Elephant preserve

Dave and I visited an elephant preserve about an hour's drive outside of Chiang Mai. There was an interesting show showcasing some of the advanced elephant training. But, of course, what we really came for was a chance to ride an elephant!



Along the ride you are given the opportunity to buy some food and feed it to the elephants. We bought some bananas and some sugarcane. The elephant eats a whole bundle of bananas in one bite, banana skin and all. The sugar cane is as hard as a wood log and the elephant eats about six at once in one quite loud chomp! I was pretty hungry that morning, and what is not shown here is me sneaking a few of the bananas for myself before feeding them to our trusty elephant.

Cooking school

One of my goals in Chiang Mai was to get the professional help that others have told me my cooking so desperately needs ;-) So Dave and I decided to attend all day classes at Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School the day before and the day after Christmas. We prepared about five different Thai dishes each day and then ate them all. So a warning to all friends and family -- be prepared for beta testing of my Thai cooking skills when I return to the USA!

The first part of the course involved a trip to the market (about one kilometer up the road) to purchase our ingredients. I wish I could also send you the smells and sounds but pictures will have to suffice!




Each person is given the recipes for all the Thai meals that the school teaches, even the meals you are not preparing on a given day. Each dish is demonstrated in a classroom by the teacher.

And then we all run to our individual cooking workstations to prepare the meal ourselves before the preparation steps fade from our feeble cooking-challenged minds:


On the first day of class, we were being shown how to prepare a particular curry dish. As the teacher was cooking the curry paste in the wok, the mist of the spicy curry began to fill the air. In the classroom, eyes were swelling, noses were sniffling, and there was coughing because those fumes can get strong. The instructor could hear what was happening and he suddenly looked up and spread his arms and said, "Welcome to Thailand!"

OK, now it is time to eat my own cooking, no time to pose for a picture, I am hungry!!!

Life is easy on the road

I really have not shared that much logistical information about traveling since I posted my original equipment list since my family and friends seemed more concerned that I was not kidnapped or hopelessly lost in a strange country.

But I thought some readers would be interested about laundry on the road. When I first started this trip, I imagined that I would be doing a lot of laundry by hand. And I do, in fact, carry a bit of laundry soap, a universal drain plug, and a tiny clothesline. But, for the most part, I have not done any laundry since I left the USA four months ago.

In most developing countries, you can get your laundry done for about one dollar per kilogram (2.2 pounds). Hey, I would pay several times that. One of my first items of business when I change locations is to identify the nearest laundry!



So I just put my dirty laundry into a plastic bag and drop it off a couple of times a week and I come back the next day and pick up my freshly washed (and often ironed) clothes. My average cost for this is probably around 50 cents per day. Gotta love it (1 dollar = 33 baht)

Another thing that is difficult for travelers in developed countries like the USA is the expense and trouble of transportation. Taxis are expensive and sometimes difficult to find. Renting a car is a major hassle and cost -- especially when you consider insurance. But in developing countries you just walk out to the road and quickly flag a tuk tuk or taxi.

This morning I needed to extend my permission to stay in Thailand stamp in my passport so I had to visit the immigration office which is located on the other side of town. I just walked out of my guesthouse room and instantly got a taxi. When I was finished and ready to leave I instantly got a tuk tuk. I paid about US $5 for the round trip. And it was much more convenient than having to park a car, etc. since I do not even know my way around well enough to quickly find these places whereas the locals know exactly where things are located.

Today I went out to lunch with Billy and Akaisha. We walked about 100 meters to a local restaurant and had a delicious meal for about 35 baht per person (about 1 US dollar). It hardly pays to cook for yourself when such inexpensive and delicious food is so readily available. Life is easy here.

Dave and I are flying to Bangkok tomorrow, Tuesday the 8th of January. It will be tough to leave Chiang Mai!

Making new friends in Chiang Mai

Dave and I have made some wonderful new friends here in Chiang Mai. We met Yui and Dao at an expat luncheon within 36 hours of our arrival. They have showed us all around Chiang Mai! We could not have met two nicer ladies. There is no way that I can cover all of the places that we have visited together in this blog. We will never forget our time together here.

Here we are posing together one evening enjoying some live music together:
We visited a Thai farm owned by Dao's family.

Here we are at one of the buffets we all went to together. From left to right we have Travis, Yui, Dave, Dao, Maurice, Billy, Akaisha, and Don (more on Don later! ;-). By the way, this buffet was amazing (Western, Chinese, Thai) and the cost was about US $5 for all you can eat.

Here are Dao and I overlooking the city:

A retire early board meeting shot ;-) :

This is the first Christmas that I have ever spent apart from my family. But this year was still special as we all attended an orphanage fundraiser together. The School for Life is located a few kilometers outside of Chiang Mai and it was fun to meet some of the kids!

Other friends Ploy (center) and Dao (right, same name as our Dao) also joined us at the orphange:
Later in the week, we celebrated Yui's birthday together. Happy Birthday, Yui!!

Meeting Billy and Akaisha in Chiang Mai

Dave and I have been in Chiang Mai for a week and a half already! We are having a great time here and one blog post or even two is not going to cover some of our incredible experiences here!

I have been in communication for a couple of years with Billy and Akaisha Kaderli who started the web site called: http://www.retireearlylifestyle.com I casually helped them promote their book and we share many traits in common. We finally got a chance to meet in person here in Chiang Mai! In fact, we have gotten together a number of times during our stay here.

I can't begin to tell you how nice Billy and Akaisha are and they have had a lot of good advice for us about Thailand. They both retired at the age of 38 and live in Thailand about half the time and spend the rest of the time at their home base in the USA or traveling around the world. I encourage you to read more about them on their web site. They are the real deal and live what they teach.

Well, I will have a lot more to post about Chiang Mai soon . . .

Penang, Malaysia

Dave and I took the five hour bus ride northwest from Kuala Lumpur to the city of Georgetown which is located on the island of Penang. The island is about 295 square kilometers and is connected to the mainland via a long bridge. Georgetown is one of Malaysia's major cities and is known as a food mecca. There is a lot of history here because this is where the British first established a beachhead in this region. The island's population is roughly 700, 000.

As a sign of the level of diversity on this island (and in Malaysia), the taxi driver that took us to our hotel was a Roman Catholic Indian who had once lived in Britain and spoke fluent English. He was a real character and a very honest fellow who gave us lots of good tips on the way. We were asking some questions about Malay politics. Although this is very safe country, there have been some racial tensions recently. Apparently, the root cause is that there is some discrimination against non-Malay minorities (jobs, university placements, etc.) and this is enshrined in the Constitution. He was wondering aloud about American politics and figured that President Bush was a shoe-in for a third term. I patiently explained to him that a third term would violate the 22nd amendment of the US Constitution which limits a US president's tenure to two terms.

Our cab driver also pointed to an Indian restaurant named Jaya near our hotel and in his Indian accent said: "You will go to this restaurant and you will never want to go to another restaurant in town." Those words proved prophetic as we found Jayas, pictured below, to have cheap and tasty Indian food, as good as any Indian food I have ever had. We ate there four or five times.

In fact, I am developing a mild Chai Tea addiction (Teh Terik, I think) -- I can't resist their wonderful spicy hot Indian tea here, available at most restaurants, at only about US $0.30 per glass. I have been downing about three glasses in the morning and three in the evening and, well, some in between, also ;-)

We stayed in the unbelievably misnamed Modern Hotel -- the name was probably more appropriate 70 years ago. Dave and I had stayed in a nice place in KL but I wanted to introduce him to the more typical Asian hotel so we stayed in this place with shared bathrooms and a private (but cold) shower (and our room did have A/C, not just a fan). We had a large room and the hotel did grow on us after a few days and it was perfectly located downtown (about $12 per night). Here is a picture from our balcony:

Dave has a Malaysian friend in the US and her mother lives on this island! Her name is Joanne and she offered to show us around. Joanne's friend, Connie, joined us later. Joanne took us to a Chinese food court and the food was fantastic. There is a large Chinese population on this island.

We also tried Malaysian White Coffee for the first time and really enjoyed it. Coffee beans in Malaysia are typically roasted with sugar and margarine. But White Coffee, which uses the same type of coffee beans, are only roasted with margarine. This makes the roast less dark. When the coffee is brewed, the white coffee is mixed in with some regular dark roasted Malaysian coffee beans. There are chains here that serve White Coffee for a fraction of the cost of Starbucks.

Here is a picture of Joanne and I:

Later we all went to an all-you-can-eat Japanese place. And then we ended the evening at a live music venue. Here is a picture of Dave and Connie there:

The song "Hotel California" has followed me around Asia. I had to actually sing this in front of an audience in the Philippines and the locals always seem to like to request it for us at various live music venues. Dave says it is sort of a theme my Asia trip: "You can check out, but you can never leave". ;-) After spending a few weeks with me, Dave seems to think that I won't be going back to the States anytime soon.

By the way, I keep getting email questions about the safety situation for foreigners in Malaysia. We found absolutely no issues about safety in the places that we visited and no discrimination against us as foreigners. In fact, I found the people to be warm and incredibly friendly and I can't wait to go back for a return visit. It might be a little different in the eastern part of the country away from the big cities. We did not visit there because it is the rainy season in that part of the country.

Awesome Kuala Lumpur

Dave and I met up in the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur (KL). I have been traveling alone for about two months, so it is nice to be traveling with someone again.

Of course, KL is famous for having the world's highest twin towers (Petronas towers) -- there is only one building in the world higher than these towers. Lit up at night, they are astonishingly beautiful:


We stayed in chaotic Chinatown where street stalls are everywhere and you can buy anything from shirts to Chinese donuts to satay (seasoned meat on a stick) dipped in spicy peanut sauce to a sim card for your phone (and actually we did buy each of these things!):
I was able to buy a sim card for the cheap Nokia phone that I bought in the Philippines for about US $2.50. I topped that up with about US $6.00 of talk time and suddenly I had a mobile phone with a local number and plenty of talk and text time in Malaysia.

On our second day we attended a local couchsurfing party put on by Elma. Elma likes to meet new people and travelers and I had been in communication with her for a couple of months. There were probably 50 people at the party -- it was a great mix of travelers and local people that like to meet travelers. Dave and I brought Elma some nice souvenirs from the USA.

At the party we met so many nice people including Shelly and Mei. We spent the following day with them and they showed us all around KL! Here is a picture of Dave, myself, Shelly, and Mei inside the largest Batu cave. The Batu cave complex is a set of famous Hindu pilgrimage caves located just outside of KL. One look at Dave's shirt and you can tell that he is still acclimating to the heat!

Here is a picture from the outside. One has to climb 271 steps to reach the inside of the largest cave:

Each year around the month of January thousands of Hindus make a pilgrimage here. They come to worship deities and many of the pilgrims also severely flagellate themselves as they process up the steps in order to atone for sins they have committed during the past year.

The four of us later visted a forest reserve outside of the city. As we were leaving there, we noticed that a traditional Malay wedding was taking place inside one of the buildings. Mei Yee's sister, Mei Kuan, had just joined us mid-day and mentioned that we should crash the wedding because this was the "opportunity of a lifetime!" Well, I was pretty shy about entering or even getting out of the car but then someone who was leaving the wedding came up to us and told us to go inside as the main part of the ceremony was over and things were just winding down.

We slowly walked up to the front of the building and the bride suddenly came outside and asked us to come in and eat! I was pretty leary about being an ugly American dressed in shorts and crashing an otherwise civilized proceeding but she insisted that we come inside and eat. Mei Kuan kept repeating that this was an "opportunity of a lifetime" and that they were amazed at what they could get away with when accompanied by two American tourists ("with you guys we can do anything!"). The Malay food was delicious. They gave each of us decorated eggs which is a key part of the Malay wedding ritual. After eating, they insisted that we take a picture with them!

We have found the Malay people to be so friendly and this wedding story and the kindness of Shelly, Mei, and Mei-Kuan is just a small sample of the warm hospitality that we received.

Later, the five of us went out for Chinese desserts, yum!! These are some sort of ice flavored sweets and the lower right is a peanut sauce that tasted like melted peanut butter except that it was sweeter and tastier:

I wish I could tell you exactly what these Chinese desserts were, but they were all good! The little white ball you see in the dishes is a sweet dumpling:


The following day we met up with Jessica, another friend that we made at the couchsurfing party. Fellow American Matt, also from the Bay Area, joined us and we had a nice traditional Malay meal (sorry no pictures). Thanks, Jessica!

The day after that we met up with Febri and Nanie:

We had a wonderful Malay meal together. After that, we toured the most modern part of KL, Bukit Bintang. We randomly chanced upon a live performance of a well known Malay singer and we were able to stay near the stage and attend for free. What a night! Thanks so much ladies!

If you can't already tell, I loved KL. This place has it all from the modern to the old, from First World to Developing World. It is an ultra-modern city, yet despite such Western comforts, food stalls and night markets are never far.

Here is a picture of a local mall, all decorated up for Christmas (more Christmas music heard here in this Muslim country than in the USA!):

And Malaysia is simply food heaven for me. It is tops of any place that I have visited on this trip. The mix of Malay, Chinese, and Indian for a spicy food lover like me is simply irresistible. Dave and I even had a wonderful Indonesian meal on our last night in KL.

It is astonishing how widely English is spoken in the capital. In fact, during my entire time in Malaysia, I heard almost no live entertainment in the Malay language. It was either in English (75% of the time) or in Mandarin (15%) and perhaps in Malay 10% of the time.

I hope to come back through here on my way back to the USA and maybe more often in the future ;-)

Itinerary Change

I am writing from Georgetown, Penang Island, Malaysia (northwest part of the country). I met Dave in Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia last week and we have had a great time together! I will be posting more stories and pictures soon.

Dave and I have decided to fly to Chiang Mai, Thailand tomorrow instead of working our way up through the south isthmus of Thailand. Chiang Mai is way up in the north of Thailand. We were able to get plane tickets there for about US $145 each.

And we are planning to meet some friends that we met in KL for New Years in Bangkok. So we will work our way south from Chiang Mai to Bangkok during the rest of December.

Writing from Malacca, Malaysia

I am posting from Melaka (also Malacca) Malaysia, in the southwest of the country along the coast. Melaka became famous as one of the world's busiest commercial centers starting around 500 years ago. It is strategically located along the narrow strait of Melaka through which today about 20 to 25% of all world ocean commerce passes, and along the ancient spice trading routes between India and Southeast Asia. It is also located where the monsoon winds change directions so traders could safely moor here. Early in its history, a fair set of commercial trading laws was developed, further encouraging traders to stay here. The original village converted to Islam early in its history and so Melaka also became a regional center for the Islamic faith. The city has a population of over 600,000.

The region was strategic enough to be of great interest to the Western colonial powers. The Portuguese succeeded in taking it in the 16th century. In the 17th Century the Dutch took it from the Portuguese and finally, in the 19th century, the declining influence of the Dutch caused them to hand it over to the British. British rule did not formally end until 1957 and this year Malaysia celebrated 50 years of statehood.

From what I have seen so far, Malaysia is a true melting pot. Here in Melaka, Malay is the primary language but almost everyone speaks some English and most signs are in Malay and English. English is not spoken nearly as much here as in Singapore. In Singapore English is the lanuage of instruction whereas here it is just a required language class that pupils typically start taking at age 7. There is a big chinatown here because many Chinese came here when Melaka was a trading center. In fact, this region and China traditionally had very close ties. There is also a somewhat smaller Indian population and a Little India section.

Malaysia is definitely cheaper than the Philippines or Singapore. My guesthouse here is just US $5.50 per night and I can eat a nice breakfast or lunch for about $2.00, including tea or coffee. I love the food here -- Malay, Indian, and Chinese are abundant. I have been able to buy Chinese donuts off the street, too, something that I had missed for awhile.

Due to the rich history of this area, there are museums galore here. And so I have been able to satisfy my curiousity about Malaysian history. In fact, I have noticed that my rate of learning has accelerated now that I am traveling and not working. Before, when I was working on my job, I was not really able to satisfy my intellectual curiosity because I didn't have the time or I was too mentally tired after working all day or week. Now, I am reading much more and learning more about a wide variety of topics and meeting a lot of interesting people from all walks of life around the world.

I have met a couple of interesting early retirees here at my guesthouse. One became a permanent resident here in Malaysia through the Malaysia My Second Home Program which makes it pretty easy for individuals to gain permanent residence status if they put some money in escrow to show that you have means to support yourself. These folks live part time in Thailand and part time in other countries like Indonesia. A nice residential hotel room in some nice parts of Thailand off the tourist trail might run a little over $100 per month. Here in Malaysia, a much wealthier country, the cost might run 3 times that. But they are able to live quite a bit cheaper than they could in their home countries (UK and New Zealand, respectively).

The Malay language has a Roman alphabet and is the easiest Asian language for a native English speaker to learn. It is only a little more difficult than a traditional Roman language, like French or Spanish, according to US State Department statistics. Malay is nearly identical to Indonesian except that it has incorporated more English words.

Well, tomorrow I hope to meet Dave in Kuala Lumpur so that we can begin our adventure together, slowly traveling north through Malaysia then Thailand and possibly Cambodia and/or Laos. It will be nice to be traveling with someone again. We hope to travel together for about five weeks. Then, in late January, I will be meeting up with my friend Elena (who lives in France) in Bangkok and we plan to explore Burma together. I just bought my Burma plane tickets a couple of days ago.

Singapore

I arrived in Singapore from Manila and secured a dorm bed in a great hostel for about US $14 per night. I had expected to meet Dave but I checked my email and discovered that he had suddenly delayed his trip overseas by one week in order to leave his work project in better shape. So Dave and I will meet in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, instead of Singapore.

Public transportation here is the best in the world. With a single card I can ride the subway or the bus and add money to my card at many locations. I found it so easy to get around that I ended up seeing many different parts of the city. Here is a picture of metro entrance near the city center:

Upon arrival I made a beeline for the Little India section of town. Indian food is my favorite and the few times I have tried it so far in the previous three months of my trip it has not been good at all. Well, that was about to change -- the Indian food is great here! I have been gorging myself nightly on it. I didn't mention this in my blog, but I was really losing weight after a couple of months of traveling. I think I may have lost as much as 4 kilograms (9 pounds). Part of the reason, I think, is that I don't snack as much between meals while on the road, I will sometimes miss meals due to traveling, and I am exerting myself with a lot of physical activity (primarily walking many kilometers everyday). So, about a month ago, I started stuffing myself silly at every opportunity and my weight seems to have stabilized. And it is so much fun! ;-) I have waiters ask if I am really sure about what I am ordering -- yes I am and I never leave food on my plate, either!

Here is a street scene from little India, about 14% of Singapore's population is Indian:

In this part of town, I mostly see only Indian men, not Indian women -- especially at night when no women seem to be out but there are hundreds of men milling about. I am not entirely sure why. I asked one of the locals but I could not really understand his response.

Here is the beautiful Clarke Quay area (unfortunately, the gorgeous night scenes did not photograph well on my camera):

I was having dinner down in this area one night and met Rego (on the left), an Indian who was raised by caucasian parents. He sings on the street for a living. We talked for a long time and he struck me as being a very sensible person. Later, we went down to where he sings, and he trains other people in his art (one is pictured on the right), also:


Singapore is a shopping mecca and the Orchard shopping area is where the most high end shops are located:
But these places were actually pretty expensive. For cheaper shopping I toured Mustafa's in downtown Little India. He is an Indian equivalent of Walmart's founder Sam Walton having come to Singapore with nothing and now fabulously rich by providing Singapore shoppers with great retail value.

I was at the Mustafa's money exchange (which is located outside, facing the street) to get Malaysian Ringits. There are several other money exchanges nearby. I looked and could not see one policeman or guard anywhere (in the Philippines there would have been half a dozen armed guards, at least). This is one of the safest cities in the world. There is less freedom here -- some restrictions on speech, gum was famously banned here until recently, smoking/eating/drinking on public transport is banned and subject to large fine, etc. But the system seems to have brought about a great deal of safety for local citizens. There are signs reminding people to: remain vigilant low crime does not mean no crime.

Singapore has been ruled by the same party (People's Action Party) since it gained full independence from Great Britain in 1959 and its first Prime Minister, Lee Kwan Yew, ruled for over 30 years and was Prime Minister until 1990 (his eldest son is now the country's third Prime Minister). Since Singapore declared independence from the Malaysian Federation in 1965, the standard of living has skyrocketed and Singapore has become a center of finance and education for Asia thanks largely to free market policies.

I was also amazed at how widely English is spoken in Singapore -- it is the official language in practice and I would say there is more English spoken here than in San Francisco. I thought that Mandarin and Malay would be more common but that is in fact not the case. In fact, when I visited the zoo and other places where I could observe families interact, I noticed that many parents, whose first language was obviously not English, spoke to their children only in English.

Here is a photo from the upstairs patio of my hostel. I really enjoyed staying in my hostel -- it was the first time on my trip I stayed in shared quarters and I may try that more often now. Hostels tend to have much nicer common areas than hotels and I meet a lot of interesting travelers there. Just before I snapped this photo the call to prayer went out for the mosque in the center of the picture. I love these gritty, colorful urban scenes and with the mosque in the center it is like a scene from the movie Syriana:

Some more pictures of the city center area:

I am really impressed by Singapore. They have the best public transportation, the best airport, the best zoo, the best botanical gardens, some of the best food, the cleanest city, they are trying to be America's most reliable ally, etc. As my friend, Surendra, told me, it is an underdog city trying to be the best in several things and I think they actually succeed.

Back to Manila for a week

Well, after that nice visit with Tom and Fhona and a one day stopover in Cebu City, it was time to fly back to Manila. There were plenty more sights to see on the big island of Luzon where Manila is located, but I never did get time since I spent most of the week with friends. Paolo showed me around some of the awesome malls in Manila.



In fact, Greenbelt Mall in Makati section of Manila is the most stylish mall I have ever seen -- the coffee culture is alive and well there! Paolo and I also took a trip to some mineral hot springs outside of town. Paolo even took me to a kickboxing match -- his friend owns the kickbox training gym. And he introduced me to some new Filipino foods. Since he is also a budding chef, he cooked me an Italian dinner, also. Thanks, Paolo!

I met several times with the friends that I had traveled with earlier. We seem to have a thing for cemeteries, so we visited the American Cemetery in Manila:




I was not sure where my Great Uncle Travis had died or was buried. He died in World War II in late 1944 and never got to see his son, Travis (after whom I was named). I did not see his name on the walls. We went to the office and got an official printout and found out he had died in France. However, Helen found her father-in-law's name on the wall. She had not known that his death was recorded here. She immediately called her ex-husband to let him know. Here she is pointing to the name:


The entire World War II campaign is explained by about 20 stone murals. The artwork and historical detail is quite amazing:



The Filipino people are quite thankful for America's sacrifices that led to their liberation from the Japanese after World War II. It is one of the reasons our countries continue to have such close ties today.

I did not take many photos during the times we went out but here is one of Helen, Liza, and Ara:

Later in the week we also went to a Karoake Comedy bar north of Manila. Basically, there are two men dressed as women on stage who crack jokes, sing, and require virtually everyone in the bar to come up and sing, too, at some point during the evening. This was far enough outside of the main part of Manila that they had apparently never gotten a regular tourist there before. So they spent about a third of the night making me the butt of their jokes, which was actually a lot of fun. Their routines were in Tagalog, but they would use English when joking about me ;-) I also sang three songs, something they required of me -- oh, the humanity! I am not sure if I have ever heard a worse rendition of "Hotel California," I think I will be getting some more practice back in the States. Karaoke is a big part of Filipino culture -- it is almost the default entertainment wherever you go, so be prepared!

I attended an Asian music contest very similar to American Idol. Wow, some of the singers were so good -- filipinos can really sing! Also, there were some distinctive Asian sounds that were really refreshing.

My new friend, Leah, and I also met through couchsurfing and after having lunch together she took me to a Chinese massage place in Chinatown. I had never had a proper massage as it just something that is not very common in America. Massage is definitely a part of the Filipino culture and is a common topic of conversation. Thanks, Leah!

Now I am off to Singapore to meet up with my friend Dave and begin our adventure together!