13 August 2006
Farewell Australia...hello Asia!
Amidst a flurry of hectic activity and winding up we leave Australia behind with one way ticket to "somewhere" in Europe. Wasn't easy, but here we are another continent; different language, different hemisphere and different weather... and how. Writing this on a sweltering afternoon in Sabah Borneo on the eve of our dive trip to one of the remote islands here.After a late night arrival in Kuala Lumpur and night at the airport hotel, we spent our first days in Malaysia with cousins (Uma and Cheenu) in KL city; the perennial guests that we are. Hadn't seen them since our wedding.
Our cousins were great hosts and tour guides taking us to the hotspots of KL - the twin towers of Petronas, Batu caves (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batu_Caves) which housed a famous Hindu temple of the South Indian god Murugan (aka Karthik) and boasts an enormous statue of the god and a shrine on top of hill amongst limestone caves accessed by 272 steps.
Of course we stopped for an inevitable south indian snack at the door-step of the temple despite Karthik's (not the god this time) sensitive stomach that didn't take too well to the anti-Malaria pills.
Day 2 in KL was spent at the street markets and Chinatown where Isabel put her haggling skills to the test and acquired a neat deal for a smart looking jacket. An interesting tour thru the area trying to see if we can tell whether we could spot the fake Guccis and Rolex look alikes.
Early start this morning (up at 3:30 am, and no Malaria pills this time- so I can eat more and battle the mosquitos if any) to take our flight to Tawau (in Sabah) where we spend the night before taking a boat out to the island reefs (Sipadan) made famous by Jacques Cousteau and spending the next 3 days underwater... well as much of it as we can.
# posted by Karthik & Isabel @ Sunday, August 13, 2006 
