The Dark Cave!!!!!

Ok so here we are...now there are not many pictures of this cave because you can not take many pictures or the bats would probably attack you. Yup the bats...so Doug and I discovered this cave as we were walking out of the Main Hindu cave. And decided to pay for a tour..thinking that it wouldn't be so bad.....

So it said this in four different languages....and we still went. I honestly thought I would be ok because I had done some creepy stuff before but....

So we had to wear hard hat and head lamps and boot that we got to borrow. Doug and I also bought socks there so we didn't have to share as many foot cooties with everyone.

Pretty amazing that you can look this good when you are about to walk in a very dark cave and think that you are not going to get creeped out. So Doug and I and four other people have decided to brave the cave with our guide. We thought it was going to be an half an hour tour but little did we know.....these other people were wearing sandals...no way I was going to walk around in bat poop with sandals on. Ok we start walking and it smells so bad that one lady wrapped a tissue around her face..like that was going to help. Then the guide starts talking about the cockroaches that eat the bat poop...and you can see them run around. Well by then i had kind of blocked him out because I have my fists clenched so tight that there wasn't any blood going anywhere else. All that was going through my head was rabies, bat poop, and cockroaches. Then the next thing I know is I feel something drop on me...yup...I GOT SHAT ON BY A BAT. So me taking pictures slowly became out of the question and I only took a few. Well needless to say I we left the Batu Caves and I went a took a shower!!!

No idea what this is a picture of I just know it was in cave...sometime in the cave!!!!

Kuala Lumpur..Batu Caves

The Batu Caves are these huge caves that you have to walk 200 or 214 steps to the actual caves. At the top are these huge caves that are a Hindu temple where people go to worship also where they have the Thaipusum Festival every year. This is a big deal. They were huge. This is one of the gods that is worshiped there. The place had many sectioned off temples.

This is Doug and I at the top of the highest caves. In the cave the amazing thing was the stores that sold stuff at the top. Crazy..that they haul of that stuff to the top.

This is one of the openings, skylights to the cave. So cool. We got some great pictures.

This picture is the opening to the cave. The statue is probably as tall as the statue of liberty. So amazing.

This is the inside looking out. So neat. we got do so many things that we have never even dreamed about. So that was the Batu Caves.

Canopy Tours in the Jungle

Ok so this is the day that Doug and I signed up for a canopy tour with this German gentleman who has done the iron man. In this tour, zip lines, repelling and other stuff was included. Here I am at 9 in the morning signing our lives away...saying that if anything went wrong and if we die we are good to go. So we wore full body harnesses and had enough gear to climb a small mountain. The tour started off with us hiking up 750 stairs to get to our first...climbing thing.

This is Doug walking across a wire over a small stream like thing. That wire moved like a snake. It was awesome I thought I was going to poop myself. One woman that was with our group didn't do it which was fine. There was a total of 8 of us with two guides. This was the first thing. Next was to check to see if we could repel...that was fun. Next we climbed up a tree and then did our first zip line down to another tree. It was crazy you had to jump off a boulder to get started. HEAD FIRST...I think I threw up a little in my mouth when I did that...but it was amazing to fly through the air.

YUP!!! I know we are cute!

Before we did our last zip line we had to repel down a rock face. Our last zip line was 280 meters into a tree where we have to repel thirty meters down. This is Doug...we spent all day smiling.

This is Doug doing the last 280 meter repel. The jungle was so beautiful and we had so much fun. we got back to the hotel while other people were just getting out of bed. What more could you want from a vacation?

Mangrove Kayaking with Dev's Adventures

First off these pictures are backwards...so just go with the flow. This is a picture of me at the end of the tour where we got to go in a bat cave. Enter one direction and exit another but oh yes there were bats in there. We do have a picture of them. It was a lot of fun. We go tot see a 200 year old tree that was just hanging off the edge of a cliff, and still thriving. In this cave there use to be lights but they realized that when they turned the lights on the bats wouldn't come back...so the lights got destroyed...fun how humans discover things.

This was the floating restaurant that we got to eat lunch at. Really good Thai food. When I said floating I mean floating. The restaurants were sitting on top of big blue barrels tied together. and next to it was a fish farm that we go tot go in a pet sting rays. The restaurant came after us kayaking for a couple of hours and the cave came after the restaurant. It was just awesome. Doug and I couldn't stop smiling.

This is a picture of a monitor lizard. They swim so fast and then walk so slow. They were really cool to watch. After we saw one we saw them everywhere.

This is our guide, Mandy. She was very knowledgeable about the mangroves, fish farm,eagles and so much more. Very pleasant. On our trip we were with two other couples. The weather was beautiful and fun. Just amazing.

Doug kayaking. We spent all day on the water. We left the hotel about 9 and didn't get back until 4 or 5. we took a quick shower and went out for Italian. Everything was amazing!

Mopeding around the island (second full day)

These are rubber trees. Rows and rows of rubber trees. They tap them like maple trees. Its really neat. I remember watching nature shows about it. This is what we drove by on our moped everywhere on the Island of Lankawi. Quick background, our second full day in Langkawi Doug and I decided we were going to explore the island by renting a moped for 40 RM for 24 hours. This we discussed doing when we discovered the moped place the night before in Talaga Harbor. Well the day was a little overcast, so it wouldn't have been much fun sitting in the sun, instead we got up and got to it. We drove pretty much everywhere on the island, taking turns driving. Here are some of the views that we go to see.

Doug and I went to the highest point on the island. The road was about 20 kilometers up and the curves in that road were unbelievable. But it was a lot safer than going to look for the black sand beach we never found, where we got attacked by red ants that were huge! And the place where we thought it was suppose to be was a deserted resort. Yup adventures with Doug and Kirsten. Anyway we make it to the top of the mountain...and there were signs everywhere saying do not go any further...yet somewhere up there was a restaurant. Not sure if that was a good idea. But we made it to the top and on the way down was so much faster....almost like no brakes...you just coasted.

Here is a picture of the boats that were everywhere off the coast of the island. Lot of fishing...we ate fish every night....all kinds of fish from BBQ to fried to cooked in Thai seasoning. Awesome...but we stayed away from the Chinese.

A view of one of the beaches that we stopped at, not to far away from the Sheraton resort. We just stood there and looked out. Just happy to be there!

This was our moped and that is the handsome Doug. It was so much fun...every time we turned a corner he and i would chant left side left side....yes they drove on the left side...hours of fun for 40 RM a day and the people we rented from were hoot. His name was FEAR-DOUSE....well that how your said it anyway. I know I have all this stuff written down somewhere but no idea where it is now!!!

Just one adventure after another!

The starting of Malaysia

Alright this is our start in Malaysia...we arrived there on the 15th of December pretty late at night...tired and hungry. We were staying at the Berjaya Resort. Right on the water and we had a water view from our room. After the rearranging of the rooms we were settled in to our Premier Chalet. It was fantastic. This is one of the views on the way to the Thai restaurant that was built on stilt in the water.

Don't know if you can see then but it the monkeys that hang out at the Berjaya. Some silly people feed them...yup people feed the wild life and wonder why they get bit.

This is one of the rooms that you can stay in there...looks like summer camp doesn't it? Well they are like summer camp...but no worries we had a room with marble floors, tub and shower, huge bed, big t.v. a porch Doug and I would sit out on and play games, read or just listen to the ocean.

This is how we got from our room to the lobby. Doug and I usually walked but at night we road. This place was so huge that you had to be driven to your room. It was about seventy acres, with hills every where. A few restaurants, a spa...and well the fitness room sucked so I ran outside. Anyway the buses were fun and they had crazy drivers.

This is the view from our room. It's ok you can say out loud that it is pretty cool. Doug would go and read out there and I would pretend to go running...mostly it was slow jog with a lot of sweat. We had great weather.


So our first day was getting settled and unpacking. After that we rented a sea kayak and kayaked around a small island next to the Berjaya. The island had monkeys on it and tons of crabs that would just run around...and jump all over the rocks. It was beautiful, we had so much fun laughing and being on the water. for ten bucks it was like an hour of fun. DO NOT WORRY WE PUT SUNBLOCK ON!!!! We didn't get burned at all. Very smart.

Anyway after we went kayaking we needed to get some money and find out where some stuff is so we went to the "town" called Talaga Harbor really it was just a few stores and restaurants along this dock. We went to the ATM....the gas station to buy some food and water, and then started to walk along the harbor. There were these huge boats, yachts and sailboats, amazing. We found a liquor store and bought some Guinness and really cheap wine...that we never drank. We also found a place to do laundry for 4RM a kilo which came in very handy later. And a place to rent mopeds (40 RM all day, 24 hours). Also we found a row or restaurants that were not Chinese food. SO where do you think we ate every night. So for dinner that night we decided we were going to come back and go to Tapaz. Let me tell you...you had to roll Doug and I out of there. The food was amazing. So much fun. The setting was beautiful.

Party for the ex-pats in China....

So they called it a New Years party but I think it was suppose to be a Holiday Party. Now do we have pictures of this? Yes most definitely. Doug put them up on flickr...once you read some of the captions and read this blog I think you might laugh your ass off.

Now how did it start. Well every once in awhile..maybe once or twice a month the school gets invited to random free things...such as dinner, and free trip, a boat ride, whatever you can imagine. Now it has the word free in it so Doug and I usually go. (this is where my sister would roll her eyes) I understand this is the first time we are a two income household but...we still like the word free. At first I was thinking lame...but Doug said we should do it...well I am so glad we did.

First there was about 20 of us. Yup 20 of us who liked the word free...little did we know that included beverages, and entertainment!
We get in a school van and go to this hotel that I did not know existed in Beliun and it was pretty nice. They put us in this ballroom type of room with cameras on us...mics, piano, and tons of other stuff...there were a lot of EX-PATS.
There is already a bottle of wine on the table for us. There was also a huge buffet out...already...(no worries I will get to the ice cream later....)

We take our seats...and they tell us there will be a show...by the way there is one dude there dressed as Santa Claus...he was on your team.

Well we had singers from the Poly-tech College...I didn't understand it but they were good. Then we had a magician and he had a little crush on me...yup I got chosen to be his helper...and he made me touch him...he was about 500 years old....I was bright red and my wonderful husband good not stop laughing and saying that's my girl.

Next we had a sword swallower...three swords...I got chosen again to touch the swords...they were real. Little scary...kind of gross but really really cool.

Then there was a man who did this face changing dance it was really neat...he had these masks that would roll up with changing of his facial features.
AND HE ALSO ATE AND BREATHED FIRE!!!!! Way cool.

Then Santa and some people sang. Finally it was time for the white people to do something stupid and have a beer drinking contest...I went right up there with my principal so I wasn't the only idiot. No worries a German won, and he got a present.
Then we had two gentleman serenade us with a violin and piano...and our music teacher played the piano...she's good. Last but not least people got up to do speeches...painful but if you do like the Chinese and ignore what ever is going on and talk and don't pay attention to the act then you are fine.
The food was pretty good they even had fruit pizza...yup tons of fruit on the pizza and then you ate it. Hey it was good.
We spent the whole night laughing and having a good time. There are days that laughing is all you can do but I will tell you what this wouldn't have been half as fun with out the people I was with...including Doug.

Can't wait for break just a few more days away...promise to write more....soon...please take a look at the pictures Doug did an awesome job.