Penang

Today is our last day on Penang and it has been very quiet. Yesterday was Hari Raya, which is the end of Ramadan and today is a sleepy public holiday. Despite the initial disruption to our sightseeing plans, it has been a great day to relax before we head home, and we have been able to enjoy Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion a lot too. Actually, at the moment Nick and I are having a photo competition to see who can best capture the flavour of this place in one shot. He is shooting at the moment and I will get my hands on the camera shortly. No surprises for what our next poll question will be.

So a bit of an update on what we have done on Penang...

The tropical spice garden:
Our blue mansion

A classic self-portrait of us at the top of Kek Lok Si temple, Malaysia's largest Buddhist temple.


And now over to Nick for some of his super shots of Penang x


Hello Friends.

A rusty old bike out the front of the beautiful mansion we are staying in.
A turtle in the spice gardens.
A splendid insect playing with his buddy on a twig, Spice gardens.
Mayhem at the local chinatown markets.
Water on a stinking hot day in Kek Lok Si temple.
Kit hanging out for a fush. Choice Bro.

Selamat Pagi dargi dargi dargi

Greetings peeps. We are kicking it at Cheong Fatt Tsze Mansion (otherwise known as the blue mansion) in rockin' Georgetown - Penang. The beers are flowing, the chicks are singing and my hips be swinging to the Brian Adams tunes emanating from the cheap speakers hanging from the timber ceiling.












Sarah ate here for dinner.
Looks like she was on a winner.
We hope she doesn't get food poisining.
We wont know till the moisinging.
But everything looked nice and fresh.
Sarah didn't eat prawns.. she ate snapper.
So hopefully no urgent visits to the crapper.
We are not looking for the nearest hospital.
Nothing rhymes with hospital.

Love Nick x x x

The streets of KL

Tomorrow we will leave KL and the awesome wi-fi access so I cant guarantee that the blog will be updated as frequently. Here are a few shots from the streets of KL to show you where we've been. And the poll has been updated so don't be lazy... VOTE.

Mother and son running one of the many market stalls. Jack should thank his lucky stars I dont have plans to start a small business in Malaysia.














A durian sales-man ponders why garlic-custard flavoured fruit is not appealing to the tourist market.















KL is full of contrast. You don't have to stray too far to come across streets like this. And I risked my life getting this pic. The drivers here are crazy!
















Love Sarah.

Batu Caves

Another stinking hot day. Time to visit one of the (can I say Very Few) sights in swinging KL. Welcome to the Batu Caves.

Apparently this is a very old Hindu temple. You can't miss the hindi influence, based on the Bollywood music pumping out from speakers as ancient as the temple itself. There is a guy out front swinging a snake at people and offering a photo with it for RM25. Pretty steep.

The golden woman in the photo is colossal, way bigger than me.

You can't go far without seeing the tackiest souvenirs ever. Spinning lights around your choice of god.

And to prove that this symbol has been around long before the Nazis borrowed it!
Monkeys all the way up the 270 or so steps. We caught a couple making sweet sweet love on the way up, but we thought it prudent not to take a photo. This is a family orientated blog after all.

Prayer Candles.

Women helping each other get dressed for some reason or another. Looked like there was a parade about to happen.
And Sarah said that this statue had a similar characteristics to a certain member of her family. I think she means Jack.

So there is some shots of the amazing batu caves. Don't worry if you haven't seen enough, I have about 130 more shots to show you. Be afraid.

PS. For the gents, here is a cow.. with boobs.

The holiday begins

The humidity in KL was a shock to the system after being in the highlands so we took things slowly on day one. We wandered through the alleys of faux-fendi's in Chinatown to a bar with icy cold beer and some tasty eats before making our way to Sri-Marriaman temple for a quiet wander. I am still exhausted from the previous week so it has been great to relax a little and get some retail therapy at the same time. And I even have time now to take some photos! So here are a few from the beginning of my holiday.

Sarah :)

All's great at Number Eight.

Hello again from your intrepid explorers kicking back in Krazee KL. We have finally finished the conference and are about to pull up a chair at a local dive for some well earned rest and relaxation. Sorry about the lack of posts. Who would have thought that running an international conference would be so busy? ;) Stay tuned for some highly insightful and entertaining yarns. We miss you all very much!!

Nick and Sarah. xx

Awana Holiday!

Get it?

Hello again. It's been a complete mad house here in the cool cool mountains of Malaysia. The conference start tomorrow and heaps of people are signing up to be here at the last minute. I have spent the afternoon banging little nail crosses into bits of wood as a keepsake for the participants of the event.

Amongst other things, of course.

Sarah is in (another) meeting, and I have found some time to relax. We might even get some decent sleep tonight. And I'm meant to be on holiday!

Hang on, let me try and get some photos for you....

This is the pool. It's a bit cooler in the mountains so there is not much motivation to swim.
And as you decide where to enter the pool, why not try one of the handy dandy feet placement indicators? It certainly takes the guesswork out of the situation.

So as you can see it's all happening here in swinging Genting. Awana holiday....

Malaysia - It's certainly IN Asia!

Hi all.

Just a quick word from us. We are at Awana Genting golf resort in the highlands of Malaysia. It's much cooler up here than down in the sticks, and we are breathing a non polluted sigh of relief. I'm catching a few minutes with the laptop while Sarah is off touring the venue and organising fuction things. Something like that.

It's been completely mad up to this point. We booked into a hotel that had no internet access, so we have spent the last 36 hours running from internet cafe to Starbucks trying to find a wifi access point so Sarah could get some work done. KL is a twisty, turny and somewhat frustrating place, and everyone wants to make a buck out of you. Especially the taksi drivers. I should stop carrying a money bag with a $ sign on the front.

We went to a school yesterday and it caters for dispossesed children and refugees and it was just amazing what can be done with such little resources. I'll get some pictures of the school up here (once I convert them to a format I can use with this blog!) Anyways, I'll post more later. Here's the first pics of the blog:

Cheers, Nick.

Twas the morning of depature....

And at 5 am a happy Sarah and Nick got up WAY too early for their own good.

We're packed and ready to go, not too sure where we are staying tonight (we are still waiting for confirmation from our hotel) but unlike Mary and Joseph, we are confident that there will be room at the inn. Wish us luck. And keep your eyes peeled for photos on our blog. The more you look at now, the less we can bore you with them when we return.

Nick

Malaysia truly Asia

Well we are going to test the theory. Is Malaysia truly Asia? Does it really matter? It is however, our next holiday destination and a worthy place to host our week of work, followed by a week of relaxation and adventure.

This blog will keep you up to date on our little trip, but it is also your chance to shape our travels a bit. Keep your eyes on the poll questions on the RHS menu. Don't be scared. Feel free to vote. This is a democratic blog, and your participation is valued. So tell us what you think!

Well there will be fun photos and stories coming your way soon. For now we must pack the bags, wax the legs and charge the camera batteries. Its prep time for us, so vote in the current poll, and stay tuned for our departure.