Christmas 09 (finally)

One thing Kuala Lumpur has over the Kootenays is thunder storms. I sat on the deck for over half and hour this evening watching one pass by.  The sky would flare up and thunder would crash about every 20 seconds or so.  I was literally in the middle of it all.  This is a fairly regular occurance, a bit unnerving but quite spectacular.  And then the rain.  The sky literally opens up and it comes down in sheets.

Cole and Alana have been gone for three weeks.  So much anticipation, a blur of activity, and now it is a memory.  It was great to have them here. We had a wonderful Christmas together. Cole arrived on the 14th of December, about a week before Alana.  He hung around with us for 4 days and then took off to Yogyakarta, Indonesia's cultural/spiritual centre.  From all accounts he enjoyed his trip throughly.  He spent a couple of days visiting the temples of Prambanan and Borobudur. 
Alana arrived in December 21st.  Unfortunately her plane was late and she had traveled for over 31 hours so our plans to show her the town didn't materialize.  We left early the following day for Bali where Cole met us.  This is our third trip there and we sort have things figured out for us.  We drive past Kuta, the Aussie party beach, as fast as we can and head for Ubud, which is the art/cultural center of Bali.  We stay at the same hotel and do some of the same outing.  The bike ride down from the volcano is wonderful.  Another of the Canadian teachers working at the school joined us and she commented that this was the highlight of her trip to Bali.  Cole and Alana went on a rafting.  We figured out which dance performance we like best, the Kecak.  Our favourite activity though is just to walk in the countryside through the rice fields.  It is so beautiful.

We traveled to Lovina Beach in the north for a few days around Christmas.  We stayed at a very nice boutique hotel.  It really is unbelievable what something the price of a Quality Inn will get you in Bali.  The hotel had 8 rooms and only one other was occupied while we were there.  It was fully staffed with reception, chef, service staff, bartender, garden and pool staff, and security. Interestingly enough the other room was occupied by Grace and Ken Wilson's ex-son-in-law.
Lovina was wonderful but the ecomonic crunch and lack of tourists has really hit there.  It was a little sad on Christmas Day evening walking to a restaurant we had chosen and to pass many others that were fully staffed, bands playing, and not a soul in them.  The owners would be waiting expectantly with Santa hats on at the entrance for potenial clients.
Far too soon after we returned to Ubud Cole had to leave to head back to Canada.  We stuck around another day and left with Alana to return to KL.  We spent New Year's Eve with some friends in an area near our school.  We went to dinner at the biggest buffet thing I have ever seen.  It was all Japanese and although it was buffet style everything was prepared fresh.  You just went up and told them what you wanted and they cooked up and delivered to you.  Incredible.  Alana did have a 4 am start to head back to Canada so we did have an early night.  Fireworks are really big here so it was impossible to sleep when midnight hit so Maureen and I watched them ignite the sky from half a dozen different venues from our condo.
After Alana left was spent a few quiet days in Kuala Lumpur before heading for Langkawi, an island in the north of Malaysia not far from the Thai border.  We spent our time reading, lounging on the beach, and exploring the island a bit.
We did manage to spend some time with Pat Dooley who was here attending a conference.  She took a couple days after the conference and we headed to our favourite town in Malaysia, Malacca, to show her around.  It was nice to touch base with her and get caught up on Nelson and the school district.
School is always busy but rewarding.  The students here are really nice.  Last weekend was the night of the brewery tour.  One of the dads from the school is the brew master at the Heineken brewery and he invites the teachers to the brewery once a year.  He gives a tour of the facilities and access to the brewery pub.  Heineken brews Heineken (of course), Guiness, Tiger, Ankor and a number of others.  Opening the taps for teachers is kind of a dangerous thing to do but everyone behaved him/herself.  He also puts on a buffet supper and at the end gives a goodie bag.  This year there was a shirt, some coasters and other stuff I didn't really take note of.  Quite nice.


I've a number of pictures that follow.  They are a bit out of order but I will try and caption most so you have an idea of what they are.
Sorry for this line thing but I couldn't figure out how to turn off.  It is actually driving me crazy (not that it takes much)







Langkawi





The top photo is from lookout at the top of the cable car ride in Langkawi.  The views are incredible and the karst outcroppings are spectacular.


Sun set on the beach we stayed at in Langkawi.


The old man a the top of cable car ride in Langkawi.

 Maureen on the beach at Langkawi.  It is nice.  The water is ok for swimming.  You just have to watch out for the jelly fish.
The next two photos are from the cable car itself.  It is quite the ride up.  The vertical seems about twice that of Grouse Mountain.  If you look really carefully at the mountain behind Maureen on the beach you can see the cable car platforms.




Sunset on the beach at Langkawi.  This is right out in front of our hotel.


Bali
The following pictures were all taken on our trip in Bali.


Maureen came running back from the washroom for the camera.  Everything in Bali is presented so nicely.  This was the view from the toilet seat in a restaurant.


 We watched these girls play a game with their shoes.  They were so happy playing with nothing.


The following shots were all take on the bike ride down from the volcano.



This shows some of the hazards you have to watch out for on your ride.  The Balinese, as well as everyone else in South East Asia, pack every thing on their scooters.
Below is a picture of the gang.  We were all Canadians, us, another teacher from MKIS with her daughter and friend, as well as couple of nurses from Ontario who were working in Australia.


After the bike ride the spa was in order.  Alana is here in a flower bath taken after a full body massage.


Cole in the market.  Maureen has bought a few baskets from this guy.  The photo of the baskets that come later were taken at his stall, which is the market in Ubud.

Cole in the monkey forest in Ubud.  He had a banana in his pocket (really Mae West) and the monkey would take it from him

 Walking in the rice fields, while taking a break from the bike ride.

Cole with a rice field worker.  He really wanted his photo taken with Cole for some reason.  Probably because of the 'stach'.

One of the stops on bike tour is a family compound.  We found the children having fun playing in the yard.

This a view of the walkway at our hotel in Ubud in the early evening.  It is very beautiful.

Cole and Alana in the market above.  The aforesaid baskets at Ubud market.

At the Lake Batur temple on the way to Lovina Beach.

We stopped at the top of the climb up the mountain on the way to Lovina. For $2 Cole got to have his picture taken with a giant bat, a big snake, and a lizard, much to his mother's disgust.

At the hotel in Lovina Beach, the north part of Bali.

The hotel pool.  All to ourselves.

We resisted going out to see the dolphins until the last day.  Every second male asks to take you out to see the dolphins in the morning.  They come to feed in the shallow waters off Lovina Beach.  It is a bit of a gong show.  They take you out in these little narrow boats with out riggers.  The four of us plus the captain filled the little boat.  You are about 700 meters off shore with about 60 others filled with tourists waiting for the dolphins to appear.  When they do all of the boats chase them down to get a closer look.  Our captain seemed to have a better knack thank goodness.  He would predict where they would surface next and then take us out to wait for them quietly.  In many cases he was right and we did get some nice close up views of them surfacing.
The top photo is of some fishermen heading in from their early morning fishing trip.  The bottom is one of the dolphins surfacing.