Happy New Year

Yea, I know it's a little late for traditional New Years greetings, but I thought I'd catch up as most things are shutdown here in Johor, Malaysia for the Chinese Lunar New Year. We kinda dropped off the blog while doing land travel. Chris' work travel to Kathmandu got rescheduled, so we decided to take the time and head back to the states for the good weather. We flew out of Singapore and decided to spend 3 nights in Singapore being a tourist before our flight. Really interesting, modern city-state, especially after spending 3 months in Indonesia. Modern subways, busy highways, high-rises and clean. As Chris commented, you could eat off the subway car floor. One of the guide books we have on Singapore describes it as Disney Land with the death penalty. You just don't want to violate any of the societal, getting along laws. Prison terms come with caning. That said it sure is an easy, safe place to be a tourist.

We left Singapore on an 8 hour flight o Dubai. Then a direct Dubai to Fort Lauderdale, Florida flight that was 16.5 hours. I never knew those planes could fly that long. It was long enough that I got through the entire HBO Chernobyl series - I learned a bit about the disaster; I had no idea that all of the Russian officials had a British accent.

We did a fun quick tour on the east coast reminding our relatives that we are still alive. Then it was back to Bellingham in the Pacific Northwest to get some serious grandkid time. We also fit in time to catch up with old friends and sons, daughters, and local relatives. To break up some of the weather we did a run to San Diego so we could expose the grandkid to the beach, nice winter weather and friendly horseback riding. It was really a great time short of some of the weather. We spent the last week with the pipes in our trailer frozen. It got down to 13*F (for those that don't use Google Translate to read this blog, that's -10C). A bit of a contrast to the 95*F (35*C) here in Malaysia. OK, even for me that's an understatement. It is painfully hot here in the Puteri Harbour Marina.

Pipes Frozen but still Cozy Inside.

A View of Mount Baker from the Front Porch

You Just Can't Beat Running Down a Sand Dune at Full Speed

A Large Monitor Lizard Enjoying the warm waters in Puteri Harbour

Chris gets back from working in Kathmandu on Saturday. If I can get the refrigeration working we will leave here in about a week. Right now I am looking for a part that appears to be made out of Unobtainium, although it will likely surface once the Lunar New Year is over and the shops open back up.  Plan is to head up the west coast of Malaysia with a few stops on he way incluiding  Pangkor and Langkawi. As long as the borders don't get silly over the Wuhan Coronvirus we will leave Malaysia and head up to Phuket in Thailand so I can get the t-shirt. Then in early Spring the current plan is to head down the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. From there start our Indian Ocean crossing, with the first stop being Chagos in the British Indian Ocean Territory, then on to Madagascar and finally South Africa. Lots of miles to cover this season.

Paul