Kota Kinabalu

I started to write this blog when we got back from our trip, but then, as you may know, Gary had a seizure, and then a couple more, and so we have been spending time taking care, and meditating, and appreciating life, and trying to slow down a bit, because the doctor keeps saying that the root cause (other than the lesion) is stress. 

And so, telling this story took a back seat, until today.  Because tomorrow we start another trip home, stopping in London, Ireland, Wales, and while we are looking forward to it, we are also a bit nervous. 

I guess it was a slow time of year for travelers to Kota Kinabalu, and we were staying in a kind of remote area, but for the entire week, we were at the resort with only about a dozen or so other people.  At breakfast, we were usually the only ones, which has its perks... no line at the omelet bar, no line at the toaster, no waiting for water, but also has the drawback of having everyone who works there watch what you take, and what you eat, and even if they are not really watching or noticing, it makes you put back that second donut, because really... what if they are watching?!?

Another thing that the staff was considerate enough to do each morning as we walked in to the restaurant was to turn on Rod Stewart's Greatest Hits.  And that guy really had some songs!  I thought about writing this post entirely in Rod Stewart lyrics, but really, we didn't take a downtown train, or wake up Maggie, so I had nothing.

Here's the pool, also deserted.  Great for splashing and making lots of noise!

Kota Kinabalu is the capital of Sabah, a region of East Malaysia. Because the islands of Malaysia are mainly Muslim there are lots of Halal food stands and restaurants.  In Arabic, the word halal means permitted or lawful. Halal foods are foods that are allowed under Islamic dietary guidelines. According to these guidelines gathered from the Qu'ran, Muslim followers cannot consume the following:
pork or pork by products
animals that were dead prior to slaughtering
animals not slaughtered properly or not slaughtered in the name of Allah
blood and blood by products
alcohol
carnivorous animals
birds of prey
land animals without external ears 

That was just FYI.

I had a plate full of veggies and rice, and while I was eating I was trying to think of which land animal doesn't have external ears.  Do you know?  Do chickens have external ears?  What kind of rule is this? 

R-Man was playing it safe by eating just a plain carrot.  No ears on those.  Luckily he wasn't eating corn!

Pooks also had some veggies and something on a stick.  You are never sure what it is, especially here.

Last food stall photo of the night- sugar cane juice.  How many of those can you drink?  More than you think! 

Another day by the pool.

As you know, R-Man is a rule follower.  We call him OSHA because he always takes the time to read the rules and to insure they are adhered to.  So, he loved these pool rules regarding attire.  He said we had to take a picture because it was funny.  Sexy Shorts are not allowed.

Ahhh... the day of our great fishing and crabbing trip.  Here we go, on our three hour tour. 

No poles, just line, sinker, bait.  Old school. We decided to have a competition to make it a bit more interesting.  Five points for each fish you catch, and ten for each crab in the trap of your choice (before it is pulled up).  Can you guess who won?  Let me give you a hint... it is the one person not born near the ocean in Florida. 

 

Yup, it was me, with this beauty... the only thing we caught all day...

other than the bait in the crab trap.

Zero points for this baby!

Here is one of the many monitor lizards that were sharing the hotel with us. 
 

The floating mosque.  We didn't visit because modest clothing was required, but we had only sexy shorts (just kidding).

Downtown there are several waterfront restaurants with big menus, but all they seem to choose is burgers. 

With fries, of course.

R-Man met this guy waiting for the bathroom and wanted to take a picture with him because he liked his shirt.  It looked like a big candy corn.  Who could say no?

Back at the market.  More sugar cane juice.

Here we are getting foot massages.  The faces are because we are all in one huge room, with like 50 chairs all facing forward, but there is this big Chinese guy behind us is snoring like nobody's business.  We were cracking up, and just dying because no one else seems to think it is even a bit funny that this guy is OUT! 

Here is a blurry shot of what it was like. 

Near our hotel, at the Shangri-La Hotel, which was PACKED by the way, was an orangutan sanctuary.  I cajoled Gary into going, despite the 98 degree, 98% humidity weather.  It was the perfect day for a walk through tropical jungle, into a nature sanctuary. 

So we join the line of sweaty explorers and make our way up to the look-out, where we are going to wait to get a glimpse of some wild (sort of) orangutans, as they come to the platform for some food. 

In the brochure, they fail to mention that orangutans are mostly brownish, as is most of the nature around them.  Additionally, the trees cast a mottled shade, that acts to further conceal the animals.  That is how they have lived so long in the jungle, DUH... they are camouflaged... and so I have about 45 pictures exactly like the one above.  Can you see the THREE orangutans in the picture? 

I can understand why they have this sign, because after one hour of sort of seeing camouflaged orangutans, I was ready to wear a banana hat to get one to come closer!

Instead, I snuck some pictures of the gift shop post cards... don't let them fool you!

This is what I thought my pictures would look like!  HAHA! These are probably not even real orangutans...

One of the carvings at the hotel. 

Nice, huh? 

Back at our hotel, on the deserted beach...

Waiting for the sunset...

Who had fun?  We did. 

Hong Kong, Disney

For this past vacation we decided that we were going to try something a little bit different!  We wanted to just take a short get-away, skip the beach, and see something new.  So, instead of our usual haunts, we headed to Hong Kong.  It is just a couple of hours by plane, there seemed to be plenty to do, and there was a Disney!  Now if that is not a selling point... well, you must be just like me!  But Gary kept saying, "Let's do it for the kids!", and, "They won't always want to go to Disney with us!" and somehow he convinced me that going to Disney, and STAYING at Disney would be awesome! 

So Disney aside, there was still plenty of draws for HK, and so off we went. 
And I did love it from the moment we stepped off the plane and saw all these cute green taxis!  When you are queuing for a taxi, they are color coded.  Red is for the cities, Green is for the New Territories, and Blue is for Lantau Island.  BUT... the perks of staying at Disney start right away.  Even though we were supposed to take a blue taxi, there weren't any... and the line was long... but since we were guests of Walt,  we could take ANY taxi to Disney... and we got to take one of these cuties!  (As a small aside, the taxi driver had never been on the Disney "Property" and so we had to look for signs and kind of guide him, but still)!

This about sums up my feelings of Disney. 

Smarmy comments aside, the kids loved the hotel, and it was beautiful, clean, safe, and they tolerated our repeated requests for water, extra pillows, and more instant coffee packets (yes, 4 per day!) remarkably well. 

But we didn't actually go to Disney on our first day.  We arrived on Saturday night and decided that from past Disney experiences in the Orlando area that we would wait until a school day to actually visit the park, so on Sunday we did some sight seeing.

One subway stop away is the Ngong Ping village tour.  It is accessible by cable car, and for a $15 upgrade you can get the glass bottom cable car!  Well, if Gary can make me go to Disney, I can make him go in a glass bottom cable car! 

Just like you are flying! 

On the way up we had to share the cabin with another group, but that did not stop anyone from lying on the floor!

At the top of the cable car ride is the village of Ngong Ping, Po Lin Monastery, Ngong Piazza, and the Big Buddah!

It was absolutely gorgeous!

The Big Buddha is 34 meters high, and has 268 steps leading up to it.  Can you see the tiny people on the stairs? 

I thought it was hindus that revered cows, but there were some wandering around here, too.

Here were are heading back down, with Lantau Island in the back ground.

After the serenity of a monastery, a delicious vegetarian monk lunch, and a breathtaking cable car ride, what could be better than taking the subway to Kowloon?  Not much!  Walk upstairs from the subway and you are in the middle of a hustling city.  It is packed, loud, and really fun! 

There are buildings that look older, and then buildings that are so modern they make your head hurt, and that is part of the charm of Hong Kong. There are also restaurants serving all kinds of food: Indian, Thai, American,  Mexican, of course Chinese, so we were happy!

They also had soft- serve, so the kids were happy!  R-Man said this was the best ice cream he ever had.  And he has had a lot, so it must have been pretty good!

Cars drive on the wrong side here, thanks a lot England, but at least they are nice enough to warn you!

We have had a long day, but we are waiting for the HK harbor Laser Light Show, which begins each evening at 8PM, so we are killing 3 hours at the HK Children's Science Museum.  This place is awesome, and a bargain!  You get 3 floors of hands-on science stuff and the biggest Rube Goldberg ball dropping contraption we had ever seen for about 8 bucks each. 

Here we are getting ready for the show!  The harbor itself is amazing!  We were on the boardwalk and the skyline across the water wraps around so you see about 270 degrees of skyline.  The laser show was cute, the buildings across the way do some synchronized lighting and flashing... I guess I was expecting fireworks!  It was definitely worth it to see the skyline, but I wouldn't rush for the lasers...  Time for bed... big day tomorrow...

Uh... can you guess where we are?

Yup, the Magic Kingdom! I took a ton of pictures of the kids all day, but I am only going to share a couple here.  This is Small World, which was absolutely beautiful, and even better at perpetuating ethnic stereotypes than I remembered!  Wow, they nailed EVERY one!  One thing I loved about Small World here is that they did the safety instructions in about 8 languages, English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Russian, and a couple that I couldn't identify.  It was awesome!

Pooks and I went on Space Mountain, and then, while I recuperated on a bench outside (and took this picture) she went back on with Gary.  R-man was happy waiting. 

Alice in Wonderland tea cups.

Now THESE were some fireworks! 

Now, not to make sweeping generalizations, but as we were watching the fireworks, there was a grandma who was there, and she could not find her grandson.  She was calling his name louder and louder and starting to panic and it made me think.  In the US we are kind of lucky if a kid goes missing (don't act shocked yet, let me finish... ) because we can give much better descriptions of the kids than in HK, (or Korea, for that matter).  If R-man is missing I can say, "The boy with blond hair, blue eyes, thin...) you get it... but what would this grandma say???  OK, now you can be shocked...   I am merely making an observation. 

On the next day we take the subway to Hong Kong Island, and ride the Peak Tram to... yup you guessed it... The Peak!  The Peak is the highest point on HK Island, and at the top is a shopping mall, the peak tower, and a beautiful view of HK. 

What can you say about this... we are far from home. 

Funny thing.  Yesterday when we were at Disney we were in line for the Swiss Family Robinson Island Tour and we were behind about 100 head-scarf wearing ladies, all in matching scarfs and t-shirts.  We didn't think much of it, but then, as we were waiting for Small World there they were again... maybe the same ladies, maybe different, but wearing the same outfits.  And then I saw it... Tupperware.  And so I asked one of the ladies if she sold Tupperware, and yes, she did!  And so did all of the ladies!  This trip was the Grand Prize for being the Tupperware Saleswoman of the Year!  So there were hundreds of them!  Well, we followed them all day around Disney, on the rides, in the bathrooms, at the restaurant. 

And then, here they were again... at The Peak. 

We just fit right in, don't we!  :)

The view from the peak!

The ride up and down is so steep that you can stand at about a 45 degree angle, but still be standing straight up.

Both kids trying it!

More Tupperware Winners! 



Back on the subway.  One of my favorite pictures, even though it is blurry.  We have two world travelers who don't mind taking the subway, sitting next to strangers, they just get on, take a seat, and just keep talking as if they aren't halfway around the world, in a strange country, heading who knows where.  I am pretty proud.

And then 5 minutes later, they can act like TOTAL tourists...

Downtown Hong Kong Island. 

But it has Disney, Ikea, and Outback... so it is just like Orlando!