Day 1 (July 24): Japan to Hong Kong

We left early in the morning for Hong Kong. We caught a train from Shin Tanabe station, and then took the bus from Kyoto station to the Osaka airport. We weren't sitting in a window seat, but I could see through one of the windows as we landed, and all I could see was the vertical lines of a solid wall of tall buildings. These, I later learned were on Hong Kong Island (Kowloon doesn't have very tall buildings because of the airport), and that image remains one of my strong impressions of Hong Kong. When we arrived at the airport in Hong Kong, we went to the tourist association desk and got information about tours then took a bus from the airport to our hotel for only HK$6 (HK$1 = \19). One of my early impressions of Hong Kong, especially seeing it from the window of that bus, was that it looked so foreign, even though some of the Chinese characters signs were familiar, and there was even more English than you seen in Japan. After being in Japan for seven years, it doesn't seem like a foreign country in many ways, but there was no doubt in my mind that Hong Kong was foreign. Another early impression was that it was certainly a teaming city. I don't know that it's a great deal more crowded than a typical large Japanese city, but somehow it seems more so.

Once we got to the hotel, we made some reservations on tours for the next few days, including a two-day tour to Macao and China. While we were making the reservations, we got to talking to another couple who were waiting. They are Canadians on a several-month trip through Asia. They have plans to go to Beijing, which they have not canceled. They had hoped to go to Japan but they heard that it would cost $1100 a day, so they didn't. I don't know how it would have to cost that much, even in Tokyo, but it's true that Japan would be considerably more expensive than any of the other countries we visited. We also had a reservation for an evening tour, but since we had a couple hours free before the tour, we decided to go for a walk. Near our hotel was Nathan Street, one of the major streets in Hong Kong and a park. On the edge of the park was a mosque. The sign on the outside said "visitors by appointment only," but we went up to see if we could just get a look, and a man who apparently worked there spend quite a bit of time showing us around, showing us the men's prayer room, the women's prayer room, the places where people wash before prayer, and the roof and minarets from which they call people to prayer (through loudspeakers, these days). It was interesting, and we really appreciated the time he took. The mosque was a rather classic (to my eyes) looking white one, and I must admit, when I went to Hong Kong, a mosque wasn't the first thing I expected to see. We also walked around in the park for a while, identified the museum, which is located there (so we can go back when we have more time),and looked at their gardens.

In the evening, we had a night tour of Hong Kong. First, we went part way up Victoria Peak, from which we could see a view of Kowloon, which was very impressive. It was still early evening, and some lights were beginning to come on, but it was too early to see the night view, so we decided that we should go back in full darkness sometime. After that, we went to Aberdeen for dinner at one of the three floating restaurants. Those restaurants, Chinese-style buildings, are covered with lights, so they're quite a sight at night, when the lights that cover every edge are lit. The dinner was very good. We were at a table with several other people, including a Japanese who has been in China recently and some British and American people. Some of them didn't know how to use chopsticks, so we were trying to teach them how to do it. Then the Japanese man picked up a big saucy piece of fish--and dropped it so it rolled across that table. One of the Britons said, "If that's what happens to him, what can we do?" The dinner was very good--one of the best I've ever had. The menu included shark's fin soup (which we were to find was very popular in Hong Kong--and very good), prawns with sweet and sour sauce, lobster with onion, sweet and sour pork, stewed vegetable with crab, braised garoupa, fried rice, noodles, chinese tea, and fruit. Kenji had wondered aloud whether they were really floating. At one point during dinner, I had a strange sensation that I couldn't identify, and then realized that it was the movement of the restaurant in the water, apparently in the wake of a large boat that had come by. After dinner, we drove through some of the neighborhoods on HK Island, and then went to a nightclub, where we listened to some singers and had a drink. It was a good first day in Hong Kong.

Day 2 (July 25): Hong Kong

Today was our morning tour of Hong Kong Island. We went to Hong Kong Island both today and yesterday, through the tunnel. It is now the only tunnel between the mainland and the island, and it is very congested. Another tunnel is expected to open later this year, and there is already another tunnel being planned. We started by going up to the top of Victoria Peak (1500 feet above sea level), were we could see the view of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. It is, as I said, a very impressive view. You can see the ships in the busy harbor as well as Hong Kong itself, which is interesting. Another place we went was to the fishing village at Aberdeen. We rode in a sanpan, a kind of taxi boat. Aberdeen isn't what I would necessarily picture when I think of a "fishing village." Here, people live on boats, work on boats, and even have boats come around to sell them the things that they need. According to the guide, the older people think it is bad luck to go on land. I don't know if that means that they didn't go on land throughout their entire lives, but apparently they spent most of their lives on the boat. Now, children go to school on land, so the culture is dying out. We could see the house boats that they lived on and fishing boats with squid or other fish drying on them. We also saw one market boat and several sanpans. The tour also stopped at Tiger Balm Garden. It was a garden made by the man who got rich selling Tiger Balm; he said that he had gotten rich from people, and he wanted to give something back to them. The garden is filled with cement statues of gods and goddesses and scenes from mythology. We also drove part way around the island for a view of Repulse Bay and Deep Water Bay. The beach at Repulse Bay has the nickname of "Excuse me" beach, because so many people go there that it is necessary to keep saying "excuse me, excuse me" in order to get into the water. From the window of the bus, we saw some of the housing. I formed the impression that a lot of it was not very good. Almost half of the people live in public housing, large families in apartments of 200 to 400 square feet. Hong Kong has a population density ten times that of Tokyo (which isn't exactly paradise). Seeing these things made me a little more sympathetic to the problems with the refugees that they've been having, though it's still hard to agree with the idea of forced repatriations. In fact while we were there, there were some outbreaks of violence in the refugee camps. When you think of the economic miracle of Hong Kong and then see the reality of people's lives, even at the superficial level that we saw it, you realize that the economic miracle isn't shared by everyone, or even a very substantial minority. Most people are just getting by. Japan's situation is much better. Certainly there are people in Japan who aren't well off, and there is rabbit hutch housing, but the wealth is much more evenly distributed than in Hong Kong.

For lunch, we went to a place that serves what I think is called "dim sum" in the States. You get a table, and they give you a card. Women come around with carts with various dishes in bamboo bowls or else various fried things or deserts. You tell them what you want (or, in our case, you look and point), and they give it to you and mark your card, according to whether the dish was special, large, medium or small. Most of what we were served was really delicious, though we ate several things that we couldn't identify with any certainty. It was fun, a good cultural experience.

In the afternoon, we went on a tour of Kowloon and the New Territories. There isn't a whole lot to see in Kowloon itself; it's mostly hotels and shopping. In the New Territories, we stopped at a fish market. All of the fish were live. (For people in Hong Kong, if it isn't alive, it isn't fresh enough.) It was very interesting. Apparently people come every day, sometimes twice a day, to bargain for fresh fish for that day. We also went to Lok Ma Chau, from where we could see China. We could see a barbed-wire fence, some farms, and tall buildings in the distance from there.

In the evening, we were going to have dinner near our hotel and go to bed early, but first we decided to walk down to the tip of Kowloon peninsula. Then there, we saw the Star Ferry and decided to take it to Hong Kong Island, just for the experience. (It's an interesting view of the harbor and Hong Kong.) Once we got there, we decided to eat an a Chui Chau restaurant (we were sampling the cuisine of different regions of China while we were there.) This was excellent, if somewhat messy, because one of the things we ordered turned out to be a whole crab. Chui Chau is similar to Cantonese, I understand. The bus for Victoria Peak leaves from near there, so we decided to go up to the peak and see the night view. It was very beautiful, but we didn't stay long.

Day 3 (July 24): Hong Kong to Macao

First thing in the morning, we joined a tour for Macao. We took a bus from our hotel to the Macao ferry, then took the ferry across to Macao (which takes about 75 minutes), where we had to go through customs, of course. They process people pretty fast, since they get so many visitors from Hong Kong. On the tour, we stopped first at a Chinese Buddhist temple (The Temple of Kun Yam, Goddess of Mercy). It was pretty different from a Japanese one. For one thing, it was made of cement, rather than wood, and painted bright colors. While we were there, we saw some of the things that they do to honor people who have died recently. There were all kinds of offerings in front of a picture of the dead person, and even two paper figures of people there, too. On certain days, paper objects and money are burned so that the dead person can have them after death. We drove by the barrier gate that leads to China. It was a strange feeling to see that red flag with yellow stars flying above the immigration building. We also went to see the surviving front of St. Paul's Cathedral. It must have been a very impressive church before it burned. If fact, it's is probably even more interesting and striking now that it is only a facade. At a shop near there, Kenji bought me a jade ring for our anniversary. We then went to the top of Penha Hill where we had a view of the harbor and could see Penha Church. After the tour, we went to check into the hotel. Kenji went out for a solo adventure, and I went upstairs and slept for three hours. He went to a for and back to St. Paul's and took some good pictures of Macao. In the evening, we went to the Crazy Paris show at a nearby hotel. We were a little early, so we looked around in the casino first. They were a little ratty by Vegas standards, I thought, but they had some different games, and its always fun to watch people gamble. The Crazy Paris show is a Paris-type show. Afterwards, we went to the nightclub at our own hotel and saw the show there.

Day 4 (July 27): China

Today, we went to China through the barrier gate from Macao. Before we went to China, we had to wait with a deaf couple who had come on the Macao trip. (It turned out they couldn't go to China because it took to long to get the visa with their Taiwan passports). We could communicate a little bit using Chinese characters (which are also the basis for the writing system in Japanese). I've heard that that's possible, but it was the first opportunity I've had to do it. In China our guide spoke pretty good English; some of his expressions indicated that he seemed to watch movies and TV news a lot. For the window of the bus, we could see farmers working in their rice fields, plowing with water buffalo, and duck farms. We stopped in a village and saw the house of an elderly Chinese woman. I don't know how typical it was, but it was solidly built and seemed to be fairly roomy. We also visited a home built by Sun Yat Sen and a memorial high school named after him. We had lunch at a hot springs resort.

In the evening, we went down Nathan Avenue, looking for a restaurant. We found a Peking restaurant, the type that Chinese people eat at--it was noisy and smoky and fun. It was delicious, but we ordered more than we needed, and we couldn't finish it all.

Day 5 (July 28): Hong Kong

In the morning, we went to Ocean Park, a sea world-type place. It has big acquaria and a dolphin and whale show. We also saw a wave cove, where we could see otters swim. There was a tunnel under the wave cove and we could see the otters from underneath. They dolphin and whale show included a diving show, starring divers from the American Olympic diving team. They did regular diving and also a comedy routine.

We stopped at a jewelry shop. The jewelry there was really beautiful, but far out of our price range.

We also went to the Sung Dynasty Village, which is a reconstruction of a village around the year 1000. There are various shops, and we could use "Sung Dynasty money" to buy cookies and candy. There are also shops where they make fans, do calligraphy, and so on. There is a house of a wealthy person. It had beautiful carvings and antiques (though they cheated a little, because they had antiques from periods other than the Sung Dynasty). In that house, there was a scroll that depicted the village that that village was based on. They showed us a staged wedding, and we also saw a performance of Chinese dancers. We also could see a wax museum of characters from Chinese history. Last, we had a meal, kind of like dim sum, and a demonstration of how noodles are made.

In the evening, we went to a Shanghai-style restaurant; a cafeteria, really. Shanghai doesn't have it's own regional cuisine, but it has adapted the cuisine of other regions.

Day 6 (July 29): Hong Kong

Today we took a full day tour of Lantau Island. This was virtually the only rainy day of our trip, but I'm still glad we had a chance to go. We took a ferry there, which took about an hour. On the island, we stopped by a beach, where we walked and I found some shells (which joined my shells from Brazil in my abalone shell from Ise Shima) and then went to a fishing village called Tai O. We walked through the streets and saw the shops. At some shops, they sold paper possessions and money to burn for the dead. There were also shrines on the streets, some of them very old. Part of the village are on an island. There is a boat pulled along a rope that crosses the narrow strip of water from the island to the rest of the village. You can cross for HK$.20. We also went to the top of a hill, where there is the Po Lin Monastery. It has several different Buddhist altars with beautiful buddha figures, including one carved in white jade. We also had a vegetarian lunch there. It was quite different from Japanese vegetarian meals. They had a "fish" made from potatoes and "oysters," too. After looking around the temple some more, we went back to Kowloon.

Day 7 (July 30): Hong Kong to Singapore

We flew from Hong Kong to Singapore, stopping in Bangkok and arriving in the middle of the afternoon. I think that Americans typically think of Singapore and Hong Kong together, but my first impression of Singapore was that there is no city more different from Hong Kong. The drive from the airport to the hotel is like a garden. During our time in Singapore, I formed the impression that a greater majority of the people in Singapore and sharing in the economic miracle than are in Hong Kong, though they are not as well off as the average Japanese.

We made a reservation at the Hotel Premier through the reservations desk at the airport. We stayed there for three days, until the conference started. We have never stayed in a hotel anywhere in the world where the staff was so friendly and helpful.

I tried to find out about making reservations for a trip to Indonesia, but since it was a Sunday afternoon, it was impossible. I went around to some hotel tour reservation desks, but didn't have any luck. Kenji had a cold, so he stayed at the hotel and had a nap. In the evening, we went out to McDonalds for dinner. I'm embarassed to admit this, but after eating Chinese food for the previous six days, it was a relief to eat something familiar.

Day 8 (July 31): Singapore and Malaysia

In the morning, we went across the Straits of Johor to Johor Bahru, Malaysia. It is the capital of the State of Johor. We saw the exterior of the Besar Palace, which is white with a bright blue roof. It will be open to the public as a museum soon. We also saw the exterior of the Sultan Abu Bakar Mosque, which is also white with a bright blue roof. It is unusual in that it is in the Victorian style. The grandfather of the present sultan was interested in Victorian architecture. We bought three prayer-rug size rugs there that show the mosque. Visitors are no longer allowed inside the mosque, because tourists (probably Japanese tourists) in the past did not show proper respect for the mosque.

We also stopped at a market. Because of the middle man system, farmers make very little out of their produce. This type of market is an effort to rectify that. Meat, fruit, drinks, and a few souvenirs were sold there. We bought drinks made from sugar cane and coconut and also a bunch of little bananas for less than S$1. They were the most delicious bananas I had ever eaten. (It will be hard to go back to eating bananas that are sold in Japan after this trip.)

We also stopped at a handicraft shop where we saw demonstrations of batik painting.

Day 9 (August 1): Batam, Indonesia

Today we went to Batam, Indonesia. It is an island about 30 minutes by ferry from Singapore. We at least wanted to be able to say that we had been to Indonesia. We visited several places like a radio station, a monument to the workers who build the road on the island, the Hill Top Hotel, a resort, a Chinese Buddhist temple, etc. There wasn't anything particularly exciting, but it was a beautiful island, lush and tropical and peaceful, with beautiful beaches. We had lunch at a restaurant built out over the sea.

Day 10 (August 2): Malacca, Malaysia

Today we took a full-day tour of Malacca. It is an interesting city, because it has had so many influences from different countries over the years. On the way there, though, we made some stops. One was at the home of some farmers. The Malaysian farmhouses are very nice, colorful and well built, raised up on stilts, and very clean inside. The thing that looks odd, to us, anyway, is that they have roofs of corrugated tin. The guide told us that they used to have thatched roofs, but now thatched roofs are associated with poverty, so people don't want them. Actually, I can imagine what could be worse than those tin roofs in that type of climate, though. The houses are surrounded by small farms. The one we visited was about four acres. According to the guide, the farmer can make a pretty good living on that much land. They grow different plants all mixed together, coffee, cocoa, palm oil palms, coconut palms, pineapple and other types of fruit, etc. There was a coconut on the ground that was starting a new tree. It looked like it was just growing where it had fallen. The ground was very soft and peat-y. The people who lived there cut up pineapples for us and also served us rambutans. Rambutans are a red, "hairy" fruit, with a soft, sweet, delicious, white inside. (It became one of my favorite fruits while we were in SE Asia.)

Another stop was at the Aw Pottery factory and shop. We didn't spend much time looking at the pottery shop, but it was really interesting looking at the pottery being made and painted. The building, tables in the restaurant, etc., were decorated with patterns of broken pottery.

On the way, we also saw some rubber plantations. There were rows and rows of trees. The trees were cut down one side and then down the other; by the time they get back to the first side, it is healed. They use one particular tree every other day. This way the tree lasts twenty-five years.

One thing that the guide mentioned has to do with the relationships among the people of different religions. He said that the majority of the people of Malaysia are Malays, all of whom are Moslems, and there are Chinese Buddhist and Indian Hindu minorities, and a small Christian minority. There is apparently little friction among the minorities. In fact, one custom is an "open house" during each of the religious group's most important holidays. At Ramadan for Moslems, Christmas for Christians, the Feast of the Hungry Ghosts for Buddhists, and a major Hindu holiday, a day is set aside for friends of other religious groups to visit the people who are celebrating the holiday.

Our first stop in Malacca itself was at Cheng Hoon Teng, the oldest Chinese Buddhist temple in Malaysia, built in 1646. There were a lot of red tablets decorated in gold as memorials to dead people. It is also famous for a statue of the Goddess of Mercy. We also stopped at Christ Church, a Dutch church built in 1753. It is supposed to be a kind of salmon red typical of Dutch buildings, but when it was restored a few years ago, they got the red a little too red. (I can't imagine how they painted the whole building without noticing that, especially since there is on of the right color right next to it.) There is a nice fountain in front of it. We also saw the Stadthuys, the headquarters of the Dutch government, now a museum. We also saw the remains of Porta de Santiago, a gate that is all that is left of a Portuguese fortress. We climbed up St. Paul's Hill, to St. Paul's Church, of which only the walls remain. There is a statue of St. Francis Xavier there, and we could see a good view of the Straits of Malacca. I talked to a guy selling postcards and things there, and he practiced his Japanese on me. (A lot of tourist-related people that we met were studying Japanese.)

Day 11 (August 3): Singapore

Today was the first day of the conference, so we had a delicious buffet breakfast in the morning, tea, and a buffet lunch. (They feed us much too well.) In the afternoon, we went on a tour of Singapore. We went to the ethnic areas of the city, including Chinatown, Arab Street, and Indian Town. There was a Hindu temple on the edge of Chinatown. It had a tower above the gate with brightly painted mythological figures from Hinduism. In Chinatown, we tasted durians for the first time. They tasted very good and had a nice, custardy texture, but smelled very bad. (It is said that eating a durian is like eating the most delicious, succulent fruit you can imagine in a public toilet, and that's a pretty accurate description. During our time in SE Asia, we could always tell when we were approaching someplace where they were selling durians by the smell.) The first few bites were very good. I think after that, I was was breathing the smell too much. Durians are good, and they are called the "king of fruit" in Southeast Asia, but I think if I had to choose between mangosteen, rambutan, and durian, I probably would choose one of the others. On this tour, we also went up to the top of Mt. Faber for a view of the city and harbor.

In the evening, we took a trishaw ride to the plaza by the river were a statue of Sir Stamford Raffles stands. We drank Singapore slings there, and then went on to a private club, where we had a delicious Chinese dinner. It was there that we met Ricky and Ray Ross, Linda Fuller and her husband, and Tanya and Ira Evers, all of whom we visited with several times during the time we were in Singapore.

Day 12 (August 4): Singapore

In the evening, we went to a hawker's market for dinner. According to something I read, hawkers were originally people who sold food from movable carts. Now because of government controls, the hawkers gather in various places and people can go around to various shops and order whatever they want and then sit at tables and eat it. Since the hawkers can be closed down for health regulation violations, they are pretty careful about sanitation, and it's pretty safe to eat in such places. The food was very good--what I liked best was the kabobs dipped in a kind of sweet peanut sauce. For desert, we had fruit, including rambutan again and mangosteens for the first time. Mangosteens are called the "queen of fruit." They have a very thick dark purplish red skin and a soft white fruit in sections. They taste wonderful.

Day 13 (August 5): Singapore

In the morning, I gave both presentations. We got a lot of good comments on the presentations. In the afternoon, I went to a tailor and ordered two suits and a silk blouse.

In the evening, we went on a harbor tour on a Chinese junk and then went to Sentosa Island. There we saw the butterfly farm. They had displays of butterflies and other insects, and then we went into an enclosed area where we could see many butterflies. We also went to the wax museum, which was quite interesting. There was a musical fountain show, using colored lights, water, and music. Afterwards, we had dinner on a patio overlooking the island.

Day 14 (August 6): Kukup, Malaysia

Today, we went to Kukup, Malaysia. On the way, we had a stop at a rubber plantation, where we saw a demonstration of how they get the latex. We went to Kukup, a fishing village built over the water. The houses are on stilts in the water, and there were wooden paths among the houses. We also had lunch on a restaurant built out over the water.

Day 15 (August 7): Singapore

Today, we went on a lunch cruise on Chinese junk. The view of the harbor, including the container ships being loaded and unloaded, was good.

Day 16 (August 8): Singapore

This afternoon, we went to the Jurong Bird Park. We saw a bird show with macaws, cockatoos and toucans and another with eagles, hawks, and vultures. We were able to see displays of various types of birds, including ostriches, night birds, water birds, swans, flamingos, and pelicans, etc. There was a huge walk-in aviary where we were able to see many types of birds in their natural habitat. In the evening, we had an Imperial Chinese Banquet. Before the banquet, we had cocktails and listened to Chinese music. There was a lion dance, demonstrations of judo, sword fighting, etc. The walls of the rather ordinary-looking room where we normally have lunch were covered with Chinese red and gold paper. It was didn't even look like the same room. The menu had barbecued suckling pig combination, sauted fresh scallops with vegetables, sauteed shrimps with chili sauce, braised shark's fin with crabmeat and shredded chicken, braised abalone with vegetables, special crispy roast chicken, steamed garoupa, noodles, and cold almond bean curd with fruit.

Day 17 (August 9): Singapore

Today was the last day of the conference. In the afternoon, we went to an exhibition at a museum near the hotel called The Treasures of Qing. The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of the Chinese empire, and Po Yi of "The Last Emperor" was the last of that dynasty. There were a lot in fascinating artifacts from the lives of the emperors and imperial families. In the afternoon, we watched the National Day ceremonies on television and from our hotel window. The stadium where the ceremonies were held was some distance away, but we could see things like parachutists and puffs of smoke from cannon salutes. In the evening, we had dinner at a hawkers market near the hotel. The food that I liked best was from an Indian booth. You chose from various types of fried bread, potatoes and other things that I didn't recognize, and then they cut them all up and poured a sauce over everything. We shared a table with a young couple and their two little girls. They told us that the government was encouraging couples to have more children, and there is some tax break for couples with more than two children, but they seemed somewhat hesitant to take on the responsibility.

Day 18 (August 10): Singapore to Malaysia

We left Singapore early in the morning on the train to Kuala Lumpur. We had to go through the formalities to exit Singapore and enter Malaysia (for the fourth time) on the platform, since, of course, the first stop would be in Malaysia. Seven hours sounds like a long train ride, but it went by very fast. It was interesting to watch the countryside go by outside the windows, especially since we could identify at least some of the vegetation we could see, after our previous trips to Malaysia. The quantity and variety of vegetation was unbelievable. We could also see some farmhouses from the train, and occasionally a religious building, a mosque or Hindu temple. We arrived in KL after 2:00. We made reservations at a hotel at the station (which looks much more like a mosque than a train station, and then joined with another couple to get a taxi. All of the taxi drivers refused to take us for the regular fare, which would have been about three dollars and insisted on bargaining for M$8. We finally decided that we would take that.

For the remainder of the afternoon, we went around to see some of the city on our own. We started out at the Hindu temple, Sri Mahamariamman), which had a lot of impressive statues like the one we saw in Singapore, but even more so. From there, we wanted to the Chan See Shu Yuen Temple. We had a hard time finding it, because it's in Chinatown, and we kept getting directed to other temples. Unfortunately, it was closed, so we only got to see in from the outside. After that we went to the National Mosque, which was under renovation, so we couldn't go inside there, either. It is a rather unusual mosque, very modernistic. I can't way that I liked it very much, but it was different. We went back to our hotel by way of a hawkers' market. There were durians on sale there--we could tell by the smell--and many other types of food. As in Hong Kong and Singapore, we saw ducks and chickens hung up by their necks. (We were told that this is to allow shoppers to determine the freshness--the more the neck is stretched, the longer the bird has been hanging there.)

One interesting things about the taxis in KL is that you have to pay extra for air conditioning. Most of the taxis seem to be air conditioned, so you always pay about 20-30% extra for that service.

In the evening, we went to a restaurant called Sri Yazmin for a buffet dinner and show. The Malaysian food was very good, and the show was interesting. It re-enacted a Malay wedding and the entertainment that is put on for the bride and groom.

Day 19 (August 11): Kuala Lumpur

Today, we went on a tour of the countryside around KL in the morning and a city tour of KL in the afternoon. We stopped at a traditional Malaysian house on stilts and at a rubber plantation. The trees at this place were being worked on both sides. The guide said that rubber planters sometimes do that to get as much latex as possible as fast as possible, but it is bad for the trees, and they don't last as long. We stopped at a pewter factory, where we saw how pewter is made. As a major producer of tin, Malaysia produces a great deal of pewter, much of it very finely worked. We didn't buy anything there, because it was rather expensive. We also stopped at a batik factory, where we saw the process of batik and at a factory that makes things from butterflies and scorpions. The butterflies are beautiful, but I don't find anything that aesthetic about a scorpion. They seem to be pretty popular, though. Last, we stopped at the Batu caves, in a limestone inside a massive outcrop of limestone cliffs. It is the location of a Hindu shrine, and it in necessary to climb up 272 steps to reach the mouth of the cave. There is one large room and one smaller room. Monkeys live inside of the cave, and tourists feed them coconuts.

In the afternoon, we went on the city tour, including the Jame Mosque, which was interesting in that it didn't have any walls, the National Monument and Cenotaph, a war memorial designed by the same person who did the Iwo Jima memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, the King's palace (it seems odd to apply the title "king" to a person who is elected), the House of Parliament (I guess every country can't have the Palace of Westminster or the Capitol building like the one in Washington, D.C., but this building looks less like a Parliament building than about anything I can imagine; it looks just like a tall office building), and a very interesting national museum,

Our guide was a Malaysian of Indian descent, and he talked about some of the national language problems. Several years ago, the medium of instruction was changed from English to Bahasa Malay. The guide told us that this was done because Malay ethnic group children did not do as well in school as Chinese or Indian ethnic group children. Changing the medium of instruction was supposed to give them an advantage, but it hasn't worked that way. The ethnic Chinese and Indians still do better in school, and proficiency in English has, not surprisingly, gone down a great deal, which concerns a lot of people.

In the evening, we had dinner at one of the hawkers' markets. We also did some shopping. We found some nice pewter wine glasses on sale and also Kenji got a batik shirt. (He had also bought one in Singapore). To my surprise, he really likes those a lot.

Day 20 (August 12): Penang

We left early in the morning for Penang and arrived in Butterworth early in the afternoon. We were able to arrange for a tour of Georgetown for the following day (we were lucky to be able to do so--on a Saturday afternoon, all of the tour agencies but one were closed), and then we took a taxi to Bati Ferrengi, the beach about a half hour from the city. We stayed at a guest house rather than a hotel. (This was really roughing it--we didn't have any air conditioning, and we were kept awake at night by a rooster crowing. However, it was close to the beach and it was cheap. It was the kind of thing Kenji always refers to as a cultural experience.) Next, went to top of Penang Hill. We took a cable car. It was a beautiful view of the city and the mainland. There was also a small mosque and a small Hindu temple on top of the hill. In the evening, we went to a shopping center. We returned to the guest house by bus, which was kind of complicated, but we made it.

Day 21 (August 13): Penang

I got up rather early in the morning and went down to the beach, Batu Ferringi. It's really a beautiful beach, and it was so peaceful to just sit there and watch the waves sweep in. We had our tour of Georgetown in the morning, too. It was nice, because we just made a list of the places we wanted to go, and they took us there. We went to see Wat Chayamangkalaram, the reclining Buddha, first. There are dragons in the front of the temple. The reclining Buddha is very large. We were told that the reclining Buddha images represent the Buddha late in his life, when he was weak and spent a lot of his time reclining. They are much more common in SE Asia, it seems, than in Japan. There were also urns for ashes all around the back of the Buddha image. Across the street was a Burmese temple. It had some beautiful images. One interesting one was inside a box, and you looked through a hole. There were mirrors so it looked like there were thousands of images, though there was only one. Penang has a good museum, which we also visited. We just drove by St. George's Church, a rather simple gray structure, but we stopped at Kuan Yin Temple, Kapitan Kling Mosque, Sri Mariamman Temple, and Khoo Kongsi. The latter, unfortunately, was closed. It is a Chinese clan house, and, from the pictures I've seen, very beautiful. We also drove by the state mosque, which is only able to be visited by special permission. Before leaving the city itself, we stopped at Fort Cornwallis, which once protected the island. Only the stone foundation of the fort itself remains, but the guns are still there. The letters GR (George Rex) were cast on one of them. Last, we stopped at the Snake Temple. There, many snakes, made drowsy by the incense, we were told, lay around near the altar. The tour guides took us across Penang bridge, which has a nice view of the island, to the train station. On this train, we had our own compartment, with a couch which was turned into bunks at night and a small table and sink that folded up. We had to get off the train at the last stop in Malaysia and officially leave Malaysia and enter Thailand. Our dinner was served in the room. It was pretty good, typically hot Thai food.

Day 22 (August 14): Bangkok

We arrived in Bangkok early in the morning. I made a reservation at a hotel and then we went there. We were taken by someone who worked for a tour company who was hoping that we would hire him or take a tour with his company. For the rest of the morning, we made inquiries about tours to Chaing Mai. In the afternoon, we went to the Grand Palace. On the way, we stopped and saw the Golden Buddha at Wat Trimit, which certainly is gold--it is brilliant and shining and made of 5.5 tons of gold. The story is that it was covered with plaster for a long time, and no one knew that it was actually gold until it was accidentally dropped when it was being moved and the plaster cracked.

The Grand Palace was an absolutely indescribable sight. There were so many things to see that we just felt overwhelmed. There is a huge golden cheddi there, and the temple of the Emerald Buddha. It is actually carved of jade and is a deep green. The image is dressed in different costumes, depending on the season. The Cakri group, built by King Rama V (the son of Rama IV of The King and I and the king who did a great deal to modernize and, to some extent, Westernize, Thailand) is a building that is now used mainly to receive foreign dignitaries. The main building is an interesting and unusual one in that the bottom part is Western style (I don't know much about architecture, but maybe Greek influenced), but it is topped by a typically Thai roof in green, orange, and gold. The Dusit group contains the throne room. Above the throne is a cloth structure with nine tiers, the symbol of the present king, Rama IX. In front of this building is the Disrobing Pavilion, a Thai-style building where the king dresses for state ceremonies. It has won prizes for its architecture overseas. It's just not possible to describe how opulent and impressive this whole compound is.

The royal family of Thailand is very popular. We saw pictures of the king and queen in shops throughout the country. The king has been on the throne for more than 40 years, and people feel that he has done a lot for the country. Today was the day that the queen's birthday was being celebrated. It was a holiday, and her picture, symbol (a crown with the first two letters of her name entwined) and banner (light blue and white) were everywhere.

On the way home from the Grand Palace, we stopped at a woodworking shop. Dozens of people worked there, carving intricate designs on different kinds of furniture. It's hard work, and according to what we learned later, they are paid a pittance. The furniture is a fairly good buy, though we didn't buy anything. There were also some lacquer goods.

Day 23 (August 15): Bangkok

Today, we went to the floating market at Damnuensaduak and the Rose Garden show. On the way to the floating market, we stopped at a sugar factory, where coconut sugar is made. We rode in long motor boats on canals to the floating market. People live along the canals, and the canals are like roads to them. We saw boats pull up to the docks below houses (the houses are built on stilts) and buy or sell produce. We also saw people bathing and washing clothes or dishes in the canal. We arrived at the floating market where people in boats sold produce and other goods to people in other boats or people on the shore. Some of them even cooked dishes that they sold from their boats. There was even a sort of variety store that people arrived at in boats.

After the market we went to a snake show, which was one of the strangest things I've even seen. They showed a mongoose defanging a cobra, and people catching and releasing different kinds of poisonous snakes. One person released three snakes and caught one in each hand and one between his teeth. It must be a tough way to make a living. There were also displays of different kinds of snakes and crocodiles.

Next we stopped at Nakorn Pathom, the biggest pagoda in SE Asia. We had lunch at the Rose Garden, and then attended their Thai cultural show. It had a lot of different things, such as a re- enactment of a young man's ordination into monkhood (most young Thai men at some point go into the monkhood for a short period) and a wedding ceremony, the fingernail dance, demonstrations of Thai kick boxing, cockfighting, and sword fighting, a bamboo dance. Last, we saw a demonstration of elephants working.

In the evening, we went to a dinner and culture show at Silom Village. The food was very good, and the culture show was interesting. It included some traditional Thai dances, like the fingernail dances, and also a playlet from the Ramadana, the chronicles of the god-king which is popular throughout SE Asia.

Day 24 (August 16): Bangkok

Today, arranged for the tour to Chaing Mai. After that, we visited the Jim Thompson House. Jim Thompson was an American who came to Thailand as a member of the military and got interested in marketing Thai silk. He moved several traditional Thai houses to this spot and put them together as one house. He also collected Thai antiques for this house. He had a lot of beautiful and interesting art, and the house was really something.

After that, we went around on our own to see some of the major temples and the national museum. (This is a considerable increase in confidence--the first day we arrived in Bangkok, Kenji didn't even want to go to another hotel to be picked up for a tour.) We originally thought that it would only involve an hour or two to go to the Marble Temple, the Golden Mount, and be dropped off at Wat Po to see the reclining Buddha, but it took us about three hours. We used the three-wheeled taxis, which zip in and out of the traffic like motorcycles, almost. We went to the Marble Temple first. It is very striking, with white walls and a Thai-style roof of orange, green and gold. It is considered the pinnacle of Thai religious architecture. In the center plaza, there are Buddha images in different styles from different parts of the world.

Next, we went to the Golden Mount, a hill with a temple topped by a gold cheddi on the top of it. We visited with one of the monks who spoke English. He was a Cambodian refugee who had been in Thailand for several years. He was studying English and Japanese, and his English was quite good. We also saw a temple next to the Golden Mount. We walked from there to the Giant Swing, which was once used in a ceremony. There is not swing left there, just a frame. We also saw Wat Suthat, which the Giant Swing stands in front of.

Next, we went to Wat Po, which is most famous for its reclining Buddha. At the gate, guides offered their services, and we at first didn't intend to hire one, but the place was so large and complicated that we were glad that we finally decided to do so. There are four cheddi that represent the first four kings of this dynasty. As in many temples in Thailand, the walls of the courtyard were lined with Buddha images. According to the guide, these are maintained by families who contribute money for their restoration. Some of them were much better restored than others. The walls were painted with scenes from the life of the Buddha. We saw similar paintings in many of the temples that we visited, though in a variety of styles. The reclining Buddha of Wat Po was the most impressive one that we saw on this trip. It is the third largest reclining Buddha in Thailand. There were also many Chinese stone statues with a greenish cast. They were originally ballast for ships returning from China, and were intended just to be discarded, but apparently someone decided that they are interesting enough to save, and they sit in the courtyards of temples and palaces.

The last temple we went to was the Temple of the Dawn, Wat Arun. It sits on the far side of the river, so we had to take a shuttle boat across for one baht. It is a very beautiful temple, with one main cheddi and four smaller ones surrounding it. It looks most impressive from across the river.

Last, we went to the National Museum. It is a large, interesting museum with a lot of material about Thai history. We only had a short time to see it, though, because it closed at 4:30.

Day 25 (August 17): Northern Thailand

We left for our tour of Northern Thailand early in the morning. With just the two of us, we had a guide and a driver. The first stop was at Bang Pa-In, the summer palace. It has large, beautiful grounds. There is a replica of the Disrobing Pavilion from the Grand Palace sitting on a pond. It's a very impressive sight. There are also residences for the royal family and their relatives, an observatory for viewing the surrounding countryside, and a memorial to the queen of Rama V, who drowned in the river on her way to Bang Pa-In. There is quite a variety of architecture, including Thai, Western and Chinese. After seeing the palace, we crossed the river on a cable car and saw other temples, including one built in western style and which looks like a Christian church but when is actually a Buddhist temple. We took a boat up the river to Ayutayah. It was a wonderfully peaceful trip. We could see houses and temples along the river and we even saw a water buffalo walking into the river. A lot of floating vegetation grows in the river. In fact because of that, the blades of the motor of the boat are on a long pole, which can be raised out of the water when the boat goes through patches of vegetation. (We was these boats in the river that runs through Bangkok, too.)

We got out of the boat at a temple. The story behind this temple was that a king during the Ayutayah period went to a foreign country and fell in love with a princess there. He promised to divorce his wife and marry her, and he brought her back to Thailand. However, once he got back to Thailand, he never got around to divorcing his queen and she just pined away alone. When he heard about her death later, he built this temple. At this temple, we saw people putting small squares of gold paper on the Buddha images. According to Nick, the guide, these are to get good skin and protection from skin diseases. We also saw four women doing a traditional Thai dance at the temple. According to Nick, this is a way of making merit.

In Ayutayah, we visited some more temples. Ayutayah was the capital of Thailand before Bangkok, from the mid-fourteenth to the mid-eighteenth centuries. The temples are partly in ruins (having been destroyed by the Burmese) but still very impressive. There is a large gold Buddha image there, but the building that once stood over it has been burned down. There is also a cheddi, and we climbed up it and had a view of the countryside.

I think people who fly to Chaing Mai or who take the bus at night miss a lot. The countryside between Bangkok and Chaing Mai is very interesting. There are rice fields and water buffalo and bullocks working the fields and rivers and mountains. It's quite an interesting drive.

That night, we spent the night at Pisanuloke. In the evening we went out to dinner with Nick at an outdoor place near the river. This place is famous for, of all things, flying vegetables. They cook a dish of fried leaf vegetables called "morning glory" and when it's finished cooking, they throw it high up into the air and catch it again in a pan. They also throw it to a person high up on the back of a truck. Some of the customers even got to try catching them. They wore aprons to cover their clothes. Most of them did pretty well.

Day 26 (August 18): Northern Thailand
Before we left Pisanuloke, we went to the temple there. Nick bowed down on the floor to the Buddha image. It's hard to imagine a Japanese guide doing that. At the river running near the temple, people were selling birds in small bamboo cages and live snakes and fish in plastic bags. The reasons they were selling them was for the buyer to make merit by letting them go. (Cathy Snyder [a Canadian in Thailand on a Rotary scholarship, whom we first met at the conference in Singapore] told us later that there are rumor that the people who sell these addict the birds to a mild drug so that they will come back.) The person who lets the animals go is supposed to get happiness.

Next we went to Sukotai. It was the first capital of Thailand, during the fourteenth century. The ruins are not is as good shape as the ones in Ayutayah, but they are enough to give an idea of how impressive the city must have been in its time. There were several large Buddha images, some of them draped with saffron cloth, which is another thing that people do to make merit. Around the remains of one cheddi, were the remains of elephants. All of them had lost their trunks, but some of them were still otherwise pretty much intact. Elephants as a symbol of Thailand go back a long time.

On the way from Sukotai to Chaing Mai, we stopped at Wat Pratat Lupang Luang, a temple at Lampang. It also had what it called an emerald Buddha, though it was not even green, so I don't know why it was called the emerald Buddha. It also had a very large gold Buddha. In the evening, we went to a Kantok dinner and show. The show included various kinds of dance and music.

Day 27 (August 19): Chaing Mai
In the morning, we went up to the top of one of the mountains near Chaing Mai called Doi Sutep. At the top of the mountain, there is a temple, which we visited. We also visited the winter palace. It seemed strange that the winter palace was in the north and the summer temple in the south, but it seems that there is more difference in the between the south and north in the winter than in the summer, so it is more comfortable in Chaing Mai in the winter. This winter palace is famous for its rose gardens. We also visited a Meo village. The Meo are one of the tribal groups of the northern mountains. We had to rent a truck to go up to the village, because the road was too bad for the BMW that we were traveling in. At the Meo village, we saw a lot of handicrafts, including some beautiful carvings. I wanted to buy one, but they were pretty heavy, even though they weren't very big. We did buy a doll in hill tribe dress, though.

We visited some of the temples in Chaing Mai and then went to see some of what are called home industries, though they are no longer located in homes. We visited a place where teak is carved, a lacquerware factory, a silk-weaving place, and a place where they made umbrellas. It was interesting to see the processes. For example, at the silk weaving place, the cocoons were boiled and the thread unwound from the cocoons.

In the evening we went for a kantok dinner and show again. This food was among the best that we had on our trip.

Day 28 (August 20): Chaing Mai

In the morning we went to the countryside to see an elephants show again. On the way, we stopped at an orchid and butterfly farm. At the place where we saw the elephant show, we first saw the elephants bathing themselves in a river. You could also buy bananas and feed bunches of bananas to the elephants. Kenji took a picture of me feeding one of the elephants. I saved a large bunch of bananas so that Kenji could feed some later, but as I was walking toward the place where the show was being held, one of the elephants that was walking behind me got ahold of the bananas in his trunk and wouldn't let go. I managed to save only one for Kenji. The elephant show was really impressive. It's hard to describe how strong they are. They dragged logs like they were nothing; one small elephant was even running with a log hooked to his harness like it wasn't even there. Teams of elephants then piled up five logs against some slanted posts. It's amazing that they were that strong, but the really amazing thing was that what they did didn't even seem to strain them at all.

After the show, we had a chance to ride the elephants. We went up on a platform, from which we climbed into the double chair on the elephant's back. The man who was guiding the elephant took our picture. It was certainly an unforgettable experience. We had lunch near another place where umbrellas were made. In addition to umbrellas, they also painted delicate pictures of butterflies and flowers on such things as bamboo pencil cups and actually any flat surface that you could provide for them. The driver had a baseball cap bill and a backpack painted while we were there, and he said he also had some t-shirts at home.

In the afternoon, we met Cathy Snyder at our hotel. While we were waiting, we were looking around at some shops, and we found a videotape about Thailand, which we later bought.

We went to Wat Prah Singh and Wat Suan Dok with Cathy. She taught us how to use the small pick-ups with a cover over the back. You signal the driver and tell him where you want to go. If he agrees, it costs five baht per person. (If it's far, he may negotiate for more.) The driver drives around to all the places he has agreed to go, and you just get off when he stops where you requested. (The problem is you have to be able to recognize it.) The temples were particularly good ones.

After visiting the temples, we went to the night market, and then to a restaurant for dinner.

We took the night bus to Bangkok. While we were waiting for the shuttle to take us to the bus station, Kenji was looking around and found some carved elephants that weren't very expensive. He bought one for 150 baht that is about 18 inches tall. I'm going to take it to my office.

Day 29 (August 21): Bangkok

Back in Bangkok, we did some shopping in the morning and then went to the Ancient City in the afternoon. The Ancient City is an area the shape of Thailand where buildings from different parts of Thailand and different eras are reconstructed. Some of the buildings destroyed in Ayutayah are included.

Day 30 (August 22): Going Home
We took a taxi to the airport early in the morning and left Bangkok for Hong Kong. During the layover, we found a video of Hong Kong, which we bought. We arrived back in Kyoto late in the evening.