Asia Trip

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Well my friends, I am on the home stretch. I am back in Bangkok, Thailand. I will be back home in 12 days!!!!

My last day in Malaysia was great. I spent my day with my Aussie friend and her 2 boys (Brayden-8 and Tate-3) and a family friend. We went to an Elephant Sanctuary. It was really fun!! We missed the adult elephant show, so we had to spend our time with the 3-4 year olds. We could feed them and rubbed them. We even saw an 8 month old elephant.

We left the Elephant Sanctuary and went to Batu caves. It was really AWESOME!! The caves were beautiful. I did not actually go in the caves for 2 reasons, first you had to walk up 300 steps and secondly you had to walk UP 300 steps. I have a fear of heights, so up 300 steps was a little scary for me. I stayed on the bottom of the caves while the Aussies went up the 300 caves. I did a little shopping and took a million pictures of the caves and monkeys. Yes, I said MONKEYS!! There were monkeys everywhere. They were eating out of the garbage, off the ground and everywhere. They did not appear to be aggressive towards the people. I have seen TV shows talking about how the monkeys take over tourist sites like Batu caves; however, I never thought that I would actually see it in person.

Lastly, I thought I would show you a squatter toilet. I know that some of you have never seen a scatter toilet or will never have the opportunity to see one or use one. Let me know what you think about it.

Until next time!!
Chae

Elephant Sanctuary in Malaysia

Elephant Sanctuary in Malaysia - Peek-a-Boo

Elephant Sanctuary in Malaysia - Feed me please

Elephant Sanctuary in Malaysia - Me feeding the baby elephant

Batu Caves - Malaysia

Batu Caves - Malaysia - Me

Batu Caves - Malaysia - Going for dinner

Batu Caves - Malaysia - Gone for dinner

Batu Caves - Malaysia - I found dinner??

Batu Caves - Malaysia - Who me?

Jungles of Malaysia

Skyline of down Malaysia including Petronas Towers

King's Palace in Malaysia

Squatter toilet with hose

Coastline of Singapore

Clouds above Singapore 8AM

Clouds above Singapore - it is a cloud mountain

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Weird experience -Friday, Oct 12
Yesterday, I had a really weird experience. My doorbell rang, which was strange because I do not really get visitors and I was not expecting anyone. I look through the peep hole and see 3 men standing at my door and one of them asked to open the door. I said no and asked them who they were. They said they were the police. I got really scared and wondered why the police are at my door. I stupidly open the door because I do not want to break any Malaysian laws. One of the men ask if me if my apartment number was 5-1. My answer was yes, but I did not understand what they wanted with me. Luckily one of the apartment staff arrived and asked the men what they wanted. They said that they were looking for an Africa man in 5-1. The apartment staff says to them there are 2 towers, and they were at the wrong apartment. The men apologized to me and left to go the other tower. I was relieved but a little shaken because I don't want to go to jail in a foreign country, actually in any country. The only thing that is keeping me going right now is that I know I will be leaving Malaysia on October 21st and that means that I will be leaving Asia 10 days after that. I will be back in the US in 20 days:-)))). I am hoping that I will not have to leave the US before January 2013.

Saturday, Oct 13
I went to Mailboxes, Etc. today and sent 1/2 of my belongings home. I was told that my box should arrive at my home on Wednesday, October 17th because it was being sent by DHL. I hope that is true because when I mailed a box home from Thailand, it took almost 2 1/2 months to arrive. I think the box from Thailand was sent by ship.

20 days and counting,
Chae

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Hey,

It is Sunday morning, October 7th. It is a beautiful day. The sky is blue and clear. There is very little pollution today. Acutally, I don't think the tempature here is not been below 75 to 80 degrees. I am looking forward to wearing a long sleeve shirt even a coat from time to time.

I am planning to go to the salon today to get my hair and nails done. After I finish at the salon, I am going to walk to a mall that I have not been to yet. I am also planning to go Hard Rock Cafe Kuala Lumpur in the downtown area. I might even go back to the Petronas Towers for some really great shopping. The Petronas Towers has good, really good, great, very great and AWESOME (Gucci, Channel, Tiffany's, etc.) stores. I cannot afford anything in the AWESOME stores, but it is very fun to look.

2 weeks from today, I will be leaving for Bangkok, Thailand. I will be in Thailand for about 10 days then HOME:-))).

TTYL,
Chae

Hello,

OK, now it is time to talk about my second apartment in Malaysia. It is really a big apartment. It is the biggest one that I have had on my trip. I live in 1400sqft./130sqmeters. The actual size of the apartment is 1900sqft/177. The apartment has 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, kitchen, dining area, living area, storage room for luggage and a maid's room (includes a tiny, tiny bathroom (toilet, sink and shower)). I am only paying for a 1 bedroom, so 2 of the bedrooms and 1 full bathroom are locked. I have access to all the other rooms. It is an older apartment, but it is OK. I do have better hot water in this apartment. I have hot water in the shower and main bathroom sink. I have to heat up water in the coffee kettle to wash my dishes in hot water. I do have an indoor washer and driver. I keep saying this over and over again, it is the small things in life that are the most important, example our families, hot water when you turn on the faucet, water that you can drink from the faucet, food regulations, and just basic choice to choose whatever we want and say.

The apartment that I liked the best is the one in China. It had elegance to it. The furnishing and appliances were of a higher quality, and the service level has been the best. I know that both Malaysia and Thailand have been quality apartments because the expats that I know in both countries have very nice apartments; however, since I was only staying 2 months instead of a 1 or 2 year assignment, I did not have the option to live in those apartments. You live and learn. If I had another assignment, I would INSIST on those types of apartments.

I went on a business trip to Singapore, Singapore. Singapore is a beautiful and clean city. It is very experience in Singapore compared to Malaysia, Thailand and China. As a matter of fact, the people from Singapore drive about 4 hours to go shopping in Malaysia because they can get more for their money. Since, I was only in Singapore for a few days, I do not know what it takes to live there. I can say that their common language is English because it too has a very diverse culture. When I was in Singapore, I went to a night zoo and Universal Studios. Yes, there is a zoo that is open at night. They do not shine the lights directly on the animals, but the animal’s habitats have light so we can see them. At times when I was walking through the night zoo, it was kind of scary because I was always thinking that one of the animals would get away and attack me. Don't laugh at me, but it was night time and there is just dime light around you. I took a few pictures that I will post.

Surprisely, I really enjoyed Universal Studios (US). I went to US with my Aussie mates. I felt like a kid. I rode on roll coasters. I have not ridden on roll coasters in about 20 years. It was really fun.

I had a manicure and pedicure in Singapore. There pedicure chair was missing there also, just a bucket.
Singapore was really fun!!

My pictures are the night zoo, Universal Studios (Transformer, Water World, Mummys)

TTYL,

Chae

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Hello Everyone,

As I stated on my last blog, I am living in Mont Kiara, Malaysia. It is a suburb of Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia reminds me a lot of the US because it is such a diverse country. The landscape is beautiful there are trees and flowers everywhere. My allergies are in full force.

There are a million malls here just like in Thailand; of course I have tried my best to go to as many of them as possible. I have even been shopping in the PETRONAS towers I have to say, I have taken shopping to a new level:-))). The PETRONAS Towers are beautiful. No, I have not been up to the top, and I never will. I have a fear of heightsL.

I have not tried too much of the food here. I am sure the food has beautiful flavor, but I am really tired of trying different food. I just want American food.

I found a really good salon that could manage to do my hair very well. My friends that know me know that is a big deal. It is really a cool salon. They use shampoo that requires just a few sprays of water, so you do go to the shampoo bowl until they are ready to rinse your hair. While they are shampooing your hair, they give you a head massage. OMG!!! I think I will go to the salon today. The cost of this service is only $15 dollars. The only problem is that they do not have pedicure chairs just like in China. They use buckets to soak your feet. I think I will wait until I go back to Thailand before I get another pedicure.

When I arrived in Malaysia, I went to a beautiful modern apartment. It was small but pretty, but it had major problems. To start with, there was no hot water in the entire apartment. OK, I had to flip a switch to turn on the hot water; however, the hot water never came the first day. I could not take a shower without hot water. Luckily for me and my colleagues, the next day I had hot water in the shower; however, I did not have hot water in the bathroom and kitchen sink. I found out that they did not build the bathroom and kitchen sink to ever have hot water. I was told that is very common here in Malaysia to not have hot water in the sinks. I took out my toaster, there was no handle on the toaster to start it. The washer was outside in a closet on the balcony. I turned on the washer and the water started to come out of the back of the washer. The washer had never been hooked up. The ironing board was only about 3 1/2 feet high. The iron was basically low, medium and high, no steam. I only stayed in this apartment 1 week. It goes to show that looks can be deceiving.

I have moved into another apartment it is better, but it still has its problems. I will tell you about it on another post.

I hope you like the pictures. SamLow I have a special one for you:-).

Until next time.
Chae