Malaysian Vacation Part 3: KL to Langkawi Island

So I mentioned in MVP2, that we went to bed early because we had an early flight. Well right before we got into bed I pulled out our itinerary to double check our flight time and saw that I was looking at the wrong itinerary when we planned for the 6am flight. To explain how I could have made such a mistake, let me tell you about our travel plan. We did 1 roundtrip ticket from Tokyo to Kuala Lumpur, then another round trip ticket from KL to Langkawi. So basically we fly from Tokyo to KL, then to Langawi, then to KL, then back to Tokyo. We actually had a 2pm flight to Langkawi and the 6am flight I was looking at was for our return trip back to Japan from KL. I just saw KL International Airport and thought that was the flight- woops!  So bonus for us- we had a full morning before we had to leave for the airport! We rescheduled our taxi pickup and slept great :-)

The next morning we woke up just after 8 and had another great hotel breakfast. We had some time before our taxi pickup so we were able to enjoy the hotel pool a bit before we left, which I was so happy about! Its a beautiful infinity edge pool with a view of the Petronas Towers. Sadly the bar was closed, so no pool mimosas for us, but we still had fun relaxing.

See why I was so excited about the pool?! Anyways, after the pool we packed up and headed to the airport. We booked our ride with the same driver that drove us from the airport at our arrival, but a different man showed up, saying his friend couldn't make it. We didn't mind though, because he was on time and charged the same amount. I'm still amazed a 1 hour cab ride to the airport only cost about $35 for the two of us. We were flying out of the low cost carrier terminal, which is different from KLIA, so it was a new experience. It was much smaller, louder, crowded, and overall chaos compared to our arrival at KLIA. It was a confusing check-in process but we figured it out. Your bags went thru a screening before you even checked them, so that was strange! We also tried Malaysian McDonalds... bad idea. It was worse than the states. Japan definitely wins so far in my McDonalds experiences.

After lunch we found our gate and waited to board our flight. They had you walk outside to find your airplane but nobody seemed to be leading the group, so it seemed like we were just randomly walking around outside. It was so odd, but eventually we got to our airplane. We flew Air Asia which reminded us of Southwest Airlines, except they fly A320s instead of B737s (boo, hiss). The flight was about an hour and we could see out the window just about the whole time.

We landed in Langkawi and took a hired taxi to our resort. The resort was called Berjaya and took up a whole point on the western edge of the Island. Compared to the very country, rustic look of parts of the island (was that cow I just saw on the side of the road? nope, it was a goat...), the resort was just beautiful. It had great landscaping and a really neat atmosphere. The main lobby is open air, but stayed fairly cool with lots of ceiling fans.

We easily checked in and were shuttled to our private hut in the jungle. It was so awesome! Very rustic, not updated lately, but it was clean and private, and just awesome.

The only complaint, if I can even say I'm complaining, is that the bathroom could've used a good update. It was old, chipped, and just not very pretty. BUT it was clean and everything worked, so we were happy. Overall, we were very happy with our lodging. It was amazing that all this was so affordable! I felt like I was in paradise :-)

After we checked out the room and settled in a bit, we decided to explore the lobby area a bit. We went to the bar and had our first island cocktails.

As it turns out, I think we spent some time at least every day in the lobby bar- either having cocktails in the evenings, coffee in the morning, or just playing scrabble on a rainy day (more on that to come...). After that we walked around the pool area then out to the private beach. It was so beautiful! It was a little gray and drizzly outside, but still nice and warm. The tide was low so we were able to walk along the beach all the way to another resort, and had another cocktail at their beach side restaurant.  We even saw somebody making a movie out on the beach while we were there. It looked very Bollywood-esque with the ethnicity of the crew. But they were just shooting some scene with the beachy backround- nothing too exciting so we moved on. Here are some pictures of the beach area.

movie making!

We walked back to the resort in the dark, but the beach was still so pretty. The tide was higher so we had to wade in the water up to our knees at one point to get back to the Berjaya's private beach. We ate some dinner at the Deyang Cafe, which is the main lobby restaurant at the resort. We both liked our meal and were very surprised that the resort's prices were reasonable for both food and drinks- score! We both decided to call it a night and headed back to the hut to sleep. It was a great day, and not even our first full day on the island. Awesome! 

Malaysian Vacation Part 2: Kuala Lumpur Day 2

Alrighty... so we are back to the vacation blog! I left off the last vacation post with us going to sleep after our first night in Kuala Lumpur. So this post will continue with the next day, which is our full day in KL, before we traveled to Langkawi Island.

We woke up early after a great night's sleep in our comfy (and DARK!) hotel room. It was strange to not have the sun shining noon-bright at 7am like it does in Japan. We ate a yummy breakfast at the hotel, which was one of the best complimentary breakfasts I've ever had. After breakfast we walked over to the Petronas Towers to get a ticket for the viewing platform. Only a few thousand tickets are given out every day, so we were told to get there early to get a ticket. The line opened at 8:30 so we aimed to get there around 8, and ended up getting in line at 8:20. There were hundreds of people already in line! We waited for about an hour in a very cramped area, and watched the status of the available tickets dwindle away on TV screens around the waiting area. We realized we weren't going to get a ticket until later that afternoon- which would affect our plan for the day. Finally it was our turn and we were trying to decide what time to go in, when all of a sudden a lady came over and said two people didn't show up for their time so we could go immediately. We were so excited! We were shuffled into a room and give a green lanyard to wear around our necks... I guess to keep our group all together. We watched a short video about the Petronas Petroleum Company and then waited another 15 minutes or so before getting in the elevator to go to the skybridge. The skybridge area is only 42 stories up, and what looks to be about 1/2 of the height of the towers, but it is the tallest viewing skybridge in the world, so that's cool! We got a cool view and it was neat to see the architecture up close.  Here are a few pictures of us on the skybridge:

After the skybridge we walked around the mall that is at the base of the towers. It was very nice and fun to do a little shopping someplace a little more upscale, even though we didn't buy much. They had a Tiffany Co. so I was able to get my engagement ring shined there, which is country #3 that my ring has been polished in. I love Tiffany! We also ate at a California Pizza Kitchen, one of my favorite restaurants. I felt like I was back in the USA! It was awesome.

After we walked around the mall for a bit, we pit-stopped back at the hotel to drop off some things and to put on some sunscreen, then made our way to the craft complex. We were expecting some stalls with crafts, ala a craft fair, but it was not like that at all. It was more like a mini-mall of stores selling craft-like things. It was fun, but just not what we were expecting. While we were there it started raining really hard out of nowhere. It eventually stopped so we could walk home, but there were branches and puddles all over the sidewalks. It cooled it down a bit though, so that was nice! We then went to a few more street stalls selling sunglasses and bags and watches and bought a few more gifts and souvenirs. We went back to the hotel to enjoy the pool but it was still sprinkling a bit and they closed the pool due to rain... which I thought was a bit extreme. I was bummed, because we wouldn't know when we'd get to use it since our flight the next morning was at 6am and the pool closed before we'd be back after dinner. But I dealt with my disappointment as we changed to head out for the night.

We took off to walk to KL tower, which looks like a spinning-top on a big pole!, then go to Chinatown, then maybe go to a bar or a club for some fun. We took off with our map and started walking to KL tower. We could see the tower the whole walk, but must have taken the wrong road because we walked more than 1/2 way around it and couldn't find the entrance. We got our bearings thanks to a road side map with a "you are here" arrow and decided we were closer to Chinatown than we were to the KL tower entrance. We decided to hit the tower on the way back to the hotel instead. So we navigated our way to Chinatown without getting hit by any cars (harder than you might think...). We were wondering if it'd be similar to the Chinatown in Yokohama, Tokyo, but it was WAY different. There were people selling things everywhere, and lots of places to eat.

 (Notice the lady in the full black burka in the foreground of the pic? That was something new to us on this vacation, as Malaysia is a big middle-eastern vacation spot- who knew? haha)

We found a restaurant where we could sit at a table to people watch. We had a great Chinese food dinner and some beers to help cool us down. The food was delicious, but it was annoying to have to shoo paddlers away from us while we ate. I do NOT want to buy a DVD or knockoff purse while I am eating, thank you very much!

After we ate, we walked down Peddler street, which was just crazy to me, but reminded Dereck of his trips to Thailand. There were knock-off everythings... want some "Prada", "Gucci", "LouisVitton", etc... there were even some really really bad ones, like a climbing backpack called The Sport Face in the same logo as The North Face. It was pretty funny!

After we were done with peddler street, we made our way back to KL tower, and this time found the correct entrance.

We got there about 9:30 and the tower closed at 10pm. It was practically empty, which was nice, and the night-time view was awesome. We got a great view of the Petronas towers all lit up, and the rest of the city as well. I wish I had a better camera, because my photos didn't do it justice at all! Here is what I was able to take:

The tower itself was really cool, but they had some strange attractions that were part of the package you had to buy to go to the top. Ours included a virtual F-1 racecar ride and a mini zoo. It was strange. The racecar ride was cheap- and we only got a few minutes so neither Dereck or I actually finished our whole race. The zoo was pretty funny.. apparently you could buy a whole chicken to feed to the giant snake, but we didn't do that... obviously!

After the tower we walked bye a few fun looking clubs and bars on the way back to the hotel, but both of us were hot and exhausted, and knowing we had to get up so early to catch our flight the next morning, we decided to just go back to the hotel and shower and sleep! It was a great day in KL though, and we were so happy we got to do so much, all without taking a single taxi!

Yummy (and healthy!) Peach Crumble

So in my recent decision to eat much healthier (yay for a great lifestyle change!) I've been looking for ways to get my sweet tooth satisfied without the sugar overload. Here is a great recipe I found in The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone. It was a pretty great success at a spouse social function, and it definitely satisfied that sweet tooth of mine... all with no refined sugars. I will post the recipe as written, then let you know what I did as substitutes since I couldn't find all the ingredients in my limited selection here in Japan. When baked as written it is considered Vegan, but since I substituted in some honey I don't know if it is anymore (I don't know all the Vegan rules since I don't follow that diet). Also, as written in the book, try getting as many organic ingredients as possible.

filling:
2.5-3 cups sliced fresh or thawed frozen peaches
1 cup blueberries
1 3/4 cups apple juice
2 tablespoons kuzu (I substituted corn starch for Kuzu)
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
pinch of fine sea salt

topping:
3 cups rolled oats
2 cups barley flour, spelt flour, brown rice flour, or sweet rice flour (I was only able to find Sweet Rice Flour so that is what I used)
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 c Safflower oil (I substituted corn starch)
3/4 c brown rice syrup (I searched for this online and found a honey substitute: 1/2 cup honey + 1.5 tablespoons water)
1/4 cup REAL maple syrup
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (I used walnuts)

Preheat oven to 350degrees
Combine peaches and blueberries in a 9" square baking dish

Reserve 1/4 cup of apple juice in a small bowl. Heat remaining 1.5 cups in a small saucepan. Place the Kuzu (cornstarch) in a small bowl, and add in the reserved apple juice. Let the kuzu mixture sit for about 10 seconds so it can dissolve into the apple juice. Stir and immediately wisk into the hot apple juice, stirring consistently to prevent lumps. Bring to boil and then let simmer for 2 minutes. Turn off the heat, add the vanilla and the salt. Mix and pour over fruit.

To make the topping, dry-roast the oats, flour, salt and cinnamon in a skillet over medium-low heat for 5 minutes. Heat the oil and syrups together in a separate pan, then pour over the flour mixture and mix will. Stir in the nuts. Crumble over the fruit.  I had a little extra crumble mix left after I filled my baking dish to the top, so I put it on a baking sheet for about 15 minutes and ate it like that- so good! It'd be good over yogurt too!

Cover the pan with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 15-25 minutes, until crumbles are golden and the filling is bubbling. Cool for about 30 minutes before serving. 

ENJOY! (and read the Kind Diet, its pretty cool)

Malaysian Vacation Part 1: Japan to Kuala Lumpur

Dereck and I finally got our honeymoon, a mere 14 months after tying the knot! But, even though it was a wait, it was worth every second. It was an amazing vacation and it was wonderful to explore another country and culture together as husband and wife. Luckily, I had the brilliant idea to write a journal during our trip so I could remember all the little details that really made the trip fantastic. So I will split the whole thing into a few different parts so I don't get cramps from typing, and you don't get bored of reading! I posted all our pictures on our shutterfly site, but I will add just a few here and there to make the posts a bit more fun (don't we all love pictures?!)

So here it is: Part 1!
Our flight was from Narita International Airport on a Wednesday morning. Since the shuttle on base would not leave early enough we decided to go Tuesday night and spend the night near the airport instead. It was a good trip to Narita, and since we flew directly into Yokota AB when we moved here, it was the first time we ever been there. The night was calm, and we went to bed early to get sleep before our flight.

We got up and took the free Holiday Inn Shuttle to the airport. We were flying Malaysia Airlines, which turned out to be a great experience! We will try to fly them again in the future. Lots of leg room, personal TVs, free beer (yay!), and both our flights to and from Malaysia were on time. Also, have you ever tried eating noodle soup with chopsticks while on a plane? Its difficult! haha! The flight lasted about 6 hours and we landed in Kuala Lumpur International around 5pm. The line for customs was about a mile long and very very slow. We were in line for over an hour. This was also the moment we realized we weren't in Japan any long. In Japan everybody stays in nice single file lines and are very patient and respectful. Not so much at the KL customs line! Eventually we made it through customs and went to find the car that was reserved along with our hotel to pick us up. I was SO excited to see our name on the little card, but it wasn't there. I was a bit disappointed, but it worked out fine to get a taxi and head into town. The airport is about a 1 hour drive from the city of KL, and our taxi driver was very nice. It was about 8pm by the time we got to the hotel. We got to drive around the famous Petronas Twin Towers to get to our hotel, and got to see them starting to light up. It was a great first view of the city!

We checked into our hotel, the Impiana, which was very posh. One reason we picked Malaysia for our vacation was because of the affordable prices, and this hotel was worth every penny (and more!). It was just beautiful- wood floors, marble bathroom, king bed... loved it! It was also in the middle of The Golden Triangle district where there are a lot of neat places to see. We walked to JLN Alor, which is a street known for its hawker stands where you eat outdoors on the street. Though the streets of KL are a bit dirty compared to Tokyo, it was very easy to walk around and overall I felt very safe, even in the dark. JLN Alor was a pretty awesome place and we ate at a fun restaurant and just sat there drinking some Malyasian beer (called Tiger... yummy) and people watching. It was very hot but the nice cold beer felt great and it was fun to just sit and hang out. We went to a few street shops to barter for things (fake watches and sunglasses mainly...) and though Dereck has done that in Thailand it was my first experience. It was fun! I'm pretty good at it I think...
We came to an area that had a few different types of bars and we stopped at an Irish bar, which played American Pop music. It was pretty funny! We were tired as this point and ended up walking back to the hotel and calling it a night. It was a great first day in Malaysia!

..to be continued in Part 2:  KL day 2 & 3

Blacklog Blog #2- The 4th of July Japan Style

Now we really now how backed-up my blog is... its August and I'm posting about the 4th of July... tsk tsk...Well shame on me, but its finally getting done so no big deal, right?!

We had an excellent 4th of July weekend, even though it may have been on of the firsts in years where I haven't been out on a boat, or in a pool, or on a river, or involving the water of some kind. But regardless, it was a great time. The weekend started out with a fun BBQ get-together at our neighbors house. We have an excellent neighborhood that consists of about 7 (childless!) couples who love to get together often and usually take turns hosting everybody. This time it was Jim and Andrea who hosted and it was the usual neighborhood group, plus a bunch of friends from Andrea's work. Since she is not in the same squadron as Dereck and many of our friends, it was fun to meet new people.

Saturday was the big 4th of July celebration on base (even though it was on the 3rd for some reason). They had a large hanger decked out with decorations, a giant stage with live music, free hot-dogs, burgers, and all the fixings, and lots of games for the kids. There was a pie and cake contest that was excellent (we got to eat the entries after judging was done) and thought my friend Chelsea's pie didn't win, I thought it was fabulous. Its nice to have friends who are such talented bakers! We enjoyed the festivities and hoped to win some of the awesome raffle prizes (which included a laptop, a snowboard, and 2 round trip tickets to anywhere in the states!!!) but of course, we didn't win. It was fun to watch the winners run up on the stage though!

Come sunset, we headed over to the squadron building to continue eating (I ate SOOO much food...ugh) and drinking and preparing to watch the fireworks. The building was opened for all of us to sit on the roof for the best view! Here are some photos of everybody up on the roof:

Dereck and me in our Red White & Blue outfits!

Dereck with some of our friends: Chelsea, Adam, Cari, & Julie

Friends out on the roof before the fireworks!

We all had a fun time drinking and hanging out waiting for the fireworks, and it was worth the wait. The show lasted about 25 minutes and had the beautiful scenery of the C-130s all lined up in the flightline to compliment the beautiful bursts of light. I didn't take any pictures of the fireworks but I found a great one online to share with you. So here is the finale! I did NOT take this photo, but found it online at the Yokota AB website:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!!! 

It was amazing  to us how even though we were thousands of miles away, living in another country, we felt the same pride and love of our country as we did on past 4th of July's where we were actually in America. Perhaps we even felt it more, knowing how far away we were. We love Japan and we are enjoying living here, but there is nothing like the good 'ole US of A!

Backlog Blog: Blue Man Group!

Dereck and I went to church down in Tokyo a few weeks ago (as we do every so often...), and afterward we decided to walk down to the neighborhood of Roppongi. Roppongi is known for its night life, and being a young persons' hang out spot, so we weren't surprised to see it very empty on a Sunday afternoon. But we could tell that it was a very nice area and looks like it would be a lot of fun at night, so we'll have to make it down there sometime after dark to party!

While wondering around Roppongi we came across the theater where the Blue Man Group performs. If you are not familiar with them, check out this link. We were looking at the sign showing showtimes and ticket prices and noticed the show that started in about an hour had available seats. We were deciding if we should go or not (it's quite a spendy impulse buy!) when an American man came up to us asking if we were wondering how to get tickets. I said we were still deciding if we wanted to go or not and asked him if he'd seen the show. He then laughed and said "I'm in it. I'm a Blue Man"... it was then when I noticed his strangely colored blue eyes (had to be contacts) and the bits of blue makeup still on parts of his neck and ears. Turns out he just had finished the earlier show and was just heading home, his replacements were coming to do the later show. We ended up talking to him for about 15 minutes, he was a very nice guy!

We decided to just bite the bullet and go to the show- there aren't many times where you meet a member of the cast while stumbling upon a world famous show in the middle of Tokyo. It ended up being a great decision, we absolutely loved the show. It was hilarious from the beginning... the first 5 or so rows have to wear clear plastic ponchos so they don't get paint/water/etc on them during the show (its a very strange show...). We just watched for 20 minutes or so as all these Japanese people got stuck trying to put their ponchos on. I can't even explain how funny this was...

The actual show was amazing. The acting, drumming, and music were fantastic. There were not many parts that we didn't understand, since the Blue Men don't talk at all during the show. They express everything through music, gestures, and facial expressions. Perhaps the funniest part was when they involved people in the audience in the production. It really showed how multi-talented the actors are, they are musicians, actors, and improv comics as well. It was an experience to remember for sure!

 One of the Blue Men

Dereck giving a 'great job' handshake!

Me with the fabulous band!