Feb 2009

Maybe it is because I was out of the States for most of the decade...or maybe it's because I have some minimum musical standards, but I have never had the same appreciation of cheesy 80's music that everyone else seems to have. That being said, during college and since, I have learned to tolerate and maybe even enjoy some 80's songs (when I am drunk enough). But after only 2 weeks in the Philippines, however, I am sad to announce that the 'Era of Dan's Tolerance of 80's music' may have come to an end.

I'm not sure what it is, but Filipinos have an intense fascination with Videoke. As far as I can tell it is simply a mix of karaoke and random videos of girls or towns in Europe. And in the Philippines, it is EVERYWHERE and they seem to have a preference for campy 80's ballads. It's on the buses, in restaurants, in random shacks by the side of the road, even in gas stations. And it is LOUD. I have even taken to carrying earplugs in my pocket because it can be so painful at times. But to the Filipinos it is serious business and you have a considerable reputation in town based on your skills. What makes it most unbelievable though...they are usually SOBER when they are singing...oiy.

Just the other day we jumped on a ferry to head to another island and everyone rushed on board to get the best seats for the...you guessed it...on board videoke. We had a nice little booth in the next section and as we settled in for the 5 hour boat ride the first guy grabbed the microphone and started singing. It was so loud and terrible that I had to put my earplugs in while Jen suffered through the whole journey, with the videoke stars never taking a break. At one point, someone starting singing Queen's 'We Are the Champions' and if I hadn't have know the music for the song, I would have sworn that it wasn't in English. The guy was SO bad that even the Filipinos around me were cracking up, even though they usually take it so seriously. But this went on for the entire ferry trip and even when the ferry was docked and people were getting off, there were still the hardcore few that were still at it. Amazing...

All I know is that this is one cultural idiosyncrasy that I will never understand or appreciate. In general, I try to do my best to appreciate the cultures of the countries I visit, but you have to draw the line somewhere...I draw my line at videoke. Thats all I gotta say about that.

One of the more interesting sites that we visited while in Kuala Lumpur was the Hindu shrine of Batu Caves. This temple has a series of smaller shrines that are built inside a giant cave. While it is definitely set up as a tourist attraction, with all of the hawkers and beggars that you would expect, it is one of the most important Hindu pilgrimage sites outside of India and attracts over 1.5 million pilgrims a year!

The entrance of the site is guarded by a 140 ft golden statue of Murugan and a whole bunch of monkeys. The monkeys are relatively tame and really just sit around and wait for tourists to give them something to eat (or drink).

To get into the caves, we had to climb up 272 steps to the main entrance. The cave itself was quite impressive and roomy. There we several holes near the top that let down beams of light that really gave the whole place a ethereal feel.

All of the individual shrines were scattered in different nooks of the cave. In typical Hindu style they were all brightly colored and had intricate carvings, sometimes directly into the stone face.

It was definitely a cool site and I can only imagine what it is like during the Thaipusam festival when all the pilgrims come to worship.

Since we didn't have to meet Jen's Dad until after Christmas, we decided to spend about a week hanging out over Christmas in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

With our numerous HiltonHonors points and our Diamond VIP status, we were able to score a phatty room on the executive floor of the KL Hilton. It was a beautiful room, with a great view of the city, a huge bathtub for Jen, a 42" flatscreen tv, and one of the most comfortable beds I have ever slept in. But the best part about it all was that we got free breakfast AND free drinks and snacks in the executive lounge everyday. So while we had planned to spend a good portion of our time in KL exploring the city, we actually spent most of it sucking down free booze and lazing around our room.

Jen particularly enjoyed the free wine, often taking a glass back down to the room for her bath.

When we did get out of the room, however, we were able to take in some of the tourist sites around KL and had a grand old time. The Petronas Towers, now the 2nd tallest building in the world (but tallest twin towers), were pretty impressive for a couple of geeky engineers.

We also went up the KL Tower which had panoramic views of the entire city as well as some wacky tourist exhibits encircling the bottom. The most surreal of which was the "Winter Park", which was essentially a whole bunch of plastic polar bears and penguins surrounded by fake cotton snow and Christmas decorations. We took an obligatory picture just to document the absurdity of it all.

I'm a little embarrassed to say, however, that we spent a good portion of our time 'exploring the city' inside the numerous malls. Partially because they were air conditioned, partially because that is where a lot of the restaurants are (see the previous entry), but mostly to be blown away by the sheer unabashed commercialism. I've never been in a mall with so many designer stores, nor one that sells $150,000 watches, nor one that has a BENTLEY dealership inside the mall. Ridiculous. Someone must be making a ton of money in Malaysia....

All in all, we had a great time in KL and it was the right balance of relaxation, luxury, and exploration to get us primed for our travels ahead.