Kuala Lumpur to Krabi

 The taxi got to our hotel right at 3AM and just before 4 we were at the airport. We used the AirAsia machines to get our boarding passes and after a coffee fix for Caro we headed to the immigration area.

But first we had to go through an Air Asia weigh check point. I put my carry on onto the weigh scale. It was 11.45 Kilos.NO good the AirAsia lady said (7 kg is the max).I know this so I stated that we had purchased an extra 20 kgs for our extra weight. Nope! We actually had to “check” anything over 7 kgs. Back to the machines we went and printed baggage tags and then proceeded to the luggage drop line. Caro put hers on the weigh scale and it was OK so down the conveyor it went. Now my turn. Oops 4-5 kgs over the 20 kg (between our two suitcases) we originally paid for so I was incorrect in assuming that any weight less than the 7 kilos for carry on would be applied towards our checked in baggage total weight. Sigh! So now we go to another line and pay the extra $30ish Canadian dollars bringing our total baggage cost to about $C120 (pre-paid and today’s cost). Now we are good so my luggage disappears down the conveyor-hopefully to be reunited with Caro’s!

After immigration and two separate security checks we were set.

Our flight went smoothly, our luggage made it, we cleared immigration, and probably 30 minutes after landing we were in a taxi on our way to beaches at Ao Nong.

We had arrived so early here that there was no way our room would be ready for hours so we after getting a tour set up for tomorrow we paid $C8 each for a return trip on a “long tailed” boat to Railay beach (probably 25 minutes away). The long tailed boats are those that have a gas motor attached to a 10 foot (or so) long propellor shaft. The balance/pivot point is just off the motor so the boatman can easily manipulate  the propellor shaft for directional control.

Railay beach was very nice and while there was a tremendous number of people there it didn’t feel overwhelming. In fact when Caro went out for a swim I fell asleep on the beach (in the shade of course)

Upon our return we did some shopping, changed some cash (can’t get rid of the extra Cambodian money we had left over; no one wants it).

We have now completed setting up all our anticipated tour, flights and hotels. We are flying Monday morning back to Bangkok on a new (to us) Airline. We will have to “check”our bags like today. We have also decided that once we are on our way home we will “check” the suitcases (included in our ticket costs already on Air Canada) as if they don’t arrive with us we are home anyway.

We relaxed in our room, then proceeded to watch a glorious sunset.

We walked around a bit and the interesting thing is you can find A LOT of cannabis stores but almost no liquor stores. 

This is a very cosmopolitan resort area and we especially noticed that our resort (which is ocean front, except for the main road) has many families with young children.

We ate supper at the hotel. We had Thai food-totally awesome.

Across the road from our resort.

KL Bird Park

 We had a decent night of sleep last night and this morning we spoke to all the kids via FaceTime.

We booked our second last night in Bangkok (just added a night to our previous booking). This hotel is right beside BKK airport in Bangkok.The only important planning left to do is the flight from Krabi to Bangkok and I wanted to wait til we get to Thailand as this airline is new to us and I want to get info from people who may have used it (especially in regards to baggage fees).

We also made arrangements for a 3 AM (!!) taxi pickup here at our hotel. We had to pre-pay with cash so I had to go to the mall and get some Canadian cash exchanged (at a VASTLY better rate than at the airport exchange rate LOL).

Back on the metro we went again with our stopping point one stop before Sentral. Once off the LRT we had a fabulous view of the worlds second tallest building (called Merdeka 118)

Our ultimate goal was to get to a huge park near the Center of the city. Here there is the largest “Free Flight Walk-in Aviary” in the world. We walked quite a ways to get to the aviary as it is located in the middle of the park and we should have used a short cut (my fault on that -of course the extra steps did add up nicely; 17,000 by 3 PM)

Wonderful birds there. Most were in cages but many were free roaming (and of course there was netting above so nothing could fly in or fly out).

There were also a troop of monkeys.

And finally a photo of an owl that,I think will be what we look like in he morning!

Caro had really wanted to see the orchid and hibiscus gardens in the park as well however they were closed so some disappointment there.

We walked out of the park and made our way over to Sentral station where we got on the LRT and were back to our hotel by about 3 PM. I ate something that my body is rejecting (!) so we are staying here in the afternoon (just in case)!

Tonight,  all being well, we will spend our last Malaysian Ringgit at the outdoor food market (easy to remember the name of “that” currency, don’t you think?).

Kuala Lumpur-the city of sky scrapers.

 We had an awesome sleep last night and really didn’t get mobile until about 8:30 this morning.

Breakfast at the hotel was really good. We tried different types of food and it was really tasty (not sure when it happened exactly but I have become a bit of a foodie!).

The day started with us catching the metro and eventually making it to Baku Caves. The first thing to notice is the LARGE number of stairs to climb to get to the main cave

If I recall correctly there are 272 steps for us to climb; you can see the people working their way up the brightly coloured stairs behind me.

We knew it was a sacred spot for the Hindu’s and so we expected that Caro would have to use a skirt. The internet information failed us as I had read we could rent a skirt for about a dollar (rather than Caro having to carry her Thailand purchased skirt around all day with us). That info was false and she had to buy (at about $C5 it wasn’t the end of the world),

As we progressed up the stairway I couldn’t help noticing how filthy and dirty the place was. There were hundreds, if not thousands of plastic water bottles all over the place. Really third world stuff! Caro later found out that yesterday was the final day of a religious festival called Thaispusam. Upwards of a million people participate with multiple tens of thousands coming to the cave site. In fact there were still some activities going on. We saw people (men, women, and children, getting their heads brush cut and having some kind of yellow colouring placed in their remaining hair). Anyway once we knew the reason for the volume of trash it all made sense (cleaners were hard at it when we arrived).

The cave is massive and has a number of shrines inside (with people participating in ritual as we wandered on by). The following two photos are inside the primary cave.

After returning from the main cave we went to a couple of smaller caves which contained Hindu gods and Hindu stories written out on the placards to read. These caves were lit up in various colours and even the roofs had been painted.

We took the metro (called LRT here, like in Edmonton) back to Sentral station (which incidentally is big as it has to accommodate 5 or 6 separate types of transportation lines in it).

We were hungry by then (2:30 ish) and went to the mall attached to the station and had some chicken/noodle combination in some fancy sauce-really tasty!

After arriving back at the hotel we got into our swimming gear and spent time at the pool. Actually we spent most of our time looking at the monster high rises being build right beside us.

First a photo of  the closest (to us) Petronas tower taken last night from our bedroom window.

Next, a photo of an 80 story building going up right beside us. It is located (from our point of view in hotel) to the left of the Petronas tower. If I had turned the camera sideways I could have got both buildings in a single photo (but obviously not show the heights).

Although I don’t have a photo of it, the second tallest building in the world is also located here in Kuala Lumpur

Tonight we went out for street food in the night market right next door. I took the following photo at that time. Our hotel is 12 stories high and is in the foreground, right hand side. One of the Petronas towers is behind our hotel, the 80 story one under construction is the one on the left hand side of this photo and access to KLCC park is between the 80 story building and the building in the middle of the photo.

We went back to KLCC park to watch the water fountain show (and, as stated before, to gaze at the most beautiful modern buildings I have ever seen!). Tonight the fountains had a show set to music and it was a much moe interesting experience than last night. 

As Caro mentioned on the way back to the hotel “it was another wonderful day”.

Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

 Vichet picked us up at 5:15 AM and 30 minutes later we were at the airport.

The Phnom Penh airport does things differently than I have seen before. Everybody watches the big board and at some point about three specific check in counters (out of the total of 43 in the airport) are designated to your flight (there appear to be no designated check in counters for specific airlines).

Immigration and security went very quickly and efficiently with no problems at all. Our flight left on time and although it was a rough, bouncy trip we arrived two hours later at Kuala Lumpur airport. I sailed through immigration but Caro was hassled by her immigration officer who wanted to see our return flight and the name of our hotel.

We have learned in the past that we need to get some local cash as soon as we arrive so we went to a money change place in the airport. YIKES! He would only take the bigger bills of our Cambodian money and gave us less than half value ( we checked with two other money change places in the city and they won’t change it all). I also changed $C100 and he took 8.3% from us.

We caught the express train into Sentral and there we had to switch to the LRT. We had some back and forth confusion as to how to get the tickets (have to buy from a machine) but it was not long before we were on our way to the KLCC stop.

We used google maps to find our hotel and actually it is really close to the LRT, it’s just we went out of the  mall/station building the wrong way.

We were checked in about 1:30 PM and after that we went to the shopping mall (which is actually attached to the LRT) and we ate some lunch. 

Early impressions are favourable. The whole country seems very clean (no filth on the streets like in Vietnam and Cambodia). The drivers obey signs and lights and we have no fear that our lives are in danger when we step off the curb.

We fumbled our way to the KLCC park and the location of the Petronas twin towers ( at one point they were the tallest buildings in the world.). Turns out they are super close and easy to get to.

After some quiet time in the room we ventured out again at 7:30 PM to watch the water fountain light show at KLCC park. The twin towers slowly lit up as dusk, and then sunset occurred. Without exaggeration I will say that those towers at night may be the most beautiful lit up modern buildings I have ever seen. It was surreal to look at them. 

By 8:30 PM we were back in the room.

The Killing Fields

 Fair warning for those reading this update, there are disturbing photos!

We had a wonderful breakfast again.

“Our guy ”Vichet” picked us up right on time at 9 AM. We motored through the city heading south and after about 45 minutes we came to Choeung Ek Genocidal Center. Here is one of the numerous locations in Cambodia where Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge killed upwards of three million people (and without bullets; instead using hatchets, hoes, rocks etc after starving the people). We were given audio guides to listen to as we walked around the site. It was truly awful to hear some of the stories of those who survived this time period (late 70’s).In fact I had to stop listening to them.  In this  particular camp, graves have been found for almost 8,000 people (including babies and children).

Those are not tree branches on the ground and the cloth is not some random garbage.

If you wish, read the sign beside this tree (truly horrible information)

This is only a small part of the dug up remains of the people killed (only skulls were placed here). I could have taken a photo from some distance away showing MANY racks of skulls.

Once we finished, it was back to the tuk-tuk and we went back to the city, with our next stop being the Russian market (the name comes from the time only Russian goods were being brought into the country). Caro did some serious souvenir shopping and we both picked up a piece of clothing.

I suspect this wiring is not up to code!

After that it was to our final stop; the S-21 prison camp, where we saw photos of the prisoners, oh which only seven people survived as after being tortured and starved they would have been shipped to the extermination camps like we saw in the morning. I am glad we went out to the killing fields earlier as the impact in S-21 prison was much greater knowing what happened to these poor people afterwards.

After returning to our hotel we went up.to the pool area for a couple of beers, While enjoying the sunshine Caro got an e-mail from AirAsia reminding us of the requirement for a Malaysian electronic entry form. This was news to us that we needed one. Apparently it started on Jan 1/24. Off we went to our room and completed the form on-line. Other than some misunderstanding on our part regarding how to enter certain information it went smoothly.

Supper was at the poolside restaurant again to watch the sunset.

Time to pack. Our ride gets here at 5:15 AM

Phnom Penh First full day

 We are right next door to the Royal Palace so we walked there; and of course EVERY tuk-tuk driver thinks we need a ride! LOL-we need our steps!

We found our way to the ticket office and paid $US10 each to go in. The place is immaculate and the buildings are beautiful. There are not a lot of items to see inside the buildings like many of the places in Europe but what there was, was top notch!

After going back to the hotel for a few minutes to change out of our “temple” clothes we proceeded almost right back to in front of the palace (which is located with a beautiful view of the river; essentially right where the Tonle Sap River joins the Mekong River). From there we wandered down the river promenade looking for any tour boats (this was still morning time).

We made it to Wat Ounalom and it was there we succumbed to a Tuk-Tuk driver’s offer of a ride.He had an itinerary that included a series of stops and an eventual ferry right back across the river. So for $US20 we got in with V. (I forget his name however I will see again tomorrow so can try again to get his name!). Anyway, a super nice guy and we got along extremely well (which is good because we are very sure we paid WAY too much but he is worth a few extra dollars from us)

A stop or two later after going over a bridge to an island we were at the Golden Temple

Later, on our way to the Monkey Temple (there are real monkeys there-I just didn’t bother to take photo’s -and I forgot to mention that there were a lot of monkeys at the Angkor Wat area as well) some kids hopped on the side of the tuk-tuck, being friendly and real chatty just as we arrived. It became clear after a minute or two that they were begging for money. Not pleasant as they were a little aggressive I thought. Our driver said afterward that they don’t go to school and just wait there for tourists The area is very poor and dirty.

A quick stop at Wat Sampov where there is an old river boat from the Mekong that has been painted up and at certain times of the year is the site of important events.

We caught the ferry from the south side of the big island we were on and I got my “river cruise” fix as we crossed back to the mainland 

One more stop at Wat Botumvatey where we did a quick check of the temple and the cemetery beside it

Arrangements were made with “our guy” for a  9 AM pickup tomorrow and at that time we are off to the “Killing Fields” museum, about 11 km out of the city, followed by an in-town visit to S21 Genocide museum.

We stopped for a late lunch in a little restaurant around the corner; one plate of food, a couple of cups of sticky rice, two cokes and a simple desert for $US5.

We still were having problems withAir Asia’s website so thought we would just go a travel agent to get things straightened out. Turns out there was one a couple steps away from the hotel entrance. Well…..when the agent heard it was a problem with AirAsia he apologized, said he couldn’t do anything and suggested we go to an AirAsia office in a high end mall in the city. We grabbed a Tuk-tuk and $US3 later we were at the mall. The office there was able to accept our payment for excess luggage (7 kilos max is all we are allowed on our tickets) but only in cash so we went next door to an ABM and withdrew money from our checking account. Caro suggested we have them do up our flight from Kuala Lumpur Malaysia to Krabi Thailand so we completed that as well and of course we had to go next door to the ABM again-this time taking a cash advance from our credit card as the amount needed was more than our chequing account daily limit withdrawal.

The ride back to our hotel was really nice..

Caro went up to the swimming pool area to read while I wrote this up. Below is a photo she took while up there..

Tonight we went up to the rooftop restaurant and had a wonderful meal with gentle background music, a RUM, nice food and fabulous weather. It was so nice just sitting there in the beautiful weather enjoying the moment.