SATURDAY, 10/11/14

Today was a strange day. We woke up early (around 5:00 am). The smog and fog were so thick we couldn’t see anything out our window, not even the street. It was the same sensation as flying in a cloud. Really weird! The smog count was up around 275.   Suddenly, around 4:00 pm, we looked outside and the sky was crystal clear. The pollution had suddenly dropped to 38. We’ve never seen it change so drastically! I posted a screen shot below. Look at the bar graph further down and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

We finished off the gorgeous evening with Indian food from Taj. I really love their chicken dishes, and the bread. Judy is a Samosa fan. I guess we’ll get better acquainted with the Indian food establishments in DFW when we get back to the US.

SUNDAY, 10/12/14

We decided to go to Dragonfly for a foot massage. Mostly it gave us an excuse to eat at Fatburger. Judy spent most of the rest of the day putting away our summer clothes and pulling out all our winter gear. It’s times like this when I realize I have too many clothes. Much of it was stored in extra suitcases we brought when we moved from the US, so out come the suitcases, and everything got switched.

It’s a great time of the year in Beijing. The days are crisp fall days, but not really cold. When the air is clear, the city is great!

THURSDAY, 10/9/14

I’m up and out early to BHSFIC today. Classes go well. I work on organizing some of my school materials and planning for tomorrow until lunch. After lunch, I have plans to do more of the same, interspersed with a Starbucks break, just killing time until Orchestra Club. As I head to lunch, I check my email, and there’s a new one from the school, with some kind of schedule change for the afternoon? At lunch, I start asking questions, and apparently, one of the grade 10 students has some type of contagious skin irritation. The school has decided they’re going to disinfect all the classrooms after school, so no Orchestra Club. I still hit Starbucks and then head home.

The real issue today is the pollution. The smog count is over 300! Now that the holiday is over, all the factories and businesses went into full gear, and the smog count went through the roof. There’s not much talk about it at my school, but Judy’s school is having discussions about closing tomorrow. It should be an interesting evening waiting to hear what happens.

FRIDAY, 10/10/14

Judy’s school didn’t cancel. The smog is even worse today. It bounced over 400 a few times during the day. It’s so dreary when it gets this high. Neither of us have noticed any respiratory issues, though.

The talk at lunch at my school today is about the “new holiday” that’s just been declared by the government. The APEC Conference is scheduled for November 7-12 in Beijing.   I guess to reduce traffic congestion and smog, all businesses and Chinese schools (mine) have been told to take a holiday. The international schools aren’t required, but “requested” to close. I wasn’t expecting a holiday that weekend, but the HSBC World Golf Championships are in Shanghai. It might be a good time to visit.

TUESDAY, 10/7/14

We both leave the apartment early today to go to BISS for the beginning band class. We have 4 more weeks of this exploratory session. Class meets Tuesday and Wednesday for 1 ½ hours. The time on task is great. We just can’t get enough days in a row to keep our momentum going. The students can’t take their instruments home (all the instruments are school-owned, and the school didn’t feel comfortable releasing them), so the only practice they get is during class. Some of them come back and practice during lunch. Last week was a holiday week, the week before that, classes met. The week before that, the students were traveling with “BISS on the Road”, and class didn’t meet. Basically, the class met 4 times in the last month. It’s hard to make progress at that rate. The students are doing surprisingly well.

The holiday is still in place for the Chinese. Many businesses are not open, and the roads are almost traffic-free. After class today, I stopped off for my regular stop at the BISS neighborhood Chinese restaurant. It was closed. Darn! Back home, I went by the wet market, bought some vegetables, and made a vegetable soup for dinner. It was great, and there’s plenty left over for one or two more meals.

WEDNESDAY, 10/8/14

I wish I had more to talk about today, but I don’t. Judy went to school at her regular time. I joined her later to teach the instrument class. After class, I went to the local restaurant, and had my favorite Chinese dishes. I went by the police station on my way home to register for both of us. It was the regular “Temporary Residence” registration we do after every trip out of China. I had to sit for while and wait my turn, but the registration process was quick and easy.

Judy came home around 6:30 pm. BISS had their regular faculty meeting after school, and she stayed and worked on planning for while. The holiday is over, but traffic wasn’t too bad going either direction on the roads today. Travel back and forth to school was really quick for both of us.

SATURDAY/SUNDAY, 10/4-5/14

 We’re back in Beijing and it’s time to get ready for the next 9 weeks (Xmas vacation).  Judy takes care of all the final unpacking details, emptying suitcases, and laundry.  I spend a lot of my time reviewing where we’re going on our next vacation time in February.  It’s during the Chinese New Year, so it’s best to travel outside China to avoid all the local tourists.  After Pangkor Laut, we’re going to have a tough time finding something that won’t be a letdown.  I also inventory our supplies and determine when I need to head out to purchase groceries. 

MONDAY. 10/6/14

Judy heads back to work today.  The official Chinese National Holiday is not over until the end of the day Tuesday, but BISS is back in session.  Traffic is remarkably light and taxis are plentiful. 

Today marks the official beginning of “recruitment” for BISS for its’ faculty members for next year.  The process of hiring teachers for an International School is tremendously complex.  New faculty members are moving their lives (and families) into what for most of them is a completely new environment.  We are intimately familiar with all the paperwork hurdles that have to be cleared.

The first step for the school is determining which faculty will be returning.  Any rookie faculty members have been hired on a two-year contract, so their status is set.  The questions lie with the “old” faculty.  We watched the process with curiosity last year, but this year, we’re involved.

We’ve decided not to return for a 3^rd year in Beijing.  Judy’s job at BISS is the reason we’re in China, and she’s ready to try something different than teaching elementary music.  This is year 39 for her career, and she’s reached that point where it’s time for a change.  She could continue a few more years, and “mail it in”, but she’s never been the type to do that.  She’s still staying late every day after school to plan, and comes home with work to do.  There is lots of her weekend time spent looking for new music and ideas. 

My job at BHSFIC has been part-time (two days a week) and a “blast”.  It’s a nice change from the “contest grind” of band directing.  I’ve had a chance to experience the education process at a high level Chinese high school with very motivated and focused students.  The faculty and staff are dedicated and focused on helping the students achieve their dream of attending a university in the US. 

We’d been struggling with this decision for months, dating back to April & May.  We’ve loved our lives here, and all our new friends.  We hate to leave them and know we’ll miss them.  We’ve had the chance to travel and haven’t missed many opportunities.  There is so much to see in China and Asia, we’ll never get it all in.

As a part of that decision to return to the US, we just completed the purchase of our new home in Fort Worth.  We’ll be living in Museum Place, a condo in the Cultural District, sometime this summer.  We lived in one of the units before our move to China (after we sold our Arlington home), and loved it.  Every time we visited the DFW area, we were on the lookout for a place we’d enjoy, and found it this summer.  Mortgage interest rates, and a location we loved all fell into place, and we began the process for the purchase.  It wasn’t easy doing it from China.  I don’t think it would have been possible without the help of an old high school friend, Debbie Hunn.  She’s actively involved in the real estate business, specializing in downtown properties, and helped us work through all the hurdles of a long-distance sale.  WE ARE EXCITED!

Our balcony view toward Will Rogers, Museum of Modern Art, and Casa Mañana.

Our building.

It’s departure day from Pangkor Laut. We have another great breakfast. I’ve grown especially fond of the Indian bread. It tastes like a sapapilla. After we drop off our wi-fi hotspot at the front desk, we walk out to the dock, and board the boat back to the mainland. Our driver is waiting for our 4-hour drive to KLIA (airport). Our driver/guide was a former history/English teacher in Malaysia, and I had a chance to ask lots of questions about the education system, and pretty much anything else I was curious about. One of the most interesting topics was the impact the two Malaysian Airlines tragedies have had on Malaysia and it’s tourism industry.

The “juicing” area of the breakfast buffet. Just put what you want on a plate, and they’ll mix it.

It’s hard to leave!

Back on the mainland. It’s a long drive to KL

We had a long wait at the airport so our guide offered to take us to two interesting sites we missed when we first came to town. We drove to a huge Hindu shrine and the destination of a yearly pilgrimage for over a million people (over a 3-day period). Thank goodness it wasn’t going on when we were in town. The second site was a Chinese temple.

Now that’s a statue!

A newly married Hindu couple, celebrating their wedding at the shrine

A hindu temple on the site. Check out the figures on the roof.

The KL Chinese Temple.

At the airport, we checked in and made our way to our gate. This flight seems about half-full. I’m surprised since China is in the middle of a holiday, and a big four-day holiday is beginning tomorrow in KL. Our six-hour flight arrives in Beijing at 1:00 am. We make our way through immigration and customs (we’re much too familiar with this procedure) quickly and get a taxi to the apartment. Back home, we’re unpacked and “lights off” at 2:30. It’s been a fun trip, but the flights on both ends of this trip were tough, due to departure and arrival times.

Sunrise view from our villa deck. The haze is due to all the burning (clearing old palm trees) in Indonesia. They don’t burn in Malaysia and Singapore, but Indonesia seems a little less concerned about the air quality.

On our way to breakfast this morning, we noticed a lot of activity in the trees on shore, not far from our elevated walkway. As we got closer I noticed the trees shaking a lot, and then a small monkey stuck his head out of the leaves, and ducked back in. He was really active, and then we saw a big water monitor (lizard) on the rocks beneath the monkey. He looked like he was hoping to catch the monkey falling out of the tree, but it didn’t happen. As we continued to watch, the water monitor crawled up into the jungle, and more monkeys began to appear. I think we found seven different monkeys, climbing around and eating berries off the trees. There were big tropical birds in the area, and the monkeys and birds seemed to be discussing who had the rights to the berries. See the link below for the video I shot of the scene.

VIDEO LINK:  coming as soon as it downloads to dropbox

Zoom in close to the center of the photo and you can spot the really big water monitor

Baby monkey scampering around

After breakfast we headed over to Emerald Bay, on the other side of the island for a morning of beach laziness. We enjoyed the serenity. Later in the afternoon we moved back to the front side of the island, and indulged in the pool area, eventually topping off the day with some ice cream. I think I could learn to live like this, if I had to.

Garden & Hill villas, viewed from our breakfast table.

There are some really unusual plants here.

Left by our maid, a “towel monkey”.

Back at our villa, we began to pack and prepare for our trip back to Beijing tomorrow. It’s been a great trip and we hate to leave. Much like several of our other trips this past year, we’re trying to figure out how we can work it out to come back. There are too many places we want to visit to repeat a destination, no matter how beautiful it is. Just around the corner is another beautiful and interesting spot, and our time in Asia is limited.

Our 2^nd full day starts off with another great breakfast! They have a coconut marmalade to spread on breads that’s really great! After breakfast, we go back to the villa, change, and head over to the pool for a morning and afternoon of sheer laziness. It’s a gorgeous day with little or no wind. It’s cloudy so we don’t have too much trouble with sunburn, and we’re working to stay in the shade.

Judy, taking advantage of the infinity pool

Several times today, helicopters brought in, or took out guests.

We have a really late lunch (or early supper) around 4:30 at the pool restaurant. Afterwards we go back to the villa and change back out of our swimwear. Then we walk to the shuttle for a ride to the Spa Village. It’s a separate area with a huge spa complex. There are two restaurants, and villas similar to ours along with another pool. The spa is one of the “centerpiece” attractions of the resort. Luciano Pavrotti was a regular visitor at the resort, and helped them open the spa when it was finished.

Several of the restaurants in the resort have a dress code, and we didn’t come prepared. We packed for “fun in the sun”, not dinner reservations. I don’t think I’m missing the food, as much as the views. These restaurants have gorgeous settings overlooking the water.

The walk home from the Spa Village

Video Link to Malaysian trip videos:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3ydq4chfvho02xk/AABD8GdfEgNjr-_3mrnnnuEga?dl=0

We’re excited to begin our first full day in the Pangkor Laut Resort.  On the way to breakfast I pointed out the “bat” tree to Judy.  Those bats are huge. 

All the large dark objects hanging in the tree are bats, really big bats!

 Breakfast was great.  There was so much variety!  Indian, Western, Malaysian, and Chinese foods were spread out into 8 or 9 different areas.  The fruit drink area was our favorite.  After selecting the fruits we wanted, we handed the plate to the worker who mixed and juiced them.  We’ve dabbled in a few of the breakfast foods from the other countries, but still keep going back to the standards, eggs, sausage, waffles, etc.

 After breakfast we wandered through the property back to our villa, stopping to take some pictures of some crazy looking birds.  We enjoyed some time on the deck.  Around 12:30, we walked to the shuttle stop and rode it over to Emerald Bay, on the opposite side of the island. 

A really interesting tropical bird is in the tree, in the middle of the picture. As it turns out, there was as many as 7 or 8 in these trees.

The beach on the main side of the island isn’t really for swimming.  It’s less sand and more gravel.  The beach at Emerald Bay is perfect, and the water temp was cool, but not cold.  There were never more than 20 people on this really large beach.  When we first arrived, there was a little excitement as some of the guests noticed a snake, and the workers sacked it up.  We camped out under some trees (checking for snakes first), enjoying the view, the shade, the tranquility, and of course, some tropical drinks with umbrellas.  I posted two videos in the linked file.

Emerald Bay

It’s really secluded and quiet.

Shade and a gorgeous view.

A picture of the beach, shot from the water.

We ate dinner later at the beach restaurant, and as we finished, there was a commotion down on the beach.  The waiters and beach staff were scrambling after a monkey that had sneaked up behind some guests and grabbed their dinner.  He got up a tree and moved away, eventually getting to a place they couldn’t reach him, where he calmly finished eating his “catch”.  I walked over a little later to get a better look at him, and he started down the tree.  I thought he might be about to sneak up on someone else, so I started shooting a video.  To my surprise, when he hit the ground he came right at me.  I didn’t have time to react before he ran past me, and then calmly moved away.  The video is in the file accessed with the video link at the top of this blog.  One of the beach staff told me the monkey was a “regular guest”.  Some of the resort literature mentions closing doors and windows before leaving a villa to prevent monkey visitation.

Here’s a link to a Dropbox file with videos from our Malaysian trip:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3ydq4chfvho02xk/AABD8GdfEgNjr-_3mrnnnuEga?dl=0

I’m putting all the videos from our Malaysia trip into this file.  Videos related to this blog, and earlier blog posts would be:

1.  “Steamboat” meal, 9/28

2.  Both blowgun videos, 9/28

3.  KL Hotel area, 9/27

4.  Pangkor Laut, bats, 9/29

5.  Pangkor Laut, room, 9/29

We have a 9:00 am departure from the hotel and begin to head down the mountain.  We make several stops as Rahman shows us how strawberries, flowers, and tea are grown in the Cameron Highlands.  It’s a long, curvy drive, and Judy’s begins to feel the effects.  She’s prone to travel sickness, especially on this type of road.

This is how most of the strawberries are grown in the Highlands, in greenhouses. The water and fertilization is all done with computers.

 When we eventually get to the flatlands, it’s still a long drive to the Malaysian west coast (2 hours).  We get to Lumut, on the coast, where we eat lunch and I exchanged RMB for Malaysian Ringitt (2 to 1 rate)  The math’s not too hard, but it takes time to work it out in my head.  To convert to USD (for comparison) when I’m buying something, I multiply the Ringitt by 2 to get to RMB, then divide by 6 for USD amount.  A quicker route would be Ringitt total, divided by 3, but we’ve been in China long enough that we’re constantly comparing prices to costs in China.

At the jetty, Pangkor Laut Resort has it’s own receiving area.  Rahman drops us off, and we get checked in.  The shuttle boat departs around 3:00 pm, and it’s a 15-minute ride out to the island.  There are 15 guests on the boat, along with our luggage.  When we arrive at the island dock, we’re greeted by resort staff, and get a quick orientation (restaurants, etc.).  Following the orientation, we’re walked over to our villa.  It’s a gorgeous setting, with our own deck.  Sometimes, I find myself laughing at it all.  I never imagined anything like this when we started filling out the paperwork to apply for teaching positions overseas.  Now we’re staying on a private island, frequented by Tiger Woods and Luciano Pavarotti (according to the promotional literature).

Jetty area

Check-in lounge area, waiting for the island shuttle.

Leaving the mainland

Enroute

Arriving at Pangkor Laut Resort

Our home for the next four days.

Bath/shower area

Looking out from the bedroom

Later in the evening, as I’m walking to the reception area to resolve some wifi issues, I notice a tall tree, laden with lots of very large fruit.  As I’m trying to figure out what the fruit is (it looks really weird), the “fruit” starts moving and stretching.  It’s bats, really big bats, and a lot of them.  It’s dusk and they’re beginning to wakeup.  It was kinda eerie!  I didn’t hang around.  Check out the video at the dropbox file link.

Back at the villa, Judy had been enjoying the deck in back and then moved to the deck out front (it’s covered), when it began to rain a little.  As the sun settled, she became a target for mosquitos.  She moved inside, but had left the doors open when she was outside, and quite a few mosquitos were enjoying our villa as well.

Because of the remote setting of the villas throughout the resort, the internet access is done differently than I’ve experienced before.  They give guests a “pocket hotspot”.  It has rechargeable batteries and can handle wifi for up to four devices.  We can carry it anywhere throughout the resort, and our wifi moves with us.  Very convenient!