Wednesday March 06, 2019

KL Tower Photo Above

We are still in

BORACAY

We bought pictures at the KL Tower. They were supposed to be available within 24 hours. It took over a week to receive the email to download them. The internet is so slow in Boracay that we will have to wait until we get to somewhere with better internet to get all of the pictures downloaded.

Since we haven’t had many photos to post lately, we thought we would post the one from KL Tower.

We spent 4 hours at the beach, by 2 PM the shade from the palm trees has vanished, by 3 PM we were showering off the salt and sand at our room.

Gary’s cold is still hanging on, its not really bad just a bit of a cough and sinus congestion and sore throat. Hope it’s gone by the time we fly on Friday March 8.

March 5, 2019March 5, 2019

Tuesday March 05, 2019

Boracay

with laws for everyone

This morning we are once again sitting on the patio of our hotel drinking coffee, eating breakfast and enjoying the coolness of the morning wearing tank tops and shorts. There is no shortage of roosters crowing. Roosters are everywhere we have been in Asia.

Since Gary got his cold we haven’t done much but lay around on the beach and read. Hopefully it is a short lived bug and Linda doesn’t get it! She had a cold when we were in Koh Lanta and luckily Gary didn’t get that one.

We were visiting with one of the hotel owners here last night about the changes and various properties in Boracay. Specifically one property by Station 1 which Korean & Chinese investors bought into before the island closure. They built a high rise hotel on the beach and shortly after opening, the Philippine government decree to clean up Boracay forced them to close the hotel and they now have to tear it down. Definitely not a good investment, sounds like Walton International.

We ate at the Subo Restaurant again last night. Our petite little waitress, Eden, asked if we knew about TripAdvisor and if we’d be so kind to put on a review and mention her she would provide us with a complimentary item that turned out to be mango sorbet with fresh chunks of mango on it. It was the best part of the entire meal! Ya, our glowing review hopefully keeps her boss happy. The restaurant is beautifully decorated with ornate large wood tables. Smaller tables use treadle sewing machine frames as their base. There are several places that we have seen the re-purposing of singer treadles once used by tailors now used to hold table tops in restaurants. A super cool idea for recycling and a bit nostalgic.

Its now 8:44 am and time to get off the patio. Too warm already.

March 3, 2019March 3, 2019

Sunday March 03

Boracay gestapo

Yesterday we went to a few different beaches to see how the closure of Boracay has changed things. Our second favourite spot was Puka Shell Beach. It’s still beautiful but there are not any places left for shade. They have some shops to sell things along the road but the ones on the beach are gone.

Today we got up to a thin overcast of cloud. By the time we finished our breakfast coffee on the patio the sun was poking through with the intensity we have become accustomed to.

Gary is feeling under the weather, he seems to have caught a cold bug. There are people from all over the world here and likely there is no better place to catch a new bug from the far reaches of the earth. So far the cold has only prevented diving. Hopefully it doesn’t last long but he’s pretty much written off diving again in Boracay. Our next stop is Coron where he hopes to be able to dive some WW2 wrecks, some of them rather shallow too.

Yesterday we saw a Chinese family get busted by the Tourism Regulatory Enforcement Unit (TREU). The TREU team consisted of 3 guys with forms dressed in uniform golf style shirts and one officer with a machine gun in battle fatigues! It is now illegal to drink alcohol on the beach in Boracay. No smoking, no alcohol, no littering of food and no glass containers. Here’s the deal, the Chinese family were sitting under the palm trees (Grandma, Mom, Dad, Kids). Apparently the fine is 2500 PHP (Philippine Peso) about $70 CAD. Next thing, the guy is on our case for carrying 2 corn on the cob (on sticks) to eat on the beach. He said throw the cob in the trash! Gary said I haven’t even started eating it! The officer says ok, when you are done. Gary said OK. Then Gary watched the whole procedure of the Chinese getting fined. He asked the TREU officer where exactly where are the garbage containers on this area of the beach? We could not locate any trash bins! He looked around (we think all vendors need to supply trash containers). Finally he asked a lady at a small stall and she points to a plastic bag hanging on the side of the building by a nail! We said OK. Thanks! When Gary went to deposit his cob, the lady said 5 peso please! WHAT? She just laughed, as she had witnessed the whole conversation with the TREU officer. We laughed it off but didn’t think is was so funny. If Boracay’s enforcement doesn’t want people eating on the beach, they should have signs everywhere to alert the tourist to these requirements! News flash, eating is OK, littering is not! Now in Boracay no beach beds, no umbrellas, no drink, no SMOKING, no garbage cans on the beach! But, they sell food, drinks and cigarettes right on the edge of the beach!

March 2, 2019March 2, 2019

Saturday March 2, 2019

Boracay

(newly improved)

We have been unable to post blog updates due to bad internet. That has not changed. The only way to get online is via our mobile phones, even that is very slow.

March 1 was our 39th anniversary. We had drinks at the local Dive shop with the staff and friends. A couple from Saskatoon, Ken & Muriel Ziegler, that we know joined us and the four of us later went out for supper.

Gary took a dive refresher on Feb 28 and then a more shallow dive. March 1st he did a deeper dive at the sunken ship Camia II. His maximum depth was 28 metres and dive time was 34 minutes. He got cold and shivers on both dives. The water is a bit cool at 24°C. This is quite a change from Thailand. Hopefully our next and final resort stop at Coron, Philippines will have warmer water!

Today March 2, we are going to spend time at the beach and look around at the changes on the island since we were here 4 years ago. There have been many changes as the island was closed to tourism for 6 months to remodel the infrastructure, water, sewer and move buildings back into compliance. Many buildings, hotels and storefronts had encroached onto the right of way along the beach front. Many hotels had placed beach beds, umbrellas, tables and chairs on the public beach. All of that has ended. What a different it has made to the beach! There are no more hawkers pestering you to buy their “stuff”! That is a huge improvement alone. The waste water disposal system has been improved which will hopefully decrease the environmental damage from tourism on this beautiful (and tiny) paradise island.

February 27, 2019February 27, 2019

Wednesday February 27, 2019

Boracay here we come!

We woke up today in Cebu Philippines. We arrived about midnight from KL, Malaysia. The weather was cooler the minute we stepped off the plane last night. We were getting accustomed to +35 with high humidity and low winds. Our flight this morning was direct from Cebu to Caticlan, Philippines and only 45 minutes. We arrived in Catalan shortly after 12 noon but by the time we got transportation to the jetty, bought all the appropriate ferry tickets, environmental passes and other passes etc, etc, etc it was almost 1:30 pm when we finally arrived at the Turtle Inn in Boracay. The Island of Boracay has been closed from last April to October to clean up and retrofit. The one thing that hasn’t changed, in fact has gotten worse, is the internet. There is going to be a drastic change in the amount of posting we do on our blog due to the lack of internet here. We are using our cell phone data to tether internet to our laptop. It works but for how long? It is slow! The hotel internet is currently not working and their phone line has been out of service for 4 days and doesn’t sound like it will be repaired soon!

We sat around and visited with old acquaintances and walked around the beach to see all the changes. It’s is the most beautiful place and likely the nicest beach we have ever set foot on.

Tomorrow Gary is doing a refresher dive class and diving afterwards. We’ll be getting some beach time as the weather is perfect. The water is a bit cooler than Thailand being only about 25 C.

February 25, 2019February 25, 2019

Monday February 25, 2019

More touring Kuala Lumpur

We were a bit slow getting going this morning. We enjoyed breakfast on the 28th floor of the hotel where you get a nice view of the city. We arranged late check out for tomorrow and also left some postcards with the front desk to mail. We’ll see if the cards or us get home first. We walked over to the Landmark mall trying to find a drug store but didn’t have much success so we headed down the street towards the Twin Towers. Part way there we hailed a Grab taxi and headed to the KL Tower. We went up to the Sky Deck and Sky Boxes. Not the most organized place we’ve toured but the young guy who did our tickets charged us the seniors rate so guess we won’t complain. We spent a couple of hours at the Tower and had the most expensive dish of ice cream we’ve ever had but it’s so hot and humid you need something to cool off.

From the Tower we went through the chocolate store and picked up a bag of their locally made Tiramisu chocolates. The Eco Park with the treetop canopy walk we toured the other day is by the tower so we thought we’d walk back through it again. There we a bunch of grey monkeys today in the trees that we enjoyed watching for a bit. As we headed down the next leg of the suspension bridges, the brown monkeys appeared. They were considerably more aggressive than the grey monkeys and then a young couple fed them and it went down hill from there. Ourselves and two other couples finally abandoned any thought of going further on the suspended walkways and ended up going down to the ground level pathways to try and avoid the monkeys. There was a small interpretive centre that we spent a bit of time in to cool off and sit down for a bit. From there we took another Grab to the Perdana Botanical Gardens. We wanted to go to the Orchid Garden however the driver dropped us off in a different area. Thank goodness for Google maps. We walked about 20 minutes through the garden roadways and paths, twisting and turning, nothing is direct and finally reached the Orchid Garden. It was gorgeous, filled with so many different varieties and colours. Since we were in the area we hiked over to the KL Butterfly Park. It was very picturesque but on the pricey side compared to some other attractions, it was $24 ringgits each or about $7.75. There was so much foliage, flowers, fruit and decorative water-ponds and little waterfalls that the air felt so hot and humid it was almost hard to breathe!

It was just after 4:30 when we took another Grab to the Hard Rock Cafe for supper. While we have both enjoyed all the local food we had a craving for something more like home. After supper it was another Grab ride back to the hotel. Linda had done some more searching online so we walked back to the Landmark Mall and finally found the drug store, one floor down from where we’d searched in the morning. Sun screen here was slightly cheaper than in Koh Lipe so we picked up a few tubes. They certainly don’t carry larger bottles like we can get at home and it is way cheaper at home too!

Tomorrow we check out at 1pm, take an hour trip to the airport and check in for our 5:45 PM flight. We’ll likely eat at the airport because we don’t arrive in Cebu until 9:45 PM. Our flight to Boracay is the next morning at 11:05 AM.

Finally, we have a bit of video from our Monkey encounter. Gary had a close call while videoing. If you watch the video the monkeys chased a lady off the suspended bridge too!

February 24, 2019February 24, 2019

Sunday, February 24, 2019

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Today we had reserved tickets for the tour to the top of the Petronas Twin Towers. The tallest twin towers in the world! Gary got seniors pricing which was almost a 50% discount! 🤑

After the twin towers we dropped off some shopping at the hotel and headed to the subway to figure out how to buy train tickets to the Batu Caves. We met Richardo, from Brazil, who was also new to the subway. We finally bought tickets but never paid quite enough. When we went to exit the subway platform to change trains we could not get out. We each had to pay another 1 ringgit 70 cents (MYR 1.70 = $0.55 CAD). We then bought tickets for the second train which was slightly better because we got seats. The train was slow and never got over about 20 kmh. Coming home we took a Grab and it was 18 MYR (ringgit) or $5.80 CAD

Hot and tired, back at the hotel, we decided to have a beer. We had to wait 2 hours for the Bridge Bar to open.

We ate supper in the hotel restaurant on the 28th floor, the same place we get our inclusive breakfast. We watched the rain storm go by with a good view of the skyline.

We thought about running over to Petronas for some night time photos after the rain but finally stayed in the hotel and got a restful evening in our room. Today we put on 9.3 km on our feet and climbed 31 floors. Our feet are sore and legs are tired! At least we didn’t get caught in the rain tonight!

Monkeys at Batu Caves have no fear of people with food.

February 23, 2019February 23, 2019

Saturday February 23, 2019

Hello Kuala Lumpur

Today we were up bright and early. We were all packed up and down for breakfast before they opened at 7:00 AM. We got a good shot of the sunrise over the bay and the swimming pool. Once we were done breakfast we brought our bags down and checked out. Our taxi driver was there at the the requested time. We had talked to him the night before to set a time. We ended up at the airport in good time and got checked in. Being a domestic flight within Malaysia we needed to check in one hour in advance. We had a quick one hour flight. It almost took longer to get from our gate to the luggage carousel. Gary’s bag was the second one up! That was the closest to number one he has ever been!

We took a taxi from the airport to the G-Tower hotel which is a very nice, it’s definitely on the higher end of our budget for this trip. We are on the 11th floor, the same floor as the lobby and swimming pool. The breakfast room is the 28th floor. Really though, hight is irrelevant here because we are in a forest of sky scrapers that are fancier and taller than the hotel.

We walked to the Petronas Twin Towers from our hotel and had a booster juice. We booked to go up the Petronas Towers tomorrow at 9:15 AM. We took a few pictures and then headed off to the eco park on foot. We climbed the stairs and did the canopy walk along the suspended bridges throughout the jungle in down town KL. We saw several monkeys up close and watched them jumping around in the trees10 plus metres ion the air. Kuala Lumpur is an amazing city with a huge amount of green space. There is a huge park behind the Petronas Towers as well, and all through the city there are huge, gigantic trees in amongst the sky scrapers. After the ecotours we stopped at the base of the KL Tower. It’s on another days agenda but we were just passing by.

Next we set out for Jalan Alor night street food market. It’s a block or two of restaurants along the street, in fact most of the dining is outside on the street with plastic tables and chairs. It’s a taste of the world there, anything you could imagine, they have it. After we ate, we were looking for some dessert treats but it started to spit rain. We decided to go for a foot massage, and during the 30 minutes there was an epic thunderstorm and lots of rain. We ended up calling a Grab (like Uber) to get back the 13 KM to our hotel. It cost $3.25 CAD. So cheap you almost feel guilty.

Back to our hotel we went for a swim but the water was too cold after the rain. Tomorrow we will take a swim before the heat of the day passes. The rain dropped the temperature to 28°C. Down a bit from the 34°C high when we walked 13 KM and 17 flights. Kuala Lumpur is a hilly city, lots of curved streets and many one way streets. They do have sunshades on many sidewalks and lots of indoor walkways that connect many buildings. We tried to stay outside and enjoy the weather.

One last thing, Barb asked what we used for suitcases. We each have wheeled suitcases. Linda’s is regulation carryon size, Garys is a bit bigger, just enough to not make the carry one class. We bought them years ago and solely on their actual empty weight, they are very light. They were the lightest and sturdiest bags we could find at the time, plus they have a lifetime guarantee!

February 22, 2019February 22, 2019

Friday February 22, 2019

Langkawi Malaysia

Even on vacation you need to do laundry. The Dayang serviced apartments have a small laundry room with four machines that are available free for guests use. Each apartment has a drying rack that we could set on our large deck. The deck also has a ceiling fan that we could turn on to get even more air movement to help with drying.

While Linda was doing laundry she met a young Arabic couple totally baffled by their machine not running. They were busy pushing buttons, lifting the lid and trying to figure it out. They finally waved over Linda. They didn’t speak English but Linda finally got the machine going for them. They were only washing two T shirts and the amount of soap they dumped in was crazy. They waited only a few minutes, then stopped the machine and the young guy hand washes his shirts. He then waved Linda over to another machine. She helped him start that one and he dumped his shirts in there. After that machine filled he stopped it too, pulled his shirts out once more and finally wrung them out. Next thing he is standing beside Linda and our machine that was in the final spin cycle waving at it. There was no way we were adding his sopping wet clothes in with ours! The couple finally took their two shirts that he wrung out and left. It’s obvious they have never had the opportunity to use an automatic washing machine! Linda spent the next while figuring out how to get both machines to drain as they left both full of water mid cycle. Who knew laundry could be so challenging and entertaining! Our clothes washed perfectly and dried in no time out on the hot deck.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon at the pool. This hotel has a gorgeous ground level large infinity pool that overlooks the bay and ferry port. It is a great place to spend an afternoon and the water in the pool is so warm.

Later we booked our hotel in Hong Kong for our trip home and spent some time researching things to do in Kuala Lumpur.

We had a place picked out for supper tonight but when we got there they weren’t open. We walked around for a while and went back to see if we could get a table. Not a customer in the restaurant and the sign out front said “Fully Booked Tonight” . We checked with a waitress ands sure enough we had to keep looking. We walked past a KFC and Pizza Hut. Nope, not in this lifetime! We ended up back at the seafood place we ate last night. Tonight we had sweet and sour chicken with rice and cauliflower. One beer each and it totalled just under $10.50 CAD. Its definitely cheap enough to eat here and the food tonight was good!

Tomorrow we check out and take the morning flight from Langkawi to Kuala Lumpur where we will stay for 4 nights. I’m sure we’ll be wishing we had more time in KL.

February 21, 2019February 21, 2019

Thursday February 21, 2019

Wake up in Thailand, bed in Malaysia

Today we left Adang Beach Resort. Our time was up, it was time to move on. It would be ok to stay longer or go back another time. We left the island at 9 am on the resort boat for Koh Lipe where we caught a motor scooter taxi with a side car. The taxi took us across Koh Lipe to the port where we would exit Thailand. We checked in to Bundhaya speedboat ferry about 9:30. They kept our passport, and informed us they would be returned on the boat. I guess that ensures you get off the island and out of Thailand. We were transferred by long tail boat to the pontoon platform in deeper water. Everyone queues there to load on the ferry. We were #68 and #69 to board. There was about 80 people on board. The boat was comfortable but quite warm. Gary actually snoozed part of the way. It was a bit too choppy to read.

When we arrived in Langkawi it was the usual gong show to get off the boat. “Excuse me, let me get in front of you to get my bag”. How about wait your frickin turn! Anyhow we got our bags and headed to the passport control for Malaysia to be fingerprinted. Once we were through the passport control, it was time to exchange Thai Baht for Malaysian Ringit, then get mobile phone SIM cards. It was 60 Ringit or $20 CAD for 2 phones with 1.5 Gb data and free Facebook and WhatsApp. We had a taxi before we even had our money changed, they are quite enterprising cabbies. The cabbie walked us to the mobile phone booth and showed us the money exchange location. It cost us 25 ring to get to our hotel, which is really not that far, but too far to walk especially dragging luggage. About 4 km. It was hot! No aircon in the car and the cabbie had on a jacket, not even breaking a sweat!

We checked in to the Dayang Bay serviced apartments. Our room has a living room with 2 couches, aircon and a TV, A bedroom with aircon and a tv and 2 bathrooms. We also have a large balcony with a fridge, sink, kettle ,toaster oven etc. There is even a ceiling fan out there but it’s too hot to sit outside, even at night. Its now 9:45 pm and 29°C with 71% humidity.

Tomorrow we have one full day in Kuah, Langkawi.