“So how was your trip?” “Good,” we say. “Met our goals.” We learned a lot about this part of the world: its history and current circumstances. I'm optimistic for Malaysia (and Singapore too). They have tremendous opportunities, and a lot of experience in forging a peaceful multi-ethnic society. Time will tell how much the kids got out of the trip. At least they saw a foreign place and learned some travel skills and attitudes they'll use in later life. They did stay mostly upbeat (and healthy) through some stressful situations. Next trip? Right now I vote for Chile and/or Argentina. A trip to India might be in our future too. ... read more

Flight from Kuching to Jahor Bahru, thence by bus across the border to Singapore, thence by metro train into Orchard Road for a late dinner, thence by taxi to find a hotel. Reading the guidebooks, Melody had planned for to stay in the Geyland area. The taxi driver ask politely why we chose Geyland? Well, the books recommended it. Well, he suggested, Geyland was no place for children. Too much nightlife, too many many women "walking the streets", etc. We were easily convinced. But where should we look instead? It took a couple of tries, meter running, but we found a place with a "family room" (two double beds), very clean and spacious tiled bathroom (yea!), a short cab ride from the metro station. The neighborhood wasn't great but wasn't bad, with an internet cafe right ... read more

Sunday we took the local bus from Kuching to the boat dock for Baku National Park. Unlike Taman Negara, for which the boat ride is an optional tourist add-on while locals arrive by land, there is no road to Baku. In fact you can only reach the dock at high tide, otherwise you have to wade through the surf and across the beach carrying all your stuff. Lucky for us the tide was in. At the dock, the boat owners take turns. These are little four-passenger dingies with outboard motors. Our assigned boat had no canopy for shade; we could see that most did. We realized this as he cranked up the outboard -- we scrambled out of the boat and back on to the dock just in time. Returning to the waiting area, we said ... read more

This was the one day we rented a car, for two destinations we couldn't reach otherwise: the Semenggoh Orang-utan Rehabilitation Center and the Fairy Cave. The orang-utans at Semenggoh are semi-wild, living in the jungle but still offered food by the staff every morning if they choose to come and get it. So about 50 or so tourists arrived that morning for the feeding. We think the crowd kept them away. After 30 minutes or so the crowd got back in their vehicles and drove away. In no hurry to leave, we walked over to the headquarters area, as the Rough Guide had recommended. Sure enough, a little while later they started coming from all directions. We were surrounded by orang-utans (Malay for "people of the jungle"). Very cool. One of the staff chatted with Melody ... read more

Malaysians are like good scouts: trustworthy, honest, straightforward. Pre-post-modern (that's a compliment). Earnest. We like that in a culture, or a person. Keep irony in its place. ------------------------------------- Visiting a "touristy" place like Pangkor is not so bad when a) it's off-season, and b) most of the tourists are not American, or even Caucasian. KLers (residents of Kuala Lumpur) come to Pangkor on weekends and holidays. We arrived on Sunday. Other than a few groups of Malays (employee meetings of some kind?) it's pretty quiet. Except when the bored employees of empty hotels in our neighborhood blast the karaoke. Always the Asian pop music! Don't they listen to any other genres of music? -------------------------------------- While waiting at the jetty for Melody and the kids to come on the later ferry from Lumut, I had some quality ... read more