2010---The Previous Trip

Malaysia and Bali cannot easily be categorized as 3rd world countries or thriving modern countries. Malaysia is very beautiful in it's natural state yet the city of Kuala Lumpur is very modern and thriving and when you walk down the street you can see the logo of KFC in a spotlight at night almost even with the tallest of the Marriott Hotels. You also see the beautiful twin towers of the Petronus Oil company and then can spend hours in the beautiful and absolutely expensive mall at the foot of the towers; every one of the most expensive stores in the world are in the 7 floor mall. But when you drive even 5 minutes out of downtown, you see older apartment buildings with laundry hanging on balconies, old rusted railings and buildings in disrepair, yet people live there.

When you arrive in the Bali airport, it looks shoddy and run down and everyone has to go through another security check. Yet when we came back to wait for our flight back to Kuala Lumpur, the other side of the airport was just beautiful with lots of great shops. When the tour company picked us up on arrival at the airport, I was surprised at the very poor condition of the streets, the run down buildings and the obviously poor quality of housing that I saw on our 15 minute ride to our hotel. Our hotel was absolutely beautiful and could be compared to any fashionable spa anywhere in the world. On the next day we drove for hours into the countryside and it is breath-takingly beautiful. I would prefer to be in the Bali countryside any day, yet when I needed to find a converter for my laptop, I walked 3 blocks from the hotel and saw an absolutely beautiful modern mall that had anything I wanted to buy. So when you visit Malaysia and Bali, Indonesia, be prepared for this very mix of 3rd world and very modern.

Universiti Putra Malaysia hopes to find the cure for cancer and are using as much of their resources as possible to do so. The Provost came to UPM in 2006 when I was there previously and I met him. When he heard I was from WWU, we had a great talk about his times in Bellingham as a weekend getaway from U of Oregon, where he got a doctorate in agriculture. UPM prides itself in its scientific work on tropical plants. So I hope you enjoy this mix of photos of the very modern and the other side of these 2 countries.

1. Batik factory in Bali

2. Bali artwork - villages specialize in 1 kind of products - art, wood carving, straw weaving, etc.

3. Biggest volcano and lake in Bali

4. Fruit display

5.Coffee beans in Mongoose poop; before it is processed for a huge price

6. Little boy alongside the road who agreed to a photo

7. Monkeys lined up in the monkey forest

8. Palm Trees at UPM - huge farms exist - palm oil is big cash crop

9. Orang Achi (Natives) in the Taman Negara Rain Forest; this is one of the oldest rain forests in the world and is 4343 sq km in size; it has been set aside to preserve the forest; visitors and tours are limited to protect it.

10. Broken bridge in forest - we took the alternative route

11. Jungle folliage taken right before I slid down the mountain

12. Long boat we took for 3 hours to the camp; holds about 12 people, only mode of travel in the jungle; has a motor and we hit a sandbar; people jumped out to pull us off