Germany Tour Day 1 - 16th Sept

Frankfurt – Eisenach – Weimar

The hotel’s buffet breakfast was interesting with lots of different cuisine. The thing to note is lots and lots of cheeses… lots of different cheeses. The other interesting breakfast foods were fried herring, pork pate and what looked like some kind of pickled sardine on a stick…

I was just not brave enough to try… Well our guided bus tour is underway. The first stop was Eisenach which was the birthplace of Johann Sebastian Bach in 1685 and he lived there until he was 10 yrs old. They have set up a museum and you can see the Bach house. Also down the road is the house where Martin Luther resided for a time after being released from his exile at Wartburg Castle. The street is actually named Lutherstrauβe.

After a brief stop in Eisenach we drove up to Wartburg Castle. I was really keen to see the castle where Martin Luther lived in 1521-2 following his confrontation with the Holy Roman Emperor at the Diet of Worms and subsequent excommunication from the Catholic church.

The castle was built in 1067 by Count Ludwig der Springer (Ludwig the Leaper). The road up to the castle is very steep as it sits on top of a mountain. The castle has had many inhabitants in its time and was also the home of Catholic saint Elizabeth.

There is a tour of the castle that goes through the various rooms that each look quite different depending on when they were altered or furnished.

There is a very grand concert hall where Wagner's music was first performed.

The last room you come to on the tour is Luther’s room where he lived in 1521-22. It is very modestly furnished. This was where he translated a German version of the Bible. An interesting thing to note whilst looking around the room was that next to his desk was a big whale vertebra – just seemed very random to me.

In the afternoon we reached the city of Weimar where we did a walking tour of the city. Our tour guide is a musician so likes to tell us about music history. In Weimar we were able to see Lizst’s house. Weimar is famous for being the home of two of Germany’s prolific writers – Schiller and Geothe. There is a monument of the two of them outside the town hall. On our walking tour we also learned a little about Bauhaus architecture.

Walking a little more, there was a yellow wall on which a couple of plaques tell you that it’s the remains of the place where Johann Sebastian Bach used to live and also Hans Christian Anderson. Nearby there is a bust memorial for Johann Sebastian Bach. Just around the corner of this is the music conservatorium which our guide tells us is considered one of the top conservatoriums in Germany. Outside the conservatorium there is a statue of a man on a horse. He was Carl August who was the ruler of the region in the early 1800’s.

Our hotel is just out of town. The tour guide reckons it's about a 20 min walk... but we had some free time and I started to walk towards the town before turning back as I would be late for dinner. The area is very green with a beautiful park with a lake across the road from the hotel. Would love to have seen more of Weimar but we only get a taste on this tour.

Sydney to Frankfurt 14-15th September

Well what an ordeal… it took around 28 hours to finally arrive in Frankfurt airport. The first leg of the flight was the toughest and the longest. From Sydney we flew for 10hrs to Bangkok where there was only an hour of stop over. It was enough for us to stretch our legs out.

The second leg was around 5 hours to Dubai where there was meant to be a 2hr stopover and turned into a 5hr one when the plane had “technical difficulties”. Dubai airport is one very busy airport with lots and lots of shopping outlets. The problem with being stuck in transit was that we still had to stay in the lounge and couldn’t really move around the airport… so it was very very boring!

We were finally on our way for the last 7 hours and finally arrived in Frankfurt. The jetlag and tiredness kicked in. Went for a walk around Frankfurt near the station and down to the Main river. There is a really beautiful riverside walk. Walking the city, you notice that there is definitely a mixture of new and old buildings or new and old architecture. It’s almost as if they city cant make up its mind.

There are a few boats cruising down the river but there was an interesting sight on the river. It looked like a big ski tube/biscuit with a bbq in the middle. There were a couple of them floating down the river with young people enjoying their bbq and beers. Decided to find a very German place to have dinner. Ended up at a great restaurant a few streets away from the central station and close to where we were staying. I had been looking forward to a German schnitzel so that’s exactly what I ordered… with beer of course!

After the great walk and dinner, Cat and I were just so tired. We would have benefited from staying up just a little longer but both of us were so tired that we absolutely crashed the minute we got back to the hotel at around 9pm.

Malaysia Part 8 - Royal Selangor Pewter Factory

Sunday 15th July

Royal Selangor Pewter Factory

One of the resources Malaysia has is tin. Pewter used to be made from tin and lead but they stopped using lead a while ago because it is poisonous. These days, pewter is made from Tin, Antimony and Copper.

The tour of the pewter factory is free. They will even pick you up from your hotel and drop you back. The car that picked us up from the hotel was actually empty and it was just us. The driver said his name is Dayalan. He was such an excellent driver and the drive to the pewter factory was actually like a personal guided tour of Malaysia as he provided commentary of the sights along the route. He said he would also be the one sending us back to the hotel afterwards and gave us a time to meet him.

There was a guided tour of the factory. It started with some of the history of pewter. The sultan of Selangor (a province in Malaysia) endorsed the pewter and that is why it is called "Royal Selangor Pewter".
Pewter was an early form of money and used to be cast into a money tree. Coins broken off to pay for goods and services.

Inside the foyer is a huge model of the Petronas towers made out of pewter mugs. It spans 2 storeys.  
The guide was talking about the "twin towers made of pewter mugs"... my comment was "dont you mean the tin towers?" referring to the fact that pewter is mostly tin. But nobody laughed at my joke =(

Molten pewter

The tour took us through some of the stations and showed us how they make a beer mug. It was actually a big eye-opener for what we take for granted when we look at the pewter in the shops. Each piece is hand made and there are quite a few steps involved. Firstly, molten pewter is put into a cast to cast the shape of the barrel of the mug.

Polishing the shell

Then we saw the polishing of the exterior surface. The polishing smooths out the surface and also creates that shiny look of the pewter. We felt the before and after shells and after polishing, the shell weighs about half of the initial cast. The scraps are removed and melted down again.

Adding the design

 Next we saw the addition of the design on the mug. The mottled appearance of that particular mug was all done by hand. It is amazing to see and think that if any mistake is made, the shell is discarded and melted down again. The people at the beginning would be pretty annoyed if somebody further down the production line stuffed up and their work had to be discarded.

Adding the base

Next we saw the addition of the base of the mug. The circular base was placed on a cylindrical spinning surface (it's hard to explain but it's a bit like a lazy susan that spins). The person makes sure that the base is perfectly balanced. A bit of a mixture is added to the edge of the shell surface that will be joined to the base. Our guide said it was a mixture of acid and something else. Then the person used a blowtorch to heat the base and join it to the mug shell. The handle is added last.

Intricate designs

Watching all the different steps and the precision needed to handcraft each piece of pewter gave me a great appreciation of the beauty and difficulty creating it. We only saw a mug being made but many of the Selangor pewter pieces have intricate designs.

There are a couple of walls at the factory decorated with hands. Each one of these belongs to a person who works at the factory. After 5 years of continuous service, the company rewards loyalty by having your hand cast and displayed on the walls.

Our guide was able to show us his hand. He has been working for Royal Selangor Pewter for 28 years now.

Our driver Dayalan's hand cast.

Selangor Pewter is used in many trophys for sporting events such at the Malaysian F1 and ATP Shanghai tennis

Malaysia Part 7 - Visual Arts Museum & Palace of Culture

Saturday 14th July

Decided to go visit the Visual Arts Museum (Balai Seni Visual Negara) and Palace of Culture (Istana Budaya).

I wasnt allowed to take photos inside the exhibitions in the museum. One exhibition I really really enjoyed was called "Sulatatus Salatin" by a man named Ismail Embong.

Mum tried to explain a bit of Malaysian history to me. I read a bit more later. In short, around the 14-15th century, Muslim occupation brought Islam to Malaysia which led to the establishment of sultanates. The sultans were rulers of their provinces and reign was passed on to sons just like a monarchy.

The exhibition was a series of paintings about the sultanates. There was accompanying text but it was all in Malay and it would take Dad a whole week to probably translate it all. But the paintings were intricate and really interesting. It showed Malaysia's history through Portuguese and British occupation. I'm sure there is much to learn about Malaysia's history that I should read about at a later date.

I also really enjoyed an exhibition about film photography and photographic processing. In the world of digital cameras and digital processing we take a lot for granted. It's so easy these days to even print a photo on a personal inkjet printer.
These days there are no messy chemicals or the need for dark rooms. We can manipulate images with computer programs but I enjoyed seeing some funky pictures made by superimposing films and then processing them.

 

Istana Budaya

The Palace of Culture (Istana Budaya) is like Sydney's Opera House. Here is where musicals, operas and ballet productions are staged. The building looks impressive from afar but closeup the green tiles are a bit discoloured and the building looks a little run down.

Malaysia Part 6 - Batu Caves & Pasar Seni

Friday 13th July

Batu Caves

Not far out of Kuala Lumpur is some limestone caves. The Batu caves are named after the Batu river that flows nearby.
Quite a few tourists visit the caves but it is also very popular with the locals. There is an Indian population in Malaysia who are Hindus.

I'm not sure when they extended the rail system to include Batu Caves but it has made it very accessible for Hindu people to go to the temples. The fare from KL Sentral to Batu Caves is 2 ringgit.

The first thing you notice when entering the gates is the big green statue of Hanuman and shrine. I saw quite a few Indian people take their shoes off and bow to the statues in the temple. I dont know much about Hindu gods.

Walking a little further, there is an impressive sight! A huge golden statue of Lord Murugan. The statue is around 50m high and was erected in 2006. Leading into the caves is a lot of stairs! The guides say there are 272 of them. It was a bit of a tough climb for some and I saw lots of tourists stopping at the side to catch their breath. Personally I'm fine going up the stairs but the ol' knees dont like coming down.

At the top of the stairs is a giant archway leading into a big cave called the Temple or Cathedral Cave. This temple is dedicated to Lord Murugan. You can walk back inside the cavern and see hindu shrines lining the walls.


Wandering around the site are a lot of macaque monkeys. I thought they were really cute. They are not like ones I have seen in Indonesia as they do not seem as cheeky. We didnt have to hang on to our hats or any loose belongings.
They sell bags of bananas and peanuts that you can feed the monkeys. Since a lot of tourists buy these, the monkeys are quite friendly and come very close. I did see some European tourists feeding one monkey some McDonalds.... dont know how healthy that is for the monkey.

This reminded me of an Indiana Jones movie

Half way up the big staircase there is the entrance to the Dark Caves. The caves have been taken over by a conservation group and you can do a paid tour.
Inside the caves live many bats, spiders, cockroaches and caterpillars. There are a few species that are not found anywhere else in the world.
In the middle passage there were a lot of stalactites and stalagmites that reminded me of Jenolan caves in Aust.

As the name suggests, there isnt much light in the dark caves and it was just interesting to see how a whole ecosystem exists in such dark, damp and cold (compared to the rest of tropical Malaysia) environment.



Pasar Seni - Central Markets

After visiting the Batu Caves, we took the train back to Pasar Seni. The Central Market (Pasar Seni) is a light blue building that used to be the site of the wet markets. The locals used to buy/sell fruit and vegetables as well as meat and fish here. The floor was usually wet from melting ice and water used to clean the floors hence the name "wet markets."

The old wet market site wasnt torn down when the markets moved but instead it became a market for Malaysian handicraft and various knick knacks. Outside there are lots of stalls with people selling the same kind of knock-off merchandise as in Chinatown but here you dont have to bargain much and the prices are much lower and more reasonable.In fact, some of them set the price of the product so you dont bargain at all.

It is really nice to wander around and look at the Malaysian handicraft inside the Central Market. I found a store with some batik goods. Some of the handcrafted goods inside can be quite expensive.

Pasar Seni is a short walk from Petaling Street and Chinatown.

Malaysia Part 5 - Jalan Alor

Thursday 12th June

Just a short walk from our apartment is a street called Alor (Jalan Alor). It is filled with outdoor restaurants and street stalls. The food is very cheap and there is a lot of choice in Jalan Alor.

It is a little like Chinatown in Sydney where the restaurant staff stand just near their stalls trying to entice those who walk by to eat at their restaurant stall.

Jackfruit is sold out of the back of a van

Durian is sold out of the boot of a car

Last time I was in Malaysia, there were a lot of street stalls selling bootleg dvd's and cd's. I guess people just download pirated movies now. You will only see one or two stalls in a street.

I took this photo because I think Asian translation is funny.
There is a DVD that is a pirated copy of "Finding Nemo" but it is called "See Food" in Malaysia... It just made me laugh!

Malaysia Part 4 - Genting Highlands

Thursday 12th June

Genting Highlands

The bright building is the First World Hotel & Casino

I haven't been to Genting in years. Took a trip there today to have a bit of a look around to see the changes.
The bus to Genting leaves from KL Sentral station every half hour and takes about an hour to get there. (The last time I went to Genting I remember catching a bus from Titiwangsa which was a local bus that putt-putted up the hill and was so shaky that I thought it was going to run back down the hill.)

The highlands are quite high and the road up there is long and windy.  You can also take a cable car up from the base. We got to the bus station late and the bus ended up being full with the next available tickets for 1 1/2 hrs later (a lot of people go to Genting). Ended up taking a taxi with a nut of a taxi driver that didn't stick to lanes and was taking corners like a formula 1 racer.

Many people go to Genting Highlands to escape the heat... and either gamble in the casino or play in the theme parks.
The first thing you notice is the First World Hotel that is brightly coloured. I think they thought it would be bright and exciting but I think it just looks tacky.

There is an ourdoor theme park and an indoor theme park and an outdoor water park which many parents bring their children to.
It's been a long time since I've been here. It does seem a pity that the many beautiful nature walks have been bulldozed and replaced by the theme park rides.
As we didn't intend to stay for too long, we didn't end up doing any theme parks but wandered around.

Inside the centre is just as tacky. There are recreations of a Venecian river and decor of various themes - such as the statue of liberty shown in the photo.
There are a few shops around but they are touristy.

The bus station has lots and lots of buses as Genting is very popular