We are at the K.L airport today heading out on a three+week tour of World Heritage and National Park areas to the Malaysian provinces of Sabah and Sarawak in the north part of the Island of Borneo; to the island of Bali, Indonesia; and with a side trip by air to Komodo so Bob can visit Komodo National Park and see dragons. We can’t believe that almost a month has passed since we left Victoria August 29th, 2018 to be at home in Southeast Asia.
When we arrived in Southeast Asia, we didn't experience jet lag, in part because Bob took us on a few walks when we arrived (7K, 12K, 6K, 7K), to explore the very modern city of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Apparently, exposing oneself to daylight hours in a new place helps your body/brain figure out the time change. We settled in well to the apartment in K.L. by spending a few days “nesting” with shopping, and doing laundry (and more walking outings).
We bought some spices and local groceries and made a giant chicken and red lentil curry that we were working our way through and then on the fourth evening we decided to freeze the fourth serving and made spaghetti carbonara a la primavera, with no bacon, lots of steamed vegys and no parmesan (we have not yet sourced a good one). Bob was pleased when our checked luggage showed up, as it had his box of Cheerios from home (and we’ve since found were we can buy some – breakfast of champions, says Bob!).
In K.L., we are in a modern, aesthetically pleasing apartment with black marble counters and metallic gold cabinetry and hardwood floors.
The apartment is rented from the Hong Kong owner by our Victoria neighbours Tony and Susheela Dason for their son Oliver, who was on a work experience at the school where Susheela worked before the Dasons moved south from K.L. to Port Dickson, Malaysia, in their transition process to Victoria. They offered the apartment to us while they would be back in Victoria September to December and we accepted! They also provided us with two helpful orientation sessions in K.L., before they headed back to Victoria. Tony generously loaned his car so we could make outings in Peninsular Malaysia - Bob looks forward to getting used to left lane drive again (last time was in Ireland).
The apartment is in a complex of four 30-story buildings, Verve Suites, with gardens, trees, koi ponds, tennis courts and swimming pools all around. Each of the four Verve towers has a special feature on the upper floor: One has a beach and bay of water (including lots of real sand); one has a movie theatre and athletics room; one has an infinity pool and barbecue area; and one has a pool with jets and rock wall. The 5th floor, which adjoins the four towers, also has a mini-forest/jungle with ponds and two more swimming pools. Also, there are children's play areas on the 5th floor and a children’s pool with a slide. Inside, from the 5th to ground floor are a day care, health facilities, shops and restaurants, and parking. Wow, we had a bit of an idea of the place we would be staying, but the offerings around are far more extensive than we could imagine.
The Verve Suites are on the edge of a green space (hill - "bukit"), and Bob had plotted out a few trail walks on the bukit for us to do, but we soon discovered the area is closed for hiking as it is being developed for a series of housing/shopping complexes. We had hoped to walk via the trails to an IKEA store to pop in to get more water glasses to match the ones in the apartment. We eventually drove to IKEA and spent a long time in a queue for parking and then did not find the matching glasses, so picked up six new ones and a very nice latte mug for Yolanda. The mug has provided morning-time coffee bliss for Yolanda, as we brought along our tear-drop trailer espresso maker and have found our favourite Italian espresso coffee in a local shop, and the local milk is delicious, so the combo is fantastic!
On our outings in K.L. we included nature and culture stops: Lake Park, K.L. Tower and canopy walk in the K.L. Forest Eco-Park, K.L.C.C., The National Textile Museum, and The Islamic Museum.
On our first walking outing (August 31st) we crossed through Lake Park, where we saw many exotic-to-us plants and birds. There is the World’s largest aviary in the park and a butterfly garden, but we stayed out-side. At the entrance to the aviary there were a lot of monkeys darting around, and signs saying “please do not feed the monkeys”. We ended up at the very tall K.L. Tower, which until recently was the tallest communications tower in the world and located in the middle of an ancient jungle, the K.L. Forest Eco-Park. One can either drive up the road to the tower, or walk up through a series of suspended canopy walks. We chose the canopy walk and found it interesting and exciting. It was an exhausting day in the heat and humidity, but we enjoyed the experience and seeing new sights.
The National Textile Museum houses an extensive collection of woven and printed textiles and accessories. There was also an area with textile technology displays and a case with full costumes using original textiles. Yolanda plans to visit again, and possibly again.
At the Islamic Museum, we enjoyed learning about the calligraphic and illustrative artistry of the Qur’an, and a bit about the content of the chants. The museum also has extensive collections of arts and crafts and Yolanda appreciated the costume and textiles section and learning about Muslim modesty and style. There were two temporary installations when we visited: one installation had mosque maquettes and a chronology of mosque architecture and included adobe examples from Mexico, pagoda examples from Japan and contemporary U.S. examples; the other temporary exhibition displayed ancient medical texts, highlighting the text illustrations, including normally-forbidden stylized human images. The medical exhibition also showed artifacts used in the developing public medicine system and in the promotion of cleanliness, health and well-being through diet and exercise. This exhibition included a children’s health and well-being interactive area.
Since arriving, Bob has been photographing for his i-Naturalist database (birds mostly), and carefully planning the flight, accommodation and excursion details for our forays beyond K.L. Yolanda has set up an art area in the apartment and has been putting colour into a tapestry for a group exhibition in which the tapestry designs will each have a horizon line and the set of tapestries will be installed in the gallery with the horizon lines aligned.
We have done many birding day-outings near to K.L. We have also done three long-drive all-day birding outings:
- West 64Km to see Kuala Selangor (a wetland mangrove swamp) and Bob’s first big drive out of (and back in to) K.L. The driving, which is left-hand, went really well and we loved seeing a mangrove swamp for the first time. We hope to be able to get back for another day at this site.
- North 115Km to visit Bukit (Hill) Fraser, on what turned out to be a national holiday, which we didn’t find out about until we arrived. Happily we had left K.L. at about 6am in order to get to Bukit Fraser by 8am to see the morning time bird activity. We saw and Bob photographed some new species (mostly birds).
- South 130Km to see the Paya Indah Wetlands; the shoreline of Tanjung Tuan (park) at Cape Rachado, which is a protected fly-way funnel for birds migrating further south; and the Port Dickson waterfront. On this outing, one of our car tires went flat – happily we discovered the issue at 6:25pm, and were just across the road from a tire repair shop due to close at 6:30pm! Within 15 minutes the mechanic had repaired the tire and we were on our way – he asked for 10MYR (~$3.25 CAD) but we gave him 20MYR.
Yolanda is pleased that her horizon weaving is moving along. It is about 3/5 done by September 24th. A moon shell Yolanda found in Tofino and is part of the design is next to be woven. Figuring out a technique for moving-on has been super - a two-piece dowel at the top of the frame pulls out in sections to loosen the warp. The piece is 35cm × 70cm on a small frame made by her uncle Benito for some lessons Yolanda taught. Bob suggested to use Cheerio box cardboard to protect the moved-on weaving at the bottom of the frame, and it has turned out to be a nifty trough for bobbins! Yolanda has woven a few shells and one barnacle in previous of her tapestries, so she is hopeful the weaving will progress smoothly during the few days we will be in K.L. in October and November.
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