Batu Caves

Today we decided that we wanted to make the trip out of Kuala Lumpur up to the Batu Caves and see the site. We have heard great things about how amazing it is to see, and how the 272 steps up into the caves are really worth it.

Luckily when we arrived there were not large crowds climbing the stairs. All of the pictures that we see show the above staircase mobbed with people, trying to avoid these crowds is why we decided that we needed to get there today. Apparently the crowds are really only bad during one Hindu festival when Hindu devotees from around the world flock to these caves.

The caves are impressive and luckily there were hardly any crowds. We wandered abound for a while and then took the local bus back into Kuala Lumpur. A nice start to this weekend trip...

.

.

.

Oh, and they have monkeys....

Monkeys that will steal your food and drink. Any plastic bag they will presume is food. The girl in front of us had a monkey scurry up her leg, around her back, and then steal a plastic bag she was carrying.

...and now they're gone.

A about a month ago we talked about how our closest neighbors had hired a family to come in and work on their unit. This was when we were awoken on a Sunday morning to the sounds of sledge hammers breaking down walls.

After maybe a month of destruction and rebuilding, the family that was working on the unit moved out. All is quiet again.

We can look over into their unit and see that all the new brick work has all been cemented in and finished off, and that the walls are all painted. The last thing that was done before they left was to tar the floor. One night when I came home I could smell tar the minute the elevator opened, asking Tina she just replied "Oh, it's so much better now..." That smell filled the hallway for about four days.

Now it's been over a week and a half and nothing. We are anxiously awaiting the next family so that we can see what they are going to do next...

That's all we've got for now. Tonight we are off to Malaysia for the weekend, we will update as we can.

Teamwork at Xia Da!

Shortly after our mid-term exams, our Foundation Chinese teacher was starting to become anxious as she believed that we wouldn't have time to finish the lessons prior to the final exams in mid-January. Rightfully so I suspect. She keeps telling the class that "you must work harder." Our class falls into these categories, ones that get it, (parents or relatives of Chinese descendants), ones who care, work hard and still struggle, ( my category) and others who simply don't care.

During break, she came back with good news. She went to her superior who informed her that we did not have to finish the entire book if it was too much for us. You could see the change in her face. She was very relieved to hear that. In fact she was almost giddy with delight, knowing that she no longer had to stress about finishing the curriculum.

Being the kind, considerate students that we are, we assisted her with the timeline of course. A few of us suggested that due to the Christmas holidays, many students would not be attending classes and to schedule the review during this time period. She was most agreeable. A few of us continued giving her a timeline for the rest of the lessons and for the final reviews, pushing back the exam date. It works in everyone's favor including Chen Laoshi. Such teamwork, she declared. As it stands now, I would only miss one lesson instead of four.

Chen Laoshi did inform us that we had another week of classes after the exams and that we would be able to complete the book during that time period.

Who ever heard of more classes after your final exams?

More on Gulangyu...

Ok, so I read a little in our Amoy Magic book on Xiamen about Gulangyu and it's history. As I mentioned the island is full of these wonderful old mansions, but all of them in varying states of disrepair. Apparently back in the early days of trade with China, and after the Chinese lost the opium wars and had to open more ports, Xiamen was one of the ports that opened. But, the foreigners that came we not allowed to live in Xiamen, or on the mainland, so they all built their homes and consulates on Gulangyu. A U.S. Consulate was built here in the 1930s with bricks that were shipped from the states.

One of the homes in better condition

But in the late 40s all those good times ended and, with money somewhat short, upkeep on these buildings stopped.

On of the crumbling buildings

One of the nice things about Gulangyu, is that it's a nice quiet walking village. There are no vehicles allowed on the island, except for a few electric carts that you can pay to cart you around when you've walked too much. The downside to no vehicles is that everything needs to be carted around by hand.

Carting stone to a construction site.

You see a lot of these carts being pulled all around the island, full of stone, brick, concrete, tools, etc. With the hills, tourists, and the narrow streets this would be a tough job.

Streets on Gulangyu

More old buildings on the island

We took more pictures of these buildings then one would have thought possible, eventually I'll get the better ones put into our Flickr site. There really is not a lot of information, at least in English, on the island, but if you are at all interested you could look quickly on wikipedia or maybe for a little on Amoy Magic.

.

The island is also known as piano island, as a lot of the missionaries that first came over brought their pianos with them. Apparently it still is the greatest concentration of pianos per capita in the world with one in every five homes. You can hear people practicing when you wander the island which is a welcome break from the noise of the traffic that you normally have. There is also a piano museum on the island, Asia's largest, that we will try to make it to if we ever make it over there on a day less crowded...

Sunday's Entertainment...

Sunday was nice and relaxing, especially after spending so much time walking the hills of Gulangyu. We spent most of the day just organizing the music and photos on the computer for Tina's iPod, which surprisingly takes a long time.

Sunday night we went back over to the shrimp fishing restaurant with Jose, Edlin, and the Mexican's family. We had a large group this time, nine of us fishing, and we were hoping that with it being Sunday it wouldn't be as crowded as when we went with George, Mark and Siew. We were wrong, it was just as crowded, so we ended up having to spilt our group between both pools.

And with the crowds of people, it seemed like there were less shrimp to catch. It took a while for anyone to catch anything, Tina was the first, but eventually everybody except for Laura managed to catch at least one. The only restocked the ponds once too, whereas last time they stocked them at least twice in the one hour we were fishing.

But as suddenly as we got there, the hour of fishing was up, and we had less shrimp then we caught the first time we were there. Not even enough for dinner, apparently you need to catch at least 1 kilogram, and we were 2-3 shrimps short...

That took us while to understand exactly what it was they were trying to explain to us, so Tina befriended a Taiwanese guy that spoke English to try and help us understand. He helped some, but just enough to add confusion and suddenly we had a whole crowd of Chinese around us pointing and talking...

The ordering food was more difficult then expected, especially on top of the underweight shrimp conversation, and eventually I gave in and asked Tina to give Siew a call and see if she could order food for us...

That worked, and we all enjoyed a great meal of pork ribs, a couple different chicken plates, noodles, rice, and garlic shrimp.

The highlight of the evening would have to be when a large carp jumped right out of the shrimp pool onto the deck. That gathered quite a crowd as everyone ran over to see it. Unfortunately it happened to quickly for me to get a picture....