28 January 2008

Well, we had a great time in Malaysia - it's a beautiful country. After KL, we found a cheap flight to the island of Borneo, to the city of Kuching. We spent about a week and a half there at a great little hostel that felt like home. It was basically an apartment and for all but one night we were the only people staying there. Very nice. We spent a few days out of Kuching, in Bako National Park, which was a real jungle! We hiked a lot and when you hike in the jungle, you sweat constantly. It was so hot and humid, but we had a good time. We saw long tailed macaque monkeys and the funny-nosed proboscis monkeys. I don't know how the US got the short end of the stick when it came to worldwide monkey distrobutions, but being somewhere that has them makes you know what we're missing! Except for the naughty little bugger that stole a piece of chicken off my plate at lunch one day, and even that was quite entertaining. Another hilight of Borneo was the orangutans. We unfortunately didn't get to see truly wild ones, as those are few and far between and in hard to reach places, but we went to a wildlife reserve where they have trained formerly captive or injured ones to live in the wild again. They still have a feeding time each morning, but not all of them come back for it - some are self sufficient and find all they need to eat in the wild. We actually went twice, and both times were pretty cool. You stand in the jungle in front of a feeding platform where all kinds of delicious fruits have been laid out and then you hear the trees around you starting to shake, and orangutans come swinging into view. They are unfenced and can come down and walk among the people. We saw some mothers with babies, which were incredibly cute, and two large males as well. They know exactly how to shift their weight to make the tree branch sway just enough to reach the next one - it was incredible to watch.

The last thing worth writing about in kuching was a kayak trip we took on one of the many rivers in the area. It was beautiful floating downstream through the jungle. We didn't see much but had an interesting cultural experience. The kayak guide was a local woman, and also on our trip was a friend of hers from childhood who she hadn't seen in like 30 years. He grew up in Kuching but now lives in Australia. We happened to be in Borneo for the height of the season for the durian fruit, a local delicacy, that this man absolutely loved. The fruit is about the size of a cantaloupe, but is green and spiky on the outside. They grow on huge hardwood trees, quite far off the ground. They are such a great source of local income for the people in the areas where they grow that trees are passed down from generation to generation. The people who 'own' a tree will literally camp out underneath the tree day and night for the month long durian season, waiting for the fruits to fall so they can be collected and taken to the local market. There are laws in Malaysia pertaining to this fruit. It is actually illegal to eat one in a hotel room or other public enclosed space because they are a little stinky, and the smell apparently lingers for days afterwards! We got to taste a few (apparently different varieties have different tastes) and well, they're not so good! You cut open the fruit and there are about four compartments inside with about three seeds each coated in a substance that has the consistency of brie cheese. For the first one we tasted, our guide described the flavor as 'garlic custard' and the second one as 'chocolate', though I didn't agree! It was not good. The one did taste like raw garlic which is really not what i'm looking for in a fruit! The second one was better, but not at all like chocolate, and with a flavor that lingered for hours. These fruits are highly prized in Malaysia and they are for sale everywhere. Eating them is an art, but one that was lost on us, that is for sure!

We hit one more destination in Malaysia, but only for three days. We stayed in Penang, an island just off the mainland part of Malaysia but on the west side. It was nice there - a city known for its food and temples, both of which were quite nice. We went to an awesome and huge bhuddist temple one afternoon, known as the temple of 10,000 buddas, and I didn't count but I'm sure they're about right. It was ornate and massive and pretty cool to see, especially because they are getting ready to celebrate the Chineese New Year and there were hundreds of yellow and red paper lanterns hanging everywhere. Quite a sight to see.

Now we're in Thailand at the first of our destinations here, Koh Lanta. It's beautiful, and relaxing. Today we went scuba diving and had a great time. We did two dives and have finally gotten to the point where we can quit worrying so much about breathing, and relax and look around a little. There were thousands of colorful fish and corals, though the absolute hilight was seeing a hawksbill sea turtle. We have been eating some fantastic food here, but wow can it be spicy! We have a few more weeks here in Thailand, but a month from today we will be back in the states!! Can't believe it... More to come,

Andrea

15 January 2008

Greetings, all, from modern, efficient, we're definately not in Africa anymore, Asia!

Our travels were long but went well, and we are happy to have moved on to a new place and a new experience. Our first hint that we had indeed left Africa came as we got off the plane for our overnight layover in Dubai. It was midnight, we were tired and giddy, and we were bussed from the plane to the terminal in busses that looked like hovercrafts! The terminal itself was absolutely bustling at 1am - full of people, all the shops still open, bright lights, moving walkways, and Dunkin Donughts, Starbucks, McDonalds, bookstores... wow. We wandered around wide-eyed for a while, then found a little piece of out-of-the-way carpet to curl up on and try to sleep, like hundreds of our fellow travelers. Caught a flight out at 10am, and arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at 9pm. Kuala Lumpur, or KL as it's known and as I'll write since it's so much shorter, was even more of a shock than the Dubai airport. First of all, when we arrived and got a taxi to our hotel, somewhat late at night, there were still people out walking around the city, seemingly unworried about getting mugged! They were out sight seeing, and looking for resturaunts or bars or whatever, which is just something you don't see in most African cities.

Our first day was just spent sightseeing in a slight daze - both because of being jet lagged and just overwhelmed by our surroundings. KL is a maze of huge, shiny skyscrapers, shopping malls, there's a monorail and a subway system, and a wealth of resturaunts, bars, street stalls, vendors and street performers. It was incredibly entertaining to simply walk around. And there are quite a few American influences - things we haven't thought about in two years, like pop tarts, eggo waffles, TGI Fridays, Chili's, Outback Steakhouse, pepridge farm cookies, A&W root beer, free refils on soft drinks... wow. It's a different world here! We spent three dazed days in KL and went to see the KL Petronas Twin Towers (the world's tallest buildings, kindof), the Islamic Art Museum, some big parks and a hibiscus and orchid garden, a tiny piece of old rain forest in the middle of the city, and all kinds of other exciting things. We somehow stayed our temptation for American food, and at more local cuisine instead - Thai, Japaneese, Chineese. I really need to work on my chopsticks skills, but should be a pro by the time we leave.

Yesterday we left KL behind and headed out to the island of Borneo - the third biggest island in the world, home of rainforests, orangutangs, the worlds biggest (and apparently stinkiest) flower, the world's only freshwater dolphins, and all kinds of other things. We'll explore here for the next week or so, and it seems like there will definately be enough to fill our time with. This place too, is quite modern (we're currently in the city of Kuching - the cat city!), and I think it's here to stay. I think we've adjusted quite well, though we are still easily wowed by things like the new i-pods, and tiny laptops. It's entertaining at least!

Until next time...

Andrea

January 7, 2008

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Sorry we're 7 days late on that... We've been too busy laying on the beach! It seems like a long time ago that I sat down and wrote about Malawi. Our trip into Tanzania was long and exhausting and thankfully our last long haul in Africa. We took all kinds of transport - hitchhike, bicycle taxi, minibus taxi, medium sized busses, big busses, and private taxis - over the course of three days to finally arrive in Dar es Salaam. Thank goodness we don't have to do that again! We spent one night in Dar and then jumped on the ferry (another mode of transport to add to the list!) to Zanzibar, where things relaxed. Zanzibar is fantastic.

First stop was Zanzibar Town, also known as Stone Town. Zanzibar island is quite big and Stone Town is the main town on it. We spent only one night, as we had a reservation on the beach to make, but it was cool. The town is quite old, and it really shows. Some streets are so narrow that you can hardly walk next to someone, but somehow bicycles and motorbikes still manage to drive around like maniacs. Some streets are bigger, and cars even sometimes manage to squeeze through! None of these alleys (I do hesitate to call them streets) have names or are even arranged in a planned-out manner. They all just zigzag at all angles and directions from one another, which is incredibly baffling when you first arrive. Slowly though, you begin to understand some of the arrangement and recognize some of the more open areas, which usually include markets or a view of the ocean. There are tons of little shops that open directly onto the alleys, selling all kinds of things - spices, five kinds of rice, beautiful fabrics, fruits, and anything else you can imagine. Its peaceful in some places, and chaos in others and all the time you are looking around you, as there is so much to see. Many of the wooden doorways are intricately carved and decorated with brass designs, there are ornate balconies over your head, and muslim women in clothes of so many colors that it is quite dazzling against the dull, rundown buildings. It is a colorful place in so many ways, and seems quite exotic.

We spent New Years on the south-east coast of the island, near a village called Jambiani. The beach was lovely, though not very user-friendly, as it was very shallow water and not really good for swimming. There was an old reef just off the beach that creates lots of tide pools at low tide which were fun to walk around and look into. And the water is soooo beautiful - I have never seen the sea so blue! We went scuba diving on New Year's Eve day, which was really nice, and went to dinner at a very tasty seafood resturaunt right on the beach that night. We sat for a few hours with some other travelers and then walked down the beach to a bar where there was some dance music and some live drumming and local dancing. At midnight, they set ablaze '2008' in dry palm fronds on the beach. It was low key, but a nice night. On the First, we went to visit Jambiani Forest, which is home to the red colobus monkey, who is only found on the island of Zanzibar. They were quite entertaining. As tourists come to see them every day, they are quite ignorant of your presence, and continue feeding and playing in the branches above your head. They are cute monkeys (but really, which monkeys aren't?) with red backs and great Alber Einstein style puffs of white hair on their heads. The youngsters are quite playful and jump and chase each other through the trees. We walked in the forest, which is quite tropical feeling, and also saw a mangrove forest.

Our next stop was to the northern part of the island to a beach called Kendwa. This beach was quite picturesque - a wide, white sand beach and again, stunningly turquoise waters. I really don't know how they are so blue. We basically relaxed there although we did go out for a snorkeling trip on a dhow (traditional sail boat) one day.

Now we are back in Stone Town. Today we went on a spice tour - they grow all kinds of spices on the island - vanilla, cocoa, tamarind, cloves, pepper, cinnamon, coffee, ginger, and a ton of wierd fruits like breadfruit, jackfruit and starfruit as well as 27 different types of bananas and three kinds of coconuts! We got to go around to some different farms and see all these plants, and taste the raw spices. It was pretty cool! I think my favorite was seeing a pineapple growing! How bizarre!!

We are getting ready to make another big move. On Wednesday we leave Africa, after being here for nine days shy of two and a half years. I really can't believe it. It doesn't seem so long, looking back on it, but I know it has been a long time. We are ready to go, though. I will absolutely be sad to leave, but we are both just tired of how nothing is done easily here, and are ready to try somewhere else for a change. I hope we find that things are different in Asia. But I am really going to miss it, don't get me wrong! We have a long, overnight layover in Dubai, and then arrive in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday evening. Can't wait!

I feel like I have really glossed over our time here in Zanzibar, but don't know what else to say. Maybe Adam will have more insight as to what we did at a later date. So this is me, logging off from the continent of Africa, both sad and excited. The next time I write, we'll be in Malaysia, I hope! I hope you all had a happy New Year. We are slowly moving closer to home and can't wait to be there. Love to you all,
Andrea