Archives for March 2017

Woke up fairly early again, with our last full day of vacation packed with plans! We walked a half block down to McDonalds for breakfast (it was either that or noodles), then walked down to the Hop On bus station a couple of blocks away. We were almost there when we realized we had to cross a busy road, and had to go back a block to get up on the skywalk crossover, where there was some statuary of famous Chinese, like Bruce Lee. Managed to catch the very first bus out at 10:00, and since the walk had kind of winded Hubby, we decided to stay on that bus as it made it's way around Kowloon. We were amazed at how much construction was going on, and in particular how all the scaffolding, even on the tallest buildings, was made out of bamboo. Traffic moved pretty well, though, considering how much construction there was. After about 45 minutes, it reached the stop nearest the Star Ferry, and we hopped off and walked over, got the rest of our tour tickets from the Big Bus people, and walked straight onto the ferry as it was getting ready to leave. A short trip across the harbor, and we got on a red line bus for the downtown Hong Kong tour until we reached the famous Victoria peak tram, where we headed up with our priority Big Bus tickets, which got us through the line quickly, reached the top of the tram, wound our way through several layers of mall shopping until we reached the roof, where we were nearly blown off by the high wind. It was so cold, we didn't stay up there long, only enough to get some pictures. Then we headed down a level to a restaurant named after Forrest Gump, and had a cup of coffee and a nosh before heading down to hop back on the bus, this time a green line to get us down to Aberdeen where there would be a sampan ride, and where Hubby wanted to eat a meal at the famous floating restaurant, the Jumbo Kingdom. He had been there once before in the early 60's and wanted to do it again. Unfortunately, the way the ride was set up, you had to go all the way to the end of the loop at Stanley Market before they would come back and drop you off at Aberdeen. Then, just before the Repulse Bay stop, there was a traffic accident, on a very narrow road, and everything stopped moving for nearly half an hour. This was going to make it difficult for us to get all that we wanted to do done, as the last bus out of Aberdeen was 5:55 and it was already past 3:00. We finally arranged to be dropped off in Repulse Bay and picked up by another, returning bus so we could get to Aberdeen on time, and that worked out, we only had to stand at the stop for about 5 minutes. At Aberdeen, we were hustled onto a fleet of sampans and toured around the boat people village for a bit, which included some very nice, high-end yachts as well, before drawing near the Jumbo Kingdom. We thought there would be a stop there, but when it didn't look like we were going there as part of the tour, we asked if we could go, and the boat driver said yes, and dropped us off, with instructions to just wave down another sampan when we were ready to return, understanding the last bus left at 5:55. So we hopped off there, and wandered around until we found the door to the restaurant. Apparently there are two restaurants there now, but one was undergoing serious renovations, and about half the structure was closed off entirely. For a minute we weren't sure anything was open, but we finally found the entrance and wandered in. What used to be a fairly casual place had become a rather ritzy, high-end place, but due to the hour, almost no customers had come yet, though it appeared to be fully staffed. We were seated, ordered, ate, had our picture taken, and even got some advice as to how to say "Thank you" to a Hong Kong waiter when your mouth is full (tap twice on the table with two fingers), and had our timing perfect to get back to the bus on time, except.... We had trouble flagging down a sampan! All through the meal, Hubby had been watching all the sampans go by, but as soon as we got out there, they all disappeared! We finally did manage to get one, and he took us back to the dock, arriving at 5:48, just in time to catch the last bus. Except there was a bus standing there as we arrived, the sampan driver waved him down, and the driver returned the wave, then just drove off!! We were stunned! Now what? As we ran up the steps, the bus was too far away to hear us yelling by then, and the old lady on the dock from Big Bus just repeated, "Last bus, last bus" even though I showed her my watch, which now read 5:49, and railed about how the bus had left early. I suggested that because of the traffic jam slowing everything down, that another bus might be coming, but she insisted, "Last bus, last bus." As we contemplated our various options, I got on the phone and called Big Bus, and after several minutes, managed to confirm that, indeed, another bus WAS coming along, running late because of the traffic jam, so we sat down to wait. A few minutes later, the sampan driver that had brought us back to the dock tracked us down to tell us another bus was coming, too, a very nice gesture on his part to come find us. I must say, everyone here has been very nice to us, very helpful to the tourists. Before long, the REAL last bus showed up, took us to the Star Ferry, got us back to Kowloon where we grabbed another Uber and got back to the hotel around 7:00, very tired, but happy with our one full day in Hong Kong. It was enough!

Up early with the alarm, quickly packed up, left with a nice packaged breakfast of assorted breads that James had provided us the night before, and headed to the airport. Managed to find the car rental drop off point easily enough, but there was no one there, and evidently the process is simply to drop the keys into a slot by their kiosk and hope for the best! Seems a bit strange, but par for the course here, it seems! It didn't take long to find our flight, though they had security at each gate rather than one central area, so we had coffee and a nosh sitting outside the gate area. Then we climbed onto Malindo Air, which turned out to be one of the best flights ever! Granted, we were in Business Class (there was no first class), and discovered the most comfortable seats ever! I've often wondered why airlines don't have some kind of footrest for comfort, but these seats had them, and so much more! They had a complete recliner, a foot rest, a lumbar inflator, the works! It was lovely! We had a very nice meal, with lovely and attentive service all around. A great 3.5 hour flight. We arrived in Hong Kong on time, got through Immigration and Customs quickly, found that Uber generally picked up at Parking Lot 1, so we headed there, arriving just in time for our Uber ride, who took us to our hotel for the next two nights, Butterfly on Prat, a little boutique hotel in the heart of old Kowloon. We got stuck in a bit of traffic on Prat Street, but got to the hotel much earlier than I had originally planned, checking in by around 3:00. That gave us the opportunity to get in a quick nap and rest before heading out to our dinner cruise around Victoria Harbour. The first room smelled badly of cigarette smoke, even though it was supposed to be a non-smoking hotel, and I had to request another room, which was better. The rooms were small, and the new room still smelled a bit musty, but it was such an improvement over the other one, we accepted it. The bed was comfy, and the bathroom was quite large, with a big glass shower. The only down side was that it's really cool here, so my plan of wearing a long dress for our dinner cruise went out the window. That turned out to be fine, as everyone on the cruise was extremely casual anyway. When the time came, we grabbed another Uber down to the ferry point, and wasn't sure we were in the right place because it was mostly closed up, until we finally found a poster at the gathering point, and a few other people showed up as well. It wasn't long before the boat came along, and we boarded and were seated. In Victoria Harbour, they have a sort of laser light show on many of the buildings, and I went up top to see it (it was too cold and damp for Hubby, and it was drizzling intermittently), and I recorded it on my phone so he can enjoy it later. By the time it was over and I came back downstairs, Hubby had already ordered our drinks, and had started on a plate of food. I headed to the buffet, and we enjoyed a nice meal, listened to some pretty bad live music, and even danced a little bit before returning to the dock in Kowloon again. Another Uber ride back to the Butterfly, and it was the end of another busy day!

After an early wake up alarm and another omelet breakfast, and with Hubby feeling a lot better this morning after his day of rest yesterday, we said good-bye to our hostess, her staff, and Chris, packed up and headed out. Our plan today was to drive through Kuala Lipis in search of an airbase that used to be here, and take the windy, twisty road that Hubby has told me about so many times, but once again, the reality of progress struck us. Though we were pretty sure we found the right general area where the airfield was, there didn't appear to be any remnants of it at all, which surprised us both to some degree. You would think that a Japanese-built, British-improved airfield would have been kept intact for Malay purposes, but evidently not, there was no regional airport that we could discern. We also thought we had found the right road, but that turned out not to be true, either, and we ended up on a pretty straight road, not resembling Hubby's memory in the least. I found another road that could have been it, but by then, Hubby just said never mind, it wasn't important anymore anyway, he'd given up on that pipe dream. So we traveled directly to our last stop in Malaysia, a B&B called Rumah Putih, which was just 15 minutes from the airport. We considered turning the car in early and getting a cab or Uber, but decided we would have time enough in the morning, especially since I had discovered that we were leaving from Terminal 1, which is where the car rental return was supposed to be anyway. I was worried about the time it would take to drop it off and get to KLIA2, but that resolved itself! We filled the gas tank, and found a little pharmacy for toothpaste and some aloe for my still red and burning back, then reached the B&B around 5. We were warmly greeted by our British ex-pat host James, and he had a household of European guests, but quickly showed us to a nice room on the ground floor, with a small patio and a good-sized bath, not to mention a few fat cats laying around sleeping. We were both so tired we didn't want to go out, so James helped me with an online Domino's Pizza order, then we both took cool showers (unfortunately there was no hot water!), and went straight to bed!

The main attractive feature of the Villa Danialla is its enormous and deep infinity pool, with a negative edge that blends in perfectly with the South China Sea. We decided to spend some time out there, and they made us up a couple of beds in a pagoda-like structure. After a small breakfast buffet of mostly local fare, but with an omelet to satisfy us, and having spent most of the day getting sun on my front in Penang (although we were under palm trees, we were out there for hours), I decided I needed to lay on my stomach and get my back done. With a cool breeze blowing, I spent more than an hour that way, which I should have known better, and it was a huge mistake. My back was fried, way too much, by the time I felt it starting to burn. Hubby spent a little time in the sauna that was on the deck as well, not sure how he could stand the heat! I went in for about two minutes, that was enough! Afterward, we arranged for a Thai massage, and that was quite an experience! Unlike the soft, soothing, fairly gentle massage that we were used to, this woman performed all kinds of contortionist movements on us that were truly painful at times, but did feel a lot better afterward. This was particularly true with my shoulder, which has been out of joint for many years, but by the time she was finished, I could almost believe that it might be back in position once the swelling goes down. If not, she came close, so obviously, what I need to do is find someone back at home to do another Thai massage, that may fix it once and for all! Anyway, the sunburn was a bit painful during the experience, but I'm sure the coconut oil from the massage did it some good. I put more lotion on as well during the evening. I had mentioned Hubby's diet to the owner and she said she instructed her chef to cook with less salt, but despite that, dinner was a very hot and spicy soup (which tasted salty to me, but I thought maybe it was just the spices), and then a hamburger (which also tasted salty to me, but was persuaded not so by the owner). A British ex-pat named Chris had arrived during the day, and we all shared a bottle of wine and dinner, then later sipping shots of Chevas, conversation and eventually music and dancing (though I went to bed early and let Hubby carry on without me). I read a while, then fell asleep, Hubby arrived back at the room by about 11:15, and was soon snoring away, with me soon following!

Woke up not feeling too great this morning. Funny, we've done so well not getting sick from any food since we've been here, and the first western food we eat makes me queasy! Anyway, after another great breakfast buffet, we packed up and headed cross country, to Kota Bahru. Hubby has finally reached the stage where he's not trying to find things that remind him of the way things used to be, and acquiesced to the fact that everything has changed. The cross country trip took us through many small towns, and some of the prettiest mountain views we've seen since we've been here. We eventually found our way to the Villa Danialla Resort, right on the beach about 30 miles south of Kota Bahru, where we were warmly welcomed and shown to our Villa, a cute A-frame with a sea view (although there was another building in front of us, we could see between the buildings) and a nice porch. The room was a little musty, but we soon opened all the doors and windows (no screens) and had a steady breeze coming through to air it out. It had a huge bathroom and a big, four-poster bed with netting drapes around it, very tropical! We moved our luggage in, then sat on the porch for a while, enjoying the air. Hubby wanted a cup of coffee, so we walked back to the main building, which consisted of the lobby where we checked in, and also a sort of open air restaurant. We didn't find coffee, but we did find some tea with milk in an urn, and that sufficed. The owner, a woman named Datuk, greeted us, and then sat down with us to talk a while. That soon became a pattern, where every time we came into the dining hall area, we all, staff and customers (of which there was almost none besides us), ended up at the same table. I asked for a menu, and was told that dinner was going to be a buffet, so we could choose what we wanted. At first I thought that would be a good idea, but later, not so much. Finding food that Hubby could eat became almost impossible, as they tend to have a very high sodium content in almost all their cooking, and high potassium foods also seem to be predominant in the menu, so it became quite a challenge to find something he could eat! Anyway, we joined in as best we could, but went to bed quite early, as has become our habit!

After another good night sleep and big buffet breakfast, we packed up the car, checked out, and were on our way out of the Highlands with no problems. The drive was uneventful, with lots more tolls along the way, of course, then we crossed the long causeway to Penang Island. When Hubby was last here in the late 1950's, there was no causeway, you could only get there by ferry or flying, so the bridge made it very easy. We wound our way through the city of George Town, once again inundated by hundreds of pesky scooters and motorbikes that seemed to take their lives into their hands, weaving in and out of traffic and causing me more scares than I care to think about, then we left the city along a narrow but busy coast road until we reached the Holiday Inn in Batu Ferringhi. They let us park the car right out front, and we found our room at the end of the hall on the second floor, with a beautiful picture window that overlooked the sizable swimming pool, the beach, and the Malacca Strait. It was only mid-afternoon, so I put on my bathing suit, with Hubby in shorts, and we headed down to the pool bar, happy to enjoy Western style hospitality for a while. The pool water was delightfully warm, we splurged on a couple of Singapore Slings, and had a very enjoyable rest of the day, including an Indian meal at the hotel restaurant. I know it may sound like I'm sterero-typing, but it's just about the cleanest hotel we've been to so far in Malaysia, which was a little surprising because it's the first Indian-owned hotel we've stayed in, and in the US, those tend not to be so clean. Anyway, we had a wonderful and relaxing day, and are really starting to wind down a bit now, having established our final schedule. No more logistics for me to work out, now I'm getting to relax at last! We've discovered lots of Westerners here, particular English, which is making for a nice change.