Flight Home

The flight home was extremely long. We had to get up at 3:30 in the morning to try to avoid getting held up by the new security regulations at the airport. Then we flew to Tokyo for about 6 hours, had a 2 hour layover, and then another 9 hour flight home, with someone snoring as loud as possible all the way home. That meant that I didn't get any sleep (or barely any).

When I got out of the airport in SFO, there was a news crew waiting for people to talk about their experiences with the new security checks. Ours was actually pretty smooth. Being as tired as I was, of course I obliged and apparently I got on the news sometime that day. I don't remember the channel and didn't see it myself, but a few people have pinged me and let me know that they saw me on TV. That was the highlight of the trip home I think.

Last Day in Singapore

I didn't report on the last day that we spent in Singapore, so I'll update this blog now. During our last day, we went with Carolyn to Sentosa Island, where there is the biggest compilation of rides, games, and activities in all of Singapore. They are even building a Universal Studios there.

There is a downhill street luge activity there, which is basically a go kart type of vehicle without a motor, and you just barrel down hill until the end. It does have brakes though. Ravi and Carolyn had done the street luge before and Carolyn at least was raving about how much fun it was. She was absolutely right. It was the thrill of Sentosa. We had three races down hill and three ski lifts up to the top of the hill. I must boast that I did pretty well on the luge, and Liz couldn't seem to gain momentum because her friction coefficient seemed higher than her gravitational pull down the hill. She managed to get down it though. Carolyn was definitely mean competition though. It was lots of fun.

Look Right

Without even thinking about it, Erik and I planned an entire vacation where they drive on the wrong (left) side of the road. I have traveled enough in commonwealth countries to know that I should look right before crossing the street, but that requires consciously thinking that I am in a commonwealth country. At my first attempt crossing the street in Hong Kong, this thought had not yet occurred to me, so I looked left before stepping off the curb to head toward the median strip. Good thing Erik saw that bus coming from the other way and pulled me back on the sidewalk. After that brush with death, I was a little worried about adjusting back to the normal way of doing things. Thankfully, there were no close calls with buses, cars, or even bicycles, when I crossed from the parking structure to my building at work this morning.

Hard Core

I have always been a wimp about being cold, so you can imagine I was feeling pretty hard core that first day in Hong Kong when I was out in a fleece and decorative scarf and felt perfectly comfortable, as compared to the locals who all seemed to be in heavy winter coats and knit scarves. Then, on our last day in Hong Kong, I bought a coat at an outlet store for about $10 US. It is so light weight. It occurred to me that maybe everyone has heavy LOOKING coats in Hong Kong that are actually these light little things like I bought. In that case my polar fleece would make me quite a wimp...

...Then there was the evening in Singapore when it was 80° and a little breeze made me shiver.

A Full Day Of Animals

Today was fun filled and packed with lots of activities. Liz and I started out at the Singapore Zoo, which I have heard so many great things about. It is a really fun experience, and a surprisingly large park. I am used to the San Diego Zoo, so I am a bit spoiled, but the Singapore Zoo is a great place too. One of the things that I really enjoyed was how the enclosures seem to be very integrated into the public experience. There are places when there are monkeys swinging from vines above your head, and orangutans climb across ropes over the walkway. The highlights of the zoo are the proboscis monkeys, which apparently are the largest captive population of any zoos, the Komodo dragon babies, which haven't been bread successfully here for over 34 years, and I really enjoyed the elephant zoo, which reminded me of elephant shows in America when I was growing up, before there were all sorts of rules put in place about how people and elephants could interact. The downside of the elephant show were the elephants spraying the crowd with water from the moat. We didn't quite realize that we were in the "splash zone" until it was too crowded to move away from it.


When it got dark, Carolyn joined us for the Night Safari. I have been to this the last time that I came to Singapore, and it was still a lot of fun. I think that the animals were more active last time though. For instance, my favorite exhibit were the giant flying squirrels who were flying all over the place last time. This time, they seemed to be on holiday because they were just sitting around eating and looking cute.

Boat Day

New Years Day was full of boats. After sleeping in, it seemed that the best thing to do with the rest of the day was a quick and dirty tour of Singapore on a river cruise. From the cruise you can see most of Singapore's famous buildings and get a pretty good sense of Singapore orientation. Some of the highlights we saw from the boat were the Merlion statue, and the opera house that looks like a pineapple.


After the cruise, we headed into the main part of town to have a steamboat dinner, which is sort of an Asian fondue (known as hot pot in Hong Kong).


Of course, every boat trip has to reach land eventually, and ours landed on a Greek island, when we ended the evening watching "Mamma Mia" at Carolyn's place.

New Years Eve

To all my friends in America, where it is still 2009, I can tell you that 2010 will be exciting and fun. We celebrated New Year's last night on Clark Quay in Singapore with Carolyn and a bunch of her friends from Britain and her Chemistry world. We had a scrumptious dinner of pizza and pasta, and watched fireworks with thousands of other people in the streets. It's nice to head out on New Year's Eve in sandals and shorts.

The Night Train To Singapore

Our last day in KL was mostly spent shopping. There are a lot of little outlet shopping centers to get great knock off products and some real brand name products. It's really hard to tell what you are getting though at them so it's probably better to not trust anything unless you go to one of the higher class malls where everything is double the price of things you can find in America. Anyway, the shopping experience was pretty successful because for about $50, I got a couple new shirts, some pants and some shorts. Sweet.

To get to Singapore, we took an overnight train which leaves KL at 9:30 and gets to Singapore 11 hours later. We had a first class cabin with bunk beds, our own bathroom, a shower, and a TV. It was a pretty fun experience and Liz definitely was laughing at my inflated giddiness for being on a train. Sleeping was pretty good except I kept dreaming of being in an earthquake, and the fact that we had to get up at 6 in the morning for immigration and customs pretty far outside Singapore.

KL Train Tickets Hate Me

Every time we tried to take the light rail or monorail in Kuala Lumpur, something went horribly wrong with my ticket. Some times the ticket reading machine just wouldn't read my ticket. Other times, it would read my ticket, but the gates would not open. I even admit, there was a time or two in which operator malfunction seemed to be the problem. But the best incident was the time in which I put my money into the ticketing machine, and my ticket came flying out of the slot like a bat out of hell, hitting me square in the chest and fluttering to the ground before I could revive from my astonishment and retrieve it.

Bird Park

The first part of today was spent at the Islamic Art Museum, but the second part was spent at the Bird Park in Lake Garden (a large forest reserve and park in the heart of KL). The bird park includes a huge huge aviary filled with mostly peacocks and small white birds that I don't know the name of. They are all over the place. There are quite a few varieties of other birds as well, but they are stealthier and tend to take to the trees and bushes. There are a ton of parrots and other similar birds in smaller internal aviaries. The whole place is pretty impressive and a lot of fun. Unfortunately, there was a massive downpour for about 30 minutes during our stay, but the rest of the time spent there was definitely worth it.

Islamic Art Museum

If you ever find yourself in KL, make sure you get to the Islamic Art Museum. They have an excellent collection of art, including textiles, ceramics, weapons, and jewelery, from Spain to China and everywhere in between. My favorite gallery was the one dedicated to Islamic architecture, where they had scale models of mosques and mausoleums from all over the Muslim world, and excellent descriptions of the key architectural features seen in these buildings depending on when and where they were built. My biggest disappointment, of the 20 or so buildings they featured, I have only been to one (the Taj Mahal). After trekking around a section of the Muslim world a few years ago and visiting almost every notable mosque I encountered, I feel like there should have been more overlap. Then again, the display did include 3 structures from Uzbekistan, and I don't think I have ever heard of a tourist going there.

It is also worth noting the the museum building was itself quite gorgeous, incorporating many classic Islamic motifs such as elaborate tile work and fountains with a modern, airy feel.

How to Shop In Kuala Lumpur

So far we have been quite enjoying our time in Kuala Lumpur, despite the fact that it is hot and humid. While we have done some site seeing, we have also done a fair amount of shopping at the malls and markets. At all of the markets and many of the mall shops bargaining for the best price is key. Here is what we have found to be the most successful way to do it: 1) Identify what you want. 2) Ask the price. 3) Say you are willing to pay 10-15% of what they quoted, then prepare to walk away, but do it slowly. As you start leaving the price will begin to drop dramatically, listen for the last price called out to you as you move to the next stall. 4) Do not turn back and buy the item, move on, you will see it again within a few stalls. 5) Find item again, repeat 1-4. 6) Repeat 1-5. At this point you should have a pretty good idea of what the lowest price for you object of desire will be. At the next stall you find, go through this process, but this time tell them you are willing to pay 30% lower than the low price previously determined. Once they come down to the low price, buy the item. Enjoy!

Corn In Cup

When Erik and I arrived at KL Tower, we were feeling a bit peckish. Luckily we were at a touristy spot, so we quickly spied a cart selling drinks and snacks. The main attraction at this eatery was "corn in cup" and the front of the cart featured a picture of a cup brimming with buttery colored goodness. I thought, "popcorn will hit the spot, and what a funny thing to call it." So, I went up to the cart and gave them my 3 ringits (about $1). Then I got my "corn in cup." As it turns out, this is not popcorn, but rather steamed and lightly buttered fresh kernels of corn. While I was a little surprised, it was quite good, and definitely hit the spot.

Kuala Lumpur

Yesterday, we arrived in Kuala Lumpur. The flight was pretty nice and the train over to our hotel was really convenient. I am impressed with the public transportation here and the modernness of the city. I guess that I was getting too used to Thailand.


After checking into our hotel, we ventured out to the KL Tower, which is the fourth tallest communications tower in the world and has the highest view we can see in KL. It was a great way to get our bearings and check out the city. I'm amazed at all of the tall buildings here. Aside from the tower, they have a little animal and reptile area (all the mammals seemed to be from North America though), a pony ride, and an F1 car simulator. Nothing was that terrific, but they were still fun.


We walked all over the place in the evening and found the Indian part of town, where we picked up some grub. Later, we checked out Chinatown and Petaling street, where there are a million merchants all selling the same cheap clothing items, hand bags, and sunglasses for prices that warrant bargaining. It was kind of fun to walk up and down the street and see what they had to offer.