Blogs from Asia - page 14704

Question: Which city would you rather visit: KL or Melaka? The modern capital city which didn't even exist 150 years ago; or the old colonial town, drenched in history, formerly occupied by the Portuguese, Dutch, and British? Before visiting both places, I would have answered confidently: Melaka! What a mistake that would have been... We arrived in KL on Saturday evening on a Berjaya Air flight from beautiful Pulau Tioman. Even after spending only a couple of days on a small island, having to dodge traffic when crossing the street seemed a bit strange at first. For the first night we had booked a room in Pondok Lodge in the "Golden Triangle", KL's central business district. After settling in, we looked around the neighbourhood, coming across a road lined by loads of food stalls, Jalan Nagasari. ... read more

It's been a while since we last updated our blog, but we've been so busy soaking up the delights of Vietnam! We flew from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh and spent a few days exploring the city. This southern capital is rapidly being transformed into a southeast Asian western style city. The city moves at breakneck pace, faster than Hanoi! We knew it was time to move on when we got caught in the middle of a huge tropical storm that turned the streets to rivers. We thought the storm would pass pretty quickly but after 20 mins standing in a phone box watching the water rise above our feet with the thunder and lightning getting closer, it was time to run/swim for a cab! From there we braved a night bus North East to the ... read more

A warm greeting and a chagrin-filled acknowledgement that it has been many weeks since I last posted on this blog. The only excuse that I can offer is that I have been busy researching and living in this beautiful city, Hong Kong. Before I update you on what has been going on in my life lately, I’d like to share my thoughts about several situations that I’ve encountered related to my disability recently. Three people have asked if they could pray for my healing. One stranger handed me money in the subway station. And, of course, the ubiquitous people who go out of their way to help me have persisted nonstop. As an advocate, I continue to be annoyed by these actions - well-intentioned though they may be. As a woman I struggle against the tendency ... read more

I got up for breakfast about 8, and was presented with the greatest breakfast table views I have ever had! The only better breakfast view I can think of came last summer in the alps, a piece of fruit cake scoffed down with Dan at the summit of Mont Blanc Du Tacil, but the fear of death and shivering probably made it slight less idyllic. I went back to bed hoping to sleep up ready for the nights climb, but with no luck. For lunch I went to the buffet at the hotel. Stocked up with carbs, I sat down to eat at my deserted table. I did wonder why there were 20 staff for maybe 3 customers. Then I found out. All of a sudden a coach arrived, then another, and another. Almost instantly the ... read more

As the semester is coming to a close, this will be my final entry before I go galavanting around Japan with Bobby. Final exams are here - stressing just a little, but I thankfully lived past my Japanese oral exams. Instead of studying what feels like a few hundred vocabulary words, I decided to write an entry. Don't worry, I'll get to it sooner or later... Last week I discovered that my group member Max and I got second place in the simulated Japanese stock game I mentioned earlier in the semester... Over four months we had a 16% return on our portfolio... kind of sad - I had it at 26% but was lolo and messed up. But first place were the Germans of course with an amazing 34% return... actually, the two of them ... read more