Judith and Mark D. S.E. Asia Trip - 5

This will be Judith's last email (and Mark's last set of photos), dated 13th August.
Any apparent connection between the photos and the content of Judith's email would suggest your brain is not working right. A  Rorschach test would have more in common.

Hey,

We left the Cameron highlands and headed to Jeruntut. After having a lunch of rice chicken veg and

No we did not try the mashed potatoes dispenser

egg (rcve) we went to a cave. This was probably our favourite cave experience. We had to climb through some tight spots to get into the main section of cave. There were some rock formations that looked like King Kong and an elephant (they actually looked like them, not like others where maybe if you squinted enough). Our guide then convinced us to exit through the more adventurous way instead of going back the way we came (except for Mark who was convinced from the start). We had to scramble down a slippery section and then go down a rope section to get to a darker section that had lots of bats and a few scorpion spiders. After the cave we left Jeruntut to Kuala Tahan (the town which was on the opposite side of the river from Taman Negara - the national park). We had a dinner of rcve and checked into our hostel. This was the first time we had critters in our place. First I found a frog, then a 2 inch beetle of some sort, an uncomfortable beginning to our hostel experience. That night we went on a night jungle walk. It was pretty tame, followed a board walk, but our guide was cool and was very interested in sharing his knowledge with us. We saw some stick insects (one was about 10 inches long), a scorpion, a snake, some birds, a spider that in the reflection was gold (it's web too). When we got to the observation hide we also saw a deer.

 Yes that guy is a beauty innovation expert

That night we had quite a fitful sleep, there were animals either living in the roof or on it and they

liked to make loud scrambling noises (at first I freaked out cuz it sounded like they were inside our room), we then had what we assumed were cats having a massive fight right outside. The next morning we went to the canopy walkway. It was fun, but slightly disappointing as from the google pictures I had thought it to be a lot higher. We climbed the rest of the way to bukit teresek which had a nice view. We were also disappointed with this trail as well it wasn't a trail but boardwalks and stairs. Once again though, our guide was cool and pointed out a lot of stuff.

After a lunch of rcve we went to an Orang Asli village, which is an aboriginal village. There are apparently a few tribes that live in the jungle. This particular tribe makes their money through selling sandalwood (very expensive wood that is sold for its essential oil) and by letting tourists visit. We learned how to start a fire in the traditional manner. Our guide was able to make it in 5 seconds and he challenged us to do it in under 8. Mark did it in 9 and I did it in 10 (my back was incredibly tight the next day, crazy what 10 seconds of intense physical activity can do). The orang asli do their hunting using bamboo blowpipes. So we got to try that out, which was sweet :-) After that we went on a short "rapid shooting" boat ride. We got very wet. We then had dinner.. wonder what we had? Rcve! We were getting very tired of the combination. We had the rest of the evening to relax.

The next morning we went on a trail to another observation hide. This trail was better, about 75% of

 your caption here

it was actually a trail. We had a different guide at this point but he was cool too and also very interested in sharing his expertise. He told us that he had been born and lived in the jungle (we think he was maybe born in an orang asli village). As an adult he took a holiday from work and lived in the jungle for a year and a half. We saw a lot of leeches and on the way back 6 long tailed macaques. After a lunch of rcve we took a boat ride up Sungai Tahan. I think this was one of the most beautiful experiences on our trip. The river is very shallow (about 1m) and there are narrow passes between rocks that the boat has to navigate through. The jungle lies thick on either side. We were lucky to have our guide as the only other passenger. He pointed out more monkeys playing on a log next to the river, an eagle perched on a branch, on the way back a colourful kingfisher, and just general info he thought we'd like to know. There were lots of butterflies at the boat landing and some thick vines to swing on. We had to hike 15min to get to the rocky swimming spot (lata berkoh).

After another dinner of rcve we went on our night safari. This was quite different than expected but cool. It actually took place in a palm oil plantation. Malaysia has palm oil plantations like Laos has rice fields. Apparently due to environmental concerns the government has pledged to maintain half of the country's land area as forest cover. We saw a couple birds, a poor rain soaked house kitty huddling under a tree (it was raining), some cows, a wild cat that I didn't get a good look at, and finally at the very end a cute owl! Apparently a few nights before the guide had seen a 13 foot python. I was glad we did not see that!

The next day we left by boat back to Jeruntut. The boat ride was pretty, similar to the river Tahan but wider. We saw some monkeys playing on a beach, and some wild cattle with birdies sitting on them. And then after our final lunch of rcve headed back to Kuala Lumpur. From there we caught another bus that took us to Singapore. We arrived at 2 in the morning on the 12th and went straight to bed.

I'll write my final update on our time in Singapore and the flight home when we get back to Canada. Yay Canada.

Judith and Mark

your caption here

Judith and Mark D. S.E. Asia Trip - 4

This email arrived from Judith this morning. The only thing that the pictures have in common with the email is that they were posted by Mark in his series on English advertisements encountered on their trip. Enjoy (or Enjoh)!

Hey!

Our last day in Saigon was quite busy. First, let me tell you about when I was 13. I really liked this tv show, Tour of Duty. Its an American tv show about a platoon of US soldiers in the Vietnam war. It was what first made me want to go to Vietnam one day, the scenery was beautiful (little did I know it was filmed in Hawaii), made me want to fly (joined air cadets shortly after), made me soberingly impressed with the north Vietnamese use of tunnels during the war, and made me think the M60 machine gun was pretty awesome (not as a tool to kill, just cool on its own). So, we went to the Chu Chi tunnels near Saigon (search on google for more info). We got to crawl through a portion of tunnel, which was cool, but overall I was disappointed because it didn't fully show the full extent or complexity of the tunnels. What was super cool though is they have a shooting range where you can shoot some of the guns that were used in the war like the M16, AK47, and drumroll, the M60. So Mark and I got 5 rounds each to shoot the machine gun. It was pretty awesome. Now as most of you know I'm a "pick flowers not fights" kind of girl and in real life I don't like guns, so please don't judge me when you see the photo of me looking like a gun crazed maniac (in reality I was just super awed and excited).

Later that day we got a Thai massage. They used their hands, elbows, forearms, and feet! They would get up on the table for better angles and would move your joints and muscles. As a manual practitioner there were some things I found cool that you wouldn't be able to get away with in Canada, and some things I would never do to my own patients. We also got a facial care treatment that was really nice (something I'd like like to do once or twice a year from now on).

I apologize that this one is going to be so long, there is just so much to share.

Some things we learned about Saigon: the population is over 8 million, and 3.5 millions scooters! One of the biggest reasons why so many people drive scooters and not cars is because of the tax put on cars. We liked the city, a mix of east meets west. We headed out to Malaysia the next day. Uneventful. Malaysia: barely any scooters! Drive on the left side of the road. Malaysia is a lot more multicultural compared to Vietnam and Laos. It's state religion is Islam. I was woken up by the adhan today.

Kuala Lumpur, Chinatown: dirty and not so nice. We were glad to leave the next day. Our bus to the Cameron Highlands was absolutely beautiful: mountainous, rainforesty, and windy. Even more windy than the Laos mountains. Yesterday we took a trail that climbed Mount Brinchang. Beautiful and good exercise. The rainforest here is in the subclass of montane or cloud forests - it was very cloudy. We just relaxed for the rest of the day and read our books.

Today we went to a tea plantation! So beautiful! We explored the plantation for a bit then checked

out the tea factory and went to the cafe that overlooks the plantations to try out their teas. We had 3 different kinds and it was by far the best tea I've had this trip. Unfortunately in general, the tea in south east Asia has not been great, not great quality and also more often then not the milk they put in is carnation milk. So today I got my fill of good tea! The plantation (Sungai Palas) itself is huge and I think it said they harvest what equals to over 800 000 cups of tea a day.

We are now sitting in Starbucks enjoying an almost but not quite as good cup of tea. Tomorrow we head out to Taman Negara, a national park for a few days then on to Singapore on the 12th. Frustratingly the only way we were able to get a place to stay on our next leg was to join a tour. Malaysia is the only place where we apparently needed to book hostels in advance. But, despite the change in plans we are quite excited for the trip and will send our next update in Singapore.



We hope everyone is doing well. We'll see you in just over a week!

Judith and Mark

Judith and Mark D. S.E. Asia Trip - 3

This email update arrived yesterday from Judith:

Hey everyone,

So since our last email we've been in Hoi An, Nha Trang, and we just arrived in Ho Chi Min City (Saigon).

(c) Wikipedia creative commons

Hoi An was really nice. Because of the timing of the busses, we ended up staying there for 2.5 days. The old quarter is really nice, quaint, and partially blocked off to most traffic so it had a really nice atmosphere. The food was hit and miss but we found a really nice cafe that we spent a good amount of time at. After sundown they light up the main street with lanterns which was pretty. We went to a nearby beach the first morning that was nice and because we went in the morning we missed most of the tourists. Mark got custom made dress shoes and sandals that look really nice. They recommended waiting a couple days for the glue to set properly and he's very impatient to start wearing the sandals. I had a dress made that I'm excited to try out, but I'll wait until I'm home. This is definitely a place to get clothes made, although to do it properly you should probably go for a week or 2 with a bunch of ideas in mind. Mark thinks this has been his favourite city so far.

We then took a night bus to Nha Trang that was far from great. The beach there was a lot busier. All the menus were in Vietnamese, Russian, and English. We had what we both agree as our best meal so far.

Credit: Little Accidents in the Kitchen

It was a local restaurant, we were the only tourists there for a while. They brought a charcoal fire and grill and placed it on our table along with marinated beef and chicken that we then barbequed ourselves. We also had garlic fried rice that was surprisingly very sparsely fried so it still stuck together well, so using the chopsticks wasn't an issue (no knives or forks were provided). On our way back we stopped in a bakery and bought some small cakes including a very hipster (and yummy) 1000 layer matcha cake. We left the next morning which is today :-)

We got into Saigon and it took us a whole 1 minute to walk to our hostel. After settling in we went over to Burger King to eat some nostalgic American fast food. We've only seen 1 Starbucks and 1 KFC and that was in Hanoi so we indulged ourselves tonight.

Now it's off to bed! We have a full day here tomorrow then fly out to Kuala Lumpur the next day (with Vietnam Airlines not Malaysia).

Having fun but missing you all!

Judith and Mark

Sunday at Willow Beach with the Girls

Ingrid and I had a wonderful time today with Claire and Caitlyn at Willow Beach, Georgina. Miriam and Geoff were also there. In fact, they took us there. Thank you, Geoff and Miriam, for a super time.

Luckily, the weather was perfect. Now that she is four Claire has a new independence and took herself off to play by herself at the playground where she made a best friend for the day. The two new-found friends encouraged each other to ever new and greater challenges on the climbing structures.

As a family we all had a lovely time on the beach making and destroying many sandcastles. GrampaMac dug a hole that nearly went all the way to China. We stopped when we arrived at the China Sea which was coming into our hole.