Singapore... Isn't that the way it should be? (backblogged)

Okay, back to a little business of blogging...Sorry we've been enjoying ourselves so much that we just haven't felt like being trapped inside, but now here you go a backup blog of: SINGAPORE, Isn't that the way it should be…

We arrived in the Sinless city on a Friday afternoon, ready to see this booming island city of almost 5 million. Singapore can either be thought of as a Utopia or Sterileville. We found our mix of both as we plodded around in our sweat filled Chacos. It was a great place to get around and see the sites, by far the most organized place we'll find in Asia. We started off our time with a little jaunt around Little India, and then joined the expats for Friday night Happy Hour on the river in the business district; everybody needs at least one Singapore Sling right? We could hardly tell that business was hurting at all by the amount of alcohol swilling and business men dealing that we saw. Afterwards we strolled around town to see the night life enjoying river walks under a full moon, and blinking neon lights. The city maybe clean, but it is alive and bustling.

On Saturday, after the beautiful orchid gardens, we partook in true Singaporean traveler affair and went shopping, for running shoes, I know sacrilegious to Chacos, but Hales wanted to go for a run, and was scared of leeches in Borneo. (Her Chacos promptly gave her a blister as penance, but they did come in handy in Borneo and probably will for our trek in the Himalayas starting on Sunday.) After shopping we went to SENTOSA!!! When we went in search of an ultimate game on the beach, we left instead with jaw dropping shock of Wallyworld in the making. Sentosa is trying to becoming the playground of Singapore with casinos, rollercoasters, $12 beers, the beach, and Segway rides. It's only just in the beginning of construction, but is due to be done in a 2011. It may bring some sins into the city, but I think it'll also increase the plastic of the place by tensfold.

Our true highlight was the zoo and night safari. The Singapore Zoo is impressive with multitudes of different animals for all over living almost free range. If the orangutans weren’t fed well, I’m sure they just swing right out of the place, as they seem to go everywhere in the zoo now. It’s no wonder it has won numerous awards, and is extremely forward moving, they are even teaching the polar bears to like the tropics. (This might come in handy in the future.) After seeing all the animals of Asia and beyond, contemplating getting our nasty Chaco feet munched on by fish and getting told that Hayley couldn’t take home a pigmy hippo we crossed the street to go to the world’s first NIGHT SAFARI! While waiting for it to get dark we were *enchanted* by Borneo tribes men and their fire blowing customs, and blow dart balloon popping skills. Once the sky began to darken, we began ourtrip into the night of the animals. We chose to start with walking trails as we didn’t want to get caught up in the hustle of everyone trying to catch the first train around the park. We were quickly rewarded with a face to face meeting with a Malaysian Tiger. Never have I been happier to see 1” thick glass. After our close encounter with the tiger we saw some super happy otters, and the world’s largest bat that almost mistook Hayley’s hair for a great snack. After two hours of walking among the animals we decided we were finally leaving behind the hyenas and went to hitch ourselves onto the kiddy train, which explores the unwalkable portions of the park. As cheesy as the kiddy cars were it was awesome to see the elephants eating at night, giraffes nuzzling, and lions waiting for the lionesses to bring them their food, but as the guide said to us in her parting words, “Isn’t that the way it should be.” I laughed and agreed; Hayley’s comments and reaction have been censored on comprise for her to leave the island without a caneing. It was our time anyway.

Borneo- Niah Caves

We landed in Kota Kinabalu with slightly disturbed stomachs from the 'Hot Pot' cuisine we had our last night in Singapore. Hence, we spent most of our first day in Borneo curled up drinking water and eating 'digestives'- cookies containing primarily of fiber and fat. Not the most auspicious start to our adventure. But, looking back at our 10 wondrous days through Kota Kinabalu, Mt. Kinabalu, Bandar Seri Begawan(capitol of Brunei), Beaufort, and Miri- this is the only vaguely sour part of the trip. After all, if any of you have had Digestive cookies you know they are a pretty good reward for a badly behaving stomach.

Even though we were delighted at the views of Mt. Kinabalu and surprised by the relatively un-conservative nature of Brunei- I'm going to zip on by for the time being and skip straight to Miri. Here, we visited the Niah Caves and stayed in a longhouse of the Iban Borneo natives.

Niah Caves is in the Sarawak region of Malaysian Borneo and is near the coast about 115 km south of Miri. We took a 'chartered' bus from Dennis(aka Mr. Chua), who plucked us up on the way to the Bus Station. For nearly the same price as the three hour bumpy bus commute route, Dennis's van with stuffed animals lining his dashboard looked a little more inviting (not creepy- promise).

We popped out of the van and headed into the park headquarters amongst 10-15 other foreigners and told them we wanted to stay in the Longhouse in the park. The longhouse is part of the Rumah Chang Niah Homestay program- where we could rub shoulders with the bird's nest collectors for the Niah Caves. We were directed to hike into the park into the village and ask for Patrick Labuan. Around 2 miles later we arrived in the village. The houses were on stilts and we were on the wooden walkway that rose above children doing cannonballs into the muddy water, and women cleaning dishes in the same.

We felt pretty dopey sweating our butts off, looking around with our backpacks on- no idea where we were suppose to go, or how to communicate with anyone. It was really the only time in Malaysia that we were unable to communicate smoothly in English. I'm embarrassed to say that the only phrase we've been able to successfully pick up in Bahasa Malaysia is 'Terima Kasih,' which simply means 'Thank you'. Following a series of people looking at us, speaking to us in Bahasa Malaysia, realizing that we had no clue what they were saying, eventually led us to someone who spoke English and could direct us to our home stay with Julia.

Julia's mother sat us down and and fed us a sweet tea and biscuits. We couldn't communicate very well and apologized for not knowing more Bahasa Malaysia. She was very sweet and hospitable. It's funny how much communication can be done in body language. We finished up with the tea, left our bags in her living room, and headed off for our first hike of the day to Buhkit Kesut.

Oooh, Buhkit! Kesut! Kicked our butts! We now use the phrase 'Buhkit Kesut!' to exclaim and convey the feelings that would usually be replaced with a variety of four letter expletives. The Park Guides described the hike as 'quite steep but the views are worth it.' Well, the views were definitely worth it. Which is saying a lot considering in Bahasa Malaysia ' quite steep' translates to ' 45 minute vertical scramble including 4 steel ladders which are bolted to rock and a via ferreta-like structure to boot.'

We ventured down from the hike just in time to savor Julia's tasty cooking. To our delight, she prepared a wonderful chicken curry, egg, and steamed rice feast. The only thing that could polish off the longhouse experience was to taste... ladies and gentleman... DURIAN. And believe you me, if I could have inserted a drum roll into your computer speakers/ cube bounded headphones, and let it blast out, I would have! Because Durian deserves a drum roll. In my memory, it is by far the most pungent, flavorful, natural tasting thing I've ever had.

Durian is encased by a spiky green layer which protects its tender taupe colored insides. It has the consistency of a cooked yam and the taste of... well... of.. the bottom of a recycling bin. A frat boy's recycling bin. It has layers of flavor, but none of which my taste buds would allow me to take pleasure in. That being said, I can see if the fruit had been introduced to us as children we could have acquired a taste for it. Durian, after all, is Julia's favorite fruit! (She giggled as we tried to politely ate it down- not the first time for her to see squirmy foreigners try the delicacy.)

Well folks, the Internet cafe has finally gotten too hot for me to stay couped up here. We're off for dinner and some cards.

The Perhentian Islands

We just spent the last 6 days enjoying Puala Besut, one of the gorgeous Perhentian Islands off the coast of the Northeast Terengganu Region of Malaysia. We took a plane from Penang to Kuala Lumpur to Kuala Terengganu ( $15 total- thanks to Air Asia) a hour long taxi ride, and a 20 minute ferry ride to reach the island. Every minute was worth it. The islands are relatively untouched- with a few resorts/chalets on the island and excellent scuba diving at a reasonable price. ( Hayley is now a certified open-water scuba diver. Hooray!) We saw sting ray, pufferfish, a turtle named tripoid, and at least 15 other varieties of fish in large schools. One of my favorite fish is the docile bumphead parrotfish. ( They kind of float and look like they are thinking ' dooooiihhh loook at the yuuummmyy coooooraalll ). They're kind of the Homer Simpsons of the ocean.

We'll be in Kuala Terennganu for the next two nights and then its off to Singapore for 4 days before we go to Borneo. I just finished reading "Shooting the Boh" which describes an exploratory rafting trip gone awry in Borneo. Oddly enough, the tails of blood-sucking, predatory leaping-from-tree-leeches and swarms of bees has made us only more interested in a rafting trip. Albeit we're only planning a single day trip.

We'll be cutting this blog a bit shorter this time in effort of uploading a few more photos. The internet is quite slow so we'll see how many we can get online in the next 20 minutes or so.

Hope you're all doing great and had a joyous July 4th weekend!

Love, Hayley and Kristian

Seattle-Seoul-Bangkok-Penang

We're not entirely sure how many hours the flights over the previous two or three days were. We decided that we didn't want to add it up- in fear that we would figure out what time it actually was in Seattle and thus mentally convince ourselves into a fierce jet-lagged state. We've avoided the brunt of the east to west jet lag thanks to Korean Air's entertainment system. After losing mercilessly to Kristian in several games of passenger vs passenger Tetras, I decided to take a complete mind vacation and watch Bride Wars ( yes- skip it 'til netflix- or just skip it all together). We've decided that we love Korean Air even though they are trying to fatten us up with their multiple course meals and turn us into drones by providing almost endless hours of entertainment.

We arrived in Bangkok around 11:00 p.m. and scooted off to our hostel. The next day we toured around the city and saw some of my post-Shanghai stomping grounds before we bopped off to the Grand Palace. On our way to the Grand Palace, in my very seasoned traveler ways, I was conned into into paying two Thai women for bags of corn kernels to feed flying rats (pigeons) on this 'very holy Buddhist holiday.' Shoulda known- there is no free lunch.

The Grand Palace was breathtaking. The inner walls surrounding the multiple temples are painted with highly detailed murals telling the history of monarch's past. We spent several hours touring the Palace before taking a Tuk-tuk (motorcycles with cushioned carts attached- very safe Mom- I assure you) to Lumpini Park. This park located in Southeastern Bangkok and houses many small ponds and walkways where runners brave enough to face +30 degree Celsius weather plod along.

That same evening we took the 80 minute flight to the first destination in Malaysia- Penang Island. This morning we toured the main city on the Island, Georgetown, at a balmy 37 degrees Celsius, which I believe is about 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Georgetown has around 2 million residents and a very colonial feel. We went to Kota (Fort) Cornwallis, the Penang Museum, and completed the afternoon with having a delightful Indian meal before heading back for a siesta. Tomorrow we plan on hiking up Penang Hill and visiting the Botanical Gardens.

Now we're off to sip a drink on the lawn of the Eastern Oriental Hotel. We will then vigorously down a liter of water to avoid any chance of a hangover. Remember- it's Kristian's 30th birthday in September and we're(he's) not exactly spring chicken anymore. Expect another post in a week or so.

psst. Monkees- You'd be proud to know we've tossed the frisbee around in Thailand and Malaysia already.

xoxo