Hawaii - Big Island - Day 1

Excited for our trip to the Big Island, we had a packed schedule starting from day one to get the most of our trip. Jon had done extensive research to plan the trip as it was his first time and my second time. I always had fond memories of Big Island and always wanted to go back to see if it was different experience than my younger self.

Our trips usually start without a hitch but this trip started with an extremely delayed flight. We had a morning flight but the flight was already delayed to arrive to our gate by an hour which isn't too bad but then we ended up sitting on the plane for another 1 hour waiting for the supplies. Unfortunately, we did not grab lunch prior to the flight as we didn't think we would be sitting on the plane for over an hour and so we were very hungry the entire flight, savoring the free snacks that were passed out.

It was probably almost 3pm by the time we got to the Big Island and a blast of warm humid breeze greeted as we deplaned directly onto the tarmac. The Kona Airport only has open air terminals and no gates so it's a cool experience going down the stairs from the plane like you see with Air Force One.

The list of things we had planned for the first day was cut down to just two: food and a beach. We grabbed plate lunches at Pine Tree Cafe which ended up being super heavy with so much carbs and meat that we did not need a full dinner later.

Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park

As the sun began to fall behind the clouds towards the horizon, we ventured to Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park to check out the beach and coast. We parked at a nearby boat dock parking lot and walked into the park from a side entrance as the main entrance closes at 4:30 pm. The path itself walks on top of volcanic rocks which made for a bumpy walk but plenty of people walk these paths in flip flops. 2 guys casually carrying a cooler and fishing gear in flip flops walked faster than us and disappeared from our view quickly.

The cove itself is fairly rocky with small beaches on either side of the cove and quite peaceful with the sounds of the waves and only a handful of people. We ventured a couple feet to the right where it was completely volcanic rock to check out if there were any creatures in the tide pools. However, there wasn't much except for some birds walking around and small fish that jumped from one pool to another. Very peculiar were these brown birds that hold very still for a couple minutes staring into the water. My research now tells me these might be juvenile herons which makes a lot of sense why they reminded me of herons...

Walking back to the left towards the beach, where the water was so clean and cool. We let the waves lap our feet and as we stood watching the open sea and the sun setting, something floated a couple feet in front of us that turned out to be a turtle! It was swimming around in the spot and sticking its head and flipper out of the water but I was unable to take a clear picture of it. 

Standing in the same spot, we saw a large rock on a rocky outcropping that looked suspiciously like a turtle. It was too far away for us to investigate but from the pictures, it definitely was a turtle but since it was not moving, it was unclear if it was alive! After seeing more turtles throughout the trip resting on rocks, it probably was alive. Two turtles on the first day to Jon's delight!

We continued down towards the end of the cove, past some sacred sites that we cannot enter in. At the end was large volcanic rocks that is typical of Big Island where several other couples were also watching the sun set. We picked a slopy spot for us to take a break and watch the sunset.

The skies were stormy in the distance so the sun was mostly hidden until the very end when the sun was right above the horizon as a yellow ball in a fiery orange sky. At the same time, there was a cruise ship sailing towards the fiery ball which made for a cool shot.

After the sun set, one of the couples leaving stopped to ask us how long we've been in the Big Island to which we told them this was our first day! They were leaving the next day and was on vacation from Los Angeles. A funny moment happened in conversation when the husband asked us if we had seen the 'churros' here. Jon and I had trouble understanding and gave him a unsure look, thinking why he was asking about 'churros'? But after he repeated it a couple more times, I realized he was saying 'turtles' but his accent made it sound like 'churros'.

We walk back to the parking lot along the harbor and encountered a large group of kitties that ran around the bushes and boats. There were so many that they were probably being fed by someone.

Airbnb

The Airbnb was in a quiet neighborhood a couple minutes outside of Kona city area. We met the hosts in their living room and they had a giant map where people put pins on where they were visiting from. Of course the Bay Area was filled with so many pins that it was going into the ocean. Taiwan too was surprisingly filled with pins. 

Coincidentally as the host talked about her kitty Lovebug and how she loved to stay in the guests bedrooms, a large cat lumbered up the outside stairs. Lovebug is a very very round cat but she really really loves to be pet in any way you want to pet her. We could pet her roughly, softly, on her belly, back, pat her butt, she loved it all. It's so nice to have a cat in your Airbnb that loves attention but also doesn't try to get in your face all the time.

After a long day of traveling, we tucked in for the night to prepare for the early start the next day.

Mendocino Camping Trip

My friend Jade had long wanted to try camping and she managed to snag a spot at Van Damme State Park many months ago. If you don't know, booking camping sites near the Bay Area is a mad scramble and hard to get if you don't book early enough. It was a total of 7 of us on this trip. 2 people had no camping experience and everyone, except me and Jon, was not accustomed to sleeping outside and not showering. However, everyone seemed to be very open to it and no one was a diva.

Friday

The drive up to Mendocino is about 3.5 hrs with no traffic. Jon, a friend, and I left the Bay Area around noon on Friday with Jon's car filled to the brim. We faced very little traffic but we took our time driving. We stopped in Healdsburg for lunch and a little break before the windy roads. If you haven't had a chance to drive to Mendocino, it is a very beautiful drive through long stretches of redwood forests which is actually surrounds the Navarro River. My poor phone could not capture it but there were parts where you wind through with tall trees tower on both sides.

Then after the stretches of redwood forests, you pop out and finally clearly see the Navarro River's blue waters. The road then takes you up the cliff with the view of the river opening up to the ocean and continues to take you along the coast.

We arrived at Van Damme State Park around 5 pm and saw the sign at the entrance that there has been bear activity and to keep food in the bear box. I was a bit surprised as the website did not mention anything and I wasn't aware there were bears in the area. Nonetheless, we took the warning from the ranger and dutifully put all of our scented items in the very non-bearproof 'pantry'. The pantry was just a wooden box raised high up and I have no doubt that if a bear really wanted to get to the food, it can just knock over the box.

After we set up our tents, those of us that arrived headed into the small town of Mendocino for dinner. The light at that time was golden yellow and we opted first to take a stroll to check out the coast. Jon and I had been to Mendocino before so we've been on trail down to the beach but not walking along the cliff. The lighting was so magnificent that I whipped out my new Sony mirrorless camera that Jon got me for my birthday to test out its capabilities. Today was probably also the only evening with good light as tomorrow would be cloudy. It probably was a tad too bright and the camera exaggerated some of the bright parts but it's not too bad.

I spotted a lone surfer in the ocean though it didn't seem very obvious if there were large enough waves for them.

There were also a bunch of these lilies that looks really fake because they were just tall sticks growing straight out of the ground with very perfect looking flowers usually in large bunches. Honestly it looked like someone stuck a bunch of fake flower stocks into the ground.

Amaryllis Belladonna

The night fell upon us at dinner and we returned to camp after we found out the 40% chance of rain for tomorrow starting in mid-morning. I was not prepared at all for this rain but summer rains are usually light or even just 'heavy fog'. We joked about bears and even saw a little skunk before we settled into our tents. Sometime in the night I heard a loud siren like tsunami siren but it quickly stopped and the barks of dogs took over. Jon didn't budge one bit and continued to snore through the night. I couldn't find online why there would be a siren so who knows what it could be.

Saturday

After getting ready for the day, at around 9:30 am we suddenly heard pitter pattering making it's way through the forest towards us, signaling for us to head out from camp. We made the wise decision to eat in town for breakfast instead of making breakfast as it started raining much earlier than we expected.

Cave Kayak

The light rain continued through breakfast but did seem to break as we got to Van Damme Beach for our kayak cave tour with Kayak Mendocino. We clearly missed the memo that we needed to be there earlier than the start time as the leads were clearly annoyed at our tardiness and hustled us to start getting other participants into the kayaks.

It was a large group lead by 2 guides, one whom unbelievably used a long wood plank to paddle the whole time. I wish I had gotten a photo! The guides took us through many small caves that have an entrance and exit to allow us to funnel through one by one. There was one point where the water was very blue and so clear instead of the typical murky waters you see on other parts of the coast. Unfortunately because the weather was dreary, I don't think we got to see the true clarity of the waters. As we winded through various caves, we were lead through choppy waters and made a long and tough crossing over the bay. This was definitely not something I thought I had signed up for but it wasn't too bad and everyone ended up making it in one piece in the end. However, someone said that the guide using a wood plank also towed another person who wasn't able to make the long crossing. Amazing!

Everyone felt the highlight of the trip was the kayak trip though I feel the group was too big and the trip felt very rushed with the guides quickly herding us along. Since we were constantly moving even while we waited, the 90 minutes of the trip went by fast. The other downside is that the guides were also answering their phones from prospective customers the whole time which detracted a bit from my experience as it seemed like would pay more attention to their phones instead of interacting with the participants.

Photo credit: Mounica

Shower and into town

All of us were soaking wet from our waist down after the kayak and thank goodness there were hot showers at the campground. The showers were coin operated and you get 5 minutes for $1. The facility was relatively clean, obviously not sparkling clean but there was not crud on the ground and things that would make you feel dirty after the shower. We all thought 5 minutes would come and go in a blink but it was long enough that Jon and I huddled under the hot water for what seemed like more than 5 minutes before we said ok let's not waste anymore water. I have very rarely used showers at campsites because I'm don't really care about being clean on camping trips. However, this shower was great and made me feel so refreshed afterwards and less dirty at the end of the trip.

For lunch, we headed into town again for back to the same restaurant we had for Friday dinner because we didn't know where else to go eat. This time though, all of us ordered ice cream as we were eying it as we came in. We walked around town after lunch, popping into stores and checked out a bookstore with a resident cat named Catsby who remained curled up sleeping on a seat next to the window while a father and son was reading beside him.

Dinner and campfire

Originally the plan was to use the stove to cook chili but no one was in the mood to do anything complicated so the group settled on roasting corn and sausages over the fire. Back at camp, we went to work building our fire while another group was buttering the hot dog buns and wrapping the corn. The fire proved harder than usual with the rains dampening the sticks and pine needles for kindle and every time we tried to light the kindle, it quickly fizzled out without out lighting anything else. We started throwing paper towels and even ripping from a stack of small notepad paper but eventually after much paper and fire breathing, the logs lit and dinner can be cooked.

The corn was roasted first above the open flame and tended to by my corn lover friend. The corn turned out quite good though the quality of the corn was not great so it wasn't as juicy.

Next up were the buns and sausages. We placed the buns on a piece of foil but they charred quite quickly for the unbuttered side. Unfortunately, only one side was buttered so some buns were soaked with butter on one side but dry on the other. For the vegetarian hot dogs, some people attempted to stick them on roasting sticks and roast directly over the fire but they started to fall apart as they heated up so like the buns, they were grilled on a piece of tin foil.

The meat sausages however did better on roasting sticks and one person did successfully roast a sausage with a little bit of time on the aluminum foil to make sure it was cooked all the way through.

Jon opted to wrap the sausage directly in the aluminum foil to save some hassle but it ended up boiling the sausage so he still had to spend some time making the outside more grilled. At least it was probably cooked through!

With full and content stomachs, we immediately started on the classic campfire smores but this time with special Harry Potter Hershey's chocolate that prompted everyone to announce which Hogwarts house they now belong to. This bunch was definitely much more enthusiastic about smores than other friends I've been on trips with and they did a good number on the smores ingredients (which is good because every time there is way too much left over).

As night fell, the rain sprinkled heavier but not enough to make us wet. Some people in the group started sharing ghost stories. Sometimes ghost stories from books fall flat, are not scary but the ones told by the group were scary! I personally am not a fan of horror in general and would have rather been sitting in the tent listening to the rain but it was interesting to see how they were able to tell the story completely from memory and how a simple story can still be creepy.

We turned in as the campground became quiet and the rain kept reminding us that it was time to sleep. Jon and I snuggled into our tent listening to the rain lightly pelting the the tent.

Sunday

Slug on the ground tarp

We woke up to blue skies thankfully because it would be sad to have another gloomy rainy day on our trip. Last night Jon gave me his sleeping pad so I can try out the inflatable sleeping pad we bought a while ago. He was raving about how comfortable it was and how well he slept and I think he was right. I don't think I had woken up once through the night and the hard ground was nonexistent even while sleeping on my side. Moisture actually did end up seeping through the bottom of our tent during the night because it was a low point and some how there was moisture also on top of Jon's sleeping pad. Thankfully we had another layer under us that kept that moisture from getting to his sleeping bag.

As I got out of the tent, I heard some exclamations from someone that there were two giant slugs on their tent. Walking over I saw literally one slug right on the walls of the tent and unclear what it was trying to do since there's nothing to eat there. That's the first time I've ever seen slugs on a tent and these two slugs were huge!

One person wanted to start a fire again to use up the rest of the wood. This would everyone's first time lighting a fire but after Jon and my struggles last night, they worked hard to apply the learnings and after a couple minutes, we saw some satisfied campers standing by an open fire.

While the fire was getting started, I worked on pancakes for breakfast. One person had bought these nice pancake mixes that you just need to add water and shake up directly in the bottle. This was super convenient and seemed less messy than using a mixing bowl.

Pancake time

Recently, I learned from a friend how simple it was to make crepe mix and thought watered down pancake batter should be pretty similar. With the leftover pancake batter that is stuck on the sides, I added water to wash the bottle and attempted to make crepes.

The first crepe was awful. The batter was too thick to swirl around the pan into a circle. Instead, it formed a creature with 5 legs that reminded my friend of the bugs in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. To make it more comparable, we dabbed some chocolate to draw on the eyes (looking at the pictures online, they don't have that many rows of eyes). The later crepes turned out much better after watering down the batter some more. Jon tried out making some smores crepes. This might be a new thing we can try for future trips!

Fern Canyon Trail

We finished packing up late morning and headed to the Fern Canyon trailhead in the park. Not to be confused with the Fern Canyon trail further up north near Redwood NP. As we waiting to start the hike, we saw a big group that had a large dog walk up enthusiastically up to the trailhead only to see the 'No dogs allowed' sign. The owner made the right choice in staying at camp but sadly as they were walking away, the poor dog kept turning back to the group wondering why everyone was staying but he had to leave.

The trail right from the start was an amazing sight with the creek running beside you and the canyon walls sloping away from you filled with ferns and towering trees. My lack of composition in photos is evident as I could not capture the grandness appropriately. The hike was flat for the distance we went (maybe 1.5 miles in) but I think it does have a climb towards the second half. I remember when Jon and I visited last, we had come from the other side of the trail where the Pygmy forest was and hiked a portion of the Fern Canyon trail that required us to go down some steep descents.

Home

We finished the trip with pretty expensive and borderline bad lunch at a cafe and everyone split their ways for home. This was my first camping trip in almost a year and despite the differences in how they camped, it was still an enjoyable experience and am glad that nothing bad had happened to turn the new campers away from camping in the future. I look forward to the next camping trip with group and hopefully have better weather and a chance to cook more at camp.

Malaysia - Day 3

Today was an early start and last day in KL with a goal to reach Batu Caves via public transportation. We ate breakfast and set off to find which public transportation to use. In Malaysia, there are many different agencies that manage similar transportation which makes it a bit confusing on how we should pay for fares. We couldn't get the ticket machine to work for some reason and the card system was also confusing but ultimately we were able to figure out which line to take. We hopped on a subway and transferred onto a train to take us to Batu Caves. The train was extremely late so transferring was thankfully not too worrisome as we had to also take time to purchase train tickets.

Batu Caves

We got to Batu Caves just before the crowds from tour busses arrived so the plaza was somewhat 'quiet' with a large flock of pigeons milling about as pigeons would. I had to use the bathroom which costed maybe 10 MYR and thankfully the bathrooms were clean but wet. In the bathroom, I saw a cute floofy dog in the bathroom lying on the ground. When I came out, it was perched on the sink ledge looking curiously at the windows. It was a funny sight to see! Too bad I could go pet the dog as it was verrry cute and verrry fluffy.

Murugan and rainbow steps

On the steps

At the entrance of Batu Caves stands a large statue Murugan and rainbow steps leading up to the cave. I had thought the statue was a Buddha but that was totally incorrect and Murugan is a deity of Hinduism. Pictures probably don't do much justice but the statue is larger than life and I wonder how statues this large are created.

The colorful steps to the left are 272 steps that make for great Instagram photo ops but Jon and I the worst at it. By the time we started up the steps, the tour busses had started coming in and filling up the plaza. We trudged up the steps, checking out the monkeys and bypassing all the others. For healthy people, the steps are totally doable, maybe a tad steep especially when there's a lot of people on the steps going up and down or stopped.

Did I mention there were monkeys? These monkeys at Batu Caves are notorious for targeting people for their food and will grab stuff out of your bags or hands with no hesitations. While walking up the steps, we stopped to look at something and a monkey on the side snatched my bundled up yellow rain cover thinking it was food. Thankfully I was alerted immediately and grabbed it back from an upset monkey. A random guy in front of us started hissing at the monkey and telling it to stop. Not sure if he thought he was helpful or was doing it for fun.

Many of the monkeys had a baby tightly grasping the mom and they were cute! Look at how long the tail is!

The day was already hot and humid in the morning but the cave was cool a nice reprieve. The cave itself is very cavernous, with high ceilings and water dripping down. Never have I been to such large caves but it was ultimately a religious site so there were temples and other structures built within. It does put into prospective on how large this cave is to have so many structures and steps. Again, my pictures don't do just and probably make it look worse than it actually is.

Monkeys filled the caves, taking fruit from the offerings and throwing empty coconut shells from coconut stands to crack them. We saw a monkey try to steal an older couple's bag of food as they sat to repack their bags. There was another couple that was being harassed by a monkey as they were holding bananas and they ultimately caved and threw the monkey the banana. Bad choice.

Ramayana Caves

The crowds and monkeys were in full force when we exited Batu Caves and we quickly climbed down. It was hot and humid as usual. As we were walking back to the train station, we saw a sign for Ramayana Caves with little people around it. Not knowing what it was and the price looked cheap (10 RM), I thought why not and also cool down. Well, we were the only ones inside which made it a bit awkward as the staff was just looking at us. The cave was set like a museum and had somewhat tacky neon lights, not like a religious landmark like Batu Caves was.

The statues were depicting the story of Lord Rama who is another Hindu deity. The signs had brief English descriptions but not really enough to understand the story in depth.

We quickly walked through the exhibits and reached a set of very very very steep stairs that climbed up the side of the cave. Pictures do not do just at how steep these stairs are and they are also not evenly built stairs so you have to be very careful.

At the top was a large stalagmite and a lady that spoke very little English. She did tell us if I remember correctly that it took millions of years to form and maybe a form of energy. Online tells me that this is a lingam which is a phallic symbol that symbolizes generative energy. I'm not sure if it's true but I'll leave it up to you to decide what it looks like.

At the end before the exit, there was a mysterious gap in the cave wall that looked interesting though it wasn't clear if we were able to go in. I asked the staff if we could, and he said yes, turned on some lights and moving laser points to light up the cave. The cave does open up and the lights does make for some cool photo ops but it's unclear how this relates to Lord Rama.

Jalan Alor Food Street

Probably the most famous street in KL, we had to go check it out for dinner. It was honestly quite overwhelming with all the people and vendors calling you to sit down and so many different restaurants on the street. I had imagined it was like a night market where there are stands for people to grab quick bites but Jalan Alor was more like a street lined with restaurants where people sit outside and eat.

We did not know where to eat but online had recommended a restaurant for chicken wings where we ultimately tried and thought it was so so. I agree with online opinions saying it's a bit overrated and would rather go somewhere else for food but it does seem to be nice if you wanted to eat outside.

Final words

KL was an interesting experience with the little time we had to explore in. People were kind and usually could speak at least one of the languages we could. If we had more time, we definitely would have traveled further out from downtown to find durian stands and more local spots. Or next time we visit another city in Malaysia as often opinions say KL is not a great city to visit and there are much better cities for tourists. I leave you with a final video of a pedestrian crossing in Bukit Bintang where people take it into their own hands to cross because the pedestrian cross countdowns are way too short.

Malaysia - Day 1
Malaysia - Day 2

Malaysia - Day 2

After a not so fun night last night, we changed up our itinerary today to be our relaxing day to avoid any incidents in public where I would need to find a bathroom. It turned out Jon had brought anti-diarrheal medicine which I will never understand why he never offered it up until this morning. Diligently I took a pill every couple hours so I could survive going outside without feeling like running to the bathroom every hour.

We had breakfast buffet as usual and oddly today, the staff led us to a seat instead of allowing us to pick a table. We were sat in a busy spot so we opted to change to a quieter table in the back. I experimented with yogurt in hopes that the probiotics would help my stomach.

Malls

In the afternoon, after I felt things were more solid, we left the hotel to walk around the nearby malls, safe places with bathrooms. We went grocery shopping in the Giant supermarket in Sungei Wang Plaza where we found some interesting snacks like Pokémon themed Oreos, chocolate covered M&M copies called Nips, chips shaped in rings. I thought they were special but most of these could have also been found in Taiwan for a bit cheaper.

The only picture we took was this cat food with a cat that looked like how Cheerio would look at food if she was animated.

We explore the rest of the mall which was pretty run down and mostly had small shops. It was still a lot with many stories and even had a whole half of the mall that was basically empty. I read that the section was redone and revamped to have a cooler vibe and encourage more people to come but walking through there were very few vendors and was not a high class feeling mall that people probably wanted when coming into Bukit Bintang. That empty section did have a climbing/adventure gym at the very top that was closed that I would imagine would be the reason why people would come by.

Fahrenheit 88 is also another mall nearby and this mall had a similar feeling to some of the malls in Taiwan with lots of boutique shops. Again it was very empty as we walked through and it felt awkward to just be walking through with the sales people watching no one enter their shops. It was strange comparison to the Pavilion Mall which had tons of people milling around even if they weren't buying things.

As mentioned earlier, the Pavilion Mall is the most high class mall in the area with tons of name brand stores. The mall is filled with people going up and down the walkways, up and down the escalators. Forums say that people in Malaysia love malls and I can see it here. Obviously since I'm not a shopper, we just walked through and tried to find some food for a snack. The food court is huge, with so many options to choose from and all the dishware and silverware is standardized and reusable so no need for anyone to serve things in single use wares.

Petronas Towers

Since we had nothing better to do, we decided to take the walk to the Petronas towers. The Petronas Towers are the most famous landmark in Kuala Lampur as they are the tallest structure in the city and have lights on them that make the towers almost look silvery at night. It's too bad that it was rainy and we weren't able to enjoy exploring the park in front of the towers.

What is very cool is that from the Pavilion Mall to the Petronas Towers, it is all connected in a network of covered raised walkways, tunnels, underground malls so that you do not have to walk in the rain or the heat. Tons of people were walking it at night and it honestly was a strange sight to see so many people using it like a highway to get around.

There was really only one spot to take a picture of the Petronas near the city hall because it was pouring rain when we got there. The picture is not great but hopefully you can see what I mean about the towers looking silvery and draws your eyes with all the lights going up the towers.

Of course at the bottom of the towers is another fancy mall which we did not really explore as we were done with malls for the day. In front of the mall where the park is, there is a fountain show that occurs at 7pm every day. Everyone was trying to find a spot under the roof to avoid the rain so we tried to secure a good spot in the front.

When the show started, there were colored lights and small fountains of water going up and down in a row across the lake. We waited for a couple minutes hoping to see something exciting but the fountain show continue to do the same thing. It was pretty underwhelming and I would say not worth seeing.

Back to Hotel

We got back to the hotel relatively early in the night at 8 pm for a sleepless city. There were still plenty of people on a weeknight going to and from the malls and the street was filled with cars. Because of the car first mentality of drivers, we saw many times where cars would block pedestrian crosswalks and pedestrians would not care at all about the stoplights. The crosswalk in front of the mall always has traffic stopped in it so we would see crowds of people squeezing between the bumpers of cars.

Since it was relatively early in the night, we actually get the time to use the pool! Finally! We excitedly made our way to the pool looking forward to a nice refreshing dip only to stick our toes in the water and find that the pool is unheated and very cold. It took a lot of courage for Jon to even get half his body into the water. I imagine if it were during the day when it was hot, it would have been nice to jump into a cold pool, but the air at night was actually more of a lukewarm feeling after the rain subsided. We swam a couple of laps, enjoyed the pool to ourselves until 2 people came by to jump in the pool a couple times before they left.

It was a great feeling to come back from the pool, take a shower, and settle into the bed for another good night's rest.

Malaysia - Day 1

Malaysia - Day 3

Malaysia 2024 - Day 1

National Mosque of Malaysia

Bright and early we got up for the hotel breakfast buffet before setting off on a day of walking around some notable landmarks. Our first destination was the National Mosque of Malaysia and of course we had to try out their MRT. Unfortunately the public transportation system is a bit confusing with all the different agencies and being somewhat disconnected from the tourist attractions. There was no direct line to the mosque so we took the green line from Bukit Bintang to Muzium Negara (National Museum of Malaysia).

There was no time to waste as the walk from the station to the mosque would take 25 minutes and thankfully the route took us through part of the Botanical Gardens. Unfortunately for us, the botanical gardens sits on a hill that we climbed via a set of long stairs. I hadn't talked about this before but Malaysia is HUMID which was expected but it has been a minute since I've had to exist in humidity. I kept telling myself as we climbed that it's actually not that bad, could be much worse. Then the mosquitoes started biting. Definitely bring bug spray for the forest areas.

20 minutes of meandering through the gardens led us down to the National Mosque of Malaysia, a building that looks unassuming on the outside but is very vast and specious inside the walls. The mosque was meant to be a symbol of independence from the British government. I was worried that I had made a foolish decision to wear shorts (already foolish because of mosquitoes) and that I would be the only person that needed to wear the robes provided by the Mosque. Thankfully, it turns out all females needed to wear the robe regardless of what you were dressing. The robes were very baggy and females needed to wear the hood up to cover the hair so it reminded me of Mario Shy Guy. Jon also opted to wear one because he was wear shorts.

All shoes must be taken off before going up a set of stairs that opens up to a large airy space with a long pool in the center. The granite floors were clean and you can see someone occasionally dust mopping the floors. We walked around the complex, making our way around the different spots.

While exploring, I spotted a little cat sleeping under a shoe rack that showed no interest in me and continued to sleep.

Merdeka Square (Independence Square)

We wrapped up our time at the National Mosque and planned out our path to another symbol of independence, Merdeka Square. Knowing that Kuala Lampur is notorious for being terrible infrastructure for pedestrians, the route had one challenge of cross some fast roads right across from the mosque. Walking to that road, it didn't seem so bad considering it is only a 2 lane road but in KL, the cars drive fast for such a small road. We decided to give it a shot because there was clearly a path on the other side. A few minutes went by and there was no good gap for us to run across. Another girl next to us also seemingly following the same route as us watch the traffic go by. Finally we saw a chance when a car looked like it was going to turn instead of going forward, bolted across the road and the turning car did not actually turn so close call for us.

The rest of the walk wasn't so bad and we quickly made it to Merdeka square which is a big grassy field surrounded by buildings. Many tourists were there taking pictures with the field and the clock tower and we even saw the girl from the mosque moments after. The square felt very out of place with all the commercial high rises surrounding it and otherwise, to me there was not much to see.

Chinatown and Petaling Jaya

Jon cupping a durian

From Merdeka Square, we crossed over the Klang River (River of Life) after waiting at a crosswalk that never turned green for the pedestrians. People were crossing in front of cars because this light was probably never going to turn green.

Walking through some dirtier parts, we made it to Chinatown and found ourselves at a durian dessert shop called Durian BB. It was a cute cafe that had A/C and durian flavored ice cream and drinks and addictive theme song that will forever be stuck in our heads. They are heavy on marketing and want you to buy things from their shop by coming by with free samples and even suspiciously placing tokens for the claw machine on your table. We used the tokens, didn't get anything and got suckered into buying some freeze dried mangosteen because it felt awkward not buying anything. At least we got a cute Durian BB tote bag that was useful for the rest of our trip. 

The fun part of the shop was upstairs where they have large figures of their mascots (different tropical fruits) and even a little game that you play by moving your body to control a character to dodge durians. We were pretty much the only ones upstairs and had some fun looking at the different exhibits.

After cooling down, we walked down Petaling Jaya to see what it is all about but I walked quickly through the street because I hated buying things under pressure and knowing that this is a tourist trap, I wasn't interested in any of the things being sold. While this street is in Chinatown, most of the sellers were not Chinese.

We explored a bit more, stopped at a cafe to cool down. At this point the sky had opened up and the rain was pouring down endlessly, thunder signaling a monsoon passing through. It seems most of the tourists took cover as they didn't have umbrellas but we whipped out ours and powered through some rain to a noodle shop to eat a late lunch.

We were seated with an older gentleman eating alone. After we ordered, he asked us in English where we were from to which we answered the United States. We had a nice conversation with him and learned that he was from KL. Since he is retired, he enjoys coming in the city for the day to walk around and eat his favorite foods like the noodle shop we were at. Though he did say Penang has much better food in his opinion. He apologized for his bad English but I thought it was quite good and communicated just fine with us. I asked him where he learned his English and replied that he learned through watching English shows and movies. He is also fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin and understood Jon and I when we spoke either languages. In his younger days, he frequently went to Singapore for work and seems to appreciate the US but sadly he said it was too expensive to travel to the US. After some more chatting, he humbly bid us farewell and went on his way.

After slurping our noodles, we opted to walk all the way back to our hotel. Our little flower umbrellas was at least enough to keep our bodies dry but Jon's shoes got completely soaked especially from the puddles we had to cross. Surprisingly, we didn't have a terrible time find sidewalks but did have to take some breaks from the strong downpours.

Bukit Bintang

By the time we got back to downtown, the rain was reduced to a sprinkle and we walked through the empty streets of Jalan Alor before the dinner crowd. In the area, much to the opposition from Jon, we walked into an quiet alley to escape the people and we stumbled upon some animal murals on the faces of the buildings. It was very cool to see the art integrated with the buildings to bring some brightness to the alley.

We went back to the hotel, thankful to have some time to rest and dry up. Dinner was right around the corner but neither of us were hungry so we went out to the near by malls, walked through and ended up at Brands Outlet which is like a cheaper Old Navy. There was a whole section of T-Shirts that Jon just had to take buy a couple shirts along with some chunky sandals he desperately needed since he didn't bring any sandals.

By this time, I was getting sudden urges to empty my bowls which I had attributed to the constant hot to cold switches. I decided to try to make the urges go away and each time it went away, I thought I was all good. But they kept coming back and while Jon was ordered a sandwich for dinner, I couldn't take it anymore and ran back to the hotel. Through the night, it was evident I had probably gotten traveler's diarrhea already on the first day. We could only speculate that it came either came from the salad I had from the hotel or the water we asked for at the cafe. It was a full day that ended tragically and made for a uncomfortable night and my first shart ever.

Malaysia - Day 2
Malaysia - Day 3

Malaysia 2024 Flight and Arrival

May of 2024, Jon and I did a trip to Southeast Asia in part for a wedding in Singapore. We made a trip out of it and tagged on Malaysia since I've never been and it's right next door. It would be my first time to Southeast Asia and a long time since I've traveled to another Asian country besides Taiwan so I was excited. We would be in Malaysia for 3 full days (5/6 arrive at night - 5/10 leave at noon)

Flight

We flew to Malaysia via Singapore Air which is supposed to be a top tier airline so I was curious to see just how good the experience was. Flight time was the longest I've ever been on and it was unimaginable to think we would sit on a plane for 16 hours just to go to Singapore and another hour to go to Kuala Lampur. Thankfully, we were able to book the seats so that there was an empty seat between Jon and I on the long haul. The plane was on the older side so it didn't have as luxury feeling as I expected and the bathrooms were cruddy but overall it was a good experience. I ended up playing 2048 a ton and watched Holdovers before I went crazy.

As we got closer to landing in Singapore, we checked how the transfer would be at the airport to catch the Kuala Lampur leg. Much to our dismay, the 2 gates are in different areas of the terminal and < 50 minutes of time from landing to get to the terminal. I thought we were making good time with the flight but we ended up having less than 10 minutes to get to the other terminal. We got off the plane as fast as we could and immediately started running to the next gate. Signs above said walking would take more than 10 minutes which freaked us out even more and meant there was no stopping even if we hadn't run more than 10 feet in a long time.

Sunset

We noticed some other passengers running behind us so at least we were not the only crazy ones running through the airport. When we got to the gate, we found ourselves needing to go through security (in Singapore, security is at each individual gate) and the other passengers arrived soon after us, all breathlessly throwing their stuff on the conveyor belt. I'm not sure what that security is for because my bag was filled with small cups of water and Jon had a full water bottle in his backpack but they let it through and only asked me to dump the water bottle I was holding in my hand. The flight was uneventful and super quick but we saw a nice sunset as we entered Singapore.

Never again will I do a 50 minute layover in Singapore airport again.

Arrival

KL airport is very busy for 10 pm at night and we walked through throngs of people just to exit the gate areas. With my empty water bottle, I wanted to fill up it up with the fancy Asian water dispensers but sadly the station I saw had a group of guys gulping down cup after cup of water like it was the most delicious drink and I didn't want to stand their filling up my water bottle while they waited. Also with the amount of people, I was scared of catching Covid.

We picked up a 7 Day CeleDigi sim card that Jon had ordered ahead of time on Klook and we were on our way to picking up our check bags and heading to the hotel. In KL and Singapore, there is an app called Grab that is basically the same as Uber/Lyft but much cheaper. Jon ordered one to take us to the hotel in downtown and costed $13 for a ~30 min ride. Immediately I can tell that driving in KL is going to be scary as our driver barely drove within the lanes and drove very very fast. KL stays awake at night for sure and there was even heavy traffic around our hotel at midnight!

Things in Malaysia are supposed to be much cheaper and hotels are no exception. We stayed at the Westin in downtown which is supposed to be a 5 star hotel and we paid around $170 a night for a high floor (Jon wanted it) and breakfast buffet. Other Western brand 5 star hotels were a bit higher in the $200s and the less known 5 star hotels were much much cheaper so we were a bit weary about trying.

The Westin's room itself leaves much to be desired and definitely did not feel 5 star class. The room had a slight cigarette smell on the first day and the bathroom was old/not well remodeled. For example the shower floor did was not graded correctly so the water pool and did not drain completely. I would be disappointed if I had to pay 5 star prices in the States but there's nothing that can be done and we needed to hit the hay for the next day.

View from 30th floor.

New Mexico

Easter weekend for me wasn't filled with pastel colors and egg hunts.  It was a big weekend where a group of us from the hiking club traveled east of Arizona to our neighbor, New Mexico, to visit Trinity Site and the White Sands National Monument.

Elephant Butte Lake

Leaving Tucson at 5:30, our poor driver drove almost 6 hours to meet up at Elephant Butte Lake with another group who left in the morning.   We arrived at 11 pm and was greeted with an amazing night view of the lake but with gusty winds and noisy partyers on the the other side of the lake.  It's amazing to see a lake in the middle of the desert like water that bubbled up from underground.

Setting up my tent with my brother was quite challenging with the cold, raging winds but once we dove into the tent, it was nice and cozy.  We wolfed down our sandwiches and promptly settled into our sleeping bags and awaited sleep to don upon us.  But the partyers across the lake kept the bass beats up and screamed into the night, revving the engines of their cars.  After a number of angry rages to each other, my brother and I finally dozed off hours later with the wind threatening to pull our fly off the tent.

We woke up at 6:30 to quiet murmurs and the lake lapping the shore, the sweet quietness you want when you camp.  The sunrise was beautiful as it shined over the lake and brightened the land.