Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

This was a quick stop so I don’t feel like we saw the city but we did (as always) fit as much as we possibly could into such a short time.  We went to the Batu Caves, which to be honest I am not exactly sure what this is….besides 272 stairs that lead to a cave with a lot of monkeys and a couple roosters. 

However, it was super cool for many reasons…it was unique and had a huge statue at the entrance that made it look important.  The monkeys were everywhere, it was kind of scary as I didn’t know if they were going to jump on me and steal my purse or just creepily stare at me.  I was a bit paranoid!  BUT in my defense they were thieves, we saw one steal a girl’s water bottle out of her hands.  He then took it to the top of this arbor like thing and tried to unscrew the lid, when he couldn’t get the lid off…he just bit a hole in the bottom of the bottle and started drinking.  Smart bugger!

After, the caves we went to the city and had lunch before visiting the tallest telecommunications tower in the world.  What’s up with this trip and seeing the tallest buildings, you ask.  I have no idea!  We stopped for a photo of the twin towers, a gorgeous building before heading back to the ship.

I told you it was a quick and very intense day of go, go, go...

India (Cochin)

Everything was different in India starting with them driving on the wrong side of the road in the wrong side of the car.  It was actually much cleaner than I expected.  We were in Cochin and it was way cleaner than Egypt.  They appreciated and used their rivers…for everything.  Bathing, washing dishes, washing clothes, and cooking, unlike Egypt whose rivers were not visible for all the trash floating (however they still fished in these waters).

There were people, cars, bicycles, motorcycles, and mopeds all using the same single lane road.  It was madness but somehow with all the honking everyone is safe.  I am pretty sure honking is a language there.  It seemed that honking was constant, but it also seemed that it made a difference so I guess they are not immune to honking like we are in the states.  They have these 3 wheeled moped/car thingys they call tuktuks and they are awesome!  I videoed our ride in 1 and what an experience!

The ‘backwaters’ were super interesting.  Everyone has their own steps into the water, it’s like a road for us.  Instead of roads and driveways, they have steps into water and boats.  They really use these waters for getting around and I just think that is so cool.  Can you imagine getting your child ready for school and putting him/her in a boat instead of on a bus? 

Also the rice fields, there were sooo many of them and piles of rice everywhere.  And then you would see a boat go by with bags and bag of rice. 

They fish with old school Chinese fishing nets.  They lower these HUGE nets into the water and use a levy system that hoists the nets out of the water by using lots of big rocks.  This is done on the banks of the water, not on boats.

So many kids, and so many kids working with their parents trying to make a dollar by selling bracelets, clothes, dolls, postcards, anything and everything.  And all of them were super friendly and smiling. 

The cricket fields…we were there 2 days and both days the fields were packed with people playing cricket.  I had never actually seen cricket being played, but it looks a lot like baseball.

I will definitely be visiting India again!  This was probably my favorite of our trip besides seeing the Pyramids.

 officials boarding our boat for the visa check

 Chinese fishing nets

 this is an Indian port

 he loved India

 rice fields

 lots of rice

 this was a busy street and the goat was just chillin

our tuktuk driver