Passing Time on the Weekend

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Hi Everybody - This is such an amazing opportunity that I've been given. It is interesting, however, by the 3rd weekend here, that the pure touristy excitement is wearing off. Instead of electric anticipation of the weekend, it was more like what should I do this weekend. I'm missing Tracy, the dogs, home, people over 5 foot tall (OK - there are plenty of people just over 5 foot tall), American food, ...... home. There are plenty of distractions here, the hotel is very nice (except the internet is VERY slow). I really do love the food here (too much I fear), though I have sought out the Outback Steakhouse a couple of times. My friend here, Gerard, promises to take me golfing soon, so that'll help also.

The pool area is really nice and relaxing.

I thought I'd get away from Kaula Lumpur this weekend, for the day on Saturday anyway. I took a day trip to Melaka, the oldest city in Malaysia. It was a 2 hour bus ride each way. The bus station was made up of many competing ticket booths. From KL the bus system branches out to the whole country, but there was a lot of repetition and competition (people yelling out destenation names, to get you to their ticket booth). Of course the bus station was full of food and trinket booths. The airport (KLIA) is very international oriented. The train station (KL Sentral) is more local, but still pretty easy for foreigners. The bus station is definitely geared toward the locals and I had to find a friendly face to find my way thru, no problem though. I really enjoyed the bus ride, made really good progress in a book I brought over (Deception Point, by Dan Brown, worth reading).

The bus went thru a toll booth on the way. I always think it is interesting to see how different some of the everyday things are (like toilets, but we can talk about that some other time).











The highlights of the town of Melaka are mostly old temples and buildings, streets with antique shops, canals and some good native Malaysian cultural stuff. It was an OK day, but not wonderful, considering the time and heat involved, and the communication situation I encountered.


My guide (his English is not so good)

In Melaka itself, the popular way to see the town was hiring a trishaw (3-wheeled bicycle rickhaw). I talked with a couple of the drivers, thought I had one that spoke passable English, and was totally wrong. I spent RM80 for between 2 and 3 hours and didn't really have much understanding of much that we saw (should have negotiated down to RM50 probably). My ears don't work all that well anyway and this guy just didn't know English. Oh well.

Tours are given on these tri-shaws

A couple of highlights were a dragonfruit juice drink we stopped for, really tasty, and a native Malaysian house that people live in and they give tours of. It is furnished still from the decades past, and the family was prominent in Malaysia politics before the 2nd World War. The old guy that lives there talked our ears off for about 1/2 hour, showing us thru the whole house. Very cool cultural immersion. Not jungle native stuff, but early urban Malaysian.


All around town, in style!

I left Melaka a couple of hours earlier than I'd planned, just cause I felt kinda lost and didn't know how to fix that, in that environment, so I retreated back to KL for the evening. Went out to dinner (burger at the Outback Steakhouse), roamed a couple of malls, then back to the hotel, relax by the pool, talk on the phone with Tracy, IM'd with my buddy, Jim Lipari.

Speaking of buddies, my friend Joe Toth called me on some TMobile plan and really made my day, on Friday evening (Friday morning in KC). Thanks Joe.

This was the current owner of the native Malay living museum I visited. Really good short term immersion into their history and culture. Highlight of my visit to Melaka.

http://travel.to.villasentosa

On to the park. From my hotel I can see this big park. On Sunday I went and spent time there, especially at their bird park.



This is a macaw picking what cup the ball is under, very cute.


Sunday was mostly a down day, writing postcards, hangin in the room. But I did go out for a few hours to the main central park in KL, Lake Gardens Park. They have a nice lake to walk around, big playgrounds, beautiful landscaping, flowers, Orchid Garden, Hibiscus Garden (both closed for remodeling) and the worlds largest free flight, covered butterfly and bird parks. I spent a couple of hours in the bird park (I visited the butterfly park on a tour, my first weekend).

It was really nice. Like most bird exhibits, there were peacocks all over the place, plus quite a few caged birds (in the free flight park) and a very entertaining macaw show. Another muggy day in KL, but nice and relaxing.








This is a waterfall at the bird park








To the left is a nice trick by a macaw






A different view of the waterfall is below


Sunday evening - Brian (another Cerner guy) and I went to dinner at Eden Seafood Village, a very nice (while table cloth, proper flatware, someone to pour you wine) restaurant. We indulged in a couple of bottles of wine, a baked Scallops appetizer. I had a mixed seafood platter, with oysters, Brian (being the guy who approves the expense reports, had the live lobster, thermador, with dessert (I opted for the shark fin soup, with crab). Very nice place. Only cost us RM 655 for dinner ($200) or so. We won't do that very often.

That's about it guys. I expect a weekly entry from here on, as I'm working during the week, and no one cares about that (unless you insist, I suppose, but I know you won't). My local peer, Gerard, who'se been in KC for new-hire training, is back here now, starting work tomorrow, so I'll be less on my own trying to figure out what needs to be done and how to work in the local culture.

take care all.