Hard Rock Life

After the jandal experience Pat and I slowed down a bit. We all did actually. We have moved ourselves to Batu Ferangi to the Hard Rock Hotel Penang. The pool is lovely, the sand is white and the sun is shining. Paradise! 

We have done a few excursions from the hotel, visiting a tropical fruit farm, a spice garden and a batik factory. 

The spice garden was very educational and it was cool to see how everything we know more commonly on a grocery store shelve in its natural form. The best fact of the day was that there are 2 types of cinnamon. One of them, a soft cinnamon, is good for eating and natural healing where the other, harder and the one we know and use, is best for cooking with small quantities. The soft cinnamon does not contain courmarin, a toxin that affects liver disease and is therefore better for you. This cinnamon though is rarely found as it is 3x more expensive than the hard stuff. Weird eh! 

Pat and I also picked up some posters of the places we'd visited in Malaysia to put up in our "one day" home. I got some more essential oils processed at the spice garden and a few spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. 

We went to the tropical fruit farm and say many different types of fruits both native to Malaysia only and mainstream. Did you know dragon fruit is the fruit from a cactus and because the cactus is a creeper they put them around big concrete pillars to grow and harvest easier. At the fruit farm they make their own fruit enzyme which is very much like apple cider vinegar. As the vinegar craze is happening now it was so cool to learn how to make your own from fruits and vegetables and brown sugar. My favourite one was apple, Pinapple, ginger. 

Below are some pictures of the fruit we got to eat after the tour. There is one of me in heaven with my fresh squeezed guava juice! I also had a nutmeg and Pinapple juice which reminded me very much of eggnog. Num num num!

After stuffing our bellies of delicious food we headed to the battling factory to see how the art form was done for mass production. It was beautiful what they were creating and it reminded me of Ukrainian Easter eggs. I hope you guys color some eggs for Easter! I of course fell in love with the frangipani artwork they did although couldn't justify purchasing it for our "one day" home as one piece was $200 NZ. 

We only have a few days left here so we are soaking up the sun, enjoying the pool and eating far too much good food. 

 

Typical Asian Accidents

These few medical supplies are far too familiar of a sight for me while traveling through Asian countries. Tonight - they appeared once again in my possession. 

Today was great - we went to a very famous house of a rich mob/drug lord/player/famous man who's name I can neither pronounce nor remember! It was cool and interesting to hear of the old traditions. Here are some alphorns of that part of the day:

After that we had s bit of free time, which we used to lounge by the pool, enjoy the heat and relax. It was lovely! Pat and I also found a laundry mat and dropped off a kilo of basically undergarments for $12 Rupiah which is about $5 NZ. We go back tomorrow to collect it thank heavens as we are running a little low in that department. We stopped on our way back for some roast pork belly on rice and enjoyed a local drink/meal of ginkgo and lotus berries, red beans and longan  mixed with ice the juices. It was interestingly enjoyable until Pat started to eat the red beans in which I couldn't get kidney beans out of my mind and could no longer stomach even the thought of the drink/meal. I made Pat eat the rest of it so I didn't insult the lovely lady. 

In the evening we went to the jetty which is really cool and quite a sight to see. As the story goes - when the Chinese settled in Panang they settled along the coast so it was easy to fish and transport back to the main land. They set up houses on stilts and a long jetty out to the ocean. These are still standing today and look and smell more like the slums rather than a history sight. 

The tide was out when we were walking on the jetty and it was so muddy and smelly. It was basically the dumping sight for compost for the houses around. We took some pictures and had some laughs and of course reminded everyone to not fall into the mud or drop anything - this of course fell on deaf ears with me. Here I was so confidently swimming my feet waiting for the others when off shoots one of my beloved jandles. I looked at Pat who look at me with the same dumbfounded "that just happened?!" look on our faces. Yes - I managed to loose my shoe 7 feet face down in potentially hazardous Malaysian mud. I contemplated leaving it but knee walking anywhere in Malaysia with one shoe would be much worse then touching that mud my shoe was stuck in. (I was lying to myself by the way). Before I knew it though, in an act of pure love (and knowing I would pout if I didn't get my shoe back), Pat was climbing down holding on to the barnacle encrusted posts to delicately stand on fallen piece of jetty to dig my shoe out of the mud and safety back up to me. As he was managing to monkey his way back up the obvious happened - his shoe cameoff and landed in the very place he was not going back to. After the cuts and the scraps that he received on his trip up and down, he was much more reasonable and decided in an instant he didn't need his shoe and he could get by without one for the evening. After his heroics of saving my shoe there was one obvious thing to do - walk away. As tempting as it was I couldn't let him walk with one shoe as I know how I would never hear the end of it - he lost his retrieving mine. So, I looked around and found the other side of the jetty had more slats slightly like a ladder and the shoe wasn't so far from the bottom board. I told him and his family in my most confident voice - I got this. I climbed down and managed to wriggle my fat toe around the top of the handle pulling it to safety. A few laughs, a few more learned lessons and 15 minutes of a famy vacation we will all remember! This is a picture of us reunited with our jandles and the muddy hell they were stuck in. 

There were also these fish/lizard hybrids cruising around - remind you of mitten lake adventures anyone?!

We got back in the evening and went straight to the pharmacy where we got the medical supies I should carry with me always. Pat is all patched up now and sleeping it off probably in a dream haze of lavender and Zam-Buk. 

Panang

We have made it to Panang and is it ever hot! We got off the plane at 7pm to 31* and humidity! I love it and it feels so good to be back in Malaysia. 

Our first night was pretty easy - we met up with the family and had some food to eat at the local market.

Wedding Bells

Today is wedding day! The event started early for us...very early! Because I was staying with 3 of the 5 groomsmen our morning started at 4:30. After a mooning breakfast of McDonalds pancakes and getting everyone sorted and out the door we arrived at the grooms place at 6:30am. Shortly after the groom was nervously ready, the money was sorted and the bow ties were tight. The boys all looked so dapper in their suit and ties. 

In Chinese tradition, the pouring of the tea ceromany signifies the joining of the 2 people and their families in which at the end the 2 would be seen as married. The groom would take his friends or family and go to the brides house and barter with the brides friends and family to buy the right into the house so the groom could collect his bride. Games and events would take place before the groom won his bride. The tea ceromany would happen after this with the brides family and extended family and then the groom would take his bride to his family where they would then live. During the tea ceromany cash and gold was given to the newly weds as gifts. 

And so as traditions follow, at 7am we were arriving at the brides place and the boys needed to do some bidding and games to be able to "win" the bride, Patrina, and allow the groom, Gerry, to have her. This was entertaining including paying an entrance fee of money dominations in lucky numbers (1,2,3,6,7,8,9), a dance the boys needed to do and eating wasabi marshmallows. Once the bridesmaids were satisfied with their payments the groom and bride were united and a pouring of the tea ceromany happened between the new bride and groom and the brides parents. There was no grooms family tea ceromany as this was a much more western wedding and the grooms family lived over an hour away. 

After the tea ceromany everyone headed to Repluse Bay, a very ritzy side of the island, for the traditional western ceromany and lunch. The bride was beautiful and everything went off without a hitch. Lunch was served, speeches were made and it were all said and done by 3pm. I left Pat and the boys at this time as they needed to do 4 more hours of pictures and I enjoyed the idea of a nap before cocktails and an after party in town at 7:30. 

It was a very long day and a very happy celebration for Gerry and Patrina.

 

Markets

There is one really big problem with New Zealand and that is the time zone it is in. Being at the forefront of the time zones it's really quite a pain whenever traveling outside of its zone that really throws one for a whirlwind of early mornings and mid evening naps. 

Last night we went for dinner with the bride and groom and her parents and 2 bridesmaids. It was lovely and quite an experience. We went to the fishing village part of HK and after wandering through the markets visually eating all of the fresh seafood we settled in to a 7 course dinner of fresh shrimp, crayfish, razor clams, oysters, fish soup, fish and veggies, finished off with mango, cherries and mangosteen. It was delicious sweet and fresh and a true HK experience. 

Today started at 4am Hong Kong time. It is 5 hours behind NZ time and when thinking about meals and sleep time - 5 hours makes an impact! I, of course, waited patiently and mostly quietly for Pat to wake up a mere 5 hours later. Once up and moving my elephantiasis kankles we hit MCDonalds for my standard Asian country breakfast of pancakes, water and cafine source. 

We hit the boardwalk of stars and had a good inspection of HK island. Personally, it looks like those movies that are set in the future and where the people have moved above and beyond the graveyard of buildings and city that once was and the neon lights flickering a distant memory of what use to be. 

We then met up with a friend from NZ for a refuel of sushi and iced tea. He took us to the markets which were really cool. They are seperated by pets, electronics, shoes and knockoffs! The fish were amazing!! I took some picks for you to see. We didn't buy anything as we didn't need anything but it was great to check it out. We headed back into town and stopped for a 75 min foot and shoulder massage. Goodbye kankles hello heaven!   

Our flatmates, Dan and James, have joined us tonight and we have a dinner with the bridal party. Let the fun beginning! 

Here we go again

Pat and I are at it again! Off on another adventure - this time to Hong Kong! We have just arrived and our shoebox is just being cleaned so we are heading out to see some sights before washing off the travel filth and settling in. Our layover in Kuala Lumpur was just long enough for us to buy some new clothes and get some chicken rice! 

Bali!

So it has been a whirl win now that we are in Bali. It was all very fast to get here and now it is very slow! Exactly what we wanted :) 

We caught our flight at 8am from Sandakan to Kuta Kinabalu and then hurried to the ferry terminal to catch a boat to a near by island. We spent the day swimming, snorkelling and of course burning my white as skin. Ten at 3pm we caught the boat back and hussled our butts back to the airport to catch a 6pm flight to Bali. We were pooped, burned and so excited about our very unexpected travel plans. 

We got into kuta and it was beautiful. All the beautiful offerings on the road/ships and the frangipani flowers everywhere. I  so in love over here! We spend our next day exploring kuta and purchasing silk scarves and a few items we felt we couldn't live without. We ate an Indonesian feast and passed out cold! 

Today, we caught the 8am fast boat to Gili Trawangan and arrived at 12pm. We hiked around the island taking wrong direction after wrong turn. Finally, after getting all straightened out, and Pat hearing enough "last time.." stories we made it to our homestay. We got our swimmers on and hiked down the beach to find our favourite restaurant and lounge area. My favourite spot has been demolished...and an Italian restaurant has taken it's place. We hiked further and further till we crashed in the shade. It's been super easy breezy since then. After a good feed at the market we are ready for a good sleep. 

Much love,

Taryn