The Elephants We'll Never Forget

Leaving Kuala Lumpur, we headed Northeast to go to a Kuala Gandah an elephant conservation center. People at the center work to relocate wild elephants who are damaging crops and are therefore at risk of being killed by angry farmers. The center also takes in elephants who have been injured by other animals like tigers and other big cats. Elephants are relocated from different parts of Southeast Asia and are brought protected lands in Malaysia. At the center are several tame and working elephants that can be used to calm and comfort the wild elephants during the relocation process. The worker elephants can accompany and help move the recently tranquilized, dazed, and scared wild elephants, which can provide a calming effect.

I am pleased to say that I can now distinguish an Asian elephant from an African elephant. Probably the easiest way is to look at the elephant's ears. If the ears are very large, floppy and shaped like the continent of Africa, yup, it's an African elephant. If the ears are smaller and shaped like the Indian Subcontinent, yup, its an Asian elephant. Other differences are the highest point of the animal's body. For Asian elephants, its the top of the head, for African elephants, it's the shoulder. Another difference is the little finger-like appendage at the end of the elephant's trunk. Asian elephants have one appendage on the top of the trunk, while African elephants have 2 appendages on both the top and bottom.

Apart from the educational value of our visit, it was something we will never forget. While at the center, we were able to feed, ride, and bathe with the elephants. The elephants were led from their free roaming area to where us visitors were. The adults were led into the river for a little bath while the babies were given nice showers with hoses.

We were then allowed to feed the elephants an assortment of watermelon, papaya, sugar cane, and bananas. The elephants were chained in place so we weren't worried about being accidentally trampled. Sammy found her favorite big guy and loved placing fruit on the end of his trunk for him to eat.

After snacktime, the first 100 visitors were able to take a ride on an elephant. Sammy rode with Bill and he made sure that she wouldn't fall off:

While the elephant rides were going on, a young 4 year old female elephant was brought out to mingle with everyone. She and Sammy became good friends:
The last activity on our elephant adventure was 'bathing' with the elephants. Sammy chose to watch from the riverbanks while Cory and I climbed onto an elephant, it walked forward a bit, and a command was shouted by one of the staff, and the elephant dropped over into the water, depositing us in as well.



Our visit with the elephants at Kuala Gandah was incredible and it was something we will never forget.

http://www.pahangtourism.com.my/tropical/attractions/kgandah.html

Kuala Lumpur: If you build it, they will come

Our Malaysian vacation began with a very late night flight from Hyderabad to Kuala Lumpur. We had rented a car from Avis (automatic transmission) and found Avis counter deserted. After multiple inquires, rides up and down multiple elevators, a trek outside and into a parking garage did we find another Avis office. We loaded ourselves and Sammy's rented carseat into a silver Honda Civic and ventured out. We've always considered a Civic to be a small car, but for some reason, perhaps it was driving on the left side of the road, or because the steering wheel was on the right, it felt huge.

Very quickly we discovered impressive infrastructure, but with poor signage. Now, I am an intelligent person, but navigating is not my forte. When driving myself it's not a problem, but when Bill drives on vacation it seems to bring out a level of ineptitude or a mental block in my directional sense. This combined with some less than clear roadsigns led to some frustrating moments. In retrospect, I should have acquainted myself with the Malay words for "highway" and "road" beforehand, but hindsight is always 20/20. If we hadn't had Bill's Blackberry with GoogleMaps loaded up, I'm not sure how we would have made it anywhere.

We arrived at the Hilton Kuala Lumpur (KL) and were pleased to find that due to Bill's Gold status, we had been upgraded to a suite. It was a sweet suite! I guess that was our reward for having Bill be in New York every week for the first 16 weeks of 2009.

While searching through our guidebook for things to see and do during our 3 days in Kuala Lumpur, it dawned on me that this was our first vacation with 2 kids who needed to enjoy the vacation as well. So my initial list of things to see which consisted of a few temples, mosques, and other cultural things, was scrapped. Instead we went to an aquarium, an indoor amusement park, a huge waterpark, and made sure our hotel not only had a pool, but a waterslide as well. Gone were the good intentions of getting some cultural exposure, in its place was the 'entertain the kids' plan. Since this was my first experience only seeing the 'fun' places a destination had to offer, it felt strange, and left me with feelings of mild regret and guilt. The only thing must see thing for me were the Petronas Towers, which up until recently were the tallest buildings in the world. They're hard to miss:

I was able to take advantage of the girls nap time on our first day and ventured out alone to go to KL's Central Market. It's an indoor market place with shops that specialize in traditional Malay, Indian, and Chinese crafts, clothing, and general souvenirs. While it was interesting to browse, especially the batik paintings and jewelery made from coconut shells, I held off buying anything before getting an idea of what things should cost.

One of the funnier things we did in KL was go to a fish spa. Yes, a fish spa. This is where you stick your feet in a pool filled with Doctor Fish and they nibble, suck, and feed on the dead skin on your feet! Tickle-o-Rama! It was hilarious.

Unfortunately my new found addiction to pedicures didn't leave my feet with much snacking for the little fish and after about 15 minutes, there were only a few left nibbling away. They went on to greener pastures on Bill's feet:


KL was an impressive city which was clean & modern with lots of things to do. It's also a shopper's paradise, (especially between July 4th and August 31st, when all stores have massive sales). There were malls, after malls, after malls, most with upscale and luxury shops, along with the more typical brands as well. The next time I visit KL, I'm hoping to venture out and get exposed to more Malay culture but all in all it was a great visit.