Vegas to Kanab, Utah Via Valley of Fire

In 2016 we spent a week in Utah checking out three of Utah’s big five national parks. We intended to go back and see the other two, but just hadn’t made it. It was time to go back and check out the two we missed: Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef. We planned to make a trip of it by including the north rim of the Grand Canyon and Nevada’s only national park, Great Basin. There were some other spots including…

Victorian Homes in the Coastal Town of Eureka and Redwoods

One of my first blog posts was entitled “Why Travel.” I gave a number of reasons why people might travel. Here’s another reason: one travels to get things done. Such was the case this last March. After buying another car, we decided to give our older car to our daughter Andrea to replace her even older car. However, Andrea lives near San Jose, California, and as a teacher she couldn’t easily come and get it. We decided to drive it…

Sunday in Singapore with a Myanmar New Year Celebration

It rained again on Sunday in Singapore. However, for the most part we found ways to work around it and enjoy some activities without getting wet. Our day started by going to church. The service we planned to attend didn’t start until 11:30 so it was not an early start. On our walk to the MRT station, we were glad to avoid any rain. We got off at a different station to go to the church. It surprised me to…

Singapore’s Marina Bay Offers the Luxury Side of Life

Saturday morning we woke up to another rainy day. However, in the morning it wasn’t too heavy. After breakfast we decided to head back to the Marina Bay area and the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. The options for a rainy day were either museums or shopping. Neither had much appeal so we just decided to go back to the hotel and see how the wealthy lived and vacationed. It wasn’t actually raining when we walked to the transit station. When…

Singapore’s Flower Dome Provides a Unique Experience

Since we arrived in Singapore, the last stop of our visit to Southeast Asia, it hadn’t stopped raining. Nevertheless, we headed down to the famous Gardens by the Bay, and earlier in the day we kept dry inside the Cloud Forest, a dome covered tropical garden. We would spend our afternoon time inside the neighboring Flower Dome. First, however, we needed to get something to eat. When we came out of the Cloud Forest, right in front of us was…

A Rainy Day Under the Dome of the Cloud Forest

So far on our journey through Southeast Asia, we had been pretty lucky with the weather. That’s not to say that the weather had been perfect. It hadn’t. However, we had expected to see more rain. Fortunately the rain we experienced happened mostly in the evening or overnight so we were able to see what we wanted to see in the daytime. Then we arrived in Singapore, and our luck changed. It rained. All day. Thankfully we were able to…

The Malaysia Countryside Seen Through a Bus Window

Having spent three days in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, it was time to travel on to Singapore, the final destination of our Southeast Asia trip. Singapore is an island off the southern tip of Malaysia. Flying into Singapore was certainly feasible, but getting to the airport and going through all the security and immigration seemed like a lot of hassle. We decided to take a bus. We looked into a train, but no trains travel that route directly. There were several…

Kuala Lumpur’s Petronas Towers and Its Unique Skyline View

Kuala Lumpur is not on a lot of American’s radar. Likely many people would have trouble identifying the country it represents. Despite its relative obscurity, the city has managed to have a skyline that puts it in the record books. Currently the second tallest building in the world is in Kuala Lumpur. That building, the Merdeka 118, has been recently constructed and is still not yet ready to receive visitors. However, another building, the Petronas Towers, does receive visitors. This…

Kuala Lumpur, Gaining Understanding of Its History and Culture

Kuala Lumpur has an impressive skyline. I’ll tell you more about that next time. The point is when you look at the skyline the city seems to stretch for miles. It is a city of a little over two million people so it’s not small. I say this as it surprised me to discover that some of the central areas of the city were not far from our hotel. After I found a self-guided walking tour on the internet, I…