A Note

 I am getting ready for my next trip and found these old posts that were never published. So I went ahead and published them though that was a trip I went on a while ago. Hope you enjoy reading them.

 

8 hours in Shanghai

It is 6 am and we have just been on a plane since 1:30 am. Though I was feeling much better earlier in the night, at 10:30 pm when we headed for KK airport, the cold has now settled in my chest and I am trying my best not to cough. As we are preparing to descend the airline hostesses announce that if anyone has any symptoms of illness, they are to report the clinic in the airport for quarantine. There is no way this is going to happen. I am going home. So naturally my cough gets worse. 

Shanghai Pudong Airport runways go on for ever.  Oddly the airport terminals themselves are not very large. People seem to leave the airport quickly and they do so by train.

We landed and taxied, no joke for 20 minutes. Not just hanging around waiting for a gate to stop at, we are riding along at 25 miles an hour. It seems like we landed miles from the airport. We pass one whole terminal and we keep going, we actually taxied over a highway. We pass another terminal as well as the Pudong Freight Depot. Just after the freight warehouse we finally stopped at gate 305! We were so mesmerized by the taxiing experience that we did not notice that everyone around us had put on down jackets. When the plane door opened we quickly realized that it was freezing outside and that we were not about to walk into a jetway. We walked down some stairs right on to the tarmac in the dark through the rain and wind. In front of us, in the distance are two buses with the engines running and we follow the other passengers aboard one of the buses hoping it takes us to the terminal, apparently we missed an announcement that all the Chinese speaking, being almost all the other passengers on our Shanghai Air flight heard because they all seemed to know where to go. Luckily the bus was heated. Passengers were staring at us as we were still dressed for Malaysian heat. Jasmah was a little nonplussed, though she had every right to be angry with me. I had strongly suggested when we were leaving KK that she should follow my lead and put her heavy coat in the suitcase as we would not need it until we got to Seattle, which would be the first place we would need to go outside. Oops. 

The buses stopped after a while at a double door. Again we followed the other passengers. Jasmah wanted to stop in the bathroom, which was just inside the door.

Here we had a lesson in Chinese custom. To our surprise while we waited our turn for the bathroom everyone just walked right past us and piled into the stalls, mother, grandmother children, all together. At one point there were so many people in one of the three stalls that they could not close the door. There was a 3 year old in there that was turning the knob on the toilet paper dispenser, yes here there was toilet paper. He was having a grand time until all of a sudden the tp dispenser opened up and blocked the door trapping Mom inside as the large industrial size roll thudded to the floor and rolled two stalls over. The little prankster being very tiny escaped the stall through the remaining crack in the door and ran for his life. While shouting, what I assume was the child's name was frantically trying to close the dispenser and free herself from the stall. Just as the Mom escaped the stall, the little boy was returned to the bathroom in the arms of a schiveled looking 4 foot nothing old women who on approaching the Mom her kissed the little boy on the head, put him down gently and reached up slapped the mom on the face and walked back out of the bathroom without saying a word.

Everyone cleared out of the bathroom a little while later and we were left to finally have our chance to take care of business.

Then as we left the bathroom, we realized that there was not one around in this deserted hallway. We could not read the signs in Mandarin but there was only one way away from the door we had entered after getting off the buses.

After a while there was a fork in the path. We saw one person and said Delta, which was the airline we were getting on next. The lady sent us to the left. There were arrows on the floor that took us to the Transfer area. This we assumed meant that you would stay in the airport rather than entering China. We did not have Visas for China, and we did not know that you did not need them for the first 72 hours of your visit. 

We followed the arrows until we came to a large room that was empty except for lots of stanchions. At the end of the room was a desk with 6 employees and every station had a sign that said closed. We approached the desk, handed them our passports and said, Delta. They gave us a puzzled look and all six went to work at computers. We stood there for a while, maybe 10 minutes. Finally one of them handed us our papers and said. "The computers are down, we can not issue boarding passes at this time." Yes excellent English. We asked where to go and 3 of them pointed back the way we came. Now we followed the other arrows and this time we came to a huge room with lines and lines of empty stanchions. It was about 50 feet to the customs stations at the front of the room. There were 25 desks and all of them were empty except one in the far corner. We ducked under the lines and headed to the desk. The lady was very kind and spoke English. She was confused as to why we were there. She understood computers down and told us that we had to fill our the exit form since we did not have boarding passes. We said ok and traipsed back across the huge room to a desk which had 3 x 4 inch yellow slips of paper. The form asked for our Name, passport number, date of birth and nationality. Oddly all information that was in on our passports. We went back to the lady and she stamped the yellow slips and our passports and sent us down the hall and up the stairs to get our boarding passes.

Pay Phones 

Shopping Mall Life

Jovian is the Muslim style clothing designer of Nicky's choosing. We found her show room.
She found a line she likes in a fashion magazine in So Cal, but it has not been delivered to the shop. We look at many lovely garments at the show room and send photos of them to Nicky. Jasmah is a really nice Mom.

After our shopping for Nicky dresses we head to Jah's school to pick her up. There are busses that take the local kids home, but since she lives 45 minutes away she is dropped off and picked up each day. Her dad works in KK, so he usually drives her. But with her aunt in town it is a great chance to have a 10 minute rather than 45 minute commute to school. She is a great kid and we have enjoyed her company immensely.

Having tea is very common here. It was a British Colony at one point and has taken on some British traditions, like tea (the meal) and driving on the left side of the road. I did not do any driving here.

1. Jasmah loves to drive.
2. They drive on the left side of the road.
3. Driving lanes and other traffic safety laws are treated mainly as guidelines here.

The new part of KK has a 4 lane road with medians running down the main strip along the water front near where Jasmah lives. Cars drive on the shoulder, scooters are everywhere and they zip around the cars going very fast. Many people drive only scooters. We saw a young couple riding a scooter with a very small baby sandwiched between them. I saw two people riding next to each other carrying pvc pipe. I was very content to let Jasmah and other members of her family chaffer me around. In fact I really did not go any where alone. Jasmah and I were together the whole time when we were out and about. I stayed back at the condo with the workers a few times while she went out to do errands. The last couple of days that the workers were there we did leave them for a few hours on their own. I did not really question Jasmah as to why she wanted someone to be there with the workers, I kind of just went with it. It was not like I was of much help when I was left with them. There was only one of them that spoke English and he was not there very much. Saudi, the main worker and I did manage to communicate through pointing, pantomime and drawing pictures. I did have a translator on my phone, but it never occurred to me to use it. Weird.

Anyway we decided to have tea at one of the restaurants at the other Peak Condo complex, Peak Vista. The Peak Condos are on Signal Hill in KK. It is the highest point in the city. They are well know, in fact every time we had something delivered, we only had to say Peak Condos and they usually knew where to find it. There are a  number of buildings and the one Jasmah owns is in the original Peak Condo Building and was built in 2001. Peak Vista is newer.

We found October Coffee House, one of the few coffee places I saw other then Starbucks. It is run by a Korean coffee roaster. It has a quiet atmosphere and the both the food and coffee were wonderful. They made me Korean toast. It is an Omelette sandwich spicy ketchup. It is sweet and spicy a zingy version of American Ketchup. There are sauted onions in omelette.

The food is a great balm, but there is no way around it I have a cold. I am so tired. and my throat is killing me.  I have been having a lot of asthma the last couple of days. I think all the paint and bed off gassing is getting to me. I am so ready to go home. I am looking forward familiarity and to being with Bruce. Today I am feeling homesick. so I guess this trips length was just right.

Day 14 Home Sick and Actually Sick

I have been very fortunate on this adventure. I have for the most part been uneffected by the heat, the sun or the food. There were two exceptions. One happened a few days ago when I was introduced to the King of Fruits, Durian.

People here either love this fruit or hate it. The outside shell is hard and thorny and difficult to open. The edible, if you can call it part are the yellow pods inside. This fruit smells so bad that it is sold on the roadside and banned by public transit. Jasmah bought some already removed from the shell and sold in a styrophome take out container. While we stopped for lunch on our way home Jasmah put the package under the car, otherwise she would never get the smell of it out of the vehicle. Durian smells like sweaty socks that were barried under ground for a month. It is the fruit equivelant of uni in texture with a slimy aftertaste that you re-taste with each of many burps that follow. The taste is like kim che gone bad but without the spicy flavor. I managed to swallow one bite, as a good guest and adventuresome traveler. It smell stayed with me for hours as the fruit cleansed my system. Only bad thing I ate the whole trip, period, and I tried everything put in front of me.

So besides the durian cleansing I caught a cold and spent the last day and a half sleeping.

Anyway we decided to have tea at one of the restaurants at the other Peak Condo complex, Peak Vista. The Peak Condos are on Signal Hill in KK. It is the highest point in the city. They are well know, in fact every time we had something delivered, we only had to say Peak Condos and they usually knew where to find it. There are a  number of buildings and the one Jasmah owns is in the original Peak Condo Building and was built in 2001. Peak Vista is newer.

We found October Coffee House, one of the few coffee places I saw other then Starbucks. It is run by a Korean coffee roaster. It has a quiet atmosphere and the both the food and coffee were wonderful. They made me Korean toast. It is an Omelette sandwich spicy ketchup. It is sweet and spicy a zingy version of American Ketchup. There are sauted onions in omelette.

The food is a great balm, but there is no way around it I have a cold. I am so tired. and my throat is killing me.  I have been having a lot of asthma the last couple of days. I think all the paint and bed off gassing is getting to me. I am so ready to go home. I am looking forward familiarity and to being with Bruce. Today I am feeling homesick. so I guess this trips length was just right.  I am thankfully feeling a little more normal. I say thankfully, because we are about to take on the journey home. First 5 hours to Shanghai, then an 8 hour lay over in Pundong Airport then 11 1/2 hours to Seattle. So glad I have enjoyed myself on this trip because it it a long forking distance to travel. 

Explanation

Just a quick note of explanation. I returned safely from Borneo a while ago, but I am finishing up the stories about the trip and will continue to post them as I get them done. So do not let the dates confuse you.
Also as a teaser, the next trip is to England. Though not as exotic as Borneo, I look forward to great adventures and fun postings.
Thanks

Car Wreck

Jasmah's car sans hub cap.

Other driver's car

The adventure never ends here. We were on our way to the mall but instead we learned about accidents, social norms, and police protacol.

We were hit by a car coming from the side street. Due to the traffic and the size of the road we had to move the cars out of the way  the cars immediately, which added to the difficulty of figuring out what exactly happened. No one was hurt, just damaged cars.

The young women who was driving the other car, we will call her Mary was in her early 20s and had only had the car for 3 days. She immediately called her mother, who told her to call the police and file a report. Jasmah called her brother Jasni, our guide and helper through everything on this trip. He was there in 15 minutes.

In the mean time we chatted with many passerbys as well as patrons of the restaurant which overlooks the street where the accident took place. Everyone said they saw what happened. They never talked about fault or offered to be witnesses, though I imagine they would have given thier names if asked.

Their main reason for talking to us was because an accident is exciting and they wanted to join the party and the other reason was that they had a lot of advice about not going to the police or filing an insurance claim.

When Jasni arrives the big negotiations begin, he immediately says "give me 1000 myr and lets be done with this." Everyone thinks that is a very reasonable offer and that she should take it, though everyone agrees that it will not actually be enough money to repair the car. Mary will have no part of it, she insists on waiting for the police and her mother. Jas is hot! She is convinced that it is the other person's fault. I think they both screwed up but what do I know.

We stand around and talk while they argue, lay blame and generally fail at reaching an agreement. Jah who is 16, Jasmah's neice was in the car with us and she was is a bit shaken up.  She had never been in a car accident before. She felt the boom. She was in the back seat on the side that was hit. The girl who was driving the other car called her mother. I think we are waiting for the police.

Suddenly we are all on the move, the cars are driven around the corner and we park again. Mom has arrived and the discussion begins again. By driving away we have lost our audience and advisors. Mom, Mary, Jasmah and Jasni stand around talking for a while. We pile back into the cars and we are off to the police station. I guess they do not come to the scene of the accident here. Maybe they only come when the cars are damaged to the point that they are not drivable or if they have not been moved twice from the site of the accident.

Off to the police station we go to make a police report in order to get the paper work needed to make an insurance claim. And now Jasni is driving and talking on the phone. (Not another accident please.)

We drive up to gate house. Most businesses and houses have gates. The larger ones have gate houses. The guard at the gate is Kadazan and he and Jasni "boss" it up. Boss is a term of respect and brotherhood. They speak to each other in the tribal language. Mary, who is Chinese, is in big trouble, no matter who is at fault in the accident. Kadazan rule here.

The first officer we talk encounter is off to a soccer match and he lets the next guy know what is going on.

Chillin in the station house.

Jasmah and Jasni are the first ones to give thier report. They describe the event and the policeman is not really interested in the pictures taken of the wounded cars. After our team gives their presentation, Mary and her mom get their turn. While this is going on Jas and I go to get something to snack on. The police station has it's own cafe. We get some tea with milk and sugar and head back to the waiting room. Jasmah and Jasni have disappeared. I get a text that they have been taken to the sergent's office. After a while Jasmah and Jasni show up in the parking lot and we head to the mall.

On our way there Jasni gets a call from the sergent's secretary who tells him that she will be happy to prepare the papers needed to make the insurance claim, but it they would like to have the process expedited, they should come back to the police station tomorrow with "coffee money."

The next day we try to contact the secretary and we are told that the sergent is in meetings all day and to come the next day. In the mean time we talk to Jasmi, another of Jasmah's many brothers and he knows the sergent, and says he will take care of it.
The family is big, the tribe is bigger and who you know makes all the difference here. Apparently many government procedures require "coffee money," like enough to pay for a year's worth of daily Starbuck's lattes. In some cases it is an envelope handed over, in some cases it is a bank account deposit.

Not sure how all this will turn out, but when I know I will let you know.

Night on the Town

After a nap and a shower we headed out to explore the night life. First Jasmah took me to locals public beach/park hang out. It was a bit late for the sunrise and the place was shutting down. Here is the food area at the beach park. We had some of the corn and took some peanuts home, but otherwise this was not a place that met the Jasmah health code approval. I was pretty much depending on her to keep me healthy and safe and she was great at it.

Local Roasted Peanuts and Corn

Food Vendors

Fish Monger

Patrons here pick their own fish and it will be cooked for them on the spot or they can take the raw fish home and cook it themselves. The fish selection here on Borneo is large and varied. Many types of fish I ate I had never heard of before. The first couple of days I was asking what I was eating and how to make it. After a while, I just enjoyed it and stopped asking question. Between the language barrier and the lack of familiarity with the ingredients used I had trouble imagining that I would ever be able to recreate the dishes when I got home. I decided it was just better to enjoy them. Though I wish I could have done some cooking with some of the locals to learned from them. Maybe next time.

Dining Area

Satay Booth

After exploring the park we headed to the boardwalk/wharf to have dinner. Being a largely Muslim country, alcohol is not served in all restaurants and their are not many bars. The boardwalk is one of the places that has pubs. There were many tourist from Australia and New Zealand there enjoying the Irish pubs. Also most restaurants in KK were Halal and served no pork regardless of the cuisine.

Cool Lantern in Huge Chinese Restaurant

After walking up and down the boardwalk we chose a Chinese restaurant which turned out to be a the dodgy end of the strip. We order Peking Duck, bok choy, rice and tea. $20 for the total meal. Unbelievable. The food arrived and it was delicious and bountiful. The air was cool and lovely and as you can see by the photo of the boat below, the view was wonderful.

During dinner we encountered our first beggars. A small boy with some difficulties with his limbs came asking for money. Jasmah gave a clear signal that giving him money was not ok. She was pretty surprised that anyone came begging for money and told me it was rare to see, but we had landed on the edge of a poor part of town.

Then two boys, maybe 9 years old came to the table and asked if they could have a piece of duck. I looked to Jasmah for guidance. I did not mind sharing, but I was taken a back by his request and the rude way that he asked. Jasmah looked pretty blown away herself and gave him a look that sent him away. She said she had never encountered this before and this seemed even weirder than the begging for money. She has not really lived in KK full time for 25 years. She has visited regularly since moving to the states. She visited last three years ago. So maybe things have changed, though I am not sure in what time frame. We were glad the boys did not come back. The whole encounter made the rest of our meal kind of strange. I felt bad not sharing our bounty, but the boys did not look scruffy or underfed, they just seemed like regular kids with no manners.

View of Fishing Boat From our Restaurant Table. These fishing boats house the family and that also go out to sea to catch fish.

Starbucks is Everywhere. 

After dinner we wanted a little something sweat and we decided to check out the Starbucks. We had to try one out to see how it differed from the ones back home. For one thing they make lattes with condensed milk, so yummy. We also had a slice of caramel cheesecake. The guy behind the cash register had a constant patter and was flipping cups in the air. The place was noisy and filled with young people and families. We did not really encounter other coffee places. There are bakeries and they serve coffee, though most people seemed to take the baked goods away. So I guess that Starbucks is a unique hang out and really, other than the exact same sign not at all like our Starbucks at home. It is a bit unfortunate that America is represented in Malaysia by high end boutiques, KFC, Pizza Hut, McDonald's and Starbucks and television shows like Bones, and CSI.