Genting Highlands!

So on New Years Day the entire family packed up and headed to the airport. We flew to Kuala Lumpur then took an hour taxi ride through the mountains to get to the amazing mountain top resort known as Genting Highlands. This resort has one of the biggest hotels in the world (Perhaps for number of rooms but definitely not for room size!), an amusement park, several rollercoasters, casinos, amazing food, etc. It was an amazing experience and we also happened to go on the busiest day of the year. The line to checkin at the hotel was 3.5 hours!

Nyik’s neices and nephew in the airport

Off to the airport!

Pizza Hut in Malaysia is amazing!

The crowds at Genting

View from one of the indoor roller coasters

Front steps of our hotel at night

View from our hotel room

Our Hotel

Hotel Lobby

Nyik’s brother and his family

Waterpark

We had the chance to watch the Shaolin Monks perform!

This was an excellent show!

One more picture

Nice car! Also at night the cloud cover is about level with the hotel, so no visibility.

Happy New Year!

So Sunday night was Chinese New Year. This is a big event in Malaysia. We celebrated New Years Eve in Kuching and went out for a seven course meal. One of the traditional ways to start a big New Years Eve supper is with the “Make it high” task. The first dish served is a type of salad, so everyone gets their chop sticks and all at once we all start to toss the salad into the air. The idea is to “Make it high” as a sign of prosperty for the year to come. At least that is how is was explained to me, for all I know it was just a big practical joke on me (haha).

Touring the main shopping centre in Kuching

Salad before “Make it high”

Salad after “Make it high”

Shark fin soup

Half a pig grilled to perfection

More pig (This was my favorite dish)

Nyik’s neice really enjoyed the pig hoof (Made her mother cringe)

Touring Kuching and the Sunday Market

On our next day in Kuching (Saturday) we decided to just take a walking tour of the downtown of Kuching, the waterfront, and also the Sunday Market. The Sunday Market is a huge outdoor market that happens every Saturday and 3pm and goes until 3pm on Sunday. You can buy absolutely anything at the market and if you want fresh seafood this is a great place to get it. The market was very crowded, but still easy to get around. The best part was trying out food samples from a number of vendors.

A couple I met from Edmonton. The only other Canadians I met in Kuching!

Another cat monument

Touring the Chinese museum

Kuching’s new city hall, still under construction

Touring the Sunday market

Enjoying a snack at the Sunday market

Mmm, noodle bowl for lunch!

The Cat Museum

After the Cultural Village, we checked out of our resort hotel and drove back into Kuching were we went to “The Cat Museum”. The city’s name Kuching comes from the Malaysian word for cat which is “Kucing” which is why Kuching is known as “The Cat City”. Kuching has always had many Cats, and Cats are believed to be a symbol of prosperity, there is a much longer story about the name, but that is pretty much all you need to know. The museum was very interesting, it covers anything and everything to do with cats. From a famous king who had his life saved by a cat that stopped him from entering a room, where an assassin was hiding, to how cats are house pets today.

Entrance to the Cat Museum

Aww

Damai Beach Resort and Cultural Village

On our third day in Kuching after spending the night at a beach resort in Damai, we went and toured one of the main tourist attractions in Malaysia which is known as the Sarawak Cultural Village. It is a huge village demonstrating the traditions and daily way of life many of the diverse tribes in Sarawak.

Damai Puri Beach Resort

Start of our Cultural Village tour

Crossing a tradtional bamboo construction bridge

Trying out a blow dart gun

Tim and I at the Cultural Village

Gecko

Traditional Malay dance performance

More of the dance show

Orangatang skull with tusks from a wild boar

Traditional home known as a “Longhouse”

Nyik and I touring the Cultural Village

Tim trying out a wood instrument. Each piece is cut to a different length and hollowed out in the back to make a different note

Taking a break

Relaxing on the balcany of our resort hotel room

Beach Resort

Arrived in Kuching

Nyik and I spent four days in “The Cat City” Kuching. Kuching comes from the Malay word Kucing meaning “Cat”. We had a great time. I finally had the chance to meet all of Nyik’s family. She has a hugh family with two parents, two brothers, two sisters, two sister in laws, three nieces, and two nephews. Our second day in Kuching we drove about an our out of town and had dinner at a little seafood restaurant with the entire family, then Nyik and I stayed at the Damai Puri beach resort for one night.

One of four Cat monuments around Kuching

Brian and Nyik at the cat monument

First meal in Kuching with Nyik and Tim (Chicken and Beef satay)

Beach Resort in Damai

My first meal after recovering from food poisoning (I was really craving a salad!)

Nyik’s brother Ricky and his family (They live in Taiwan)

Seafood restuarant where we had our first big family dinner

I finally had the chance to meet Nyik’s entire family!

Nyik’s neices and nephews (From left to right) Clarence, Yolande, Malinde, Ken, Clarissa.

Singapore Day 3

On our third day in Singapore we decided to try and see as much of the city as possible so we signed up for a bus tour of the city and a harbour cruise. The bus tour was great, it was on a double-decker bus with no roof on the second deck. We also toured the Suntec City Mall. We had an amazing meal consisting of Nasi Bryani and Roti Prata. The meal was fantastic, although I did end up getting food poisoning and spending an evening in the hospital. But hey, when it comes to exploring and trying new things that is a small price to pay.

Another great meal (Beef broad noodle, chicken wings, and a veggie dish)

Our tour bus

Starting our tour for the day

Suntec Shopping Centre

Interesting Building (Is it only two dimensional? Haha)

Harbour

The meal that gave me food poisoning (But it tasted great!)

Duck tour

That’s us taking our harbour cruise

Harbour Lion Fountain called Merlion (short for Mermaid Lion)

Massive new casino complex under construction at the harbour

Mmm, fresh Papaya

Singapore Day 2

We had a chance to tour the famous Singapore Botantical Garden. It is really amazing. Many tropic plants and flowers I have never seen before. Also, we went down to the harbour at night for a long walk and took a few pictures of the skyline at night. We also went and toured India Town and went shopping at the huge electronics centre called Sim Lim. Many amazing products, Nyik even bought herself a new cell phone. Also as usual, we more than just sampled some of the amazing food available!

At the Botanical Garden

Nyik at the Botantical Garden fountain

Botanical Garden

Nyik downtown at night, that is the “Merlion” monument in the background

Fried Oyster dish

Harbour at night

Touring Orchard Road which is one of the main shopping areas in Singapore

Nyik posing with Singapore’s national flower

Singapore Day 1

We arrived in Singapore today. We are a little tired from the trip, but not so tired that we won’t go out to see what was around the hotel and also find some interesting places to eat. We are only a block from Chinatown. There is far more activity than usual due to Chinese New Year being just a week away.

First Meal in Singapore

Entrance to Chinatown

Nyik in Chinatown

Fresh Jerky!

Nyik buying some fresh Jerky!

Jerky Store

Entrance to Chinatown

Iced Kacang (Malaya word for bean) a popular local dish for cooling down on a hot day

Fresh Coconut Juice

If only I could get a noodle bowl like this back home!

Off to Malaysia

I am currently in Vancouver. Met up with Chris Chan for a tour of Electronic Arts and also an all you can eat sushi buffet. Tonight we are flying to Taiwan then Singapore. We will spend a few days in Singapore, then Kuching, then Genting Highlands, and finally Kuala Lumpur. It will be an amazing trip. Posts and pictures will occur regularly!

Main entrance to EA (Amazing building!)