Flying out-LAX to Shanghai and onto Singapore

We flew out from LAX at 11:20 am so we got up at 8 am at Kevin and Lauren’s and caught a cab to LAX.  Ram forgot to leave his keys for Jenny to move his car so we need to mail them home.

Ram was a little hung over from the night before and slept away a lot of the 14 hour flight.

Flight 1 done and we are in Shanghai.  Shanghai was a pain because we had to exit customs and go through security again just to transfer planes.  It also took up half a page of stamps in the passport which passport space which with 10 countries to go could be an issue.

Anja and I got some good sleep in the airport and Ram got some wifi but facebook was blocked by China.  Our plane boarded at 11:10 pm (5 am LA time).  We’ve been traveling for 21 hours at this point and still had another 5 hour plane ride to land in Singapore at 5 am.

Expectation Singapore and Malaysia

SINGAPORE

In 2008 Anja went to Singapore for work and Ram came along for fun.  They had a good time while there and met a cool taxi driver named Say Kiong Yap.  They spent a bunch of time traveling around with him and had a great time so they want to go back.

2008 Album

We get in at 5 am after about 30 hours of travel and while there we are planning to meet up with Say Kiong Yap, get a Singapore sling, go to the water skiing tow cable park, and go climbing at Singapore's only climbing area the Dairy Farm.  We'll be staying at the Llody's Inn and plan to stay 5 nights there and leave Singapore by train to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.

MALAYSIA

Malaysia is just north of Singapore with good looking steep limestone climbing in north Kuala Lumpur and it is a very easy plane ride from Kuala Lumpur to Phuket or Krabi, Thailand.  The climbing area is around an area called Batu Caves.  It is supposed to be steep limestone like thailand and very accessable. We plan to stay in the Batu Caves area for five days and then fly out to Phuket.

Climbing at Malibu and send off BBQ

We headed into Malibu for day 2 of climbing.  We headed to Stumbling Blocks area which requires a water crossing and the infamous traverse.  Ginger had never climbed at Malibu so we had warned her about the traverse but clearly we had not warned her enough as she was rather surprised.  Luckily no one went splash.

Jenny, Ginger, and Anja on the traverse.

Ginger in the toughest spot at the end of the traverse.

We warmed up on this 5.8/5.9.

Ginger on the upper part of the climb.

Ken belaying.  It was a real busy Saturday at the Stumbling blocks so we only got in few more climbs but I was excited that after Anja hung the draws I lead Mr. Big a left traversing overhung 5.10d which I’d never led before although I had to hang once.

Once we finished climbing we headed back to Kevin and Lauren’s for a send off BBQ.

It was great!  Angela and John even made it out with their baby girl Eva who I had not gotten to met before leaving town.  I finished getting packed up and Ram partied into the night.

Climbing Malibu with Jenny

So a long Anja/Jenny tradition was heading out of work early to go climbing at Malibu and BBQing at Jenny’s house.  Jenny was able to get done with work early and we met her on campus and headed out to Mailbu.  We went over to Century Damn area and climbed at Little Cheops.

Anja leading up a warmup.

Jenny heading up another warmup.  After warming up I did the 10b up the center of Little Cheops which went smooth.  Then Anja got the Drifter (5.12a) which went pretty good til she had to hang after the crux.

That night we headed out to Jenny’s and BBQ’d with Jenny, Eric, and Ram.  It was really nice to spend the night at Jenny and relax out in Topanga Canyon away from the LA crazyness.

Flying from Florida to LA

Before we headed to the airport from Fort Myers Beach Rick squeezed in a little balcony performance.  After a stop at Wendy’s we caught our flight from Fort Myers to Dallas.  In Dallas we got Anja setup to work at a Samsung center which had tables and wifi.  We headed on to LA from there and to Kevin and Lauren’s.

Kevin: “We needed to restock for the party.  Want a shot?”

I was great to land in LA and be able to stay at a place that feels so comfortable to be at.

Sanibel Island

We headed out to Sanibel Island to do some bike riding and site seeing.

First stop was Billy’s bike rentals to get us some beach cruisers.

We rode for about 30 minutes of really nice bike path and got to some public beach access.

So we walked on the beach for a while.  It had crazy amounts of shells on the beach so many it made this very supportive walkway, very odd for a beach.

After we left the beach we rode up the bike path parallel Rabbit Road which cut through an alligator preserve and spotted a 6 foot alligator about 50 feet away.  When we got back to Periwinkle Road we debated riding the bikes through the bird preserve or high tailing it back to the rental shop to get them back within the 2 hour rental window.  Since we needed water and sunscreen lotion, we high tailed it back to the rental shop and drove to the bird preserve.

It was just before sunset so lots of birds were out feeding.

We even caught some good views of some spoonbills.

It was a cool place to drive through with lots of different birds.  After the drive through we headed up to the Mucky Duck for a drink just after sunset.

Drive from Key Largo to Fort Myers

So we had a 4 hour drive ahead of us for the day from Key Largo to Fort Myers but before we left Sharon said we needed to add an arrow to the direction post.  We decided to add Los Angeles to the post so Anja painted it up.

When we were ready to go it started pouring so in no hurry we waited for a little and we saw this egret of the deck fighting in the wind.

Thanks again Sharon and Rudy for putting us up in your deluxe ocean side accommodations!

Gilberts beach bar

In the afternoon my cousin Janina and her boyfriend Ricky came over and visited with us and we ate the tasty lobster from the back channel, more stone crab, and this apple, cream cheese, peanuts, and caramel dish. 
After we headed over to Gilberts beach bar on the north side of Key Largo.  Gilberts was pretty fun with two live bands playing and of course Sharon’s Key Largo buddies joined us there too.
Rick, Linda, Ken, Anja, Rudy, Sharon, Pat, Junina, Richard, Ricky.
Us enjoying the sunset!

Key West, FL

We loaded into the rental mini-van and headed down to Key West.  I’d never been so I really wanted to go.  The trip down is about 2 hour drive from Key Largo.

In route we stopped just past the 7 mile bridge at Vetern’s Park.  It was a nice little spot with Tiki shelters and a sandy beach.

When we got to Key West we walked along the board walk toward Mallory Square.  Right at Mallory square was a cruise ship and a woman walking by said it was the Norwegian Star.  Linda immediately said it was Joel’s boat a friend of theirs from Vermont so Rick immediately started trying to call and text him and his wife but couldn’t get ahold of them so we just kept walking toward the cruise ship.

Well, we walked about another three blocks toward the boat and standing at a stoplight Joel walked right in front of us and stood right in front of us.  Rick jumped and bumped into him and then shoved around him.  Joel told us he thought he was getting pickpocketed by a snowbird.  Well it was him and we got to hangout with him for 30 minutes until he was due back on the boat.

After visiting the boat we check out a sculpture garden.

Rick got really into checking out this sculpture from all angles.One of the famous roosters of Key West.We caught the sunset from the West end of Key West

Lobstering from the back poach

Sharon wanted some lobster for us while we are visiting so she invited some friends over to go diving for lobster in the channel off her back poach.  They showed up with full scuba gear and a drysuit for the 60 degree channel water.

The channel behind the house.

Everyone was entertained by the diving.

Underwater photo looking for lobster.

The lobsters.  I got trained on how to clean a lobster.  My first try without a pair of gloves was a fail and the spinney lobsters lived up to there name but I gave it a second try with gloves on and got it figured out.

Success!

A finger tore up a little.

That night we went out to a sports bar and found this pelican hanging just outside at sunset.