Batu Caves Day Trip, Kuala Lumpur

Today we had a day trip to the Batu Caves. This was a 40 minutes train journey north from KL. As you can see there were lots of steps and a really big Buddha guarding the entrance.

 

As far as caves go, it was pretty good. They started to build loads of stuff in there which is a bit weird. But the cave didn't smell and there was some cool holes in the roof.

There was a special 'dark cave' which you can go to where you would get to see lots of cave bugs. It was tempting but there was a long wait for the tour so we didn't go on it.

 

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Arrived in Kuala Lumpur to the Grand Prix this weekend. We're here for four nights and arrived today so had a look around the city. There is some pretty good public transport and some cool buildings.

There are some huge shopping centers!

and some nice trains.

Really looking forward to the Grand Prix. Tomorrow we have a day trip to the Batu Caves

Saigon Heat Basketball

Ho Chi Minh City has a basketball team! Saigon Heat! I went to watch them for the first time a few weeks back. 

They play about 10 minutes from my house and its a good evening out. At the moment it is pre-season and they're playing other teams from Vietnam (Hanoi Buffalos and Danang Dragons) but soon they will be competing in the ASEAN Basketball league with lots of other teams from Eastern Asia (Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore) 

There are a few NBA rejects who play and the standard is pretty good. I'm going to try and go as often as I an when the season starts. Tickets are cheap and its a great atmosphere. Going to Malaysia for the Grand Prix in a few weeks! Very excited!!!

The Burning Monk Memorial

I've lived in this city for six years now and I never realized that there was a memorial to the monk, Thich Quang Duc,who set himself on fire in 1963. There is quite a famous picture of the monk which I remember seeing when I was younger. Here is a link to more details about the event.

I've driven past it hundreds of times and never realized what it was so I stopped the other day to take photos. Its a really nice memorial on the spot of the event. As you can imagine, its very different now to the time it happened. The street is really busy but people were still going there to leave flowers.

Back to Nha Trang

Just returned form a nice break in Nha Trang. I've lost count of the times I've been here. Its an overnight bus ride from Ho Chi Minh City (or a one hour flight). The beach is great and the food is lovely.

 

It's a really great place to relax. There are some lovely restaurants along the beach and they had this great big inflatable thing in the sea. It was good fun.

 

At night we walked along the beach. There are lots of people out. I really like coming to this place and Im sure I'll be back again soon.

 

More nice skys

Not much going on so thought I'd share some pictures of some nice skies brought by the storms that I took with the camera phone. As usual, this doesn't do it justice. 

 

RMIT Teens program promotional event

Over the past few weekends I've got some extra work promoting our new English program for teenagers at my University. 

The events were held at the two shopping centers in near my house and the University. I volunteered to help out and organize games for the kids.

Me with my mate on the large TV

Student volunteers

There were lots of students helping out and competitions to win prizes by playing an online quiz called Kahoot. At one point we had 40 teams playing in the shopping centre.

The highlight for me was probably the Universities music club playing live music every few hours. They're really good (and loud).