KL: Capital City of Malaysia

Here are a few shots from Kuala Lumpur, one of our favourite cities by far on this trip. Malaysia has turned out to be such an amazing place, considering we weren't even supposed to be here. Who needs China anyways?!?!?!?

Two sexy towers, and two sexy travellers in KL.

Amazing diversity in the architecture; just ONE more reason to visit KL!

Malaysia's national mosque. Trust us, this was big.

Perhentians: Paradise!!!!!!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I offer you a few thousand words on the Perhentian Islands, Malaysia, along with 151 words for the captions. Beat that Howard Hughes!

This was the view, as we arrived by high speed boat to the Perhentians, on our first morning around 7 AM. Wow!

My friend, Sea Master, eating a rat he just caught on the beach. Sounds really gross, but it's a REALLY funny story for those who want to ask me about it. I love this EAGLE!

Seriously, this place was so relaxing, so beautiful, and so much fun. This was our view every evening, as the sun set, and the tide went out... minus me kneeling down. That was only for the picture.

One vantage point from our favourite spot on the beach. Did I mention those two blondes bathed topless? Oh those crazy Germans and French!

More Perhentian paradise!

Me and my baby sea turtle friend, Oscar.

The daily arrival of Asian tourists, learning to swim and snorkel in 3 foot deep water... with life jackets. Bless their hearts.

The Gibbon Experience

Hello,

It's been a while since my last post. Lots has happened since my last message. After northern Thailand, we headed over into Laos, to get our dose of adventure for the trip. The source: The Gibbon Experience (http://www.gibbonx.org/)

The general idea: three days/two nights of intense jungle trekking in northern Laos, 5 hours from the nearest glimpse of town or village. To get around, a crazy jeep ride through a mountainous logging path, followed by a solid 5 hours of trekking a day. Then, we zip lined through the jungle canopy. For those of you not familiar with zip-lining, you basically get into a climbing harness, clip a safety carabiner onto the zip line, which consists of a steel cable tied from one tree to another. Then clip on the glider (two rollers secured on to the cable by another carabiner, and a piece of tire acting as the safety brake), drop off your feet, and your body weight does the rest for you! Next thing you know you're soaring over the junlge, at some points 150 plus meters over the jungle!

The longest crossing we did was a 400 meter long line connecting to a small platform built in a tree about 100 meters above ground. Then we changed our safety line to the second line, switched up our glider, and dropped onto the next 380 meter long line, which again took us high above the jungle canopy. We literally flew from one moutain top to another across the valleys! It was incredible. I have some video I'll be sure to share when I get back.

As for sleeping, no tents for us! We slept in jungle tree houses built high above the jungle floor. This was the hardest part for me with my fear of heights. Zip lining is one thing; it's so fast and so beautiful and the adrenaline is pumping as you let yourself drop off the edge of a slope and start zipping. But to sleep over and be confined to a tree house for several hours, at over 100 meters elevation was too much for me at times! Needless to say, no sleep for thos 2 nights for me! And Jennie was too worried about snakes to sleep well, so we were so tired by the time day 3 was done. Oh, and I couldn't use the toilet/shower either. The photos are self-explanatory!

Here are a few pics I hope will give you a small sense of what it was like. Oh, one last thing: there were about 50 spiders the size of my hand on the roof of our first tree house. One was eating a moth the size of a peach. Nice. Add to that the bats, rats, millipedes, jungle noises and total darkness in the tree house, and the faint of heart need not apply for the Gibbon Experience!!!

Welcome to the Jungle

Hey boys and girls. This little post is all about our two day/one night trek in the mountains near Chiang Mai, Thailand. We met up with our dear friend Aruna in Bangkok, took an overnight train to Chiang Mai (where we drank one too many Beer Chang). From there, we went on a really cool trek to waterfalls, hot springs and amazing mountain scenes. We even met a little 2 month old monkey and rode elephants. Nice!

Jennie and Aruna chilling around the hot springs. This is at the source when temperatures reach between 170-190 C below the surface, and 95-100 at the surface. We chilled out in a pool further down the mountain, and it was still really hot. Too hot in the hot tub!

This is the first pic of the little baby monkey we met while on our trek. It was rescued by a local family that lives in the mountains. Sadly, their dog got into a fight with the monkey's mother and killed her. So the family has adopted the little guy to try and help him grow up. He was so scared when we first showed up, but was also really curiouse to see so many faces. He would cry and hide, but as soon as we walked away to leave him alone, came back out and called out to us. I love this monkey!

Aruna and the baby Monkey!

These guys look alike. Maybe they are related.

Jennie and I also found our inner Kung Fu masters on the mountain top

This is my drunken Monkey style attack!

The view from the top of one of the mountain tops.

We slept over in the jungle at an elephant camp. The locals told us the elephants were chilling in the jungle we we got there in the evening, but that the elephants would return in the morning. We weren't sure about that one, but sure enough, the next morning we awoke to 4 huge elephants in our backyard, by the river. Very cool.

Here I am, getting off our elephant Ernest. I had started on the back of the elephant, with Aruna and Jennie riding in the saddle part. We didn't have enough room for all 3, so our guide asked me to ride bare-back. Since he had been calling me Rambo the whole time I figured, "why not?"

Well after about 40 minutes, my legs were shaking, my legs were red from rubbing up against the coarse hair of the elephant (they are not soft!), Ernest has unsuccessfully tied on several occasion to knock my fat ass of his head, and even sprayed me with a mixture of snot and water from his trunk. He made his point: I was not welcome on his head! Aruna valiantly took over, and rode him like no one has ever rode and elephant before! I was able to relax on the seat, and enjoy the rest of the ride.

No Dice China

Just a quick update for people. In case you've been following the news about massive protests in the streets of Bangkok over the current regime, there's no need to worry. They've been peaceful thus far, and Jennie and I are in the north, heading into Laos in a few days anyway.

Also, the Chinese government has decided to close up shop for the Olympics, at least at this time. They are actively denying foreigners travel visas, including to people with tickets for the Olympic events, and CEOs wishing to visit their factories in the Southern provinces. They've also kicked out expat workers, many who have been in China for several years already. Why? Namely the fear of more protests over the Tibet issue from Western tourists, which could undermine China's glorious "coming out party". China seems to believe that to come out to the rest of the world, they should also shut people out.

The recent tragic events in the Sichuan province, culminated with the flooding in Southern China, are making things even more difficult for travellers, especially when seeking a visa outside one's country. So, unfortunately Jennie and I will no longer be going to China for our last month of the trip. We have a pretty cool alternative: we'll be hitting up Malaysia, both the peninsula and Borneo for the better part of our last month, and try to hit up Singapore as well, before heading to Hong Kong for our trip back home. Hope this relieves any worries anyone may of had.

Lastly, I won't be posting for the next couple of weeks as the internet connections here are way too slow, and I suspect they'll be worse in Laos. Look for some updates in the beginning on July! Hope all is well with you all.

ZA

Mekong Delta

The following is an assortment of shots taken during our 3 day trip through the Mekong Delta, on our way into Cambodia via the Mekong river.

These are some of the biggest pieces of sushi, EVER! We had these at a great little resto in Saigon called Sushi Bar, before heading out for the Mekong Delta. No sushi restaurants there.

This is a pretty typical view along the various waterways of the Delta. Hundreds of boats, shacks, fisherman, and sadly, very polluted water.

Case and point. Just be glad I didn't take any pictures of the numerous floating dead dogs, pigs, and unidentified animals.

This is one of the many floating markets. This is for B2B only: retailers come by every morning to get produce for their shops. Each boat has a bamboo stand at the front of the boat, where the merchant can place whatever produce he/her is selling. Point of purchase display of a different kind.

More market madness!

This was a really cute puppy we found chilling on some bags of rice at a rice factory along the river. He was fast asleep while the rice husker was going full tilt just around the corner.

Jennie, making her way across the very narrow bridge to a local Cham ethnic village, right near the border with Cambodia.

This is indeed a bridge, made from a single width of bamboo.

A local family, chilling and fishing in the Delta.

Jennie makes a dash for the border. This was the funniest thing ever. We walked into the security check point by the back door, then had to wake up the customs officer from his nap. We then proceeded to go through a metal detector which exited towards the very spot we came in by. Basically we could have left our bags waiting fo us outside, then go through security, then right back out to our bags. And that's all because we woke the guy up! More to come with pics from Cambodia, but the internet is really slowing down, so that will have to wait for a faster connection. I'm out!

ZA

Mui Ne, Vietnam

It's been a while since my last post. After our stint in Mui Ne we headed into the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam, before heading into Cambodia. Let's just say internet was pretty much non-existent for the last 2 weeks. I'm now in Bangkok, so you guys get to finally see some pics from our last month, or so. Hope you enjoy these! This bunch is from our time in Mui Ne.

This was the view from our room at the resort in Mui Ne. Not too bad!

The water wasn't exactly calm, but it made for a nice spot to chill out on a hot afternoon.

This pic was taken from our a little spot called Pogo Bar. Cheap/good food, Kruder and Dorfmeister on the stereo, and some pool tables by the ocean. Nice!

Our pool. Literally ours; the only other guests were Vietnamese, and they don't come out to swim before 5 PM, so that they can keep that attractive pale shade. The darker your skin, the more likely you work a labourer's job, so the whiter the better. Meanwhile Jennie and were there all day long getting a nice tan. Oh well, worked out nicely for us!

This is Jennie and the White Sand dunes, about 40 minutes outside Mui Ne. We took an old U.S. military jeep out with a guide for the morning and went to these dunes, the Red dunes, Fairy Stream, and some weird run-off formations in the sand the locals call a "Canyon". Okay there.

The "Canyon". Nuff said.

The Red dunes.

Fairy Stream. I am not the fairy. In fact, at this point I was rather pissed off, cause our guide failed to mention we'd be walking in the water. Walking in water is no big deal right? Well, the problem was the cows defecating nearby, with the waste making its way into the stream. Compound that to the fact that I had an open cut on my foot, and you get an angry Zach. The first aid kit came in handy to clean the cut. I'm alive and well!

ZA