Fruit Season

It's amazing how much easier everything is from here.

I suspect I've made versions of this post before, but it never hurts to remind one's self of things.

I was sitting on a plane at KL airport earlier today, waiting to take off. Since I'm somewhat scared of flying, I was carefully thinking about things unrelated to my potential plummety death. I was reminded once again (since I've been a little grumpy the last few days) of just how lucky I am - and how deeply grateful I am for all the wonderful experiences and choices I have, and the people around me.

After all, I've just spent a relaxing, interesting week in Thailand, and three fabulous days in Kuching, Borneo - city I'm looking forward to visiting enough to love. And here I was on my way to Penang, one of my favourite places in the world, to bask in the warmth, breathe in the spices, visit favourite sights, and eat myself senseless.

Yes, I'll still be unemployed when I get home, and still unsure about what I want to do. And I'm still dealing with chronic pain, and all the limitations and difficulties that go along with that, and the usual assortment of woes and troubles. But really, to be who I am, with the amount of choices I have open to me, and the security of people I care about around me, and a society with relatively effective safety nets, the problems don't seem as large and dramatic as they do when I think about them alone. So I'm very grateful.

And I'm so grateful for the chance to travel!



PS: What does the title of the post mean? It's for my travel companion, the Chocolatier, really. When we were going out to see the orangutans at the rehabilitation last Monday, our guide person told us that they often didn't come to the centre for food when it was fruit season, as they were too busy frolicking in the jungle eating the fresh fruit to bother with the provided food and chattering tourists. So fruit season has come to mean all things fun, well-fed, and full of frolicking.

Luckily for us, fruit season has just finished up for them, but this holiday has definitely been fruit season for us.

Singapore by Night

Still, even when I could barely move out of the hotel room, as soon as night fell I could limp onto our balcony, and make photos of a view like this.

Stunning.

Singapore's a surprising city. Not as prissy as it was seven years ago when I was last there; it's become clean and gracious and very, very modern - even down to proudly displaying its history as 'heritage'. I love it.

KL Streets

KL hadn't changed much, unsurprisingly enough - it was only a few months since I'd been there last. It was comforting, though - I feel oddly at home there. The smells, the heat, and the noise and movement all feel strangely familiar. It was a good feeling.

Islands in the stream

My birthday was a little over a fortnight ago now, still in the cold and wet part of winter. While cold is pretty, it gets into my bones and joints, and aches all over. To make matters worse, my partner would be away for work over the week of my birthday as well. Rather than pine and mope, I decided to go too.

I flew over this island on my way to KL - the photo was taken pressed up against the plane window, believe it or not. It was roughly around Indonesia. I'd dearly like to know what it is - it looks beautiful, and I'd like to actually go there, rather than just fly over it.

Holiday 7

Elephant love, Kuala Gandah Elephant Conservation centre.

Elephants! Real, live, moving-trunked, not-frightened-of-mice elephants!

Our last full day in Malaysia saw us at Kuala Gandah Elephant Conservation centre. It's about an hour and a half out of KL, near Taman Negara National Park. There's a group of people relocating elephants without a native habitat to the National Park; this is their education centre.

We actually saw wild elephants on the drive down to the centre. Well, we saw the backside of one - real, live, wild elephant butt! There's a picture of it, and of the front half, over in the gallery. (We saw more than just the butt on the way back out, you see.)

We watched the elephants frolic in the river, then fed them, then got to ride one briefly... then one took great delight in tossing the houseguest into the river - again, there's pictures in the gallery of a wet houseguest falling off a hephalump.

It was so amazingly cool! I bought T-shirt for a friend back in KL, and Marcus got one for himself, and I spent the rest of the way back bouncing about how I'd gotten real elephant spit on my hands. Their trunks are so soft! And their ears are so leathery!

You can read more about the centre, and make a donation if you want to help out, here.

Holiday 6

Room with a view.

I took far more photos than I realised in Penang! There was so much more I wanted to show you- the painted VW Beetle with it's own woven-cane sunhat, the old man in the markets with the daughter who was studying in Melbourne, and the Eastern & Orient Hotel, where the Houseguest made me take dozens of photos so we could relive the luxuriance later... and much more.

Sadly, though, the week moves on, and it's time to go back to KL. We came back in, tired and sore from the busride, to the lovely Ancasa hotel. Such a comforting place to come home to! My trip has given me a fetish for white hotel sheets, I swear.

This photois our view from the hotel window. That thing that looks like a less daggy Centrepoint is the KL Tower, and to its right you can see one of the Petronas towers, with the second hiding just behind it. Sadly, we couldn't tell if Catherine Zeta-Jones was danging from them.

Nice view, yes?

Holiday 5

Tattered Wings.

The houseguest's parent's neighbour's sister lives in Penang. She arranged for us to hire her taxi driver, who drove us around Penang and showed us many places we wouldn't otherwise have seen. One of these places was the Butterfly Farm, where I met the butterfly you see here.

This is possibly my favourite photo from my entire holiday; the combination of greens and browns makes me feel very peaceful. The little guy is gorgeous in himself, too, as well as photogenic. I can't help wondering, though, if his wings are meant to look that tattered, or if his summer is almost over.

I, uh, had even more photos than usual to put up today, so there are two new galleries of holiday snaps. You can see the Butterfly Farm and the Tropical Spice Garden by clicking on the photo or here, and the Thai Buddhist temple Wat Chayamangkalaram, along with the Dhammikarama Burmese Buddhist temple can both be found here.

Holiday 4

Ruins of Shih Chung Branch School, Georgetown.

There was an old, abandoned Protestant cemetery around the corner from our first guest house, and being me I had to check it out. It was amazingly beautiful; overgrown frangipanis hanging over graves shrouded in moss and lichens, Old Man's Beard draping over all. You can see pictures in today's gallery.

When I peered over the fence of the graveyard, though, I saw this.

As near as I can tell, it was burned down. It was sitting in the middle of its block in grand decay, with the afternoon sun creating dramatic highlights for a fallen beauty. We went a little way inside; but not far. By this stage, I was very, very sore, and the ground was humped with rubble and debris; not the most stable base for crutches.

Poor house; its only students now are trees.

Holiday 3

Trishaw driver taking it easy, Penang.

I like KL a lot, but I adore Penang. It's changed a lot since I was last there, seven years ago. It's bigger, and newer, and a lot more bustling, but in that time they've also started to recognise a lot of their heritage buildings, and start trying to preserve them.

It means there's a lot more to see, and more places to stay. There's still food sellers on every street, and it's still a lot more relaxed than KL, and still friendly and welcoming. We left reluctantly, and are already planning to go back.

As always, click on the photo to go to a gallery of more shots from around Penang. Enjoy!

Holiday 2

Chan and Mark in Melaka town square.

Chan is an old friend of the Houseguest, who very kindly kept us company in KL, and showed us where the tasty food was, and took us on a day trip to Melaka... then patiently put up with me crippling slowly around the place, and stopping every three seconds to take photos. Thank you, Chan!

Just like yesterday, click on the photo to go to a gallery of shots of Melaka. There's a few more than yesterday, so be sure to check out the extra pages. And remember, the gallery only shows thumbnails - be sure to click through to see the actual pictures!

Holiday 1

Guandi Temple

Guandi temple, aka Kwang Siew Free School was the first thing we saw when we got out of our cab from the airport. It was the centre of KL's Chinatown, at the beginning of the evening. The smells of the markets; people, cooking food, and drains washed over us, along with the incense wafting out of the temple.

The next day, we went in to take a look. Since these are holiday snaps as well as theme posts, you can click on the photo to take you to a gallery of the shots of the temple. Yay!

Or you can click here.

Theme for the week starting Monday 19th May, 2008...

... is HOLIDAY!

Also, while I'm being all administrative, stay tuned later in the week - I'll be making an announcement about the blog and the way it works.