Update 8 - Back to Europe for Christmas

Lounge and study

It’s time to fly back to snowy Europe on BA for Christmas with our families in the UK and France. In our final week or so we’ve been Christmas shopping for our families – that’s 16 parents, brother and sisters and 13 nieces and nephews. Not to mention dogs, boyfriends, girlfriends and other friends. Now every year I write all the Christmas cards and Stef wraps the presents - seems fair… so this year I created an e-card and emailed it out ;o) – job done! Stef on the other hand has wrapped around 50 presents – still I’ve been writing this blog haven’t I?

We finally got the flat as we want it and will stay here until at least the end of April, living above my brother and family. We like the quiet and rural life here, but still only 30 minutes regular boat ride to Hong Kong. We cycle or walk everywhere in Mui Wo and it's surrounding area. Additionally it's 30 minutes taxi ride to the airport for our many excursions. Above the flats lounge, study, kitchen and bathroom with, out of picture 2 x single bedrooms and 1 double bedroom.

View from the bathroom window

Buffalo roam wild on Lantau island and we frequently have to navigate past them on our bikes..

We prefer to shop in Hong Kong’s many markets such as Mong Kok, Yau Ma Tei , Stanley, Sham Shui Po and Temple St Night market, they’re a lot more animated than the many shopping centres and you can interact more with the people on a personal basis.
A number of agencies have called us about work since we've been here. We purposely haven’t contacted any, but as a few of them confirmed it’s a relatively small market for skilled staff and just posting your CV on sites such as ‘LinkedIn’ and ‘eFinancial Careers’ with location Hong Kong, has led them to us very easily. Most assured us that it’s a good time to be looking around for work and that they expect us to have a choice of jobs when the time comes! We’d still like to hold out until April before we start and the work visa taking 4-6 weeks to process means we’ll get an early warning of impending employment. For tax reasons, its better that we start in April and we’re not done travelling yet! In January we’d like to visit, Melbourne, Sydney and Cairns for the Great Barrier Reef and in February we’ll take some extended time out in China.

Today is our last whole day in Mui Wo and it happened to be the ‘2009 Silvermine Bay Carnival’ in Mui Wo. My 3 year niece was appearing singing a song in Chinese (none of us can understand her these days) along with her play school class from the Lick Hang Kindergarden. They were all asked to dress in their national costumes, hence Isabella is wearing Phillipino dress (my brother didn't have time to get her a knotted hanky and wellingtons..) and Mika, Japanese. As one parent told me the school really is like the United Colours of Benetton. It’s been a dry bright day today and 16c and the wind has dropped so it felt quite warm.

Isabella my niece on left and Mika senses victory

This was the dress rehearsal 30 mins before the real thing in front of paparazzi!

The real thing in front of all of Mui Wo!

Some centenarians show off!

The woman live to an average of 167 here, the men die early..

Yes 2 of what that old lady is eating please!

The food was free if you dressed in yellow..

Can you find Luk Tei Tong Tsuen (village) on the map?

Our festive lights..

Not bad for 20th December..

I bet our roundabout is better than yours!

Finally, we’d like to wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas and all the very best in 2010!

Update 7 - Malacca

Malacca was founded by a fleeing prince from Sumatra in the 14th century, it developed into a major trading port for ships from India and China. As the Melaka Sultanate flourished, the Portuguese conquered Malacca in 1511. Later the Dutch took over in 1641 and then the British Empire ruled Malacca from 1824 with an interlude whilst the Japanese took control between 1942-46. The state finally obtained independence with the then "Malaya states" in 1957.

Malacca is situated roughly two-thirds of the way down the West coast, 168 km south of Kuala Lumpur and 245 km north of Singapore and commands a central position on the Straits of Malacca.

Malacca has a population of less than 1M comprising of Malays (57%), Chinese (32%), Indians, Kristang (with Portuguese ancestry) and Dutch Eurasians.

There were many Dutch tourists there when we visited and it certainly felt more Dutch in the town square where the buildings are ochre in colour, favoured by the Dutch at that time.

 

 

 Background info - click to enlarge

We left KL for Malacca at 9am and returned at 9pm. Once again David Marshal guided us and on this trip we were joined by 2 Indonesian Liverpool fans from Jakarta – I tried to convert them, but there was little hope as they had already been possessed. As soon as we broke free of KL, for the rest of the journey the motorway was lined with Palms, planted and farmed over the past 35 years for its products such as bio-fuels. It looked like a massive natural and exotic jungle – we also observed it when we flew in to KLIA.

Jungles of Enormous Palm tree farms

 

 As far as the eye can see - a very lucrative business!

 Coming into Malacca we stopped off at St. Peters church, the oldest Catholic Church in Malaysia built in 1710 and perfectly preserved

 

We visited the Kings Well - click to enlarge

 We had lunch in Restoran Peranakan

 

Customers spot the mirror configuration

We visited some Taoist & Buddhist temples, Mosques and churches! 
No room for a shopping centre here - let's hope it stays that way!

Chinese Temple - everything was shipped from China

We walked along Jonker St home of many antique shops where not unsurprisingly we found most of the Dutch tourists.

We walked around a replica ship of the Kapal Flor De La Mar

Some history - click to enlarge

Remains of Ancient Fortress of Malacca built by Alfonso D’Alboquerque and Him Named in 1511 

Independence Museum

It was a lot hotter in Melacca than KL, but we spent a great day there and it's a very well preserved historic town. If you happen to visit KL do not miss a visit here!

Update 6 - Kuala Lumpur

KL began life as a swampy staging post for Chinese tin miners in 1857 – Kuala Lumpur means, "muddy estuary" in Malay – and blossomed under the competitive rule of pioneering merchants. But as fights over tin concessions erupted across the country, the British used gunboat diplomacy to settle the Selangor Civil War and the British Resident, Frank Swettenham, took command of KL, making it the capital of the state and, in 1896, the capital of the Federated Malay States. Swettenham imported British architects from India to design suitably grand buildings, and thousands of Tamil labourers poured in to build them; development continued steadily through the first quarter of the twentieth century. The Japanese invaded in December 1941, but although they bombed the city, they missed their main targets. Following the Japanese surrender in September 1945, the British were once more in charge in the capital, but Nationalist demands had replaced the Malays' former acceptance of the colonizers, and Malaysian independence – Merdeka – finally came in 1957.

Now KL has a population of approx 2M. Malaysia’s population is made up of Indian, Chinese and Malay.

We arrived in KL on Saturday 5^th December night and went for an exploratory walk. Couldn’t wait to see the Petronas Twin Towers at night! KL was buzzing and we walked up Jalan Alor (‘jalan’ means street although some of the Jalans should be classed as mortorways!), well known for its outdoor hawkers food stalls. 

Saturday Night KL top of Jalon Alor looking at monorail

The majestic Petronas Twin Towers avec sky bridge

Whoops fell over..

The following day we were up early to visit the Menara KL (‘menara’ means tower) it is another radio/tv tower – many of these across Asia and we won’t waste any time getting up as many as possible! Menara KL was built in 1995 and reaches 421 metres and is currently the 5^th tallest in the world. 2^nd tallest in Asia after the Oriental Pearl in Shanghai (done it!) giving fantastic views over KL…

Menara KL from the Orchid Gardens

View from Menara KL looking down on skyscrapers

KL landscape with palm laden hills in the distance

Traditional Malay dancers at Menara KL

 

Stef and I did the 'Flying Fox' cable run at Menara KL

Silly hats were obligatory for the Flying Fox

Our tickets to ascend the tower also gave us access to an F1 simulated drive around the KL motor circuit and access to the small zoo. The 2 laps around KL motor circuit were excellent and I’m sure I won my race! The small zoo was a shock to say the least, especially for someone who is afraid of all creatures great and small!

Stef -  'The Monkey woman' 

Nit picking

Little nibble on the ear

 

One BIG python - and there were plenty more..

 

So what does Stef do?

Half of the animals were out of their cages and those that weren’t looked extremely dangerous. I was glad to get out of there alive. Unlike Stef the snake and monkey woman!

You lookin' at me? 

 

Tired after eating a small crocodile

In the afternoon (from 2-8pm) we did an organised tour of KL by mini bus seeing The Palace of Malay Rajas, Dataran Merdeka Square (once a focal point and cricket pitch replicating Tudor England) it was at this square that the Union Jack was lowered in 1957 and the Malaysian flag hoisted signifying their independence as a nation – the 95M flag pole is one of the tallest in the world. We also saw the National mosque, Batu limestone caves and many other tourist spots. Our guide was David Marshal ‘a font of Malaysian history’ (he seemed to blame me for the British handing Malaysia back in 1957...) – none the less a very good guide!

Palace of Malay Rajas - now the Kings' residence

  Men in skirts

The old Railway Station

Merdeka Square complete with Cricket pitch and mock Tudor buildings

Merdeka Square with large flagpole

 

We visited the pewter factory - Royal Selangor

We visited the Hindu shrines at Jalan Batu Caves

There are 272 steps to the caves/shrines

 

Impressive gallery non?

Stef takes a coconut break

Night draws in on Batu Caves 

This guy asked to have his picture taken with me.. I don't even look famous!

I know we say this in every blog, but the people were incredibly friendly. People would just stop you in the street and their first question would always be 'Where are you from?' - the correct answer of course is London. This made them happier and in awe. Street vendors would shout hello at you (or at least I think that's what they said). We saw very few westerners on the streets, which obviously made us even more exotic.  

Day 2 we went on another organised tour, this time to Malacca (100 miles away on the coast), again with David Marshall. I’ve created a separate blog update 7 for this.

Day 3 was my birthday and after a hectic couple of days we struggled to get up to be at the Petronas towers for 08:00 to pickup one of the free 1,200 tickets for the sky bridge that day. So when we arrived at 11am to the ticket desk where people were being continually turned away, I decided on a different tactic... 'It's my birthday' and then became a nuisance! It worked! The ticket lady shook my hand and said wait in the other room. After 5 minutes of this I continually showed my face in front of her until she said ok you can go on the 11:30 visit!  Some quick facts: Petronas towers are 88 storeys, 452M tall has 29 double-decker high speed lifts and the footprint for the towers is based on simple Islamic geometric forms of 2 interlocking squares to create the shape of 8-pointed stars. They were officially opened in Aug, 1999.

25 people allowed on each visit to the sky bridge - I was 1st!

Proof! 

Featured in the film 'Entrapment'

Taken from the 33rd Floor of Traders Hotel

Afterwards we had lunch on 33rd floor of Traders hotel overlooking Petronas towers/park. Then we took the monorail to the Orchid gardens and Museum of Malaysia. We saw plenty of monkeys beside the road!

A Gharry from 1910 Melacca at Museum of Malaysia

Monkeys eating bananas just down from Orchid Garden

Day 4 we just had the morning before getting a death defying taxi to the airport. So we walked to the soon to be demolished Jalan Hang Tuah prison and took too many pictures to publish here - I had to 1st get permission from the site foreman who only wanted to know where i was from - the password was of course London! Then we walked down to China town, Little India and Central Market area only for Stef to pull one final stunt..

Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Mosque

Guess where?

China Town

Stef's final stunt!

A famous central mosque

And that was it. Our flight with Malaysian airways was delayed an hour due to technical difficulties hmm.. We eventually boarded the plane and waited a further 50 minutes. Once we finally got on our way, after 20 minutes the pilot announced a problem with the navigation equipment and could everyone ensure all phones, laptops and electrical equipment was switched off. A further 40 minutes later and he came on again and urged 'for the safety of all passengers on the flight please switch off any electrical equipment as the navigation was still playing up'. We arrived 2 ++ hours later with our stomachs in our mouths, landing at Chep Lap Kok, HK (nowhere else!) - home safe!

See blog update 7 for our day in Malacca