garyandlinda – Page 3 – saskatoonie.com

November 13, 2022November 14, 2022

Mari Mari

Borneo Head Hunters

Today we were up in good time. We have been trying to book a flight back to Kuala Lumpur for the past day and we keep running into issues. We even called the credit card company to see if the issue was with our card which, thankfully, it was not. We tried again this morning before breakfast and still had some issues so we finally left it and headed down for breakfast. It wasn’t as busy today but there was less selection and things were extremely slow getting replenished.

We have a tour to the Mari Mari Cultural Village today. Our guide, Albert Lai, picked us up in front of the hotel at 8:45 am. The Cultural Village is located in the countryside outside Kota Kinabalu about a half hour drive. Along the way we asked about a post office as we had some postcards we wanted to mail. We had bought stamps in Labuan but didn’t find postcards until we were in Kota Kinabalu. There was a post office nearby and we parked while Gary ran into the post office. What was supposed to be a simple errand ended up taking 15 minutes or longer as Gary found out the postage the other place sold us wasn’t sufficient. The gal was forever figuring out what stamps she had and then there was going to be an issue that the stamp might cover some of the writing!! Good grief. He finally left the cards with her after she assured him she’d get the stamps on and mail them. In the end it cost us 7.75 MYR or $2.25 CAD per card to mail them. Obviously no one mails post cards anymore!! We can only hope they arrive. In 2019 while in Penang, Linda spent ages writing up 12 cards and adding the stamps the post office sold us. We left them with the front desk and they promised to mail them – to this day not one card has ever arrived. We now suspect the postage amount may not have been correct!

After the post office fiasco, it was a short drive to the Mari Mari Cultural Village. The Village offers a glimpse into the lives of Sabah’s rich culture with its distinctive houses, costumes and traditional skills of five major ethnic groups in Sabah. It was interesting to see the homes, costumes, food and drink for the Dusun (farmers), the Rungus (traders) the Lundayeh (hunters) and the Bajau (cowboys and sea gypsies) and the famously feared warrior tribe Murut. We heard all about the various tribes, who were the farmers, the feared head hunters, who had stingless honeybees and how they lived and celebrated in their community. I think we all remember hearing about the Borneo head hunters. These are the guys, they are no longer quite so scary! But we were told, back in the head hunting days the groom had to provide a head as a dowry.

We visited each of the 5 homes. At each home they had demonstrations related to each tribe. Some it was making rice wine, distilling the rice wine, cooking a tasty dish in a bamboo stick, making cookies and pancakes from rice flour or sampling the honey. At one home, they demonstrated how they started a fire with some bamboo shavings and their bamboo “starter” sticks. It was amazing how quickly they had a fire going! Following the tour and demonstrations we went to the performance area where they put on a show highlighting their music and traditional dances. It was really interesting and entertaining. At the end we made our way through the forest up a staircase to a dining area where they had a buffet lunch for us. The weather cooperated until we were ready to leave and it started spitting rain.

Check out our video below on Youtube.

Once back to the hotel we finally managed to book our November 15th flight back to Kuala Lumpur. Keep in mind it is November 11 as we write this. With that task finally out of the way we headed out to the Maybank just down the street and across the bridge from our hotel. We had only got part way and it started spitting again! Last time we used a Maybank ATM we were able to get 3,000 MYR in one transaction. This ATM informed us it’s limit was only 1500 MYR. We decided we’d check out another bank’s ATM and see what we could find. There was a Bank of Islam a block away so we walked over there and found their ATM machines don’t support any of our card types. There was also a BSN building in between the Islam Bank and the Maybank. Linda googled BSN and found that it was also a bank. We tried there. The security guard told us you could take out a maximum of 5,000 MYR in one day but it had to be in transactions of only 1500 each and one for 500. We threw caution to the wind and immediately tried for 3,000 MYR on one transaction. The ATM surprised both us and the security guard by spitting out our cash! “Just like Las Vegas” said Gary to the astonished security guard! We managed to get back to the hotel without getting soaked. After we returned it really got down to business with lot of thunder, lightning and pouring rain.

Our recent lesson learned on financing in a foreign country. 3000 MYR cost us exactly $888.70 CAD which means $1CAD buys 3.375 MYR (Malaysian Ringgit) through BMO at an ATM. Believe it or not, with our Home Trust VISA card, $1CAD buys 3.45 MYR. On our 3000 MYR cash we received 66 MYR less than if we had used our credit card for tap purchases through Apple Pay. Approximately $19. CAD. It would be ideal to use our VISA card everywhere but some places only accept cash. The real appeal of using our VISA is that it’s the funding source for our Apple Pay and it is 100% secure. We are not sure what the limit on the Apple Pay tap is but so far we have had no problems up to 150 MYR.

November 10, 2022November 10, 2022

Leaving Labuan

See the picture above?

Why would we leave?

We had an amazing 8 days at Palm Beach Resort & Spa. We had some gorgeous days of sunshine and rain later in the day and a day or so of overcast rainy weather. We thoroughly enjoyed the resort, pool, and walks on the beach.

When you get to the bottom of this blog please click the link to see the last blog page you may have missed.

We did connect with Gary’s brother’s namesake and the three of us went for supper Saturday, November 5. He picked us up at the hotel and took us to a small local “authentic” Malaysian restaurant. We had Nasi Kerabu Ayam Berempah. It was blue rice covered with a curry sauce, fried chicken, fried coconut, some cabbage, green hot sauce and half a salted egg. It was pretty tasty, even better if you mixed it all together! The translation of “Nasi Kerabu Ayam Berempah” in English is “Spicy Chicken Kerabu Rice”. What is Kerabu Rice? It’s blue coloured rice. The blue colour of the rice comes from the petals of Clitoria Ternatea flowers, which are used as a natural food colouring in cooking the rice. The same natural colouring is also used in Thailand for rice and blue drinking water.

We learned a few helpful tips about eating at Malaysian roadside restaurants. When you grab your utensils, you place them in a cup of hot water to clean them. They could be dusty so this will make them clean. There is usually a sink in the restaurant area to wash your hands. A box of Kleenex serves as napkins.

David was amazed we ate all the hot sauce as he finds it too much!! We thought it was great. After supper we headed over to the Rusty Blade bar which is part of the Red Onion restaurant located at the golf course. We’d eaten in the Red Onion one night but didn’t realize there was a bar down the side of the building or along the edge of the pool. We enjoyed a few beer and good conversation! It poured rain most of the evening but it didn’t dampen our spirits and we had a great time. Thankfully by the time we headed home it had pretty much quit raining and made driving much easier.

Mr. T.K. Chai, the owner/manager of the resort sat and visited with us several mornings while we had breakfast.

It is always interesting to chat with some of the locals and learn more about their country and culture. One of our last days there we were chatting about the fruit that is available and we mentioned how we love the red fleshed dragonfruit. Turns out his brother grows it and he swears it is the best variety (Miri variety named after the town of Miri in Sarawak Malaysia just south of Brunei). He made a quick phone call and had his brother drop off 3 beautiful dragonfruit for us to enjoy.

Tuesday, Nov. 8 we packed up and caught the shuttle to the airport. Our flight to Kota Kinabalu was at 1:30 with boarding supposedly at 12:30. We got the shuttle to the airport at 10:45 and arrived at the airport. After figuring out where the check in counters were we drug our luggage over and put them thru the scanner only to have the lady tell us we couldn’t check in until after 11:40. She did mark our bags as security scanned so we didn’t have to do that part again. At 11:40 she called over to us where we were sitting waiting and said we could go thru. We got our boarding passes and then headed upstairs to the next security checkpoint and gates – only to be told they weren’t open until 12:30!! So we finally found an elevator and ended up down at a McDonalds and had some fries and a coffee. We finally got on the plane and left promptly at 1:30. It was a 35 minute flight. As soon as the seat belt light went off the 2 flight crew went into overdrive and served snacks and a drinks. Only a few minutes later they picked up all the garbage. Soon after they were seated for landing!! Better service than we get on any short haul flight at home. This flight cost us $56 CAD each for a one way fare.

We arrived at the Ming Garden hotel in Kota Kinabalu about 2:30 pm and got checked in. Our room is ok, downside is it overlooks a major freeway and is much nosier than our room in Labuan. It’s back to big city life and all the noise that comes with it. We unpacked and then caught a Grab to the El Centro Restaurant, a small Mexican restaurant. Tonight’s meal was a shared order of chicken fajitas and 2 buckets of beer (4 cans per bucket). The beer that we didn’t drink, we put in our backpack and brought them back to the hotel. Luckily there was a 7-11 right across the street from the restaurant so we picked up some large bottles of water, snacks and beer to take back to the hotel to have on hand. Sadly the bed isn’t that great as we found out when we got ready for bed. Gary felt like he had a spring stabbing him all night so he didn’t have that great a sleep. When we headed down for our breakfast this morning we asked for a different room – one with a better bed and not facing the busy street! They will move us but we have to wait for the guest to check out and the room to be made up. The breakfast buffet was ok but it is far busier. The fruit was totally gone when we got there although before we were done they finally brought out fresh watermelon and pineapple. It was some of the sweetest pineapple we’ve had so far. It’s a way different vibe here though, it is a large indoor hotel dining room compared to The Palm Beach where we sat on the outdoor patio looking at the ocean and greenery while eating! It may not be easy but we’ll adjust!

We have been in touch with a tour guide (friend of David) regarding some tour options. Gary has also been in touch with a dive centre that was recommended to see what options are available for him to dive.

We got our new room and it overlooks the river. The only traffic is motor boats. The bed seems better.

If you got to this point in our blog, thanks for reading! For some reason we got very low views recorded on the last blog post, if you missed it Please -> Click Here There is a video of breakfast buffet at the Palm Beach Resort and Spa.

November 3, 2022November 3, 2022

Beach Vibe

Welcome to Palm Beach Resort

With the internet so poor at the previous hotel we spent extra money on our cell phone data plan to upload videos. Overall the Tiara Hotel’s internet wifi gets a zero rating. The internet just didn’t work. Disappointing! Check out the tour of our new hotel room at the Palm Beach Resort below. Also, the internet works like a charm at the Palm Beach!

October 31st, we moved to the Palm Beach Resort at the north end of the island. We got to Palm Beach Resort about noon. We were fortunate that they had our room ready. We checked in to 2317 which is room 317 in the 2nd building. What are the odds of having the same room number at two different hotels in a row? More strange things to come in a bit.

We spent some time getting unpacked, logging in to wifi, and getting to know the place. We checked out the pool which was being cleaned and closed until 3 pm. We went for a walk on the beach instead. When we got back to our room we decided to take the hotel’s free shuttle bus to town. We went to the lobby to register in advance. The shuttle was scheduled to leave at 4:15 pm and return back to the hotel at 7 pm. Perfect timing for us to get Indian food once again at JJ Nazar restaurant.

While in the lobby with almost an hour to kill we decided to take in high tea. The future diabetic version available here is chocolate hi tea. We ordered tea and ended up with coffee, but given the time restraint we drank the coffee. The hi tea tray was a sight to see! Chicken satay (2), bruschetta (2), churros (4) with chocolate dipping sauce, cream filled chocolate cake (3), white cakes covered in chocolate and flaked coconut (2), chocolate cream tarts with a chocolate crust (2), chocolate dipped bars or fudge (2) and candied orange slices (4). All that for 39.90 MYR which is a mere $11.50. Peanuts compared to the cost of diabetes! It was so sweet, what seemed like a brilliant and economical idea almost made us feel sick.

Once we were done eating we paid the waiter and caught the shuttle to town. We enjoyed another great Indian supper but we definitely had an underlying blah, sickly sweet feeling. When Gary went to pay the bill he noticed a guy wearing red coveralls, the kind that look like Halliburton. He took a double take when he saw the guy’s name on his coveys – David Lawrence. Plain as day. He asked the guy if his name was really David and yes it was. A whole conversation ensued, the irony of meeting someone with your last name, written on his coveys and the name of your brother is beyond belief. We exchanged info and will see if we can get some tourist tips from Mr. Lawrence. Apparently he worked in tourism before starting work in the oil industry so was going to reach out to some of his former co-workers on our behalf.

As soon as we stepped out of the restaurant it started raining. We opened our umbrellas (a sound investment that has paid off many times). We have felt like Mary Poppins a few times when the wind picks up but so far these two bit umbrellas have not gone inside out! We walked back to the Financial Building, our pickup point for the ride home at 7 pm. We bought a few beer for our room as the location of our resort is a bit remote and there aren’t any shops nearby. It’s about a 15-20 minute ride from town back to the Palm Beach Resort and Spa. It rained on and off for the evening, a normal evening in Borneo during the rainy season. Keep in mind it doesn’t get below 25ºC here. As Canadians we are so conditioned to seeing grey stormy skies and wind and thinking it’s cool outdoors but in reality you walk out the door and get hit with a wall of humidity and heat whether it is cloudy or sunny! So far we have really enjoyed the weather, rain or shine. We have also enjoyed the the extremely friendly people here Labuan. They are very welcoming to foreigners. In fact, the waiter at the JJ Nazar Indian Restaurant gave us a warm welcome and had to shake our hands when he saw us return. We are so glad we came here.

November 3, 2022November 9, 2022

Peace at last

Breakfast at Palm Beach Resort

The Palm Beach Resort and Spa has been a good choice for us. The inclusive breakfast include in the room rate of $53 CAD per night price is perfect. The food here has been delicious. The meals that we have bought here have been super affordable. In fact, we likely could not make our own meals at home for any less. The added bonus is the staff are fantastic here. We are one of a few if not the only ones staying for more than one night. Most of the hotel business seems to be Malaysians on the weekend. We have seen a few business meetings, luncheons, and retreats here, but for the most part we have this place to ourselves. It’s great for us but not for the business of the hotel.

We were sitting at breakfast today and a man came over and asked us where we were from. Turns out he is the Manager of the Palm Beach as well as the Tiara Labuan Hotel and the Lazenda hotel in Labuan. We had a great conversation with him. He asked us for feedback and we asked him about things we wanted to know. He even mentioned that he saw us at the Tiara when we stayed there. It’s funny how we stick out here like a sore thumb. We don’t really feel like that but it seems to be. We had an interesting conversation with the grab driver one day, brown people want to be white and white people want a tan. He said many people even use skin bleaching lotions to look whiter. How sad is that, no one is happy with what they have!

After breakfast we spent a couple of hours at the pool. We snagged the only shady spot there otherwise it would have been unbearable. Since we were the only people at the pool, we had our choice of lounge chairs and social distancing. We had sunny blue skies today after the previous day of clouds and monsoon rain two days ago.

We got out of the mid day sun and spent some time in our room with a beer and a blog. Gary likes to watch a few favourite YouTube videos while Linda is looking at sewing things online.

The (non breakfast) meals we have eaten in the hotel have been really delicious at a price that is really economical. The options are the same for lunch or supper. Linda had a grilled cheese sandwich and it was good, the downside is that it was smothered in honey. Look at the plate, you can see the puddle.

Gary ordered fish and chips, we each had hot lemon tea for 38.60 MYR about $11.50 CAD. Another meal we ordered 2 Chicken Satay (chicken skewers), one plate of fries to share and 1 tiger beer each for 51.30 MYR about $14.80 CAD. Finally another meal Linda chose Sesame Honey Chicken, Gary had Curry BBQ Chicken with Rice, we each had a Tiger beer for a total of 46.40 MYR about $13.40 CAD.

November 2, 2022November 2, 2022

Moving up island

We are off to a new hotel

The Tiara Labuan Hotel suite we had was great, the air conditioning worked well and the breakfast was good. They’ve had water issues there, not so much the hotel but the supplier, according to the info note left in our room. A few times we had low water pressure but nothing serious. The worst thing was poor internet, so poor it didn’t work. Disappointing! Check out the tour of our king suite at Tiara Labuan below. The internet was so poor at the Tiara that we couldn’t upload this video using the hotel wifi.

We are moving to the north end of the island. It’s a lot farther from town and hopefully quieter. We are hoping for some new scenery in that area so we’ll check it out at the Palm Beach Resort and Spa. Yes they have a spa, we plan on a massage!

October 31, 2022October 31, 2022

World War 2

Labuan War Cemetery

Today we called Gary’s mom on our Skype account. We had trouble getting Skype to work because Microsoft didn’t think we should be in Malaysia. Finally after several attempts to authenticate the Skype app on Linda’s phone we got it going. In the end we used our VPN. We ended up being quite a bit later for breakfast. No big deal but the buffet food was already cooling down.

After a huge amount of food and several coffee we headed by foot to the Labuan war cemetery. Over 3,908 soldiers from WW2 are buried in this commonwealth war cemetery. It gives you an idea how many people died in WW2 and since in other needless wars. This is actually the largest war memorial in Malaysia

The cemetery was immaculately kept as can be seen in picture at the top of this page. The size of the place is a bit overwhelming and the young age of the soldiers is heartbreaking. The nationalities of the soldiers are mostly Australian and British with some from New Zealand and India’s Signal Corp., as well as locals who fell while fighting to liberate Borneo. They were killed during the Japanese invasion of Borneo or died as prisoners of war. Many of the POW’s buried here died in the “Death March” a distance of 240 km from Sandakan to Ranau during the months of January to April 1945. You know how badly the Japanese treated allied soldiers. There were over 2,600 POW on the island and only 6 survived because they managed to escape and were hidden by some of the locals.

At the cemetery a huge cross was built and named the “Cross of Sacrifice” as a symbol of their bravery and sacrifice. A memorial service is held on Remembrance Day every year on the first Sunday of November to pay respects to the fallen heroes of WWII. Many war veterans, families of war victims from Australia and other Commonwealth countries attend the service each year.

We ordered a Grab to take us to the Labuan Bird Park. Entrance to the park was only 5 MYR each, about $1.50 CAD. Sadly the place has seen better days, likely pre-covid it would have been much better. Some of the Parrots, Cockatoos and Sun Conures (Sun Parakeet) are kept is less than ideal conditions. The cages are bare of trees or natural perches and small. The rest of the park is inside several connected huge domed net buildings. They have natural trees and a nice environment inside the domed buildings. We saw Peacocks and a Golden Crested Crane which was slightly aggressive but stunning to look at.

From the bird park it was a short walk to the Labuan Chimney. Built in the early 1900’s, this historical landmark is a remnant of Labuan’s coal mining era. The chimney measures over 32m (106 feet) in height and is made from over 23,000 pieces of unplastered red bricks imported from Britain. The chimney tower was originally thought to be a ventilation shaft for brick or iron smelting facilities or nearby underground coal mines. However, recent excavations revealed no tunnel underneath and no traces of smoke or burning to suggest its use as a chimney as popularly believed, making the tower’s existence and purpose a puzzle.

It took over half an hour to finally get a Grab to pick us up from the Chimney- it seemed much longer than that as we were in the middle of no where! We had our hopes up once that we had a ride and then the driver cancelled. Needless to say we were very thankful when we finally got a ride back to the hotel. We were hot and tired! We had a beer to cool down and then went down to the pool for a couple of hours.

Today was one of the best weather days we’ve had so far in the trip. It was sunny and hot all day. After swimming we headed back up to the room to change and it clouded over and rained briefly. By the time we were ready to head out it had cleared. For supper we went to JJ Nazar Restaurant in town. The food was amazing and we really enjoyed our meal. We had chicken malai tikka, dal makhani, channa masala, 2 garlic naan and 2 mango lassi. Total cost for our meal was 77.30 MYR or $22.30 CAD. Thankfully a Grab ride was just around the corner so we didn’t have long to wait to get back to the hotel.

We had previously tried some of these street food crepes. They are good for a light lunch coupled with ice cold lemonade with herbs or calamansi. Both drinks were good but too sweet which is typical of. It seems Malaysians like sweets!

October 30, 2022October 30, 2022

Victoria Labuan

Ramsey Point

Today we walked to the Maritime Museum of Labuan stopping at the clock tower on the way. The clock tower is an exact replica of the original tower that was built in 1906. It was one of the four structures still standing on Labuan to survive World War II. The Brits demolished it in 1948 and it was eventually rebuilt by Malaysian Tourism in 2002. Our time in the Maritime Museum was spent looking through the exhibits there. It’s a small aquarium with some really interesting looking fish. When we left the museum we walked down to the shore right behind the building. It was a beautiful view except for the plastic and junk that had washed up on shore. There are lots of ships in the harbour and there is a terminal at the port that looks like a grain terminal with silos. It’s may be a cement plant or coal terminal, not sure.

Just a few steps down the beach is Ramsey Point (see picture at top of this page). Ramsey Point is know for two main historical events. On 24th December 1846, the Sultan of Brunei handed over control of Labuan to the British Crown in a gesture of friendship. In a brief ceremony, Admiral George Mundy raised the British Empire flag on this beach, formally marking the start of British rule in Labuan. A hundred years later, this same beach entered the history books once again as it was used as a landing point during World War II. Led by General Douglas MacArthur, the Allied forces landed here on 10 June 1945 to liberate Labuan and Borneo from the Japanese army occupation. A plaque on the beach commemorates this occasion.

We walked to a large duty free store and decided to shop around some more to see if prices varied. The next duty free store was a small mom and pop style place and we bought a dozen beer for around $10 CAD. We don’t mind a cold beer after a hot and humid walkabout. It’s definitely hot and humid in Labuan.

After a cool down at the hotel we took a Grab to the Financial Park Mall. We were in search of a U-Mobile store, or someplace that sells U-Mobile top-ups for our phone. Seems we are burning through hot spotting the laptop to our phone because the hotel wifi is useless. 3 GB for 3 days costs less than a dollar, 86 cents to be exact. We actually had to ask no less than 4 people in the mall for directions to find the correct shop. The place is like a maze. Everyone here is so friendly and almost everyone speaks pretty decent English.

Historic Clock Tower in Victoria, Labuan

After we left the mall we walked to Sabai Sabai restaurant which is actually a restobar. We ate Thai food and had cold Tiger beer. Just over $17 CAD for 2 meals and 4 beer. We visited with a couple guys from Scotland that work on the offshore oil rigs nearby. Even with google maps we had a difficult time finding the Sabai Sabai! The sign is small and we must had been getting delirious from walking in the heat. Once inside we wondered how we could have missed the place with the loud music playing. The fact is, the entrance is a door that goes up steps to the restaurant. We enjoyed Thai chicken with cashew nuts although we saw more peanuts than cashews.

October 29, 2022October 29, 2022

Labuan

Air Asia flight AK 5172

Thursday morning came too early. We were up at 3:30 am to check out and catch our flight from Kuala Lumpur KLIA2 to Labuan, Malaysia. We were in the lobby before 4:30 am and had our Grab ride at the door. It was a 45 minute drive to the airport for our 6:50 am departure. We managed to print our own luggage tags and boarding passes. For some strange reason Linda was over by 1 KG on her checked bag allowance. She quickly grabbed a pair of sandals out of her bag and jammed them into her carry on. Of course, we were at the gate plenty early, we didn’t want to miss our flight. We had the second row, aisle and window seat with a spare seat between us. The Air Asia flight of 2 1/2 hours to Labuan cost us $95 CAD each one way. That’s about half a tank of fuel in a diesel pickup back home in Canada.

We have 4 nights booked at the Tiara Labuan Hotel which is an older property but quite nice. We actually were not going to stay here but our first choice was booked. So for about $87 CAD per night we have a nice suite with a king size bed, 2 TVs, a living room and kitchenette. Yes, and don’t forget a fridge that actually works! Our room’s kitchen has a 2 burner hot plate but let’s be honest, we aren’t cooking any meals.

The early wakeup call really set us back. By noon we were wiped. We got settled in, but that was a chore. Linda tried to set the safe combination and got locked out. While maintenance was here opening the safe we had them show us how to turn on the ceiling fan in the bedroom. There are more light switches in the suite than one could imagine. All the plug ins also have switches to complicate things even more.

After a quick nap we spent an hour in the pool and then went exploring. We walked down the beach on our way into town to get the lay of the land. It is a pleasant town and when compared to the “tourist Mecca” of Langkawi Malaysia, Labuan is much nicer. It doesn’t seem to be very touristy. The island is a tax free federal territory of Malaysia, so beer is cheap.

We ate at the Dorset Hotel’s “The Living Room” Indian restaurant. It’s a fancier hotel but the food was really good. We were starving and almost dehydrated by the time we got our first pint of Tiger beer. In the end supper was over budget at about $35 CAD. We each had 2 pints of beer and shared channa masala, steamed basmati rice, 2 garlic naan bread, Punjab chicken masala and some sort of tasty gravy for the naan bread. While we didn’t lick our plates, you would have thought so looking at them.

After supper we walked over one KM to a 7 Eleven to buy some extra bottled water and Tiger beer. We got the water but ended up with a couple of Heineken beer for $1.15 CAD each. We caught a Grab back to the hotel – no more walking today!

The biggest problem we have had so far is being cold in air conditioned places and that includes the plane this morning! We were smart enough to take wind breakers but our puffer jackets with down would have been a better choice.

October 25, 2022October 27, 2022

Booking more travel

Time to leave Kuala Lumpur

Our reservation for our current accommodations here at the Swiss Garden Hotel ends October 27. With that in mind, this morning we spent some time checking out flights again and ended up booking one way tickets to Labuan Island, a Federal Territory in Eastern Malaysia just off of Borneo Island. There weren’t a lot of flight choices available so we have a 6:50 am flight which means a very early morning for us on the 27th as we have an hour ride to the airport! One of the accommodations we’d look at the night before was fully booked this morning so we ended up finding another hotel.

Once we were finished booking things, we walked to the River of Life where the Klang and Gombak rivers converge. The Masjid Jamek Sultan Abdul Samad Mosque is located between where the rivers join.

There were several buildings with street art along the riverbank and walkways over the river in several spots. The one walkway crosses over the river and brings you out on one side of Merdeka Square. Merdaka Square is a historical site where Malaysia declared its independence.

The Union Flag was lowered and the Malayan flag was raised for the very first time on midnight of August 31, 1957. The flagpole that holds the Malaysia flag is the highest in the world, at a height of 100 meters. Independence Square is situated in front of the Sultan Abdul Samad Building. It was formerly known as the Selangor Club Padang or simply the Padang and was used as the cricket green of the Selangor Club.

There were a lot of workmen and trucks there today taking down some large tents so there must have been Deepavali celebrations held in the Square the past few days. Also adjacent to the square was St. Mary’s Cathedral (Anglican Church) est.1894. This church is the oldest in Kuala Lumpur, the doors were open and we were able to take a quick look inside.

From there we went back over another bridge at the other end of the square and walked to the Kuala Lumpur Eco Park. We’d gone to the park one of our first days here and it was closed. Today we were in luck, it was open! On previous visits there had been no admission charge however this has changed and as International visitors we paid 40 MYR about $11.50 CAD each for admission. The park is very neat, it features a tree top canopy walk. The hike up the spiral staircase on the first tower just about finished us – it was hot and humid and we were sweaty by the time we reached the suspended walkways. Last time we visited the monkeys were terrible and put the run on us in a few spots. Unfortunately some tourists think it is cool to feed the monkeys and all it does is breed BAD behaviour. This time there wasn’t a monkey to be seen! Not sure if the lack of tourists due to the pandemic changed things or if they actually moved them out! After the last time, we didn’t miss seeing them and their aggressive behaviour.

The one end of the canopy walk comes out near the base of the KL Tower. The tower is a 15-story, 421-meter-tall telecommunication tower and is the world’s 7th tallest tower. We took a few pictures and then took the canopy walk back to the gate we’d come in.

You can check out our YouTube video of the canopy walk below.

From there it wasn’t too bad of a walk back to the area near our hotel. We stopped and picked up 2 mango smoothies and two large cups of cut dragon fruit and headed back to the hotel. Once there we got a bucket of ice delivered to our room and had a couple of beer. Sadly the small fridge in our room has a pathetic cooling system. We suspect it also turns off every time we leave the room as the power is off in our room when it is vacant. So the only way we can have a cold beer is to chill down the tepid brew with ice cubes!! For supper we headed back to the Grand Sky restaurant. They know us there now and we are always warmly welcomed. It’s clean, the food is great and it is very reasonably priced. Tonight we each had two calamansi juice with sour plum and we shared a medium order of chicken Pad Thai. It hit the spot! We spent 44 MYR about $12.75 CAD. Very economical with out beer. FYI: Calamansi (Limau kesturi) is a Philippine lime which makes the most refreshing lemonade.

We walked 9.4 km today, the majority during the hottest part of the day!! We will both be ready for bed tonight!

October 25, 2022October 25, 2022

Deepavali 2022

Sunday October 23

The day before Deepavali.

After breakfast we used the Grab app and got a ride to the Thean Hou Temple. It was packed. There were a number of young couples having their wedding photos taken in the temple area and gardens. There is a wedding registry office at the temple so we suspect they have a lot of weddings. We took some pictures and video but with how busy it was we didn’t find it that enjoyable.

We left the temple and walked down the hill for a ways finally exiting the road and crossing a bridge where we then walked along the Klang River. We followed the river and finally turned towards Little India. Our plan was to search for a decent Indian restaurant for supper one night. We were met by crowds like we have never seen before. This weekend is the Deepavali Festival. Deepavali is the most significant celebrated festival among Hindus all across the globe, even in Malaysia. The main street in Little India was gridlocked. We walked around and never even found the restaurant we ate at the last time we were here. All of the shops had a sidewalk sale going on which actually blocked the storefronts from view. They had loud ear splitting music blasting from head height speakers that nearly deafened us as we passed. We finally hailed a Grab ride which took about 20 minutes to arrive due to the standstill traffic. Back to the hotel we went!

Later we walked to Loco Mexican restaurant on Changkat Bukit Bintang, a street that is home to many restaurants and bars. We drank beer and shared an order of Fajitas. The total cost was 147.35 MYR about $42.60 CAD. Food is not as cheap here as Thailand. Actually, the beer is expensive. Each pint was 23 MYR (Malaysian Ringit) about $6.50 CAD. That made the food cost about $23 CAD.

This evening we made it back to the room without the need for umbrellas!

Deepavali, holiday Monday, we walked to the Petronas Towers. We used to know our way around but we seem to be lost more than not. Luckily we came across the air-conditioned indoor walkways that are elevated above the streets which makes traffic and street crossings much less complicated. We finally got to the twin towers and took a few pictures. In base of the towers is the Suria Mall where we bought a spare GoPro battery. The battery cost 119 MYR about $34.50 CAD. Our existing batteries don’t last long in the heat. Apple Pay and our Visa card with no exchange conversion charge is very convenient and safe. Tap and pay – you don’t expose your credit card to fraud – hopefully. That’s what we have used recently to makes purchases at stores and more expensive restaurants.

From the Petronas Towers we walked to the Saloma Bridge which connects to the local neighbourhood of Kampung Baru.

We headed to the Nasi Lemak Wanjo Kampung Baru Restaurant. It was very busy. All we ordered was mango smoothies but they were amazing! They were about 7 MYR each, well worth $2 CAD.

From there we walked to the Mansion Tea Stall to try Teh Tarik. We really should have taken a pass as overly sweet hot tea was a bad idea. It’s usually served with Roti flat bread and curry but we were not hungry after the smoothie.

From the Mansion Tea Stall we walked back to our hotel and cooled off in the pool which was fairly chilly. Our total excursion on foot took us about 4 hours and we covered just over 11 KM.

This morning we were delayed because we had water running down the wall in the bathroom. No idea why, but when we reported it they were not surprised. It was so busy at the hotel because of the holiday we finally left for the day and told the front desk to fix it while we were out. We doubt it’s fixed but it is cleaned up. The wall was dry and looked like it never happened. Considering the hotel left our bath towels on the shelf on that wall, they are now on a towel bar no where near the “wet spot”. Gary heard water running during a late night bathroom visit but never turned on the light to find out why. We were so tired last night we went to bed at 8:30 pm and slept until 7:30 am.

We are getting our outdoor exercise and even with the cloudy skies Linda had a slight burn on her neck. We also are noticing a distinctive white area where our flip flop straps cover our feet.