Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Kuala Lumpur

After a crazy bus ride, Erik and I finally reached our final destination of this trip: Kuala Lumpur. We checked into our hostel around 9pm and then when walking around town. While walking, we saw something that Seinfeld fans will appreciate. We saw a Kenny Roger’s Rosters restaurant 5 minutes away from our hostel. Of course during our stay we ate a meal there at it was delicious. We then headed back to the hostel for some beers.

The next day we ventured to the Petronas Twin Towers, which are the tallest twin towers in the world right now. We could not go up the towers because they only let 1200 people up due to security concerns. We then headed to Chinatown for some bargain shopping. All the shops seemed to be selling the same clothes and souvenirs. Some vendors even sold movies that were currently in theatres for about 5$. I needed short so I bargained to buy 2 pairs of billabongs for 10$ each, not bad at all. We then headed to the KL Tower, which is one of the tallest buildings in the world, but the tallest tower worldwide is still the CN Tower in Toronto. For some reason I felt some national pride ☺. That night we went to party in a part of the town called Bangsar which is full of bars and restaurants. There we met and partied with 2 Malays and 2 girls from Uzbekistan that were studying in KL.

The next day we visited Lake gardens, which is a beautiful park in the middle of the city. In the park we came across a group of Chinese school children. Their tour guide asked us where we were from and he translated to the kids that we were from Canada. The kids waived and enthusiastically said hello to us in English. They also looked surprised that 2 white guys from a distant country were in their part of the world. I was also very surprised that they knew what Canada was. After that, we took a cab to the airport (took 1 hour!!!) and flew back to Bangkok. After spending one more day in Bangkok with Erik, I then flew back to Oslo. My trip to South-East Asia was a great one and I’m glad I was lucky enough to experience countries and cultures that I thought I would never experience. I am hoping I get another chance to visit that part of the world.

Take care,

Jason

Monday, July 30, 2007

Cameron Highlands, Malaysia - 2007

Hi everyone

After a few beautiful, relaxing days in the Perhentian Islands, Erik and I headed to the Cameron Highlands. After leaving the chalets, we boarded a boat taxi to the mainland and then took a minibus from there. On the bus, we met Helen and Melanie, two very friendly South African girls who now work as physiotherapists in London. The 6 hour drive to the Highlands seemed very short as we chatted with them the whole trip. Once there we checked in to the Cameron Inn, drank beer and relaxed for the rest of the night.

The following morning Erik and I took a trekking tour around the highlands with a tour guide that asked us to call him “Money” since is real name was too hard to pronounce. Money is 52 years old and lived his whole life in the Cameron Highlands. He’s worked several jobs all over the area and was very knowledgeable. He took us to a local tea plantation and explained how the workers pick the tea leaves. The many plantations in the area are a key source for the local economy. Money then took us trekking through the jungle where he showed us some very cool plants and we even got to climb a tree vine that looked like a gym rope. This guy knew every plants name and he had the sense of smell like a dog. He would just smell an area of the jungle and would find a particular plant that he wanted to show us. He then brought us to a strawberry farm (also a source of the local economy) where we had sundays and local jam. Our last stop on the tour was a butterfly farm where we got a chance to see thousands of butterflies, snakes, turtles, scorpions and a variety of weird insects. We then headed to back to the hostel and just relaxed and chatted the rest of the night with our new South African friends.

The next day we just relaxed and walked around to explore the town. Afterwards, we then took a bus to our next destination: Kuala Lumpur. The bus driver was a crazy person that was screaming and honking at everyone on the road. Also the road was on the edge of a cliff and not very straight. The driver was taking the corners pretty damn fast so sleeping on the way to KL was out of the question.

I’ll talk about KL in the next post.

Take care,

Jason

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Perhentian Islands, Malaysia

After checking out of our hostel in Singapore, Erik and I took a bus to cross the border into Malaysia. Before crossing the border, we had to get out of the bus and go through customs. We came out of customs and noticed the bus is not there anymore. We searched for it for a while but I guess the bus decided to leave without us. Luckily the Malaysian border wasn’t very far so we decided to walk to Johore, the town at the border. Once there, we took a taxi to the local bus station. We had decided to go to the Perhentian Islands but getting there was going to be a problem. The Perhentian islands are two islands off the coast of northern Malaysia and we were in the south. All busses heading there were sold out and there seemed to be no organization in the bus system. So 3 busses, one taxi, a boat taxi and 20 hours later, we finally arrived on the beautiful islands. We didn’t reserve ahead of time so we were a little lucky that there was a spot at the Moshin Chalets. The room that we got was very basic with two beds, toilet, shower and an air fan. After all that traveling we spent the rest of the day on the beach relaxing. The sand was like white powder and the water was crystal clear and very warm. The beach was great although the temperature must have reached 45 degrees Celsius.



The next day we went snorkeling around the islands. Our guide took us to a very cool spot around one of the islands where we got to see sea turtles, clown fish and even small sharks. Although they were small sharks, the guide did say that the day before his friend did get injured from a shark bite so I was a little freaked out haha. During the lunch break, we ate at a little beach side restaurant where local goats would come up to our table to get some food. After a full day of snorkeling my back was completely burnt but I really enjoyed the experience. That night at diner, one of the owners of the chalets asked if Erik and I had any experience catching snakes. Erik and I said “no” and we were a bit confused as to why he would ask us such a question. He informed us that there was a 12 foot python in his room. I thought he was joking but he actually showed us a picture of the snake. Not being a big fan of snakes I was again freaked out. We checked out the next morning to head to our next destination. While getting ready to leave, I was brushing my teeth and spotted a huge cockroach that must have been 4 inches long behind the sink. I was so tired that I really didn’t mind it being there and I think it would have taken a baseball bat to kill the thing.

The Perhentian Islands was one of the highlights of my South East Asia trip and I hope I get a chance to visit similar areas of the world in the future.

Take care,

Jason

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Singapore, Singapore

The morning of May 22nd , Erik, a couple of his friends and I took a short flight to Singapore from Bangkok. I was pretty excited to go to Singapore because my co-worker and friend Vyoma is from there. She gave me tips and a list of things to do while I was in her home country. We first checked into Sleepy Sam’s hostel where we slept in a huge dorm. We then ventured out in the city where we went to Clarke Quay, a very beautiful place in the city full of bars and restaurants. After that we went up to the 72nd floor of the Swiss Hotel to get a beautiful view of the city. Singapore’s city skyline is full of massive skyscrapers. Later that night we went to celebrate my 25th birthday (holy crap I’m already a quarter century... eesh) along Boat Quay where we had dinner along the river. Since Boat Quay is a strip of restaurants, each one tries to persuade you to come eat at their establishment. We finally chose the restaurant that gave us 2 free beers and a 10% discount. Not bad right? Well the prices of the meals were quite high, so we basically got screwed. To end the night we headed back to Clarke Quay for more beers.

The next day we visited the rest of the sights that were on Vyoma’s must see list. We first went to see the Merlion, which is a huge half lion half fish statue and is also a fountain. The Merlion is a very popular symbol for the city. We then walked down Orchard road, which is full of shopping malls. That evening we went back to Clarke Quay for some drinks where Erik and I were hit on by a whacked out cougar! She was pretty drunk and bought us a few shots. Good times.
I really enjoyed Singapore. It was a very clean multicultural city, with an amazing metro system but it was a little too humid though haha. Perhaps the reason Singapore is so clean is that there is a fine for everything from littering to eating on the metro. I asked Vyoma about this and she said there are fines for such infractions but they are not enforced that badly. It is mostly a joke for tourists that you can get fined for EVRYTHING in Singapore.

This is just a quick warning to those planning on bringing drugs into Singapore. The immigration card that we had to fill in before landing had this written on it in big bold red letters:

“ DRUG TRAFFICKING IS PUNISHABLE BY DEATH”

LOL! Good thing I left my pound of cocaine in Bangkok… haha.

Take care,

Jason

Saturday, June 30, 2007

South East Asia: Part 1 - Bangkok, Thailand

I arrived in Bangkok on May 19th after the 12-hour journey with one stop over in Copenhagen, Denmark. The flight was really comfortable and I slept most of the time. The first thing I noticed was the extreme humidity. It was at least 45 Celsius with the humidity. Erik, a friend from University, met me at the airport. He was really easy to spot as I believe he was the only 6’2’ white guy amongst many Thais at the gate.


The first thing we did was head to Kao Sarn road which is a very busy tourist spot in Bangkok where there is many bars, hostels, street vendors, shops etc. We then sampled several Thai beers and then tried a bucket of booze, which is basically a huge pale of slushy (in several flavors) with the booze of your choice. When then headed to several bars in the area to finish the night.

The following day we went to the Grand Palace. Before we got there, some crazy lady with pigeons all around her harassed us with popcorn seeds to give to the pigeons. Scared out of our minds, Erik and I took the bags of popcorn seeds that this nutcase was forcing on us and fed the pigeons. Little that we knew, she was charging 5$ for these bags of seeds!!! We got screwed, damn! In retrospect, we should have ran away, but you never know in a foreign country. Lesson of the day: don’t trust crazy pigeon ladies! When we finally got the Grand Palace it was great. There is beautiful royal residences and it is home of the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, which I didn’t get to see because the temple was closed for repairs unfortunately. After the Grand Palace, we crossed the river to visit another temple, which had more amazing monuments. We then headed to a temple that is host to the Reclining Buddha. I was told that this was the world's largest Buddha. This thing was huge and very beautiful, and pictures don't do it justice. We finished off day 2 by meeting up with Erik’s friends and headed to a karaoke bar. This karaoke was different from what I am used to because each group of friends had their own private room and you could make a play list of the songs you wanted to sing.


On the third day in Bangkok, we went shopping on Kao Sarn, went for a Thai message and went to see some Thai Boxing. Shopping in Thailand is quite the experience. The vendors know that you are tourist and practically drag you into their shops. All the shops sell the same things so if they try to rip you off, you can easily bargain with them to get the lowest price or go to the next shop. After the shopping we went for a Thai message. We went to a very decent place and there was NO happy ending, haha. The message was nice but the girl had hands like vice grips and at times it hurt. Afterward they served us a snack and tea. I felt pretty loose afterwards and then we went to Thai Boxing. There are matches almost every day and I think there are more than 60 000 Thai boxers in Thailand, so it’s a very popular sport. The boxers are actually pretty small (no taller then 5’8’ and not over 140 pounds) and quick, which made for some great fights. During the event we got to see 10 fights and 2 knockouts! It is illegal to gamble on boxing in Thailand but that didn’t stop the few thousands of fans that were there from doing it. I couldn’t figure out their gambling system, as it seemed very random with a lot of yelling at each other. We then went back to Erik’s place and ordered McDonald’s of all things. That’s right, McDonald’s delivers in Bangkok… I couldn’t believe it.

The best way I could explain Bangkok is that it’s organized chaos. If you walk down 10 meters down a street you will get 10 different smells. It is very crowded and hectic and is very different of what I am used to from the other cities I have traveled to. It was great to experience Bangkok and it really took me out of my comfort zone. In my next post I will talk about our next stop in our journey: Singapore.

Take care,

Jason

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Liane's visit!

Hi everyone,

This post is loooong over due. May was insanely busy with travel ☺ and work ☹. Things have settled down now and I am awaiting the arrival of Mom and Dad on Canada day.

Last month, my sister Liane came to visit me for a few weeks here in Oslo. It was great to see someone from home and it was great to speak our version of the French language. For those who have not heard us speak, my family and friends back home tend to speak a hybrid language that mixes French and English. We could start a sentence in English and finish it in French or vice versa. It’s quite unique to our part of the world but the most important thing is that we understand each other. Also, she brought some nice presents from home and early birthday gifts. The best gift was the ingredients for poutine that we made for my roommate Eva and my co-workers Anna and Vyoma!!!

While Liane was here we wanted to go on a small road trip and visit Gothenburg, Sweden. That did not work out because there was a city marathon on the weekend we wanted to visit and there was no hotel rooms available ANYWHERE! We visited Kristiansand, Norway instead. We took the train and it took 4 hours to get there. The train ride was quite nice with beautiful scenery. Kristiansand is a nice small town in the south of Norway. The first day we explored the town and went sightseeing. We visited the town square, the fortress and did a little shopping. On the second day we went on a mild hike and saw some old canons hidden in the forest, which were used in the war and the port where we had lunch, and some ice cream. It was a very nice, relaxing trip.

Later in the week we celebrated May 17th – Norway’s National Day. We actually starte May 17th is a very traditional holiday where the women dress in the traditional “bunads”, and most guys wear suits or semi-casual attire. My roommate Eva was having a brunch with some of her friends and all the ladies were wearing very nice trd the party a little early as we went out with a few other trainees and coworkers of mine on May 16th. The next day was a little rough but we managed to wake up in time for the festivities.aditional dresses. Each of the “bunads” were different colors. Eva told me that the color of the dress depends on which region of Norway that the lady comes from. Liane and I then ventured to the downtown area. It was a lot like Canada Day but with A LOT less alcohol and insanity. I think people partied too much the night before. It was a very civil event and a parade was held on Karl Johan’s gate (the main street) with locals waving their Norwegian flags. I was surprised of how people were calm and civil on their National Day. There weren’t any fireworks and the day finished around diner time! WHAAAAAAAA?

I’m glad Liane got a chance to come visit me. This was Liane’s first trip to Europe and I was glad I was able to experience that with her. Next up: Mom and Dad.


The next few posts I will talk about my trip to Asia … WOOO!
Take care,
Jason

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Pictures !

Hi everyone !

Sorry I have not posted in a while but May was an incredibly busy month. First Liane, my sister, came to visit me here in Oslo and then I went on a 2 week holiday to visit Erik, a friend of mine from University. Erik was studying in Bangkok for the semester so it was a great opportunity to visit Asia for the first time. We visited Bangkok, Singapore and The Perenthian Islands, the Cameron Highlands and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

I have posted the pictures of these cities and will be writing about them in the coming week. I have also posted pictures from Kristiansand, Norway which I visited with Liane and I posted pictures of the National Day in Norway which was May 17th.

Enjoy the pictures and I will be posting about all these cities very soon !

Take care, I miss you all!

Jason