2/12/09


Layne says I don’t need to include this, but here is the trip from the start: After years of saving air miles with United, we booked a trip to Asia last Feb. In November, they left a message saying they had to change the route. After hours on the phone with United, the only way they could make it work in our time frame was to route us E, instead of W. The benefit to us was a mini vacation in Frankfurt (10 hrs) where we took the train into the city and explored on foot, visited a museum and ate some German food. So, about 48 hrs after leaving Seattle, we arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and were picked up by our friends Peter and Jytte and their son Tim. Layne met Peter when she was travelling in Europe about 35 years ago and has remained friends with him and his family since. We've visited Denmark a few times, and various members have spent time with us. It's been a great friendship.
Now for the facts (Peter and Jytte, check me on this:) Malaysia is a country comprising the Southern tip of the Malay peninsula, and includes two states on the N part of the island of Borneo. They voted themselves independent of British colonial rule in the 1950's after years of unrest. Singapore was a part of this federation, and decided to become an independent city/state. There are about 25 million inhabitants, including native Malays(Muslim) a large Chinese population (Buddhist), a signifcant number of Indians (Hindu), and other indigenous people on Borneo. From Peter and Jytte's house we could hear the call to prayer, and it felt very foreign to see many (half?) of the women wearing head covering, often colorful and fashionable. The day we visited Panang (Crab Island) was a national Hindu holiday, and over 1 million followers massed together for a ceremonial walk up to a temple. The newspaper featured pictures of men in elaborate dress who had pierced their bodies with large hooks from which dangled small jars containing offerings. Throngs carried some type of vessels on their heads.
Layne has offered her first impressions of Thailand, so I'll provide a few of my own after a short social studies lesson: If you picture the head of an elephant, the trunk part is the Southern part of Thailand, which connects to Malaysia. Bangkok is located about where the trunk joins the head, and we plan to visit, but after we've done the rest of the loop. Thailand is about the size of Texas, and has about 60 million inhabitants, mostly Buddhist. Chiang Mai is the 2nd largest city, with about 1.2 million, and is located closer to the center. We were surprised at the amount of tourists here, and we hear many different languages spoken-lots of Aussies, Europeans, and probably many Asians, but they're harder to identify as tourists. This is a bustling, noisy and gritty city, but we were soon won over by the ancient culture, friendly and gracious Thais, and the anything goes atmosphere-more on that later, as much is X rated, or at least R.
Running out of time here, but I'll tell you that it's very inexpensive to live well here...food is delightful and incredibly cheap, and lodging (at least ours) though nothing fancy, is also cheap. Tomorrow we're heading out for a 3 day trek that will take us through the highlands and home of the hill people, so Layne will provide an account of that when we return. From here we're planning a slow boat ride down the river into Laos, then flight to Hanoi, down through Vietnam, into Cambodia, and hopefully time for a couple of other adventures.
Cheers,
Jed