February | 2014 | Vows To Voyage

The first week of our trip to Asia has been quite an adventure. We started our trip by flying into Singapore and we spent 3 days there. Like I mentioned before, Singapore had one of the nicest and easiest airports that we have ever been to in the world. Singapore was exactly what we expected, a big city, lots of people, and very hot. We had been in New Zealand and were used to mild, sometimes cold weather, and Asia is so hot and humid. We spent most of our time walking around China town, little India, and the business district of Singapore. We watched a catamaran race along the bay, and took in the sites at Merlion Park. When we were ready to leave, we took a coach bus from Singapore to Malacca, and it had air conditioning, movies, the works. We cleared customs and spent two days in Malacca staying at a wonderful guest house called Jalan Jalan Emas in the city center. Malacca was much smaller, and it suited Morgan and my tastes sa lot better. We went to all of the small shops, markets, and the Jonker Walk. We found a very nice Chinese breakfast place that served dim sum (small, bight-sized bits of food) and our new favorite snacks… meat buns. All the Chinese people commented on how beautiful my beard was as well. We stayed right next to a mosque, and they have prayer 5 times a day. The call to prayer comes over a loud speaker, and can be heard all over the city. The first call comes at 0600 in the AM, and scared Morgan and I at first. We got used to it, and it was a good wake up call. Malacca is an old Dutch port town, and we went to many of the historical sites in town during our two days.

We then took another coach bus to Kuala Lumpur, and we have been here for 3 days. We have been to the National Mosque, Batu Caves, Islamic Arts Museum, Orchid and Hibiscus Gardens, Malaysian Ethnology Musuem, and the Petronus Towers in downtown. KL is very difficult to get around, and we got lost all day long. Nothing is marked well, and cross walks basically don’t exist. You just try to time the traffic, run and pray for your life. It was fine though because we stumbled across some sites not mentioned in the book. We met a bunch of Catholic school children, and they were very excited to say “Hello, welcome to Malaysia.” We probably had 25 children smiling and saying hello as we walked by. The Batu Caves are one of the coolest things we have seen thus far. The Caves are on the side of a limestone mountain and you can walk up to the top where there are hundreds of monkeys jumping and walking around and a Hindu temple inside. It was quite nice, and we had a lot of fun with the monkeys. They were sneaky little devils, and tried to steal anything we had on us. Tonight, we are going out to eat for Morgan’s birthday, and then tomorrow we’re are off to Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands where all the tea plantations are located. We have two nights reserved there, and might stay longer. We are having a great time, and love the low cost of living here. All the Malaysians have been very helpful, especially the older generation. Lastly, here are our top 6 new things we have experienced since being here that we were not ready for as westerners:

You get your toilet paper outside the bathroom before you go in. Make sure you judge accurately
Squat toilets…. Hole in the ground…. No need to say more
No shoes worn inside the house
They don’t wait for you to order food…. They just hover over you until you get flustered and point at a picture
Bargaining is a way of life. Never pay the first price offered
We don’t smoke or do drugs, but in Singapore drugs result in the death penalty, and smoking in prohibited areas in Malaysia carries 2 years in prison… no thank you

We will post again soon, and may be in Thailand at that time.

Cheers, David and Morgan

Morgan and I are patiently waiting for our flight in Auckland heading on to Singapore. It is hard to believe that we have been in New Zealand for 3 months and married for even longer. We had an amazing time in New Zealand, and already know the spots where we would come back and visit one day. We covered the South Island extensively and fished over 35 bodies of water during our time here. We drove over 7000km in our little Subaru, and ate roughly 28 pounds of cheese. (We would buy these huge 1KG blocks of cheese and eat one of them a week. Multiply that by 13 weeks and that is 28 pounds). I personally believe that New Zealand has the best fisheries in the world for sight fishing. The fish are big, wary, and aggressive fighters, and the amount of water you can fish is extraordinary. The big fish caught and missed, the beautiful scenery we encountered, and the wonderful places we saw will be in our memories forever. I know we will not miss the sandflies, rain, and crazy weather, but in the end, it was part of the experience. I know we will come back one day, and I know that New Zealand will still be as pristine and serene.

We spent our last few weeks in New Zealand sightseeing and fishing a few more rivers. We left Invercargill, and drove up to fish the Mataura River and Otapiri stream a few days around Gore. We then ventured over to Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula where we were able to watch the Super Bowl and do some hiking along the coast. It was an awesome city and we could have spent more than two days there. After Dunedin, we drove all the way to Omarama in Central Otago and fished the Ahuriri River for 3 days. We caught a ton of fish on this river, and was one of my favorite rivers from my last trip. Morgan and I then made a haul up to Mt. Cook for a day and Lake Tekapo for another day. We were able to view the mountains and glaciers in full sunlight, and spent our days hiking and tramping around. We camped out along the Tasman River with Mount Cook in the background. Waking up to that view was great the next morning. Morgan was not up early to take sunrise photos as I had suggested. We saw the Church of the Good Shepherd in Tekapo, and then made a long haul back up the East Coast to finish our trip. We really wanted to make it back to the west coast, but they had rain again and we did not want to spend our last week in those conditions. We ended up fishing the Hurunui River north of Christchurch for 3 full days, and we caught the most fish of our trip. The fish were taking dries with ease and we landed around 30 fish in 3 days, which is a lot for New Zealand. The sunny, hot weather was a bonus. We met a really cool American couple at the campsite who have been sailing around the world for 6 years! They had two small children, and it was very interesting hearing their stories about where all they had been and are going. Good thing we cannot sail, or we may never come home. The last part of our trip was spent in Christchurch where we mailed 50 pounds of fishing and camping gear home, and toured the city again. We were able to stay with our friend Marie at her home, and it was a great relief to sit down, relax, and watch some TV. After finally stopping, we felt like we could sleep for days.

So on to the next part of the trip…. The plan is to fly into Singapore and spend 3 days there. After that, we are taking a bus to the Malaysian town of Melaka where we will spend another two days, and then work our way north to Kuala Lumpur. Morgan has Asia planned out week by week, but that is where we will start. We are down to one backpack each (David’s weighs 22lbs and Morgan’s weighs 25lbs thanks to books), and cannot wait for our hotel room in Singapore which as a Jacuzzi! Please continue to follow our blog and we will post more often now that we have better access to internet. See everyone in May!

Cheers,

Morgan and David