Happy Birthday NITA!! (a fellow Iwaki ALT)

Hope you have SUPER day!

"back to life, back to reality..."

After two weeks of wonderful warm weather, beaches, rain forests, big cities and fun I am back in Iwaki. Actually, I made it back a week ago today.

I have spent the last week getting reclimatized to the Iwaki winter and life in Japan. This past Monday was a National Holiday. Nothing like a long weekend to help a person ease into things.

On another note, I was doing so well with keeping my blog updated on my trip. But like every good thing, my attentiveness to my web journal sadly came to an end on Day 11. Here is a brief (or not so brief) update of the rest of my journey.

New years day was spent walking around KL. Logan and I were probably the only people out and about in the morning after sleeping through the celebrations but we enjoyed the quiet streets and views of the Colonial district. We continued our day through little India and over to the Petronas Towers. Their image is well known and used as a symbol of KL. And what better to do in these tall towers then ....go to the movies. Narnia was our flick of choice. Not bad! We ended this day with a trip to an Indian restaurant that was recommended in our guide book. What the place lacked in atmosphere it made up in great tasting food and hospitable employees. They were happy to see us (we were the only ones there) so ontop of what we ordered (roti, nan, mutton curry something else but I don't remember the name) they brought us out a couple more sauces (curries) and some egg omelet thing. I know they were cooking more for us too because I saw one guy tell the kitchen 'no more' when he noticed us slowing down. The old guy at the cash register was chit chatty and we found out he collects foreign currency. He asked us if we had any Canadian $$ that he could buy off us but we didn't so instead we offered him some Yen (we didn't let him pay for it because of the lovely experience we had just had).

On day12 we saw the Batu Caves. After what seemed like was going to be an unsuccessful search we finally found the right local bus and were on our way to these famous caves approx. 30 minutes outside of KL. The Batu Caves are a famous location for Hindu pilgrimages and other religious ceremonies. For logan and I it was a change of scenery and pace from our city packed trip. We climbed the almost 300 steps up to the caves and enjoyed the view of KL from a distance. To entertain us on our way up were a dozen or so monkeys. They were obviously used to crowds and didn't scare easily which made them so fun to watch. A couple of them were carrying baby monkeys...soooo cute! That was the highlight of the cave visit for me!

Day 13 saw us heading back to Singapore. There was less traffic on the causeway between the two countries this time so the process went fast. We checked in to a nice hotel for our last night. In the afternoon we went to the Singapore Botanical Gardens. We spent two hours there and only covered about a third of them. The garden grounds were huge, lush, and beautiful. Within the main garden/park area was an orchid garden with hundreds of different species of one of my favourite flowers!! I could have spent a whole day in the park. It would be a great place to sit and read a book, to walk a dog or to just stroll around at sunset. Singapore is a beautiful city.

Day 14- home again home again jiggidy jig!

That's all she wrote!

Day 11: Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!

All the best for 2006!!

Day 10: New Years Massages

Our adventure for yesterday was travelling from Singapore to KL. We made it to KL by midday and spent the afternoon walking around and getting settled. KL, like Singapore, is a shopping mecca. Convenienty, the hostel is stratigically located about a 5 minute walk from 3 malls!!

Aside from wandering the streests we celebrated New Years Eve day by pampering ourselves with a two hour spa package. That's right! For about $50 Canadian I had a 30 min foot massage, 1 hour full body massage and a 30 min facial. It was Fantastic!! I didn't want to go to a dingy place so I made sure to check out a handful before deciding on the one that looked the best. I think I found it!

As for a night time celebration of the impending new year, there was none! Well, I know there were big street parties in around our hostel. The police were closing the streets off throughout the day but Logan and I never saw them. Since we had to get up at 4:30am to make our way to KL we were totally exhausted. At 9 we decided to relax and have a little nap before heading out for the night, but we never got up and slept our ways into 2006.

Maybe next year?