Welcome to our Travel Blog. Prikknu will follow the Journey of Brett, Theresa, Nigel & Lynn on their trip around the world.
Here is a map of where we are going… You can read more about each location on the Itinerary Pages.
Click on the map to see it bigger.
Have you ever starting something small, only to find it takes a mind of it’s own and grows in leaps and bounds? Perhaps it’s been your last car purchase or a computer purchase or something like that. You go with a budget/limit in mind and then before you know it, you’ve left the store with the thing you “have to have” - money no object. That was my experience - well sort of when it came to planning my next big trip. Intrigued? Read on…
Before we leave for our trip. Nigel and Lynn will leave the day after tomorrow.
I’m getting excited. We’re starting to figure out packing options. We are going to try really hard to get everything into a single carry-on bag each. That’s a lot of stuff in one small bag - especially given that we are going to places that have temperatures ranging from 32 degrees up to 108 degrees!
Today is the big day for our trip and it’s already beyond everyday vacation status. It’s an adventure…
Checklist:
All good to go?
Kudos to Josh Hinds, our designer at work who whipped out a cool header this afternoon for this travel blog. I’m digging it. He’s by far the most talented designer I have ever worked with. He makes Network Magic rock!
It’s Sunday 5/14, 13:00 and the saga of our trip to France has almost ended! Yippee! After a series of plane connections, two subway connections (including a hectic moment where Lynn’s luggage got stuck in a gate), and a two hour train ride, we reached Flers. Lynn and I were both completely exhausted. Our final destination, still ahead of us, was the Rock n Roll cycle lodge run by Dee and Russell. Rock n Roll is an adventure holiday guest house which caters to all kinds of activities.
We’re in Chicago at the Red Carpet Club. Using a free trial of t-mobile hotspot :). Lucky for us, no issues with flight delays like Nigel & Lynn. I think our plan is to be layed back, go with the flow and be thankful for every flight that gets us to our destination ontime. Next stop Paris! We’re excited.
We’re here. A little jet lagged, but safe and sound. We took a taxi from the airport - 47 euros. We dropped our bags and wandered the streets, sipping espressos on the sidewalks of Paris.
We wandered over to Notre Dame for a quick tour, and snapped this quick shot. Ahh… Paris in the spring time.
Tonight we have dinner plans with Luis at his home. He decided that trying to get a Taxi driver to find him might not work so well… so we’re taking the metro out of town a little and he’ll pick us up.
Looking forward to sleep!! More on Paris tomorrow…
Yum! Pain au Chocolat for breakfast followed a brisk stroll to La Tour Eiffel. It was a little crazy there as today is the Arsenal-Barcelona football game. Lots of fans about, and lots of cheers!
Had a really nice dinner last night with Luis and Deena (more later…). Right now we’re enjoying a punnet of fresh local strawberries from a farmers market and then are off to meet up with Nigel and Lynn.
Today we left Suisse Normandy and are currently sitting on a train heading into Paris. We had an amazing time at Rock n Roll and rode each day we were there covering almost 90km of trails. As with our prior visit, the group was a lot of fun - Russell (as always) was the perfect guide, Chris (another guest) was great fun and added many laughs to our trip, and Dee (Russell’s mum) is fantastic, going the extra mile to make you feel welcomed and at home. Read the rest of this entry »
Yesterday we went to Sacré Cœur, a beautiful french church located on Montmartre hill - one of the higest points in Paris. It’s a beautiful area with narrow cobblestone streets and lots of artists painting on the pavements.
Lots of places offered moules et frites - mussels and french fries. An interesting combination.
This morning all four of us were up at 6:30 and went for a fantastic 4 mile run. We ran along the river banks and by the Louvre, through it’s gardens, all the way down the Champes-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe and past the Eiffel Tower. A great way to work off a esquisite french meal the night before!
We’re off the the airport in an hour… next stop Dubai.
Dinner with Luis and Deena… good times! It’s hard to beat traveling thousands of miles from home and indulging in the comfort of meeting up with an old friend.
For those that don’t know him, I should introduce Luis. Once described to me as a “the short, foul-mouthed Mexican”, a label which I find does not quite do him justice…
Monsieur Luis Talevera is old-school Microsoft, and without a shadow of a doubt the best and most inspiring guy I have ever worked for. Luis oozes passion for whatever he does in life… be it building great software, or living life to the fullest with his family. My path first crossed with Luis way back in 1993 when he was the inspiration for Outlook Express – codenamed “Athena” back then. I was fresh out of University with barely 6 months of coding under my belt. Luis had a grand but simple plan – to build a PIM (Personal Information Manager) that would rock the world.
Luis did 4 brilliant things that all good managers should do:
1. He believed in my ability to write code far beyond anything I had done before.
2. He dumped a seemingly intractable and hard challenge in my lap and made me accountable for solving it.
3. He knew that I had too much pride not to fail him, and did not want to hear him give me shit for not delivering, and finally
4. He left me and the rest of the team alone to deliver on the mission, giving us all the rope to hang ourselves if we chose to.
The table was set, and the rest was simply up to me… and so launched my career in the field of software engineering.
I still remember the day Luis came into my office – “Here’s the plan: Eric owns the Address Book, and Justin is going to figure out the knarly Calendar stuff, Sung gets the todo list, so that leaves you on the Email Client. Oh – and we demo to BillG in four weeks.” Wholy crap! What do I know about email? That sounds like the hardest piece! “Then figure it out, dick-wad.”, says Luis as he walks out the door again.
OK, enough reminiscing… back to the present… Theresa and I take the metro to the very end – at Ponte St. Cloud, 20 minutes out of Paris. Luis picks us up on the bridge and drives us five minutes back to his home, or perhaps “chateau” would be a more fitting description!
Luis and Deena have a grand home with a beautiful garden. We arrived, cracked open a bottle of red wine and took the conversation outside onto the patio. It was like a warm summer evening in Seattle…
Deena has prepared a feast. For the entrée (appetizer to the American readers) we munched on fresh artichoke with a simple lemon-butter dip. Artichokes are apparently in season in mid-May. For the main course we ate an incredible Persian rice dish (soaked basmati rice, slow cooked in a base of butter – flipped so that the butter-crust ends up on top), French Lamb, lentils and beans. I especially enjoyed the extra thai chilis that were floating in there. J
After we were done, Luis came back with his favourite part – the drippings from the pan that cooked the lamb. And tasty they were! A very concentrated paste – that resembled Marmite in it’s dark saltiness, but with a more meaty flavour. Spread on toast! Fantastique! C’est tres bon!
As if we were not already satisfied with the good wine and fine main course, out came desert. A delicious melee of fresh fruits – Mango, Melon and Strawberries. Not like the flavourless California-grown red-blobs you get in American grocery stores, but real strawberries –like local Washington picked ones or the ones we used to get from Kelsall in the Cheshire country side growing up.
I was both impressed and amused when Luis showed his more sensitive side after dinner. He declared – “I’ll make tea – let me go get some mint from the garden.”. As he returned from foraging the veggie patch, Deena double-checked…. “You didn’t take it from that pot where the dog peed did you?” – “Of course not, I got it from the herb garden over there in the corner”. “There’s no mint over there”, protested Deena, let me see… “Luis… I don’t think Oregano tea will taste very good.” Oh well… he did try. I guess I now know I can send him a book on herbs for Christmas…
The highlight of the evening was simply watching Luis, Deena and their 3 kids (Nikita, Misha, Alyosha) all interact. Deena speaks English to the children, Luis speaks Spanish to them, and they all converse in French. It was an amazing seamless and fluid thing to watch them flow between the languages without effort. I was also inspired by the sense of family and at the same time feeling of respect between them all as they ate dinner and wove between conversations. It shows that they have put a lot of effort into building a solid family and savouring the simpler things in life.
After dinner, they took us on a night-time tour of Paris… it was fun to see the Eiffel Tower do it’s magical sparkling light show on the hour, and see Ponte Neuf lit up at night.
All in all, a great evening. We were so entertained that we completely forgot about our jet lag, and that we hadn’t slept for 30 something hours. All of which made for a good nights sleep and fond memories.
Sorry… no pictures with this post… my big fat camera would have simply been too distracting, so it stayed at home.
We were in Paris after all. How could we possibly not entertain some rich French food! The hotelier recommended Relais Louis XIII. A local restaurant in the St. Germain area with a well renowned Chef. Reputably a very traditional French experience.
In an upscale French restaurant there are usually 3 ways to go: à la carte where you simply choose individual items from the menu, Le Menu - which is a fixed course meal being able to choose a few choices of main course etc. Or Le Menu dégustation - or tasting menu, which is basically an 8+ course meal of whatever the chef decides to make. We opted for the shorter dinner menu, as the tasting menu sounded too much like death by food!
Menu dîner
Soupe Crémeuse de Potiron aux Langoustines
Terrine de Foie Gras Poêlés, Artichauts et Poireaux Nouveaux
Pigeon de Bresse Rôti, Carottes Confites et Jus Acidulé
Pièce de Veau de Lait aux Câpres et Jeunes Pousses d’Epinards
Sélection de Fromages Frais et Affinés
Fine tarte aux Poires et Crème Glacé Vanille
Soufflé Chaud à au Chocolat et Pistil de Safran
Round one, was a fabulous tomato gazpacho soup, with slivered peppers on top. Incredible! I’m not usually one for gazpacho, but this was spectacular.
Ding ding, Round two. In the left corner we have Nigel, Lynn and Theresa with a very fine looking lobster and asparagus appetizer. In the right corner, we have Brett with some Foie Gras with artichokes and baby leeks.
Round three and out came some variety - Lynn opted for a Chef surprise of mixed vegetables, Nigel and Theresa opted for the roast pigeon and I went with the trusty old veal with a fine spinach-caper sauce.
OK, we’re fairly stuffed now, lubricating our stomachs with a few more swigs of red wine. But we’re not done yet…
Ding ding… round four… let petit fours. How I wish I had taken my camera with me now… Incredibly fine French miniatures pastries, four of each… the first with a very tart lemon topping, the next with some slight coconut hints, and the last - always the best for last, a miniature pastry volcano with an exquisite custard like texture.
One might expect that three small pastries would be enough… apparently not. Out came a second plate with small dark chocolates and a fabulous home made caramel of reduced fruits including mango and pineapple.
Once that was down, we were on to round 5 - the cheeses. Delicious stinky aged and soft cheeses from all regions of France. Served with a light bread made with dates.
For la grande finale! Chocolate soufflé! Not just chocolate soufflé, but exquisite French soufflé with a small side dish of vanilla ice cream infused with safron to slide inside the hole once cracked in the top.
Fabulously French, and unjustifiably expensive.
Bon Apetite!
We left Paris this morning after a brief but fun visit - we’re currently on a plane to Dubai. Lynn and I arrived from our mountain bike trip yesterday afternoon and met up with Brett and Theresa. After dropping off bags, we headed out to Sacré Cœur (cool church) in the Montmarte district of Paris. For folks that have never been, it’s a pretty cool area to visit since it has the church, lots of street artists and it at a very high elevation affording you a great view over all of Paris.
We arrived into Dubai yesterday morning at 2am! The flight over was very smooth and was over very quickly. As we blogged earlier, the in-flight entertainment (no I don’t mean Brett’s 7 glasses of champagne!) was wonderful.
When we arrived at the airport, there was someone to meet us from the hotel who arranged a car to take us downtown. As it turns out, our hotel - Le Meridian Grosvenor House isn’t exactly downtown, it’s in the hotel district next to Dubai Marina. The hotel is way over the top for service and comfort. We have a “private butler” service, the bed is huge, we have a pillow menu (!?!), food is awesome and erm, lot’s more.
Yesterday we slept in until 11am and then headed over to the sister hotel - Le Meridian Beach Resort to soak up some sunshine and beach action :-).
The pool by the hotel was very nice with a swim up bar - very nice. It didn’t take long for the boys to brave the water and swim up to get a couple of nice cold beers in.
Later in the evening, we headed downtown to “old Dubai” to explore the local souks. A souk is typically the commercial quarter of an arabic city and is oftern used to describe the market area. There are multiple souks located in the Deira area of Dubai. We checked out the gold souk first which resembled more a collection of gold shops lining a covered street.
I was expecting more of a market scene. Unfortunately for us, the main attraction (the local spice souk) was closed due to holidays. We did however find a couple of Iranian spice shops open and stopped in to get some tea and a few gifts.
Today we’re planning on trying a few water activities (perhaps wind surfing) and will hopefully meet up with Lynn’s friends Paula and Juergen.
N.
It’s 6am and we’re off to the airport in an hour to catch our flight to Johannesberg. Met up with Jeurgen for dinner last night - great middle eastern food.
We’ve arrived safe and sound in Johannesburg. Our flight from Dubai was very smooth (7hrs) and went by quickly. After leaving the heat of Dubai (temps in the 80 - 90F range), it was pleasant to get off the plane and a cool climate - it’s between 50F and 60F in the late afternoon. We’re told it will be warmer once we reach the coast where the safari is located.
We’re staying in the suburbs of Johannesburg tonight and have a mid-morning flight out to Richard Bay which is located in the heart of Zululand. From there it’s a bumpy 1 - 2 hr drive to Zulu Nyala for six nights on safari. It’s highly unlikely that we’ll have any connectivity during the safari so we might be out of touch for almost the whole week. Our hotel is the Melrose Arch - a very nice modern affair located in the burbs.
Driving from the airport was pretty interesting - most of the homes we saw were in gated communities with razor wire on the walls. I think we’re safe here with the machine gun nests at the entrance and the search light towers around the hotel… Ok, I was kidding - REALLY 
The trip is going well and we’re all in good spirits. Flying with Emirates has been a pleasure so far. Tomorrow we take a turboprop out into the bush
Well we haven’t seen any lions, tigers or bears (I don’t think they have bears in Africa anyway). We are not at Zulu Nyala after taking a short flight down to Richards Bay. We arrived here around 1pm and were met by the staff who took us on the 90 minute drive to the game reserve. We’re staying in “safari tents” which are permanent structures with partial walls (front and back), complete bathroom and canvas sides and roof. I’ll post some pictures later.
After getting settled we took a 2 hour game drive out into the bush. We saw all kind of animals including elephants, buffalo, springbok-like-things (can’t recall the full name). After the drive (oh, I forgot to mention the flat tire episode) we went and had dinner at the Safari center.
This morning we took a game drive at another location fairly close by. Here we saw a rhino (from a very long way off) along with lots of Zebras, more elephants, monkeys and lots of other cool stuff. Later this evening we took another drive at Zulu Nyala (where we’re staying) and saw an amazing amount of wildlife including rhinos and hippos.
We’re being driven around in converted land rovers with canvas tops and very sturdy roll bars. 
The roll bars have made a great mounting post for my bogen superclamp which is working great as a shotting platform for my 20D + 400mm + 2x lens doubler This is giving me the effective length of a 1200mm+ lens - very nice for shooting things a long way off but you need to have a steady hand and a steady platform. It also helps that the ranger turns off the jeep’s engine whenever we stop (no engine vibration).
So far we’re having a good time - out of the other people here, we’re met a very nice mum and daughter from Vancouver, BC. Tomorrow we’re off to the coast for a boat trip at St Lucia where we’re supposed to see lots of water wildlife (including crocs!).
We came across this sign while visiting a local alligator/crocodile farm. I found it most amusing since my mum used to use a wheelchair to help with her chronic fatigue syndrome. Quite frequently, while walking down a ramp with my mum, my father would (jokingly) threaten to let go. This sign gave it a whole new dimension…
Today is our last day on Safari - we’ve had a great time and will begin “travel day from hell” tomorrow. It’s a 30 hour journey to our next destination - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Ok quiz fans, here’s one to keep you thinking:
What’s the connection between “The Matrix” and “A Fish Called Wanda”?
Come on… think about it… Ok, if you’re really stuck, click below
Warning: this post contains intimate details on the internal workings of the Melrose Arch hotel…
Well, not really sleeping, but sitting silent amongst them at least. On Thursday we did a night drive at Pinda. Pinda is another reserve that backs on to Zulu Nyala, so it was only 20 minutes away. Pinda has a few prides of lions that live on the reserve and so we went to visit them.
The setup at Pinda 
was slightly different, they had open-top land-rovers with a ‘tracker’ sitting on a seat mounted on the front hood. They also had radios, so they could communicate with other rangers as to where the animals were located.
After a short drive, stopping off to see some Giraffes we came upon a lion in the brush. The ranger turned the Landy in and proceeded to make a wide sweep behind them to creep up slowly. As we approached, we spotted a male lion on the right.
He was basking in the sun and a little curious to see the Land Rover. The guide cut the engine and we sat in silence about 15 feet away waiting for him to settle down.
As he settled, a female lion and a few others appeared to be stalking us from the grass.
She came up about 12 feet from the jeep, cautiously followed by three young and very cute lion cubs.
The male lion got up and plunked himself in the grass a little further away. He didn’t look like he was planning on moving for the night. As the lioness came past the male lion the stopped to rub heads on each other - apparently the way that lions greet.
We followed them slowly for about 20 minutes or so, as the lioness and her cubs walked across a road and into more grasses. She suddenly appeared interested in a herd or zebra and wildebeests up ahead with a curiosity for an early evening snack.
Somehow, she silently looked back and signaled to the boys to stay put while mum goes off to hunt Zebra.
The boys too heed and watched keenly on how mum was about to prepare their evening dinner…
We followed mum while she hunted for 20 minutes or so.
The rangers were very careful to stay well back and they didn’t want to give either side any kind of advantage. The lions are smart enough to sometimes try and use the land rovers for cover, sneaking up along side them.
There were two large herds of interest to the lioness - a herd of Wildebeest and a herd of Zebra. Unfortunately for the lioness, the Zebra were in between her and the wildebeests. Zebra can be quite hard work for a lion to catch on their own without backup. She stalked for 10 minutes or so and then turned back to her cubs. They would either go hungry tonight, or perhaps snack on a little wart-hog later on.
When mum arrived back at the cubs, there was much nose rubbing and happiness. The boys lay down next to each other and wrestled for a while.
Took a few big yawns, and went back to napping.
And that was that.
I will say that it was an incredible experience, being out in the the wild bush only feet away from such strong animals that could probably kill you with one bite. The adrenaline rush and the excitement of being so close will be with me for quite some time. I can highly recommend going on Safari to anyone who has yet to do it. It’s a must for one of those life-experiences
Zulu Nyala has about seven resident white Rhinos.
On one of our first days out, we ran into two of them. They were about 30 feet from the jeep, and heading towards us. They came straight up to the side of the jeep, within about 4 feet and turned to the right. I took this shot as they were approaching.
It was quite a breath-taking experience. I have seen Rhinos in pictures and also the odd dormant and half-brain-dead Rhino in the Zoo, but never in the wild like this, and never without safety bars or a moat separating us. They are amazing creatures - very prehistoric feeling. With the ambiance of the fading light, it felt like we were in the set for Jurassic Park.
We followed them for a while as the sun started to set.
Later on we found them down by a watering hole trying to steal a drink and wallow in the mud.
Unfortunately for the Rhinos, there were about 11 hippos lurking in the water.
The hippos are very territorial and don’t like anyone drinking from their waters. The Rhinos approached the bank and started sipping from the water.
The hippos displayed their might and came up and chomped their jaws open wide, and then - slam down into the water again. A random factoid of the day for you is that a single hippo tooth weighs about nine pounds!
(Kudos to RonG’s GIF Movie Gear app that allowed me to whip out this quick animation in 5 minutes)
This was enough to scare off the Rhinos for now and they trotted off into the grasses. Ten minutes later they sneaked around to the back of the watering hole and drank and wallowed in the mud a safe distance from the hippos.
After a good wallow in the mud, there is nothing that a Rhino needs to do more than to mark his territory. They do this by peeing in the area and then stomping it into the ground. It was fascinating to learn about this behavioral trait
as I also witnessed Nigel doing the same thing by his sun-bed at pool after a few too many gin & tonics. I always wondered what he was up to - great trick to keep the Germans away from the beds.
One of the main reasons that Rhinos like to wallow in the mud is to loosen up the parasites that have taken up residence on their thick skin. Once the parasites are wet, they then look for a scratching post to scrape them off. This is usually a tree or a rock. We followed two Rhinos one night, who seemed to have a wail of a time scratching their bellies and undercarriages on a big rock. You can just see the rock in the lower left of this shot:
We followed a little longer and then caught up to yet another set of Rhinos! This time a mummy Rhino and her 5 week old baby. They were both being stalked by daddy Rhino, but the mum was mad at him and snorted and chased him every time he got too close.
He was so cute! Quite adorable… he’d jog off to the side now and again with his little stubby Rhino legs. Here’s a shot of Baby Rhino all on his own, showing his little horn-stub.
I always wanted to see Rhinos, and I sure got my fill on this trip!
We’re here. “Travel day from hell” is over. It went smooth, no flight delays, except for almost getting fleeced by some sketchy guys at the airport (Nigel will blog on it later). Today we explored some old Markets in KL. We had Roti with curry for breakfast - amazing Also, only $2 and very filling. For lunch we had a Thai food Feast: Chicken Satay, Basil Chicken, Green Curry and Chili-Paste Roasted Beef. Fabulous - I didn’t expect it to be as good as it was. Heres a picture of where we ate lunch in Central Market in the old part of town.
Saw these really cool sinks today in central market. You could just go up and wash you hands in them. They were made out of old woks with a hole cut in the bottom for a drain. What a great idea! I want one in our kitchen at home
Thank you to everyone that has been reading and posting to our blog (Brett says - “yes, that also includes the filthy comment from Meacham”).
We love getting to the next place and seeing that people are reading our little notes. Keep them coming - it’s great to hear from our friends.
Y
Ok so I suppose its my turn to blog.. Brett’s been bugging me to add my two cents but he and Nigel are doing such great job… I’d rather be watching a Malaysian soap-opera. Just kidding. I noticed they haven’t commented on the Zulu cultural show so here goes.
Just outside our tent cabin was a Zulu village. Read on to learn more about our experience visiting the village.
We were told that a tribe does indeed live there but most their lively-hood is made from the daily cultural show for the tourists and tending to their cows and zebra herd. Before we entered their sacred space we were asked to throw a stone on a heap of rocks. If ours landed on the pile then the Zulu ancestors welcomed us into the village. Fortunately all of our stones landed in the middle (well, except Nigel’s, but they let him in anyway because he said he went to confession).
Once inside the village our Zulu guide took us to each thatched hut to describe how the Zulu society works. We were shown how hunting and ceremonial shields were made and how to weave water-proof bowls out of reeds of grass. We visited the medicine man and I had the wise woman read my fortune.
The Zulu’s clothing was very colorful with lots of intricate bead work and cow hide skirts for the men. We were told that the women with bare breasts were single and that Brett and Nige could trade one of them for 11 cows (16 cows for a ‘royal’ Zulu girl), and that it didn’t matter that they were already married. Zulu men can have as many wives as they can afford….
After a tour of their village we were given a bowl of Zulu beer to share.
It is customary for the host to sip the drink first to demonstrate that it is not poisonous and then pass it along. We all sipped from the same bowl and waited for the ceremonial dancing, drumming and singing. This is what I was looking forward to most. We heard drumming and singing from our cabins each day and I couldn’t wait to see the dancing that went along with the deep rhythmic beat of the drums.
The drumming began and the dancers moved to the rhythm. I was mesmerized by the repetitive beat of the drums and in awe at the strength and beauty of the sun catching muscles and sweat on bodies.
Before I knew it my eyes filled with tears and I felt a tremendous sadness. I sat sobbing silently as images of colonization came to mind from movies, college courses and the report I wrote in 4th grade about how the Zulu’s were invaded by Westerners with guns. And here I sit now drinking my 7-Up watching a once sacred ceremonial dance reduced to a tourist attraction.
Later, we were told by our ranger (who speaks Zulu) that the Zulus were making up funny lyrics to the songs and having a good old time. It turns out that perhaps they are quite the entrepreneurs and are doing quite well.
Last night we ate at a very nice and traditional Malaysian restaurant called Bijan. The food was excellent, however, we unanimously prefer Thai food as the Malays are a little heavy handed with the shrimp paste.
After eating, we took a walk to a hip strip full of clubs and bars. Theresa wanted to see if there was a bull to ride at the Thai Cowboy bar. Unfortunately, there was no bull to be found, but we had plenty of entertainment watching the cheesy 80’s karaoke cover band, and checking out the Malaysian cow girls dressed in skimpy outfits selling shots of tequila.
Oh my, how British Colonization can affect ones culture.
We boarded the minivan at Zulu Nyala Sunday morning at 9AM. After a 90 minute road trip, several flights, and several layovers, we FINALLY arrived in Malaysia at 9PM on Monday night having crossed 5 time zones! Hazzards encountered included a maniacal bus system in the Johannesburg airport. You’ve probably read about frequent bus disasters in Mexico and such, but I’m surprised you don’t see press articles about near death experiences on busses in the JNB airport :-).
Oh boy, what a treat! Our hotel was host to the coveted L’Oreal hairdressing/fashion show last night. After a scrumptious dinner of traditional malaysian food at Bijan, we headed back to our hotel and caught the tail end of the guest leaving the hotel. What a sight! Both men and women were dressed to IMPRESS, and impressive they were too. The crowd seemed to be made up of mostly japanese people - guys with very spikey (and colourful) hair along with all kinds of hats. It’s really hard to describe the range and styles of the clothing and make up. I was in awe - it’s been the best people watching experience thus far.
No photos I’m afraid… more details on the show are available here.
Tonight is our last night in KL - we leave tomorrow morning for Tioman and five days rest at the Japamala
Japamala is truly paradise on earth. We’ve been to several magical beach spots before - Peter Island in the BVI for our honeymoon, Ko Surin in Thailand etc. But Japamala takes the biscuit.
Read on for more…
Activities might be a bit of a misnomer for things to do on Japamala. Perhaps a new word is in order: Relaxtivities.
The beach is small - perhaps only 400 feet long, with big rocks at either end. There is nothing else near by. For relaxtivities, you can borrow from their stash of flippers and masks and go snorkel the reefs out in front - the coral and fish are best around the rocks.
They own a single boat, which they use to transport guest to and from the airport. If the boat is not in use for a few hours, you can have the captain (Jay), take you to another near-by snorkeling spot. You can borrow one of the two kayaks they have and splash around the shore, or you get a relaxing 2 hr Thai-Massage on the beach. You can also forge a path along the shore - up and over huge boulders and along uninhabited beach front. Eventually the path turn into the Jungle.
Lynn spent a while exploring the paths and ways into the Jungle - hiking many miles a day.
Oh - and my favourite relaxtivity of all - basking in the sun, drinking big fruity cocktails, swimming in the sea, basking in the sun, swimming in the sea - you get the picture.
Five days of pure relaxing bliss. I could stay for another few weeks. Heck if they had a decent internet connection, I might be tempted to stay all year and telecommute.
We 
have not had a single problem with mosquitoes or malaria on our trip. At Japamala, they claim to have mosquitoes but they do not carry malaria. We have yet to see or hear a single mosquito.
On 
our last night a Japamala we were awoken around 5am for a thundershower treat! We had seen and heared many thundershowers far off in the distance during our stay, but this one came right overhead. I have seen several lighting and thundershowers in the past, but never so powerful and commanding as this. It lasted for hours, and each blast of light lasted several seconds, followed by sometimes distant rolling thunder or ear defening crashes that sounded as if the lightning was striking Nigel and Lynns cabin next door! Compounded by the torrential rail pounding on the roof, it made for a fun night. Sometimes watching with awe off the balcony, sometimes failing miserably to photograph it, and other times hiding under the sheets with Theresa.
This shot was taken by Nigel and shows our deck in the foreground. Scary!
We’re in Singapore safe & sound. No delays and smooth travels. Wandered around China Town for a few hours and out to dinner at IndoChine on Club St. Food was a blend of Thai, Vietnamese and other SE Asian fare. Good food, not outstanding - they missed a lot of the sour element so critical in Thai food.
We have to be up at 4:30am to catch an early flight to Toyko. So much for seeing Singapore - we got a tiny taste atleast.
Good night!
Didn’t some one blog about the wonderful lack of mosquitoes on this trip?
For those of you who know me, you are familiar with the fact that I almost never am seen wearing a “girlie” clothes. The term “feminine” barely ever factors into any conversation regarding my manner of dress.
But, after spending more than a few weeks with Theresa who just happens to have a bit of fashion sense and can be both feminine and tough (I really admire her travels in Ecuador), I decided to pull out the old Ex Officio light weight crinkle skirt. I wore it to dinner and on a walk around China town. Now until this point, I had been a bit itchy on our trip and had indeed been bitten a few times (less than 6), but nothing too serious.
However, by the time I went to bed last night I was on the verge of crawling out of my skin. By 1AM, I was covered in dozens upon dozens of red welts ; my arms, legs, chest, stomach, back, just about everywhere. I haven’t looked like this since I had a horrendous case of chicken pox back in grade school.
So I digress….. where did all the mosquitoes go on this trip? Up my skirt….unfortunately.
We arrived in Singapore yesterday afternoon after a short (40 min) flight over from Tioman island. There are two airports in Singapore - Changi and Skeletar. We flew into the second which is very small and appears to serve small aircraft only.
Singapore was founded by the British East India Company in the late 1800’s as a trading post to allow to compete with the Dutch in the spice trade. The location was ideal since it was situated centrally between the East and West. Singapore is a mix of cultures with ~63% Chinese, ~17% Malay and the remainder Indian. As you can imagine, the languages spoken are Malay, Chinese, English and many Indian dialects. There’s also a type of English called “Singlish” which is a street language mixing some aspects of English and Chinese. I’m guessing this is similar to Chinglish :-).
Read on for more on Chinatown…
We heard 
about Japamala from our friends Linda & Jeff (who live in Beijing and got engaged on the island). They also told us about the great restaurant on the island called the “Tamarind”, and better yet - that the chef and his staff are all Thai!
Read on for our Thai food experiences…
No sooner had we arrived on the island, but we were ushered into the restaurant. As we flipped the pages of the menu, there were many squeals of excitement - “Green Curry!”, “Thai Beef Salad!”, “Pad Thai” over our favourite dishes that we recognized
We ordered our choices and the food came out. Unfortunately, it was prepared “farong-style”. Low on heat and spices as we were ‘foreigners’. Oh - and extra sugar for those western palettes.
Fear not - Kasma on our travels around Thailand had prepared us well. We asked the kitchen for some “prik nham plah” - fresh Thai chillies in Fish Sauce. They obliged - somewhat amused - as no-one ever asks for that here. A little bowl came out and was quickly devoured. So we asked for more. The kitchen staff appeared and peeked out to see who was eating all of their chillies.
They were so amused that a lot of the staff commented the next day - “You like spicy food?”. Of course, we agreed and asked if it was possible to prepare some dishes not on the menu. We gave them a big list of our favourites - including Qik Khling (sp?) - which they were shocked at - “this is only for the kitchen staff!!”.
The next night, they prepared a feast for us!
Round one, was Thai-style green papaya salad. They had a Vietnamese version on the menu, but we wanted an authentic Thai-style one - which are typically very hot. I think they kitchen wanted to try and break us - they prepared the most intense papaya salad we have ever eaten! Lynn and Theresa found it too hot - and Nigel and I were really struggling also - there must have been 50 or more fresh Thai-chillies in there. Also, some delicious roasted dried red chillies fried until crispy! Yum.
Accompanying the papaya salad was an excellent cashew-nut salad. Heaped with lemon grass and shallots. Very Very hot. After the two salads our mouths were on fire. I’m sure the kitchen was all smiles and giggles at this point.
For the main courses, the heat mellowed out a little. We had a fabulous deep fried perch in hot & sour dressing, complete with head and tail. Nigel and I shared the fish head - including the eyeballs, and I munched on the tail. Yuumm… (more Kasma training!) We also received a delicious panaeng beef curry, and Lynns alll time favourite - stir fried morning glory - heaped with garlic. We also had one other dish that we didn’t care for as much - we think it was some kind of Nahm Prik curry - it had a very unusual and distinct flavour - almost fragrant like the Nahm Prik you get made from bugs.
For desert - we had water chestnuts in coconut milk, and the good old mangoes and sticky rice.
Fantastic! Excellent food (including noodles for breakfast!), great beaches, hot sun, fruity cocktails, beautiful rooms and great company.
Is there anything else we could have ask for?
During our stay in Japamala, the entire island lost power one night. We hobbled down the rickety old stairs to the Tamarind restaurant for dinner. They had lots of candles burning and so we were not too disrupted. We were glad that they had propane stoves, and could still prepare delicious Thai food. We asked if the chefs work by candle-light or have bigger gas lanterns in the kitchen. They said that one chef has to hold a torch (flashlight) while the other one cooks. I dug into my pocket and found my black diamond micro-headlight and offered it to the Chef. Heck, we didn’t want bad lighting to upset the delicate balance of hot, sour, sweet and salty.
The chef was psyched! Every so often we saw a little chap in his white chefs uniform peer out from inside the kitchen - two big blue LED beams shining from the top of his head. Worked like a champ.
I left the headlight with them when we left as a “thank you” for all the great food they cooked during our stay.
[The contents of this entry have been censored by the Malaysian Government due to being deemed inappropriate material.]
As Brett previously blogged, we were “fortunate” enough to experience a true tropical thunderstorm. This footage was taken from my bedroom window which overlooks B & T’s cabin. At one point the lightening felt like it was right above us with the thunder so loud it was hard to think. Up until that point, I was quite enjoying the show
Non-IE users can click here to see the show.
We arrived in Tokyo. Took the train to the hotel… and found a Starbucks just outside.
We’re hungry and off for SUSHI
… well not literally! Since arriving in Japan yesterday, I’ve been amazed by the amount of automatic gadgetry that appears everywhere around the town. Even our hotel bathroom is not immune to this phenomenon since it comes complete with an automatic “butt washing” toilet seat.
To learn more, read on…
All over Tokyo on every street corner there are vending machines. They mostly sell soft drinks, beer and cigarettes. Some of the soft drinks are really good - mostly all made by Coca-Cola. The ones I liked were the “energy” drinks. Mineral water with some trace vitamins or electrolytes - kind of like Vitamin water in the states, or sports drinks.
Today we went to Tsuk
iji fish market. It is located near the Tsukiji Shijou Station on the Hibiya subway line.
The market handles tons of seafood from tiny sardines and winkles to massive 300kg+ tuna. According to Wikipedia - 2,000 tons of seafood are handled every day at Tsukiji.
Our original plan was to go early to the market. At 4:30 am, they have a huge auction where they grade the large tunas before they are frozen and sawn up with huge band saws. Unfortunately, starting last year - they have now closed the auction to the public. Too many wanna-be photographers getting in the way of the workers I guess.
Here is a picture of the fish workers using an axe type thing to shave off the burn marks after this hunk has been through the band saw.
And here is a shot going through the band saw itself.
The market was packed and crowded, and we were some of the only foreigners I saw. It was hard not to get in the way now and again, with little trucks speeding down the aisles and fish buyers running from stall to stall.
Walking in a group of four, we were too much in the way, so we split up across aisles and darted behind boxes when we could to take pictures.
I was amazed at the amount and variety of the seafood there. All sorts of weird things I had not seen before. Including massive 12″ wide oysters and mussels. I was tempted by the fish heads, but passed on them
In a few crates, the octopus was still moving around! Not these, ones, but I did love the deep red color.
After seeing the inner market, we wandered around the outer market which has shops and restaurants. There were many good hole in the wall sushi places for breakfast. We also bought a few umbrellas as it was chucking it down with rain!
Kudos to Pete Price at Pure, who mentioned this to me as a fun thing to do in Tokyo.
![detail_icon1[1].jpg](http://www.prikkinu.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/1149920123951.jpg "detail_icon1[1].jpg")
Ok quiz fans, we’re back for another edition of the trip quiz.
Question: how many WiFi access points are there on the JR Narita Express train line between Narita airport and downtown Tokyo?
For the answer, click here…
We’re sitting in the United lounge waiting to board our flight. Despite flying on a US carrier, it appears our flight will leave on time with Nipponese precision. Everything elses we’ve experienced here has been very exact - the trains literally leave on time to the second.
It’s been a long time away from home - I’m looking forward to getting back and seeing my furry critters. That said, if I knew we had another week or so ahead of us, I’d be excited for the next chapter of our travels.
For Lynn and I, it’s been 29 days of fun - despite the rocky start at the beginning of the trip, we’ve had amazing luck with smooth traveling.
Well, the flight it being called - see you in Seattle!
We’re home! Our flight left 20 minutes late and we arrived into Seattle just before 10am. Since we were all flying with carry-on luggage, we were through customs and at the main terminal within 15 minutes. I’m now back at home, with the dogs drinking a nice cup of coffee. It’s good to be home
Ok camera fans, Nige and Brett are going to reveal all - here’s the list of things that worked, didn’t work and we wished we’d known before embarking on our safari trip
Oh and one parting word … make sure you have a travel blog…
Safari Shopping List
Camera gear and lenses
Clamps
Misc
![_41751858_racegallerythree220[1].jpg](http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41751000/jpg/_41751858_racegallerythree220.jpg "_41751858_racegallerythree220[1].jpg")
In all my travels on Safari, I have never heard of a rhino that was able to run a marathon. Well, that was before I discovered a rare breed of Scottish Rhino which is able to run long distances (26.2 miles to be exact) on two legs! Apparently this one was found in the Edinburgh marathon! Not sure if he’s a white or black rhino - perhaps Pauline can give us the scoop…
I believe he was running to raise money for Save the Rhino International.
More pictures on the BBC site, story here and here.
