Finally!

Here is the rest of the story of our Asia trip told by my lovely assistant Jenn. Pictures for this section can be found here:

Kuala Lumpur , Singapore Part II

I'm (Josh) heading to Indianapolis today and plan to visit my parents, friends, Chicago, etc. Jenn's going to hang out in California a bit more. After that I'm on to Bob's bachelor party cabin weekend in NY. Then I'll meet Jenn in Berlin where we will spend a little over 3 weeks over in Europe. Stay tuned for more action...

July 19 – 22: KL Sightseeing

Hi all, this is Jenn. I’m taking over blog duty as Josh hasn’t had much time to write lately, as you may have noticed. He’s been busy teaching and going to conferences. So here we go…

After sleeping in after a long night we went to a very fun lunch. We ate outside at a Southern Indian establishment where they serve you on banana leaves and you eat with your hands (of course I mean hand). The food was delicious, especially the roti canai. Most of us really enjoyed lunch, but Josh’s stomach was a bit weak, so we made a mad dash home after lunch so he could get some rest. That afternoon the girls had a fabulous, relaxing pedicure (go happy toes!). That evening we relaxed at Aida’s house and enjoyed her enormous movie collection. Since you can buy movies on DVD while they are playing in the theatre, most people just skip the theater and watch movies at home…for about $5 a pop, who can blame them.

The next morning, Aida took us to the Batu Caves. This was pretty cool. There were several Indian temples and many statues to look at, wild monkeys climbing about, and after two hundred and sixty-something steps up and then back down again, it was also quite a work out. After working up our appetites that morning, we went to lunch at a local mall “The Curve.” For dessert Aida treated Josh to a Big Apple Donut. This place is like Krispy Kream, except they have many more flavors and fantastically decorated donuts. It is quite a treat just to look at them.

Josh and I decided to spend the rest of the day at the movies. In Malaysia waiting in line for movie tickets can be quite a time consuming process. This is because each person selects their seat at the time of purchase, just like a theater performance. So, we got in line and booked both of our movies for the day: Wanted and Batman. For two movies, popcorn (caramel is the only kind they serve, which I loved) and a soda, the total came to about $15. What a deal!

After the movies, Aida suggested that we hire a taxi to take us back to her house. Sounded easy enough…yeah right. We started by going to an adjoining hotel taxi line. We made it past about ten parked taxis and taxi drivers then asked the man at the front of the line to take us to the house. He looked at the address and said “No.” Hmmm….ok then. Being a bit bewildered, we continued walking and noticed another taxi parked across the street with the driver casually standing beside it. So, we crossed four lanes of traffic and asked nicely again if this driver would take us. Yep, you guessed it. The response: “No. There is too much traffic.” Huh? Don’t these people get paid to drive in traffic? Ok, so now what? There was a security guard back on the opposite side of the street, so we crossed over once again. I asked him why the taxi drivers wouldn’t take us (considering the house was only about ten minutes away) and he said that there were too many stop signs/traffic and that we might have to wait a couple of hours, but that we could keep trying to ask passing taxis. So, after a few more minutes another taxi came by and Josh waved him down. We again asked if he would take us to the house and once again were told “no.” Seriously!?! At this point, I was getting frustrated. We then decided to walk back to the hotel and ask the front desk for help. The lady at the desk was very nice and said she would call us a taxi. Shortly thereafter, she told us that our taxi was waiting for us out front. OMG! To my surprise, when I opened the door and looked at the driver, it was the last driver that Josh had waived down! I guess this time he was under obligation from the hotel to take us, so he was stuck. Too bad. I just wanted to get home. It seems the driver didn’t know where the house was, because he spent several minutes talking to a couple people and then we were on our way. Or so we thought. It turned out he really didn’t know where he was going. After taking us to a condominium complex, and then driving around a business center for about fifteen minutes, the driver asked a man walking nearby for directions. Luckily this guy knew his way around. Finally we made it to the house. After all was said and done it was about an hour long taxi adventure that I hope to avoid in the future ;)

The next day we took the subway train (LRT) from KLCC to the Central Market. This is a huge building full of local crafts. We spent quite a bit of time looking around and shopping. We also cruised through Petaling Street, where you can find knock-offs for almost anything. It was a nice relaxing day of sightseeing.

The next day’s moto is “Three Times a Charm,” which applies to our visit to the Petronas Towers. The first time we tried to go up to the sky bridge, the tickets were sold out for the day. The second time, the towers were closed for the day. But, today, finally we succeeded. We got there pretty early in the morning, but apparently we weren’t the only early birds because there was already quite a line forming for tickets. We made it through the line and got tickets for the morning session. The views of the city were amazing and we were lucky to have snagged 10:15am tickets because shortly after our tour, the sky turned dark and stormy.

That afternoon we met up with Aida for lunch at a popular restaurant called Little Penang where we had our last Malaysian meal.

Then it was time to say goodbye to Malaysia and hello again to Singapore. We took a short flight from KL to Singapore, where Borna and Alex were gracious enough to once again collect us from the airport.


July 23 – 27: Back in Singapore

Well, there isn’t much to tell about our first day back in the Garden City. Josh had quite a bit of work to do, so we stayed in. That night though, we enjoyed pizza and movies with Borna and Alex.

The next day we walked to the train station to head over to the Jurong Bird Park. So far, we have been extremely impressed with the animal and nature parks in Singapore, and this park was no different. The tropical green scenery was the perfect landscape to the more than 8,000 birds and over 600 species! We enjoyed two bird shows and Josh even got to hand feed a flock of beautiful Lories.

Borna took the next day off work and we explored the Singapore Discovery Center, which included an IMAX movie of the Canadian caribou and a bus tour of SAFTI, a military training compound. We also took a look at the Army Museum, which had a great interactive video. Later that evening Alex joined us for dinner and sightseeing from the top of Raffles Hotel. The 70th floor viewing area allowed us to gaze upon the beautiful Singaporean skyline. The night continued onto the biggest night club I have ever seen. Basically, there is a huge complex divided up into numerous clubs (sorry I don’t remember exactly how many…nine or ten?). We listened to a live band in a jazz club, which was great and then spent most of the rest of the night in the Latin club, where another live band was playing. Alex and Lloyd joined up with us for an evening of dancing. I’m glad that all of the years of dance lessons finally paid off. There was a small dance area in front of the stage where we were able to show the crowd our moves! We had a great time!

After a late night, we still managed to get off to a decent start the next day. The four musketeers (Alex, Borna, Josh, Jenn) set off for the Singapore Botanic Gardens. We enjoyed a casual stroll through the gardens and along the ponds and streams, taking pictures of the beautiful plants, flowers, and animals. And, yes, Alex continued the shrine to Borna.

That afternoon, we drove to Sentosa Island to visit Underwater World. The highlights in this small aquarium were the tunnel with a moving sidewalk that allowed us to see marine life swimming all round and above us, the sea turtles, sea angels, yellow seahorses, and the pink dolphins. The pink dolphins performed in a lagoon at a different location on the island. They are beautiful animals and are quite entertaining!

That night we enjoyed a Mexican dinner in Holland Village, where Alex and Borna were given a brief lesson on Mexican cuisine and Alex begrudgingly put together his own dinner of fajitas.

For our final day in Singapore, we went on a morning canopy walk through the Southern Ridges with Borna, Alex and two of their friends. This was a great two hour walk through and above the jungle. That afternoon we joined Borna and Alex for church…and guess where it was (remember, this is Singapore)??? Yes, a MALL! Location aside, we enjoyed our experience there. That night we were spoiled with home cooking care of Borna’s Mom. She prepared several veggie dishes and fried rice, all of which was delicious. Thanks, Mom!

Late that night, Borna’s parents drove us to the airport where we awaited our morning check in.

It’s time to wrap up our South East Asia experience….we’re heading home!

July 28 – Singapore, Hong Kong, USA

Today consisted of being in three countries, sitting in two planes for over 16 hours, and crossing one international date line. We safely landed in LA where we were warmly greeted by my Mom. Oh, it feels great to be home!

Thanks for reading our blog. This trip has been an experience of a lifetime and we’re happy to be able to share a part of it with all of you. Stay tuned for more Josh and Jenn adventures. Next stop…Europe!