Taman Negara

T a m a n N e g a r a is one the oldest rainforests in the world, estimated at 130 million years old, and has a canopy walk across the longest suspension bridge in the world

Getting There

Looking up....

Really?

 There has been a craze going on all over South East Asia, and that craze involves getting your feet massaged by fish. Yes, fish, but these aren’t your ordinary run of the mill carp or whitefish, these are special feet eating fish.

These are Turkish Garra rufa fish and they like to eat dead skin. Obviously this makes them a great choice for a peculiar pedicure. You are basically soaking your feet in a nice warm pool which just happens to have about 300 fish sucking away at your toes. (No, we didn't try it)

Trespassing...

In any language, they get the point across...

 





Prosecuted- or executed?

Penang Botanical Gardens

monkeys everywhere

River

Beautiful Walkways

Huge trees

Penang

Penang (Malay: Pulau Pinang) is an island off the northwestern coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The island has a rich multicultural history which is full of Malay, Chinese, Indian, and European influences, and it's capital, George Town, is a UNESCO World Heritage City. Penang is also well known for being the "food paradise" of Malaysia. 

                                                                                                                                                             That's what the brochures say. What we see is a fascinating place, with an excellent bus system (even a free shuttle around town), and an amazing mixture of old and new. There's a Chinatown, a Little India, museums, a botanical garden, a national park, temples, mosques, kongsi (Chinese clan houses), mansions, a "heritage walking trail", shopping malls, even a "Times Square". There is so much to do and see and EAT! There's actually a brochure called The Penang Food Trail that explains what all the different foods are, and where to get them. So, today we visited The Penang State Museum, and a Chinese temple with a bat cave in it (bats are lucky, apparently), and had dinner in Little India. 

Malaysia!

We crossed the border into Malaysia today- a whole new country to explore!

Breakfast, anyone?

 

We learned early on that the "ABF" (American BreakFast) that's included with many hotel stays is not very good- usually a sunny side up egg, and a "sausage" that looks like a mini hotdog. We'd eat the toast, and be thankful for the coffee. Then we realized we sometimes had the option to have the "Asian Breakfast" instead... and Kao Tom, or "rice soup", or "boiled rice" quickly became one of our favorite Thai foods. It really is chicken rice soup, but with LOTS of rice, and flavored with coriander and ginger. Sometimes they throw an egg in it. You can get it with chicken, pork or fish- we usually stick to the chicken. Yumm!

Another Snorkeling Paradise

Phuket is a large island off the west coast of Thailand, and it's surrounded by smaller islands. On Phuket, we stayed in Kata Beach (west coast), and took a snorkel tour to the 3 Khai Islands (Nui, Nai, and Nok) off the east coast. Even though it was a cloudy day, the islands were beautiful. (pictures here)

In the Andaman Sea, we've also spent time in Krabi, and on Phi Phi Don, with a snorkel tour to Phi Phi Ley. (prior blogs)

And off the east coast of Thailand, in the beautiful Gulf of Thailand (not on this map), we spent time on Koh Tao. (with another snorkel trip, another prior blog)

Thai mode of transportation

Family on a saturday night outing

Thai Version of Car Seat Safety

Visa Run from the One Stop Shop

Our 30 day visa was running out, but we weren't done with Thailand, so we booked another tour- the infamous "Visa Run". Sold as a package, they pick you up at your hotel in a minivan at 6 am, and return you to your hotel 12 hours later, with a new 15 day visa in hand.

The drive to the border is about 5 hours (lunch included at a Thai "bus stop" cafeteria). When you get to customs in Thailand, the minivan driver assists with getting your departure stamp, takes your passport, and ushers you onto an old, rickety long boat for the trip across the water

to Myanmar. You don't worry about him having your passport, and you follow his instructions, because, after all, he's wearing a yellow tee shirt that says "Immigration". And you know you're on the right boat, because the person driving the boat is wearing a tee shirt that says "Visa Express".

After an interesting 20 minute boat ride, you're ushered to the customs building in Myanmar, where they shuffle through the pile of passports, holding them up one by one. When you recognize yours, you go to the table, they take your picture, stamp your passport, and give it back to you. You have now

been admitted to Myanmar.

You're loaded back onto the boat,

back to customs in Thailand, where you

are given your new 15 day visa.

Welcome Back to Thailand

Koh Phi Phi

On Koh Phi Phi, we booked a snorkeling trip that went around the island - at each stop, you could snorkel, kayak, or take a long-tail boat in and just lay on the beach...

Krabi

Krabi is the "jumping off" port for the islands off the west coast, but I think it's as nice as the islands. We stayed in a hut in a garden setting at the bottom of a cliff, and there is a long wooden walkway from the beach in town, over a cliff, to the next beautiful beach.

It's a jungle out there!

Khao Sok rainforest is in fact a remnant of a 160-million-year-old forest ecosystem that is much older and richer than the forests of the Amazon and central African regions.

Yesterday, we went to a monkey watering hole. The monkeys come down from the jungle at 5 pm every evening, and if you've got some bananas, they're happy to take them from you. Today, we went for a hike in the National Park, and there were monkeys walking down the trail. They stopped to check us out, but since we didn't have any bananas, they just kept on trucking.

Festival in Chumphon

Loi Krathong takes place on the evening of the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar. In the western calendar this usually falls in November.

Loi" means "to float" and a "krathong" is traditionally made from a section of banana tree trunk, and decorated with elaborately-folded banana leaves, flowers, candles and incense sticks. During the night of the full moon, Thais will float their krathong on a river, canal or a pond lake. The festival is believed to originate in an ancient practice of paying respect to the spirit of the waters.

The Loi Krathong ritual is a simple one. One needs only to light the candles and the joss sticks, make one's wishes and let it float away with the current of a river or a canal.

my krathong

Loi Krathong coincides with the Lanna(northern Thai) festival known as "Yi Peng". A multitude ofLanna-stylesky lanterns(khom loi ), literally: "floating lanterns") are launched into the air. The festival is meant as a time for tham bun , to make merit. People usually make khom loi from a thin fabric, such as rice paper, to which a candle or fuel cell is attached. When the fuel cell is lit, the resulting hot air which is trapped inside the lantern creates enough lift for the khom loi to float up in to the sky.