Legian Beach in Bali!

We arrived in Bali late Tuesday night, with not much time to do anything but eat a quick meal and fall asleep. The next day, though, we spent the whole day at Legian Beach. Legian, just north of the famous Kuta Beach, is much quieter than it's southern reknowned surfer heaven. It was very nice to just sit and relax all day.

Here is a photo of our hotel, Hotel Miki, in Kuta. It was beautiful!

Look how big the waves were!

Where we camped out. "Hawkers" are locals that walk up and down the beach selling their goods or services. Some of it is worthwhile (beer and fruit). Some of its crap (bow and arrow, magic cigarette box). Some is simply magical (full body massage + pedicure while laying in your beach chair for less than 15 American dollars).

People, people, people.

The Balinese are very strict with their rituals and ceremonies. These floral incense burners can be found in many places all around the island.

This is Mia. Well, actually her name is Wayan (meaning = first born). Everyone in Bali is named either Wayan, Made (Mah day), Nyoman, or Ketut. They literally mean first, second, third and fourth. If you have 5 or more children, you just start the cycle again. Thus, nicknames REALLY come in handy. If you are a Wayan (like me) and you marry a Wayan and you have a baby... you name he or she... you guessed it... Wayan. That's a confusing household! Sometimes they pick different names to go by, and sometimes their nicknames just happen, like Fat Ketut, or Stupid Wayan.

It was sooo hot! But they really try to protect their skin from the sun.

Beautiful sunset in Bali:

Amanda and I at sunset!

Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia Day 3)

On our last day in Malaysia, we had about a half of a day to explore the city before we caught our flight to Bali. We visited the Petronas Towers, but could only view the outside of them because all of the free entry tickets were gone for the day by the time we arrived. Oh well, we could only go to the 42nd floor of 88 anyway!

Have you seen the movies, Entrapment or I Miss You Like Crazy?

After the towers, we walked to the Masjid Jamek (Jamek Mosque). Isn't it beautiful?

We girls had cover our heads and we all had to wear POLYESTER robes (it was hot!).

We enjoyed the grounds as long as we could, but we were sweaty!

It was beautiful and wide open (the beauty of living near the equator). I didn't notice anyone there worshipping, but I know that Islam is a very big part of Malaysian life and it shows in the number of beautiful mosques that are scattered about the city!

After, we went to Dataran Merdeka (Indepence Square). The square has actually been there for a couple hundred years, but had its final name change in 1957 when the 95 meter flag pole was hoisted and the Malaysian flag raised to celebrate Malaysian independence from Great Britain.

It's one of the tallest flagpoles in the world!

The park was beautiful and active. This fountain is wear we rested for a while to get out of the sun before walking back to Chinatown for lunch.

After a quick lunch, we made our way to the airport to board our flight to Bali! More to come...

Fruit Stand in Malaysia!

On our way back from the Elephant Sanctuary, Tan took us to a fruit stand. All day, Joe had been asking about this large green spiky melon that Tan said was the kind of the fruits. He also said we needed to try the queen.

Look at all those nanners!

Fruit! Fruit! Fruit!

First, we tried the queen.

Using some pressure, you peel it open like so.

Inside you'll see cream-colored orbs.

Suck them out for delisiousness. If my memory serves me correctly it was a mix between a grape and a melon. Sweet and refreshing.

And then the king... dun dun dun.

To eat the king, you just have to grab a chunk. It has the texture of a VERY ripe avocado.

We weren't pleased.

The melon smells really bad. It tasted better than it smelled, but it made our hands stink. Tan told us that we could wash and wash, but the stink would not come out. In order to get the stink out, we had to rinse our hands with water run through the outside of the melon. It worked!

Tropical fruit is amaaaazzzzzinnngg.

Elephants! (Malaysia Day 2)

On Monday, August 2, we booked a a private tour to go to Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary. It's in another state, Pahang, and took us about 1.5 hours to get there by car. Our driver, Tan, picked us up at our hostel early so we had time to go to this pewter factory first:


We got to try to make patterns in the pewter.

After the tour, we bought stuff we couldn't afford in the gift shop, and then took photos with the largest pewter beer mug in the world!

After the factory, we took the long way to Kuala Gandah through the jungle highway. About 30 minutes into our drive we saw a group of monkeys just hanging out on the side of the road. Monkeys!

Then Tan stopped the car so we could take photos of the beautiful Malaysian jungle.

When we arrived at the Elephant Sanctuary, we watched a short film that detailed how they successfully rescued wild endangered elephants from the forest and brought them to the sanctuary. It involved a lot of tranquilizing and chains. Then, we got to feed the baby elephants some peanuts!

Then we had a photo op with the adult elephants and fed them some fruit.

THEN! We got to ride the elephants bare back! It was so much fun until I got bit by a giant horsefly on my shin. Ouch! Joe wanted to ride alone so the three of us rode together!

Then we rode the elephant in the river. Six people on one elephant!

But, that silly elephant played a trick on us!

But we survived, just got a little wet!

After, we showered and made our way back to the car for our ride home.

Other highlights of the day include a python around my neck, petting a sloth bear, using a blow pipe to shoot a balloon and feeding wild deer. All of these things are on my other camera, though, so you will have to wait!

Jungle Heights (Malaysia Day 1)

It's so strange to be sitting in my apartment in Korea writing about my past trip to Malaysia and Indonesia. I was looking forward to it for so long, that to think it's already over makes me sad. It was a trip jam-packed full of adventure, culture, FOOD, and beauty. We began our week long tour in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Malaysia is a melting pot for Indian, Chinese and Malaysian culture, cuisine and customs. The moment Caroline and I got on the express train into the city from the airport, I heard snippets of a foreign language that, of course, I didn't understand but also didn't recognize. To our immediate left (well, my left and her right) was a group of teenage boys. One was Malaysian, one Indian and two Chinese. I should clarify that I only guessed this. The three were notably Asian, one of whom was significantly darker than the other two, seemingly from a people who have spent most of their lives near the Equator.

Kuala Lumpur is the most metropolitan city in Malaysia, and although it would probably be a great place to live, there wasn't a whole lot on the "must see in this city" list of things to see and do. We planned to spend one day in the rain forest, one day at an elephant preserve in Pahang, and 3/4 of a day in the city.

Day one was our trip to the rain forest. We took a taxi to the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM). It is, as Amanda called it, a "manufactured rain forest." But, as Joe argued, "It's not manufactured; it was planted. There's a difference." The jury's still out on whether or not there is really a difference, but it's the closest I've come to a jungle. We'll leave it at that.


Within minutes of our jungle trek, we heard movement in the foliage. We heard Joe shout, "It's a monkey!" and I immediately reached for my camera. I was so caught up in getting a good shot that it wasn't until later that the thought occurred to me that that was, in fact, a living monkey with no cage in a Malaysian (manufactured) rain forest. Ah! I really have to work on this living in the moment thing.

The walk was beautiful and very, very green.

We purchased tickets to the canopy walk. After climbing through the jungle trails for about 45 minutes, we came to the start of the canopy bridge. We were notified not to worry because the walkway was built with the help of German engineers. Whew.

The bridge was literally a horizontal rope ladder with wooden planks set on top. The netting on either side was reassuring and provided a little help with balancing. It was terrifying to look down. All that was between me and my death were meters and meters of large trees and other hard objects.

Please excuse all of the sweat; it's pretty hot and humid in the jungle!

After surviving the canopy bridge we took a long walk through the forest to make it back to our original starting point. We had lunch at a Malaysian buffet that sounded like it had the potential to be outstanding, but in all reality had been sitting out for about 4 hours and was the least appetizing thing to see after spending hours sweating in the jungle (and I'll eat anything). We ate what we could, spending less than $3 a piece and walked back to the entrance. It took us a while, but we managed to hail a taxi back to the city, showered and rested, and then went out to walk around the city at night. We ate some Indian food at a curry house near Bukit Bintang and then walked to see the Petronas Towers at night.

I have pictures of all of the aforementioned excursions but they are on my other camera and my new battery charger is in the mail. I will add pictures this week when I can.