Fourth of July

I was a little worried about the Fourth of July.  I mean they really don’t celebrate it here, so I was thinking no fireworks.  I would also miss the Scoggins get together at Joy and David’s.  Although I did miss the get together, the weekend turned out to be quite nice.

Friday the fourth, Edi had to work like any normal day.  When he got home, we (including Kona) walked to Army and Navy Burgers and Burritos to pick up some burgers, fries and soft drinks.  We went to the park where we had a nice, little picnic and watched kids play in the lighted shooting water fountain.  We could actually hear fireworks and could see the glow in the sky, but we couldn’t actually see anything from where we were.

Saturday we did a little shopping and had lunch at Slice this great little cafe on High Street.  They have watermelon slushes – yum!  They also have desserts in a jar –our choice was red velvet cake.  After lunch we headed over to Santis Deli to get fixings for a burger meal.  I love going to the deli… it is like being in a little French market where you pick your meat, bread, fresh veggies.  That evening we cooked a delicious meal – burgers with fresh bread instead of buns, homemade pasta salad, and baked beans – ok, they were not my Aunt Joy’s baked beans, but they were baked beans nonetheless.  As we were sitting down to eat, we heard a loud ‘boom!’  We headed out to our balcony for a fabulous firework show right above our building.

Sunday was very relaxing – it is supposed to be a day of worship and rest.   We walked to the super market for some groceries, did some reading, and just hung out.  Sunday evening we tried a new restaurant, Puccini’s Café.  It’s a great little restaurant with plenty of outside seating, read and white checkered table cloths, and delicious food.  We ended our mean with chocolate marshmallow cake – yum!  It was really nice outside, so we had a pleasant walk back to our apartment.  

Turns out, I shouldn’t have been worried at all about the Fourth of July!

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Monday, May 26 – Thursday, May 29, 2014

We’ve got another country with which to mark our map.  The flight to Malaysia was three and a half hours – not too bad – and was all together smooth.  We stayed at the Park Royal Hotel which was in the Golden Triangle and within walking distance to pretty much everything we wanted to do.

We toured Petronas Twin Towers which was really cool.  The sky bridge is on the forty first floor, and we were able to walk across it.  Then we proceeded to the eighty sixth floor to the observation deck – the eighty sixth floor…now, that is really high in the sky! 

We also went to KL Tower and had dinner.  The restaurant is called 360 degrees because it revolves slowly while you eat (just like the Peachtree Plaza in Atlanta).  The food was delicious, and the view was incredible…

I guess the highlight of our trip was the tour to the Batu Caves.  The tour bus picked us up at our hotel – very convenient.  Our first stop was the Royal Pewter Factory.  We got to see craftsmen working on handmade pieces that were absolutely beautiful.  It takes a steady hand I can tell you!  All of the formula one trophies are made there, and several were on display.  We also got to see the largest pewter tankard in the world...

Our second stop was the Bankit Factory.  There we got to see how these silks and cottens are beautifully hand painted.  They had clothing, scarves, wall hangings.  We actually came out of there with a beautiful silk wall hanging…

Our final stop was the Batu Caves.  It is a religious shrine of sorts for the Hindu religion.  People make pilgrimages there every year.  The lime caves were breathtaking and the gargantuous statue of Lord Murugan was something to see.  I have to say, though, that the vendors selling all kinds of trinkets and toys took away from the reverence of the scene…

We climbed 272 steps to get to the very top of the shrine.  There were monkeys everywhere!  Our tour guide told us the monkeys would not hurt us but not to lay anything down on the ground.  Items on the ground are fair game for them.  After looking around the cave and seeing the main temple we headed back down the stairs.   This one monkey was just sitting on the rail, so I took a picture of him.  He jumped down, and I turned to continue my descent.  All of a sudden I felt something on my back hanging on and…chomp!  That monkey had jumped on my back and bitten me!  When he jumped off, I turned around and looked at him – he was sitting there looking at me showing his teeth and growling.  That crazy monkey was not finished with me.  When I turned around to get the heck out of there, it jumped me again and got me right on the bum!  The only thing I could think was ‘I need to get away from this monkey without falling down these stairs.’

We made it down and I must say I was a bit freaked out and rubber legged.  To celebrate my escape, we got a fresh coconut from one of the vendors to quench our thirst – it was so hot!  Back on the bus with me still in a bit of shock we headed back to our hotel. Turns out the bite on my back was more like a scrape and the bite on my bum was more of a bruise, so I didn’t feel I was in “rabies” danger.

We did some shopping while in Malaysia.  Edi was in absolute heaven in Low Yat, a five level mall with nothing but technology gadgets.  We also went to Berjaya Times Square, a ten level mall with an indoor theme park on the 5^th – 7^th floors.  Asia loves their malls!

All in all, a fun trip J  Where will we go next?

Moalboal Diving Trip

On the Island of Cebu
The Dolphin House Resort
April 25-28, 2014

When we found out that we could dive with thousands of sardines, we were definitely in.  We did a little research, found a place to stay, and booked our plane tickets.  Cebu Pacific really is a great airline with which to fly.  The flight was right at one hour, so it seemed once we were up in the air, it was time to come back down again.  Both flights going and coming were delayed due to President Obama’s visit to Manila.  On Monday when we landed, we passed right by the Presidential Plane and got off of our plane in plain view.  It really was kind of cool…

The Dolphin House was a great place to stay.  They had a driver waiting for us.  What should have taken one and a half hours took three – the drive through all those little towns takes forever.  Getting behind jeepneys, huge tour buses, bikes, bikes with side cars, scooters, scooters with side cars… you get the picture.  At one point in the ride we had to go over a mountain, pretty curvy.  Our driver had his driving music on, and at the curvy point King of the Mountain came on.  Believe me, he felt like the king of the mountain driving like crazy!  Once we were safely off the mountain, I asked him how often he made that particular drive.  He makes that drive two to three times a day!  I definitely do not have the patience for his job.  I tipped my hat to him…

The resort itself has a rustic feel to it; however, it is beautifully decorated.  When we arrived Edi and I received leis with beautiful, fragrant flowers.  They each had a small gift woven into the reeds.  Edi’s had a free drink voucher, and mine had a beautiful pearl necklace in it.  Our suite had a treehouse feel as the bedroom was upstairs in the loft with the seating area and bathroom downstairs.  We had a gecko friend that greeted us and hung out both inside and outside of our room…

The food was delicious.  The restaurant was open air and every meal we had was beautifully presented and quite nice on our palates.  I think my favorite meal was breakfast as the coffee was divine and the seaside table gave us a fabulous view…  They offered happy hour every day from 5:00-6:00 which is great after a day of diving.  On Sunday, during happy hour they had an informational seminar about crabs.  All of the dive masters were there and we just hung out with our cervezas, learning about crabs, and having good, fun conversation.  We had a side seminar about trigger fish as the dive master had to save me from getting attacked by one on our dive.  It turns out it is nesting season for the trigger fish, and they get quite territorial.  The particular fish that came after me got the dive master instead.  He had quite the bite mark in his fin!

All of this brings me to the diving.  The set up at the resort is convenient.  The boats make it easy to get out and in, and the dive masters are knowledgeable and approachable.  Our sardine dive was incredible!  I felt like I needed to be listening to Enya on this dive!  We also did an airplane wreck which was a lot of fun.  On both of these dives we saw two turtles – eating, swimming – it was awesome!  Our last dive was a shore dive on the house reef- we saw two turtles on this dive, as well!  It too was a beautiful dive.  The only thing is we should have gone diving at high tide instead of low tide.  We had to walk out in the water on this cement pathway until we could actually float in the water and put on our fins.  When we got back from the dive, the tide had gone down even more, and we couldn’t get to the pathway.  Thank heavens for fin booties!

It was a great weekend trip, and we had a great time.  Now, we just need to plan our next tropical destination J