Wat a Day!

Today was Wat Day Wednesday for me. Alrica is attending convention sessions for Adobe. These are at very convenient daytime hours if you live in Pacific Time. They are perhaps not as convenient middle of the night times if you are in Thailand. So after being up much of the night, Alrica then had a morning session (morning to us, evening in the West Coast of the USA.) While she learned about amazing things she can do with Adobe  products, I went for a bit of an exploration.

That is a roof! Or is it multiple roofs? And why isn't that word rooves?

I visited three separate wats. Remember wat means a Buddhist temple. I put on pants (instead of shorts, because you are supposed to be sure your knees and shoulders are covered when you enter a wat and yes, the pants only helped with the knees, but I was also wearing a shirt so my shoulders were covered too so you can stop worrying) and headed out. Each of the wats was within walking distance of where we are staying in Nonthaburi.

People leave gifts for the spirits. Red is considered auspicious and brings fortune and is symbolic of what was once a blood sacrifice. So Fanta Strawberry is the offering of choice.

Wats are beautiful in many ways. First, the roof is almost always a spectacle. Lots of layers and graceful curves. Then there is statuary. There are many Buddha statues, of course, in all kinds of poses. But there are plenty of othr statues as well. I don't know what some of the creatures are. Some look sort of like orcs in Western fantasy stories. Others are dragons or maybe something like angels. And usually there are so many details and bright, bright colors. Quite splendid.

One of the orc-like creatures. Maybe a demon, but I feel like it is meant to be a good guy.

I was able to enter two of the three temples. You take off your shoes and your hats when you enter a Buddhist temple. Inside one of them, the walls were covered in murals that told elements of the Buddha story. I don't know the Buddha story very well. But one of the murals captured my curiosity.

A regular railing? Why? We could have a dragon!

On the front wall of this temple was a mural of the Buddha (though I would later learn he isn't quite the Buddha yet. He is still Siddharta Gautama in this mural.) He is under a tree on what seemed to be the shore of a lake. In the lake were several swimmers, most of whom looked human, but a couple of them were blue, so not so human. And there was one more larger blue person on an elephant walking through the lake. On the shore, near Siddharta, is a bare breasted woman and she is holding her long hair. Out of her hair spouts the water that is pouring into the lake.

The mural is on the wall behind the statues. Sorry Buddha is blocked.

The problem with my picture of this mural is that there is a hanging lamp. So from any angle I could get a picture, that lamp is blocking Siddhartha. But you can see the swimmers, the blue man on the elephant, and the woman with watery hair.

The temple with the mural inside

So I looked it up to find out who this woman was and here is what I learned. Siddharta is meditating under the Bodhi tree. At this point there is no lake there. Siddharta is super close to reaching enlightenment. And a demon named Mara doesn't want that to happen. (I think it is Mara on the elephant.) So Mara comes with his army which includes demons but also temptors and temptresses. He is going to tempt Siddharta with earthly pleasures and thereby keep him from reaching enlightenment.

Such vibrant colors

But Siddharta is too far along in his path toward enlightenment to fall for this. He stretches his right hand down to touch the earth. In Buddhism, that gesture is referred to as the "calling the earth to witness" mudra. When he touches the ground, the goddess of the earth, Phra Mae Thorani appears a beautiful woman. She is there to testify about the Buddha's merit and how much of it he has accumulated after living many lifetimes. As proof of this, she wrings her hair and out of it pours lots and lots of water. This is all the water that had been stored from ceremonial libations that Buddha had performed over his several lifetimes.

This is a different temple, similarities, yes, but different temple

If you've seen the Lord of the Rings movies where Arwen calls forth the river which washes away the Nazgûl, imagine that. (I know in the book Arwen isn't even there, but I'm going for the visual.) This is what happened when Phra Mae Thorani wrung her hair. The water rushes out and washes away Mara and his army. And Siddharta is free to continue his path toward enlightenment.

I like to imagine Phra Mae Thorani singing her own version of "I'm Gonna Wash that Man Right Out of my Hair" from South Pacific. But her lyrics would probably be more like "I'm gonna wash this horde away with my hair and send it all away." Except, she'd probably be singing in Pali, the language of Buddha. And I don't know if the syllables would work out in Pali.

I hope Alrica learned a ton from her conference. But I got all these lovely pictures and even lovelier memories. And I didn't need a single Adobe product for that.

Spicy Desserts

You may recall in a recent post, I was discussing El Nido, Philippines. In that post, Not My Idea of Paradise, I talked about the villains in various movies who wanted to get away to a tropical paradise. But they never do. Instead, they get their just desserts. That seems wholly unfair. Desserts are good, why should the bad guys get good stuff?

However, in this case, those outlaws and evildoers are not getting the pleasant kinds of desserts. They are getting just ones. And desserts are not nearly so sweet when they are just. At least, that's how I'm taking it. Also, they aren't even getting any kinds of desserts. We pronounce the phrase as "just desserts", but it is actually spelled "just deserts." Like the bad guys are receiving very arid landscapes. You might be wondering how terrain without rain relates to the proper punishment being doled out to those who wrong others. It comes from a now archaic meaning of the word desert, which means deserve, but as a noun. So the villains are getting just what they deserve.

I suppose the heroes could also get just deserts, but we tend to only focus on the justness of the desserts served to the bad guys. But what does this have to do with anything? I'll get to that now.

Wat Thinnakorn Nimit (I'll get to it in a nimute, get it?)

In Thailand, you can buy lots of desserts. A particular favorite of ours is mango with sticky rice. But today, we bought a new one, and it wasn't super sweet, nor all that just. It's spicy. We are getting our spicy desserts. We bought some krang krong. Specifically, we got krang krong grob, which is crispy krang krong. But what is it? It's dough that is deep-fried and then coated in some sweet dessert like sauce. Except the sweet dessert like sauce includes chili. Because, you know, Thailand. So after the first piece for each of us, Alrica generously declared that I could have the rest of it myself. Isn't she sweet? Like a dessert should be?

Krong Krang

We are staying in Nonthaburi, Thailand. And we are having a very nice time. The food is amazing, and a regular meal costs about two dollars. If you splurge you could find meals for five dollars. If you go into Bangkok to some of the high end tourist areas you can find meals for ten dollars. But locally, we are generally in the two dollar per meal territory.

Check out the sheet on our bed. Making a knockoff product by knocking off the r.

Mostly this week we have been getting a lot of work done. But we did enjoy a couple of outings. On Wednesday, we walked to the open air market and the Nonthaburi Pier. It was interesting. At the point we entered the market, all the stalls were selling vegetables. Only vegetables! No fruit for you. Well, wait, there is one exception: Limes. There are limes in the vegetable stalls, but only limes. I suspect it is because these are limes that are used like you would use a vegetable when you cook.

No shortage of chili peppers

But as we walked through the market and got to other sections, now there were all stalls selling fruits, but no vegetables. (And no limes. At least not that type of lime.) And in another part of the market we found stalls selling only flowers, no fruit, no vegetables. There is no overlap between these sort of stalls. If you sell fruit, don't you dare put a vegetable or a flower on your stall! That would just confuse the whole works. I should clarify. These are fruits and vegetables not as a botanist would define them, but as a chef would. Like tomatoes and chili peppers, those are both fruits in the botanical definition. But you only found them in the vegetable section. By the way, if you wonder why I don't know if there were limes in the fruit section, well, just because something is green doesn't mean it's a lime. For example, tangerines.

Orange on the inside, green on the outside

Walking back from the market, we stopped at the Wat Thinnakorn Nimit, pictured above. The word Wat means temple. And the cool thin(g) about this wat is how thin it is. Maybe that's why it's called Thinnakorn. Like a skinny unicorn. Probably not, because the th in Thai is pronounced like an aspirated t rather than the th sound of English. So this would sound more like Teenakohrn in Thai.

The people of Pompeii may feel uneasy, but what a delicious way to go!

I have a question. Check out the picture above. I took this at a Dairy Queen here in Nonthaburi. Dairy Queen is very famous for its blizzards. But now they have moved into other natural disasters. Here they are advertising volcanoes. Is that a DQ Thailand thing? Or is that happening in other countries too?

Check this out. We stopped at a 7-11. First, you have to understand, 7-11 is a big deal in Southeast Asia. It is somehow central to the whole structure of society. And you can get so many more things at a 7-11 around here than you can at home. But along with our purchase, we got these adorable stamps.

I'm familiar with Hello Kitty. Not so much with Butterbear.

I looked it up online. It is some sort of promotional thing here in Thailand. You can use your stamps almost like cash. My three stamps are each worth 1 baht meaning, if I hold on to them I could have a discount of about 10 US cents on my next 7-11 purchase. But the big thing to do for the Thai is to collect lots of them. There are apparently books you can get where you paste your stamps and if you get enough of them, you can turn them for merchandise. You could get a Butterbear Rice Cooker or a set of Hello Kitty Tupperware. I imagine I am just going to forget I own them and they will be thrown away at some point.

I know I shouldn't do that. Because if I do, poor Hello Kitty and Butterbear aren't getting fair treatment. Or dare I say, they aren't getting their just deserts. Or their spicy desserts.

Dumplings (and other things) in Taipei

Taiwan is a pretty fun island. I should be careful saying that, as I have only visited a small portion of the island, the northern coastal region. Right now, Alrica and I are in Taipei. We have had several fun days here, with several beautiful sights and interesting museums and wow, so so many dumplings. (And other dumplingesque victuals.)

The Lungshan Temple

We arrived in the afternoon. Our first day was mainly spent in getting to the hotel from the airport and then wandering a bit in our neighborhood. We had to find dinner, and just a couple blocks from the hotel we stopped and got an order of pork dumplings and also xiaolongbao. Xiaolongbao are a must have in Taiwan. They are also dumplings, specifically soup dumplings. In addition to the meat filling of the dumplings, there is also broth inside, really flavorful broth. We've now eaten xiaolongbao several times, and there is a method. So, as a complete expert after four days, I am going to give you the lay of the land, or the lay of the bao.

Step 1: Use your chopsticks (you don't get forks here) to pick up the xiaolongbao from the top. You don't want to break the outside dumpling dough that holds the inner goodness.

Step 2: Set the bottom of the xiaolongbao in your dumpling sauce.

Step 3: Now lift your xiaolongbao and set it in the spoon. You are generally given one of those wide flat-bottomed spoons that you see at Chinese restaurants used for soup.

Step 4: Poke a hole in the dumpling dough so that some of the broth within comes out into your spoon.

Step 5: Sip the yummy broth.

Step 6: Lose patience and just eat the xiaolongbao already!

Moving on from dumplings and soup dumplings, on our second day, we took a tour. We met our guide and the rest of our tour group at the Taipei Main Station. From there we took a bus. The first stop was a village called Shifen. In Shifen, there is a lantern festival. The big business there is selling these gigantic lanterns, probably about three feet tall. And you light some fuel source in an iron ring, your lantern fills with hot air, and then it floats up and away taking your hopes and dreams to the gods. This is somewhat literal, though I'm sure they don't make it all the way to the gods. But you do write on the outside of the lantern, well, actually paint. But you are painting letters. So maybe you're writing and painting all at once.

We wrote 52 (our 52nd country), "happiness" in Chinese, and Euler's solution to the Basel Problem.

We wrote hopes for ourselves, hopes for our kids, the Chinese characters for happiness, and I wrote a math equation for good measure. Then up and away went the lantern.

Alrica at the Jing An Bridge and if you look closely, a lantern in the sky behind her

We also walked across the Jing An Bridge, had some peanut ice cream rolls (which are exactly what they sound like), and admired the Taiwanese version of a total tourist town. My usual rule for tourist towns is you know you're in one when there is a fudge shop. Well, I have to account for the fact that fudge isn't the thing here. But if it were, there would have been at least one fudge shop.

The Shifen Waterfall

From the village of Shifen we went to the Shifen Waterfall, just a bit outside the village. Here we crossed a suspension bridge to get to it. There were lovely views, but it isn't running very fast or with that much water. It has been very dry of late in Taiwan. Our guide showed us a video of the falls the day after a typhoon passed. I mean, it's not Niagara Falls, but it was a much more violent flow than what we were seeing the day we were there. Still, violent or calm, it was beautiful.

View from Jiufen when the sun was still out

View from Jiufen after the sun had set

After the falls we headed into the mountains to a city called Jiufen. Jiufen is a steep city on the side of the mountain. You walk up 400 steps to get to the top. Here we saw views of the ocean from up high, we enjoyed the architecture and the sunset, and we wandered the narrow streets full of lanterns and shops.

Jiufen streets lit by lanterns (and Alrica's smile)

After that we returned to Taipei, a bit overheated, a bit overtired, but it was a great trip.

Vending machines are everywhere here. And entire shops full of "the claw". You know, that arcade game where you try to get a claw to grab a toy. Entire shop with just those "the claw" machines.

The next day we visited the National Taiwan Museum. It had a lot of exhibits, but its general theme was that of natural history. We learned about the formation of Taiwan from plate tectonics. We learned that during the last ice age, it is believed that the Taiwan Strait was not water, but rather a land bridge connecting Taiwan to mainland China. During this time, many animals used that land for hunting. But when the waters rose again, some went west to China and some went east and ended up on Taiwan. The trouble for those on Taiwan was its size. There wasn't enough food and space for them and they died. So there are fossils found in Taiwan of rhinoceroses, Asian tigers, and more. Many of these species had died in Taiwan well before any humans moved in.

The Chiang Kai Shek Memorial

Today we visited Liberty Square. This is a large plaza with an impressive archway gate. Then inside there is the National Concert Hall on one side and the National Theater on the other. In between is an open square, currently being decorated. But when it is not being decorated, it is a space for public dissent and demonstrations. Beyond the square is a long stretch called Democracy Boulevard. And at the end of it is the impressive Chiang Kai Shek Memorial.

The National Theater

The size and grandeur of these buildings is staggering. And at the base of the Chiang Kai Shek Momorial, every hour, there is a demonstration by the Taiwanese military that involves a lot of twirling and throwing of rifles with bayonets. The soldiers involved in the performance wear stark white uniforms with stark white helmets. (Is any color other than white ever referred to as stark?)

Look at those uniforms. Stark, am I right?

Tonight we went to the Lungshan Temple which is a Buddhist and Taoist mixed temple. The architecture is breathtaking and it is very beautiful at night. From there we headed to the Guangzhou Street Nightmarket. Here we ate sausage in sticky rice (which is crazy, the sticky rice is shaped like a sausage, but then they cut it open and it is used as a bun), taro balls, sweet potato balls, and, you guessed it, dumplings.

That is not a typo. They are honestly selling phallic cakes. On the street!

Tomorrow we leave this lovely place. But we might have to come back one day. We'll miss it here. Especially the dumplings.

Over seven thousand islands but only 18 days

With 7,641 islands in the Philippines, and a strong dislike for travel days, planning country number 51 was especially challenging. It seemed like a good time to test AI travel recommendations so I asked it where we should spend two weeks in the Philippines and drilled down from there. After getting specific ideas of places, hotels, and activities, I consulted some friends who had been recently and read all I had time for on Facebook and I was ready to book. Our decision was to spend 2.5 weeks in the Philippines at three different locations:

 

El Nido, Palawan. This was our beach week. We stayed at a small inn on the Caalan Beach access road which had a very local feel. The road isn't wide enough for a full-size car so tricycles are the way to get around and when it rains, the road is muddy up to your ankles and the locals typically walk around barefoot, a reasonable accommodation to the weather. Internet was crazy strong for a backwater place like this at around 200 mbps but the power went out frequently and the water often went with it. El Nido City is run entirely by the tourism industry. Off the main drag, we could get meals at a closer-to-local price of about 130 Pesos (US$2.25) but inside the city (a 15 minute walk), those exact same meals would run closer to 400 Pesos (US$6.91). We loved the silogs and banana shakes! 

As you walk the streets, there are tour operators on every block and people everywhere trying to sell you things. The big thing here is island hopping tours labeled A-D. We did Tour C which went to five different islands and focused on snorkeling. It was amazing! Since it was off-season, we got a 10 percent discount on the tour putting it at 1600 pesos (27.48 each) plus another 100 pesos each for the rental of the snorkel gear and water shoes. Over the next 7 hours (rain or shine) we visited five islands with different characteristics each. Water shoes were essential and kayaking was an option that we skipped. This was by far our best day!

The beach right at El Nido was rocky and not swimmable but a short tricycle ride put us at soft sandy beaches that were worthy of a day of relaxation. Each of the main tourist beaches were well equipped with restaurants but didn't have working showers.  

Cebu City. An hour long flight away is this lovely city of less than a million people that pays homage to its Spanish colonial roots as it grows to meet the needs of its expanding population. While it is possible to do day trips to swim with whale sharks and turtles, those tours leave at 3 AM and return around 10 PM and we just didn't have that energy. Instead, we dug into the history and cultures that was so unique to the region. We visited the site of Magellan's cross which was built to memorialize the visit of Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 and wandered past the Basilica and the Cathedral (pants are required dress code here!) before spending an hour exploring Fort San Pedro, built as a Spanish defense in the 1700s.

 

Now hungry, we made our way to the Carbon Market. This is a local market that sells fruits and vegetables along with handmade goods and all sorts of grocery items. We saw more mango here than all the people in the city! Making our way upstairs, we stumbled upon a variety of food stalls selling assorted dishes for under 100 pesos ($1.72). We tried several different options before deciding that we had had enough of the heat and were ready to return to our air conditioned hotel. Since the streets near the market would not be navigable by a grab car, we headed for a more major street and found a tourist focused food hall which lead to our first taste of the Lechon dish that Cebu is known for. 

 

With an early morning start to beat the heat, we took a Grab to the Cebu Taoist Temple. The temple is on the top of a beautiful hill overlooking the city in a gated community. Dressed appropriately in long pants and following the requested silence mandate, we explored the grounds and learned a bit about the Tao beliefs. 

 

Closer to our hotel near IT Park, we took full advantage of the night markets and street vendors, even buying rolls from a guy that cooked them in an oven attached to his motor bike. And we got to enjoy the mango smoothies that became a staple of our diet here. 

Manila. With only a couple days left in the islands, we met up with a US friend who has an office here to explore the capital. We learned the story of Dr. Jose Rizal, national hero from the Spanish Colonial era, visited San Sebastian Church, and immersed ourselves in the National Museum of Anthropology (they speak over 175 languages here!), before heading to Makati for our Night Street Food tour. We tried all sorts of new foods (some good and some not great) and enjoyed live music as our guide shared his life experiences. 

 

 

Finally, for our last full day in the Philippines, and with a few final pesos to spend, we headed over to the Singing Cooks and Waiters restaurant where Erich joined in on the fun! 

This is definitely a place we will need to return to! Each stop had its own feel and culture and foods and yet there were some commonalities. First the facts: everyplace we stayed used electrical outlets that would fit US plugs, cars drive on the right side of the road but I wouldn't rent a car given how bad the traffic and roads are (and Grab ride-shares or tricyles are cheap), lots of places don't have toilet paper in the bathrooms and don't allow you to flush so bring your own or get used to the sprayers. 

But the fun stuff: We discovered that Filipinos love to sing! In every grocery store or restaurant, music would be playing and the staff would be singing along, often loudly. We learned that the heat is pretty oppressive here so staying hydrated is important. Obviously they believe so too because all over the country, you will find filtered water dispensers. You grab a plastic bag and plug in a single peso and you get a bag of water!

Finally, Filipinos are proud of their beautiful islands and love to share all that they like about them. Hope you enjoyed us sharing this!

Not My Idea of Paradise

In movies, when people visualize paradise, it is usually presented as somewhere tropical where they lie on the beach, in the shade of a palm tree, drinking Mai Tais and leaning back in a low lounging chair. They might be wearing swimsuits or sunglasses or straw hats, but the locale is always this tropical beach idea. Often these are criminals imagining what they are going to do with their loot and have the further requirement of a place with no extradition agreements. But let's set that aside for the moment.

I am currently in such a place. We are in El Nido, on the island of Palawan, in the western portion of The Philippines. I have no idea what the extradition sitch is, but as I am not, so far, being sought out by the long arm of the law, I don't need to fret such details. Also, I've not yet seen anyone drinking Mai Tais on the beach here. If I see people drinking anything, it's usually beer. And they don't have low lounging chairs, instead they sunbathe on towels, sometimes topless (the women. Well, the men too, but for whatever reason that isn't worthy of remark.) Nonetheless, this is, as Flynn Rider describes in his post-life-of-crime dream, "somewhere warm and sunny." Arguably, El Nido is paradise.

But not to me.

You cannot argue with a sunset like that. Or can you?

Maybe I'm just different than the criminal classes and other dreamers in movies. Maybe I wouldn't make a good fictional character in a movie. Maybe that's why no one has yet made a movie about me. (Yeah, I'm sure that's the only reason.) Whatever the reason, a tropical island with sandy beaches just isn't paradisiacal to my way of thinking.

To give credit where it is due, El Nido is beautiful. I only have a few pictures (I will come to that in a bit.) But when it is sunny out and you walk along the beach and look into the water, it's majestic. In the shallows you see the light earth tones of the sand just centimeters below the surface. In the slightly deeper areas, the water appears vivid light green. And where it really drops off, the sea is like liquid emeralds, or maybe just one large liquid emerald. What's even better is that here and there, popping up out of the water like Godzilla rising from the depths (which is more of a Japan thing, but I don't know if The Philippines has a Godzilla equivalent,) are these huge mounds. They are islands made of limestone which was made by coral that died a gazillion years ago. (How's the word "gazillion" for intense mathematical precision?) Then tectonic activity thrust them up and the limestone eroded in rain and seawater. What's left is nearly vertical cliffs with lots of exposed limestone, but also lots of lush green plant life.

It's called a karst landscape

Palawan Island itself is atop this same long deceased coral, and you see those jutting mountains limestone heaps not just in the water, but in the land. It is fascinating to see and makes me wish I had a firmer command of geology.

There's that liquid emerald

The people here are super friendly. English is spoken by most everyone. While there are people trying to sell you trinkets on the beach, like unearthed American coins from 1804 found in shipwrecks or necklaces with real shark teeth, they aren't too pushy. They're actually friendly, even after you say no. The weather is a mixed bag. When it rains, wow does it rain. A lot of water falls fast, though it isn't usually with much wind, so it falls straight down. When it is sunny, it is so very sunny. It's also hot and humid and you feel a five degree (or more) difference between being in the sun and being in the shade.

The limestone mounds rising up over the land as well

Yet, after all of that beauty, I don't like it here. I don't hate it, but I don't like it. I've never been a beach bum, a beach enthusiast, or a beachcomber. The point: beaches don't entertain me that much. A few days ago, we did visit a beautiful one called Vanilla Beach, and I played in the water for a couple hours. And that was enough for me. On Saturday, we are taking a tour to like four or five breathtaking beaches. We can snorkel at them. And I suspect that will be about three or four more breathtaking beaches than I need. But hey, it's paradise, right?

We are in El Nido for a total of eight days. Eight freakin' days! Why? Because the oil, which should have lasted only one day, miraculously lasted for eight! (No, I think I'm confusing that with another eight day stretch.) Really it was about good prices on flights with little to no thought about "is there enough to do in this place to keep anyone entertained for eight days?" For me, that answer is no. I had my fill after day two, now I'm in the middle of day five, and looking ahead to the three I have remaining, it's like that camera effect where everything stretches and gets further and further away. There's just nothing much I want to do here.

Ironically, the good news is that I do have work to get done. (Work is the good news, Erich? Yes, Erich. That's what I meant by "ironically".) I'm designing some new courses and taking over another course in the Spring semester. So I have lots of development work to accomplish. I try to do that when the forecast calls for rain and do walks when it is supposed to be sunny. But that doesn't always go as planned. For example, as I write this it is sunny and beautiful out. But the forecast says it will be raining now. And why don't I go walk right now instead of typing this blog? Because I only recently returned from a huge walk, got rained on near the end, and then arrived back to the hotel room drenched in sweat. I took a shower to cool off and clean up. Incidentally, water pressure in El Nido is minimal. The hotel even provides a huge bucket filled with water and a smaller bucket to dump with in case you don't have enough pressure to flush the toilet. As you might imagine, I don't want to go back out and start the sweat process over again.

What's more, I'm alone most of the time. Alrica has work too, and she doesn't feel the compulsion to save it for the rainy times. So most of my walks are all by myself. That's not new. Everywhere we go, I do a lot of walks by myself, no big deal. Frequently, I listen to audiobooks while I walk and/or have a destination in mind. Here I have neither.

Why no audiobooks? This gets back to why I have fewer pictures to share. I broke my phone. I don't have a camera to take more pictures, nor a device to play audiobooks while I walk. And El Nido is not a major metropolis where I can get it repaired nor buy a new one. Nor will I be posting a link to this blog post on Facebook. You see, Facebook thinks I do belong to those criminal classes mentioned earlier and won't let me log in without authenticating. That's another thing one needs a phone for! (I rarely log into Facebook except to post blog links, so honestly, that's no big loss for me.)

In fairness, I can't blame El Nido for the broken phone. I could blame gravity, but gravity got a huge assist from me and my graceful and almost balletic ability to fumble an object in my hands which really should not be fumbled. Yaaaay Erich!

As for destinations, well, I do walk on the beach and I can walk along the streets of El Nido where drivers of the vehicles they call tricycles ask me if I want to get a ride to somewhere. But there aren't a lot of great destinations I could walk to without walking along the main highway. Honestly, I could do that. It's not like an interstate. But it doesn't have any sidewalks. And I would be going up over some mountains to get anywhere interesting.

Except, I would love to go to the karst formations themselves. I would love to walk right up to one of them and touch the limestone and examine it more closely. But the land right at the base of these sheer cliffs seems to be private land. What's more, it seems to be unattractive private land, as I would guess some of Palawan's least affluent people live there. My evidence is the prevalence of corrugated aluminum as part of the building material of their homes. So I can't say that for sure. Maybe corrugated aluminum was all the rage in the days when those homes were built. Maybe you paid extra for the corrugation! Doubtful, but maybe.

I'm trying to keep a positive attitude and make the best of it. One of my father's three maxims, his third, is "attitude is everything." (Though my brother might say my father's third maxim is "Don't get caught with your pants down." That's a family joke, so just shrug it off.) Plus, I know I won't improve my happiness by being miserable. Still, at times it feels good to rant. So lucky you, dear reader, I'm ranting in your direction. Soak it in!

I'll take more walks in the coming days. Probably not on the day we go snorkeling, which does sound super fun. At least at the first location. I don't know if it will continue to be as fun each time thereafter or if habituation will kick in. But I suppose I might see different fish. (I mean fish species. I am sure I won't be seeing the same individual fish since a motorboat will take us from one location to another. Maybe the fish can outrun the boat, but why would they want to? And even if I did see the same individual fish, would I really recognize them? "Oh hey, Natalie Fish is back!")

Well, thanks for letting me rant and complain for a bit. Do I feel less lonely? Maybe a little. Do I feel less bored? Definitely while I am still writing this I do. Do I feel less hot and sticky? Of course, I'm sitting in an air conditioned hotel room. Let's face facts, I don't have too much to complain about. My life, even in El Nido, isn't that hard.

But I wouldn't say it's paradise.

To the Doctor

In this life of travel, we don't have a regular doctor we can visit. That does need to happen from time to time. So this week, here in Kuala Lumpur, we dealt with doctor visits. Malaysia is one of the countries in the world with a big medical tourism industry. So you can get all kinds of tests and procedures done with doctors who speak English. And it is so affordable compared to the USA.

On Tuesday, we visited the eye doctor. I need new glasses and Alrica wanted to have her eyes checked to see if she needed glasses. My prescription changed, as expected. Alrica's vision isn't quite as good as it was, but no need for glasses yet. The doctor recommended she consider driving glasses, but since we almost never drive, that didn't seem like a major concern.

It's not 20/20 vision, it's 6/6 because they measure in meters!

For both of us to see the eye doctor and for me to get glasses was $379. That might seem higher than expected, but understand, my vision is pretty bad. In the USA, I spend well over $400 on the glasses alone, and that's in addition to the doctor's visit.

I don't have the new glasses yet, but they should come in some time this week. And then we will go back to pick them up. The eye doctor is only about a 17 minute walk from where we live.

On Friday, we went to the whole body doctor. What we really did was visit Tung Shin Hospital where we had a battery of tests performed in addition to seeing a doctor. Everyone spoke English, though often with accents. That's not a problem, but here is what's surprising. I never realized how much I depend on seeing someone's face to interpret them, especially if they have a thick accent. But at the hospital, when all the personnel wear masks, my reliance on seeing lips move was apparent.

It was an amazing process, moving us from one department to another. I had a physical assessment from the doctor, blood drawn (I don't have the results yet), an EKG (all is good), a chest x-ray (all is good), an abdominal ultrasound (all is good), and I gave a urine sample (no results yet.) There was very little waiting, well, until I was all done. Alrica had all the tests I had and more. The comprehensive female package involves several tests that men don't get including mammogram, pap smear, and bone density test. So my only waiting was at the end, because I was done before Alrica.

We were able to log in and see our results from the ultrasound and x-rays that afternoon. We have to wait for the blood and urine tests, probably about a week. Though today and tomorrow are national holidays in Malaysia. Today is Merdeka, that's their Independence Day. So it may take slighly more than a week. When the results are back, we return to the hospital and discuss them with a doctor, again, in English.

Are you ready for the amazing part? Then entire costs of all of this, for both of us put together, was $350. In the USA, I would pay more than $350 just to hold the cup that would eventually contain my urine sample.

And get this: They also gave us a meal voucher. We had to fast, of course, and then after it was all over, we got a voucher to go eat at their cafeteria. We had an interesting experience there too. We were sharing a table with an elderly Malaysian man, and he had so many fascinating things to share. He worked in the cable industry, not cable TV, but actually making cables. He explained that in the poorer countries they use aluminum cables, because that's cheaper. But in richer countries, they use copper cables because you can get the same strength with a much smaller diameter.

He also told us that there is a big parade and celebration for Merdeka in Putrajaya, but if you try to go in person it is very crowded and you can barely see the parade. If you really want to see the parade, you should watch it on TV. He had opinions on a lot of things. Don't bother going to the cities of Japan, they aren't worth it. If you want to go to Hong Kong, sure, but like for a day, maybe two, and then you've done anything worth doing. But Kuala Lumpur, well, that's an amazing city you could spend lots of time in. (I think there might have been a bias.)

He did warn us that for Merdeka, all the restaurants and shops would be closed. So Alrica and I spent Saturday preparing for that. We visited a different part of town where we had lunch and tried a new dessert (new to us) called cendol. It looks a like a bowl of white soup with green noodles. But the white soup is sweetened coconut milk, the green noodles are made of pandan which is an aromatic plant. There is palm sugar in it and shaved ice. Ours also had red beans. It was delicious.

The grocery store we visited sells meat by the block

We bought a lot of new foods and some old ones. But we have a variety of fruits that you don't get in the USA. For example, here is longan.

Longan sold on the branches

Those brown spheres on the branches hold the fruit inside. But the brown part is a shell which you have to break off and peel. Inside is a white fruit that is slightly transparent. In the middle of the white fruit is a large black inedible seed. Longans are good, but an appreciable amount of work for not a lot of fruit.

Emas Bananas

Here we have a variety of banana called Emas. The bananas in the USA are Cavendish. You can get Cavendish bananas here too, but also several other varieties. We decided to try the Emas variety. It's good, they are much smaller than a Cavendish banana, but they have a richer flavor.

Snake Fruit (Salak)

This last one is called salak, or in English it is called snake fruit. That's because that outer brown skin looks like the scales of a snake. Much like with a longan, you have to break off this outer peel. Inside is a white fruit, but opaque, not translucent. It also has a large seed, but there is a lot more fruit in each one, so you get more edible part for your effort than with a longan. The fruit is sweet. Alrica said is reminds her slightly of ginger.

I wonder if in Malaysia they have a saying, "A snake fruit a day keeps the doctor away."? Probably not, and besides, we went out looking for the doctor. So it wouldn't be very fair to keep her away.

Straws, Tears, and Jet Lag

The struggle is real! At least the struggle with jet lag sure is. Today, I am writing this at around 4:30 PM in Malaysia, but if you ever notice that I'm posting anything around 4:30 AM in an American time zone, then it probably means I am still not adjusted to the time change.

We arrived on Friday at around 10 AM (Malaysia Time). We couldn't check into our apartment until 3 PM. No worries, we killed some time, but it was time we had to stay awake. By the time we were settled into the apartment, my brain was convinced it was day time (which it was.) So I did a quick run out to a grocery store (called Wmart. And no, it is definitely not Walmart. And it's pork free!) Why did I go? Well, because I was sure that either Alrica or I would be awake in the middle of the night when everything was closed and we'd be starving. That was a good call.

Note that the label says burger bun. I don't think they have the same idea of burgers as I do.

By about 5:30 PM, I was exhausted, as was Alrica. But we couldn't just go to sleep for the night. Both of us had work meetings that were on Friday morning in the USA, but that meant late Friday night in Malaysia. My first meeting was 10 PM and my second at 11 PM. Alrica's meeting was also 11 PM.

So we took a nap from about 5:30 to 8:30 PM. And let me tell you, I was so dead to the world during that three hours. When the alarm went off, I couldn't figure out what the sound was, where I was, and I was perhaps a bit confused about who I was.

I had all kinds of computer troubles, because you know, why not give troubles when I'm exhausted. So I was up until about 3 AM trying to deal with those after my meetings ended. So I ended up in bed after 3 AM and I didn't wake until 10 AM. That's pretty good though, right? Because maybe I can adjust now.

Not so much, on Saturday, I was so tired by 5 PM. But I pushed through and didn't go to sleep until 9:30 PM. That way, I would start to get on the right schedule. Except it didn't work. I was up at 2:17 AM this morning, which is Sunday. I did get back to sleep around 5 AM and woke again at 8 AM. We'll see how tonight goes.

Even with these odd patches of wakefulness and sleep, we've been keeping active. Well, during the wakeful parts.

Petaling Street Arch at the north end of the market

On Saturday, we headed to Petaling Street, or Jalan Petaling in Malay. Petaling Street runs right through the heart of Kuala Lumpur's Chinatown. There are a lot of Chinese descendants and immigrants here. On Petaling Street, there is a huge market, like a souk in Morocco. It is open air, lots of stalls that are outside buildings, some shops that are inside buildings, selling most anything you could need, like home goods, clothing, souvenirs, and food. We ate lunch in one of the courts where there are tons of tables in the middle and lots of mobile food stands around them. We had Mongolian Chicken. I'm not sure what makes it Mongolian, but it was like a crunchy fried chicken in a sauce, served with rice. I got pineapple juice to drink with it, which came with a straw (as you might expect) and a spoon. Why a spoon? I don't know.

Mongolian Chicken

About straws. You always seem to get a straw here when you get a drink. Alrica bought ground sugar cane drink in a bottle. As we were walking away, the vendor alled Alrica back to tell her that she forgot her straw. I bought Coke in a can at a restaurant. And it came with a straw. It seems that drinking from a bottle or can isn't done here, unless through a straw.

The Painted Terrapin from the front

Near the Petaling Market is the Central Market. This market has crafts and art, though it does also have a fancy grocery store and several food establishments. Outside we saw a sculpture called The Painted Terrapin. I'll be honest, if it hadn't told me it was a terrapin by putting it in the name, I might have thought it was a cockroach. I admit, it doesn't have six legs. But it also doesn't have a tail. Maybe it does, but it is sitting on it in such a way that I can't see it.

The Painted Terrapin including shell, still not convinced

Today, Sunday, we walked about 30 minutes to a mall. We don't yet have SIM cards for our phones. We were trying to get a particular SIM package from a particular cellular company and we have to go to one of their stores to do it. The closest such store was in the mall. Incidentally, they don't have that package, even though the company's website says that they do. But it was not a wasted trip.

This mall, the Sunway Velocity Mall, is fascinating. In the main atrium, they were having the finals for children's badminton from 22 August through 24 August (today.) We saw a girl's U12 Badminton Finals match and later in the day a boy's U15 Badminton Finals match. That was different, a sporting competition in a mall. But probably a lot nicer in an air-conditioned mall than in the humid open air of Kuala Lumpur.

We got lunch at the mall. There were so many food choices it was a bit overwhelming. But we decided to get traditional Malaysian food. I got Curry Laksa, which includes meat, bean sprouts, half a hard-boiled egg, and rice noodles in a red broth. Alrica got Nasi Lemak Rendang. This has a piece of chicken in a red ginger sauce served with rice and peanuts and the other half of the hard-boiled egg and some beans in another sauce.

Several Traditional Malaysian dishes available

Traditional Malaysian food is spicy! I really enjoyed my Laksa, but it was so spicy that my eyes were watering like artisan springs. My nose was running like a faucet that needs the services of a plumber. Tears were streaming down my face. I'm being honest, the flavors were amazing. But it was also a level of spice beyond that of Mexico or Tunisia. I'm talking tongue and lips burning, eyes and nose running, and ears, well, my ears were unaffected.

Alrica is not very fond of chili pepper. I must say, she is the bravest culinary adventurer though. Even knowing she doesn't do well with spice, she wanted to try traditional Malaysian food. And she got through half of it. And around half of my drink. So I ended up with a lunch and a half and she ended up with a drink and a half. I should note, Alrica also found the flavors were magnificent. But the spice was too much for her to finish the entire meal.

In many parts of the world, it is super common for malls to have grocery stores in them. This mall is no exception. So we did a fuller grocery run while we were there. There are some very interesting products in the grocery stores of Malaysia.

Monster chips and seasoning packets

Check out these Monster chips. They are not potato chips. They are actually fried Ramen noodles. And they come with a seasoning packet (not spicy) which you pour on the chips, then crush the chips in the bag, shake the bag, and then eat them. There are even instructions with the monster showing you how to do it. The monster looks like some relative of Grover from Sesame Street. Remember Super Grover? Well, this is like Growth Hormone Grover.

Growth Hormone Grover showing me how to prepare my chips

We also found a new trio of ice cream flavors. It's not Neopolitan. It's Tripolitan: Sweet Corn, Yam, and Potato. We did buy it, but I haven't tried it yet. I'm curious. If you're thinking, ew, consider this: What do people in other countries think about putting chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry together in one container? Honestly, I don't know the answer. I could do a survey! I doubt I'm going to. But I do suspect I will enjoy the ice cream.

Is the yellow the sweet corn and the orange the mango? Or is the orange the sweet corn and the yellow the mango? I'm pretty okay with purple being the yam.

We are only two days in. Would I say Kuala Lumpur is worth the tears and jet lag? Oh yes! So far, I really like it here.