17. On to Bangkok

Our driver is meeting us at 7:30 to drive us to the airport.  We have two flights to catch to get to Bangkok.  The first takes us to Kuala Lumpur and then we get a  connecting flight and should be In Bangkok by 3:00pm.  We have a street food tour booked for this evening.

Judith is green.  It’s not fun to be sick in your own bed; so much worse in a foreign place and a day that you’re on the move.  This is going to be an agonizing day for her.  And there’s no way she’ll be interested In a food tour when nothing is staying down. 

She is stoic about today.  There isn’t any complaining; just an attitude that at some point this day will end and be in Bangkok and able to go back to bed and convalescence.  

Last night before she crashed, she went out and bought a couple of cans of apple juice from the “Never Close Market” across the street from the hotel.  When she came back and started drinking it she thought it had gone bad because the juice had small solid jelly like chunks in it.  If you weren’t queasy already, then you’d be guaranteed to feel nauseous after thinking you’d drank something that was off.  

It turns out the apple juice was manufactured to have those chunky bits.  There was a little fine print on the cam that indicated there were chunky bits in the can, but who would have thought that would have even been an option for apple juice?

Before we left for the airport, I went out to secure edible food items for Judith.  I went and got some pastries from the hotel kitchen and since the “Never Close Market” wasn’t open, walked to a breakfast place and ordered apple juice.  I thought it was odd that it was being made at the barista area of the kitchen.  I wish I had watched him make it.  When I got it, it was a vivid green colour, not anything like Sunrype apple juice from home...  It was giving to me in a mug, I considered leaving it because it was such a weird colour and I didn’t think Judith would want it.  But I thought what did I have to lose, so I asked for take out and they poured it into a cup and sealed it (exactly like you would get for bubble tea).  

I came back to the room and Judith was getting ready to go.  To my surprise she tried the apple juice and to my greater surprise she said it was the best she had ever had.  Maybe she was delirious from being dehydrated. Or maybe she was being nice since I went out and sourced it. Or maybe it was really the best.  I remain sceptical.  In any event, good or not, it doesn’t stay with her.  

We are flying Air Asia.  This is a discount airline and up to this point, we have no experience with them.  The first flight from Kota Kinabalu to Kuala Lumpur went off without a hitch. Leg room was a little tight for Judith, but acceptable for someone as short as I am.  Judith wasn’t so happy with the smell of the chicken McPie that was being served up as the meal.  Something about making her nauseous.  But she kept it all together without saying anything.  In fact, the major difference when she's not well is that I carry most of the conversation.  Consequently there was less discussion that entire day as I was mindful of a sick travel partner. 

As we were waiting around the second flight got delayed by 2 hours.  Uggh.  That gets us into Bangkok at 5:00 pm.  We’re supposed to meet the guide for the food tour at 5:30 so by the time we deplane, go through immigration, pick up our luggage, find the driver, navigate to the hotel and get ourselves prepared to go out for a food tour, we will definitively be at least an hour late.  

But more importantly the delay extends how long Judith has to be somewhere other than tucked into a warm bed.  I can tell she won’t be going on the food tour.  

When we get out of the secure part of the Bangkok airport with our luggage, we don’t see our agent’s sign.  We check a few locations and try to follow the instructions provided in our detailed written guide provided by the tour operator, but they don’t make any sense.  When we ask someone to help us, they indicate that the instructions seem to be for the other Bangkok airport, Suvarnabhumi, not for this airport, Don Mueang.

So we attempt to call and see what’s going on, but can’t seem to get through.  There’s a number sequence to use a Canadian cell phone in a foreign country and I haven’t mastered it.  So Judith goes off to see if she can find a service desk and convince them to phone for us, while I wait in the exit area to see if our tour operator shows.  

While I’m waiting I take my phone off airplane mode from when I had turned it on to start the flight.  Up pops a voicemail indicator.  It’s from the tour operator and indicates that they’re sorry that the driver wasn’t able to locate us (because his instructions were to go to the wrong airport) and for us to get a taxi to the hotel for which they will reimburse us.  

So now I go in search of Judith and I'm towing our two bags through a crowded airport.  Fortunately she’s really, really easy to spot in a sea of short, dark haired people (Yes, like me.)  She’s already found a clerk at the information counter to make the call, so we wait patiently until she has an opportunity to interrupt and tell her that the problem has been solved.  

During this period of confusion I find a sign in the airport that amuses me.  I love traveling to foreign countries and finding signs where the translation needs a bit more work or where you shake your head and wonder what were they thinking to end up with that result?  In this case, this sign was being held up in the airport by a travel agent looking for her group to show.  A name change would be needed for her to immigrate to one of several countries. 

We find a taxi desk and prepay our fare to the hotel.  There is an employee who takes our taxi receipt and gestures to Judith and I to follow her.  We're immediately placed in a waiting taxi and the employee passes the receipt back to us.

The taxi driver swings our luggage to and fro until she figures it will clear the trunk lip and then lets the momentum carry the case into the truck.  She is transgendered and has long fingernails and is wearing make up.  In the cab she is happy to let us know about her adult children and taxi ride stories.  

Early on in the long conversation, the driver tells us that the fare we just paid at the taxi desk does not include the highway tolls.  It immediately smells fishy (more on that fishy smell later) but we fork over the 120 baht requested to cover the tolls.  As I write the toll amount on the receipt for future recovery from the tour organizer, I notice that the form does confirm that tolls aren’t included in the fare.  At least that tells us we aren’t been taken for that kind of ride.

After the first expressway and toll paid, the driver indicates she is going another route, one that doesn’t take the second expressway as she thinks that expressway will be all blocked with traffic. She hands back the remaining toll money.  At some point along our new alternate route, she points to the beginning of the second expressway and sure enough, it’s at a standstill.   We zoom past those parked cars.  I’m pretty happy speeding by these stopped cars and I think Judith is even happier.  

We take another shortcut through a large hospital complex.  I think taxis are permitted to use this route but regular vehicles are not.  There are traffic officers regulating vehicles through the narrow streets and our driver seems to drive through the maze with great ease.  And then voila, we’re at the hotel where we’re greeted by the hotel staff for check in and by our guide, Paul.  

AriyasomVilla is a boutique hotel, 24 rooms, right in the middle of the city.  Of course, with a population of 8 Million, Bangkok has a big middle...Anyways our room was pretty nice, and the grounds seemed lush, perfect for us to hang for the next few days.  Judith is happy to finally lie down. 

Panorama shot of bathroom

But with the delay, it’s now dark and by the time I get ready to go back out again it will be too late.  Besides Judith isn’t going to go, so I think maybe we can delay this part of the adventure to another time to when she’s feeling up to it.  We discuss with Paul who agrees to amend our schedule and we agree to start at 8:00 tomorrow.

The hotel room also has a tray of fruit.  I pick out some rambutan (refer earlier comments) to show that I will have some.  The fruit is similar to lychee nuts.  Apparently they are often referred to as a piece of male anatomy.

With Judith heading for bed I proceeded to check out dinner in the hotel restaurant.  It concentrates on vegetarian dishes but you can add shrimp or fish to most of the dishes.  It all looks good except I really don’t like eating alone in a restaurant.  It’s not my thing.  I think meals are for sharing conversation and there’s no sharing when you’re by yourself.  So despite the tasty meal and the lovely restaurant setting it’s not a totally satisfy experience.  I finish dinner quickly and it’s off to bed.

16. KK - White Water Rafting

We're up very very early to head out to go white water rafting on the Pradas River. Our driver was going to be in the lobby at 5:00 for the long trip from Kota Kinabalu to Padas Gorge.  

It's still dark out when start the journey.  We're travelling by car to the city of Beaufort about 2 hours away.  From there we are board a train to the Padas Gorge. Our driver gets us to the train station an hour before the train is supposed to leave.  We wait outside but there isn't much more than a parking lot so we wait inside.  We open our takeout breakfast that the hotel made for us.  It reminds me of a mock chicken sandwich.  I only eat half of the sandwich and go out and give the other half to our driver.  About 10 minutes before the train arrived, Alex brings over Rio, who introduces himself as our rafting guide.  

We board the train at Beaufort and settle down into seats and begin the ride.  We're about two stations in when we're advised that we need to switch trains.  We stand around at Halogitat Station until a new train comes by.  We board and it needs to shuffle and connect with a train car at the station.  It's not smooth.  There's a simultaneous terrific jolt and banging noise as the cars hook up.  The train goes to Rayu which is the end stop for the rafting adventure.  The train is making a temporary stop while all the paddlers disembark, walk over the tracks to the rafting compound, leaves our bags containing towels, change of clothing, etc., and then get back on the train.  

The train gets going to the next stop Panggi, which is the stop for the start of our rafting adventure.  We get out and walk over to the rafting buildings.   There we get our gear (life preserver and helmet) and then receive our dry land training.  We get assigned to boats and walk down to the rivers edge.  

Our boat will have 8 people.  There's room for 6 paddlers and two of us will sit in the first two rows in between the paddlers and hang into them via the webbing on the life jackets.  There will be opportunity to swap with a paddlers during the run.  

We also do a bit of wet training.  Everyone in the boat is required to exit the raft and then climb back in.  I’m unable to hoist myself out of the water without assistance.  It seems whatever upper body strength I have is overwhelmed by my under body weight.  It turns out most of us had that issue.  The water was so warm.  

The rafting guidelines for this 3-4 level of white water rapids required you to be able to swim.  There was one woman from Korea in the boat who not only didn’t know how to swim, wouldn’t even get into the water to do her wet training.  All the training was conducted In English, I’m not sure how much she understood.  And the waiver was in English.  But in Thailand, I suspect it’s harder to prove negligence, so nobody objected to her being on the raft or made her do her wet training.  

Judith and I are paddling in the middle part of the boat and we have the non swimmer sitting in between us. Judith is paddling left on the port side; I’m padding right on starboard.  I have my feet wedged in under the seat bolster in front of me.  The seat bolster is secured to the raft and wedging my feet in allows me to lean out and still stay firmly planted in the boat.  

We paddle through the first few rapids and it’s great fun.  There are 9 in total.  All the rapids have names — I wonder if the “washing machine” or the “Snake” are used in other rafting locations.  

We come up to the most difficult of the rapids and our guide indicates we have about a 60% chance that someone will end up in the water.  We start paddling hard and slide over the first lip of the rapids bow first.  After that we started sliding starboard first. 

 I remember thinking this wasn’t the ideal direction since I was sitting on that side and the water was rushing over the gunnel.  

I could feel and see the water picking up the port side of the boat and Judith slipping down into the middle of the boat.  By this time the raft felt fairly vertical in the water and I was horizontal to the water.  I could feel water filling my helmet.  

And then as quickly as the raft became vertical, to my great surprise, the port side of the raft fell back onto the water and my body got lifted out of the water.  I started paddling again and we continued to slide sideways through and out that set of rapids.  

There was a great relief to be finished that set of rapids.  Our guide was dumbfounded as to why we all didn’t go over.  I think it was a combination of weight distribution (thank goodness for the heavy guy on the port side at the bow of the raft) and perhaps fortuitous wave action that helped right the boat.  I truly thought we were going over too and was already thinking about preparing myself to get my foot unwedged so I wouldn’t be floating upside down through those rapids.  

The next hardest rapid involved navigating through the channel and avoiding 3 large rocks that are spread across the waterway.  I could see two of the rocks as they stuck out of the rapids by at least a foot.  At least that’s what it looked like from up stream where the water was pouring around it.  From the backside, after we had made it through, I could see the rocks were significantly higher as there wasn’t gallons of water trying to be pushed over them from being on the upstream side of them.  I didn’t have to look behind; we actually went through backwards...

After the last rapid we could jump into the water and float/swim to the exit point.  It meant staying on the right side of the river, otherwise there was a possibility that the current would sweep you past the exit point and the rafting company would need to rescue you.  

We climb out over the big smooth slippery rocks in the river.  You can’t see them, there’s so much sediment in the water that the visibility is zero. 

We dry off and then eat a tasty buffet lunch. We decide to purchase the photo package taken by the rafting outfitters. It’s all going well so far.  Eventually it’s time to get back on the train and take it back to Beaufort Station.  We get the last two seats in the train car.  Judith is cold as the car is air conditioned, but I don’t have the same issues.  We change trains at Halogitat Station and get off at Beaufort.  Our driver and car are waiting for us and it’s a 90 min trip back into the city.  

By this time Judith tells me she thinks that the buffett contained MSG.  She’s really not feeling so great.  In fact, she gets progressively worse.  She hopes to be better the next day, which is good because it’s a travel day and it’s no fun to have stomach issues when you’re traveling.  

5. Kuching Day 2

We're up early to meet for bicycling.  It's pouring out.  Monsoon wet.  The rainy season isn't supposed to start until October or  November but it's seems to be early this year.

After breakfast we go down at 8:00 to the lobby to meet our guide.  She's a young woman, Nik, who suggests postponing the the ride until the afternoon or rescheduling to the next day.  The next day doesn't work because we already have activities scheduled.  We decide to postpone until the afternoon.  I figure it can't rain any worse than it was.  We agree to meet again in the lobby at noon.  

We decide to grab a newspaper and head to the pool deck and check out the action there.  At 8:00 am on a rainy day I'm really not surprised when no one is there except for one hotel staff member, Pauline.  We sat down at one of the covered, open air tables and ordered coffee.  

It was quite enjoyable being dry and listening to the rain falling so hard around us.  We had a nice conversation with Pauline who has worked at the Hilton for many years.  We spent the entire morning there drinking a little coffee, reading newspapers and monitoring the rain. We were pleased to watch it dry up in time for us to order some lunch before we headed out again.  I had the Roti Canai, the same dish we had on our food tour in KL.  Judith had some veggie pizza thing.  

We met up with Nik in the lobby and got into her vehicle for a short ride to the bike shop.  There we got fitted for bikes and helmets.  Our travel agent had asked for our heights as part of the pre trip planning before we left, but clearly that information didn't get passed on or was ignored.  In any event we get our bikes fitted and go and select a helmet.  I insisted that Judith wear one. I think she would have gone without if I hadn't said anything. I only found one helmet with an expiry date label.  It said May 2012.  

With our gear on, we took the obligatory picture and headed out on the street. Cycling the city streets was easy as Nik used a whistle to advise drivers that we were going to navigate in front of them.  It took a while to get used to what direction to look for cars due to their right hand drive system and numerous traffic circles. 

The villages are interesting. The homes used to be built on stilts because the river overflows its banks, flooding the area during the rainy season. It also provides an additional benefit of air circulation under the floor.  We stop by one of the oldest examples of these homes.  The posts are made from ironwood, a particularly hardy wood.  The long houses would hold multiple families and there would be communal areas for cooking, eating and ceremonies. 

We hop back on the bikes and stop in the driveway of a house to investigate a Pandan plant.   This plants gave off a fragrant smell when you crush the long slender leaves.  

We rode to the next village and visited the Satok Weekend market.  It's a big (and I mean big) open air market with many many stalls from local framers.  The vendors come from small nearby farms and bring an amazing amount of produce.  The selection is phenomenal.  We walked around the stalls.  First there was a dry market--produce, spices, drinks, goods, etc.

And Judith finds a cat at the market.

The other section is known as a wet market and sells meats and fish.  I only saw one stall selling meat and the sight was enough to put you off meat for the rest of the trip.  There was meat sitting out on this hot day.  Lots of flies buzzing about and the hygiene looked a little weak.  I think I like my meat less recognizable than what I saw in this stall. 

The wet market also had a ton of fish and shellfish.  We saw a local fisherman with a bagful of fresh river prawns "Udang Galah". sell it to the vendor.  He was paid based on weight.  

We gathered up some things to eat for lunch.  One of the items was Kuih Talam, a popular Malay cake that has two layers.  The white layer is made of coconut milk and rice flour.  The green layer is made from rice flour, green pea flour and extract of pandan juice -- the same plant we had seen earlier.  

  

We also ordered Laksa Sarawak, a rice vermicelli soup.  Since we already had lunch, I was too full to each much of anything.  Plus it was hot, and that tends to make me loose interest in consuming much.  

After we rode through another village back to the river.  We waited for a water taxi and it didn't take long for one to appear.

The water taxi ride was great.  Lots to see from the water side.  

This is a foot bridge connecting communities on either side of the river.

We drop off our bikes and come back to the hotel via the riverfront walkway.  We're hot and sweaty; showers are called for.

I end up blogging. Judith decides to hang out at poolside.  She tells me she ordered a "Singapore Sling" but it wasn't what she was expecting.  I think she wanted to be 23 again.  

We ended up at the White Barouk restaurant for dinner.  We ate out on the deck overlooking the Sawarak River.  There was a family eating on the inside of restaurant and the little boy started waving back at Judith and blowing her kisses.  That little guy was very cute.

After dinner we walked over to the Riverfront amphitheater and watched a show celebrating the indigenous tribes.

The act involved much singing and dancing. There was a demonstration on a blowpipe.  It's an amazingly accurate weapon.

We went back to the hotel. Another earlyish start.