For the last week of our trip we decided to spend a week at the beach in Thailand.  It was great to walk along the beach, swim in the pool, and read several book  (basically it was great to relax)!  Apart from relaxing, we did a little bit of sightseeing the local way.  We rented a motor scooter and rode through some of Phuket on our own.

One of the activities we enjoyed while in Bali was walking the mile or two from our hotel, through a local neighborhood, and down the boardwalk toward Sanur.  It seemed that every time we did this, we stumbled upon something interesting — for example a Hindu religious ceremony, a guy making a boat, or any number of other interesting scenes.

Here is another instance of finding something fun amongst the “normal” life in Bali.  Walking down the street one morning, we found a little one-man barber shop.  Considering my hair had not been cut since sometime in New Zealand, we decided I should go in.  While doing so, Katie walked across the street to a small spa.  I rather enjoyed my haircut and talking to the local barber.  His English was really good — although like most, he apologized for it not being very good, which is the typical cultural reaction — even if the person’s English is excellent.  He said he had taken a 6 month English course.   Of course English was his 3rd language, behind Javanese and Indonesian!  Amazing.

This was also yet another reminder of how far a few dollars goes here –  especially away from the tourist traps.  My haircut was $2.  Meanwhile, Katie got a 20-30 minute facial from the spa across the street for $2 as well!

One thing that we’ve discovered about traveling is that it is often more fun to stumble upon a local activity than to try to find something in particular from a guide book.  One of these instances was the Kite Festival at Sanur Beach.  During the week, we saw tons of kites being flown around the beach area (we counted 75) and we wondered what was going on.  It turns out that people were practicing for the Kite Festival which was being held that weekend.  So we made sure to find the details and come back on the weekend.

The Kite Festival was the definition of a “local activity.”  Definitely not a tourist attraction, but a few thousand locals turning up for some traditional fun.  The teams of anywhere from 10-20 or so, dressed in tradional clothing (checkered sarongs) flew homemade flags with their team names, banged on gongs, and had a great time.  Some of the kites were so big, they had to bring them on big trucks!  And they definitely aren’t flown with string — they use rope!  We had such a fun afternoon, pretending to be local, and taking in the activities.

One of our favorite parts of this hotel was that one of the co-owners was a chef at a very upscale restaurant in Sweden for over 20 years.  So the food they served us here was spectacular — rivaling any top-notch restaurant in the States (but about 90% cheaper than it would have been in the US).  Our meals were served to us several times a day on our private porch.  What a nice experience this was!

We came back to Georgetown, Malaysia for one night so that we could catch our early flight the next morning.  While there we were able to see a few temples that we hadn’t seen before.  We took a short taxi ride up to Wat Chayamangkalaram, a Thai Buddhist temple.  After walking around there we went across the street is another temple, Dharmikarama Burmese Temple.  Both had very ornate sculptures and architecture.

Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia

Okay, so I know you’re going to think this is crazy (since we are already on vacation), but we both were in need of a getaway. We’re becoming weary of traveling from city to city and country to country so we decided to go to a resort for a few days. We traveled to Jerejak Resort and Spa right off the coast of Georgetown so it wasn’t far at all. Luckily it didn’t break our budget at all – we got a hilltop chalet plus meals included for only $26 per person!

It has been so much fun to try the different foods that Malaysia has to offer. There are several local dishes that we have enjoyed such as Nasi Lemak (rice with peanuts, anchovies, cucumbers, and a boiled egg on the side). There are tons of hawkers (streetside vendors) around the streets of Malaysia, but after being warned in travel books and some websites that it doesn’t always agree with a foreigner’s digestive system, we decided to stick with restaurants. We’ve also tried several Indian dishes since there is a large Indian population here. Friends have told us that it is customary to eat the food with your fingers using your right hand. The staff at the restaurant were surprised that we (foreigners) knew to eat the food this way!

Georgetown is a much smaller city (in Malaysia) compared to Kuala Lumpur which we were thankful for. We’re pretty much big-citied-out. Georgetown’s architecture was unlike any other city we’ve been in simply because they had such varied architecture. While walking around the streets you see influences from European, Chinese, Indian, and Malaysian backgrounds.