Oct 2006

It is in deep solitude that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brothers. The more solitary I am the more affection I have for them. Solitude and silence teach me to love my brothers for what they are, not for what they say.
- Thomas Merton

Having arrived back to Malaysia from Indonesia, I was content on jumping on a convenient, easy plane back to Thailand. But as I stood in Georgetown, Malaysia chatting with a Dutch couple before rewatching the movie Talladega Nights, (a movie I missed the beginning of the last time I saw it, and I did have a free day, so why not watch it again), when they mentioned something to me. "Why don't you go to Koh Tarutao National Park and to the island of Koh Lipe? Noone is there", they queried.

That is where the next week took me, Koh Lipe, in the far south of Thailand. Koh LipeI decided to skip the easy traveling and get off the beaten path. I had previously thought of going to Koh Tarotao National Park, but figured, ah, it will be too inconvenient and after Indonesia, I'm ready for a break. But my conscious wouldn't allow me to take the easy path, when I could have an adventure into the unknown and possibly a few interesting stories to tell.

Money changer anyone?

Making my way from Hat Yai on a public bus to the coastal town of Pak Bara, the jumping off point to the Koh Tarotao National Park, with another Dutch couple and their two year old daughter, we talked about the supposed solitude and quiet of these islands. Next morning, I was placed on a longboat with a local family for the 4 hour cruise across the Andaman Sea to Koh Lipe. The ride was a great trip of sitting back and watching all of the small islands pass by and flying fish flying along the longboat. Our boat was directly in front of some mean looking rain clouds, so we had a time constraint, get there before the rain does. Just as we were floating towards the coral and beach, another set of storm clouds came by and hit us directly head on.

For the next three days, I was on the island of Koh Lipe enjoying the tide go by, eating at the only open restaurant, Pooh's, and doing a little work on Pooh's website. For the first time during the entire trip, I completed some work that I was paid for. In exchange for updating Pooh's website, I was paid with beverage and dinner. I can now say that I am working my way around the world. In between that busy schedule, I managed to squeeze in some snorkelling time on four of the beaches surrounding this tiny island.

Morning view, I could get used to that.

Unfortunately, there are a few problems occuring at Koh Lipe. It used to be an isolated island in a protected national park, but it had been opened up for construction years ago. As a few sparce travellers discovered the place, this led to a steady flow of backpackers, and now the island is becoming one set of bungalows. Combine this with the fact that the water and coral surrounding the island are treated as a garbage can. The result is dead coral and trashed beaches. But as travellers do begin making their way to Koh Lipe, the beaches are cleaned. Clean in the tourist season, trashed during the off-season. It's a sad reality.

After a peaceful and relaxing 3 days at Koh Lipe, it was time to jump on a ferry and head back to penisular Thailand. With bright blue water gliding by, our boat engine stopped, and the ferry came to a gradual, floating stop. For an hour, we just sat there as very large jellyfish made their way by and people worked in vain on the engine. Finally, another ferry came to our rescue and towed us into harbor at a snail's pace. This little roadblock allowed the storm clouds from three days ago to call their distance 2nd cousin Bob to storm on us just as we were pulling up to dock.

Finally, a reliable ferry

There's nothing like a long boat ride, and a set of wet clothes and backpacks to cause a group of 8 farang (foreigners) to bond. As a result, we all jumped in a shared van passing around snacks and drinks, and travelled to the town of Trang. There, like the floating jellyfish from earlier on the boat, we floated around Trang's markets and streets searching for a restaurant. We then found a nice outdoor Thai restaurant where we shared various local Thai dishes. It was good fun.

Tiny local transport

Tomorrow morning, after a 2 week hiatus from traveling, to be with her family, Nadine will be flying back to Krabi where I will meet her at the airport with, yes, a kool-aid smile. It's hard to believe that we have already been traveling, to the day, 4 months. Like always, life is good, real good, and it's about to get better.

Last week's trivia question dealt with the fifth populous country in the world, and the answer was Brazil.

This weeks question:
The second and third longest reigns for a monarchy are Queen Elizabeth from the United Kingdom and the Sultan from Brunei, who holds the longest current reign among reigning monarchs and what country is he or she from?

Life is good. We hope all are doing well and happy.
Peace
J.W.

When you have once seen the glow of happiness on the face of a beloved person, you know that a man can have no vocation but to awaken that light on the faces surrounding him; and you are torn by the thought of the unhappiness and night you cast, by the mere fact of living, in the hearts you encounter.
- Albert Camus

Les souvenirs s'agrippent a nos ames comme le lierre se cramponne a la pierre.

In one of our previous entries, You Can Have Your Apple Juice -And Eat It Too!, I mentioned that three major religions coexist in Malaysia peacefully. It's actually 4, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu. Makes it even that more impressive. Thanks to Hien for pointing it out to me.

I am currently here in Penang, Malaysia, having just returned from Sumatra, Indonesia, while Nadine is back in Omaha, Nebraska spending quality time with her family and obtaining some necessary commodities, one can of Dr. Pepper and a package of Reeses cups. Not too prevalent in SEA.

As soon as Nadine departed from Krabi International Airport heading back to Omaha, I was officially on my own to explore. Immediately, I went down to the highway and hailed down a sawngthaew in the rain. A sawngthaew is a small truck with two benches in the back that serve as a sort of taxi. I did arrive back to my hostel safely. First trip on my own completed safely!

Next morning, I jumped on a van that would take me back to Penang, Malaysia via Hat Yai in southern Thailand. This is the same van that we took less than a week earlier. What made this trip even more special is that I was sharing my seats with two really large Kazakastan guys living in Thailand learning Thai boxing. I am pretty sure that they aren't going to find anyone in their weight range as Thais tend to be pretty thin.

From Penang, I was going to jump on a ferry and scoot over to the sixth largest island in the world, Sumatra, answer to last weeks question, thus Hermano Domingo and Pepper's names in the title, and go visit a few orangutans. The entire reason I was going to Sumatra was see some orangutans in the wild Sumatran jungle.

Indonesia happens to be the fourth most populated country in the world with a population of 250 million people trailing only China, India, and the U.S. Indonesia is 90% Muslim, thus making it the largest Muslim country in the world. Ironcially, Sumatra has a large Christian population making it roughly 50/50 division between Muslim and Christian. Sumatra is one, and the largest, of 17,508 islands in the Indonesian archipelago. Sumatra has experienced alot of tragedy in the last 3 years though. In 2003, a flood ravaged the town of Bukit Lawang. In a span of 10 minutes, a large wall of water released from a broken mountain lake swept through taking 325 homes and 280 lives with it, 6 backpackers included. In December of 2004, the Christmas Day tsunami hit the northern Aceh region and killed many more people along the way. Combine this with the Bali bombings on the other half of Indonesia, and tourism has suffered. As a result, the island of Sumatra is practically void of tourists and backpackers. Thus, that is what held the appeal for me to go there, lack of people. Nadine was never eager to visit Sumatra, because of the possible presence of malaria, according to government websites we checked. Thus, while she was her family, that left me the opportunity to go to the "island."

Seated on a ferry for 6 hours, I looked around and noted that I was 1 of two tourists. Ironically, the other tourist was American. We haven't encountered many Americans in our travels, so finding one of this ferry was surprising. Arriving into the port of Belawasi, I was ushered, as the random tourist, to the front of the line to get my Indonesian tourist visa. From that point, I would be subjected to a very common discomfort, Indonesian public transport! I boarded a heated bus packed full of other passengers. The result was instant sweat, a sticky body, and a feeling of fatigue and exasperation. That wouldn't be the first time. Our bus took another 2 hours to get to Medan.

On the bus, I was approached by Adam, a friendly enough guy. He joked with these two unique foreigners about orangutans, the traffic we were stuck in, and Indonesians. Adam was a tout. Being a travel veteran, I never saw it coming. I went with him to visit a nice hostel, exchange money, buy a mosquito net, because there wasn't any mosquito nets where I was going (there was!), and a place to eat. In the end, I was ready to get away from him. When I woke up at 7:30 in the morning, guess who is waiting for me down in the lobby, yep, Adam. If you see Adam in Sumatra, don't ask him to sell you a mosquito net.

Finally away from Adam and his buddies, I was on my first, of way too many on this 5 day trip, mini-van to Bukit Lawang and subsequent orangutans. Let me explain these mini-vans. These mini-vans stop often to pick-up and drop off passengers along the way. These mini-vans are not air conditioned, that's not really expected, but they are crammed full of people. Just imagine your small Chryselor van with an extra row of torn plush seats. Now put an extra person in that row for the amount of seats, hang a few from the door, and a couple more on top for safety, and now you have an accurate picture of this mini-van. Just add 4 hours and quite possibly the worst road ever, and you have the making of a good story. I can't say for sure that it is the worst road ever, because on our honeymoon, Nadine and I rode with Gonzo to the village of Cusmapa in Nicaragua and bounced around the entire time there too. At least then, we didn't have 18 people in the van. This road ressembled an area where several bombs fell recently. Our van jumped around it like had some pumped up hydros combined with a love for pop music and disco.

Is this bridge really safe to cross with my big pack?

Life in Bukit Lawang was slow. Noone was around. All there was to do was watch the river flow by. AND sign up for a morning trek into the jungle.

Next morning at 7, I took off with Siyan into the jungle. We had made an agreement that if I didn't see any orangutans I didn't have to pay. As we walked, I heard gibbon monkeys in the distant, saw gray mohawk monkeys passing overhead, and the calls of birds, but no orangutans.

This is the friendlier female Sasah

After an hour and a half Siyan found what he was looking for, a set of orangutans. In order to actually see these animals, we had to part from the trail and tramp through the jungle floor. There in front of us, a female orangutan was hanging from a tree branch in all its hairy glory. Siyan told me that there were two orangutans. Oh, the other one was a male. And it's mating season. After my first photo of the female, I then saw the male. Suddenly, Siyan told me to run as the male was coming after us. You can imagine this situation, excitement of seeing my first orangutan in the wild, alarm in having to flee from the "jungle people" with a backpack across my chest and camera fumbling in my hands. As we backtracked, now on the trail, we saw the male in full form with his arms hanging the length of his torso. Once again, he began making his way towards us and once again we backtracked. As this all transpired, I have to say that I had immediate respect for this creature. Amazing, yet powerful. Unique and at the same time similar to a few people I know back in New Mexico. We continued this cat and mouse game until Siyan took out three of the mangos he picked up along the way and threw them to Abdul and Sasah. This kept the male at bay for the next 20 minutes.

So that is Abdul

After the male was pacified, it was time for the female to show off for two hairless monkeys. She climbed up trees, swung from branches, slid down tree trucks upside down. I just sat there and soaked it all up and tried to get in a few decent photos. That was until the female was 5 feet in front of us and hanging from a branch. Suddenly the branch broke and this female orangutan fell on its back and sulked over to the male while Siyan and I had a good laugh. A couple of minutes later, Sayah came back towards us and hanging from a different branch took a swipe at my head. Fortunately she missed. Alright, 30 minutes of studying the actions of the orangutans and noting thier physical similiarities to us humans, feet, hands, arms, head, and for a few, a body covered in hair, we began our track back to town and the chance for another mini-van to Berstagi. It was definitely worth the money Siyan earned and much more.

Abdul coming towards us the second time

Along the way back to my hostel, we saw 3 more orangutans. A mother with a young child and an infant orangutan. By the way, if you didn't know, the word "orangutan" comes from the Bahasa language. Orang means person or people while utan means jungle. Jungle people. The whole experience made the trip to Sumatra, Indonesia worth it.

On the 4 and a half hour mini-van back to Medan, at one point, I counted a total of 25 people in, on, and around our mini-van. Once in Medan, I was on another crowded bus to the town of Berastagi and its large green statue of a cabbage dedicated to their ability to grow this vegetable. I'd be proud too. I also attended mass at one of the most unique looking Catholic churches I've ever seen. At Saint Francisco Assisi, this church was a combo of Muslim, Buddhist, and Christian architecture, while the interior had wooden pews on the far left, plastic blue chairs on the far right, and mats down the middle. I pulled up a seat next to locals directly on the mat.

Our confused transport to Tuk Tuk

From Berastagi, I rode 3 mini-vans to the port town of Parapat. From Parapat, I would jump on a ferry and leave the next morning to Tuk Tuk, a small town on Samosir Island in the middle of Lake Toba. Of note, Indonesia has an alarming rate of man made destruction of their forests and there are forest fires that are currently blanketing parts of Indonesia and well as countries east of Indonesia. It has been in the international news. Because of that, the sky was gray. In the morning, aboard the ferry, our ferry captain got lost in the cloudy atmosphere. He was literally swerving across the lake trying to find land. Eventually he saw it. Tuk Tuk gave me a chance to relax and swim in the gray horizon for a day.

Where does the sky end and the water begin? Take the plunge! I dare ya.

My time here has come to an end and I can characterize my solo adventure to Indonesia with three unique items, grandeur of seeing orangutans in the jungles of Bukit Lawang, solitude of Lake Toba, and the horrible act of taking public transport daily in Indonesia in 5 rushed days. I finished my time in Indonesia by scrapping my return ticket by ferry to Malaysia and splurging for a $35 Air Asia plane ticket. Well worth the price.

To complete my adventure and stories from Indonesia, as I waited at the Medan airport, a security guard walked over to a souvenir shop and picked up a chess set. As he was walking back to his security station, I offered to play him. I sat there playing chess with a security guard while people passed the security checkpoint unchecked. There were more important things going on. We finally played to a draw and he was able to return to work and insure the safety of the airport terminal.

Life is good. Nadine is still in Omaha until the 24th when she comes back to Thailand. I am going to make my way back to Thailand, so I can be waiting for her with open arms and a big kool-aid smile.

Question - What is the fifth most populous country in the world?

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardships as the pathway to peace.

Peace
JW

The title of this blog probably has you wondering, "what the heck is John talking about?" Just wait until the end of the blog and I will drop a little knowledge on you.

Since the last entry, Nadine and I have traveled north from Georgetown, Malaysia to Krabi, Thailand. Our time in Malaysia was great, but after 3 weeks of easy traveling there, we were ready to head to Thailand for a bit of a change. We booked a mini-van that would take us to the border and then on up to Krabi. Our van turned out to be a smallish van, thus the name mini-van, but much smaller than those other Mercedes-Benz mini-vans those other people were taking. Finally arriving into Krabi 10 hours later, my long legs, especially compared to the Malaysians, were ready for a bit of a stretch and freedom.

I say to this ad in Malaysia, No, you bite me Munchies!

One thing becomes apparent immediately in Thailand, things are cheaper! Food is cheaper. Beer is cheaper. Transport is cheaper. Lodging is really much cheaper. And these are all good things. Our first night, instead of hitting a restaurant, we sauntered over to the night market and the couple of dozen of stalls serving some mildly spicy to man I'm sweating spicy Thai food. We saddled up to the table, ordered some noodles and soup, and enjoyed the cool evening weather. At the end of the night, our meal and beer set us back a good 160 baat ($4). Needless to say, every night we've spent in Krabi has included a nice little dinner at the night market.

FRREEEEEEDDDOOMMMMMMM!!!

After visiting the windy Ao Nang beach, we jumped on a longboat destined for Hat Rai Leh (pronounced in a Texas accent, Hat Ray Lay). A longboat is just what it sounds like, a skinny boat that is, well, long, and carries 10 to 12 people somewhat safely. You could probably only fit 4 to 5 chubby New Mexicans though. The propeller is located at the very end of a long pole, thus allowing it to motor through shallow waters. We followed our travel rule for Hat Rai Leh, and stayed there 3 days. We stay somewhere 3 days to get a good feel for it unless it stinks. And Hat Rai Leh definitely did not stink.

Rai Leh is renowned as being a spot for rockclimbing at all levels. Nadine, being the excellent climber that she is, had been looking forward to Rai Leh for a long, long time. She was at her rockclimbing Graceland. We found the King still alive, King Climbers that is, and set aside a day with our smiling guide Chau to climb 1-2-3, the three climbing areas located on the east side of Rai Leh Beach. Being a little lax with instruction and all those unnecessary safety rules, Chau was eager to have us climb. We jumped in our harnasses and climbing shoes and started crawling all over the limestone surface of, I believe, area #2. I could be wrong on that though. We finished the morning with 4 fun climbs each at an average of 10 meters (30 feet) in height. After lunch, a quick power nap and a shower, we returned to 1-2-3. It was during the afternoon that we took on the tallest climb that either one of us had ever attempted. In the end, we both conquered the 100 foot mammoth climb with an awesome view of the area to boot. It's at that point as you take in the beach, jungle, cliff, and sea views from 100 feet that you realize that you are putting alot of trust in a thin rope, a small piece of metal, and that small little human down there at the bottom. Since you are reading this, relax, I did make it down safely AND I didn't wet my pants. Nadine did though.

Is that Nadine stuck between a rock and another rock?

We did more than rock climb at Rai Leh, we ate lots of pineapple, watermelon, and bananas. We tasted the absolute best fried cashew and chicken noodles we'd ever tasted. So if you are in Hat Rai Leh anytime soon, go visit The Rock cafe, you won't be disappointed with that tasty dish. If you are disappointed, I will finish it off for you. In addition to eating, we've had a busy schedule of strolling along the beach. The one personality that I am going to remember about Hat Rai Leh, other than the people and amazing geography is this one wet dog we nicknamed Sardine the Dog. Everytime we went somewhere, morning or evening, we'd look out towards the water and see this blond dog jumping and chasing sardines. We never saw him dry once in three days. At least for his sake, fleas don't have a chance living on him, they would all drown within an hour.

Nadine and I both attempt to respect the local culture by trying to speak a little of the local Thai language. We did a decent job in Malaysia and Singapore and an excellent job in the Cook Islands, New Zealand, and Australia, as our English was right on. Thailand has proved to be a bit more of a challenge. Taking a strategy my good ol' Dad taught me when I was younger, I associate words with different things. Teaching French and Spanish, I do a decent job with Latin based languages and you would expect that a little Thai wouldn't trip me up. But Thai has proven to be a bigger challenge. It is a language that contains 5 different levels of intonation and messing it up can easily change the meaning of a word. Thus, when I try, and this is a big try, to speak Thai, I use word association to help me. In order to simply greet someone and say hi, you say sa-wat-dii khrap. But when you pronounce it somewhat correctly, it sounds like "So what the crap." Thus the title of our little blog entry. So if someone yells at you "So what the crap." Don't be alarmed, they must be trying to speak a little Thai with you, simply smile and respond with "sa-wat-dii khrap." If they approach you without a smile, run!

Could this be the world's best beach?

We are both in good health, Nadine still healing from the bed bug bites, but we've learned of some bad news while in Kuala Lumpur. Nadine's grandma, Betty, passed away from cancer. She lived a good life. We knew going into the trip that she may pass away. We felt it best that Nadine return to the States to be with her family. She is currently in route back to Omaha for a week. My thoughts and prayers are with them all.

While Nadine is back with her family, I am free to run around for a week on my own and explore. I felt it would be appropriate to visit some of Nadine's extended family over in Indonesia at the Bohorok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center. www.orangutans-sos.org This also gives me a chance to get off of the beaten path and not many people visit this part of Indonesia.

They're both beauts

Life is good and full of adventure and we are grateful to be doing what we are doing. Life is short and precious. Travel makes me realize the importance of friends and family in my life. I also stay in written contact better with family and friends when I travel. So, feel free to meet up with us in South East Asia. We will teach you a few Thai expressions.

Question of the week: What is the world's sixth largest island?
Please read carefully: whoever gets this correct, I will put your first name, given to you by your parents, in the title of the next entry.

Peace
JW

If you're going through hell, keep going.
- Winston Churchill

"Peace to the country and the people."

Since our last entry, Nadine and I have crossed the middle of peninsular Malaysia going south and then turned around and went north up the western coast to Penang, just south of the Thai border. Tomorrow we are going to head to the beaches of Thailand and Krabi. A lot has happened since our last entry.

Today's title to the blog entry, with much effort and coercing, was courteous of Matthew Pepper. He correctly answered the question that "lima" is the number "5" in Malay as well as the capital of Peru. All those degrees are paying off.

How about a strawberry shake and strawberries and whip cream with your strawberries?

Upon our arrival in Tarah Rata in the Cameron Highlands, we were welcomed with cool temperatures. We took this time to clean our grungy clothes and enjoy the cool weather. The third day arrived, and we decided we should actually see part of the Cameron Highlands area other than the hostel and the main road. We joined a morning tour of the area. First stop was a Buddhist Temple and then the Rose Centre. Ahhh, the Rose Centre, how much fun can a bunch of flowers be? Well, the Rose Centre was actually worth the visit. It was a multi-leveled terrace with views of the underlying valley, thousands of roses and non-roses, and random Disney characters standing among the vegetation. Who would have imagined Snow White and the Seven Dwarves waiting for us, the White family?

Chillin' on my broken Disney bike.

We followed the Rose Centre with another masculine spot, the Butterfly Farm. Did we sign up for the sissy New Mexican tour? The Butterfly Farm did have some redeeming qualities, snakes, lizards, large black scorpions, turtles, toads, and, yeah, a few thousand butterflies. I went into it apprehensive, but the chance to have all of these nasty animals crawl over my body made it well worth the 3 ringgit entry fee. The final stop of any importance was a tea plantation which rendered some amazing views of all the tea plantations below. I also took advantage to taste all of the free sweet peach tea in the BOH gift shop.

That's where tea comes from?

From the highlands, we took the curvy and swaying bus down the highlands to Kuala Lumpur, and Nadine's stomach did return to normal. In Kuala Lumpur, we had an interesting time. First day, we made our way around, near, close to, but not quite to the fourth largest tower in the world, the K.L. Tower. You would think with all of our travel experience, that making our way to the fourth largest tower in the world would be easy, towering over the city. It took us a little over an hour to reach it. We could have walked to it in 40 minutes easily. And we never actually walked to the tower. Finally, a guy asked us if we would like to have a ride to the base of it. Sure!!! From the top, you could make out the hazy outlines of a building, a bridge, and something else. There was a combo of haze, clouds, and pollution blocking our panoramic view.

Second day in Kuala Lumpur, K.L. to locals, we got out early and headed towards the largest set of twin towers in the world, the Petronas Towers. To visit the towers, you get in line in the morning and you are given a time in which you can climb 41 stories to the bridge connecting the towers. In high season, it can be tough to get these free tickets, but since we are here in the shoulder season, it wasn't tough at all. Once on the bridge, we could see more clearly the area surrounding us, compared to K.L. Tower. Better look quick though, to keep the flow of people moving, you only have 10 minutes. Fine with us. Back on level ground, we obtained two more tickets for the afternoon. Hey, it's free, great view, and it's quite popular.

But what is it that they really know?

As any good traveller knows, you need to have a roll of toilet paper with you at all times in case the situation arises that you have to go, confronted with a squat toilet, and have no t.p. We went to a local store to purchase a roll or two, but the smallest package available was only with 10 rolls. What are you going to do, go without? No way, we walked out with the 10 roll package. Now we have to find somewhere to put it in our bags.

To complete the day, we headed to Chinatown and the festivities there. Walking around among stiffling heat and the constant requests to buy a watch, haven't bought one in a decade, we decided to hide in a t-shirt store. It was here that I saw the absolute best t-shirt that I have seen on the entire trip. Up on the wall was a yellow shirt in light brown print, Oklahoma. That's not so great until you know what was on the shirt with Oklahoma. It was their picturesque ideal of Oklahoma, sunsets over a secluded beach and palm trees everywhere! Ha, that was great. In my five years living there, I can't recall a single spot of land that was directly by the ocean lined with palm trees, but I guess that must be the image of Oklahoma by Malaysians. I would have bought several of these shirts, but there was only one left, and it was a small. Must be a popular choice. I know I loved it.

Our first night in K.L., we stayed at a hostel that was a little shabby. At night, we saw several cockroaches scurrying across the floor in the hallways. One night was enough there. After our next night, maybe we should have stayed there. Second night in K.L., we moved to Le Village, a hostel with good reviews in our guidebook. We arrived and thought this place was going to be nice. That was during the day, at night completely different story. At night, the bed bugs came out to play and feast on all of the residents. As we attempted to sleep with loud noise coming from our deaf Japanese neighbors packing, we felt crawling on our legs. All of that was enough to wake us up and do a proper search of the place. It was then that we found these small bed bugs all over. From then on, Nadine didn't sleep and spent the night in the lounge area with a fellow female traveler who also couldn't sleep due to the bed bugs. This was all after an exhausting day in the heat of K.L. I showered, sprayed bug spray on my body, and jumped in my sleep sheet and got 4 hours of disturbed sleep. Promptly at 6 a.m., waking up a 6 a.m. on this trip!, we were out the door and finding a bus to Melaka. While in Melaka, we discovered the damage from the bed bugs, both of our backsides were covered in bites. We'll bring them with us to Thailand tomorrow.

After two horrendous nights of sleep in K.L. and 3 months of hostels, we decided we were going to stay in an actual hotel! We found a three star hotel on sale for 90 ringgits, $27 U.S., and stayed three nights. As a result, we loved Melaka. The highlight of Melaka, outside of the Emperor Hotel, was the night market in Chinatown. We strolled the market trying chocolate covered strawberries, pastries filled with exotic fillings, hopefully not too exotic, and some Tiger beer sitted by a road vendor. In all of our travels, we haven't bought any real souvenirs other than postcards and spoons for my mom. Here, we went crazy. We bought three things. A painting, a nightlite, and some placemats. They should now be on their way to the States via a very slow ship. Let's hope that they beat us home. Amongst our walking, food, and shopping, we stumbled on to the area where locals can try their best at kareokee. We pulled up a chair and witnessed a lady singing in Chinese in a very high screechy voice and an elderly man danced around with a red fan in his hand all while passerbys plugged their ears staring at the stage. This was hilarious. Too bad we forgot our camera.

The second time was just as good as the first free visit.

From Melaka, we have made our way to the busy and dirty city of Penang. We have met some interesting people. A couple who left England with plans to travel for 3 years around the world, but changed their minds and extended it to 5 years. Another pair of friends who are biking from Australia to Swizterland. It should be some rough going over water. Bonded and ran into randomly with the Dutch couple from the horrible hostel in K.L.

Life is good. We will go to Thailand tomorrow and the town of Krabi. I am feeling well, but Nadine has a head cold right now. She is getting some rest in a bed bug free, air conditioner colded room as I write.

If anyone would like to spend a carpe diemish Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Years break in South East Asia with some cool folks, you are invited to join us for a bit. Even if you don't think we are cool, you're still invited. We have a pretty relaxed schedule in that we don't have to be anywhere until Valentine's Day in Hong Kong, China, so we could meet up with yall anywhere.

Peace
JW