Penang Island

Not sure one should travel with a company called Fire Fly but it was fine.

My reward for 2 weeks lecturing is 2 days at the beach.

Monkeys are evil. Always carry a big stick in the jungle. Large gangs of them roam and try to get around behind you, threatening to jump on your back!

Even more threatening are the ants. While you’re trying to photograph them their palls are thinking your legs are another available tree.
Malaysian wild bees at a farm near the botanical garden don’t sting, but after many of them crawl over your hand  they start to scratch and try to apply propolis. Feels like the onset of stinging but it’s harmless.

Cannonball tree.

A botanical seed specimen of a cannonball tree fell into my bag. It would be fun to grow it in the conservatory.

Kuala Lumpur

East has met the West. I’d love to know what they think. These 3 are one family. We thought this might be wife#3 of an allowable 4, awaiting their car at my hotel. (It’s surprisingly hard to aim the cell phone properly to take photos while pretending to talk with it pressed to your ear)

The Petronas Twin Towers beside the convention center where I spoke at a ‘Green’ conference.

Vancouver to Kuala Lumpur via Amsterdam

8 + 12 hours flying.
Kuala Lumpur has a warm, humid tropical lushness the moment you get off the plane.

From Amsterdam (where security made me delete a good photo of police with finger extended over trigger of a mean looking gun – well at least they didn’t confiscate my phone/camera) over the Caspian sea and Iran, then diagonally across Afghanistan on a clear and starry night, but not one light flickered down at ground level there. Is everyone hiding?

A reminder: 200+ are on death row here for murder; 400+ for drug charges. A current debate says the legislation has been no deterrent to either.
Out of Vancouver the magnificent Rockies gave way  to flat farms, then Tundra. But sadly the Arctic ice and its mysteries were completely hidden under a cold cloud bank.

Vancouver sights.

Poor person’s Plywood Blog: Many broken downtown storefront windows, after Stanley Cup loss. Blog photos are identifying suburban culprits who came into the city for the affair. Vigilante web justice is chasing them. Meanwhile various messages of sympathy and other odd ones are appearing on the plywood.

Funny bike.

Random acts of knitting. Fuzzy vandalism?