Phil – Page 3 – Brave or Foolhardy

August 14, 2012August 14, 2012

Orang Utans

This was a post of photos we took that I have been trying to upload unsuccessfully until now. We saw the Orang Utan feeding session on our first day at Bukit Lawang to ensure we saw something. We need not have worried as on the trek we saw lots of stuff but not all of it photogenic!

August 14, 2012August 14, 2012

Butterworth to Bangkok

We boarded the overnight train in Butterworth and enjoyed saying goodbye to Malaysia which we have enjoyed so much.

The border crossing was as border crossings do and Susie threw a tantrum at the immigration official refusing to have her picture taken. That was awkward! We got back on the train after and the dinner lady was at our table waiting to take our order. We went for a selection and whilst it did not look like a great picture what arrived certainly welcomed us to Thailand. I pigged out on Red Curry. Hat Yai was where the food was presented and we shunted around picking up more carriages. It is a very large town and instead of the usual shanty town view there is a Mall in the distance.

I was really glad we have gone with down stairs beds on the train this time and apart from the people camping out on my bed the overnight trip through central Thailand should be quite relaxing

If anyone tells you it is cooler to be on the top bunk on overnight trains ignore them! The bottom bunk is bigger, better appointed and has better views of the countryside. Not least is you dont have to do gym in order to get to the loo. A huge bonus if you have need for the loo frequently like me today. Still recovering from Sumatra. It is odd that yesterday we were still there.

We are just arranging a possibly awesome finale to the trip. There is still space left at a place called elephant stay which looks to be on the other end of the “interacting with elephants” spectrum from the experience we had near KL.
It says we will spend 3 days with a specific elephant and look after it. The cost is very high ostensibly for the high cost of maintaing elephants properly and contributing to their protection. www.elephantstay.com

It is now 06:26 and whilst everyone on the other side of the window are tending flocks of cows and buffalo in the Thai forest, I have just been served a paper cup of coffee. It might be because I have only seen a sunrise and a sunset in Thailand so far on this trip but the prospect of the next three weeks here is looking very rosy indeed. I have missed Thailand so much.

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August 5, 2012August 14, 2012

Berastagi

We arrived in Berastagi yesterday. A place which we had not fondly experienced last time we came to Sumatra but were determined to make the most of it this time and I think we have achieved that.

Today we ascended the local dormant volcano with a guide “Barus” . It was a short steep trek for one hour to the crater where we were hissed at by the sulphur vents. Susie made it without any significant delay or coaxing required, fairly hopping up the last 20 mins through the rocks once it stopped being boring.

The views and the immediate surroundings were very photogenic so adding some photos from our Lake Toba trip here we present a fair few of the things we have encountered in the last 5days.

August 1, 2012August 1, 2012

Batu Ferringhi to Danau Toba

We journeyed to Sumatra today and it has to be one of the longest days since we arrived from the UK.

It was a dizzying mix of flights, timezone changes, restricted eating options, long car transfers, boat rides, financial worries and mosquitoes to boot.

We have made it however to Samosir Cottages on the small Samosir Island at the centre of Lake Toba, formed in a huge caldera.

It began simply enough, we had arranged a car to the airport but there was no time for breakfast before check in. We had a western breakfast at the only place open. You will be familiar with Ronald McDonald and his happy crew!

It was disconcerting as there was major renovation work going on meaning conversations had to happen round jackhammers. Still it was simple enough and we waited in departures for our plane. We didnt know what sort of aircraft we would have for a 1 hour flight. It was a surprise to discover our 11:00 flight did not arrive from its prior journey until 10:35 and I thought everything was going to be late. But no frills flying means no food to turn round so just fuel and a quick check over and we were in the air at 11:07.

We arrived in Medan, I spent the entire flight filling in immigration forms, and were waved towards Westerner corner. Essentially everyone who looks like a backpacker has a $25 visa to purchase. This was news and since all the children also needed one it cost nearly all of our emergency £100 we had in the local currency. Next was customs. I carry a pen knife and scissors in my main backpack so had to declare this and go through the red channel. On the declaration form the sharp objects tick box is the same one as narcotics, psycotropic agents, firearms, explosives and drugs. I was expecting fun and games but was waved through without a word.

We were met by Mr Sam a tour operator who had driven the 5 hours to meet us from Parapet and also hustled by just about everyone else in the airport. This included 3 money changers, 4 carry your bags sir etc. We xplaines we needed the loo and to get some money and we agreed to put our bags in the car. Not more than 10m from the car a nice chap I supposed was with Mr Sam helped me put my bag in the car and showed me where the toilet was, even though I knew perfectly well. He then pointed out the ATM I had spotted and waited by the car. As it turns out he was another”helper” and wanted 1100 rupiah. This is about 10 pence but having just given all the smaller notes to Visa man I had nothing but 100,000 notes. Mr Sam paid him for me and I knew it would be covered by the transfer fee. It was never going to have been possible to get to our destination on public transport. It would surely have taken 2 days and the kids were already struggling so tough as it was we made the right decision.

The car journey was frightening, there is no other way of putting it. We very nearly had 2 serious incidents, one where we undertook a lorry that was turning left and another where we began overtaking on a blind right hand turn on the brow of a hill into a motorcycle. Quite relieved to have made it. We stopped for a coffee over looking the lake. Being locally made and costing 40 pence it was joyous.

On the way we saw cocoa trees and beans drying in the sun, coffee trees, mango trees and rubber trees. One big plantation belonged to Bridgestone tyres and we drove through it for 10km with trees as far as the eye could see on both sides.

At 18:00 local time so an hour behind Malaysia we boarded the last boat to Samosir and were last to be dropped off as the sun set over the mountains. There must have been 50 shades of blue on the horizon it was spectacular.

We had a meal at our hotel where someone had accidentally tipped the salt container over it (or so it tasted) washed down with a couple of litres of water! Finally we retired at 20:00 and here we are with the kids awake at 07:30 pondering how we will approach the day to tour the island, swim in the lake and work out how long we want to stay.

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July 26, 2012July 26, 2012

KL Photos

It has been a little light on photos and I have a load of kids journals to upload but the hotel has one drawback and that is a very slow internet connection.

We move to Penang tomorrow on the bus so maybe at the next hotel it will be better.

For now I have some pictures we took around KL and at our trip to the water park today. See if you can spot the famous landmark.

Orchids we have seen everywhere in the last 4 weeks, absolutely beautiful. The suncream on the lens gave a soft focus look 😉

Susie on a horse at the wild west rides in Sunway lagoon.

An awesome fillet steak rare on a sizzling hotplate for £6!

Luke at KLCC where the shoes police are working overtime!

The famous landmark

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July 23, 2012July 23, 2012

Ideas

I have been waiting for the time when my brain will settle enough to start having some good ideas.
You know you say to yourself “if only life wasn’t so hectic and I just had a moment to myself”?
Well I guess that time has come but I am surprised it has taken 4 weeks. It was really busy before we went away and I think having the children with us means there is less quiet time since we are all in one room most of the time. Don’t get me wrong, I am enjoying that part but I recharge my batteries by being quiet and still so it took until the children had found a really engaging park before we got that peace. Jenni got her nose into a good book and I pondered. The luxury of this has not escaped me and I felt very privileged to just “be”. There is this pressure, perhaps I perceive something that is not there or make it real but pressure nonetheless to do something really constructive with this time.

Life at work is upside down enough to park trying to solve world information security problems by studying how nature does it and making extrapolations, theories etc. but I have had a crack at safe drinking water in hot countries! I guess the science centre about oil exploration was timed perfectly with my mind quietening as we looked at renewable energy. I was looking up how reverse osmosis (ro) for drinking water works as most of the bottled water out here is made that way. It explains that oil rich countries use this because the amount of energy required for ro processing is high and can easily be met by burning oil resources.

It occurred to me that whilst solar energy is unlikely to meet the scale needs of a population in replacing oil a more personal production method could be created for very poor countries with a non-potable water source.

Maybe someone has thought of this already but my idea is to use a solar parabola furnace to condense the dirty water and then to take this condensate and pass it through an ro filter maybe using steam to provide the positive pressure required.

It is not going to generate large quantities and clearly needs a consistent light source but the strength of the sun should not have to be high if the right conductive element is chosen to heat the water.

Anyway where was I? Ah right the blog. Well today we visited the Lake Gardens which has a huge play area. We got on well with the man driving the road train on account of him driving us round twice before asking where we wanted to go and then within 5mins of getting there asking him to take the girls to the loo! Ultimately it was just too hot to really enjoy the gardens, people do say to see it before 10:30 in the morning and we were there English style at 12:00 midday!

We are back in our hotel now really enjoying the aircon and having booked our hotel for Penang on Friday. With that and the bus tickets organised we have completed any pre-planning before we go to Sumatra now so all we have left to do is enjoy ourselves.

We are horribly bitten from the onslaught of mosquitoes yesterday at KL tower forest. We had not predicted the existence or tenacity of the rotten insects and so even though we didn’t stand still through the 59 minute episode of traipsing up and down myriad flights of stairs in the forest the volume meant we could not escape. Emma has been so badly bitten that she is now on anti histamine pills and looks like people have been throwing tomatoes at her legs.

I have downloaded some nice pictures from the camera though so lets see if they come out.

This is where we are now [geolocation]

Susie loves the shower caps provided in hotel rooms!

July 18, 2012July 23, 2012

Kota Bharu tour

Our last day in Kota Bharu came round very quickly and we spent it being chaufferred around in a Mercedes/Nissan from the late seventies. Our taxi driver “Mun” took us first to a kite factory, the work going into these amazing flying “moons”, “birds” and “cats” is painstaking and so fragile. We wished that we could buy one but they would not last a week in our backpack.

Next stop was the shadow puppet maker. On the 30 minute drive we established that the taxi had airconditioning and that it was on but that all the windows were open. That would make it quite tricky to cool the car down but I could not coax the drive or anyone else to shut the windows. Then Susie leans out of hers and her hat blows off so we have another conversation in pigeon English to get Mun to turn round. I wish I could speak some more Malay but even the little I would have learned would leave me wanting trying to explain “my daughters hat blew off while she was leaning out your window.

What really floated our boat was that he took a genuine interest in teaching the children and getting them to have a go at all of it. He was so welcoming. We ended up buying the one in the picture.

The puppet maker was a true joy. In a ramshackle tin hut by the river he first traces a design of a character on paper and then glues this to a piece of cow hide he has de-furred and ironed flat. Then he punches along the lines with a hammer and nail to make the patterns.

Next he paints the character in bright, water-fast dyes and articulates the joints if required.

There is not much more to it than that but I have massively over simplified the task. It takes about 8 days for each piece! Because it is hide the characters last for ages. He showed us one that was 130 years old.

We also saw the batik factory but this was not significantly more amazing than doing it ourselves except that the scale and professionalism was magnified ten fold.

Much love to Mun our taxi driver who then got us to the hotel to pick up our bags and drop us at the train station for the overnight express to KL.

The train ride was fantastic. Bumpy yes, long yes but a great way to see people, countryside and another part of malay life. We are now safe and sound in a lovely hotel.

July 16, 2012July 18, 2012

Malaysia Kota Bharu to Kuala Lumpur

We are getting into the swing of things now we are back from our all inclusive resort. It is tough in the heat but we are determined to get the best experiences under our belt.

To that end we visited the cultural centre at Kota Bharu today and since we arrived early we sat and had a bottle of water at the adjoining cafe. They have 6 children and so ours played games with them and generally mucked about in the mid thirties heat we were experiencing. We were then entertained at the cultural centre as they put on a drum show, a martial arts demonstration, chong ka lessons, kite making and batik craft displays.

Once complete we felt exhausted but we had decided at the cultural centre that we would leave Kota Bharu for Kuala Lumpur tomorrow evening so off to the train station in a taxi to buy tickets. I have been really looking forward to a good long train journey so 14 hours should take the edge off that desire nicely 🙂

It is generally cheaper in Malaysia to get a teaxi than a bus when you are a party of 5 since we fit comfortably in one car.

Earlier in the day we had some essential purchases to sort at the mall. Blessed air conditioning and of all things a Clarks shoe shop! This was perfect since Susie’s shoes had given up a week ago and she had been in knock off crocs since. The shop assistants had to unwrap the shoe measurer for its first use and a full training session began for the other two assistants who clearly are not used to measuring before purchase.

It is approaching Ramadan now and attention is turning to fasting and the festivities planned for the occasion. We are looking forward to sharing with the primarily Islamic population their special period and it might make picking up food during the day more interesting.