CMU Classes

Chiang Mai University (CMU) has been trying to educate us for the past week.  I am not sure how successful they have been, but it has certainly been interesting.  We had lectures in Thai etiquette, Thai cooking, and and Thai language. Interestingly there have been no lectures yet in Thai history.  I think that the courses so far have all been designed to help us students overcome whatever culture shock they may have been experiencing.

Kathleen practising the "Wai" while eating breakfast
(and thinking about Scrabble)

In etiquette class, we learned how to "wai" - the traditional Thai greeting.  For Kathleen and me, this is sort of optional as, being seniors, everybody is supposed to "wai" us and we can respond as we please. Thai culture is fairly formal by Canadian standards and one of the things that we appreciate is the respect they have for seniors.  They actually believe that people with grey hair know something! We are hoping that the young people on this trip absorb this bit of Thai culture and carry it back to Canada.  Another value I appreciate is that they discourage smoking whenever somebody else is within smelling distance.

Kathleen having fun cooking

The cooking class was lots of fun.  My partner was Kathleen - "John, you have to read the recipe!" - I kept leaving out steps.  At the end, the instructor came along and with a whirlwind of moves, finished for us.  We made chicken curry, sticky rice with mango, and pad thai.  We got to eat the fruits of our labour - it was all delicious.

Sign outside a Wat (Buddhist temple) we visited
(note the Thai script)

Our Thai language instructor is delightful.  He keeps telling us Thai is an easy language.  Somehow I haven't got to the easy part yet.  The Thai script is beautiful but totally incomprehensible to me and is hard to follow because it does not leave any spaces between words in a sentence - it is just one big long string of characters which are totally unrelated to the Roman characters we are used to. So our language teacher uses a phonetic alphabet with at least some familiar characters and sounds.  But there are a whole lot of new sounds as well.  To say spicy duck you say "phet pet".  Both words sound identical to me but Kathleen says she can hear a difference.  I think I will stick to eating plain chicken - they have a lot of chicken dishes here.

Thais are very polite.  One thing they do is add a word at the the end of most sentences just to make it more polite - sort of like us adding sir or madam.  The ladies add "kha" and the men add "khrap".  Whenever I say thank you, it is pronounced "kop khun khrap."  It is hard not to think about how that sounds in Canada. I note that at McThai (aka McDonalds) the men serving use "kop kun kha," maybe because they don't want to have the tourists think they are serving "-----"!

Next Stop

Great Eastern Hotel, Quezon City, Manila

Monday was a travel day as we voyaged from Manila to Chiang Mai in Thailand.  It started with breakfast at 5:00 am at the Great Eastern Hotel in Manila.  We very much enjoyed our stay at the Great Eastern - the bed-bug stories were totally unfounded.  It was spotless and the food was great.  Certainly our most luxurious stay so far.

We had a long bus ride to the airport - about 1.5 hours for 15 km - I was told that was light traffic. There were lots of hugs and tears saying fair-well to the folks from NWU. Three flights and three connections later we arrived in Chiang Mai with the only excercise being  a moderately fast run in Hong Kong.  Then we were treated to a songthaew ride to the hotel - we arrived about 10:30 pm.  The king-size bed here is a great luxury but just a shower so no soaks.  We slept hard but were up early the next day partly due to the time change.

A Buddhist temple near the hotel

The moat near our hotel

Tuesday morning I went for a short walk and was delighted with my first look at Chiang Mai. It is a walled city (only parts of the wall are still standing) with a moat on all four sides. It is almost a perfect square with each side about 1 mile long.  We are here for almost three weeks so I expect we will get to know it fairly well.

Inside a songthaew

A songthaew is the Thai parallel to a Jeepney.  Songthaew in Thai means literally "two (song) benches (thaew)".  Riding in them is like riding in a hot tin box on the back of a pick-up truck, but it gets you to your destination quickly and cheaply.  On our trip from the airport, the driver piled the luggage on the roof and it arrived safely too.

The Marcos Family

We have all heard about Ferdinand Marcos who ruled The Philippines from 1965 until 1985, the first eight years as an elected President and the later twelve years as a dictator.

Inside the Marcos cottage

One of the first things you realize when you visit Ilocos Norte is that there is a whole Marcos clan - not just the Ferdinand and Imelda we are familair with.  Ilocos Norte is the Marcos home province.  His daughter is the current governor of this province.  His wife Imelda is currently a representative in the Philippine congress.  The family lives on.

Kathleen searching for the shoes

On Tuesday last week we visited the Marcos summer home near Laoag. Marcos was very interested in architecture and enjoyed drawing building plans.  He is credited with the design of the summer house we visited, as well as designing many public buildings and initiating many of the Philippines road network projects .  It made me think of another famous man who designed grand buildings and ordered the construction of futuristic highways in the 1930s.  The parallels are striking.

In Canada we generally do not have a positive impression of the Marcos clan.  The first thing that comes to Kathleen's mind is Imelda's shoe collection.  For me I think of the the billions of dollars squirelled away in foreign bank accounts and the shooting of Benigno Aquino (a Marcos political rival) as he stepped off the plane on his return to the Philippines from exile in 1983.  Imelda is quoted as saying, "Yes the Filipinos are living in slums and hovels. But what counts is the human spirit and the Filipinos are smiling, They smile because they are a little healthy, a little educated and a little loved."  It made Kathleen think of Marie Antoinette and the "let them eat cake" comment - out of touch with what her subjects were living through.

Filipinos and a Marcos Mannequin

And yet despite all this, many Filipinos venerate Marcos. On Wednesday we visited the Marcos museum in Batac about 20 km from Laoag.  Filipinos must be the most forgiving people in the world.  They are always prepared to see the best in someone, so around here Ferdinand Marcos is still a hero.  He is remembered for all the infrastructure projects he started here and as a war hero (WWII).  Imelda is still thought of as the "queen"  of Ilocos Norte.  The Marcos museum paints a glowing picture of the man and makes him out to be the Philippines equivalent of Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill rolled into one.

I had a hard time reconciling the two views of Marcos.  I have a lot of respect for the people I met in Ilocos Norte, but at the same time, I find it hard to ignore the history books.

Manila

Manila has had its surprises. We enjoyed our first bath since leaving Canada.  And we fit in the beds!

The sign on this abandoned building reads
"Ria's Ladies Dorm, Art Gallery, Restaurant"

View over Manila from our hotel - clear skies!

I was expecting to see some slum areas, partly from a previous visit in 1988 and partly because that impression was reinforced by the film "Lola" that we watched at SSU before we left.  But instead I have seen a relatively modern city with lots of very tall buildings (a lot of banks), modern and very attractive museums, and lovely parks.  There have been some run-down or abandoned buildings and some construction that has obviously stopped, but these have been a minority and there is lots of new construction in progress.  Also, the air is a lot clearer than it was 24 years ago, although still not quite as pristine as Laoag.  A few times it took the sight of a jeepney to remind me I was in the Philippines.  I know there is still a lot of poverty and the slums are extensive but it seems more hopeful here than I was expecting.

Waiting for the Ayala Museum to open:
Kathleen, Randy, Jules and Nicole

We have made four stops at museums and art galleries during our brief stay here.  On Friday five of us crammed into a taxi designed for four passengers only and went to the National Museum and art gallery.  The star attraction there were two paintings, one by Juan Luna (remember the mustaches in Paoay) and one by Felix Hidalgo. The paining by Luna is called Spoliarium and depicts the room under the Colliseum in Rome where dead gladiators were disposed of.  Painted in 1894, it won a Gold Medal at an exposition in Madrid - a first for a Filipino painter.  The Luna work together with the Hidalgo painting became touchstones of the revolution against Spanish colonialism in 1898.

Even though it is only about eight km from our hotel, it took well over an hour for the return taxi trip

Intramuros Calessa ride

We heard a lot about Philippine history the next day, first with a visit to Ayala museum where we saw a series of 70 dioramas of various events in Philippine history.  This is a museum funded by the Ayala family, one of the wealthiest families in the Philippines.  It was first rate and our guide was excellent.  We wished we had had more than the two hours allotted.

The next visit to the Bagumbayan Light and Sound museum featured a walk through a series of life-size scenes of many of the same events depicted at the Ayala museum.  The third trip through history was a walking tour through the Intramuros district of Manila.  This was the walled section of the city built during the Spanish colonial era (1571 to 1898). Sadly the district was largely destroyed during WW II.  Our guide for this tour was very dramatic and gave impressions of various historical characters.  His take on General MacArthur was none too flattering and he was generally quite irreverent about many aspects of Philippine history.

Our guide`s take on MacArthur

The tour included a Calessa ride and a Halohalo, a typical Filipino dessert.

On Sunday we attended Word of Hope Christian Family Church.  They meet in a shopping mall and have 6 two-hour services every Sunday. They use two cinemas with parallel services in each. The music was mostly Hillsong, and the preaching was excellent.  The church has grown from almost zero to 6,000 members in six years.  Worship was exuberant and at a higher volume than I have experienced before.

Laoag Reflections

Jen and Kathleen waiting in the Hotel Tiffany to depart
The hats are a gift from NWU

Well here we are in Manila after an 11 hour overnight bus trip.  We all survived although I must admit I was wondering at times if I would make it intact.  It was very cold in the bus - I think the air conditioning was stuck on max or something.  Fortunately John Evans had warned us so we had our Canada clothes with us, but even then it was chilly. We were all very grateful the University had laid on a big bus for us so we had double seats to ourselves. In the small bus we used for touring around Laoag, Kathleen and I did not fit in a double seat - one of us had to lean out into the aisle. A recipe for marital strife if the drive is a long one.

Which brings up one of my observations of Laoag.   Filipinos are smaller than we are, and the beds, buses and tricycles reflect this.

But despite that and probably a little bit because of that, we had a great time in Laoag.  Filipinos have the most wonderful smiles, whether at a restaurant, at the university, or in the hotel, and they always greeted me with ``Good morning, Sir John``  or ``Hello mum`` for Kathleen.

Robinsons Mall in October

Christmas starts in September in the Philippines.  Everywhere we have gone stores are playing Christmas carols - even `Walking in a Winter Wonderland` and 'I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas'- and all the shops have decorated Christmas trees on display (although a few have taken time out for Halloween).

Kathleen (not eating) and Peaches

We had four favourite places to eat in Laoag when we weren`t being treated by the University.  One common thing we noted for all of them was that we were never given a table knife - just a fork and a spoon.  So I learned how to cut my fried chicken with a spoon - I think you are expected to use your fingers.  In fact at the Friday night celebration at NWU, eating with our fingers was what we were instructed to do.  I did, but Kathleen was upchucking at that point so she did not eat anything - thankfully she recovered fairly quickly. At the dinner we had the privilege of meeting Peaches - a lovely young lady with one of those famous Laoag smiles.

Kathleen (feeling better) ordering breakfast at the Jollibee

One of our most frequent eating places for breakfast or for a chocolate sundae after dinner was the Jollibee.  It was fast-food style but still a unique Philippines experience.  On one occasion our server was young lady with the name `Jelly` according to her name tag.

Hotel Tiffany in Laoag

Alyssa summed our time in Laoag with these words "I have never felt so unconditionally accepted and loved as I did in Laoag". We will always have fond memories of our time there.

A day at the beach

Our Beach hut

On Wednesday we made an expedition to the Fort Ilocandia beach.  It is about 5 km from the University. There is a five star hotel and casino at the beach where the Chinese and Taiwanese tourists stay. So it has all the facilities including beach huts with karaoke machines and changing rooms and toilets!  The karaoke machine required pesos to run it but that didn't prevent it from being used. They need to up the price! Thankfully S had rented two huts - one without karaoke. Several students and staff from Northwestern University joined us for this outing.

Setting the net

We swam in the South China Sea.  There were relatively gentle waves and the water was warm - I could have stayed in forever and swimming was effortless because of the salt.  We were in over our heads within 5 meters of the shore.

I wonder what the students thought when they saw that Kathleen and I shared a changing space.  But the cubicles were in the process of being painted so it was helpful to have each other to hold clothes while the other was changing. Despite that, Kathleen did get some paint on her pants.

We enjoyed watching and helping a group of fisherman who set their net from outrigger canoes and then started to haul both ends in from the beach.  Apparently the net was 300 meters long.

Hauling in the catch

As a child S used to go the beach and help the fishermen haul in the net so she had all of us helping.  Not being aware of what we were doing, we all gathered on one end only and the rope broke.  Nobody seemed upset and one man swam out and reconnected it.  It took a good hour to haul in the net with all ages helping, but in the end there was a disappointingly small catch.  That was a lot of work for not much return.  I gather that sometimes it is much better but at least we had an education about hard work and teamwork.

Lunch in the beach hut

The students went on 4x4 dune buggy rides and sand-boarding after lunch, but Kathleen and I had had enough sun so we came back to the hotel and started  getting ready for the next stage of our journey.  We succeeded  in getting the paint off Kathleen's pants. 

Churches

Mustaches in front of the Paoay church

Tuesday was a touring day.  Our first stop was at the Marcos summer home situated on a lake near Laoag. I will write more about this in a separate blog entry.  Our next stop was at the Paoay church.  Built between 1694 and 1710, it is famous for its enormous buttresses apparently designed to withstand earthquakes.  It's interesting that they thought about such things in the 17th century.  We tend to consider designing buildings for earthquake survival a modern concept.The style is listed on Wikipedia as "earthquake baroque".

In the photo we all have mustaches.  This was a salute to a famous Philippine Spanish-era artist from the local area - Juan Luna.  We hope to see some of his paintings when we visit Manila.

Some SSU students in front of Grandpa's

We had lunch in the town of Vigan about 1 1/2 hours south of Paoay. We ate in Grandpa's Restaurant and of course I felt right at home. The meal was yummy as usual.

After lunch we had free time to explore the town. We walked along Calle Crisologo, a street in Vigan that has some of the best preserved Spanish colonial architecture in the Philippines, complete with cobblestone paving.

The Cathedral of Vigan was a cool stop on our walk.

Vigan Cathedral

In both this church and the one in Paoay I had to stop and remind myself that I was in the Philippines and not Mexico.  The architecture and furnishings are very much like what one would see in Mexico.  That, of course is not too surprising, since the Philippines were colonized by the Spanish via Mexico.

After Vigan it was a 2 hour bus ride (only 80 km on the main highway here) back to Laoag and dinner at Jerry's Grill (chicken kebabs) and a sundae at the Jolibee (Philippines fast food place). Kathleen is enjoying not having to cook.

Waves and the Waterfall

On Thursday we toured the Northern part of Ilocos Norte (the province of which Laoag is the capital).

Kathleen, Jasmine and the South China Sea

Our first stop was at a place where they were producing salt.  This is done by boiling seawater - it reminded me of doing maple syrup. They use rice hulls as fuel - a good use of something that would otherwise go to waste.

Our second stop was at a disused lighthouse overlooking the South China Sea.  It was on quite a high hill so the view was spectacular.  Some Filipinos would prefer it to be called the West Philippine Sea instead of the South China Sea as a way of staking their claim.  There are a large number of islands jointly claimed by China, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam. Potential oil rights are fueling the dispute.

Dragon Fruit Flower

Our next stop was at a dragon-fruit plantation. I had never heard of dragon fruit  but we bought dragon fruit jam and cookies and we enjoyed dragon fruit juice and ice cream.  The ice cream was particularly delicious.

 

Lunch in Pagupud

We had lunch at a resort on the beach at Pagupud.  
Nachos were followed by a buffet and I had to eat Kathleen's dessert as it had gluten.  Love that gluten!  The sound of the waves made me think of the traffic noise at our hotel in Laoag. Constant and soothing.

Even though the waves were very enticing our students were not allowed to go swimming here because of the undertow.  On a previous trip SSU almost lost a student here.  We had no desire to repeat that experience. Swimming was planned for our next stop at Kabigan falls.

Kabigan Falls

Kabigan falls is a 1.5 km walk along a mountain stream.  There were a couple of places where we had to cross the stream on logs and Kathleen handled it without a hitch - I was proud of her because that is something she has always been nervous of.  The waterfall was very high with a pool at the base and we all went swimming.  It was certainly a highlight of our time in the Philippines.

Bangui wind farm

On our way home we stopped in Bangui to visit a wind farm. There were 20 wind turbines lining a section of the beach where the waves were even more dramatic than in Pagupud.  It is the only currently operating wind farm in the Philippines (and I think in South East Asia), although more are planned.  It is a spectacular location and there is definitely lots of wind there.

Many thanks to our hosts from Northwestern University for organizing a memorable day. 

Gardens and Dance

On Wednesday morning we were treated with a visit to the botanic gardens that are part of Northwestern University.  One of the highlights was being able to see a Venus Fly trap in operation.  I resisted sticking my finger in as our guide said it would be bitten off! But poking it with a stick was fun.  The gardens had an amazing number of plant varieties, most of which I had never heard of - all in a idyllic tropical setting.

The tour was followed by an amazing lunch in the main building on the site. There was fish and squid and soup and a bunch of things I did not recognize but it was beautifully presented and tasty too. Kathleen thoroughly enjoyed the lunch.

Jasmine jumping at the right time

After lunch we took a quick bus ride back to the University for a short lecture on Filipino dance followed by a demonstration put on by dance students at the University.  The enthusiasm of the dancers was captivating - they obviously were having a lot of fun as they went through their repertoire of Philippine folk dances. The finale had them involve some of our group in a dance that involved jumping over bamboo poles at just the right rhythm so as to avoid having one's feet trapped.  I was relieved not to a be picked as a "volunteer" although it did look like they were having fun. Nobody got caught.

Philippines - Transport

A small swarm of Tricycles

The Filipinos have developed  some unique means of getting around.

Cosy inside the Tricycle

In Laoag the most numerous vehicles are called  tricycles - they are in fact small motorbikes with sidecars. There seem to be an enormous number of them here and they are constantly on the go.  Kathleen and I have tried this.  I think for Kathleen it was more challenging than the cable car ride in Barcelona.  We really had to rub shoulders to get in and the ride certainly gave one a feeling for the road.    Kathleen refrained from screaming when she saw a bus coming straight for us. Thankfully she threw up later and not on the spot.

There seem to be only two traffic rules - get to the destination as quickly as possible and don't die in the attempt.  I have seen no less than four Filipinos getting out of one these things - Filipinos are smaller than we are.   There has never been a moment when I could not hear one of these machines putting by our hotel.   They seem to travel in swarms of up to 10 or 15 machines.   It is hard to imagine how they make money doing this as only about 1 in 4 seems to have a passenger; the fee for a 3 km ride was 40 pesos - about $1.

The second unique vehicle used for transport here is the jeepney.  They are derived from WW II jeeps but have been extended by various amounts to accommodate 10 to 15 passengers in a hop on/hop off from the back mode.  I understand they travel relatively fixed routes - the hard part is figuring out what the route is.  You have to wait until it is full before the driver will leave.  It is much more social than the tricycle as the last person on has to pass his fare through all the other passengers to the driver and then the change is passed back.  It is about 1/5 the cost of the tricycle for the same distance.  Each Jeepney is unique and many have a name such as ``Jesus is Lord`` or ``Amazing Grace``.  See  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuIQHiAHExg for more info on Jeepney riding.

Calessa

A third common conveyance is the Calessa.  There seems to be one of these for about every 10 tricycles.  It is drawn by a single skinny horse. This one carried a family of four plus the driver.   They cost about 5x as much as the tricycle and don`t appear to be any more comfortable.

The fourth major category is anything that works.  I have seen a family of 3 on a small motorcycle, lots of combinations of people using bicycles and people riding on top of a cattle truck. An interesting one is the kuliglig - a two wheel tractor towing any sort of passenger or freight trailer. These are more common in rural areas.  I love the name - it is what they sound like.

A good way to go?

Philippines First Impressions

Laoag street scene - note the clear blue sky

There are a lot of people here and they are all out on the street.  Kathleen says that Manila is the most densely populated city in the world.  The people are vibrant - full of life and they all like very loud music.  On the airport terminal transfer bus in Manila (a 45 minute trip through stop and go traffic) there were intermittent bouts of very loud music.  I am not sure why it was intermittent - maybe the driver was having problems with his blaster.   At the local grocery shop in Laoag they had speakers set up on the sidewalk making a deafening sound. Inside a different song was playing at  slightly lower volume. We made our flight to Laoag with no seconds to spare but at least we had had some music. Our students seemed to enjoy it (the music).

There is a constant background of motorcycle noise as there are thousands of "trikes". (motorcycles with sidecars) and they operate 24/7.   Amongst all that, we managed to hear a rooster crow at 4 am from our mid-city hotel.

John Evans shaking the world

For the first time on this trip, we woke up to clear sunny skies in Laoag.  Quite a contrast to the constant haze in Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Manila.

Filipinos are very polite.  On Sunday John Evans sang a song in church.  As soon as he began to sing there was an earthquake (5.6 on the Richter scale) and it went on for quite a while with the floor moving back and forth quite noticeably.  But despite this, only a few people at the back ran out of the building.  Most stayed put and enjoyed the song although the people's prayers provided a background for it.

On Monday morning with the necklace

Kathleen had the experience of admiring a lady's necklace at church and having it put around her neck with no objection accepted. She felt very humbled and found out later she should have said how much she thought the necklace looked good on the person wearing it.  She has determined to wear the necklace, which she really does like, as much as possible during the rest of our time in the Philippines.

Kuala Lumpur memories

There is so much more to say about our time in Kuala Lumpur (KL) I could never share it all. But here are a few memories I would like to hang onto.

We stayed at the Brickfields YMCA. The location was wonderful - only a few minutes walk from the KL Sentral (railway and light rail hub) in downtown KL.  It is a three story building set among a bunch of skyscrapers.

Breakfast was included and was a choice of a Malayasian idea of a western breakfast or something more traditionally Malaysian which would generally be rice based.  The first day they served the coffee with a load of sugar all ready in it.  After that we asked for white coffee, no sugar.  I often wore my sweater inside to keep warm inside.  Remembering to take it off before going outside was a challenge but if I forgot it did not take too long to realize my error.  Going outside felt good because of the warmth - that lasted about 30 seconds then it was just plain hot.

Sean Connery's train

Travelling around KL was an adventure.  We rode on the same train that Sean Connery used in the film (but we did not see him or Katherine Zeta Jones).  Taxi rides were like a lottery as you never knew whether the driver really knew where you wanted to go.  The group would use several taxis to get to a museum with 4 or 5 to a taxi.  It was always interesting to compare fares and to see who got the lowest. In one case my cab got there first with a low fare while the cab John Evans was in got lost and took 3 times as long and cost 3 times as much.  But even at that, he still only paid 14 RM ($5) so the stakes weren't too high.

Hindu temple with John Evans and Kathleen

We also walked quite a lot despite the heat. You can walk for half an hour or so without too much trouble but by that time stopping in an air-conditioned building is very welcome.  After sucking in the cold for a few minutes you are ready to go back out into the heat.  On one walk, John Evans took us to  the central market and then to a market in China town.  Near China town we visited a Hindu temple - a first for both Kathleen and me.

At the Muzeum Negara (National Museum) our guide was a retired Royal Navy (UK) officer. He filled in a lot of the blanks in Malaysian history for us. For most of the museum visits, our students wore their uniforms (white top, black bottom) so looked like a pretty sharp group.

Muzeum Negara

Lectures were given every second day and held at the YMCA so they were easy to find.  Most of them were excellent and I learned more about Malaysian history, culture and politics in the one week than I ever would have in several months as a normal tourist.

Malaca

On the bus to Malaca

We took a day trip to Malaca on Thursday.  We left at 7:30 which was an early start for us. The bus was very comfortable and air conditioned (absolutely essential in this climate).  Like all SEAsian buses it had fancy curtains.  I haven't figured out the purpose for them, but they are universal.  Buses in Mexico had fancy curtains as well.  Maybe it is Canada that is weird.

Jasmine overlooking the straits from St. Paul's church

Malaca is located on the southeast coast of Malaysia overlooking the straits of Malaca (between Sumatra and Malaysia).  This is possibly the busiest waterway in the world today and was the reason for the existence of the town.  Between 1400 and 1500, Malaca (or Melaka) had its golden age as a port where ships from India and the West could meet and trade with ships from China and the East.  Because of the way monsoon winds worked, it was a natural place to stop.  It was through Malaca that Islam entered South East Asia.

Malaca was conquered by the Portuguese in 1511 and later by the Dutch in 1640. Under the Dutch, Malaca started to decline in importance basically because the Dutch drove too hard a deal and the traders went elsewhere.  We visited a few museums and the Sultan's palace which gave a  good picture of the different nationalities that used to trade in Malaca.  It was quite warm (44 C)  and we were glad to stop in Chinatown for a rice balls and chicken lunch.

Jasmine, Jennifer, Ariel and Kathleen heading for the bus

After lunch we had a bit of time for browsing around  Chinatown and Kathleen bought a pewter cross for 9 RM (about $3.00 Cdn) at one of the shops.  I was very thankful for this later when on our trip back to the YMCA in KL we stopped at the Selangor Pewter factory.  They  had lots of very beautiful and fairly pricey pewter items.  For example there was a pair of candlesticks selling for 200,000 RM (about $70,000) but Kathleen had already satisfied her pewter cravings .

It was a great day.  Kathleen and I finished it up with another wonderful Indian meal at a local restaurant ( I have become very fond of butter naan).

The class at the Selangor factory

After that it was time to pack for our 5:30 am start on our trip to Laoag in the Philippines. That was a very early day and another story.



.