Malaysia and the dreaded GIS

March 7, 2015

Sometime during our tour of Singapore John began to feel ill. Turns out it was a full-blown case of GIS (gastrointestinal something) that, we discovered later, is going around the ship. So extra precautions have been implemented. These new procedures are regulation for Celebrity ships, so we are surprised they haven’t been SOP on this line all along, especially given the parent company Carnival’s history with this issue.  So, John has pretty much been confined to the cabin. I went on the tour of Kuala Lumpur yesterday by myself. We both skipped today’s tour of Penang, but did go out for a while this afternoon to walk around the dock area.

Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, is not as exotic as its name. But it is a very large city. The National Museum had nice exhibits on the history of Malaysia, including the Portuguese who occupied until driven out by the Dutch. Next it was the King’s Palace. Although Malaysia has a Prime Minister and elected government, it also has a king – a ceremonial position that lasts five years. The kings come from a group of sultans who take turns living in the palace and performing ceremonial duties. An added benefit, while we were gathered outside the gates taking photos the royal entourage arrived. Talk about lucky timing. Note my great picture. ;-p

After lunch and a brief sampling of Malayan chocolate, we went to the Central Market – a center of arts and crafts. I bought a long skirt embroidered with flowers – don’t ask me why or if I’ll ever wear it, but it seemed a good idea at the time.

Finally we visited the site of Malaysian independence from Britain – a negotiated settlement – where the British flag was lowered and the new Malaysian flag raised at midnight 50 years ago. Interestingly, the Malaysian flag is just like the US flag, only with a Muslim moon and star in the blue field instead of our 50 stars.

Avian observations: In Singapore we noticed the absence of both pigeons and sea gulls. This we attributed to Singapore obsession with cleanliness. However we saw neither pigeons nor sea gulls in Malaysia, either. And they are not obsessed with cleanliness. The closest thing to gulls were the crows we saw in the harbor area of Penang.

BTW, John is almost all better and we will probably be able to take our tour tomorrow in Phuket, Thailand.