Batu Caves

I thought about going up to Batu Caves today, north of Kuala Lumpur. But after looking it up and seeing the 272 steps that one had to climb in order to get to the caves, my calves and knees decided it was not a good idea.

I was going to go downtown but since I couldn't find anyone that wanted to go with me and I'm here all month, just decided to take a nap and drink some beer tonight.

A Visit to China Town in Kuala Lumpur

 We went for a tour bus ride around Kuala Lumpur yesterday with the intention of going to China Town to do a little shopping and picture taking. We saw all the "usual stuff" in Kuala-the Petronis Towers, KL Tower, downtown. I wished we would have gone up the KL tower to get a panoramic view of the city but it'll have to be another day.

I'm always surprised by the sheer number of vendors and volume of goods in China Town. Everywhere we turned it was "Hey Mister, dvd's? Hey Mister, genuine fake Rolex's, Tag Heuer! Mister, you my first customer, give you good deal on Ray-Ban"s!"

 

Guard at the National Palace. He's for ceremony only, there were policemen standing right behind me.

This young couple had just gottem married and was having the wedding photo's

 taken in front of the National Palace.



Leaving China Town, this young man gave me a grin from his scooter

as I snapped his pix.

Free lunch at the Hotel

    
     This lovely young lady invited all our crews to a free lunch at the hotel held in honor of a local holiday. Thank you! It was greatly appreciated and the food was superb.

Vendors at Alskiy Market

Vendors at the Farmers Market in Tashkent.

A Walking Tour of Liege, Belgium.

Nothing beats drinks with friends after work.

 I wish I would have had one of these when I took my tour. I would pay for the next two days with calves that felt strung tighter than tennis rackets.

View of the city from the top of the steps leading to a World War I Memorial honoring members of the Resistence.

The steps which caused me so much pain. There are about 100 of them, 10 sets of 10, more or less. They go uphill at about a 45 degree angle. After 4 sets of them, I had to stop and rest between each set, the gradient is a killer.

Charleston, SC

I've always wanted to visit the city of Charleston and I had the opportunity to do that at the start of this rotation. I arrived in time to check into the hotel and then take a walking tour for 4 hours of the city.

Unfortunatley, the hotel shuttle has set times to go downtown and I didn't arrive in time to go to Fort Sumter. I'll have to save that for another visit.

My wife would love to visit this city, she loves the movie

 "Gone with the Wind" and the plantation they used for it is actually near here.

The Confederate Museum.

An old graveyard. This one had headstones dating back to the 1620's.

A stairway leading to a house.

A house as seen thru it's entryway.

Vendor

A Vendor down in the farmers market in Tashkent.

Weary Travellers

     At International Airports, it's not uncommon to see weary travellers sleeping on seats/benches or the floor. These two were fast asleep in the Kuala Lumpur airport in the middle of the day.

Train riders

Riding a city tram in Basel, Switzerland.

Sunset

     You get to see many sunrises and sunsets and this job. This sunset was on a flight from Alaska to Chicago.

Alaska

 Overflying the mountains southeast of Anchorage, Alaska.

"Back in the U-S-S-Rrrrrrrrrrrrr"rrr boy

     On my first trip to Tashkent, Uzbekistan we went down to see the statue of Amur Temur, a "great leader" one of the girls at the hotel told me.

While we were there, we were approached by several young ladies who upon learning we were American, wanted to have their picture taken with us.

These young ladies were studying at the University and were from the Ukraine.

"Well the Ukraine girls really knock me out, they leave the west behind."
                                                                                  The Beatles-1968

Getting our toes sucked!

     One of the stranger things I've experienced so far happened in Kuala Lumpur when I was out doing OE (Operating Experience.) My wife sent me an e-mail that I received upon my arrival there telling me to go try the experience,

They have these fish they call "Doctor" fish in a tank, around 200 of them in a hot tub in this case. You take off your shoes and socks, roll up your pants and stick your feet into a swirling black mass of fish.

The fish then "Suck" on your feet and ankles, removing dead skin, dirt and anything else that happens to be on your feet. The fish have no teeth, so it doesn't hurt. It's hard to describe the feeling, it's almost like a tickle, but not quite. I yanked my feet out of the water 3 or 4 times before I could finally leave them in the tank and let the fish do their work. After a couple minutes, I got used to it and could relax. After our 10 minutes was up, the fish were done anyway, we pulled our feet out and went on our way.

The experience was very inexpensive, costing just 5 Malaysian Ringetts (about $1.66) for the ten minutes. The best part was yet to come. Later that night, my feet and ankles felt as smooth as a baby's bottom on the outside and felt great on the inside due to the increased circulation caused by the fish sucking on the skin. Highly recommended.