Melaka and Singapore

Friday we left Kuantan around 4pm for what we thought was about a 3.5 hour drive to Melaka on the west coast (between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore). We didn't exactly follow the directions we were given and ended up taking a much longer route, which included a detour through a palm plantation. This was no ordinary detour- the signs were small arrows on wood hammered into the ground and the narrow dirt road twisted right through the middle of the plantation...crazy. Anyway, once we surfaced from the woods and found the paved road again we ended up in Melaka around 9pm. We stayed at an old Chinese hotel called Hotel Puri in the downtown-Chinatown part of the city. Saturday morning we walked around the city in the blazing heat. The temperature in the car said 38C...yikes. Anyway, we saw some of the old Churches, Melaka was settled by both the Dutch and Portugese, and was in British control at some point as well. So the history and architecture is pretty interesting, a lot more culture than in Kuantan!

A trishaw in Melaka- notice the Mercedes logo on the front!

Chinese temple in Melaka

Chinese parade in Melaka, nobody really knew what for exactly

Saturday afternoon we drove from Melaka to Singapore, checked in at the Hilton and then I relaxed for the evening while Mum and Dad went for dinner. Sunday I wrote the MCAT all day and then we went for dinner at a steakhouse at the famous Raffles Hotel, home of the Singapore sling!

Raffles Hotel, Singapore

Today is Wednesday and we're heading up the coast to Pulau (Island) of Perhentian to go scuba diving for a few days!

cheers-

s.

hot weather, batik, and Singapore!

The past week in Kuantan has been great, I've been making good use of the gym at the Hyatt (after my one step class, I opted to work out in air con!) and also the pool!

pool at the hyatt

Today we leave for Malacca, originally a Portugese settlement south of Kuala Lumpur on the west coast of Malaysia. Apparently it's well known for making furniture so mum and dad want to check that out. Saturday we head further south to Singapore so I can write the MCAT on Sunday! Afterwards we're going to the famous Raffles Hotel for dinner and maybe a Singapore sling?! Monday's agenda includes sight-seeing and shopping in Singapore and then Tuesday we drive home to Kuantan.

On Wednesday mum and I went to see Jam, the local batik lady to see how batik is made. She even let me make my own handpainted piece! It's a pretty cool art, you either draw or stamp hot wax onto the fabric and then paint or dye different colours onto the fabric. After the dye is set, it's put into boiling water to remove the wax. Check out the wood fire and the cauldron below!

my masterpiece!

batik artist...all freehand drawing!

outside of the batik shop...very typically Malay!

Last night we had an early Birthday celebration at the Italian Bistro overlooking the ocean at the Hyatt...the food was great but the mosquitos started attacking about halfway through dinner and by the time I finished eating I think I had about 15 welts on my legs! So...we came home for cake! I opened my birthday presents last night too---new scuba gear for diving next week! I can't wait!

Rotary Conference and the Hokitika Police

Last weekend was Rotary District 9970s conference in Hokitika on the West Coast of the South Island. I drove over there with Alan and his wife Vivian, absolutely wonderful people who were so keen to act a tour guides for the foreigner! Although it was a beautiful day in Christchurch, as we drove through Arthur's Pass it became more foggy and rainy and by the time we got to Hokitika we were in the midst of an absolute downpour


one of the many beautiful waterfalls in Arthur's Pass


I was staying at a bach (lakehouse) on Lake Kaniere about 20km from Hokitika with the other 4 scholars, and the Group Study Exchange (GSE) teams from Missouri and New Zealand. They were a group of 5 young professionals who has just spent the past 5 weeks travelling around the South Island and learning about their vocation in New Zealand, compared to Missouri. Definitely an awesome group of people who were so relieved to hang out with younger people (they had been staying with and travelling with older Rotarians for the past month!)

Anyway, the conference was quite inspiring and definitely informative. We spoke on Saturday morning to the group (about 420 people) about who we are, why we're here, etc. After that lots of people came up to us and invited us to their club- the group from Blenheim wants all 5 of us to come up for a weekend to hang out at the lake and speak to their clubs!

Saturday night was dinner and dancing at Shantytown, an old replicated gold-mining town just north of Hokitika. There was a gold rush on the west coast in the mid-1800s, thus the location and also the theme for the conference, "Go for Gold, Get Involved" AND the crazy costumes. There were pirates (to steal gold), leprechauns (for good luck), athletes trying to win gold, crazy people dressed in plastic sheets and balloons(?!?), men in black with gold wigs...you name it, and someone had it on. It was funny that these were the same people sitting in seminars all day acting quite serious and mature!

The 5 of us had been given a van for the weekend to drive ourselves back and forth from the lake. Very considerate of them, not so considerate to give us the van with virtually no petrol! On Saturday afternoon we put about $20 in the tank, thinking that it would be plenty to drive to dinner and then back to the lake. Boy were we wrong. First of all, Shantytown was about an hour drive from the lake. Secondly, the van guzzled gas at an alarming rate. So, we get to dinner with the gas gauge on E but thought that we would have no trouble getting petrol either up the road in Greymouth or back in Hokitika. Ironically, the GSE team also had almost no petrol in their van and actually went to fill up in Greymouth during dinner (we weren't so smart). After dinner we leave at about 11:30pm, thinking that we'll be able to get some petrol back in Hokitika. We arrive about 30min later, after driving with the gas light on for the past 50km, only to find that the petrol station is closed. We drive downtown (which was almost totally dead at midnight on a Saturday) and a guy tells us that the Mobil station just out of town would be closed, but that we could use a credit card. Great! So we head out to the Mobil station, only to find that they accepted Diners Club and American Express only. No Visa, no mastercard, no Eftpos (debit), and no cash. The two cards that we didn't have, were the only ones the station accepted. So...heading back to town we end up behind one of the busses dropping Rotary people off from dinner. Great! So we follow it and jump out to ask a group of Rotarians if any of them had an Amex or Diners Club card that we could use. No luck. (one guy did offer us $20 cash though) Our next brilliant idea was to go to the police station. Genius. Upon hearing our dilemma, Russell, the officer on duty first seems to be unconcerned...why would he care that we had no petrol and it was 12:30am!? After a small amount of sweet-talking Russell kindly offered to drive us back to Lake Kaniere in his patrol car. The 5 of us (plus the 3 partially full bottles of wine left over from dinner) squeeze into his car and away we went. Thanks Russell!

Conference ended on Sunday afternoon and Alan drove me back to Christchurch. On the way we stopped at Death's Corner in Arthur's Pass to get a good view of the viaduct. The old road used to be on the right hand side of the pass but was getting completely washed away due to erosion. The viaduct is quite the engineering accomplishment and makes the drive through the pass much easier.

Whew...busy weekend! I'm in Malaysia now, at "home" in Kuantan studying for the MCAT and soaking up the sun! It's definitely hot here...a few nights ago I did a step class with mum in an UNairconditioned room on the 2nd floor of a building. I seriously thought I was going to pass out. Afterwards the instructor says oh, it's only 32C in here!

Hope you have a happy and blessed Easter!

cheers-

steph

busy week!

Term 1 ends Friday....which means that my time here in New Zealand is about 1/4 over, hard to believe. I have a physiology lab final exam on Friday morning which may prove to be difficult but hopefully not impossible.

But after 10am Friday I'm free! Well, kind of. Friday afternoon I'm going to Rotary District Conference on the west coast in a town called Hokitika. Should be a blast minus the inevitable rain- I saw on the weather today that it's going to rain there (but nowhere else in the country) all weekend. Sunday afternoon conference ends and I'll do laundry and repack for home! Maybe I'll just pack dirty clothes and let mum wash them...isn't that what parents are supposed to do when their kids are away at university? Maybe not when it's trans-oceanic...

I fly direct from CHC to Singapore on Monday afternoon on Singapore Airlines...I'm excited, well as excited as one can be about a 10 hour flight. Everyone keeps telling me how awesome an airline it is- personal TVs, lots of movies and music, good food- what more could I ask for?
Unfortunately I have to spend the night in Singapore before flying to Kuala Lumpur and then onto Kuantan on Tuesday morning.

Through awesome Rotary contacts (it pays to know people in high places) I managed to land a volunteer position at Christchurch Hospital in the pediatric department with the play therapist. I think it'll be a good mix of medicine and psychology and working with the wee ones! I have a meeting tomorrow to fill out paperwork and get a police check. Since I've only been in the country for 2 months I doubt they'll find any criminal activity.

I'm off to read and sleep...I'll catch up once I'm back in Kuantan

cheers-

s.