gold leaf and had only been placed at the cave's entrance less than a year ago. (It wasn't even in our guidebook!) This statue extended 75 meters or more into the air, past the top of the stairs. To give you an idea of its size, standing on the top step, you were eye level with the statue's shoulder blade.

Our next stop was the Pewter factory, where Malaysian tin was made into fine pewter objects. Not exactly our cup of tea, but we had fun goofing around the museum anyways. Once we passed through the exhibition hall to the actual factory we were intrigued. There were demonstrations of the techniques used to make and decorate the goblets, door handles, coins, and other pewter tchochkes the factory workers produce. The gift shop was totally hokey, but outside, we hit world record holder number 2. This time we were privvy to see the world's largest pewter beer mug. In case you hadn't been already, we bet you are jealous of our vacation now.

Our second to last stop was the Petronas Towers. The Malaysians advertise these as the "world's only twin towers," which we found somewhat disturbing. They are built with the Muslim flair for geometric architecture, with an eight sided star as the base of each tower (think: two squares overlapping one another). This figure was a prominent design feature throughout the city. Each tower telescoped upward with five segments each, representing the five pillars of Islam. There was a glass bridge connecting the two towers on the 42nd floor, but one panoramic view of the city was enough for one day. When they were built, which was fairly recently, they were the tallest buildings in the world, but now a building in Taiwan claims this distinction. Jillian was starting to wilt a little (it was nearly 2pm and we hadn't had lunch yet) so she ran through the fountains with an umbrella as her only protection from the water spouts. This was a successful attempt to stave off the approaching crankiness. (Thank goodness we weren't in Singapore yet, or she would have been caned!)

The fountain trick worked (and so did the umbrella) and we made it to our last stop of the day, the Islamic Art Museum. We headed straight for the museum cafe, so we didn't pass out before exploring the galleries. At the cafe we found a veritable Middle Eastern feast, complete with hummus, baba g., foul, vegetarian and meaty stews, saffron rice, lentil soup, and baklava. The food was so good that we asked the chef for his recipes.

We stuffed ourselves silly and then headed out to tromp through the museum. The museum itself was a beautiful space, and there were exquisite displays of ceramics, textiles, illuminated Qurans, jewelry, and furniture from all parts of the Muslim world. The collection of Chinese style Arabic calligraphic poetry was quite extensive and something we had never seen before. The textiles were also amazing. The special exhibit was a display of Ikats from around the world. Ikat refers to the way these garments were dyed. The threads were painted and dyed before the fabric was woven. Once they are woven, they create beautiful designs, each garment being unique.

After the museum, we headed to the National Mosque, which was closed for prayer time. We walked around the beautifully landscaped grounds for a little while and then headed back to the Golden Triangle, the high end shopping mall district anchored by the Petronas Towers, to fulfill our mission from the night before. We used our trusty Lonely Planet to pin down which shopping mall would be most likely to have the KL hat. All seemed lost when we were 100% disappointed with the floor that was touted as the trendy teenager floor. We headed down one level, and at the bottom of the escalator, as if by a miracle, we found a streetwear shop with fake graffiti all over the walls. If the hat was in KL, it was going to be in that shop. Lucky for us, it was. Ari was a happy camper all thugged out in his "fresh" hat, with the sticker still on it and the brim as flat as the day it was born. Mission accomplished.

Still rolling through city, full from lunch, we headed back to Chinatown to meet up with our friends for an evening stroll through KL. The city was all lit up at night, and it was a pleasant evening to see our newly familiar digs streaming with Christmas lights.

All this talk of food has made us really hungry, so we will have to tell you about Melaka and Singapore later.

Lots of love,
Jillian and Ari

July 20 - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Its been a few days since we last posted, so again we apologize, but we had to go out and make the stories before we can tell them to you. We had been on Langkawi, a small island with nothing but beach "resorts" (half decent mini hotels, really), Asian seafood restaurants, and Malaysian Rastafarians. The beach is gorgeous and the Rastas are nice. We are now in Kuala Lumpur, the bustling capital of Malaysia, and really enjoying it. There is so much to say about the city, but first to paradise...

Monday July 17th we took a ferry from Penang to Langkawi Island. (Before we left Penang, we discovered that, just like Vietnamese street names, it is also a lot of fun to shout 'Penang!' with the gusto of a Southern Baptist minister. Try it: PENANG!) The boat ride was long and arduous, many people filled their complementary plastic sanitary bags, but Ari slept most of the way and Jillian discovered she could actually medidate (but only when she really has to!) A taxi took us to our hotel, the not-so best Best Star Hotel. The hotel was located right on the stunning beach, so we shouldn't really complain.

Our group took a short walk down the beach to a cute little beach cafe run by dreadlocked locals and had a meal that took a shockingly long time to prepare. Jillian's little egg sandwich - called a Banjo for some reason - took so long we wondered if they were waiting for a chicken to lay more eggs. It turns out, as you might suspect, Asian Rastas living on the beach are just in no hurry to do anything. I guess we're not in New York anymore, Toto.

We took the opportunity to relax on the beach, which we hadn't done since Nha Trang, Vietnam. You may remember we weren't feeling well in Nha Trang, so we didn't get as much out of the beach town as we otherwise would have wanted to. So we spent several hours on the beach, which was nice and quiet and had plenty of lush white sand to squish between our toes.

Our whole group met up for a family style dinner of Malay seafood, which was quite good. The fish was really fresh and the seasonings were delicate and delicious. The meal was included as part of our tour package, so we ate a lot to make sure we got our money's worth.

After feasting on fish curries and vegetable stir fries, we met up with a handful of people from our tour group for drinks at the cute beach cafe where we had lunch. The Malay Rastas were playing reggae (of course) and some hip hop, so it was a chill, laid back atmosphere. We ended the night with a stroll down the beach under the stars. Sounds like the kind of night you're supposed to have on a honeymoon, eh?

The following day, Tuesday July 18th, we took a boat tour around the waters around the island. Pulau Langkawi (which means 'Langkawi Island') is located in the Strait of Melaka, the body of water between peninsular Malaysia and Indonesia, near Malaysia's northern border with Thailand. We cruised in a small boat that took us through beautiful bays and past smalls islands peaking up above the water. The boat dropped us off on an island that had a fresh water lake for us to swim in. As we walked toward the lake, we realized we had been in the city too long when we confronted with the local fauna. An enormous lizard was sunning himself right on the rocks and though it didn't threaten us, (it didn't move at all really,) it scared the ba-jesus out of us. We walked past the lizard without any trouble and made our way, if somewhat warily, to the lakeside for some swimming and horseplay. It was pretty mazing to have a freshwater lake tucked between the mountains which were themselves only surrounded by salt water.

Much to our dismay, more woodland creatures came to visit as we swam. The trees near the water were soon filled with monkeys that were jumping, climbing, and doing other things that we can't describe in case younger eyes are reading the blog again. And, if that was not enough, a nice long snake was waiting for us on the path on our way back. We're not sure how big it was because as we told the story to the other people on our trip, the snake seemed to get longer and longer, but we think it was around 38 feet long.

Glad to be back on the boat, we went to a small secluded island which was little more than a small beach and a few trees. We were even more glad that these trees didn't have dirty monkey inhabitants. We jumped into the blue murky water, but were alarmed to find what we thought was a sea snake swimming next to us! Oh man, would nature just leave us alone? Jillian shrieked (yelped? squealed?) and made everyone get out of the water as she felt the snake brush by her ankle. With the whole group standing by at the water's edge, our brave tour leader went after the beast with a stick and pulled it out of the water. The 'snake' turned out to be a gnarled peice of rope, but he gave it a good whack for good measure. With the sea serpent vanquished, we were able to better enjoy the serene scene.

Lastly, the boat cruised up next to some seaside cliffs, where we noticed a large number of eagles soaring overhead. Our skipper through a generous amount of chum into the water and an awesome spectacle began. For several minutes, the eagles gracefully swooped down to the surface of the water and effortlessly pick up the chunks of fish. There were eagles of varying sizes and colors, and we noticed the larger birds definitely ate before the smaller ones could get near the fish pieces. The whole show was pretty amazing. So maybe nature isn't all that bad (from a distance) though we were really glad we weren't fish heads at that moment.

After the boat ride, we returned to our hotel and wandered across the street to a small restaurant for a lunch buffet of Malaysian food. Again, we were impressed by the food and how different it was from anything we had tasted before. There were crispy deep fried hard boiled eggs in a spicy red sauce, fillets of fish in rich curry, fried eggs topped with mango salsa, and some other meat dishes that we didn't try. We then spent some more time sunning on the beach and splashing in the water.

We snuck away from our group and had dinner by ourselves, this time Thai seafood. The food was scrumptuous and it was nice to have some quiet time. We met up once again at the beach cafe for drinks on the dunes. One of the Rastas suggested some music for us to check out once we get back to the US. It was kind of funny to get suggestions about American music from someone who lived so far away, but that is the global village we live in.

The next morning, we woke up early to walk the beach one last time before flying to Kuala Lumpur. In case you hadn't figured it out, we made it here safely and are having a great time. Unfortunately, it looks like you will have to wait to hear about our adventures in Kuala Lumpur until later because it is getting late and we have a long day of travelling tomorrow.

Lots of love,
Jillian and Ari

July 16- Penang, Malaysia

We arrived in Sukothai in the late afternoon on July 13 after a short flight from Chiang Mai (all of these places were still in Thailand, just in case you are confused.) Sukothai is a funny little town, similar to Siem Reap in that there is nothing to do but visit the nearby ruins. We were headed out to visit them the following day, so we took a dip in the hotel pool before heading out with our group for dinner.

That night, we took a new kind of transportation (we seem to be doing this every week or so now) called a 'songtel.' It is really just a big truck with bench seating placed along both sides of the truck bed. The roof was covered with a tarp, so we felt pretty secure or something.


The next morning, we hopped on bicycles and rode around Old Sukothai. Since we had already been to the current capital and the former capital of Thailand, we just had to see the original, which was Sukothai. Again we saw some pretty amazing ruins. It is remarkable how distinct the styles were of the monumental architecture. Some of the temples here bore resemblance to those we had seen in Cambodia, but there was an obvious Thai flavor to these.


We had a picnic lunch overlooking a reflecting pond adjacent to some of the ruins. It was really picturesque- sorry there is no picture.

After lunch, we hopped back in the van to head to the airport again. It was really a beautiful ride past all of the rice paddies.


This time, we flew from Sukothai back to Bangkok, our old stomping grounds. Back in Bangkok (yes for the third time), we battled the Friday rush hour traffic to Kanchanaburi, a couple hours west of the city. As far as we know, it could only be 2 kilometers outside of the city, but the traffic is just so insane.

We finally arrived in Kanchanaburi, and were in desperate need of some fresh air. Luckily, the town was laden with beer gardens, and of course, the ubiquitous lady boys. Surprised as you might be, we only opted to hang out in the beer gardens. This beer garden was truly agricultural (we had to get our daily fix of Thai culture) with chickens and pigs running around trying to steal our wasabi peas. We decided to call it an early night.

The hotel we stayed at in Kanchanaburi was one of our favorites. Jillian liked it a lot because the bathroom was sort of outdoors, which meant that it was always safe to go in, even after Ari. Ari liked it because the only English channel on TV was the Cartoon Network. It was a cool bungalow style hotel, with rustic accents made of tree stumps and bark, but with the best air conditioning we've had since we left home. We won't hold it against them that for some reason it took a half hour to make us toast for breakfast.

The next morning we learned about how little we knew about world history. We took a van ride to the Hellfire Pass Memorial that commemorates the 90,000 people that died building the Thai-Burma Railroad under the brutal Japanese occupation forces during World War II. Most of the people were POWs from Australia, the UK, and the Netherlands, with about 700 Americans. In addition, several thousand locals were conscripted to work on the railroad under conditions similar to the concentration camps in Europe. The men worked backbreaking 18 hour shifts, with little food and less clothing, blasting through the rock and clearing debris with their bare hands to make way for the train to come through the mountains. We had no idea of the vast scale of the Japanese brutality.

We walked through the woods, eventually coming to Hellfire Pass itself. It was so named by the workers building it, because at night the light of the torches cast evil shadows of the guards on the hollowed bodies of the men working below. The experience was haunting.


From there, we took a train ride on the actual track laid during the War. We got off and took a short van ride so we could beat the train and watch it cross the bridge over the River Kwai. Neither of us have seen the movie, but we've seen the bridge!


Back in Kanchanaburi, we visited the Jeath War Museum, which housed artifacts left by the prisoners of the Japanese occupation. Previous visitors to the museum had sent in newspaper clippings from around the world discussing the trauma and these were also on display. One former POW from the UK had painted graphic images of the disease and harsh conditions that ravaged the prisoners in the camps. From there we went to the War Cemetery, where many of the Dutch, British, and Australian POWs who had died during the railroad's construction were buried.

The next morning we woke up to pack our bags before heading back to Bangkok, and found a visitor. There was a two inch scorpion quietly perched on Jillian's bag. Jillian snapped a photo for Jacob Roday before promptly smashing it to bits (she got an 'after' photo too.)

We were back in Bangkok by late morning, and what better to do than to go shopping? We hopped into a cab to Chattachuk Weekend Market, for the best shopping under the Asian sun. There you can buy anything from Asian antiques to baby crocodiles, t-shirts to deep fried just about anything.

After doing some damage, we needed a serious fix of shawarma, so we headed back to Khao San Road one last time. Shoshana's treated us well and filled our bellies (because that hasn't happened on this trip!)

Last night, we went out to dinner with the group on a boat cruise up and down the Chao Phraya River. It was really peaceful to see the city all lit up and to spend a little more time with the people who weren't continuing on to Malaysia with us. Now that we have been shopping, packing is getting a bit trickier, so it took us a little while last night to finagle everything into our backpacks.

We got up super early this morning to catch our flight from Bangkok to Penang, Malaysia. Luckily, we got to the airport two hours before our flight only to find that Intrepid had booked us for the flight on the following day. We banded together and were able to change the tickets without too much trouble, thanks to a very generous Dutch boy.

The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful, although we slept the whole way on account of waking up at 4am, so who really knows if we missed any excitement. We arrived in Penang and were transferred to our hotel, right in the heart of Georgetown, the busiest city on the island.

Everyone else in the group decided to take a nap, but we were hungry so we went exploring. We walked down the street that the Lonely Planet had told us was Chinatown, but we were about fifteen years too late, and the Chinese had been replaced by the Muslim Malay.

We had an outrageously delicious (and cheap) Malay lunch, and then headed to the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion. The beautiful Chinese style mansion was built over 8 years in the 1880's, but had fallen into disrepair over the past several decades. In 1989, Fatt's youngest son died and the house was purchased by a local architect with deep pockets and an interest in restoring the home to its original splendor. The restoration was completed in 2001, and the house was a charming mix of traditional Chinese feng shui and Victorian European panache. It was painted a strikingly bright blue on the outside, and our guide told us that the paint came from ground up flower petals that had been boiled and reduced to a gentle organic paint.

After the mansion, we wandered around Little India, taking in all of the sights and smells. With all of the bright colors and delicious food, we know where we want to go on our next vacation...

On our way to the internet cafe, we were welcomed in to a Hindu temple and escorted from shrine to shrine by a gentleman who explained each deity and his/her respective significances. The shrine was beautiful, and everyone was warm and friendly to us.

Tonight, Ari busted the computer cafe. He says that it was because there were only four nails holding together the desk with two monitors and two computers on top. It's really because he has been hanging around Jillian too long.

Well, we did it! We are actually caught up with the blog! Make sure you check out all the old posts, because we added a lot of pictures tonight. We hope you enjoy them.

Lots of love,
Jillian and Ari

July 16- Penang, Malaysia

We promised we would catch up, so here we go! Please check some of our older posts as we have added some pictures to them to spice things up a little.

After we left the elementary school near the Hmong village, we took a ride to a nearby monkey farm. Yes, it actually was a monkey farm. You could feed the monkeys fruit or sit and have the monkey come play on your lap. Jillian was slightly petrified. Ari was in heaven.


We played with the monkeys (who played with themselves) but the funniest part of it all was that the monkey farm was run entirely by lady-boys and we were the only non-Muslims visiting it!


Take a moment to digest that sentence; reread it if necessary. Imagine the surreal scene: a monkey lifts weights, in front of an audience full of women wearing birkas, with an overweight Thai lady boy cheering the monkey on in Arabic and calling him 'honey'. Reread that sentence too. Take a deep breath, we are moving on. The monkeys were very talented.



Take another deep breath.


After the monkey farm we had a little more wholesome fun at the orchid farm. We walked through aisles and aisles of beautiful orchids, in all different colors, shapes, and sizes. We have seen orchids growing in a number of places in Asia, and they are generally in hanging pots with holes and their roots streaming through.


After an obligatory dose of ice cream, we climbed back into the van and headed to the airport for a flight from Chiang Mai to Sukothai.

The pictures pretty much sum up the day- not a whole lot more needs to be said.

Lots of love,
Ari and Jillian