Found this rather explicit toilet sign in a restaurant in Malaysia. Wonder if they also do signs for squat toilets.
Friday, 14 March 2008
Sunday, 9 March 2008
Malaysian Elections
Like many Asian countries, the deal is that citizen’s can have economic freedom but criticism, protest and dissent are not tolerated. In Malaysia, all the mainstream media are controlled by political parties. Journalists lack freedom of expression and forums for debate just don’t exist. As witnessed by the recent Hindraf protests or the arrest of Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, the Malaysian government will freely use the draconian Internal Security Act laws to squash political opposition. Opponents can be detained without trial indefinitely. This is justified as the way to maintain stability, security and economic growth. It’s also a convenient way for the same party to stay in power.
The biggest issue in Malaysian politics therefore continues to be avoided and that is the unequal treatment of citizens of different races. I don’t see how a country can achieve racial integration when you keep reminding everyone that their race matters.
This latest election brings hope that a more open dialogue will begin. The opposition political parties have gained many new seats and Barisan Nasional has lost it’s 2/3rds majority in parliament which allowed it to push through legislature with impunity. It may force the goverment to listen more but it’s a long road to getting politics balanced.
Saturday, 8 March 2008
K* Turns 9
We got back from Australia on Feb 3rd and spent the month chilling out in Malaysia. We celebrated Chinese New Year and also K*’s 9th birthday. For a treat we took K* and several family members indoor rock climbing at Camp 5. Great facility. We’ve also been kite flying and a done few other local trips.
During the month we have also concentrated on sorting out the remaining few months we have in Asia before we return to the UK. All this travel takes a lot of research and planning. Australia took us to the end of our plans and bookings. It’s a tough life trying to decide where to go next.
One decision we made was that it was time for another diving trip.
Thursday, 6 March 2008
Melbourne
After Uluru, we returned to Melbourne for a few more days before flying back to Malaysia.
According to latest survey by The Economist, Melbourne is the 2nd most liveable city in the world (Vancouver is #1). I can believe it. It’s an easy grid-based city with plenty of green area’s and lots to do. It’s big enough to be interesting but not so big as to be overwhelming. Southeast from Melbourne is the Mornington Peninsual which has some lovely scenic areas and quaint towns. The Dandenong Ranges National Park was a nice place to hike. We also went down to Authurs Seat for fabulous views one day and rode the Puffing Billy another day. There’s lots of parks with ubiquitous BBQ’s for picnics at the drop of a hat.
If I was going to live in Austalia, I would either pick Brisbane or Melbourne to settle in.
Uluru
We’re back in Malaysia but I still need to finish up blogging about Australia. I’m also trying out BlogJet as a way of writing these posts.
From Melbourne we flew to Ayer’s Rock to visit Uluru. In some ways, I had been dreading this part of the trip as it’s the middle of summer and I expected some terrible heat. And, after all, it’s a lot of money to go see a big rock. I couldn’t convince Jenny to drop this part of the trip as she really wanted to see this icon of Australia.
While flying there, you get to appreciate the size of Australia and how much of it is just desert. Miles and miles of nothing.
We got there and sure enough, it was hot – 40 degree’s celsius. However, the humidity is only 10% so it doesn’t feel that bad really. Generally, you do stuff in the morning and late afternoon and laze around the rest of the day. We rented a car so we could easily get about.
I really enjoyed the outback atmosphere. For such a dry place, there’s lot of vegetation. In the evening, there’s an orgy of insect life bouncing around. We saw several lizards and even a small snake. There’s bigger things like kangaroos and camels but we never saw them; they mainly come out at late at night. Of course, there’s also a bazillion flies that want to crawl all over you. By this time, all of us had nets to go over our heads.
We saw the sunrise and sunset at Uluru. The sunset wasn’t too great due to clouds but it was still a good show. We did a couple of walks around the base. We walked around the Olga’s and saw the sunset there too. Jenny and the kids also did a course on dot art painting. We didn’t climb Uluru as the local aborigines request that you don’t.
We stayed three nights at the Outback Pioneer Hotel and Lodge in one of their budget rooms. It’s just bunk beds and a bathroom but it’s great value and comfortable enough. Hotels can be very expensive around Uluru. Recommended.
Friday, 1 February 2008
Adelaide to Melbourne
From Brisbane we flew to Adelaide and picked up our 6-berth campervan so we could meandre our way to Melbourne. This was our first go at a campervan holiday with the kids. We had six days and 1000km to cover.
With all the little detours, we actually covered over 1500km. Dozen's of national parks, dozy little towns and everchanging scenery. Huge streches of beaches with pounding surf. Highlights for me were the bat caves at Naracoorte and the Tower Hill reserve where we spotted wild koala bears and kangaroo's. The Great Ocean Rd scenergy was nice but I think it's rather oversold.
However, I probably won't do a campervan holiday again.
A campervan is good if you like touring and you get to sit in the front seats. You don't get to see much in the back of the campervan and must while the time away as best as you can. A campervan is also quite awkward and ungainly to explore with or drive into a town. Note that there's no insurance coverage for overhead damage, water damange or damage caused if you go on an unsealed road. Once you arrive at a campervan park and settle in, you're pretty much stuck there shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the camping crowd.
On the plus side, the campervan isn't really camping. Ours had a microwave oven, air conditioning and even a DVD player. And it's nice always having a toilet with you unless you're the one that has to empty it.
I think it would be better to have a 4WD vehicle and tow a tent trailer or (dare I say it) a caravan. Then you can leave the tent trailer and go explore with the 4WD.
Sydney to Brisbane
We took the train from Sydney to Armidale and visited a friend there. It's a small university town in the middle of a ranching region. Nice cool climate as it's up on a plateau. It's also very white which was very noticeable. There's lots of Asian's in the more urban area's of Australia. Unfortunately, there was too much pollen in the air so I was overwhelmed by an allergy attack.
From there we took a scenic drive down to Coff's Harbour. It's a nice windy drive through an area reknowned for a great many waterfalls. I discovered there were such a things as dry rainforests. The temperature gradually rises as you get to the subtropical coast.
After some oysters and ice cream at Coff's Harbour, we headed up the coast to Brisbane. Lots of driving. Jenny managed to get a speeding ticket within 90 seconds of taking over the driving from me - 72 kph in a 50 zone. Nasty fine. Not overly impressed with any of the scenery we saw whipping by as we drove north. Lot's of strip development but I'm sure we passed some nice beaches.
In Brisbane, we took the kids to the Wet 'n' Wild Water Park and Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo. The zoo was great. The Irwin's did the croc feeding show and we got to feed the kangaroo's and stroke a koala bear. The museum and art gallery on Brisbane's Southbank were good too.
We didn't have much time but Brisbane impressed me as being very liveable. Doesn't surprise me that lots of people are moving there.
Wednesday, 9 January 2008
Sydney
We're now in Australia for five weeks spending the first ten days in Sydney. I am dead happy to be back in a meat and potatoes country - a land of beer and BBQ's!
I've heard plenty about Sydney beforehand so I had some pretty set expectations. Sure enough, it was everything that I had heard. It's a city that I knew I would like.
Physically, it really is quite similiar to Vancouver but with a warmer climate. Vancouver has a more dramatic setting with the backdrop of mountains while Sydney is quite flat. Sydney harbour has a much longer shoreline with many more waterfront houses and an excellent ferry system. There's more "life" to the harbour. The downtown core of Sydney is smaller with a less impressive skyline than Vancouver. Sydney sprawls out more compared to Vancouver which has a much more restricted space to grow. The architecture of the buildings and houses are similiar. Sydney seems to have a greater stock of cheap old houses which are now getting ripped down and replaced with new ones.
Unfortunately, both cities have nasty traffic problems and very expensive housing. It takes a while to drive anywhere in Sydney. I get the impression that the infrastructure isn't as well maintained in Sydney. It's clean but some of the roads and sidewalks are rundown. I assume that's just tax dollars being spread thinly over a wider area than Vancouver has to deal with. But like Vancouver, I can't afford the houses I would most like to live in.
The lifestyle certainly feels similiar in the two cities and the better climate gives Sydney the edge. Sydney has much better beaches. We spent a great afternoon hanging around on Manley beach. Much better than Kitsalano.
We spent New Years Eve down at MacMahon Point to watch the fireworks. We had a fabulous view and I can honestly say it was the best fireworks display I've ever scene. The fireworks exploded in a wide panorama from two barges, the harbour bridge and eight locations on office block towers in the city. Quite a spectacle.
Taronga Zoo didn't live up to the hype and entrance fee. It has a great location with views towards the city but the zoo itself is nothing special compared to others I've seen. The highlight for us was seeing the Australian animals and the platypus in particular. Alright, the meerkats are very cute too.
The Australian Museum was very good and we're sorry that we ran out of time just as we discovered the hands-on resource center. It had a good installation on Aboriginal history and culture.
We spent a day up in the Blue Mountains and did a short walk from Echo Point in Katoomba. Very pleasant area but not what I would call mountainous. It's worth a lot more exploration. Fantastic scenery.
There's a huge amount of other things to do in Sydney and the local region but we simply did not have enough time. You would need a few months! I have no doubt I would enjoy living here for a year or two. Australia has a much stronger British heritage than Canada but having lived in both countries, Australia feels very comfortable.
Friday, 21 December 2007
Volunteering at Preychrouk School
We were lucky enough to spend a day volunteering at Prechrouk School while we were in Cambodia. Normally volunteers would spend at least two weeks teaching at the school but the Sage Foundation kindly let us volunteer for only a day as one of the Cambodian teachers, Vanak, was happy to have us help him teach English to the Year 8's and 9's.
The school is about an hours drive West of Siem Reap in a rural area not visited by tourists. The road isn't completely paved and the school has no water or electricity. There's no playing field or playground equipment. There's just two buildings: one for the primary school and one for the secondary school. They just have rooms, desks, chairs and blackboards and not much else for 700 students. They study subjects like math, english, khymer, geography, history and the sciences sharing the school between two shifts each day. Half the students study in the morning and half study in the afternoon. There's no fluffy subjects like art and music. There's no sports. There's no clubs.
We spent half a day getting an orientation of the school before the day volunteering. I was pleased to find that the Cambodian branch of Room to Read had provided the school with a library and a basic collection of school books. It's a charity we've donated to in the past. However, for the entire school, we discovered that they only had two dictionaries. That evening, we bought the school six more dictionaries but clearly they're desperately short of resources of every kind.
Vanak teaches 8 classes back to back. We missed the very first one since it started at 7am but we joined him for the other 7 working on the verb "to be" with his students. The class sizes weren't too bad and tended to range from twenty to forty students. The students were great. They're very well behaved, respectful and keen to learn. As in other countries, the really enthusiastic one's tend to sit in the front while some of the more reluctant students sit in the back. It seemed to me that the reluctant one's were just the students having a hard time keeping up with the pace of the class.
Vanak is an excellent teacher and clearly has a lot of fun with his classes. He's keen to be a better teacher but has no resources to help him learn. Cambodia needs a lot more teachers like Vanak but they're in very short supply. Many parts of Cambodia only have schools up to the primary level or none at all. Even if there is a school, it's a challenge to get the parents to consistently send their children to school as an education isn't valued. The children are needed to help with the farming work or sell souveniers to tourists. Ironically, the kids selling souveniers generally have very good language skills that will serve them well to get jobs in the tourism industry when they grow older.
Monday, 10 December 2007
AboutAsia Travel
It's often a struggle to book a holiday. One option is to use a tour agent in your home country but I always feel you pay way too much for what you get. Essentially you're paying for a lot of marketing and sales overhead for a bulk travel product. You can also do it all yourself but it takes a lot of time and research and it's hard to get the itinerary all lined up nicely. You can easily end up paying rack rates and wasting a lot of time.
So an alternative is to find a local travel agency in the country you're visiting. The problem is finding one you can trust not to rip you off and that will customise an itinerary to fit your needs and interests rather that push you through bulk travel tours. The big drawback to these local agents is that you don't have much legal recourse if things go wrong so trust is a major concern.
We arranged our tour of Cambodia through AboutAsia Travel which is quite a unique tour operator run by Andy. Andy lives in Singapore and creates the custom itineraries while his head guide is based in Siem Reap and handles all the ground co-ordination. What is truly unique is that 50% off all the profits from a tour is donated to the Sage Foundation which helps children in Cambodia.
The cost of the tour was very reasonable but even if you think you're paying too much, it feels good to know that half of the profit is going to a good cause. What convinced me to go with AboutAsia Travel was a phone call I had with Andy where we discussed how to structure the itinerary and he clearly knew how to avoid the main tourist traps and offered ways to see Cambodia that many tourists missed. What really clinched it was that he could arrange with the Sage Foundation for a day of volunteer work for our family.
I arranged to pay on arrival rather than a bank transfer but in fact no one asked me for any payment when I got there. After a few days, I insisted it was time to pay and visited their office. Our guide told me it was considered a bit rude to ask for the money up front!
There were a couple of minor mess ups but nothing serious and nothing that they didn't bend over backwards to rectify. Overall, it felt like you were being looked after and that feels very relaxing after being so used to doing everything ourselves.
I managed to meet Andy before I left Siem Reap and had a interesting chat about the business and his work with the Sage Foundation. It's a great business model as it allows tourist dollars to have a direct impact helping local people. Today it's successful without any marketing and a lot of dedication from Andy. His challenge is to scale the business without him putting so many hours into it. Once the business model is proved and runs smoothly, then it can be replicated across Indochina and other developing countries.
So if you're thinking of visiting Angkor Wat, it's well worth your while contacting AboutAsia Travel and seeing what itinerary they can put together for you. Hopefully one day you can travel elsewhere with them.
Wednesday, 5 December 2007
Bangkok
The modernity of Bangkok was a relief after Cambodia. We stayed at the Vengtai Hotel not far from the Khao San Road. Not very luxurious but clean and comfortable.
Unfortunately, my daughter came down with a high fever on arrival. I still had a bad cough and an on-again, off-again low grade fever. The two of us spent the whole of our time in Bangkok holed up in the hotel. Very boring.
Jenny and K* managed to cover lots of sights and get in some shopping. Luckily, they avoided catching what we had. R*'s fever finally broke before we were due to fly back to Kuala Lumpur.
Monday, 3 December 2007
Phnom Penh
While Siem Reap is a small provincial town with rural sensibilities, Phnom Penh is very much a big city. It's crowded and the people aren't as friendly. The girls often dress with a sense of fashion and there's plenty of flash cars to prove that some Cambodians are wealthy.
Cambodia has a reputation as a very corrupt country. We we're never directly affected by corruption but we heard lots of stories. For example, the terrible road between Siem Reap and the Thai boarder never gets fixed because its alleged that Thai Airways pays a bribe to keep it that way. The guides we had technically work for the government but they give their salaries to their boss in exchange for not showing up at work. Instead, they all freelance and earn more however, they will still get a pension one day.
The roads in Phnom Penh are still dominiated by swarms of motoscooters. There's little sense of road safety and there's even less sense that there are any rules of the road. Many cars don't even have licenses and I heard many license are fake. Few helmets are used. Our tuk tuk didn't even use lights at night. At intersections, there's often no traffic lights or stop signs. Everyone just goes and weaves around each other! The main rule is that smaller vehicles make way for bigger vehicles and there's safety in numbers. Crazy.
Our first day, we visited the Tuol Sleng prison (S21) and the Choeung Ek Genocide Center at the Killing Fields. I've spent some time trying to understand Cambodian history since independence but its been a struggle to understand the Khmer Rouge and the purpose behind their brutal policies. The portraits of all the children they put to death at S21 was really upsetting. What I can't reconcile is this nice country and people with such a horrific past.
We also visited the Royal Palace which was fine but not overimpressive. It lacks the finish of fine artisans. We spent quite a bit of time at the Water Festival down by the riverfront watching the boat races. The tourist board had a special pavillion for any tourists which made it very easy to get a good view. The crowds in the city were phenomenal.
Unless, you are interested in the Khymer Rouge history, I don't think its worth visiting Phnom Penh. Rural Cambodia is more interesting than its cities.
My enjoyment of the trip was then cut short. I came down with a high fever and spent three days lying in my hotel bed while the family continued sightseeing. At least the Sunway Hotel was a very nice place. My fever broke just in time for us to fly to Bangkok. It seems it was a nasty flu.
Wednesday, 21 November 2007
Siem Reap
We've had a really good week here in Siem Reap. First, its a bit of a luxury trip for us. We're in a decent four star hotel rather than our usual three star or less. It's called the Angkor Holiday Hotel. It's a rather soulless design catering to tour groups but it's very clean and comfortable with aircon, a pool, a good breakfast buffet and our own safe in the room. The place is only two years old. The service from the staff is outstanding - friendly, prompt and eager.
After a week here, one of my strongest impressions is just how nice the people of Cambodia are. They're very polite and courteous but friendly too. Always quick to smile and laugh. Vendors aren't pushy except for a few around the temples. They regularly go out of their way to help you. Out of all the places I've been, no country has a nicer people.
We've had our own private van with driver as well as an English speaking guide to take us everywhere and look after us every day. This has made it a dead easy trip. Of course, we've done dozens of temples but there's hundreds in the area. I have to admit I wasn't overly impressed with Angkor Wat. It's interesting with some fabulous base reliefs but not awe inspiring - even when we saw the sunrise over it. However, Angkor Thom (aka the Tomb Raider temple) definitely lived up to its reputation. Fantastic. We also saw the temple at Beng Mealea which is in a state of total ruin and covered by overgrowth. Very atmospheric with few tourists. Overall, the temples were well worth coming here too see.
We also managed a few excursions further afield. The floating villages of Tonle Sap were interesting. The one at Chong Kneas is too touristy but Kompong Phluk was worth seeing. We even got paddled about a flooded forest. The whole pace of life centered around the ebb and flow of the massive Tonle Sap lake is fascinating.
We also visited the reclining Buddha at Kulen National Park. It's the only place I've seen beggars so far. The Thousand Linga was interesting. Basically a thousand phallic symbols turn the river holy. Ok, there's a lot more explanation needed but I've learned Hinduism is very complicated and I certainly can't explain all this penis envy. We had lunch at a beautiful waterfall downstream where there were few tourists and plenty of Cambodians splash about.
The best part of traveling Cambodia is just watching people go about their daily life. Jenny describes it as being very much like rural Malaysia 30 years ago. There are still bullock carts but motorscooters provide the main form of transportation. They're used for everything from transporting pigs to stacks of mattresses to families of five. It's a very poor country with few modern conveniences and not even simple machinery. It's a simple life and a hard life but I'm sure they have much stronger communities than what we have in the West.
We spent a day teaching at a local primary school. It was a great experience that I'll write up in more detail later. The school didn't even have electricity or running water. It was fabulous meeting the children and our kids had a chance to help teach them English.
Today is our last day here. Jenny managed to take a cooking course at a local cooking school while the kids and I went to see the Land Mine Museum. Land mines are still an horrendous problem here. In fact, there seem to be hundreds of good causes and we've felt compelled to donate to quite a few. It feels wrong that such a nice people have so many troubles.
After a week here, one of my strongest impressions is just how nice the people of Cambodia are. They're very polite and courteous but friendly too. Always quick to smile and laugh. Vendors aren't pushy except for a few around the temples. They regularly go out of their way to help you. Out of all the places I've been, no country has a nicer people.
We've had our own private van with driver as well as an English speaking guide to take us everywhere and look after us every day. This has made it a dead easy trip. Of course, we've done dozens of temples but there's hundreds in the area. I have to admit I wasn't overly impressed with Angkor Wat. It's interesting with some fabulous base reliefs but not awe inspiring - even when we saw the sunrise over it. However, Angkor Thom (aka the Tomb Raider temple) definitely lived up to its reputation. Fantastic. We also saw the temple at Beng Mealea which is in a state of total ruin and covered by overgrowth. Very atmospheric with few tourists. Overall, the temples were well worth coming here too see.
We also managed a few excursions further afield. The floating villages of Tonle Sap were interesting. The one at Chong Kneas is too touristy but Kompong Phluk was worth seeing. We even got paddled about a flooded forest. The whole pace of life centered around the ebb and flow of the massive Tonle Sap lake is fascinating.
We also visited the reclining Buddha at Kulen National Park. It's the only place I've seen beggars so far. The Thousand Linga was interesting. Basically a thousand phallic symbols turn the river holy. Ok, there's a lot more explanation needed but I've learned Hinduism is very complicated and I certainly can't explain all this penis envy. We had lunch at a beautiful waterfall downstream where there were few tourists and plenty of Cambodians splash about.
The best part of traveling Cambodia is just watching people go about their daily life. Jenny describes it as being very much like rural Malaysia 30 years ago. There are still bullock carts but motorscooters provide the main form of transportation. They're used for everything from transporting pigs to stacks of mattresses to families of five. It's a very poor country with few modern conveniences and not even simple machinery. It's a simple life and a hard life but I'm sure they have much stronger communities than what we have in the West.
We spent a day teaching at a local primary school. It was a great experience that I'll write up in more detail later. The school didn't even have electricity or running water. It was fabulous meeting the children and our kids had a chance to help teach them English.
Today is our last day here. Jenny managed to take a cooking course at a local cooking school while the kids and I went to see the Land Mine Museum. Land mines are still an horrendous problem here. In fact, there seem to be hundreds of good causes and we've felt compelled to donate to quite a few. It feels wrong that such a nice people have so many troubles.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)