http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/imhere-whereru/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from imhere whereru en-us Wed, 16 Dec 2009 04:16:16 +0000 Wed, 16 Dec 2009 04:16:16 +0000 Genting Highlands is a big resort complex about 2 hours outside of Kuala Lumpur. It is high on a mountain top. The weather was very pleasant there cool and misty.On our way we stopped at the Baatu Caves. In ancient Indian legend a goddess had two children who were always fighting. One day they were fighting over a piece of fruit and the mother said whoever went around the world first could have t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Wilayah-Persekutuan/Kuala-Lumpur/blog-425174.html Before I finished my post this morning Sea was awake and Vivian was at the door. It was about 1030. We went for lunch at a Chinese place. Between the three of us we ordered two hot pots. One was vinegar marinated pork and the other was a different kind of pork with vegetables. I liked the vinegar marinated pork best.Then we walked to the Central Market which is a famous shopping mall where the st http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Wilayah-Persekutuan/Kuala-Lumpur/blog-425149.html Our flight was supposed to leave for Kuala Lumpur at 1125 but because of the typhoon it didnrsquot take off until 1500. It was a bumpy ride one which I donrsquot care to make again. After about two hours it got a bit smoother but it was never what I would call a smooth flight. The total time was about 4 hours.I might have already mentioned this so excuse me if it is a repeat. Vivian Sea http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Wilayah-Persekutuan/Kuala-Lumpur/blog-425142.html It was a little cooler this morning. I forgot to check my thermometer but I would guess it was around 85. Still the sun was out and it felt very hot and uncomfortable. I have no plans for today and might not even go out. I have opened the place up and turned on the fan. Will see if I can go today without air conditioning. I donrsquot know why this is important to me.Here are some pics of my a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-417746.html July 10. Evening.I got home about 1830. The thermometer on my balcony said 94. It must have been close to 100 earlier. I ate noodles did my laps in the park then came home and practiced chess.July 11.It was hot again this morning. I turned on the TV and there was a thunderstorm warning at the top of the screen. Good. I went out and bought veggie pancakes and had them for breakfast with tea. The http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-417636.html LAST NIGHT JULY 9.I didnrsquot go to the park last night because of the heat. I went to the noodle shop for a bowl of flat noodle soup with veggies. I havenrsquot had any soup recently because it seems hotter than just a bowl of noodles. The noodle shop has air conditioning but they must keep it set at 85 or so. I do enjoy the soup so last night I had some. I didnrsquot spice it up with p http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-416989.html I noted a few weeks ago that I signed up for Twitter Facebook and a couple of other ldquosocial networkingrdquo services. For a number of reasons I donrsquot really care for them and hardly ever use them. But I did enjoy using Twitter to follow events in Iran after the contested election. In the news the past few days there have been stories of some sort of trouble in Xinjiang. I am unsur http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-416350.html There was no Twitter nor Facebook tonight. Not one person mentioned it today. I kept my mouth shut. The TV news seemed to be all about the riots in Xinjiang. Apparently there are thousands of troops in the cities now.I found a news story that said Google was blocked along with Twitter and FaceBook but when I tried Google it seemed to work. I even Googled ldquoXinjiang riotsrdquo and got resul http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-416793.html Twitter and Facebook are still blocked. I mentioned this to a friend and we went on a walk together. This person is very paranoid. I can not even say if it is a man or a woman or how I know them. We went to a park where I had never been and we would not be known if someone was ease dropping. The park where we went is called Lotus Park. That is not itrsquos official name but is what everyone cal http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-416456.html Since it was cool and since I woke up early I decided to walk to a coffee shop I had discovered recently. About 0700 I set out. It had rained all night and everything was wet. There were light clouds so the sun was not out. I didnrsquot remember exactly where the coffee shop was located I only had a general sense of its direction. All I remembered was it was on the second floor of a buildin http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-415578.html There are a couple of people in the chess club that come from out of town to play. One is from Hong Kong and the other is from somewhere on the mainland. It is better for them to play on weekends when there is more time to travel. To accommodate them we played yesterday afternoon. The meeting was scheduled to start at 1600 and end at About 7 or 8 people showed up. I got there a few minutes pa http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-415216.html Yesterday July 1 I sometimes get lost in my stories as the day and times change my thermometer registered 91 on my balcony in the morning at 0800. I donrsquot know how high the temperature got but it was very very hot.Spent a cool hour or so in the library then walked home. It was so unpleasant I decided to go home and stay in the rest of the day inside with the air conditioner running. On http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-414299.html I just read a news story on line that said the governments of China Cuba and Burma have been interfering with the internet in an attempt to block news of the Iranian protests. This makes a lot more sense to me than what I have been hearing. Why give the people any ideasI guess the typhoon has passed. The little warning box is gone from the TV screen. It has been raining off and on all morning. T http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-413082.html I got up this morning and checked the internet. Nothing. I will ask around at work to see if anyone knows whatrsquos up. The weather has been very hot with intermittent rain showers that do little to cool things off. On the TV there is a little symbol indicating a typhoon. Yesterday it was blue. Today it is yellow. Irsquom not sure what it means but I am sure yellow is more serious than blue. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-412772.html This morning I can not access Google gMail Google Translators or Google Maps. I have been reading that the government of China has a dispute with Google about allowing access to porn. Could this be a result of that disputeI looked on the news and social networking sites ad see nothing about the block so I am not 100 sure itrsquos the government. Everything else seems to be working.I got som http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-412536.html After I did my blog last night Vivian stopped by again. This time she brought two giant bottles of the 7Up like drink maybe Sprite and two boxes of leftover food. So this morning I had a half of as barbecued pigeon and a couple of stuffed buns for breakfast. Fortunately I got a good nightrsquos sleep otherwise I might be sleepy after eating so much in the heat. I donrsquot know what I will http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-411715.html There is a typhoon passing between Taiwan and the mainland. It is not supposed to hit land but I hope it will cool things off a bit. It is cloudy today but very hot and humid. As I write this I hear thunder but no rain so far.I am trying to get ready to play chess tomorrow night. I have played 3 games on the computer and lost each one due to giving away pieces I didnrsquot have to. Blunders. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-411290.html Well it finally arrived Vivian and Martinrsquos wedding day. I didnrsquot know what to expect. I have noticed that weddings seem to be a fairly big deal in Asia. There are big processions and parties. I see cars driving around all decorated with newly weds inside. But what would happen today I didnrsquot have a clue.About 1230 Nina called and said she and her husband were on their way ove http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-411024.html It was Saturday morning and I was trying to read the news but I could not focus. Something was wrong but I didnrsquot know what. I took off my glasses to clean them and the right lens is missing. Fortunately I quickly found it in my shirt pocket. It appears I lost a screw that tightens the frame. Getting my glasses repaired will be my first project today. I dug out my old glasses to finish rea http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-410498.html I wasnrsquot going to make a post today because it was so hot I didnrsquot do anything. But I did take a pic of my dinner and a few other things so here they are.Since it was so hot I decided to order what looked like a cold papaya salad for dinner. What came out was a dish of sauted celery garlic and tofu. It was very good but hot. I had an iced Harbin beer to take the heat away from the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-410326.html