We're in Kuching, not Ka-ching!, in Malaysian Borneo. Kuching means cat in Malay and they have taken the theme and run with it. There are several cat sculptures around town, a super silly cat museum, and a cat is even on their manhole covers. Let's hope that it's not because cat is the local delicacy. ;-) BTW, we have only seen one cat in all of Malaysia with a full size tail. We wondered if people bobbed their cats' tails <gasp> or if it was genetic. The other day we saw a kitten with a short tail and the fur on [View Full Entry]

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We spent just a few days in the island/city/nation of Singapore. It's a nice, shiny, clean, glass skyscraper, Cartier/Gucci pucci kind of place. It's so Western that it leaves one wondering "why leave home?" Maybe if we'd been roughing it in the jungle for weeks on end I would appreciate it but at the time, not so much. Though I did savor a veggie antipasti salad of roasted bell peppers, kalamatas, artichoke hearts, tomatoes and buffalo mozarella all drizzled with balsamic vinaigrette in a restaurant called Spageddi's. I can thank a brief rain storm en route to the botanical gardens for [View Full Entry]

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We are in Melaka right now, the ancient trading port on the silk road. (Yay, I've finally caught up on our blog thanks to free wi-fi!) This place was controlled by the Portuguese, Dutch, English, Japanese and has plenty of Chinese influences resulting in an interesting melange of architecture. It's a great place just to walk around and enjoy the old buildings and the river. Our first 4 days were spent in Kuala Lumpur (KL), a strange mix of skyscrapers and street hawker stalls. Both modern and old with a decent dose of smog. And there are women walking around in [View Full Entry]

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We had just 3 days in Sydney. It has beautiful 19th century buildings, a lovely botanical garden, many fountains, outdoor cafes, excellent food, and beautiful scenery. It's super pricey for us Americans with a basement dollar though. We broke down and bought a couple of margaritas on our last night there and it set us back $36! It was really cold in Sydney after our 7 weeks in the S. Pacific. We're in Malaysia now (more on that later) and loving it when we get into an air conditioned building so I guess there's no pleasing us. ;-) Til next post... [View Full Entry]

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We flew back to Fiji from Samoa for just a few days. How nice to be back in the land of Bula! :) Just enough time to get another dive in and this was a doosey - a shark feeding dive! I was at first not sure if this was environmentally responsible. Seems that whenever humans upset the natural balance of things there's some critters that lose. Toby was afraid it would be like watching animals fed at a zoo. But other people we had met who had done it raved about it. And they were right!!! After taking a giant [View Full Entry]

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We didn't do a whole heck of a lot during our last week in Samoa but enjoy the water and the gorgeous scenery. P.S. Thought I should let everyone know our agenda: from Samoa, we go to Sydney for 3 days, then on to Malaysia. No plans for how long we stay in Malaysia or anywhere after that but we plan to make it to Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, maybe Cambodia and Thailand again, then India for winter and China for spring. Please let us know if you will be going to any of these in the coming months and we can [View Full Entry]

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Sorry for the long wait between posts. We were on an island in Samoa with only <gulp> dial up. Samoa is like Hawaii but there's no dry side of the islands, only green everywhere with lots of waterfalls. The villages have nicely painted houses and fales in all shades of the rainbow. The grass is kept trimmed and bordered by decorative plants and flowers. There's very little trash around compared to Fiji. But... we just miss the big Fijian "Bula!" Don't get me wrong, Samoans are nice and if we hadn't been to Fiji first we probably would think that they [View Full Entry]

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We flew to Taveuni, "the Garden Island of Fiji." It's called the Garden Island because it rains ALL THE TIME. We hiked to a waterfall and spent the night at the lodge there. No power and worse yet, no beer or wine. Oh the travesty! We passed the evening talking with a Dutch girl about travel and then tucked in to our twin beds. Not the most romantic anniversary we've ever had. We boated across the Somosomo Straight and stayed at the Dolphin Bay Divers Resort. It's right on the beach and we were able to get our dog fix in [View Full Entry]

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We took a small boat to the island of Caqalai which is pronounced "Thangalai." We have a little "bure" with a double bed under a mosquito net and a view of the beach and ocean and the tiny island called "Snake Island." At low tide you can walk to snake island. We only spotted one of the little white and black striped, and highly poisonous snakes hanging out in a crook of the exposed island rock. I guess that's why they call it "Snake Island" and not "Island of Snakes." ;-) We went diving with the Irish dive master and we [View Full Entry]

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What makes this so cool is that it is legit. There were only about 4 tourists at this funeral and hundreds of Fijians. And of course everyone was super friendly to us as usual. Toby got lots of positive response for wearing a sulu. And we were served a huge plate of venison, pork and chicken afterward. No wonder these people are a bit large! [View Full Entry]

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