May 1-3 - Recovering on Penang Island

 Much was left to see and do in KL -- and I know I'll be back because it has become one of main hubs for airline travel in SE Asia.  This morning it was time to move on up the coast.  Just for perspective, my entire journey from KL to Bangkok (depicted here) is the rough equivalent of traveling between Portland, Oregon and San Diego, California.  Choices abound for places to stop and how to travel -- and in my way of traveling, it all falls to me.  Airline ticketing is the easiest -- especially when using http://flights.google.com -- and there is plenty of online guidance for train travel as well -- especially here: http://www.seat61.com/Malaysia.htm -- but all of it takes study and risk.  So it is particularly satisfying when I find myself on the right train at the right time with the right kind of ticket (not everyone accepts electronic copies yet).  And that was the success of the morning as I caught a train out of KL enroute to Butterworth, Malaysia -- a place I'd not even heard of just a few months ago but that is now a crucial change point to grab a ferry to Penang Island and the historic, world heritage site/town of Georgetown.

The trip was comfortable as I watched the lush landscape speed by -- and it got interesting about half way through the trip when a man got on the train and took his assigned seat opposite me, and initiated conversation with me.  Turned out he was from India, and a practicing Hindu who works as a lawyer - headed to Georgetown for a family celebration.  Conversation flowed easily for the remainder of the trip including onto the ferry for the 15 minute crossing to Georgetown. 

 When he bid farewell, he gave me his business card and suggested we have lunch next time I pass through KL.

As far as my time in Georgetown -- I mustered strength to do a little walking each day -- and took an hour long tour on one of the many pedal-powered trishaws:

And by my last day (May 3), my appetite returned and I enjoyed some great noodles.  But in fairness, I'll need to return someday to Georgetown because I didn't explore it as much as I would have liked.  For now it will be remembered as the city in which I recovered from the flu!

Last Two Days in KL - Friday/Sat April 29-30

The loss of appetite kicked in on Friday as I got the cough under control with meds -- but I chose to just hang out in my nice condo and catch up on my planning and reading (and sleeping! as I was also suffering serious jet lag -- I gotta stop pretending this old body can do what it used to do!).  Anyway, by Saturday I was ready for another adventure -- this time to visit what Lonely Planet describes as one of Malaysia's National Treasures and holiest Hindu sites: the Batu Caves.  Again I navigated the public transportation system from the monorail to the "Komuter" trains and arrived at the site that are both functioning temples and tourist-attracting caves.  It was the first time I noticed the trains had separate cars for women only:

I took in all the caves, including the Ramayana Cave that Lonely Planet describes as "more spectacularly over-embellished...which boasts gaudy diaramas of the Indian epic Ramayana"

and climbed the 272 steps to the Temple Cave:

and took a 45 minute guided tour into "Dark Cave:"

All interesting and informative both on culture and cave creatures.

All in time to get back to KL Sentral in time for a meet up with a friend and fellow teacher of my daughter/son-in-law when they taught English in China in 2009 (their blog is here).  Kris has been in SE Asia since 2008 and is currently awaiting her work visa here in Malaysia to begin a two year university-level teaching assignment.  Kris has been a long time blogger:  https://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/sunketing/

and I had a great time learning from her.  I'll look forward to crossing paths with her again - a wonderful resource and another friend added to my life.

May 4 - I'm Back Among The Living

So far this trip is shaping up to be one which will only feed the fears of would-be travelers -- because the "head cold" that I previously blogged about, turned into full-on flu - complete with temperature, body aches, loss of appetite, and desire to sleep.  This morning, my last day in Penang, I'm feeling much better and hopeful that I'll stay on this road to recovery.  A sure sign that I was getting better was I woke up hungry!  What kind of flu?  Where I got the flu? Who knows.  All I know is it certainly robbed me of much of the fun of traveling.  Thankfully here in Penang I had a perfectly situated, air conditioned room right in the center of the activity -- but it's definitely a bummer that I wasn't interested in exploring the cullinary delights this area has to offer.

And while I'm feeling much better -- I have changed up the onward portion of my travel.  I decided to skip taking the overnight train from Penang to Bangkok.  And wonderful destinations like Koh Tao and Ko Samui will have to await my return another time. Instead I fly tomorrow directly to Phuket ($88USD) where I have nice, near to the beach, accommodations reserved.  More about all that in a future post.

For now, let me backup in time and catch up the blog:

As previously posted, I arrived KL on April 27.  The next morning I figured out the free downtown bus system (complete with onboard wifi) and got myself to one of the many KL meccas of capitalism: Suria KLCC.  There should be no doubt that capitalism is thriving in KL after even a brief visit to this shopping mall.  I spent little time there, instead choosing to enjoy KL's central park which is just across the way.  The walk afforded me many wonderful views of the Petronas Towers and it was a lovely, though empty, park.  Given the amount of children's play equipment, I'm guessing it is a busy place on weekends.

Before I left the park, I noticed a fellow traveler sitting at a park bench, looking over a tourist map, and my curiousity allowed me to learn that she was from Finland on the last day of a 4-month journey throughout SE Asia -- an experience she had saved and planned for.  We compared notes on Bali where we both had visited -- and she suggested I might want to visit KL's Chinatown and City Gallery that she had enjoyed. We exchanged blog sites -- though hers, written in Finnish, is translating by Google: http://vorssagoesasia.blogspot.com .  I bid her safe travels home and caught another free bus to Chinatown.

And visited the nearby City Gallery both for this much photographed icon:

And a wonderful slide and light show that highlighted a miniature city mockup:

Another free bus route got me back to my accommodations.

Picked up a Cold

So, I haven't forgotten to blog, I just haven't had the time or energy.  On my second day here in KL I picked up a pretty nasty head cold and hacking cough == for which I've been taking some over the counter medication which controls the coughing and aches, but leaves me pretty lazy.  I've continued to explore -- but also have been sleeping much more than usual. So, hopefully this will pass soon and I'll get back to blogging.

Today, Sunday -- I'm catching a train to Penang -- about a 6 hour ride.  The train actually stops in Butterworth where I'll take a ferry ride to the island of Penang (an UNESCO World Heritage site) with plans to stay 3 nights -- maybe longer if this cold hangs on longer.

Ah, getting sick on the road - not exactly an adventure I was hoping for!

Wednesday - April 27 - Arrival in KL

For those who are not famliar, Kuala Lumpur is commonly referred to as "KL" by locals and travelers, and it is the fastest growing area in SE Asia with a metro area population of 7.5 million (about the size of Dallas/Ft Worth metro area - the 4th largest metro area in the USA - behind New York, Los Angeles and Chicago).

Anyway, my flight from Tokyo was super pleasant and I actually got a few hours sleep -- and then I had another 4 hour layover in the beautiful Singapore Changi airport.  Because I had visited Singapore on my October 2015 trip, I had arranged to just transit here and caught a $29USD, hour long flight on Air Asia to KL.  Upon arrival in KL, I navigated my way to the "KLIA Ekspres" non-stop rail service to downtown ("KL Sentral") for RM49.50 (Malaysian Ringgit), which is the equivalent of about $13 USD.  Then for another RM2.50 (64 cents USD) I caught the monorail to a stop near my accommodations.  I truly love traveling by public transportation -- and not just because it is usually the cheapest option, but also because it gives me exposure to the people/culture - both travelers and locals. KL Sentral was buzzing with people/activity and I had a moment of feeling like I was Indiana Jones -- on a mission to get to my accommodations through the throngs of people amongst strange smells and language all around.

Accommodations, with advice/assistance from a friend, are super nice at Invito Hotel Suites - a completely equipped condo for the equivalent of about $42USD a night.

Here's my room and my view:

As you may imagine, I was exhausted from my long journey -- but the excitement of being here and the desire to get on local time encouraged me to head out to walk around the area -- and enjoy some Chinese food and a beer, and watch the evening light show in the pond in front of the well-known Petronas Towers: 

And I couldn't resist getting a photo of this display along one of the walk-ways.  The wall contained photos of all the instrument groups -- but I only wanted a photo of the Tuba -- and got the entire brass section:

Update - First Time on Boeing 787

So in my prior post I noted that I would be boarding a Boeing 777.  That observation turned out to be wrong.  The plane was a Boeing 787 "Dreamliner", the newest flag ship of Boeing, currently on production lines in Everett, Washington which I've had the opportunity to tour.

I am typing this as we are getting prepared to land in Tokyo in this beautiful aircraft.  At first glance, it looks rather typical with 3-3-3 seating -- but its most noteworthy upgrade is the windows that can be electronically dimmable from regular/clear through many stages of beautiful, blue tinting.  These windows provided a translucent spaciousness to the artificially created "night" flying as we continued our journey in full daylight -- outpacing the setting sun as we crossed the international date line.  These windows, the spacious "touchless" flushing toilets, the quickly responding, updated entertainment system at each chair and the large, overhead storage bins are great improvements. And I just learned from reading the Wiki article I linked above that All Nippon (ANA) was the launch airline for this new aircraft with commercial service introduced in October 2011 and as of last month Boeing had orders for 1139 of them from 62 customers -- with All Nippon having ordered the most (82). On the negative side, it's also the aircraft that has suffered some widely publicized lithium battery fires that caused its grounding in 2013.

The plane was not full -- perhaps another reason I got a cheap seat - and I got to know my seat mate -- a 33 year old Chinese guy born and raised in Vancouver, Canada who makes his living by teaching ball room dancing.  I've not met very many people in my travels who can volley answers into questions, to refocus the conversation like I usually try to do -- but he was adept at it.  I enjoyed a long conversation that finally gave way to getting a little shut-eye in between two good meals.

And I should also also update my prior rant about security:  All Nippon flight attendants at boarding did finally closely compare boarding pass to passport -- so I'm guessing it's just a different process in Canada with the airline having responsibility for this identification rather than Government employed TSA security, the way it is done in the USA.

Day 1 - April 25 - Starting the Adventure

In booking this "mistake" fare, I took a small risk that my 5th grandchild (3rd granddaughter) would be born close to her due date (April 13) -- and sure enough, Mabel Alice arrived on April 18.  Her arrival set in motion a few changes in my transportation from Portland to my departure airport, Vancouver, Canada, when I learned that my son/his wife and 5 year old daughter Geneva (my 2nd granddaughter) would be visiting Portland this past weekend -- and created an opportunity to ride with the back to their home in Bellingham,Washington -- an easy train and subway ride to Vancouver Airport.  So, that's what I did.

So this morning after we dropped off Geneva at her pre-school on the campus of Western Washington University -- I hopped a AMTRAK Cascade train for a beautiful, mostly ocean-side ride into downtown Vancouver on a beautiful, sunny day - total cost of the ride $12.  Once there, I easily navigated my way to the airport via Vancouver's "sky train" for $2.75 ("concession fare" for the young and seniors -- for others it's $4).

I'm writing this from the boarding area -- where a new-looking ANA Boeing 777 awaits.  Interestingly, I made it all the way through regular security (USA's TSA Pre-check doesn't work here) with only showing an ANA emailed QR code (they automatically checked me in) on my phone and with no one matching the name on the email to my passport.  Hmm?  Quite a contrast from the very caustic questioning that Canada border security had given me when I exited the train:  "Are you traveling alone?...Why are you going to Malaysia? Do you know anybody in Malaysia? What do you do for your living?"  All these were asked with a tone of disbelief -- as if to suggest "Why would anyone travel alone to tour Malaysia where you don't know anybody."  Perhaps she thought that officiousness was necessary in her job.  She ran out of questions when I responded to her demand for what I had done before I retired -- and passed me through.  In hindsight, I wish someone like her was doing the airport security screening!

And finally, to the common question -- how long is your flight?  Well, the answer may well give some insight into why the fare was so cheap.  10 hours to Tokyo, 5 hour layover, 7 hours to Singapore. As I tried to pack too much into too short of time, my initial plan to begin a train journey from entry point into Malaysia (just beyond the causeway that connects from Singapore) gave way to adding a booking on a $29 Air Asia, hour-long flight to Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia's capital and most populous city. Total time enroute on 3 flights: 28 hours.

And the next adventure is underway...