Genting Highlands

On Saturday we drove about an hour east of Kuala Lumpur to the Genting Highlands.  It is at about 6,000 feet (the same altitude as Colorado Springs) as compared to the 292 feet at Amy and Justin's house.  On the drive up there we saw several signs like this.

Apparently they take trespassing pretty seriously here.

In the Genting Highlands there are a number of resort hotels connected by covered skyways with lots of shops and there is a a theme park with rides for the kids.We parked at the bottom of a gondola station - they call it a skyway--  and took a 20 minute ride on the gondola to the resort area with the hotels and theme park.

This is about 1/2 of the line to get on the gondola in the morning at around 10 a.m.  It is nothing compared to the size of the line later in the day when we got back.

Apparently a lot of people like to go to the theme park in the evening and there was a crowd about this same size on the floor below just waiting to move up to get into this line.  I'm glad we went when we did.  BTW -We did not see a single European or American the entire time we were there.

These are some shots from the gondola as we went over the rain forest to get to the resort.  Note the height of the trees; some appeared to be about 100 feet tall.

Going through the clouds was cool; literally.  The temperature at the top was 22 degrees Celsius/72 degrees  Fahrenheit which felt great to us in shorts and short sleeves but as you'll see in the later photos, some of the locals thought it was so cold they were wearing jackets and stocking caps.

  
The hotels and shopping malls are modern and well kept up.  But the theme park looks like it was built back in the 1990's and hasn't seen a coat of paint on anything since then.  They have staff picking up trash so it is clean in that regard but because it is such a moist environment there is black moldy looking crud on a lot of the buildings and rides which detracts from the charm of the setting.

Amy and Macy on the double decker carousel

Carol and Kaylee on the swing.  Kaylee looks a little uncertain about whether she's liking it.

Hannah is into it.

I was into it.

One of the cold locals.

I don't think this lady is cold.   Some women wear burkhas in the hottest places and even on the beach.  I don't know how they do it without getting heat stroke.  This may be the only place in Malaysia this lady is not dying from the heat.

Hannah, Amy, Macy and Kaylee on the teacup ride

Amy and Macy on an airplane ride

Justin and Macy - Note the legs of the elephant.  Disney management would have fits.

Amy and Hannah doing bumper boats.  I've seen one of these out on Lake Minnetonka.

At about 3:30 we decided to call it a day and head back.

 Fortunately there was no line whatsoever at the top of the gondola to go down.

In previous posts I've mentioned how some of the Asian women here go absolutely nuts over our little blondes.  Well, at the end of the gondola ride I was tending to Whitney in her stroller by the front door of the station while Amy, Carol and the other girls went to the bathroom and Justin went to get the car.  Several women came by to smile at and touch Whitney and then the woman in the picture below came by and motioned that she wanted to take a picture of Whitney.  Then she motioned that she wanted me to take her out of the stroller.  I thought she wanted me to hold Whitney so she could take a picture of her but then she motioned that she wanted to hold Whitney.  I was feeling a little anxious about that but decided she looked OK.  So I handed Whitney to her and she took Whitney's picture while I took the picture of her.

Kuala Lumpur - Wet Market

Yesterday morning, Friday, we went to the "wet market" downtown at about 7:30 to get some chicken and pork for our dinners.

They have fresh fruit and vegetables:

They also have fish and other seafood:

And apparently pickpockets too.

 This is my son-in-law, Justin, picking out the pork loin and ribs he wanted to smoke for dinner that night and the butcher cutting them just so . . .

Justin wanted them trimmed differently and the butcher was happy to oblige.

Carol and Hannah and Macy are looking on.  Hannah has said that she wants to be a veterinarian and Justin told her that veterinarians in the meat industry spend a lot of their time dealing with carcasses.  Hannah thought about that for a while and said its "TMG" -- too much gross. Then she said she would be a pet veterinarian, not one who works in the meat industry.

 Then we went over to the chicken section of the market.  In the picture below you can see the cages in the background on the left where they keep the live chickens and in the distance in the middle you can see a man about ready to dispatch the coup de grace to one of the chickens.

 Within minutes they've removed the feathers and dressed the carcasses.  They leave the feet on because apparently chicken feet are used not only in Malaysia but throughout Asia.

Thailand - Part 3

On Wednesday our day was jam-packed.  We started off by going to Kata viewpoint but it was so hazy that the pictures of the bays visible from that high point were not very good.  Then we went to see a Big Buddha that has been under construction on the top of a hill since 2007. They expect to have it finished by 2020.

The girls thought it would be a good idea to imitate the hand positions of Buddha.

It is impressive now and is going to be even more so when it is finished.  I hope I get to come back again and see it when its done.

Then we went to the Chalong Buddhist Temple.

 Then we went to a place that advertised itself as having Elephant Trekking and a Monkey Show.  They started off with baby elephants doing some tricks.

And then they let us feed the elephants who could be pretty determined about getting some food; getting right up in Hannah's face with their trunk.

Hannah got pieces of banana to hand to the elephants who would pick up the pieces with their trunks and then bring them to their mouth.

Kaylee was brave enough to feed the elephants too.  Macy was hanging back though.

They let each of the families pose with the baby elephants although not everybody did so after seeing what the elephants do with their trunks when they're posing with you.

 Here is a close up of the picture above.   I don't know whether you'd really call it a kiss or what but the elephant on the left is planting its huge, wet, very bristly snout on my cheek right next to my lips with such a strong sucking action that I thought I was going to have an elephant hickey on my face.

Then we went to the Monkey Show where they had about 5 different monkeys of different ages doing tricks and again we got to pose with the animals; but they didn't try any monkey business.

 Then we got to ride elephants for about 20 minutes.  Most of the time the mahouts were on the elephants with us but about halfway through the ride they got off and took pictures for us on our cameras.

The markings on the elephants' ears and trunks are a sign of their age.  I think they use the older, less frisky, elephants to carry the tourists around.

The Thais really have a thing for elephants.  We saw them many times in our drive around the island, saw elephant crossing signs on the road (but I was never able to stop and take a picture because we were being driven around to the different places in a van), and saw statues of them all around.

That evening we went to "Phuket Fantasea" for a buffet dinner and a show.  We weren't really quite sure what to expect because it is the only overtly touristy/theme park thing on Phuket that we saw.  It turned out to be a mash-up of some staff walking around as cartoon characters, other staff wearing traditional Thai costumes, a few animals on display in various fantasy settings, elephant rides, retail stores with Thai decorative items (including of course elephants) some of which were high quality and some of which were cheesy kitsch, a giant buffet dinner and a live theatrical show.

I wasn't expecting much quality from the buffet especially when I saw the size of the dining hall which can seat 4000.  This picture shows only about a fourth of the dining hall and shortly after this picture was taken it filled up quite a bit.

  However, the food was actually pretty good and I was surprised given the volume they had to prepare for the crowd.

Afterward we went to the auditorium you can see behind the family for the live theatrical show.

 I can't show you any pictures of the show I took because they are adamant in insisting that you check any cameras with security before you take your seat in the auditorium.  I had my camera in my bag and was just going to go in with it even though I did not intend to take any pictures. My daughter was going to do the same but one of the many guards confronted us about our bags and we had to check them.  I thought it would be a real hassle to retrieve them afterward but the system they had was so organized it was not a problem.

I was able to find a couple of pictures of the show on the internet however.

The show is about an hour and a half with song and dance from different regions of Thailand telling the mythical tale of the "Kingdom of Kamala".  In addition to the dancers and elephants there were chickens and goats running across the stage, doves flying across the stage, a rain storm at the front of the stage, and trapeze artists above the seats performing in black light with glowing costumes.  The show starts off with 16 elephants being ridden down to the stage through the audience and Carol turned to me and said, "Well, they're starting off with a bigger bang than Lion King".  The show could have been over the top and cheesy but it was actually very well done.

We got back to our hotel at about 9:30 and all went to bed by 10:00 because we got up at 4 a.m. so we could catch our flight back to Kuala Lumpur.

Thailand - Part 2

On Tuesday, March 29, we started the day off with a half-day tour to Khai Nok Island for snorkeling.  It was about an hour drive from our hotel to the other side of the island where we boarded a powerboat that could accommodate about 20 passengers (although our boat was not that full) for a 15 minute ride to Khai Nok Island.

We spent a couple of hours swimming and snorkeling there.

Later, Hannah (my 7 year old grand-daughter) and I got on a boat that went to another small island close by where the snorkeling was even better because most people didn't do that so it was less crowded and the water was clearer.

In an earlier post I mentioned that some Asians are quite taken with our little blonde girls. Well, the fuss a group of middle-aged women were making over Whitney and the other girls when we were on Khai Nok Island was unbelievable. I was taking some pictures of Whitney when a group of Asian women came by and started yelling "Beautiful!" with ear-to-ear grins and giving me the thumbs up sign.  Then they crowded in to take their own pictures of Whitney and to have their pictures taken with her.

We finished the day with a late afternoon at the Swissotel pool. The hotel had a special Thai buffet that evening followed by dancers doing traditional Thai dances by the pool.