We took a flight from Kuching to Kuala Lumpur, to travel in Peninsular Malaysia, arriving in the evening.  Kuala Lumpur is a large and very modern city, and the capital of Malaysia.  Chinese Lunar New Year is just a week away and the country is decorated for it; and commercialized big time, like Christmas in USA.  We walked to the Petronas Towers and took pictures of it lighted at night.  The twin towers are quite beautiful.  Petronas Towers was the tallest building in the world from 1998 to 2010. 

  The first morning we headed to the Pavilion Mall and spent most of the day.  It seems strange for me to spend time in a venue so similar to home when I am traveling; but after being gone for over a month a half, it was a nice change.  Late in the afternoon we walked back to Petronas Towers, and the mall in there.

   That evening we had dinner at Iranian restaurant.  The food was very good, especially the Kashk O Bademjan (humus like Persian eggplant spread), and the Ghormeh Sabzi Stew.  For dessert we smoked an apple and mint hookah (shisha).  They did not have any beer, but did have a non-alcoholic beer, Istak, brewed in Iran.  I collected the bottle.

   After a couple days we took a bus to Georgetown on Penang Island.  Penang is close enough to the mainland of Malaysia to have a bridge.  Georgetown is a fast growing, modern city.  There is still much development going on in Georgetown, the commercial area of Penang; but they are also preserving their colonial heritage and architecture.    Penang was settled by Chinese, Muslim, and Indian people and all three cultures are strongly evident.

   For the evening we walked to the Red Garden hawker stalls street food.  It is an open area where you check out various vendors stalls, decide what you want, order it, and they bring it to your table.  The many choices are of local Malaysian, Chinese, Indian or Middle Eastern cuisines.

   We spend a couple days in Georgetown enjoying Little India and Chinatown, and eating at the hawkers street stalls and the various ethnic restaurants.

   For the final days of our vacation we went to Batu Ferringhi, the beach resort area of Penang.  The beach is an interesting sight; there are as many women wearing burqas on the beach as bikinis.  I find the full dress burqa, covering the body and face except for the eyes, almost contradictory.  While the dress is conservative Muslim, I saw one woman who was on a jet ski with her husband, and another parasailing in the burqa.  At dinner one evening at a Lebanese restaurant, there were more women in burqas than not.  I tried not to stare, but they had to lift their veil with each bite of food they took.  One women was with a man in shorts and a baseball cap on backwards; I thought what a difference in style, she conservative Muslim, and he in western dress.  I have asked them if I may take a picture, and most refuse, but a few have agreed. 

  Andrea went parasailing!  She did great.

  On the last day we went up Penang Hill with a nice view of Georgetown below.  Also visited the Kek Lok Si Temple, the largest Buddhist temple in Southeast Asia.  It has 10,000 Buddhist statues, many wearing a swastika.  These are Buddhist swastikas, used since ancient India, and not related to the Nazi’s.   The Nazi swastika is counterclockwise.

   A late night flight brought us back to Surabaya, Indonesia.  I was impressed with the multi cultural aspects of Malaysia; hope you get a chance to experience it someday.

   Take care,

   Jim

   Borneo is an island in the South China Sea comprised of the small country of Brunei, the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, and the Indonesian state of Kalimantan. Andrea and I will visit Brunei and Sarawak for a week. We flew into Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital and only major city in Brunei. On the cab ride from the airport to the Empire Hotel, we could see and hear (no constant load horns) Brunei is obviously more developed than Indonesia. We stayed at the opulent Empire Hotel, originally built as the Sultan’s beachside guesthouse. Brunei does not have a lot to offer travelers. In the first afternoon we did all the tourist things; saw some mosques, took a boat tour through the water village, and walked around the city a bit. A cab driver told us that tourist don’t stay here long because it is against the law to sell alcohol. You can bring in a limited amount for your own consumption, but can not drink it in public. So much for collecting a Brunei bottle for my beer bottle collection.

   By the following afternoon, we took a cab ride across the border to Miri, Malaysia. The plan was to spend the night in Miri, and fly to Kuching, Sarawak the next day. We arrived in Kuching on Saturday afternoon. It appears to be a Chinese city. The population of Sarawak is one third Chinese, one third indigenous Iban, and the remainder a mixture of other ethnicities; but the merchants are mostly Chinese.

   The primary purpose of getting here was to arrange a trip into the jungle and a stay with a local tribe. On Sunday we visited the cultural center, where during a performance of their dances and customs, the “Wild Man of Borneo” who was demonstrating blow darts, asked Andrea onstage to try it. First he pointed it at me, and instructed Andrea to shoot, but she didn’t. Lucky for me because she’s a good shot; she was able to break a balloon with her second attempt.

   We had dinner that evening at the Junk Restaurant, with good seafoods. But the interesting part was a family sitting at the next table. A boy about 10, who was playing a hand held electronic game, kept yelling “shit” out loud, every few minutes. The family just ignored it; we wondered if they had any idea what he was saying in English. In a similar situation, a clerk at a kiosk in a department store was singing out loud to the Lilly Allen song that uses the F word repeatedly. She had no inhibitions about clearly singing “f*#k you, f*#k you very much” out loud. Maybe they have seen enough American movies to think this is normal behavior.

   Tuesday morning we left for a five hour drive into the jungle to an Iban village. On the way we stopped at the Semenggoh Orang Utan Center to see orangutans. We were lucky enough to spot one and watched it for 40 minutes as he tried to crack open a coconut by banging it against a tree. He was eventually successful. It looked human like in its actions, but could swing so quickly through the trees. Also saw a colorful green snake and a pitcher plant. Borneo has many varieties of pitcher plants that trap prey in it.

   When the road ended, we had to take a 40 minute long boat ride to the Iban village up river near the Kalimantan border. The boat is a narrow long boat. Iban tribes were the original headhunters of Borneo. The center of the village is the “long house” for the 33 families in the tribe. The house is 400 feet long, with a front common area, and individual rooms for each family along the side. They have electricity from a generator; but only turn it on from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm. The tribe is self sufficient living off growing rice, gathering wild fruits and vegetables, and hunting. They purchase fuel with lumber sales and pepper sales. The older men have identification tattoos, shoulder tattoos represent their tribe, the neck tattoo is for health, and other tattoos tell stories about their life. After dinner, everyone gathered in the common area for the evening, where we drank rice wine, watched some dances, and went to sleep on mats. The Iban traditions are dying out with the younger generation, who want their own private house, and are leaving to make a living in the cities.

   I slept well until 4:30 when many roosters began crowing, it was nonstop. After breakfast we had a blow gun demonstration by the Shaman. I tried it and hit the target. Next they had a cock fight demonstration. The roosters were very aggressive, but not armed with knives on their feet. Cock fights were used to settle disputes before implementation of a formal judicial system. On the boat ride back, we stopped at sandbar in the river and had a picnic lunch; the same as they eat when working in the fields. Rice was rolled in banana leaves and stuffed inside bamboo and placed over a fire. Some meats and vegetables were cooked the same way. It was a fun and interesting experience into the lives of the indigenous people of Borneo.

   Take care, and hope all is well.

   Jim

   Been spending the last week walking and biking around the countryside; and preparing for a two week trip to Brunei, Borneo, and Peninsular Malaysia.  Also did laundry which is done by hand; soaking in a bucket, scrubbing with a brush, and wringing by hand, and then hung to dry.  Andrea has gotten pretty good at it, but I’m a better wringer.  It is hard to get clothes dry in the rainy season; sometimes it takes two days, and moving them inside and back outside a couple of times.

   I have a bike here that I bought during my visit last year.  Friday afternoon, we rode to the suburbs of Tulungagung where there is a salon with a picture of Andrea on the billboard.  Last August during the Independence Day celebration, Andrea was chosen by her school to be the Javanese Queen.  In preparation, she was made up in traditional style by the owner of the salon.  After the parade, they did a reenactment of the decisive battle against the Dutch, and kept apologizing to Andrea for killing white people.

   I’ve noticed people drying something along the road and stopped and asked about it.  Turns out it is a tobacco used in clove cigarettes.  The man showed me his pack of Djaja, and lit one up and handed it to me.  I took a drag, and handed it back.  It was mild with a light hint of clove.  After we rode off, Andrea reminded me that I took the cigarette and handed it back with left hand.  If he noticed, I’m sure he threw it out.  Local cigarettes are 50 cents a pack here, Marlboros are $2.00.  Smoking is very common among the men, and not very common among the women.  Unfortunately, I’ve seen a lot of young boys smoking.

   One of the things to get used to here is watching geckos climb around on the walls and ceiling.  When eating for instance, you will catch a motion out of the corner of your eye, and see a gecko running off.  I guess they are good because they eat bugs.  The Tokay Gecko, is a rather large and colorful one, but can be aggressive.  If they bite they don’t let go unless you pour vinegar on them.  Next shopping trip, I’m buying vinegar.

   Before New Years Eve, I saw a display of fireworks at the Indo-Mart in Campurdarat, and bought a bunch.  New Years Eve, I saw some more at a local stand, and one in particular that was quite large, and bought it.  Some young men helped us set them of over the village.  I was quite impressed myself with the large one, that fired off multiple volleys of colorful displays high in the sky.

   I’m currently reading a book, the “The Malay Archipelago” by Alfred Russell Wallace, a friend of Charles Darwin, recounting his travels in the 1860’s around Malaysia and Indonesia.  I’m finding it quite interesting, noting the similarities I am also discovering.  He mentioned how much he enjoyed the fruit durian, referring to it as the king of all fruit.  I had heard of durian, and of it’s reputation of having such an awful odor about it.  Some hotels have signs posted that people are not allowed to bring in durian due to the lingering odor.  Despite the awful odor, Russell said it smelled like rotting onions, people love the fruit here, because of its delicious flavor.  Last night I tried durian.  It is difficult to open due to its sharp barbs on the thick hull.  I found both the smell and the taste exaggerated.  It did not smell as bad as I expected, and it did not taste as good as I expected.  The flavor was interesting, with a variety of tastes, maybe close to a custard.

   My visa is only good for 30 days so have to leave the country, and come back in for another 30 days.  Tomorrow we leave for two weeks. 

   Hope all is well, and that you had a great New Years Eve; I did.

   Jim

      Spent the Christmas holiday in Bali, a big cultural and living change from rural Java.  Java is mostly Muslim; Indonesia has the highest Muslim population in the world, so there is really no Christmas celebration here.  Bali Island is mostly Hindu, but because it is primarily a tourist economy, they display Christmas to cater to the tourist.  Bali has great beaches and surfing, lots of hotels with modern amenities (sit down toilets, hot water, showers, AC, etc.) and many restaurants and bars, along with a lot of shopping.  Many Aussies come here due to the close proximity of only a three hour flight from Australia.

   The one hour flight from Surabaya to Bali overflew Bali and turned around to come back passing over Lembongan Island.  Had a great view of Gunung Agung volcano on Bali and the islands of Lembongan and Ceningan Island.  Checked into the Fave Hotel near Seminyak Beach and walked to the La Sal restaurant for dinner of Tapas and Paella.  While in Bali, I bought a pair of “board shorts” (that’s Bali talk for swimming trunks).  We spend most of the day time walking the shopping areas and along the beach, and evenings finding an interesting restaurant.  The best pizza is at the Kumula Pantai on Legian Beach, were we had great brick oven baked pizza last year.  The coldest beer, very refreshing after walking hot streets shopping, is at Ku De Ta beach lounge, where we were checked for weapons and explosives before going in.

   After three days we took a 1½ hour boat ride to Lembongan Island, away from the Bali crowds for a quiet and relaxing Christmas.  The boat was one of the slow ones with the outriggers on both sides.  There is no dock; they back up close to the beach and you have to step into the water before reaching the boat.  We arrived at Lembongan and had to take another small boat to Mushroom Bay and Tanis Vilas where we were staying.

   There are no taxi’s on the island; people get around by renting a motorbike, or hiring rides on a motor bike.  The Peace Corps has a rule against riding motorcycles, so we had to walk, at least Andrea did.  We headed out to walk to the bridge to Ceningan Island (a small adjacent island) which was supposed to be about a 45 minute walk.  It was brutally hot, we had a map, but nothing is marked.  We ended up on the opposite end of the island, overlooking where we landed on the island.  Had to give up and walk back.  For Christmas Eve we had the dinner at the Tanis Vilas with other guests, mostly Aussies.

   While Andrea was involved with manicures and pedicures, I headed back out to walk to the bridge.  I took the right turn this time (both literally and figuratively) and ended on the narrow straits between Lembongan and Ceningan Islands.  The area is famous for its sea weed farmers.  They plant and harvest it based on the tides, no one was out at this time, but there was a lot of sea weed drying on the shore and along the road.  The small boats they use for hauling it in were all idle in the water.  I made it to the foot bridge and walked across.  I hired a motor bike for 30,000 Rupiah ($3.00) to take me back.

   We had Christmas Dinner reservations at the Batu Karang Resort for 1:00 and Andrea had a facial appointment there for 2:00.  We started out at 12:00 thinking it was a 30 minute walk.  After about 30 minutes I mentioned that it looks so familiar, it could almost be where we walked the day before.  A few minutes later, and I realized it was.  We asked about directions and were on the right track though; just not how I would have thought to get there.  It took the full hour of walking in the hot sun, but we made it and had a wonderful dinner.  Andrea went in for her first facial and came back out saying it was the best thing that ever happed to her; she highly recommends it.

   We walked back, but it was a little cooler in the late afternoon.  Went for a swim in the ocean to cool down, but something was biting us, so we went to the pool.  At dusk I saw what I thought was a lighted kite and told everyone.  No one believed me, but I was sure of it.  As the night drew on, it tuned out it was a planet, still don’t know which one, but it sure was bright.

   Monday morning took the fast boat back to Bali.  It was an easier trip across the channel, and only 45 minutes.  Walked down Jalan Legian for some shopping in the afternoon.  Andrea bought a Jimmy Choo purse for 100,000 Rupiah, (only $10).

   Kuta Beach was crowded with Indonesian tourists from Java, it is their mid-year break in school.  The sea was rough with signs saying swimming prohibited, but they do anyway.  Walked up the beach and stopped at a resort near our hotel for an excellent grilled seafood buffet.  Tuesday morning took the flight from Bali to Surabaya, and an afternoon bus to Tulungagung, and arrived back at her home in the evening.

   Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas,

   Jim

   Just a quick update from East Java before heading to Bali for Christmas.  I received a lot of questions about living conditions here in the village from my last report, mostly about not having toilet paper, and what do we do.  I’ll try to explain without getting too gross.  For a toilet, there is a porcelain hole in the floor that you squat over.  To clean yourself, you wash with your left hand from a bucket of water.  That’s why it is unacceptable to hand anything to someone, or touch anyone, with your left hand; you must use your “sweet hand”.  Being left handed, I have to be constantly aware of this.

   Took a walk on Sunday and found people fishing on a river just a mile west of here that I did not see last year.  Saw more of the lighted kites Sunday evening; Sundays must be kite flying night.

   Today I saw an insect on the outside of the house that looked just like a leaf.  It looked more like a leaf than a leaf looks like a leaf.  I’ll include a picture.

   Hope you have a very Merry Christmas,

   Jim

17-December-2011

   I’ve been in Indonesia for 10 days now and acclimating to the weather and living conditions.  It’s the hot, humid, rainy season.  And Andrea’s house in the village of Ngentrong, near Campurdarat in east Java has no air conditioning, no shower, no hot water, no toilet, no toilet paper, etc.  I survived it all last year, and will again this year.

   On the first night here at dusk, there was an invasion of hundreds of flying insects.  The house has large open vents near the ceiling, so anything that can climb or fly is free to come in.  The flying insects lit on the wall and dropped their wings becoming larvae.  Geckos climbed the walls and ate most of them.  It was interesting to watch; but the entire ordeal lasted only about 30 minutes and was over except for sweeping up the wings.

   Last week there was a full lunar eclipse; but that was not the only highlight in the sky for the night.  When I looked outside as the moon was rising, I saw stars that were swaying back and forth.  Andrea said they were kites, layang-layang, that glow; she had been seeing them lately.  There were about 20 of them flying from the rice fields high in the sky looking just like very bright stars, except they had a slight back and forth movement. 

   A couple days later, during a walk in the early evening, I saw a couple of kids preparing to fly their kites.  The kites are home made with a bamboo frame and wings of plastic like that in thin shopping bags.  They have a series of many small LED lights which are powered by a small generator taped to the frame and driven with a propeller.  The kites have about a 6 foot span and are flown out 500 yards on fishing line.  

   I’m getting used to the time change; we are 12 hours ahead of eastern standard time.  But it is hard to sleep in with the call to prayer at 4:30 am and roosters crowing loudly from 5:00 to 7:00 am.  The food has been better than last year because Andrea has found familiar things locally, and I brought some things from the USA.  Already we have had delicious Spam and Velveeta omelets, BLT’s, grilled cheese, bruschetta, pancakes, and spaghetti with real parmesan cheese.  It is so much better than relying on her host mother’s cooking three times a day.

   Another change is that last year there was some corn grown in the area, this year a lot of corn is being grown in the rice fields.  I expect this is because the world commodity price of corn has almost doubled in the last year.  I’m sure they would be amazed to watch a corn harvest in Ford County, IL.  Here the corn is cut by hand with scythes, the cobs broke out and husked by hand, and the cobs shelled by hand.

  The local park has an addition of deer and monkeys.  I don’t recall it last year, but it is Rambutan season.  Vendors are selling this small red fruit out of trucks and off of motorcycle carts.

   Hope all is well, and that the Packers have another win Sunday.

   Jim

   I’m back in Wisconsin, arriving on Monday afternoon.  I flew back from Moscow on Sunday afternoon.  It was a great trip, but after nearly a month, it is good to be back in the USA., where I understand what people are saying, and can read what is written.

    When I arrived in Moscow from St. Petersburg, I headed for the subway to get to the hostel I planned to stay in.  Walking through the subway, a couple of young boys in front of me were horseplaying with each other.  I told them that horseplay leads to accidents.  They looked at me and said something in Russian, I said sorry, I only speak English.   One of the boys says, “what the f#@k”, and smiled.   I asked if that was the only English he knew, he just repeated it, and smiled.  I broke off the conversation, not wanting to encourage him.  Apparently he sees too many American movies.

   Saturday I spent the day shopping at the souvenir shops.  After many hours of looking, I finally found a chess set that I liked.  Actually I found some right away that I liked, but could not afford.  They have some very beautiful chess sets made out of paper mache and lacquer painted.  They cost about $2,000.  Matryoshka Dolls are the most popular item, I must have seen a million of them.

   Sunday morning I packed up, checked out and headed for the airport.   Russia is such a big country, it is difficult to see it in three weeks.  I enjoyed the two weeks traveling the Trans-Siberian Railroad across the country.  What I missed was being able to get to the rural areas of Russia.  The Russian people I did meet were friendly and helpful.  Interestingly enough, I had a stereotype idea that they would all be playing chess.  I only saw one chess game, a French couple playing at a hostel.  The other stereotype was that they drink a lot, which it seems they do.  It was common to see Russians walking around the streets with a bottle of beer in their hand, even women.  But I did not see a lot of drunkenness, even on the train, where a lot of vodka was consumed.  I added seven beer bottles to my beer bottle collection, two from Moscow, one from on the train, one from Irkutsk, one form Lake Baikal, one from Vladivostok, and one from St. Petersburg.

   I also expected they ate a lot of potatoes, which they do.  They eat them fried, boiled, mashed, pancaked, everyway imaginable.  At one of the train stops, I even bought a bag of cut-up and boiled potatoes for a snack with oil and parsley sprinkled on them.

   The weather was similar to that in the northern USA.  I arrived in summer in early August, and left in early autumn in September.

   I was surprised at how few other Americans I met while traveling through Russia.  I expect this may be because of the difficulty and expense in obtaining a Russian visa for Americans.  Russia also seems to have a lot of building going on, not to be in a recession.

   While all parts of the trip were fun and interesting, the best part for me was St. Petersburg and spending two days at the Hermitage.

   Da Svidaniya

   Jim

I arrived late Tuesday night in St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad), and got room at the Cuba Hostel.  My throat is sore, and my nose is running and I have a cough, I’m developing a nasty cold.  I’m wondering if it started because I stopped drinking vodka, which is “good for your health”, as I was doing on the train, or is it the confined space and stuffy conditions on the train.

   In the morning, I am second in line for the Hermitage Museum, an hour early in the rain.  But I lost my position to get an e-ticket, but machine not working.  Then when I got to entrance, I had to go back to check my umbrella.  It took me awhile to find the Rembrandt Room, the Hermitage is huge.  Still, I was one of the first there.  And I had plenty of time to admire the “Return of the Prodigal Son”, even time alone.  One of primary goals for my Russian trip was to see the “Return of the Prodigal Son”.  Twenty four other Rembrandt  painting are at the Hermitage.  Unfortunately, or fortunately for the paintings, they are glass covered to protect them.  A few years back a crazy man through acid at one of the Rembrandts.  The glass reflects lighting so it is not as easy to see details, and it is difficult to get photos without reflections.

   I spent the whole day at the Hermitage, and still saw only a small portion of it.  I could spend a week there.   They have so many of the works of the world’s greatest artists, Michelangelo, da Vinci, Van Gogh, etc., etc.  If anyone was a famous artist, they have some of his or her works here.

   Late in the afternoon, I went to the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, which has the beautiful colored spirals roof, to get a picture.  But in the rain, I just could not get a good picture, the colors did not come through.  It teased me all late afternoon, I would walk away and the sun would come out, so I’d walk back and it would be raining.

   Overnight, Andrea had done some research, and e-mailed me a list of other works to see at the Hermitage, so I went back for a second day.  I spent another whole day there, which still was not enough.  They have a room full of Picassos.  They have rooms full of Monet, Renoir, Matisse, many of the great artists, not only renaissance period, but 19^th and early 20^th century. 

In the late afternoon, I played games with the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, the sun, and the rain again.

   I leave for Moscow in the afternoon, so walked around St. Petersburg in the morning.  It is a beautiful city.  Many of the old buildings are being renovated back to their earlier grandeur.  It is a canal city with boats touring around.  At the Kazan Cathedral there was a wedding ceremony underway

   As I got on the bus to the train station, the sun came out.   I have really enjoyed my 2 ½ days in St. Petersburg, despite the rain.  The train I took from St. Petersburg to Moscow was a fast train, not the 200 MPH kind, but faster than the old trains I took on the Trans-Siberian Railroad.  It had a bullet train looking engine, and new modern cars.  We made the 400 mile trip in 4 ½ hours.  

   Da Svidaniya

   Jim

   Just arrived in St. Petersburg, but wanted to get a final report out on Vladivostok.  I had a little time to walk around Vladivostok some more before heading to the airport.  They drive on right side of road like we do, but most cars are left hand driven.  Reason is used cars are imported from Japan.

   As I waited for a tour group taking pictures of a Lenin statue, I heard the Russian guide say “Tso ba.”  This is Mandarin Chinese for “Let’s go.”  Turns out they are touring Vladivostok from Changchun, China.  What a coincidence, that’s where I worked in China.  I was surprised how much Chinese I could still understand and speak.  Well maybe not a lot, but I did figure out they were from Changchun.

   I checked out of the hotel at noon to catch the 12:20 bus to the airport, my flight was at 3:30, so I had plenty of time, or so I thought.  The bus showed up at 1:00, and then a trip that normally takes an hour, took two hours, arriving just 30 minutes before my flight.  But it was a small airport, and I made it to the gate as they were boarding.  The reason for the bus delays are the traffic jams.  Due to all the construction, roads are torn up and traffic rerouted.  Vladivostok is preparing itself for some large world conference next year.

   I didn’t see many people waiting to board the flight, so thought it must be a small plane.  I was thinking it was going to be uncomfortable for a 10 hour flight, traveling back across Russia, through 8 time zones.  Surprise, most of the people were already on board the Boeing 747.  And a much better surprise was that I was seated in business class.  Not sure why, my ticket was $387, but it made it a lot more comfortable.

   By the way, I saw the Detroit Red Wings plane on the tarmac at the Moscow airport where I had a connecting flight to St. Petersburg.

   Da Svidaniya

   Jim