My favorite place in Holland - Keukenhof

Keukenhof might be the only place in the world where everyone regardless of skill looks like a master photographer.  More pictures up on facebook - I took over 200.  That would take forever to blog about.

 

I took the bus to Keukenhof this time, which was really easy and fun to see the tulip fields on the way.  Enjoy these few shots:

 

 

 

Oxbridge annual boat race

After getting back from KL, I had one night in my bed and then a quick flight to London for 8 days of work.  It wasn't meant to go that long (only 4 initially), but life right now seems to be playing tricks on me.  This trick was get on a plane with 4 days of clothes and then figure out how to stretch that to double the number of days.  I did laundry through a hotel service for the first time ever and washed more clothes in the sink because I just couldn't see spending 4 pounds to get a t-shirt washed.

Part of the reason I had to stay longer was I got massively ill on Friday, like sleep on the bathroom floor ill.  I don't know what it was.  On Thursday, I only ate a salad for lunch in the canteen and some chips.  I'm praying that was not the culperate because I need to be able to eat in that canteen through September 2016.  That is going to be a long 2 years of no subsidised food if the canteen must be dead to me now.

I've never had a worse bug in my life.  Just awful.  I probably could have flown on Sunday morning, but then I would have needed to fly back on Monday morning for work anyways, so I stayed.  I got some work done on Sunday and then headed to the Oxford v Cambridge annual boat race on the River Thames.  I got a great spot on the Putney bridge to watch the start and then as it was starting to rain, I had a great spot for getting back quickly to the tube. 

Oxford won (which is who I choose to support based on number of friends from each - O 2 C 0)!  I'm definitely a t-shirt fan though because I had to text said friends to figure out which color Oxford was.

Here's a film of the start:

Una got in on the action - can see the Cambridge boat in backround.  She rooted for Oxford as well.  Naturally, I got strange looks taking this picture.

Putting the boats in at the dock

I think this is Cambridge's reserves team.  I thought at first it was the actual team, but it was definitely the reserves team that raced before the big race.

 

Oxford's reserves team:

 The actual teams lined up and ready to be let go:

And they are off; with about 20 speed boats following behind and 4 helicopters overhead.

LK in KL - Part 3

The weekend was spent recovering from the week - enjoying the great hotel in downtown KL, doing some shopping and seeing some of the sights.  There are not many sights in the city other than the towers and a few mosques, so shopping was the thing to do.  Consumerism is huge in KL, although to be fair, I think that the only reason a mall is on every corner (literally) is the heat.  The only way to get exercise in KL without feeling like death is to walk in a mall.  It means mall walkers are in their 20s as opposed to 80s.

 

 

Some KL coin.  Roughly 20 to the Euro.

The beautiful Petwer vase I found.  I'm so excited about this - it's already looking great with my Dutch tulips.

New shoes.  Funny story about this picture.  I honestly thought that more clothes would be in sizes that fit me because in KL, I am average height.  I've never felt so reasonably sized in my life - it was an incredible feeling to get in an elevator and look over someone's head that was not a child.  It happened everywhere.  I could get used to that.

However, what I noticed was that every major brand and Malaysian brands included, still made clothes and shoes for much taller people.  For instance, Clarks, whom I adore, but struggle to find in a US size 4 or 5 were the same in KL - smallest on all shoes was a size 6.  I found a section of shoes that were for smaller feet, but they were definitely grandma shoes.  Where do those women find shoes???  The shoes I did get were Czech, which is funny because when we were in Prague last May, we did a bit of shopping because the exchange rates were good to the Euro and I couldn't find anything smaller than a 7.  Clothes were the same - still needed to chop off at least 6 inches on pants.  I did notice though that every place had signs for free tailoring, so that must have been the solution.  I don't know how they do shoes though - still a mystery.

You will also see that my feet and ankles are completely swollen.  I call them my plane feet - happens on all my long haul flights.  It could also have been the extreme amount of salt in the food, but I'm going to blame the flights.  The food was incredible - it doesn't deserve that abuse.

Another funny story - in the KL airport after we landed, I needed to use the restroom.  The first stall I went in was nothing but a hole in the floor, which I was very unclear as to how to use.  The second was the same.  Thankfully, I realised that the last 2 stalls of most restrooms in the airport were holes, but the rest were western toilets.  I realised this after making an attempt at the hole and then deciding that I'd rather not use the restroom for 5 days than do the hole when I need to see a work colleague right afterward.  God bless the person who created the western toilet.

The above sign was in the airport restroom (in the western toilet stalls).  Why anyone would need the below depticted as unacceptable is beyond me.  It means that someone has tried that, right?  Good lord.

I did some native shopping as well as regular old fashioned mall shopping.  I found some great batiks (via sarongs) that will make a great addition to the travel quilt!

I also walked through Chinatown, which was knock off central.  The Dutch have a strict no knock off policy when it comes to bringing stuff back into the NL, so it was a very quick trip through the mayhem.  Lots of bargaining going on and I had at least 5 people ask me if I needed DVDs.  I didn't stop to ask which movies they were hawking.

KL light rail - speedy, efficient and FULL. 

I didn't try it...maybe it goes on the don't knock it until you try it list, but Chicken Porridge?  That sounds dreadful.

Overall, I should have written these entries about 3 weeks ago when everything was still fresh in my head.  I liked KL, primarily for the food.  There was some Indian street food on Friday for lunch that still makes my mouth water.  I can taste that fried chicken as I sit in bed typing this.  But the heat and the humidity that I'm unaccustomed to now felt worse than anything I've felt in Houston.  Maybe I'm just oversensitive to it now, but I was drenched after just a 10 minute walk to work from the hotel.  The people were very nice and I fit in perfectly other than the blonde hair.  I heard the call to prayer once, but found that the population was very mixed ethnically and religiously.  I saw the Malay Lutheran church, which I thought was incredible - small world.  Generally, great city for a quick visit.  Next time, it will be out to the countryside of Malaysia!

LK in KL - Part 2

 

On Thursday and Friday, work took up most of the day and eating and fun took up all of the night.  I didn't sleep much Monday - Friday that week between the flying, jet lag and nights out.  

 

 

 

Driving through the Indian area of town - crazy traffic and very fancy sky scrapers as far as the eye can see.

 

 

 

 

Back to the Petronas towers for some after dinner drinks.  Dinner was at an amazing Chinese place that was very local and authentic - as in pick your fish and we will cook it.  Huge numbers of dishes served on a huge lazy susan.  That food was to die for.

 

Pictures at the tower bar of the team - lots of fun!



 

 Tower coming out of my head!

 The Grand Prix was in town that weekend.  I'm not a car racing fan and didn't fancy spending 200 euros on a ticket to watch them go around in a circle in extreme heat (I've outgrown my ability to handle heat).  More on that in Part 3....

 

LK in KL - Part 1



 

Some of the perks of the job are getting to see some very cool places (outside of London, which is amazing all to itself).  My first time in Asia was at the end of March with 3 work days and a weekend spent in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia:

 

 

 

The one downside was that I only had a few options for direct flights to KL and the only good one from London was Malaysia Air, less than 2 weeks after they lost a plane.  Good news was that the plane was huge - A380, double decker.  I've never been in one, and that was a neat experience.  Flight was very calm - no indication that anything had happened.  However, it was eery and definitely in the back of mind the whole time.  The bad news about flying Asia is that both flights are overnight - you take off around 10PM or midnight each direction and land either 7PM or 7AM (coming back).  That means two sleeping flights, both of which I flunked.  Must keep studying for those.

 

We stayed at the Hilton, right next to KL Sentral station.  The train from the airport was very quick and we were in bed by 8 (well, in theory - I worked until 11).

 



 

View from hotel (unexpectedly upgraded!)

 

 

The next morning, free breakfast at the Hilton, which had some amazing fruit that I have not googled yet.  It was soo good.

 

 



 

 

In general, the food in KL was amazing.  I had Indian, Sri Lankan, Chinese, Malay, Thai and probably 2 other unidentifiable cuisines that make me hungry just thinking about it.  I would get FAT living there (but die a happy person).

 

After work the first evening, it was off to the Twin Towers (Petronas) for some touristy moments:



 

Studying the power of NOCs - shout out to H for taking an amazing picture.

 

 

The towers are best seen at night - I saw them on the weekend during the day and whilst impressive, I thought the pure waste of electricity at night was even better.  They had a documentary on the plane about how much electricity these bad boys use each night - unreal.

 

H told me to act silly for this picture.  That's about as silly as I get.

The bridge is open for walking across but one has to get up very early and have an advanced ticket.  I didn't do either.   But something about being up that high on a suspended bridge did not sound appealing to me.

The towers with funny settings.

 

 

#twintowerselfie

 

 

Me and my new traveling buddy - S.  Best work travel colleague yet!

 

 

 

Lights outside of the towers

 

 

 S convinced me to try this Indian delight, which is about 1.5 feet long and filled with potatoe and curry.  It's like a pancake, but made of rice I think.  S also convinced me to eat it with my hands.  H (the local) then ate his with a knife and fork. I felt authentic, if not sticky when it was over.  Very good and all from a food court!

 

 

 

 

After dinner, it was a very unexpected night on the town (on a Wednesday).  At 1AM, the streets were packed with people.  I've never seen anything like it and was wholly unexpected given I was under the impression that Malaysia is super conservative.  I found the part that wasn't and we had a great time. Work the next day was interesting....although, much better than I would have been about 12 months ago.  I've built up some strength.

 

Part 2 coming...