Day 8 -- David and I met up with my friend Desmond. He is a Singaporean who went to my parents church in Berlin, Germany. We met at a great little Chinese noodle restaurant. I had the chance to start working on my chopstick techniques. They made the noodles right there in the restaurant. The chef would throw a lump of dough into the air, stretching and twisting it until strands began to form. The process would be repeated again and again until noodles were formed. Pretty amazing. The food just seemed to flow onto the table. We had a wonderful time talking and learning more about Singapore. We talked about everything from politics to religion, life and love. Afterwards, Desmond and his friend Hanee insisted that we check out the places where all the real Chinese people eat. They took us to a 24 eatery that was right on the edge of the red-light district for some good Chinese desserts -- soy bean curd pudding with peanut, a deep fried elephant-ear-like pastry, and carrot cake that had an egg on top of it. After all this good food, David and I were about to explode. Hanee graciously drove us back to the Marina and we got the chance to see Singapore at night. The city was lit up like a Christmas tree. One of the most innovative designs was the Art & Entertainment Center. It sits right on the waterfront and has been nicknamed “The Durian” for its strange shape. A durian is a local fruit about the size of a small watermelon. It has thick and leathery skin which is covered by small spikes. When we got back to the Marina all we could do was fall into bed and look forward to another exciting day where we would head towards Malaysia.

October 28-November 1, 2004 -- This evening we got on the night train to Malaysia. After talking with our friends on Sea Tjalm, we decided that it would be a good idea to explore Malaysia now while we could leave the boats in a safe place. We decided on taking different routes to explore the country. Singapore is right at the southernmost tip of Malaysia. So traveling inland was quite easy. The sleeper cabin must have had at least 20 bunks for travelers. It filled up quickly. We settled in for the night and 12 hours later we were in northern Malaysia to visit the town of Kota Baharu. We went from 1^st world country to 3^rd world country in a matter of hours. What we had forgotten was that Malaysia is a strongly Muslim country. They have their weekends on Thursday and Friday. When we arrived in Kota Baharu all the tourist sites (museums, arts & crafts fair) were closed. Thankfully, we met up with a very helpful and friendly taxi driver who took us to all the little known places. We visited the downtown market. All the local people were there selling their vegetables, fruits, fresh fish and meat … The smell was unlike anything to pass through my nose! And then all of a sudden, the rain started coming down in sheets!! It poured for a good 30 minutes before letting up. After the market, we went some local Buddhist temples that housed some of the largest Buddha’s of SE Asia. It was quite amazing to see these statues of Buddha stretching out for 50 yards. First we saw the “Lying Buddha” and then the “Sitting Buddha”. There were few tourists at these places. But some local people would come to pray and burn incense. The temples were ornate and colorful. Some had statues of Buddhist monks who were highly revered. A few of these statues had small pieces of gold lame that had been rubbed on to the surface. One of the coolest temples was laid out like a boat made from huge dragons. It’s amazing how those with relatively so little can build something so ornate. After all the temples, it was back to the train station.

The Batu caves are known for having a huge pilgrimage that millions of Hindus attend each year. The Batu caves are considered a holy site by the Hindus of southern India. The pilgrimage quickly becomes an orgy of sort where you can have various piercing done to your cheeks and ears. To even get to the caves was a pilgrimage for us!! We had poor directions and even the locals were not much help. We finally found the right bus to take. The bus was so full with locals and tourists that we must have looked like sardines in a tin. Somehow or another, whenever the bus would stop more people would manage to get off. The tourist books had indicated that the trip would only take 30 minutes. In reality, it took us over 1 ½ hours!! When we finally arrived at the Batu caves we were hot and sweaty and cranky! What awaited us were 272 steps leading up to the caves.! Yikes! It took a little doing, but we made it all the way up. Inside, the cave was wonderfully cool. All you had to watch out for were the monkeys, stray cats, and birds flying about. The cave itself was probably as big as a football stadium. The ceiling was at least 100 feet above us with occasional openings that let in light. Stalactites and stalagmites were everywhere. Tucked into corners of the cave were statues of various Hindu gods. I wonder how in the world a million people could throng into this place and what exactly made this place sacred.

Well, after our cave excursion, it was back to KL. The area where we were staying was much like Times Square in NYC. It was surrounded by shopping malls, neon lights, and lanes of traffic. We checked out some of the malls to see what prices were like. They had a nice selection of everything from electronics to clothing. KL is a 1^st world city surrounded by a country that is trying desperately to catch up. The following day we headed for the Petronas Towers, home of the World Bank. The are the tallest twin towers in the world since the destruction of the World Trade Center in NYC. You might recognize these amazing skyscrapers from the movie Entrapment with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Sean Connery. They look like huge lightning rods. Even though we arrived at the towers early in the morning, there was already a long line to get up to the viewing deck. Thankfully, the wait was not too long. The elevator ride to the viewing deck lasted 41 seconds. The skyline and views were magnificent. The viewing deck sits at 146 meters above the ground. People looked like ants. As I talked with our tour guide, I discovered that they actually filmed the majority of the tower scenes from the movie Entrapment right here. The guide had even met the stars!

After visiting the towers, we headed for Masjid Jamek (historical mosque), Chinatown, and the National Museum of Malaysia. The mosque was built in 1907 by a British architect. It was covered with Greek Orthodox-like domes and arches and looked like an oasis in this glass and steel desert. The Abbott’s noted how much of the architecture in KL was very influenced by the Arabic world and Islam. Our next stop in Chinatown was completely different. The market was in full swing with Louis Vitton rip-offs, fake Ray Bans, fruit and veggies. Vendors would beckon with promises of low prices. But what it all comes down to is your bargaining skills. David is a natural! He has no problem walking away from a vendor if the price is not right. I am a softy and almost feel quilted into buying something after spending a certain amount of time on bargaining. He got some nice sunglasses for $4! Not bad at all. The National Museum was very interesting and showed just how diverse Malaysia is. There are many different people groups who live here. It showed Malaysian history, arts & crafts, dress, culture, and animals. They also had some very cool exhibitions covering maritime archeology and how gold was a part of Malaysian culture. Malaysia occupies a unique geographical space that has been used by traders for hundreds of years. It is the transit place between eastern and western Asia and continues to be.

The following morning, we left for Singapore. We upgraded to 1^st class which was nice. They even showed movies. However, the choice of movies left something to be desired for: old Jean Claude Van Damme flick called “Nowhere to Run” where all the fighting scenes had been edited out and an Aussie TV movie “My Husband, My Killer.” We may not have had luck in the movie department, but some of the scenery was beautiful. We passed farms with rows of neatly planted palm trees for coconut, dates, and oil. We passed dense green jungle where the undergrowth grew right up to the train track. Who knows, if you put you hand out the window, perhaps you could snag a monkey or a snake! After a good 10 hours of swaying in the train, we arrived back in Singapore. It felt good to be back.

November 2, 2004 -- Well, we are back in Singapore for the next few days and preparing to take off again. Our next destination is Penang and Langakawi which are islands on the northern coast of Malaysia. We decided to make a last minute visit to Sentosa Island today which is at the tip of Singapore. It has been made into a little getaway haven for all us city folk. In order to get there you either have to cross the bay by bridge, cable car, or ferry. We decided to cross the bay by cable car hundreds of feet up in the air. The view was spectacular! You could see the skyline of all downtown Singapore, the harbor filled with cargo ships, and the busy Singapore Straits filled with maritime traffic. Once on the island, we took the monorail around for a tour. Resorts have been set up with man-made beaches, spas, hotels, and restaurants. It looked like a pretty nice place to hang out.

So all in all, Singapore was a very nice destination! A fabulous modern city with every amenity you could possibly think of. It will be a little sad to be leaving, but we will be hitting some island paradises as we head further north. More adventures to follow.
 

November 5, 2004 -- To finish off our stay at Raffles, we all decided to try our hand at bowling. The bowling lanes were absolutely packed with screaming teenagers and blaring dance music. It has been a few years since I have picked up a bowling ball. For Dave and Donna, it has been more like 20 or 30 years!! We must have been a sight as we made gutter ball after gutter ball and cheered for every pin that we knocked over. I don’t think that any of us scored over 100 that evening. But our low scores certainly had nothing to do with the excitement for the evening. Dave had forgotten that they waxed the bowling lane and at one point over-stepped the line. All of a sudden, his feet were flying into the air and he came down with a resounding thump! We all jumped up and ran over only to discover that he had a small laceration on his head and was feeling a bit woozy. After 4 months of medical hibernation, Sarah the PA-C was ready to jump into action. Armed with the First Aid kit, I did a quick assessment and pronounced the patient fit and able to continue bowling. So we applied some 4x4’s to Dave’s bald spot and he was ready to go once again. (Hmm, I wonder if I could earn any CME’ …?) It did give all of us a bit of scare. I think that the marina manager was more worried that we might sue for keeping the bowling lanes too slick. He was on the spot not 5 minutes after Dave fell. The funny thing about the entire situation was that Dave bowled his one and only strike with that fateful fall! I imagine that we will not be bowling for quite some time now!

November 8-10, 2004 -- We made a pit stop in Port Dickson as we sailed up the Malaysian coast. There was a really nice marina there and we were able to check in with Malaysian Immigration and Customs. From here, we headed up to Port Klang which is competing with Singapore for the shipping industry. What a sight it was to be dodging huge cargo ships again. But there was not only ships to dodge, but also thunder and lightning. This part of the world has the most amazing thunderstorms. It seems like every afternoon the clouds build up slowly and then for about an hour or two the sky is filled with brilliant flashes of light. This is a cruisers nightmare!! If one of these bolts of lightning were to hit the boat, thousands of dollars in electronic gear could be toast. Our friends on Sea Tjalm had a nasty encounter with a bolt of lightning that took out their radios, radar, computers, and refrigeration! Thankfully, we have had no problems as such (knock on wood)!