Last day, and home is not far away

Well, it's our last day in Malaysia and therefore the last day of our trip. We visited the Batu Caves today, which is a short train ride from KL Sentral. The caves are obviously a very Hindu thing to do, as there are many temples and giant statues. There are also 270 odd steps to get to the top, a bit of an ask in the stifling humidity. Still, we managed without too much effort.

Batu caves with the Lord Murugan statue, the tallest statue in Malaysia

272 steps straight up (count them).

The caves are also well known for their monkeys, which roam the area freely looking for whatever food scraps they can find. They are certainly not afraid of tourists and happily walk right around you. The caves were a good way to fill in a few hours, but nothing really to rave about. 

They look cute, but they're really like pests.

This guy was actually dismantling a tube of sun screen

To be honest, we're really finding it hard to find enough things to do here. If you love shopping malls, it's certainly the place to be. For us, however, four days is probably two days too many. I think our favorite place was the Botanic Gardens, which we visited yesterday. They were lovely, but it had bucketed down rain for thirty minutes before, then the sun came out, so the humidity went through the roof. After an hour or so we were dripping with perspiration.

Botanic Gardens

A lovely row of topiary

A cooling lake overlooks the city's buildings

Our trip has been great, but I think we're ready to go home. We're glad we visited Vietnam, and Malaysia, but neither of us feel the need to return to them. We've done eight weeks overseas this year, so might take a few months off travel to relax at home. Who knows where next year will see us; Auckland, Geneva, who knows? That's it from your intrepid travelers and see you back in Oz.

KL certainly is a city moving up.

Postscript: Thanks to Alison for once again being our navigator extraordinaire, and a great traveling companion. 

What's with those crazy Malaysian drivers?

Well, we've been in Kuala Lumpur two days now and still can't make out these crazy drivers. For a start, they all insist on driving on the correct side of the road, and everyone sticks to one lane at a time. Blowing of horns is almost unheard of, and traffic lights are followed likes it's the law (can you imagine that). We just can't get used to walking along the footpath without a motorbike wheel nudging the back of our leg. I tell you, those Malaysians are a strange bunch when it comes to using the road (I'm certain the Vietnamese style of road use will catch on with the rest of the world eventually, it's just a matter of time).

KL by night, a spectacular sight (hmm, that actually rhymes)

KL, as everyone calls it, is a very modern and exciting city, quite similar in many ways to Singapore but, without a harbor or even a river, lacking Singapore's beauty, IMHO. It is quite spread out, with a number of distinct zones. The area we're staying in is very close to the entertainment precinct, which has shops and hotels to rival New York or Paris; very upmarket. There are also lots of restaurants and food markets serving a variety of cuisines, which largely reflect the ethnic and cultural makeup of the country.

The Petronas Towers

Just like in Singapore, there are three major ethnic and religious groups in Malaysia; the Malays, the Chinese and the Indians. However, there do seem to be large numbers of middle eastern people here, with numerous Lebanese, Turkish and Iranian restaurants not far from our hotel (and all yummy). Of course, Malaysia is a multi-confessional country, of which Islam is the major religion (60 percent). It is also quite a tolerant country where you seem quite free to follow which ever god takes your fancy.

Yesterday we took the free city bus and visited Chinatown, Petaling Street markets, a Taoist and Hindu temple (we don't like to show any favoritism when we travel), plus KL's showpiece buildings, the Petronas Towers. At one stage (quite a while ago) they were the tallest buildings in the world but, to be honest, they don't look that tall when compared to the rest of KL's sky scrapers.

Taoist temple

Hindu temple

Alison went all weird on this trip and decided to explore hinduism. I left her behind in KL.

Today we intend visiting the botanic gardens and the museum. It's quite warm here but not overwhelmingly so, which means we are able to walk a fair bit without becoming exhausted. There's only today and tomorrow left before we take our morning flight back home to Melbourne on Wednesday. But, with two days before we do so, there's still plenty to see and do.

One of the many markets

We're getting ready to leave Hanoi

As the post's title says, this is our last day in Hanoi (and Vietnam) and we've just realised we're quite sad to be leaving. We've had a bit of a love-hate relationship with this city, we'd be the first to concede this, but it's not until you face the reality of leaving that you start to fully appreciate the charm and uniqueness of the whole Hanoi experience. We could never live here, did I even need to say that, but we also now have a better appreciation of a completely different way of life to our own.

We love the old trees in the French quarter

This morning we did a bit of street shopping and also walked along the Long Bien Bridge which crosses over the Red River. The bridge was actually designed by Frenchman Gustav Eiffel (now where have you heard that name before). If his tower is a magnificent piece of engineering, his bridge in Hanoi must been designed on one of his off days; it really is a piece of old, rusty junk. Still, must have been quite special when it was constructed in 1899 and was the longest bridge at that time in Asia. It's just wide enough for a train down the middle (which we were lucky enough to see) and two lanes of motorbike traffic, one going each way. However, in true Vietnam style, just because you're on a one-way lane doesn't stop you going the wrong way; happens all the time and nobody blinks an eyelid. 

Long Bien railway station

Long Bien Bridge

Very lucky to see this train crossing the bridge.

Looking down from the bridge onto the squalor below.

To finish off the afternoon we took a ride on a cyclo, which is basically a rickshaw. Our ride lasted an hour and it's amazing how much of the city we covered in that time, all at a pace not much quicker than walking. But because we're not constantly moving out of the way of motorbikes, which you do when you're on foot, it was much more relaxing. Our man peddling also pointed out some of the local landmarks for us, in very broken English.

The Hanoi Opera House

Our cyclo driver

Tomorrow we're catching up for breakfast with an old friend of ours from Wangaratta, then it's off to the airport bound for Kuala Lumpur. When I got here a week ago I couldn't wait to leave but now I'm a little less certain. A week is probably enough here in Hanoi, but it definitely grows on you. The tree-lined streets, the beautiful French buildings and the people themselves combined together to make this place very unique; but very memorable. I think we'll actually miss it.

Alison's favorite cafe, Cong Caphe - she'll really miss them.

Let's Go Back a Day

I'm (Alison) giving the chief blogger a rest and wielding the cursor for a change. He's busy watching a National Geographic documentary on Hitler, so I'll let him enjoy that.

Our day before we headed to Ha Long Bay was spent traipsing over Hanoi to visit the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum and the Temple of Literature. Tourists don't use the buses here, so it's either walk everywhere or take a cyclo or taxi. Consequently, we have covered about 10 - 12 kilometres per day sightseeing in 33 degree humidity. Here are some photos showing sights along our walks.

The mausoleum was a little disappointing considering the reviews all said it was well worth visiting. There was the usual propaganda reinforcing how successful the North Vietnamese were in defeating the nasty American and South Vietnamese, but we had been looking forward to filing past Ho Chi Minh himself. His body lies in state in a room closely guarded and tourists are permitted to file past slowly and reverently, but..... he wasn't there. He was in Moscow undergoing 'annual maintenance' (for a guy that old, I guess the maintenance must be pretty considerable, I know it is for Edwin). I have visions of him having a full body detail, that is to say, vacuum, wash, polish and perhaps a paint touch up. Lol.

This is the best we could do

I'm the itinerary supervisor and discovered the Temple of Literature on the map, so dragged Edwin another 5 km there and back based, once again, on favourable reviews. This time we weren't disappointed; a village of temples and ancient rooms showing how students learned years ago. The buildings were beautiful and the gardens serene and peaceful.  There weren't huge numbers of tourists which made it a most enjoyable visit.

Beautiful bonsai garden beds

Inside one of the many temples

Our evening was spent sitting by the lake enjoying the breeze - it's so hot and humid any breeze is welcomed. Once again we were approached by youngsters wanting an English speaking lesson - a young boy and a 22 year old lad. Edwin dutifully chatted to the young boy (parents standing close by. They didn't speak or understand any of the conversation) and I chatted to the  older boy, Zey. He was a translator of written language who taught himself to read and speak English by studying British politics and reading lots of accounting and business books. He hopes to go to Berlin next year and work as a translator. One thing we have noticed in Vietnam is that many people who speak reasonable English sometimes can't answer our questions but then later in a conversation will tell us what we wanted to know a few minutes earlier.  Zey explained that they have difficulty hearing sentences and following questions. Obviously, that's why speaking with tourists in casual conversation helps. I hope our numerous English conversations have done that.

Edwin's new friend. Unfortunately, he couldn't remember his name.

Ha Long Bay trip

Just back from our Ha Long Bay overnight stay on a boat so thought we'd put up some photos of this stunning place. Hope you enjoy looking at them as much as we did taking them.

Exploring limestone formations inside the ancient Thien Cung cave. 

Alison with a glass in her hand (some things never change)

Ti Top Island, which we climbed this morning for a spectacular 360 degree view

View from the top of Ti Top

And again

The deck of our lovely boat

A very crowded place is Ha Long Bay