BrainNoodles

Clearly, I haven’t been too inspired to blog for a while. Three months in fact. Life has been a lot more quieter than tramping around the world. I still haven’t finished sorting out all our pictures from the trip.

The major theme for this year is getting serious about our careers. I’ve decided that I’ll stick with Information Technology. Specifically, I’m back to writing software and planning to have a go at freelance contracting. Jenny is exploring her options to combine her interest in food with education.

I’m also spending a lot of time in managing our investment portfolio and learning how to invest better. Of course, we got bitten by the stock market crash like so many others. However, with share valuations down, I’m very interested in trading.

We have lots of plans for changing around the house and how each room gets used. This also means trying to get rid of tons of old stuff. And then shopping for a load new stuff. And then doing a massive amount of decorating. The whole house needs painting and all the carpets replaced. There’s tons of DIY things to do but I’m waiting until it warms up a bit outside first.

And finally there’s family time and all the running around that involved. R* continues with Sea Cadets and is in three ensembles and a choir. She has both trumpet and singing lessons. K* continues with Cubs and is taking percussion lessons. He’s also in the local tennis club and plays tag rugby at school. At the moment, it seems like a pretty good balance of activities.

No much travel planned for this year except for spending the summer in Canada.

Feb 04, 2009 | Add Comment

It’s a great relief that Barack Obama has won the US election and we can begin the honeymoon now.

I’ve been following the campaign for the last year. Personally, I had originally wanted Hilary Clinton to win despite the dynastic issue. She had experience and balls and would be very capable. You knew what you were getting with Hillary. Once it came down to just Obama and McCain, I was inclined to side with McCain as I wasn’t impressed with Obama’s expensive policies and interventionist inclinations. He could talk but so what? He just didn’t seem to have a lot of substance. McCain had experience and enough chutzpah to not always toe his party’s line. The person in the top job needs experience and balls.

I finally switched to Obama when the candidates chose their running mates for vice-president. Obama made an excellent choice. McCain made a terrible choice. The thought that Sarah Palin might be required to act as president was just too scarey. But worse, it showed a bad decision making process and it made McCain look unreliable.

So I’m glad Obama has won and it’s a novelty to see a politician with rock-star status. I’m hopeful but skeptical. He has a fantastic political mandate for change but the expectation that he will put right the world is just too much and I don’t expect the honeymoon will last long.

At least the neo-cons are on their way out the door and I really look forward to reading about the shutdown of Guantanamo Bay. That symbolic event will demonstrate closing the book on Bush-era policies.

Nov 05, 2008 | Add Comment

The kids started school last Thursday. K* started Year 5 back in his old school. For R*, it’s Year 8 after missing a whole year. More significantly, it was her first day at high school – a major milestone. She also has to wear a uniform.

Sep 08, 2008 | Add Comment

Last year I said I wouldn't take the kids back to the Notting Hill Carnival. Well, we went again. This time we went to the adult day on the Monday. We also had the use of an apartment in Notting Hill right in the middle of the carnival area. The friends who owned it had taken off to France to escape the noise.

It was much bette this year. We got there early in the afternoon so we didn't have to wait for the parade to start. The only problem was that there are often large gaps between floats. We just kept on walking around and when we got tired, crashed at the apartment. That was great.

The only scarey bit was getting crushed in a crowd as we tried to get past a sound system. I don't think the kids liked that. The day was very cool and cloudy so it wasn't so great for photography either.

Sep 07, 2008 | Add Comment

I had a very annoying verruca (plantar wart) on my foot for several months. Never had one before. I ignored it while travelling and when I got home tried to treat it with with salicylic acid. It didn't help much and made it more painful. My doctor told me that there wasn't really any cure beyond the body healing itself in its own sweet time. My body was was definitely procrastinating.

So, along with using salicylic acid to remove the dead skin, I started dousing it with 100% pure tea tree oil once a day. Presto! The verucca soon abated and disappeared in a few weeks. I assume the tea tree oil has some effect on the body to heal itself.

So if you're stuck with a stubborn verruca, it's worth giving tea tree oil a shot.

Sep 07, 2008 | 2 Comments

On my birthday, we went down to Earl’s Court to see the Doctor Who exhibition. I've seen every episode of the new series. The exhibit was much as you would expect. Lots of costumes and artifacts and an interesting display of how they make the aliens. A TARDIS and K9 was there. Of course, the best bit was the Cybermen and the Daleks. Walking back to the car, we found a real police box on the Earl’s Court high street.

 Tags: UK, Family

Aug 06, 2008 | Add Comment

Some weeks ago we took R* go karting with a couple of friends at Teamworks Karting in Reading. Karting is always good fun. Heck, I like any motorsport. This was the first time I had tried electric ones. It makes sense for an indoor track and at 10hp, they could do 40 mph down the back straight. Fast enough. However, they do lack the excitement of a revving noisy engine and the smell of petrol and fumes. It’s just not the same! Give me petrol any day.

The facilities at Teamworks were brand new and excellent. You can have up to eight karts on the track. It costs £30 for four 7 minute races. That’s plenty enough time.

Aug 06, 2008 | Add Comment

My son was shown three sex education videos at school last week. He’s in Year 4. One of them included full cross-section animation of intercourse. If you ask me, he’s a bit young for that. I didn’t get a sex education talk until Year 7 and it certainly wasn’t animated!

Jenny watched a preview to check the content. I talked to him about the video both the evening before he saw it and the evening afterwards. Basically, he wasn’t much fussed about it and wasn’t very interested. I think he got the general idea already from watching animal nature programmes and this just filled in some details.

The UK has the highest rate of births to teenage mothers in Europe (which is still about half of the US rate). I doubt teaching children at age 9 about conception will help any. I would have preferred they left this topic until the end of Year 5.

Jul 16, 2008 | Add Comment

Jenny spent ages shopping for a BBQ and finally settled on the BeefEater Discovery Classic as the best choice. It’s a proper Aussie one. She’s now an expert so you can ask her for advice. The day it arrived, I dutifully assembled it and it proceeded to start raining. Doh! The picture is of our first test run later that day.

Jun 29, 2008 | Add Comment

Jenny and I went for one last diving trip before the end of our travels. We flew to Kota Kinabaloo, met up with Jenny’s brother who flew in from Singapore and the next day we all flew out together. Pulau Layang Layang or Swallow’s Reef lies 300km northeast off the coast of Sabah. It’s part of the Spratly Islands which are militarised for various territorial claims.

The plane we flew in was tiny. It held 15 passengers, two pilots and our bags and supplies piled up in the back. Just behind the pilot was a box marked as the life raft. It would only hold 12 people. Somebody got their math wrong! This is the only flight I’ve been on where they weigh both you and your bags.

The flight took about 80 minutes and we eventually touched down on the tiny island. There really isn’t anything more than a runway, a dive resort and a naval base. In fact, much of the island is artificial. The naval base is strictly off limit.

The resort was excellent by diving standards. Diving places tend to be simple and functional. The rooms were hotel-like rather than bungalow-like but they were very comfortable and spacious. Meals were served five time a day and the food was very good. There was a nice bar and an excellent pool with lots of loungers. Each day is much the same: get up, dive, eat, dive, eat, dive, rest, optional dive, eat, sleep. Sunsets are beautiful. There’s nothing that bites you. The water is 29 degrees celsius. Perfect!

Layang Layang rises out of very deep water. The navigation chart puts the water depth at 1600m. Nearby it drops to 2000m. The place is famous for healthy corals, fantastic visibility and big fish of which hammerhead sharks are the big attraction.

The visibility is indeed wonderful; it’s at least 20m and maybe 30m at times. It’s a little scarey when you look up and realise how deep you are. My deepest dive was 35m. There’s a strict rule that you can not go beyond 40m or you’ll be banned from diving. The resort doesn’t have a decompression chamber and it’s 16 hours by boat to Kota Kinabaloo so you really do not want to get the bends.

After five days of diving, I was gutted that we never encountered a hammerhead shark. We knew there was a large school of about 50 of them around. Divers on the other boats saw them. But after several swims into the blue, we just never got lucky. And that’s the problem when you want to find big stuff – a lot of it is luck.

The corals were extremely healthy and beautiful. There’s not as great a variety of reef fish as Sipadan but I’m not complaining. There was plenty to see. The highlight was seeing many manta rays including a few at quite close quarters. There were other rays, sharks and turtles. We also encountered dolphins while on the dive boat but they moved too quickly to swim with them. The pictures here are from Jenny’s brother who had bought a new underwater camera for this trip.

Layang Layang is a great diving destination. I got in 13 dives bringing my total dives up to a total of 66 since I started. Our dive trips have been the favourite part of our travels. I would certainly like to go back and find one of those hammerheads.

Jun 27, 2008 | Add Comment

Went down to London yesterday with a friend to see the recording of a new Radio 4 comedy show at the Drill Hall. It’s a chat show format hosted by Marcus Brigstocke where he has a guest and gets them to try things they’ve never tried before. His guest was Tim Brooke-Taylor of Goodies fame.

It was free and very good fun. Tim had to order pizza, go to the gym, listen to rap music, eat sushi and buy porn. The pizza call and sushi were done live; the rest were things he had done previously. Buying porn was the funniest but might suffer from a lot of edits. Lots of material for a good laugh.

I really should sign up to the BBC website for getting more free tickets like these.

Jun 27, 2008 | Add Comment

We’ve been back home in the UK for two weeks now. After being away for seven months, it felt pretty strange coming home. Everything is very familiar but new at the same time. It’s very clean and green. Plenty of open spaces and it’s not crowded. It’s great going outside without the energy-sucking sweltering heat sapping your motivation. Skin isn’t sticky. Traffic is orderly. No ants or mossies. Of course, prices are outrageous.

Best of all, it sure is nice sleeping in one’s own bed and being surrounded by one’s own stuff.

We’ve got dozens of projects keeping us busy. I need to sort out and post our pictures. The house and garden need work. We need to toss lots of our useless stuff and reorganise what’s left. K* was offered a place so we put him back in school. R* needs to catchup with her schoolwork. We’re catching up with all our friends. It’s good to be home!

Jun 18, 2008 | Add Comment

We got back to Malaysia at the end of April and had one more month left before our flight home. We decided to take the kids on a beach holiday and I also wanted to fit in one more diving trip.

Pulau Redang is an archipelago of 9 islands 12 miles off the east coast of Malaysia. The entire place is a marine park and it’s famous locally for fine beaches, clear water and excellent snorkelling. It’s not really on the international tourist circuit and is mainly visited by local tourists. There’s around a dozen resorts catering to different budget levels. There’s no roads on the island, just paths, so there’s not a lot to do beyond whatever is offered by the resort.

We flew to Kuala Terengganu with AirAsia and then transfered to a speedboat which took us out. Jenny’s parents came with us. We stayed at Redang Kalong mainly because we knew one of the owners. It’s not fancy but comfortable and more importantly, it has the best diving operation on the island. Besides diving and snorkelling, there’s kayaking, karaoke and a wide range of games. The crowd is pretty young.

As part of the package, you get four meals a day all inclusive and two boat trips to a variety of snorkelling destinations. All you need to do is rent your snorkelling equipment and wait for the boat to leave.

I’m very pleased to report that both our kids took to snorkelling well. R* wasn’t keen on getting into deep water but overcame that fear. It helped that we all wore lifejackets. K* took a little while to get used to the mask and snorkel but was soon swimming around. You’re not allowed to use fins as a precaution against people walking on the corals.

The boat provides a few loaves of bread that get shared by everyone on board. You take the bread into the water and you quickly get engulfed by reef fish in a feeding frenzy. It was a great experience for the kids. They got a good idea of what we see when we go diving.

Snorkelling isn’t the first thing you might consider doing with your elderly in-laws but they’re good sports and gave it a go.

We almost killed Jenny’s Dad.

After a long swim, we were called to the boat which required a long swim to shore. By the time we got there Jenny’s Dad was having trouble breathing and need help to get out of the water. I had visions of us needing an air ambulance but he recovered all right.

R* was confident enough that on our third day, she signed up for a one day PADI Discover Scuba course. Jenny’s parents looked after K*. R* did the course. Jenny and I went diving.

The first dive at Che Isa wasn’t too interesting but the second dive at Pulau Kerengga was good. For our third dive, we joined R* for her very first open water dive out at Pulau Lima South Point. She was very cool and had no problems do a backwards roll and descending with us to 10m. We even saw a turtle! She later admitted that the only way she managed was by not thinking about anything and just doing what she was told. The diving at Pulua Lima was superb with excellent hard and soft corals and plenty of reef fish. We even saw a massive stingray. The only downside was the visibility of 6m was rather poor.

Our package of 4 days and 3 nights was just long enough. It’s best to go during the weekdays outside of school holidays. Highly recommended.

May 19, 2008 | Add Comment

More catching up. After Tokyo, we spent a week in Beijing. I haven’t found Chinese cities to be very pleasant places and Beijing is fine example of an ugly city. It’s  built on a flat featureless plain and smothered by air pollution. The worse air pollution I’ve ever seen. It’s hazy just two blocks away! Beijing has massive multilane roads clogged with traffic and is not at all pedestrian friendly.

Luckily, the buses and subway work well and taxi’s are plentiful and cheap. It wasn’t hard to get around. We dropped the idea of riding bikes as it would put K* in too much danger. It’s bad enough just being a pedestrian.

We stayed at the Days Inn Forbidden City. It’s new, modern and clean. Price was reasonable. Rooms are small but adequate. The location is very convenient. Beijing has plenty of tourist attractions and we got around to many of them.

The first day we caught a public bus and made it down to the Temple of Heaven. It looks just like the pictures. More interesting is that it’s a major place to just hang out for elderly people chatting and doing exercises. Jenny was particularly taken by rouli chu or rotary ball.

From the Temple of Heaven we walked and walked and walked until we finally found our way to the Museum of Ancient Architecture. It’s a small museum off the beaten track but I thought it was very educational. They have lots of models showing how ancient buildings were constructed.

Fed up with walking, we took a taxi to the Liulichang Culture Street. It’s very touristy but a pleasant area to explore. We were going explore the backstreets but then discovered we could catch an acrobat show nearby so we went to the show instead. It was entertaining but not particularly outstanding.

The second day, we explored some of the parks. We started at Jingshan Park provides a superb view over the Forbidden City. Too bad the haze of air pollution spoils it. We then walked east to Bei Hai Park wandering around Qiónghuá Island and spent a lazy hour playing with an electric boat on the lake.

From there we walked north up to Hou Hai Lake and got talked into taking a Hutong Tour in a couple of bicycle rickshaws. What wasn’t clear is that you have to pay an entrance fee at each and every hutong you want to see. Still is was good poking around a few of them. There’s a huge range of bars and restaurants around Hou Hai Lake so we had dinner there.

On our third day, we joined a tour by the Chinese Cultural Center of Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City. The guide was excellent but there’s too much to cover. At the end of the tour, we spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the Forbidden City and Palace Museum. I was disappointed that the Hall of Supreme Harmony was under renovation work.

With some “culture” under our belt, we spent our fourth day shopping. Wangfujing Street is rather ho hum. The Silk Market was fun and sharpens your bargaining skills. I picked up a Mao watch. The dirt market at Panjiayuan was excellent. Ton’s of bric a brac.

It is a downright pain that the airline baggage limit is only 20kg. That said, we did send a box home by China Post and it arrived just fine.

After the market, we took a taxi to the Factory 798 district to have a gander at Chinese modern art. Unfortunately, we had left it a bit late and didn’t have enough time. I much prefer the modern art to the traditional fare.  Very interesting place. It’s in a more suburban district of Beijing and dinner there was much cheaper than around the center.

As an aside, another place any visitor must go is the Donghuamen Night Market which basically puts anything that’s chewable on a stick and serves it you. Centipedes, snakes, starfish, whatever.

The fifth day was a write off. Pouring rain. We wandered around a mall and went to a large Decathalon outdoor shop to pick up some rain gear for the following day.

Day six was our trip to the Great Wall. We had previously arranged with a travel agency to take us on a 12km hike starting on a section of the wild wall and ending at Mutianyu. However, after the heavy rain, the wild wall section would be dangerous to hike. At least the rain had stopped.

We drove out to Mutianyu taking a short detour to see the Olympic site and the Birds Nest. It was great getting out of Beijing and eventually the air pollution receded and we were driving through pleasant countryside.

Mutianyu was excellent and there weren’t that many visitors. We took the cable car to the wall and huffed and puffed our way along it. The steep bit at the western part of the section was a struggle. The kids, of course, were running all over the place and we barely saw them.

We took the go kart track down from the wall to the parking lot. Really good fun.

Since we didn’t get to hike the wild wall section, we negotiated with the agency to replace it with a tour of the Summer Palace so that’s where we went on our way back. It’s a nice park but the clouds were grey and threatening to rain.

So while there’s lots to do and see in Bejing, it’s not a city I enjoyed and wouldn’t want to visit again.

May 16, 2008 | Add Comment

I love Tokyo. It's such a great hive of activity and concentrated Japanese culture. We took the kids around some of the main districts and mostly spent our days wandering and shopping.

Our first stop was Akihabara ("Electric Town") to check out all the electronics. The kids loved it. Lots of stuff but nothing particularly cheap. I picked up a new pair of earphones. I also had to witness this trend of waitresses dressed in french maid uniforms. Indeed it's true. There's even manga all about maid power! We also wandered around Shinjuku the same evening just enjoying all the neon.

We spent a full day wandering around the market and kitchen shops of Asakusa. Jenny picked herself up three knives altogether. It was a shop till you drop day. We had a good time bashing the drums at the Drum Museum.

We spent Sunday wandering from Harajuku to Shibuya taking in all the teen culture. This is where you can find the Japanese youth dressed in the various tribal fashions along Takeshita Dori and by Harajuku station. It's fascinating to watch.

There was a group of greasers dancing in Yoyogi park and a local band playing on the sidewalk. Outside NHK Hall, there's plenty of buskers. It was a rather damp and cool day but there was still lots going on. It must be amazing in the summer.

Once you get to Shibuya, it becomes fashion city. I mean Japanese women really dress well. They are fantastic and are right up there with Italian women as best dressed in the world. If you get a chance, wander around the the 109 Building just to check out the shop assistants!

On our last day, we found the Sony Building in the Ginza district and checked out their latest toys. Unbelievably, we ran into Chung & Ang there - friends who had moved to Seattle. We chatted a while and then went in search of the Sony Playstation showroom which had moved to another district. It was rather disappointing and not worth searching out. However, along the way, we found the Honda building and got to see a demonstration of Asimo, their humanoid robot.

We had to cut the day short as we needed to move to a hotel in Narita to make it easier to catch our morning flight to Beijing. In Tokyo, we stayed at the Hotel Edoya - yet another modern ryokan. I'd highly recommend it. It's quite central (near Ueno Park) and easy to get around.

Tags: Travel, Japan

May 12, 2008 | Add Comment

Got a lot of catching up to do. We left Kyoto by Shinkansen and spent one day on the Izu Peninsula before heading into Tokyo. The Izu Peninsula isn't far from Tokyo and is reknown for it's hot spa's. Plenty of things to do if you can spend the time there. The hope was to get a view of Mt Fuji but the weather simply didn't co-operate. Lots of rain and no views.

We stayed at the Nanzanou in a small town called Izu Nagaoka. We had an absolutely fabulous room. It was the sakura suite. It was about thirty tatami mats in size and had a view over a private water pool. A cherry tree spread over the pool but unfortunately, most of the cherry blossoms were gone. We enjoyed just hanging around in our suite and didn't do much else.

Tags: Travel, Japan

May 12, 2008 | One Comment

Before flying to Japan, the kids considered China and Japan to be basically one in the same except that Japan had sushi. If they learned one thing on this trip, it’s that these two countries are vastly different.

Arriving in Osaka was a welcome relief from China. It’s so clean! It’s so orderly! People queue even to get on a subway train. In China, people don’t even let you get out of the elevator before they step in.

We caught the train to Kyoto and were thrilled to spot cherry tree’s in full blossom along the way. Our timing wasn’t so bad after all! A taxi got us to the modern ryokan that we had booked tucked away down a side street in the downtown area. It turned out to be a great location for exploring the city.

All through our visit to Japan we stayed at ryokan’s with Japanese style rooms. This first one was one of the best and was a generous 12 tatami mats in size. The staff prepared our beds each evening and put them away in the morning. Breakfast was served in the room by a motherly Japanese lady chatting away in Japanese as if we understood it. Every evening, the kids looked forward to their wash and soak in the public baths.

One fascination was the electric toilet seats. They’re heated! And they wash your bum with a spray of warm water and blow dry it too! I can’t help but wonder what the carbon cost of millions of warm toilet seats must be.

The first day of sightseeing was a washout – literally. It rained hard. We attempted to go to a museum but it was closed being a Monday. We salvaged the day by browsing the Nishiki food market and the Daimaru Department Store. The food floor in Daimaru would put Harrods to shame. We also explored the Teramachi and Shinkyogoku covered arcades. Determined to do some real sightseeing, we joined a walking tour of the Gion district in the evening despite the rain.

The next day was grey but at least the rain had stopped. We did the classic walking tour of Higashiyama going from Kiyomizu-dera up to Heian-jingu via Maruyama park.

The temples blur together as there’s so many to visit but the cherry blossom tree’s are simply stunning and are truly glorious when the sun breaks through and lights them up to their full radiance. The wind occasionally blew the petals into a gentle blizzard that filled the air.

The following day, us boys visited some more temples in the northern bit of Higashiyama and walked along Tetsugaku-no-michi (Path of Philosophy) while the girls joined a long Arts & Crafts walking tour.

I regret that we didn’t plan to spend more time in Kyoto. You can certainly cover the highlights in three days but it would be very easy to spend a week or even more exploring the area. And it’s very well worth the effort going during the sakura season.

Apr 10, 2008 | Add Comment

China was much as how I expected it from what reading I had done.

My biggest impression was the dreadful air pollution. I've never seen anything like it except maybe L.A. in summer. There's also the legendary booming economy that's evident around the cities. There's plenty of well off people and plenty of poor. All true.

Spitting? Yep. Smoking? Everywhere. Dreadful toilets? Absolutely! Communist? No way. This is capitalism in overdrive.

I also found myself constantly getting stares. Now I know what it might be like to be beautiful! So I felt free to stare right back. It's a bit weird. My daughter attracted plenty of attention. Mixed marriages are very rare in China so they were very curious when they realised Jenny and I were married and our children mixed. Overall we found the Chinese people gregarious, loud and friendly. We never suffered huge hassles. Of course, we have been overcharged on occasions but there's nothing personal about it.

China faces huge challenges. Inflation is running high. The one child policy is going to have a huge impact as that generation ages. There's a huge disparity between city life and country life. The environment is facing disaster. Many laws don't get adequately enforced. I would hate to be trying to steer this juggernaut!

Apr 04, 2008 | Add Comment

After mulling over our options, we decided to hire a 4x4 and driver and explore northern Sichuan rather than fly somewhere else in China.

Domestic tourism is massive in China. With growing wealth, the Chinese must be travelling more and more so all the standard tourist sites are very busy even in low season. I would hate to see these places in high season. By getting our own wheels, we hoped to get away from standard tour routes and see the countryside.

Our driver and guide was a friendly Tibetan fellow by the name of Gonpo. It was great to get his perspective on the Tibet issue and hear about his life and ambitions. It was Gonpo that made our trip most special.

We drove out to Wollong National Reserve and saw the giant panda's there. We had already seen pandas in Chengdu but at Wollong, you can join as volunteer staff and help look after the pandas. Now this wasn't as exciting as it first sounded. Basically, we got to clean out their enclosures. We didn't even get to feed them. But it was still interesting to get a glimpse of life as a panda keeper. To volunteer to clean up panda poop, it costs 250 yuan each. If you want to play with a teenage panda, it costs 1000 yuan. If you want to play with a baby panda, it costs 5000 yuan!

The Wollong Hotel was unheated and it was very cold. Even the restaurant didn't have heat. You have to eat fast before all the oil in the dishes congeals. Each room had a rattling electric heater to wheeze out some warmth. However, the beds had electric blankets and thick comforters. It's the first time I've ever slept under an electric blanket. Fabulous! I think I'm going to buy one for chilly UK winters.

We then drove up to Songpan in about six hours enjoying the gradual demise of industrial landscapes in favour of rural valleys full of apple tree's coming into blossom and people tending their vegetable plots. Vegetables are grown anywhere there is a patch of dirt. Tibetan villages cropped up more and more. As we got to Songpan, spring disappeared and we landed in winter. It was cold.

No one seems to be able to afford heating. Everyone gathers around coal-fired stoves in shops or the occasional electric heater. Luckily we knew we were in for cold weather and had been buying assorted warm clothes.

The next day we enjoyed a Western breakfast at Emma's Kitchen and spent the morning walking around Songpan. It was much less touristy than all the other places we've been. It's not very large but well worth a few hours stroll. In the afternoon, we slowly made our way to Jiuzhaigou stopping for pictures along the way. This included stopping at a Tibetan monastery and having a good look around. Yaks, goats, and horses are all road hazards along the way. It was a more picturesque and rural China that we had hoped to see.

We got stopped by police for the third time on our way there. Gonpo displays a picture of a Tibetan Lama and a prayer book on his dashboard so with the ongoing Tibetan troubles, he gets targeted at any checkpoint.

After our stays at unheated hotels, we splurged on the more upmarket Kangba Noble Manor taking a double bedroom suite. While the lobby and halls are unheated as usual, the room was warm and it had an excellent hot shower! Recommended.

We spent the following day with the herds of Chinese tourists hiking in the Jiuzhaigou scenic park. It's a series of azure lakes and tumbling streams in a mountain valley. It's pretty but nothing exceptional in April (Autumn would be fantastic). The kids had a great time playing in the snow at the top of the valley. For millions of nature starved Chinese visitors, it must be heavenly. Hiking is a bit of a misnomer. You take a bus between the sites and walk along wooden or stone pathways. You're not allowed off the path. In China, nature needs to be protected from the hordes of tourists.

We covered the park in a day since there's a hefty fee for both the park entrance and the bus. We left the next day and tried to go to Huanglong, another scenic park, featuring a calcified terrace of water pools. However, we had to cross a mountain pass at 4000m that was covered in snow. Our 4x4 went into a low speed spin and hit the barrier in front of a very steep precipace. It made a few bad dents in the 4x4 but it didn't stop us moving on. We crawled carefully to the top of the mountain pass and after looking at the road down the other side, decided to play it safe and return to Songpan.

The government had closed off access to any towns to the west and snow prevented access to any other places we could visit near Songpan. We heard that police were even preventing buses from bring tourists to Songpan and the town felt half closed. We decided to end the trip a day early and drove back to Chengdu in 7.5 hours. The kids are taking these long drives really well.

Driving is manic in China and we saw the sad results of one accident. Cars weave all over the road in any lane and near misses are common. I held my breathe on many occasions!

Apr 04, 2008 | Add Comment

We're been in Chengdu for a few days now. Right from the trip in from the airport, it's obvious that Chengdu is a richer city than Xi'an. There are forests of new apartment blocks sprouting everywhere. Construction appears frantic here. There's also landscaping and attempts to make the place look nice which lacked in Xi'an. The downtown core is larger and more modern. There are poorer neighbourhoods and places we were told to avoid.

We were greeted at the airport by our driver and guide as the first four days of our trip was a private tour. They took us to our hotel in the Tibetan quarter where we were greeted with a police blockade and a few dozen police cars. They're parked a few to each block with their lights flashing. The area is heavily patrolled.

It's clear the authorities have taken the Tibetan riots very seriously. Travel to Western Sichuan is closed and there's no chance of going to Lhasa. It's been interesting watching the Chinese English-language news station. The rioters are simply branded as criminals and the Dalai Lama is blamed. There's is no mention of what motives or grievances there could be beyond labelling them secessionists. The main news websites like the BBC, CNN, Google and Yahoo are all blocked.

I don't support the violence in Tibet against the Chinese but do believe there should be a better political process. We've eaten at a couple of Tibetan restaurants and we're still staying in the Tibetan quarter as our token support. I must say I don't think I'll order yak butter tea again!

We've been to some temples on Qingcheng Shan, a holy Taoist mountain, and walked around the Dujiangyan Irrigation Project. In the 3rd century BC, Li Bing came up with this grand irrigation scheme which massively improved agricultural productivity in Sichuan. This filled the royal coffers and enabled Emperor Qin to unite China and build his terracotta army. It's more interesting than it sounds and is an important UNESCO site.

We went to the Giant Panda Research Base where I took pictures of the kids with a young panda. You have to get there early before the panda's all fall comatose after their bamboo breakfast. Afterwards we went to the Sanxingdui Museum which chronicles some quite amazing artifacts from the rarely mentioned ancient Shu Dynasty.

We did an overnight trip to the ancient town of Huanglongxi and Leshan to see the world's largest Buddha and climbed up Mount Emei. Huanglongxi was a tourist trap and Leshan was underwhelming but Mount Emei was good. We took the easy route which just involves 3km of walking up steps and then a cable car ride to the top. We lucked out with the weather. It was sunny and we had fantastic views all the way to the mountains of Western Sichuan and Tibet. The top was still covered with snow. For the first time, it felt like we were breathing fresh air!

With the private tour over, we're now hanging about at Holly's Hostel in Chengdu touring local sights and deciding what to do next. While as badly polluted as other Chinese cities, Chengdu has its pleasant spots.

Mar 28, 2008 | Add Comment

Made it to China. We almost missed our connection to Xi'an due to the massive queue/scrum for the domestic flights airport security check taking over an hour to get through. Great introduction to China - especially all the shouting and scuffles with security guards. And then they kept changing the departure gate for the flight!

I can't believe how terrible the air pollution was in Xi'an. Caught myself trying to take very shallow breaths just to avoid breathing it. It's so bad, you can barely see any blue sky. You have to look straight above you.

We stayed at the Bell And Drum Tower Hotel. Very convenient location but their rooms were rather tired. As we had heard, mattresses tend to be rather hard in China and this hotel was no exception. Still, it was clean and the plumbing worked.

We did lots of walking around. Rode bikes along the city walls. Saw the terracotta warriors. Browsed through the excellent Shaanxi Museum. Got caught in the rain. Exercised in the park. Bartered for souveniers. Enjoyed the serene Great Mosque. Found the start of the (Northern) Silk Road. Most nights we wandered around the Muslim Quarter checking out all the food stalls and shops. It's a modern city but not as modern outside the center as I expected. At least there was a Starbucks close by. I've read that there are now more Starbucks in China than the United States.

So far China is much as what I expected. Crazy traffic. Lots of spitting and other behaviours that would be considered rude in the West. Horrible toilets. Got overcharged just buying water. If you don't know the proper price, you're pretty much guaranteed to get overcharged. Stunning amount of building going on. Life feels rather frantic in the city.

Mar 26, 2008 | Add Comment

Tonight we’re catching a red-eye flight to China. Our first stop is Xi’an. Then we fly to Chengdu in Sichuan for a short local tour but we have about ten days to do whatever we want. Not sure yet whether we’ll go south or east or we could even try going to Tibet. We’re going to make it up as we go. By April 6^th we have to be in Beijing in order to catch our flight to Osaka. We’re hoping to be in Kyoto in time to see the cherry blossoms but according to current predictions, we’re going to be about a week late. Then we have a few days up in Tokyo before flying back to Beijing on April 15^th. We have a week in Beijing and then we fly back to Kuala Lumpur. No doubt its going to be our most challenging trip yet.

Mar 16, 2008 | Add Comment

At the top of my list of things to do while in Malaysia this time around was to dive the island of Sipadan. Sipadan is considered one of the best dives site in the world.

So I booked us on a 6 day/5 night package at Borneo Divers Mabul Resort. Mabul is the island next to Sipadan. You can’t actually stay on Sipadan as it’s now protected and visitor numbers are limited.

There are four other places you can stay. The Sipadan Mabul Resort (SMART) runs a high end Water Village as well as some value-oriented beach bungalows. There’s another water village at Kapalai and there’s an old converted oil rig platform called SeaVentures which offers good value for money. A fifth option which the cheapest of the lot is to stay in Semporna on the mainland but then you have a long boat ride out to the islands.

I was very happy with the Borneo Divers Resort. It was well run and the bungalows were bright, nicely furnished and comfortable. The staff were very friendly. The diving kit was a mixed bag: some stuff was new, some was rather old. If I was going to complain, I would say the food wasn’t inspiring. It was perfectly adequate but not a lot of choice. A minor niggle.

The daily routine is breakfast by 7:30am and then walk over to the diving station by the beach to put on your wetsuit and boots. Your fins, weights, BCD, regs and tanks are already loaded on the boat so there’s nothing much for you to carry except your mask and computer. The boat leaves at 8am and takes about twenty minutes to get out to Sipadan. It will take up to about 12 people.

At Sipadan, you have to first dock while all the permits for the day are checked. Lots of visitors are just there for snorkelling so they get off the boat and then the divers head out to the first dive site. After the dive, we dock again and have a one hour break on the beach. It’s catered with tea, coffee, water and some snacks. Lots of chit chat. Then it’s off for the second dive. The dive master switches all the tanks for you so all you have to do is a predive check and then backwards roll into the water.

After the second dive, the boat picks up the snorkellers and we all head back to Mabul in time for lunch. All meals are included in the package. At 3pm, there’s another boat dive but it’s only to either Mabul or Kapalai. After that, you have the option of doing a (free) sunset dive at the house reef without a guide so you must have a buddy.

After your last dive, it’s your job to wash all your equipment with freshwater and get it ready for the next day. Dinner service starts at 6:30 and the night is yours.

That’s the routine. I loved it.

The diving was very good. I was a bit disappointed at first as I expected to be blown away and I wasn’t. But the diving was very good.

Sipadan is a turtle island. You can’t go there and NOT see a turtle. You regularly see a few on each dive. They’re not easily scared by divers so you can approach them quite close as they lie sleeping on the seabed. You get both Hawksheads and Greenbacks. There’s also lots of whitetip sharks. You see them on almost every dive too. I don’t go so close to them!

I was really hoping to see a tornado of barrucuda which are often found at Barracude Point but they never showed up. Guess it was the wrong season for them.

The other star sighting we had was a large Eagle Ray swimming along the sea floor at about 40m depth. First one I’ve ever seen. Lovely creature.

Beside those, there was plenty of other sea life and I must confess I don’t know all the names of them. They’re fish. Tons and TONS of fish. Colouful fish. Little ones and big ones. One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish. Trigger fish, Parrot fish, Angel fish, Jack fish, Bum heads, Blue Spotted Rays, Alligator Fish, Trevalleys, Flute fish, Pipe fish, Groupers, Bat fish, and bazillions of tiny reef fish. Found a black frog fish. He was cool. Annoyed a Morray Eel. Even got to see a school of cuttle fish. This region has upwards of 3000 species of reef fish.

One of the highlights was playing with a large school of Jack fish. Jenny and I managed to hover in the middle of them while the school circled us. Weird having all those eye’s looking at you!

The point is that there’s lots to see. There’s also lots of nudibranches and other little things if you take the time to just explore. Even found a pygmy seahorse.

So after twelve dives, I was pretty happy with Sipadan.

Jenny had a couple of moments while diving. Once, she dived off the boat without putting her fins on first. The DM was standing around looking at an empty boat and calling out “whose fins are these?!”. Of course, no one let her forget that quickly. On the last dive, I noticed my no decompression countdown was getting close to zero. Then I checked Jenny and found she had slipped into a decompression dive. This is something that’s always avoided as you have to manage your ascents more carefully. It was easily sorted by a longer stint at 5m.

Overall, the diving isn’t difficult. There are currents but they’re easy to live with. The sea was always very calm with no swell. It can be freaky as you swim over the dropoff knowing that the sea floor is 600m below you. But you can get a wonderful sensation as if you’re skydiving. We visited Turtle Cavern twice and on the second time penetrated inside the cave a short ways and enjoyed the view looking out into the deep.

We made some friends during the trip. Divers are a friendly bunch and there’s plenty of time to relax and chat. The pictures I’ve posted here are from Tim and Lana who are a Canadian couple we met.

So I would recommend diving Sipadan but I probably won’t go back unless it’s a great deal. I want to dive Layang Layang with the hope of seeing Hammerhead sharks. Or I’d like to go somewhere to see Manta rays. Asia has so many good places to go diving!

Mar 14, 2008 | Add Comment

Found this rather explicit toilet sign in a restaurant in Malaysia. Wonder if they also do signs for squat toilets.

Mar 14, 2008 | Add Comment

The results of the 2008 Malaysian election are in and Barisan Nasional is back in power. This coalition is headed by the UMNO which has ruled Malaysia ever since independence in 1957. I don’t believe having the same party in power for 50 years is that healthy and certainly makes for a very suspicious and unbalanced “democracy”.

Like many Asian countries, the deal is that citizen’s can have economic freedom but criticism, protest and dissent are not tolerated. In Malaysia, all the mainstream media are controlled by political parties. Journalists lack freedom of expression and forums for debate just don’t exist. As witnessed by the recent Hindraf protests or the arrest of Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, the Malaysian government will freely use the draconian Internal Security Act laws to squash political opposition. Opponents can be detained without trial indefinitely. This is justified as the way to maintain stability, security and economic growth. It’s also a convenient way for the same party to stay in power.

The biggest issue in Malaysian politics therefore continues to be avoided and that is the unequal treatment of citizens of different races. I don’t see how a country can achieve racial integration when you keep reminding everyone that their race matters.

This latest election brings hope that a more open dialogue will begin. The opposition political parties have gained many new seats and Barisan Nasional has lost it’s 2/3rds majority in parliament which allowed it to push through legislature with impunity. It may force the goverment to listen more but it’s a long road to getting politics balanced.

Mar 09, 2008 | Add Comment