Announcement and Three Things I Love About Norway

First of all, I am thrilled to announce that Turtleduck Press, the indie co-op press I’m a part of, is opening to new members as of today. We’re looking for novel submissions from science fiction and fantasy writers. I’ll be talking more about this on Monday, but in the meantime, to learn more, check out the announcement at Turtleduck Press!

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Second, a bit of trivia for you. Norway is my ancestral home — three of my grandparents were born there — and I was lucky enough to visit in 2001.

This Friday is the Seventeenth of May, the Norwegian equivalent of Independence Day or Canada Day. It originally commemorated the signing of the Norwegian constitution in 1814, although Norway didn’t achieve independence (from its union with Sweden) until nearly a century later, in 1905.

As a holiday, the Seventeenth of May, or Syttende Mai in Norwegian, has become a day to celebrate the country, mainly with flags and children’s parades and the singing of the anthem — “Ja, vi elsker dette landet”, or “Yes, We Love This Country”.

So in honour of Syttende Mai, here are three things I love about Norway:

The Amazing Temples of Chiang Mai, Thailand

Roof-line of Wat Prathat Doi Suthep

Quick note: This week I’m over at Turtleduck Press, talking about my latest “ooh, shiny!” obsession — gardening.

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It’s time for another installment of travel tales from my trip through Asia. In this episode, we’re still in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Chiang Mai is famous for more than the adventure tourism I mentioned last time. It’s also known for its temples, or wats….

Wat Prathat Doi SutheP

Detail of the naga (serpents) guarding the long flight of stairs up to the temple

Early in our stay, we took a group tour up Doi Suthep, a mountain next to the city. The main attraction of the mountain is the temple it hosts, Wat Prathat Doi Suthep. There’s a legend about its founding — involving a white elephant (sacred in Thailand) and a relic of Buddha — which you can read on Wikipedia.

This temple was our first experience with Thai religious architecture and Buddhism as practised in Thailand. I’d seen pictures, of course, but the sheer lavishness of the decoration was amazing in person. I wandered around in a daze snapping photos of everything, drunk on the beauty and worldbuilding potential.

Levelling Up in Chiang Mai, Thailand

It’s time for another installment of travel tales from my Grand Adventure in Asia. Now that I’m no longer travelling, I plan to post these on alternate Wednesdays, interspersed with the same sort of mental-health posts and personal observations that I was writing before the trip. Mondays will continue to be about books and media (SF&F-focused, but not exclusively), as always. I’ll continue to post twice a week for now. Enjoy!

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Our first stop in Thailand was Chiang Mai, the country’s second-biggest city. It’s in the northwest part of Thailand, among rolling hills that keep the temperatures down to something very reasonable for North Americans. This means it’s a popular destination, not only for North Americans but also for Chinese tourists, whose numbers have exploded recently due to cheap flights.

We found Chiang Mai to be more intense than Malaysia, in all sorts of ways. Because we’re geeks, we quickly started to talk about this as “levelling up” — a video-game term referring to mastering a level and moving on to the next. For example…

The Traffic

The stupa in front of our guesthouse

Our guesthouse, Kamala’s, was on a tiny side street. (Note on addresses: Non-main streets are known in Thailand as sois. Thai addresses give the nearest main road, then the number of the soi, because the sois themselves don’t have names, even though they may be large streets. So Kamala’s was on Chai Sriphum, Soi 1.) Across the soi was an old Buddhist stupa, a useful landmark since it was visible from several streets away.

The soi was lined with other guesthouses and the occasional Thai massage place, but it was short on restaurants. This turned out to be a problem because the traffic was utterly terrifying…

Exploring the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia

Time to continue narrating my travel adventures in Malaysia and beyond…

After the jungle, we headed to another nature destination — the Cameron Highlands. This is what’s known as a hill station (a term more common in India) — a higher area of land with cooler temperatures, usually developed by British colonizers as a resort. The Cameron Highlands are also a big tea-growing area, and more recently they’ve had a bonanza of strawberries. And they’re a lovely place to hike. But as we discovered, they also have a rich ecosystem that’s being threatened by development.

Memories Less Travelled

This week is a little unusual for the blog. First, I was unexpectedly without Internet for several days, so I missed posting on Monday for just about the first time ever. Second, I’m taking time out from travel blogging for a special post.

This week is the anniversary of my father’s passing. He died ten years ago tomorrow, on March 14, 2003, after a short battle with cancer. I can’t believe it’s been that long already — it’s strange to realize how many experiences I’ve had that he never got to see. He never even knew that I moved to Toronto, and it’s been my home for years now.

I don’t think about him very often anymore. When I do, I have my favourite memories and impressions, the ones I go over and over, like a string of rosary beads. But he was more than those few memories, and if I don’t hold onto the rest, they’ll be lost. So here are a few more sides of my father to add to that string of beads…

He knew everybody. He was a pastor first, then a hospital chaplain and a trainer of other chaplains, so he met a lot of people. And he remembered them all, somehow. I wish I knew the trick. He used to take his children on long bike rides through the river valley trail system, and inevitably he would run into an acquaintance. They would stop and chat, and we would be annoyed and also a bit amazed. (Side note: I can’t talk anymore. A few weeks ago I visited the Taj Mahal, and guess what? Someone I knew came up and said hi!) At his funeral, the church was packed, and the entire front pew was full of pastors in robes, come to pay their respects.

Into the Jungle at Taman Negara

Continuing the saga of my grand adventure in Asia…

For our first excursion out of Kuala Lumpur, we chose the jungle — Taman Negara National Park, a tropical rainforest.

In keeping with our strategy of easing into travel with baby steps, we didn’t go it alone. We booked transportation and accommodation through a travel operator. This was a great middle ground because it took all the guesswork out of getting there, but we didn’t have to go on any group activities. (We could have booked a full package tour, with evening, morning, and afternoon activities. We could also have paid for individual activities. We didn’t do any of the above because we preferred to go at our own pace.)

Seeing the Sights in Kuala Lumpur

Last week I promised to tell you about the sights in Kuala Lumpur. We visited two:

• the Batu Caves, a Hindu holy place
• KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Centre), home of the Petronas Twin Towers as well as a science centre and a shopping mall

The Batu Caves

This was our first adventure as tourists (i.e., sightseers). The trip was also a good way to ease into being travellers in Malaysia. The caves are way out in the suburbs of KL, so we got to take the monorail from Bukit Bintang, change at KL Sentral, and then take the surface LRT — both great ways to see the city as well as learning to manage public transit.

The Batu Caves themselves were…a fascinating and strange experience. Maybe you’ve been to a big church that’s a tourist destination in itself — Notre Dame, or St. Paul’s Cathedral. Picture the mixture of worshippers and gawkers, with a certain amount of kitschy religious paraphernalia being sold nearby (plastic Jesus and the like).

Now translate all of that to a Hindu temple.

Arriving at the caves, you pass by a lot of little stalls selling cheap paraphernalia and souvenirs, along with some amusement park rides. You also pass some small temples and a giant pastel-coloured statue of Hanuman, the monkey god. Then you emerge at the bottom of a giant flight of steps. As my guidebook explained it, the steps are because it isn’t easy to enter Heaven, so entering a temple should also be a challenge to some degree. Thus, climbing the steps to make an offering is a spiritual Good Thing.

The 273 brightly coloured steps lead to a cave set in a limestone cliff, past an enormous golden statue of the god Murugan, worshipped mostly in southern India and places with a high population of emigrants from there. (Most of Malaysia’s Indian population are descended from Tamils from the south.) Inside the cave are more stalls selling paraphernalia, a small temple, and some shrines. The deepest part of the cave is open to the sky, and with the light falling through, you can imagine why people might have decided this place was sacred.

We saw plenty of tourists like ourselves and also plenty of worshippers, climbing the steps barefoot with offerings. One couple was bearing up a baby in a sling hung from a long branch (maybe bamboo?). Another older woman was climbing one step at a time, supported by two younger men, clearly in pain but determined to reach the top.

I took pictures inside the caves, but not of the worshippers. I’m trying to be mindful of my role as a tourist, and trying not to be obnoxious. It’s a work in progress, I think.

KLCC and the Twin Towers

Our purpose in visiting KLCC was twofold. First, we were there to meet a friend — someone I’d met on the Internet, had known for many years, and had never thought I’d be able to meet in person. (A fascinating experience, by the way. It went so well that we managed to squeeze in another two visits before we had to leave Kuala Lumpur.) Second, we were there to see the famous Twin Towers and the other sights in the area.

We started off at Petrosains, a curious mix of science activity centre and oil industry promo. (Offshore oil drilling is big in Malaysia. The Petronas Twin Towers belong to an oil company.) There were lots of fun hands-on experiments, but the highlight for me was a special exhibit called Sultans of Science, all about science in the medieval Islamic world. The tenth through fifteenth centuries seem to have been a golden age — everything from astronomy to exploration to the foundations for engines came out of that time. We got to play with working models of some of the early technology. The show isn’t that large, but is packed full of interesting tidbits. It’s a travelling exhibition that has already been through North America, Singapore, and Thailand…if it comes to a location near you, I highly recommend it.

We rounded out the day by going up the Petronas Twin Towers, among the tallest buildings in the world (though, my Canadian citizenship compels me to add, not taller than the CN Tower!) Our tickets included a trip across the Skybridge between the towers and a visit to the observation deck, both with grand views across Kuala Lumpur and down to a fine urban park at their base. It’s a tourist trap, of course, but we enjoyed ourselves.

Side note: KLCC also includes what I’m told is a fine aquarium, along with an upscale shopping mall and an urban park.

Impressions of Kuala Lumpur

The first stop on our Asian adventure was Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. My impressions of it were a little confused because I had no basis for comparison – this is my first time in Asia. So here are some thoughts from a week in the city…

The taxi ride from the airport took us down elevated freeways and past glossy high-rises, much like Toronto. Once we entered the core of the city, though, everything changed. We were headed for a central neighbourhood called Bukit Bintang (pronounced Bookit Bintahng). It was Saturday night, and we cruised down brightly lit streets packed with people, cars, and motorbikes, strung with red Chinese lanterns. Plastic restaurant tables covered the sidewalks, with noise and bustle everywhere. For someone newly arrived after a long journey, it was both stimulating and overwhelming.

The next morning we woke up to humid heat and, outside our window, tropical bird noises. I expected to have some trouble adjusting to the climate after a Canadian winter. (We’re coping by seeking out air-conditioning on a regular basis throughout the day!) What I didn’t expect was how mind-boggling it would be to hear the birds out of some nature documentary, or see palm trees growing out of the ground. I still haven’t gotten over the trees!

Traveller’s palm trees outside the guesthouse named for them

We stayed at Travellers Palm Lodge (formerly Travellers Palm Homestay, if you look for it on TripAdvisor), down a little alley just off all the action, and close to the monorail. It’s a family-run B&B/hostel, with five rooms and an 8-person dorm. There’s a nice little patio to have breakfast on, a friendly and helpful proprietor, and her adorable small daughter. It’s also a little, er, rustic — the a/c is only on at night, and the shared bathrooms are accessed from a balcony…oh, and the toilet and shower occupy one small room together, which is pretty standard here. But overall we really enjoyed staying there.

More generally, Kuala Lumpur is a mix of modern and old. There are brand-spanking-new malls with all the luxury chain stores (I wrote this sitting in a coffee shop between an indoor Jaguar dealership and a Tiffany’s). The streets are congested, and there’s a distinct lack of pedestrian crossings…which means a lot of scary jaywalking. (But drivers do obey traffic signals and mostly stay in their lanes, except the motor scooters…) Sidewalks are narrow, crowded with vendors, and uneven. Wifi and cell phones are ubiquitous. There’s a modern LRT and monorail network. And so on.

KL is also a fascinating mix of cultures. Signage is mostly in Malay and English. Driving is on the left, and the electrical outlets take the same kind of plugs as in England — legacies of being a Commonwealth country. The three major cultures here are Malay, Chinese, and Indian (Tamil). People here wear everything from t-shirts and shorts (you’ll see plenty of leg, but almost no bare shoulders) to hijabs and long skirts — Islam and Hinduism are both prevalent. Chinese New Year is coming up, and all the malls are decorated for it, just like Christmas displays back home.

Cuisines from all three cultures are readily available. There are also plenty of Western restaurants (and chains), Thai, Middle Eastern, you name it. We’ve eaten:

• Malaysian-style fried rice (nasi goreng) — highly spiced, mixed with beef
• South Indian-style dosas (thin rice-flour pancakes, called tosais here) with vegetable or banana fillings
• Chinese-style spicy beef and stir-fried vegetables with rice
• Tex-Mex *ahem*

We’re gradually getting more adventurous in our eating — we started at fancy-looking Western-friendly restaurants, but later we had dinner on that outdoor restaurant strip we drove through on our arrival, and we had lots of dosas at a little outdoor Malaysian-Tamil place. So far, so good! The water here in KL is potable — we’ll have to be a lot more careful when we leave the city, and also in the other countries we’re visiting.

Next up: Taking in the sights of KL…

Leaving on a Jet Plane

I’ve had the song “Leaving on a Jet Plane” running through my head for the past couple of days. T minus 12 hours!

See you all on the flip side of the world….

 

Embarking on a Grand Tour through Asia

Now that I’ve wrapped up my series of 2012 retrospectives, it’s time to look ahead. I’ve got something very special planned for the first few months of this year. It’s also going to mean some temporary changes for the blog, though not a hiatus — see end of post for details.

The Trip

Next week, I embark on a three-month trip through Asia — Malaysia, Thailand, India, and Nepal. My travelling partner and I are beyond excited, and a little overwhelmed. I haven’t done a trip like this in many years, and never outside of Europe, while he’s been to India only once, as a child.