Langkawi- stormy seas & mountaintops

This is where we are sitting; the beach is below, on a soft grade down about 4 or 5 feet. The water came crashing up next to us, going out behind us and splashing our feet!
This is the wave action- although it looks so tiny here...
The winds were blowing so hard that the palm trees looked like fans-

This is a giant suspension bridge. It was the craziest thing we had ever seen! Below us was a giant gorge.
View of the ocean from the cable cars.
The cable car up the mountain; the crazy part is you go up two more peaks after this! It is super quiet in the cars when you are over the treetops... and crazy how high up it is!

Hello all!
I don't know about you, but I have never really seen the ocean stormy and wild. Not that we really had the biggest taste of it during our stay on Langkawi, but I have really never seen wind and waves like we did at high tide on 8/5 and 8/6. The monsoon rains were a trip too- heavy downpours and lots of wind. Drive you right inside!
The waves were so crazy. They were so high that when the trough was pulling back from the shore, it must have went 10-20 feet (I am probably exaggerating, but they were so big!) 8/6 was the craziest- no on was in the water (we played in the big waves on 8/5). It was hard to even take a picture, and the waves were crashing up where we were sitting, and water extending back into the yard.
One other wonderful thing that we experienced before it got TOO WINDY was the cable car to the top of the mountain. Gorgeous views! The suspension bridge on the top was surreal; I don't understand how one center point can support such a long bridge!

Langkawi-Animal photos

Dusky Leaf Langurs, who visited the restaurant at breakfast. Little more aggressive, and they are the ones that took a swipe at the woman who was trying to pet it like a cat!
Hermit crabs- they were everywhere at low tide.
Todd feeding and petting the stingray (he even got to touch it's belly!)
I am petting a sting ray.
A box fish (I held it and yes, it has hard edges and is literally box shaped! So cute!

Langkawi- A tour...

The mangrove river

Monkeys swimming and playing and jumping! So cute:)

Hole in the Wall... to the mangrove river!

Brahman Eagles... gorgeous!

Bats, in the bat cave...

Up close... as we looked at a mangrove pit viper (sorry, no good pics, but really scary to me anyway) this monkey was getting close, seeing if we had food.

Two little monkeys fighting in a tree one fell out and climbed right back up the tree!

Me and my pals, listening to the tour guide.

Ok, so you have to turn this 90degrees, but you get the point. cool cave!

Ah...Langkawi. Very touristy but incredibly beautiful. It is a world Geopark, and it is easy to understand why. The formations of the mountains are beautiful and there are many unique species of plants and animals... so gorgeous!

Today we took a tour through the mangrove river area and we got to see many amazing things. Monkeys! They were so playful and so much fun to watch! They were jumping of the trees and diving, and playing around dunking each other and fighting. We got to see them wrestle on the rooftops of some of the structures on the walkway and fight each other in the branches.

We got to see bats and many other creatures; mainly fish and eagles. The eagles were incredible; we watched them swoop over the water and pull things out and their diving was remarkale to watch.

Georgetown, Pulau Penang, Part 2

The buildings in Georgetown are mostly like this; the sidewalks are in the narrow archways, and there are open gutters/aquaducts in the streets, so most of the time we were walking in the road!

I know this is the most horrific expression one could think of while eating, but this food was out of this world!

The upstairs main hall. Talk about beautiful and romantic!

Scottish spiral staircases in the mansion

Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, the walls are washed with real indigo!

Dim Sum- I think this is the happiest I have ever seen Todd!

Doors to a Chinese Temple.

What can we say about this city? It is so charming! It is crazy and busy and so diverse... Chinese, Malay, Indian, and various other cultures all swarming in this port city. We were able to walk around and enjoy the sites much more since the monsoon like rains stopped. We ate Indian food at least 2x per day (that naan! and tandoori!) and just enjoyed the sites. We stayed in the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, which was built in the 1890's by a Chinese trader who was incredibly weathly. The building was restored (if you have seen the movie Indochine, the town and the building was featured in it) and it was gorgeous. The people were incredibly friendly and we had a great time chatting it up with an Aussie who was travelling alone.

We also stumbled upon some incredible Dim Sum.. I thought Todd had died and gone to heaven. It was the oldest place in the city to have Dim Sum and it was incredible. Busy, chaotic, and delicious.

Georgetown, Pulau Penang, Malaysia, part 1

The streets of Georgetown in the rain.

Well, we have made it out of Thailand. Our last day in Thailand was great; I got to see a sea urchin! (Photo later). It was just sitting in the shallow water, minding it's buisness. I would not want to step on one!
We took a taxi back to the port town and hung out there for the afternoon...and prepared for a long day of travel. A giant ferry shuttled us back to shore where we got to see an amazing sunset... and rain far away! We played rummy at the train station and hung out until our train arrived at 1am. It was crazy.... the train was wicked bumpy and noisy, and it felt like we were going to be flung off the rails at times! We were woken up abruptly and told to get all of our things so we could go through immigration into Malaysia. There were very specific dress code policies, about "hippy" that were not acceptable to be let into the country!
After our arrival here, we took another ferry to Pulau Penang. It poured and poured and poured. We walked around; there are really no sidewalks here and it is mostly stalls and shops. We had lunch at a place where we couldn't read the menu (thank God for guide books!) and then we went to Little India and of course, supplemented our small snack with some delicious Indian food. The place was alive with people; the food was so fantastic! We are up from a short nap and off to see what other delicacies we can find in this city of melded cuisine. Tomorrow we are off to an new location, at a historical mansion to see the sights in another part of the city.
Love to all of you and pictures soon!
Jes and Todd

The Other Side...Ko Phangnan, Haat Salad (no, not hot salad)

The elusive sea urchin at low tide.

I think this is a sea cucumber... they are so crazy~! This is at low tide- they are everywhere!

Ok, a better shot of the sky at sunset...

Sunset at My Way Restaurant, on Haat Salad.... (yes, we really are that sunburnt~!)

My hand after the little moto wipeout...

So, many exciting tales to the other side of the island...the sunsets are so very beautiful on this side! The beaches are much different. We took the advice of a man on the ferry to go to this resort, which was something else. I won't post much here, but I will say that it was partly shady and very secluded... we rented a motor bike and took it for a ride. We were so careful, but ugh! We wiped out in the driveway. Loose gravel and a really steep pitch will do that! My hand got tore up and I bent my wedding ring... Todd got some nice road rash, but we were pretty lucky.

The next day we hopped back on and went to Ko Ma to do some snorkelling. At first glance, the sandbar out to the island looks as if there might be some good swimming, but nothing special. It looked a little bit rocky too. However, there was coral and fish everywhere! Todd is much more adveturous than I and he really got to see some bigger fish out deep, including clown fish!

This is our last full day here and then we are off to Malaysia!

Last Night at Star Hut

Koh Phangan, Ao Thong Nai Pan

Our photo while kayaking.... and I just want to say I was so nervouse we were going to repeat history and destroy our camera!

A view from our deck at Star Hut

7/26/09 Sunrise...what a great way to start our second year! Todd was meditating on the shore, and I sort of dozed off...I woke up and saw one of the island dogs, within an inch of Todd's face. His concentration didn't wain... I tried to brush the dog away, but it didn't work. Apparently, he was thinking to himself, "Man, Jes really has bad breath this morning!" He awoke in a startle and there was a dog, muzzle to muzzle with him.

Hello Everyone!

Greetings from the Indian Ocean!

We are enjoying the beginning of our second year of marriage here on the island...

We took a train from Bangkok (12 hours, mostly sleeping) to a bus to a ferry (3 hours) and it was a long journey. Luckily, we could sleep most of the train ride. It was very hot in the beginning and smelled of diesel fuel. Getting to our place on the island was an adventure. The road was bumpy and unpaved, winding through the mountains and jungle. It was very tumultous and slow going.

We have really had a great time relaxing on the beach and swimming in the ocean. We keep hoping for tropical tans like all of the other people, but alas we are still pastey white.

We celebrated our anniversary by going on a small kayak trip around the tip of the island. We paddled past huge granite cliffs that jutted out to stop the ocean from the jungle. There were crabs everywhere on the rocks, scurrying away just as we would approach them.

Sunset was beautiful and we had some wonderful dinner at a restaurant that overlooked both bays. The stars were in full force last night- our first clear night for star gazing!

We tried to snorkle a little bit yesterday and we saw a few fish, but the masks were not great. Today is our last night at Star Hut and then off to the other side!

Hope this finds all of you well.

Love

Jes & Todd

The Floating City

Hi All!

Last night, we saw the floating city, which was amazing. People we talked with said that they lived on the river in the rainy season and on the lake in the dry season. It is so incredible; you can see inside the homes as you go past. There were kids playing in tubs, trying to sell their pose for $1. Everything seems to cost a dollar! We had some noodles on a boat and took in all of our surroundings. After our boat landed, we took our tuk tuk back to town. It was fortunate we left when we did...now I understand the meaning of rainy season!

Today, we went to the market after our shared Full Monty breakfast. Usually we have gone in the evening, and there are only tourists there. This morning, however, was a different picture. There were people everywhere selling fresh things... vegetables, fruit, fish, novel looking frogs, chicken, eels being decapitated....it was something else. People stand and sit on the tables where they sell their wares...and it was crowded. We walked around and made a few purchases and had some coffee in the butterfly restuarant. They were so beautiful!

The Toliet Situ

Directions for the toliets in the airport in Japan. Wow! Too complicated for me!

Toliet in Toykyo's airport Notice the buttons (Sorry they are upside down!) My favorite is the music button.

This is the men's toliet in the Floating City. Yes, that is the Floating City right behind him!

The ferry toliet..complete with tongs. In case you drop something?

The squat toliet in the train. Note- I used this toliet several times before I realized there was a sit down one for the ladies! Ugh!

The toliet in Japan was quite exciting.... it had many buttons that I seriously was afraid to use. What does the sprayer mean? The drier? The noise muffler?

And Paul, I just want to say that overall the toliets are very clean here in Cambodia. Toliet paper and a small spray hose...they even have pictures of what not to do in the bathroom! I have to say that the toliets in Thailand at the street market were the worst... who knew you had to pay for toliet paper? And, the smell was beyond words....

Ok...Update from Thailand. We have had some interesting experiences in our travels south... for example, Todd stumbled upon one with a tongs...a tongs people! And each bathroom has a sprayer, and they are really quite clean. There are no flushers...back to the days of dumping water to force it into the drain...

Cambodia, Siem Reap

Shortly after sunrise in Angkor Wat, Todd sketching some of the interior of the temple.

A photo op in front of this gorgeous tree at Ta Prohm Temple. We were lucky to get this; I forgot to charge the camera the night before, but guess what- the battery lasted all day, even though it flashed red warning each time I snapped a photo!

Hello Everybody,
Ahh, Cambodia, It is a pleasure. We first took a small plane from Bangkok, which used propellers as engines. It was a very low flight of about 25 thousand feet and we could see a lot of the landscape between Bangkok and Cambodia. It was actually a very smooth flight! When we landed we were immediately met by our tuk tuk driver who took us to our hotel. It was a great trip looking at the landscape it was definetely much more rural than Bangkok. There were cow type animals grazing in the fields, kids on bikes too big for them sometimes with shoes sometimes without, dogs walking around. It was awesome. We decided to walk into town and look around and found out that everyone likes tourists! They constantly approach you and ask you to buy stuff (postcards, crap, books, etc.) At first we politely say no thanks, but they do not stop so we learned to just ignore. I forgot to tell you most of them are really cute kids. And they do not stop. The town was pretty cool, prices were my kid of prices. I think it was 50 cents for a beer. We ate some food and then took the tuk tuk to watch the sunset from on top of a hill like structure. It was great, except there was some american turist who would not stop talking about himself. We just tried to ignore and enjoy. Until later. Todd n Jes

Well, while I wait for a picture to load, here is a little bit more fun for you...

The fauna and flora is incredible here. I can't believe how similar the countryside seems to be, yet the palms everywhere and the rice patties (paddies?) are stunning to look at. There are cows grazing everywhere, wandering around, with a herder near by.... we saw a monkey on the roadside yesterday, just sitting and watching the road. I am struck by how many people are by the side of the road, waiting near their motorcylces and tuk-tuks, asking each person walking by if they need services. There are children and young women everywhere, trying to sell you the same five things over and over again.

As for Angkor Wat...what a treat! I can't believe how incredibly beautiful and intact these ancient buildings appear to be! And, I certainly was not dissapointed with the moat. I really wanted to see a crocodile swimming in one. There were farmers watering their cows in the water today, people wading, etc. The ruins are also incredible because you can get so close to the structures... there is very little that you can't touch or crawl on. Really, it is like the museum and you can touch these incredible reliefs! It is hard to even put into words what these temples are like...the ones that we visited today were very desolate and it was room after room into this crucible... and it was as if you could get lost at every turn. There were fallen rocks and looted Buddha sculptures everwhere...many of the statues had missing heads, which our impromptu tour guide told us was due to the Khymer Rouge decapitating the statues and selling the heads on teh black market. Then came the Vietamese who stole the Buddhas from the walls...

Speaking of fauna, one of the most impressive things here is the Ta Prohm Temple, which is the area where our second picture is taken. There are strangling fig trees that start as a tiny seed in the tops of the structures, and grown downward, with their roots intertwining with the bricks. The trees were amazing... they are so tall, the remind me of the sequoias in California, if only for their sheer height. Their trunks were very twisted and often took over to strangle something else....

I have to say, though, my favorite was in Japan. I will attach a picture later, but it has a cover up flush for flatulence, many bidet features to wash the hiney, and they are clean. The confusing part is that in the airport there were three models of toilets, and it literally was a crap shoot what you got! I did not care for the squat toliet, just because of the difficulty with the messy wetness on the floor.

Tonight we are headed to the floating market on the largest freshwater lake in SE Asia (name later). We are hoping to catch sunset and some food and perhaps some more great food.

Best to all of you..