Dec 25 2019

We arrived in Asia

It has been over a week since we arrived in Singapore. The flight was uneventful and long. A 14-hour flight from Vancouver to Hong Kong with a 4 hour layover before boarding the plane to Singapore. When we arrived in Hong Kong, it was 7am their local time and so we spent time wandering the airport looking for breakfast. When we finally arrived in Singapore, my brother and sister-in-law picked us up from the airport. We stayed home for dinner – my mom had bought Hainanese chicken rice and a few other local dishes. Marcus loves his Hainanese chicken rice.

The next day we were invited out to lunch by my Auntie Pat, along with many other family members. There were about twelve of us for lunch at a Michelin Star restaurant, Jiang-Nan Chun, in the Four Seasons hotel. We feasted on a multicourse meal, with Peking Duck and caviar being the highlight of our three-hour dinning experience.

We visited Gardens by the Bay, a very popular attraction in Singapore with two cool conservatories. We saw different types of flowers and plants from around the world.

We also visited the Botanic Gardens in Singapore. It is a beautiful park and reminded us of Hyde Park in London – except that we have roosters roaming this park..

After four days in Singapore, we started the next part of our journey to Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia. This family trip was organized by my mom. We hired two mini vans with drivers who drove the five hours to KL. Auntie Pat preferred to fly and so we met her at the hotel instead. When crossing the border, we had to go through the Singapore border to leave the country, and then through the Malaysia border to enter. Two separate crossings. Along the way we noticed many motorcycles driving on the shoulder of the highway and were surprised to find out that they weren’t allowed to drive on the express way, so they drove on the shoulder instead. In the city, the motorcycles would weave in and out of traffic and travel between lanes as opposed to in the lanes. As Gladys’s brother put it, “Malaysia is kind of lawless”.

We arrived at the Four Seasons Hotel in Kuala Lumpur and found out that our room had been upgraded to a two-bedroom suite. Our room was on the twenty first floor and our view captured the Petronas Twin Towers, which from 1998 – 2004 were the tallest buildings in the world (451.9 m). They still hold the title of the tallest twin towers. On another day we took a tour of the towers and took three elevators to get to the eighty third floor.

Our stay at the Four Seasons Hotel was opulent. Quite a step up from what we are used to. We would start off our day meeting at the Executive Lounge for breakfast, usually followed by some shopping or sight seeing – we also had a personal driver to take us around. In the afternoon we might head back to the Executive Lounge for high tea or Happy Hour if it’s later in the day. And if that wasn’t enough eating, we would then head out for dinner at some famous restaurant, specializing in local cuisine. We met up with a long-time friend of my brother, Michael, and he took us to all the popular eateries. Everything was taken care of for us, we didn’t have to worry about any of the minutiae. Our driver would pick us up at the hotel and take us to the restaurant, Michael would order for everyone, and we would head back to the hotel. What a life.

  • Fried noodles with river prawns
  • Durian – King of Fruits. Gladys loves this “chinese cheese”
Chinatown, KL
Jalan Alor – Chinatown, KL.

Auntie Pat gave the kids some spending money, and they enjoyed shopping for that something special. Caroline picked up a dress and shoes for some fancy night out, yet to be determined, and Marcus got some toys. Everyone was surprised that Gladys and I didn’t buy much of anything. It’s just not something that we do.

We also visited Batu Caves. If you have it as a place to visit while in KL, please strike it off your list. The place felt more like a commercial enterprise as opposed to a Hindu place of worship.

Once back in Singapore we got the kids’ eyes checked as prescription glasses are a bargain here. Caroline needed her prescription changed, and received frames from her uncle, so we bought some lenses to go with them. Marcus’s eyes were just fine, no glasses required – although he really wanted to get a pair of glasses. Gladys got some frames from her brother, so she got some reading glasses as well.

Over the last few days we have eaten some more street food, like satay at the Lau Pa Sat Hawker Center, also know as the “Old Market” (1824). We spent a day at Sentosa Island where you can zipline, go to the beach, walk to the Southernmost Point of Continental Asia, bungee jump, ride many gondolas, or take in a ride or two at Universal Studios. We only did some of these activities as the kids had been there before and our time was limited – not to mention that it was quite warm. Despite growing up in Asia, the heat sapped the life out of Gladys.

Over the next few days, we plan to do a few more tourist things, besides eating…

Feb 15 2019

Goodbye Africa

Here we are killing time in the hotel room before we leave for the airport tonight to begin our 27hr journey to Vancouver. I can say that I am looking forward to the snow back home! Hopefully the road conditions are good by the time we land as we will be picking up a gutless Evo (Toyota Prius) at the airport.

More about yesterday… We started our game drive at 6am and made our way down to the Ngorongoro crater. The road was steep and Dota our driver had to engage 4-wheel drive. The road down the crater is also what the elephants, wildebeests and zebras use to move in and out of the crater. The sunrise was just phenomenal!

As we approached the bottom of the crater we saw 4 male lions walking from the forest to the open field. We were the first vehicle there and by the time all the lions had made their way across there were at least 10 Land Cruisers jostling for a good view. All the guides share animal sightings on the radio and it’s not surprising to see them rush to a specific area.

The bottom of the crater is like a concentrated community of animals – we saw jackals, zebras, gazelles, wildebeests, hyenas, ostriches, elan, elephants, hippos, birds and the elusive rhino.

Our guide described the wildebeest as the spare parts animal. Tail like a horse, hind quarters like an antelope, front like a buffalo and face like a grasshopper… or something like that.

Many terms have been coined for safaris – the big five, the ugly five, tasty five, tiny five etc. The big five being the most popular that people strive to see – elephant, rhino, cape buffalo, leopard and lion. We managed to spot a pair a rhinoceros on our crater drive. Unfortunately they were a tad far but nevertheless we saw them to make the big five complete. Our guide said that we have been very lucky on this trip to see the big five as many people go home without seeing a rhino or even a leopard.

As for the hike up Kilimanjaro, we have also been pretty lucky. The weather was good and we had mostly clear skies especially on summit day. I suffered from AMS (acute mountain sickness) which is quite common given that I could not take diamox. I had to take ibuprofen a couple times. My lower lip doubled in size and I had swollen ankles and fingers. Jeff had no symptoms as he was on diamox. I think the hike up was like a stroll in the park for him! Anyways, the swelling has gone down substantially and we can’t wait to get home to breath in the clean air!

This has been a fun trip for us. This trip is to mark my milestone birthday year – Jeff’s gift to me. Thanks honey! (I guess I need to start saving for his milestone birthday year trip…)

Feb 13 2019

Who goes there?

Last night as I was asleep Jeff nudged me on my shoulder to wake me up. “There are buffaloes outside our tent.” We could hear them breath and eat the grass as they moved between the rows of tents. It was quite unnerving waiting for them to pass in front of our tent. It was like a scary movie… then you see this huge silhouette go by. Clank! The horn hit the tent post as it walked past and the tent shook. Whoa..
At breakfast the talk was all about the buffaloes. Apparently one of the buffaloes had pierced a tent with its horn. Talk about a close encounter!

Feb 13 2019

More animals

We have been driving around the Serengeti looking for animals and have been pretty lucky in terms of animal sightings according to the guide.

We have seen quite a number of male lions with the ‘Tina Turner’ mane. They just lay under the tree all sleepy and they seem oblivious to the tourists and their cameras clicking away.

We drove to a bloat of hippos soaking in a pool of not so nice smelling water. I was able to capture the classic hippo shot – mouth wide open.

Later in the day while we were driving around, there seem to be a lot of chatter on the UHF radio and our driver was racing towards an open field where many vehicles have stopped. Whoa! A cheetah! Just walking across the field with blood on its muzzle.

I guess it just ate. Spotting cheetahs and leopards are not a sure thing on safaris but we have been lucky! We even saw a leopard come down a tree instead of it hiding up on the tree.

While we were driving along the dirt road, I thought I spotted a leopard or cheetah. Well, apparently it’s neither. It is a servale cat. Another hard to see animal and I think it is nocturnal.

Aside from the cats, we also saw many gazelles, impalas, zebras etc. The zebra population is 1 million if I recall.

Last evening after a long day out on a game drive, we were treated to a campfire and dinner under the Serengeti night sky. It was definitely a memorable evening.

I think the Serengeti sunset is perhaps the most beautiful I have seen. Once it is dark – things might turn a tad scary as the hyenas start approaching the campsite and start making noise. There was a hyena wondering outside the tents last night.

Tonight is our last night. We are spending it at a campsite in the Ngorongoro crater area. We start our day very early tomorrow morning and drive down the crater in search of more animals but especially the endangered black rhino.

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