Colombo and Sigiriya, Sri Lanka

Somebody was telling us about "Lion Mountain" in Sigiriya, Sri Lanka and when we saw the pictures from internet, we thought "we have to go there!" So we did. To go there from KL of course we have to fly to Colombo which takes 3,5 hours and then from Colombo we rented a car and a driver to take us to the city.
Colombo is much nicer and cleaner and more develop than I thought it would be. People were very friendly and nice. First day we just wanted to take easy and get to know Colombo and that is exactly what we did. The hostel we stayed in was a house turned into hostel, an over cost hostel. The house and rooms were very cool and unique, but it's definitely not worth CAD $75!! The lady who is the owner of the place and we have been in contact with was not very helpful and stiff. Our airport pick up was late (and later of course we found out we paid too much) As soon as we set up we went outside to look for lunch. We ate a very nice vegetarian Srilankan lunch, involve rice, dal, beetroot, okra, etc. It cost us about CAD$2 for both of us! Ay ay ay...Kuala Lumpur is very expensive compare to Colombo!
The next morning we had breakfast and get ready for our tour to Sigiriya. We passed some Srilankan jungles and villages. We ate lunch in a restaurant in a village, it was really good but the lady charged too much for the meal. Of course, It's hard being tourist and not get a "tourists price". Our driver was really pushing us to stop a few times on the way to try elephant rides or stop at a spice garden, etc. We kept telling him that we wanted to go directly to Sigiriya but he was told we wanted to do a full tour to Sigiriya. So, we took the 7 hours way instead of 4. That's kinda annoying.
But we got to Sigiriya and checked in to our hotel and went straight to Lion Mountain.
Lion Mountain or commonly named "The Rock" is a large and ancient rock fortress and palace ruin and Monastery. According to Wikipedia is one of the eighth World Heritage Sites from the 5 BC.  If you are not afraid of heights, go all the way to the top and see the terracotta of the palace ruin, plus the view is amazing. I must admit that I was a bit scared going up because some of the stairs were pretty steep and looked unsafe, but it was worth it. Halfway to the top you will be welcomed by giant lion's paw guarding a stair to go to the top, pretty cool. We got to the top and it was incredible, worth it! But I was really annoyed by this chinese tour group who were talking so loudly, and screaming, and just loud! I don't understand people who are so insensitive and ignorance about these things. Please do not scream at historical sites or holy sites! or just simply do not scream at all anywhere unless you got hit by someone!
Sigiriya town is very quite and peaceful, other than the "Lion Mountain" and some spice gardens, there aren't much to see. We only stayed there one night. The next morning we hit the road again and wanted to go to this town called "Kandy" about 2 hours from Sigiriya. This place is very famous for Buddhist pilgrimage because there's a temple that keep Buddha's tooth, which was brought from India. It was ok, nothing really special. You have to wear covered up clothes to enter and of course we didn't wear proper clothes and left my sarongs in the car so we rented sarong for $5 each! We felt bad walking around inside the temple while others were praying. We got out and went back to our hotel in Colombo.
We stayed at this lovely hotel called "Mount Lavinia". Supposed to be a nice and very famous one because it's a very old and historical hotel. It situated next to the Indian Ocean and view from the Swimming Pool terrace is amazing! The style is very Old British Colonial style. They even still have this really old school lift, it's pretty cool. First we arrived here, we were a bit dissapointed. We booked this hotel from Agoda and it doesn't look as nice as their ad in Agoda and our room smelled old and musty. Looks like it's a reject room too. But they really listen to you and fix it right away. The staff were super friendly and helpful. After the second day we stayed there, I got the feel of the hotel and love it! Food is excellent!
I was so tired from the climbing and walking through Sigiriya so I thought, why not a nice massage? Turns out all of the masseuses are from Bali. Whaaat? I guess Balinese massage are so famous that they have to bring real Balinese to give Balinese massage. It was pretty expensive though, I thought if I'm in Bali, I would've gotten 3 hours massage with the half an hour price I paid :)
In Colombo we went to this old Dutch Hospital turned into restaurant and shops. Very nice. But along the way we noticed they were so many cops everywhere. Every 500 m, there was a cop holding huge guns, it was pretty scary. Apparently, their president was about to pass the road, one policeman was yelling at us to get out of the way. You don't want to mess with Srilankan Police officers! In fact, we noticed that there were police base every where we go and lots of police with huge guns. I felt safe and unsafe at the same time. We know that the war has ended but still seeing people with militery or police uniforms holding AK 47 is not fun.
We walked along the beach before taking the tuk-tuk and back to our hotel. One thing about Srilankan Tuk-tuks, they're all have meter! What an awesome idea, so you don't have to get annoyed by bargaining with the driver or paying a ton of money for something actually cost nothing.
We learned there, that there are so many other places to go to Sri Lanka, but we didn't do enough research so we didn't know.

All and all, our trip to Sri Lanka was really nice. It was more that we hoped for!

Myanmar/Burma

Considering the history of Burma, I was a little bit sceptical and scared of going. But my husband assured me that everything is gonna be ok, so we go. And it was more than ok, it was great! 

I have friends who live in Mandalay and there's no direct flight from KL to Mandalay so we stopped in Yangon for 1 night. We arrived at night in Yangon so we couldn't see much.  We took airport taxi to our hotel "Grand Palace" and it costs $ 10. If you are going to Burma, note that no Credit Card or ATM in the country, so you have to carry cash all the time. They accept US dollar or Kyats or FEC. Our driver was asking us why we stayed in that hotel and told there aren't many tourist go there, only locals. Arrived at the hotel, where they mentioned they're close to the airport, which is not, and it looks like it's in a sketchy neighbourhood and most rooms were windowless. We saw the room and thinking "looks nice...", and we checked the bathroom and saw something different in their toiletries...Soap checked, shampoo checked, toothbrush checked, condoms checked? Hmm... Interesting we said. And after connecting the dots, it was a hotel for "short timer". Ew. I guess it's nice to know that they support a safe sex, but still, ew.

We wanted to go to this place call "Bagan" which is an ancient city located in the Mandalay region. There's also no direct flight from Yangon to Bagan, you have to transit in Mandalay. We stayed at "Sedona Hotel" in Mandalay,  a much better hotel than the one in Yangon :). The staffs were very friendly, helpful and it situated right in front of an old palace surrounded by moat, very beautiful. It is very close to Mandalay Hill, which is a must come place for sunset. Along the way, there are some nice temples to see. We really like this particular one, I forgot what it's called but it's a big pagoda surrounded by hundreds of little tiny temple fill with Buddha teachings. 

We decided to rent a car and a driver to take us to Bagan the next morning. It's only a 4 hours drive and it saved us $50 than flying. We enjoyed the view of Burmese countryside very much, the road was pretty smooth too.

Bagan used to be a kingdom, and during the reign of King Anawrahta (1044-1077), Theravaddha Buddhism was established and he initiated the building of thousands of pagodas. There used to be 10.000 pagodas but there are about 4000 pagodas and temples survived and still remain today. We arrived in Bagan at 11 am and it was already so HOT! They said it's summer time in Burma and in the day time can get to 40 degree! We walked around to see 3 temples and at 2 o'clock we gave up and went back to hotel to rest. It was burning, literally. No one is allowed to wear shoes in the temples and we have to walk barefeet all the time and the stone floor outside the temples burned our feet. All of the temples there were amazing though, the city itself is so amazing, thousands and thousands of temples. You can climb up to some of the temples and enjoy the 360 degree view. All temples, pagodas, and Buddha statues from different size, colours, and shapes! Most of pagodas also have beautiful murals inside, from different centuries, mostly are from 11 C-13 C.  We've been told by our driver (who is awesome by the way, who took us to some must see temples, other wise we wouldn't know and just wondered around because there's just too many!) Anyway, he told us to go to this one temple called "Ananda Paya" which is very famous for sunset. The sun was blocked by clouds when we got there but you still can see the beauty of the temples against the orange sky background, we were sooo amazed! But word gets around so this place is packed in the sunset time. But, it was worth it. Another famous temples was "Shwezigon pagoda". It's a big and beautiful pagoda, reminds me of some of the temples in Thailand and Laos, it looks very similar.

We only spent one night in Bagan and should've stayed longer but we had to go back to Mandalay to see our friends again, who just had a baby by the way, a cute one too! So who could resist that! It was really nice to see her again. I've known her when we were still living in Manado and worked together. Who would've thought that 5 years later we would meet again in Mandalay, Burma?

So we went back to Mandalay and spent another two nights there. Our friends took us to this really nice restaurant in a hotel called "Red Canal", a very nice and cute little hotel. Food was excellent. They served Indian food. Turns out there are many Indian people in Burma (mostly in the cities), they were brought by the British a while a go. We also went to U Pain bridge, which is a 100 years old bridge made out of teak.

We flew to Yangon early in the morning and our flight to KL was in the evening so we thought we could arrange a day tour at the airport in Yangon. There's only 1 travel agent at the airport but they do tours outside of Burma so we asked this guy who kept following us around offering his taxi. We made a deal, it was $10 per hour. Very expensive we thought, but everything cost so much in Burma, for tourist of course. All because they just open their country to tourism, so still less competitors, that's why hotels, transportation, still cost so much in this country! Our flight from Yangon to Mandalay was $US 460, using "Air Bagan".

We went to Shwedagon Pagoda", an enormous pagoda in the middle and surrounded by 4 other temples from each wing. Another beautiful temple. What I love to see is the roof of the temples, very detailed wooden carving, just beautiful!! And then we drove around Kandawgyi lake and we passed ASSK's house and then we hit the "Scott market". A huge market selling everything from beautiful Burmese crafts, paintings, food, clothing, you name it! But thinking of the $10 an hour charge for the car, we didn't spent too long at the market. And so, we went back to the airport.

Yangon, really reminds me of Indonesia in the old days, in the 60's I would say. Well, we do have the same history background. Our President got coup from their Generals, we were living under military suppression for a while, one president ruled for years and years. Even though both have different method but it's still the same motives. Old cars, man wearing sarongs and chew pan. These men love their sarong. We saw some guys jogging with their sarong folded to his stomach. Very interesting indeed.  

There are so many reasons to go to Burma, the people, the Crafts, the lakes, Bagan city, temples, rivers, etc. Burma is a country waiting to be discovered!

Kupang, Indonesia

After visiting Bali, we decided to visit our dear friends in Kupang, Nusa Tenggara Timur, Indonesia. We met Ino through the program we did back in 2003 and she is now married and has 2 adorable kids, Santa and Angelix. We stayed at her house which helped us reduce our travelling costs, a pretty sweet deal. We did a little tour on the first day we arrived (well, Kupang is a very small town so didn't take that long) and we stopped at the old Portuguese harbour to eat "jagung bakar". After that, we headed to the night food market on Jl. Siliwangi, the food market opens every night serving all kinds of seafood and Kupang eats. Second day, we went to Semau Island, about 30 minutes away by boat from Tenau Harbour. We rented a boat that cost IDR 100,000 each way and, to go to the beach, we took ojeg by paying IDR 20,000 return. All was arranged by the boat driver. The beach is pretty nice, white sand and sandy bottom, no waves, so nice for swimming. There's a pond of natural spring not far from the beach but unfortunately the villagers used it for washing clothes, so the water turns soapy. I feel bad for the fishes who live there. We ate lunch on the beach, played ball in the water, and soccer with the village kids who followed us all the way to and from the beach. Third day we went to Lasiana beach, I read somewhere that Lasiana beach is not that great but I loved it there! So beautiful! Palm trees on the beach, white sandy beach, also sands in the bottom, my kind of beach! I wouldn't have stopped swimming if not for a  jellyfish sting. And, you all know what is the best cure for jelly fish stung! But you just gotta do it. We brought some watermelon to the beach and apparently some kids saw it and asked us for some watermelon, so we shared it. Sharing is believing as people say. They were so happy, which made us happy. The night we went to "Nelayan Restaurant" on Jl. Timor Timur, to have some dinner. We ordered...more seafood of course, but given the name of the restaurant "Nelayan" which means fisherman, their specialty dish is fried chicken, which was pretty good. Drinking some beer, listening to our friend Randy (Ino's husband) sing some songs with full stomachs, and some good companionship, was another highlight of our trip. Fourth day, which was our last day, we decided to take it easy and just spend time with our friends and the kids, we went to the one and only mall in Kupang "Flobamora". Not much happening in the mall so we played bumper cars, so much fun! We wanted to go to the Kupang Museum, but apparently they're closed on weekends. If they want to raise people's awareness of the history, museums should open on weekends, so all the working people could go to museums. Felt a little dissapointed about the museum, we went to a souvenir store and I bought a tiny "tenun" table runner that cost IDR 60,000 and my husband bought this hideous mask for IDR 100,000. The night we were invited to Ino's dad's birthday, first time to meet her "real" parents.

Who knew after 9 years we still keep in touch and still be buddies. Nothing have changed except a few wrinkles  on our face :) We still have our laughs. We got to meet the parents and kids, making tea in her own kitchen, playing with her kids, a little walk down memory lane in a new place. We didn't expect Kupang to be that nice because we were just very excited to see our friends, so all of the stuff we did are nice bonuses. I would say, even without my friends living in Kupang, I still like Kupang. The other thing that fascinate me about Kupang is that people rub their noses as a way to greet there. Which I think is pretty neat! I only read that rubbing noses as a way of greeting only happens in Eskimo, or some other rare indigenous people in the western world. But, we can actually see it in Indonesia. This is what I love about travelling, that we got to learn about diversities, different customs and habits and you got to see and experience it yourself. Kupang palm trees, nice beaches, the savannah, this kind of trees that I don't really know the name of it but it's all over the place and knowing some dear friends who live there, together made a great visit to Kupang.

Bali

Recenlty we made a visit to Bali to celebrate my 30^th.  It was our first visit to Bali since we got married. Bali… What can I say about Bali? Everyone knows Bali, or most people I know, knows Bali or have been to Bali. Bali is beautiful, fun, exciting, and cultural. I myself have been to Bali for so many times and I’m always very happy to comeback to Bali. But, there’s a little part of me is still a little sad seeing Bali now. I remember when I went there for the first time about 15 years a go, I was in love. It was love at the first sight. Everything was still so natural, quiet, no traffic for sure! Less tourists, and Ubud still had a cool weather. It was still feel very mystical, but now everything has changed into a big huge commercial tourists site. But of all the craziness are going on in Bali now, the one great thing about Bali is that the Balinese people are still very strongly believe in their religion and traditions. The same view I saw 15 years ago, people still giving offerings on the roads, cars, shops, etc.  So, I’m still glad to see that.This is probably why people still keep coming to Bali even after the Bali bombing incidents. But I must say, being a major tourist attraction though, it sure opened up other good things too. There are more job offers to locals, better road and better public service such as hospitals, etc. As if it wasn’t because of all of the tourists, there won’t be things and stuff to do/to go as we can see now. Cool and hip shops and restaurant, bars with amazing views, beautiful hotels, or cool cafes where you can hang out. Which is exactly what we did on our last trip to Bali. We went to the places that some people have been brag about and we haven't been. We went to Rock bar Ayana, which is a bar on the rocks on a cliff with breathtaking view, and we went to Potato Head, which was nice, and a few others. I’m sure there are plenty of other cool places we could go, but it was enough and we enjoyed it very much. Our hotels were perfect! Both have an outdoor shower (which I think is pretty cool!) surrounded with lush tropical garden, beautiful swimming pools, and friendly staffs! We did a little outdoorsy stuff; we went rafting in Ayung river, though it was slow but still nice. We got to swim in the river, which was my favorite part of the rafting. On the night of my birthday we went to a gay bar in Seminyak and there was a drag queen show. It was fun until a guy tried to harass my husband. Overall, it was a lovely beautiful 30^th birthday celebration, turns out turning 30 isn’t so bad and turning 30 in Bali isn’t too bad either J

Responsible Traveller

Travelling is tiring but rewarding! We can learn about so many things from travelling. But trouble from travelling is "irresponsible tourists". I hate seeing tourists who is careless about the value of travelling. They don't know how lucky they are to be able to travel while others can't. I feel very lucky to be able to travel, so I tried to be as responsible as I can whenever or where ever I travel. From as simple as not to litter, or not to have your bedroom hotel clean everyday, use recycle bag when you shop, etc. There are so many other ways we can contribute to be a responsible tourist. I saw somebody littered in a very historical site or one time, somebody yelled in a very holy site. I think it's rude, ignorance, irresponsible, and annoying. So let's all be a responsible tourist shall we? My blog will be mostly about my travelling but I will also put some pieces of my mind every now and then. Last but no least, there’s always a positive and negative things about a change. But it’s all depends on us how we react to those changes and try to give a positive contribution to that. Therefore, let's try to always stay positive and be more a responsible tourist to a better environment. Cheers!

Hello from Malaysia! (Finally!)

I should've started this a long while a go, blogging. Well, I have actually and I was too lazy to write so I never open my blog. Anyway, we have been living in Malaysia now for almost 2 years! Time passes by too quickly. I was feeling so worried and anxious to come here because I have never been to Malaysia before and it would be our first country of assignment. But, it all turn out so nicely and amazing! Kuala Lumpur I should say is a very easy and nice city to live in, modern and most likely more developed than most major cities in South East Asia Countries. There are of course some things I dislike and disagree here, but hey, nobody's perfect, right! 

Other than travelling around Malaysia, we have been travelling around South East Asia and even Europe! We've been to Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, and Indonesia of course! And we got a little break along the way, that was Bangladesh for a wedding/Christmas and Europe for a birthday, 30th birthday! Yes, it's a big one so we decided to celebrate it big. Spain, Portugal, and Andorra it is! It was a very nice little break from South East Asia, everything is so much different from everything else in Asia. 

Anyway, let's get back to Malaysia. We also have managed ourself to discover Malaysia and have done some stuff we tried for the first time ever. Surfing in Cherating, paragliding in Langkawi island, seeing rafflesia flower in Mt. Kinabalu National Park, saw sharks from snorkeling in Perhentian Island, Canopy walk at FRIM, zip lining at the National Botanical Garden Shah Alam, swinging on a giant swing in Penang, etc. Perhentian Island I should say is one of my favourite so far. Friends and family have coming over to stay with us, friends from Canada, England, Indonesia, Japan, Bangladesh, and Australia. We're still counting!

The other nice thing living in KL that within 25-30 minutes you can get out of KL and be in the lush green jungle right away. It's amazing! They have FRIM or the "Forest Research Institut Malaysia" that can be reached by car for only 25 min. It is a man made jungle but it's still nice and they have a canopy walk for an activity there. Also, Hulu Langat is only 30 min away from KL (if not traffic) and you can see the country side of Malaysia, traditional houses, trees, waterfall, and river.

There are still so much I want to see while we're here! Tioman Island, Redang Island, Sipadan Island, Sarawak, etc, etc..and Malaysia's neighbours of course! So, hopefully we can do it all before we leave Malaysia. So stay tune! :)