A Cameron Highlands Week-end

We just rode off into the sunset ... Well, that's not exactly how it was, but as we drove the 4 1/2 hours on Friday afternoon (4/17) from KL to our hotel at Tanah Rata we were blown-away by how beautiful the sunset was! We obviously arrived after dark but had nice accommodations and finally were able to get kids to bed -- Reeve and Rania with Doug and Tracy, Gabi in our room. Since we really only had one full day, we drove first to a Boh Tea Plantation where we had tea and got some good views of acres and acres of tea! One of the highlights of Cameron Highlands, an old Colonial "hill station," is that it's cool at 5000'!

Also -- entirely by accident -- we learned that Saturday was an annual Hindu "New Year's Festival" just a couple miles on down the road. So, we drove down to check it out, but discovered that in order to see some of the men walking barefooted on hot coals we'd need to wait almost 2 hours (which we did).

It was definitely a fascinating experience. Of course, we didn't understand the full ritual, including the reason why "hot coal-walkers" first received three hard lashes across their raised forearms. But the pageantry was impressive. Since Tracy was still on crutches, unfortunately she missed it all since the experience required quite a walk after we'd parked our vehicles. (She stayed with the car which was kind of a bummer on a warm day.)

(Notice that the kids really "took" to Court Walters and Susan Stewart who were with us for the week-end.)Some of the other scenes at the festival are pictured below, including women with baskets of fruit which were part of the ritual.
(The bed of hot coals on which he's walking is barely visible at lower right of picture)

One of the other major events of the trip involved picking ripe strawberries -- all in plastic greenhouses -- at a couple of the hydrophonic strawberry farms. - rw

A Season for Cakes!

Sure, it was a long time ago ... but Reeve did have his 7th birthday on April 8th. As per-usual in the Woodward household, a chocolate cake did make an appearance. On the Saturday after Reeve's birthday a bunch of his friends from school met at KLCC for a tour through the Petrosains maze (Petronas Science hands-on exhibition for kids).

Unfortunately, in stepping off the "simulated helicopter ride," Tracy broke a bone in her foot, necessitating several hours waiting for x-rays, and ultimately, a pair of crutches (no problem yet at the time of the picture).



No cakes were present for Reeve's first T-ball game at the Melawati (Elementary) Campus, but it was fun for Nancy and me to be there to watch. Doug did a great job coaching. However, the traditional "Bunny Cake" made another appearance on Easter Sunday, thanks to Nancy's baking and artistic talent. We were delighted to have our good friends from Myanmar, Susan Stewart and Court Walters, with us for Easter Dinner, having arrived on a flight from Bangkok the previous day.



On the Thursday night after Easter we were blessed by a visit from Connie Buford who was in KL for meetings at ISKL in connection with her work with the State Department in regard to international schools. It was great to see her again! - rw

A Sabah & Sarawak Overview

Nancy was obviously the diligent one in regard to selecting pictures and narrative to post on our blog in regard to our experiences in Borneo (Sabah & Sarawak) over Spring Break. However, I decided that I wanted to take time to review some of my pictures and accompany them with comment.


Below is a picture of Nancy standing by the large sign near park headquarters at Kinabalu National Park. The sign displays "the record book" in regard to the annual race from park hdqts. to the top of Mt. Kinabalu, an elevation gain of about 8,000 ft. (from 5000 to over 13,000 ft.). While the normal hike to the top involves an overnight in a mountain hut (2 days total), the men's record to run to the top and back is less than three hours!


On the 31st of March we flew from Sabah (Kota Kinabalu) to Sarawak (Kuching) and stayed for three nights at the very nice Hilton Hotel. While there we took a day-trip to the Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre (cf. Nancy's posting below).

The "Rehab Centre" is now something of a misnomer since the orang-utans in the nature preserve are really wild, but do come periodically to feeding platforms, especially when fruit is not in season in the surrounding forest. Of the 24-25 animals now in the area, the majority were born right there in the forest in recent years. The "chart" pictured below gives the names and ages of the orang-utans in the preserve. A male ("George") had to be relocated when he became a threat to the alpha male, "Ritchie."


One of the exports from Sarawak is pepper (as in salt-and-pepper). Pictured below is pepper being dried prior to processing.

It was fun visiting the Sarawak Cultural Centre (again cf. Nancy's posting) where I took the picture of Nancy taking a stab at playing a very simple marimba-like instrument!
While Nancy was busy at the EARCOS (E. Asia International Schools) Conference, I signed-up for a half-day of river-rafting in the nearby foothills of Mt. Kinabalu. It was great fun -- especially when I got teamed-up in a raft with two good-looking young women, Jane and Daisy, who are teaching Mandarin at the Shanghai American School. The picture of the three of us in action on the river cost me RM15 as a print and was kindly scanned by Nancy. - rw

Palm Sunday

Today at worship the boys’ choir presented a wonderful cantata entitled Jerusalem Joy. Gabi was in a group of children who opened worship by waving palm branches and closed it by doing a Jewish dance. She did a great job! --Nancy

A Night in Rain Forest.

We spent our last night at a tree house resort in the rain forest. A colleague had recommended it as “magical.” The night we were there we had lots of thunder, lightning, plenty of heavy rain, many large safari ants in the bathroom, and the tree house swayed in the wind. I didn’t find it “magical” but it does qualify as a true rain forest experience. Ron liked it lots better than I did. There was even a nice snake in the dining area when we arrived for breakfast. --Nancy

Sarawak Cultural Village

Our last afternoon in Sarawak was spent at the Cultural Village. It had structures from the many tribes and cultures in Sarawak. The visit ended with a cultural dance show. Ron joined in the dancing when the dancers invited members of the audience to dance with them. --Nancy

Orangutan 2nd Try Viewing Successful!

Since we didn’t see any orangutans on our first outing with the tour company we were kindly allowed to go again the next morning and we saw three. One was a mother and baby. It was delightful to see the orangutans swing in from the trees to the feeding platform and snatch up the food and retreat to the treetops. --Nancy

Orangutan – non-viewing!

After visiting the longhouse we went to an orangutan sanctuary. We arrived at feeding time but the visit reminded me of our leopard viewing in Kenya – nil, nada, and zero. We did see pitcher plants, wild orchids, the feeding platform, the ranger, and the humans sitting around looking every bit like they were in a Farside cartoon. – Nancy